[EP 39] Awaken Your Intuition and Heal with Dana Childs

Foreign. Welcome to the Jack Canto Podcast. Now today we're going to be joined by Dana Childs. She's an intuitive healer, an author and educator whose own journey of self discovery and spiritual exploration has held led her to help others unlock their true potential as well. And after climbing the corporate ladder, Dana felt compelled to seek more from life, which led to her to sell everything, pack a backpack, and embark on a transformative journey through Southeast Asia and Australia, studying numerous healing modalities of the body and the spirit. And today, she offers phone consultations in person, medicine journeys and online courses. And her extensive and largely confidential client list includes celebrities, Grammy award winners, television personalities, a list actors like Gwyneth Paltrow. I guess we're allowed to talk about her. Who calls her a real deal healer and catalyst for change. She also works with prominent CEOs, founders, business leaders, professional athletes in the WNBA, the NFL, the NWSL, and Olympic athletes in the United States and internationally, all around the world. I've also been fortunate enough to experience Dana's profound insight during an intuitive phone consultation that we did together that helped me clarify several issues in my life, including some important medical awarenesses about my heart, as well as insights into some difficult challenges I was navigating at the time. I can tell you it was very, very valuable. And that's why I wanted to share Dana and her work with you all today on this podcast. So today we're going to explore how you too, can develop your intuition to help you navigate life's challenges and embrace your opportunities for growth. But Dana, it's a pleasure to have you here. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you. It's so great to be here.

Well, I love, I love what you do. I love that you're here. And I think this is going to be a lot of fun. Now, your story is incredibly inspiring, and I think a great starting point for our conversation would be to hear more about that pivotal moment when you decided to leave the corporate world and how your travels influenced your current path as an intuitive healer.

Yeah, you know, it's one of those, like, make it or break it moments, Jack. So I was a banker and I had worked my way up to the corporate ladder. I started out teaching. I loved teaching. I was eighth grade is what I specialized in. I love that age. And then when I got my master's in education leadership, I kind of saw how it was meant to be versus how it was actually running. And I just, I just couldn't be a part of a broken system that was resistant to change. So I Left, got a job at the bank and worked my way up. So started in mortgage, worked up through corporate, and I was really unhappy and I, I, you know, you get to that point where your life just sort of breaks down around you, right? And the universe is like, we're not going to do this anymore. So it was all of these big changes. My marriage at the time fell apart, went through a divorce, was unhappy with my job, just wasn't fulfilling. Was studying a lot of yoga to help myself manage, you know, all of the big feelings that were coming up. My grandfather passed away and, and I felt so unhappy that I was contemplating what it would be like to just check out and leave life. And that's a really unhealthy place that I think a lot of us get when we're really being pushed by spirit or by the universe. And so I literally was in the moment of making a choice, do I stay, like literally stay alive or what? And I sat there and there was just this energy that overcame me and I was like, no, I just, I need a different life. And so I literally, in the middle of the economic DownTurn back in 07 08, put my house on the market. And I remember the real estate agent saying, it's not going to sell. Like you're going to have to wait at least half a year or a year. And I said, no, you don't understand, I'm ready, I'm just ready to go. And he was like, well, I'm telling you, my house sold in six days. And it was just this miraculous thing where I sold everything I owned, house, car, everything, packed to backpack, bought a one way ticket to India because that's just the place that called me. And I went on a year and a half long journey. And my promise to myself was I will do and learn anything that I'm attracted to. And so I learned massage, I learned tapping, I learned reiki, I learned crystal healing, I learned some shamanistic trick, like I just learned and open to everything. And it really, at the end, when I ended up in Bali, one of the teachers that came along, my path was a powerful medium. And so I opened into mediumship, which is how I really got my start and that it just sort of opened a whole big world. And when I came back, this would have been in 2011, I came back and I was still thinking, well, I'm just going to live abroad, I'll just come back and visit family. And you know, the way the divine works is, it's that it's always right in front of us. We just have to see it. And suddenly I had someone offering me an office to rent. My parents handed me, like, an old junker car because I didn't even have a way to get around. A friend of mine offered. Well, she actually asked if I would stay in their guest room because all their kids had left, and they felt, you know, lonely, and. And everything lined up. And I thought, okay, then this is what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to offer sessions, and I'll do it as long as I have a little bit of financial Runway, and we'll see if it works. So it was a complete life change.

I'm curious. I've been to India a number of times. And so you go. You got a backpack. I'm going to just unpack that for a few minutes with you. Where did you land when you got off the plane?

Okay, so, Jack, the way I did it is I took out a map of India, I closed my eyes, and I literally went, I will go here. And my finger landed on a little town. Well, not a little town, a big town called Chennai. And so I flew into Chennai and then hopped down into, like, Mamalapuram, which is a little bitty beach town a little bit south of that.

And did you just, like, run across people? Or, like, someone told you you should go to ashram or meet with that person? How'd that work?

That's exactly what happened. So I landed. I had booked my first little stay in Mamalapuram, and there I met a beautiful woman from Spain, and I met another woman who was from France, and they were traveling alone. And we just started talking, and so we would, you know, walk around and explore the town. And then one of them said, oh, Amma is at her ashram in Caroli. You know, we should go, and we should stop through Pondicherry. And I was like, okay, great. You know, so. So went there, and then from there, it was like, oh, I'm hearing about this other town called Varkala. I should go there. And then I met a local there who taught me actually how to cook a little bit, which is fascinating. You know, India just takes you on these wild journeys. And he was from Agra, and so he was like, well, why don't you come up that way? And I've got a family that they just opened a hotel. You can stay there. So I went up to Agra and stayed there. And this family, it was not even open yet. I was their very first guest. They had a cow in the basement that they would milk. And they taught me how to make paneer. It's like India is just all of this wild, you know, Wild. And so I would go where I was called. I went through Hampi and I went up to Dharamshala, you know, near the end of my trip. And I spent six months there, just literally traveling by heart, you know, by feel.

That's great. That's great. Well, it's kind of a metaphor for what you teach people to do, which is just follow your heart, open to.

Your intuition a hundred percent. Now, Jack, have you been to India as well?

Yeah, I've been there, I think five times I've been. I go there. The last time I was there, I was there for a month in Mumbai. There's a doctor named Dr. Naram who used to be a doctor to the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa, and he was ayurvedic doctor. And we stayed at his clinic for a month doing. He basically said to me, come to India, give me a month, I'll give you 15 years of extra life. I said, that's a pretty good deal. We did a lot of detox, we ate a lot of mung bean soup, we sat in steam baths, we got massages and so forth. But I mostly go there to speak. I've spoken in, you know, four or five of the different cities and I'm going back in February to do a three city tour. Yeah, so I love India. It's just so overwhelmingly amazing, so different, so incredible. And I always meet someone there who raises my consciousness and so forth. And I love Indian food. So it all works out.

Yeah, it's funny how that place is so magical. It really does just pull you to what you need, you know, in every way. But I always say, like probiotics and anti parasitics are also really helpful.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I travel with those for sure. So one of the things that you're all about is intuition. And a lot of people I know are interested in that today. It's kind of a, you know, in the zeitgeist, if you will, about developing our intuition, listening to our intuition, what, what are the messages we're receiving and so forth. And I know you talk about that. So could you give our listeners here some initial steps? If they're not really tuned into their intuition yet or their inner voice, how they can begin to focus on that?

Absolutely. So the first thing I'll say is I think there is a misunderstanding about intuition, that people think it's this loud voice outside yourself or you're going to have a vision that covers your ceiling. And you're going to have some miraculous epiphany or knowing. And I teach quite the opposite, that intuition is this little subtle small. Sometimes it's a voice, sometimes it's a feeling, sometimes it's just this internal knowing or pull or nudge that it's quiet. And so to really tune into our intuition, I feel like the best way, and I teach this all the time, is first and foremost because we are all intuitive, is self awareness. When we understand ourself, we understand who we naturally are, how we feel, how our emotions work, what triggers us. When we understand all of those things, we suddenly have deep awareness as to what is sitting in us, how we're feeling, what we're noticing that's not ours, right? If we know that we love the grocery and we feel happy when we go there and then we walk into the grocery and we come out really moody and unhappy, well, intuitively we've picked up on someone else's emotion or some other energy in our field. So the more you know yourself, it just comes down to that deep self awareness. You suddenly will open to all of the things that are outside of you. I taught years ago, I taught this class called Intuitive New you. It's one of my favorite classes I've ever taught. It's actually online now, but when I was teaching it, it was part in person and part virtual. And it was really like the blocks I see that people come to me with. So it's empowerment and generosity and purpose and lovability and shame and all of things. And as I was teaching it, 90% of the students in there were like, I'm suddenly dreaming about my deceased ancestors or I'm seeing spirit in my home or I suddenly know what's going to happen in the future. And I'm like, yeah, because. Because now you're getting really aware of your own stuff. You can't, you can't help but know all the subtle stuff that's not you.

That's really interesting. You mentioned about the. Sometimes it's very subtle. I often hear people talk about the still small voice within learning to listen to that. I know for me, I don't meditate every day. I'd like to say I did, but I don't. But probably four or five times a week and, and I noticed that when I do that, then what happens is I start to get messages, if you will. Sometimes they're, I hear voices. Sometimes I just have a sense I'm supposed to do something. Like you mentioned. And one of the things that you shared with Me, when you did a session with me was that when I was meditating, I was too much in my head about like trying to solve problems or something as opposed to being in my heart. I've been focusing a lot on that. Just like, what is my heart saying to me? What does my heart want to do? What. What breaks my heart, you know.

Has that changed your experience in meditation?

Yeah, it feels softer to me. It feels more. I know there's a. More of a piece to it really, and just the rightness about it. I guess I would say that too. And it's funny because I, when I talked to you, I'd mentioned I'd been diagnosed with afib and we talked about the heart and how my heart was giving me a message and so forth. And you know, like, listen to me pay attention here. And I, I haven't since I've been starting to do this. I, I have this little cardiac thing. K A R D I A. It's little thing you can put your fingers on. It tells you your heart rhythm. And I've been getting, you know, normal sinus rhythm, normal sin. No afib, no afib, no afib. So, you know, it's a little early, but I think that something's going on there. So thank you for that.

That makes me so happy to hear. You know, I always say, like our body is, it's a truth teller. It will never lie to us. It will always tell us the truth. And anything that happens symptomatically is always. There's a deeper message in there. You know, there's something to it. And so when we can tune in there, it's really, really powerful. And that power of meditation, sitting and listening or just sitting in silence or just sometimes maybe it's sitting and taking a nap. You know, I'm not going to judge. Like, whatever that is allows for that deeper connection to what's trying to come through. I am so happy to hear that.

Me too. Happy to say. So when you taught your course, did you have like exercises you would tell people to do or like, how did you give us a little feel for that? Because it's an online course. You sit now?

Yeah, it's an online course and tons of exercises in there and they're all still in there. So I would lead people through guided meditations, but then there were also exercises where, you know, they would sit and they would, they would, I would walk them through a specific meditation or specific way to open and access their body or I would walk them through. Sometimes we need the mental aspect, right? So really laying out, one of the things I have people do a lot is to list out all of your friends, you know, all the people that you love in your life. And because we think about, we want to purge our home, we want to clean our house, want to clean our closet. You know, it helps. It helps us want to clean and purge our body. Like detoxing, right? Specifically in Mumbai with your doctor to get 15 extra years. But we want to do those things. And sometimes what we don't think about is cleaning out people. And I don't mean that people are disposable, but I'll have them sit and make a list of all the people they love and that they invest their time and energy in. And then I'll have them go down and intuitively just not thinking about it, think about, is this someone I want to invest in? Is this a relationship I want to keep feeding? And just yes or no, don't think about it, just yes or no. And then go back and look at that list and really ask yourself, yes, you know, why am I investing in this? Does this feel good to me? And we don't want to invest in something just because we're contractual. We want something back. We want to invest in something or someone because it feels we're moved to do it right. It's our love. Our heart is telling us that this is where to place our energy. And then sometimes that exercise will help you. If it's a no, you know, you kind to ask yourself, why not? You know, what's happened? How have I changed? How has the dynamic changed? And that cleaning out the friends will help you recognize how you've shifted what your value system is. You know, how you are creating your world now versus how you were maybe a year ago. This is an exercise I like to do yearly. And it tells you so much about yourself. And then intuitively, it tunes you in to paying attention to what happens to yourself whenever you're around certain people.

Very cool. I like that I have to do that. One of my mentors, way, way back when, when I was in my 20s, was a man who was worth $600 million. His name was W. Clement Stone. He was a friend of Napoleon Hills who wrote they can Grow Rich. And he had to make a list of everyone in our life that we enter, everyone that we interacted with, and then put a plus next to their name if they were uplifting and positive and nurturing, and then a minus sign if they weren't. And I remember get I did this and I said, bill, My. My mother's name is a minus sign.

Which is probably true for a lot of us, right?

Yeah. Yeah. He said, well, you know, there's Christmas, Easter, and New Year's, but you want to minimize the amount of time you spend with her, you know? And so little by little, we did have a conversation. She started the shift a little bit, and we got closer together toward the end of her life. But I think it's a good idea, you know, to. Where are you putting your energy and, you know, is it coming back to you or you feel? One of the things I've been noticing in my own thoughts and as I listen to a lot of people, you know, because I do these podcasts, I listen to YouTube videos and so forth, is that everyone seems to be talking about doing it because it feels good, because it feels right. You know, it's like not necessarily having to save the world. But do you like when you're doing that activity as opposed to, oh, I should do that activity, you know, are you enjoying it? And then we hear, you know, people like Abraham saying, you know, joy is your feedback system, tells you you're on course or off course. You talk more about all that.

Yeah. So I. I do think that joy is the, you know, is our. Is our teller for how we're meant to spend our time in our. In our life. But I like to also think of it like, what are we moved or inspired to do? Right? Because if we're living in connection with our highest self, our own spirit and the, you know, the God energy or the universal energy or whatever word you like to use to describe that, that we actually are. That if we're moving in harmony with that, we're going to get these nudges to do things. But sometimes we may not feel joyful about doing it. It doesn't mean we're not meant to do it, right? So if I get the nudge to. Like last year, I was getting the nudge again and again and again to go back to yoga. Back to yoga, back to yoga. I was not excited about this, Jack. I was like, I don't want to. I don't want to drive to the studio. I don't want to. I don't want to sweat. You know what I mean? But I got the nudge enough to recognize, like, okay, it's time to go now. Once I got in the habit of going back, I was like, oh, I remember why I love this so much, right? We get the nudge to go to the gym. We don't want to get dressed and go to the gym. But we love how we feel after. So there is joy that comes from being healthy. All the studies that are coming out about the amount of muscle mass is linked directly to your health. The size of your quads and thighs are linked directly to your longevity. It's fascinating. So we may not love to go leg press, but we're going to love the benefits of that. So I think that joy really tells us who to have around us, what to have around us, what makes us feel good. But if we're being. If we're being moved in that energy of the current of spirit, we are going to be advised to do things or spend time with people that we may not necessarily enjoy, but because it lifts us all on a whole, if that makes sense.

No, it does. I think I'm thinking about different people in my life where I've had to have really difficult conversations with them. I wasn't looking forward to it. It wasn't particularly joyful, but I knew in my heart that I needed to do it. So I think that's the kind of.

Thing you're talking about and the kind of thing, too. Like if we. If we loop this back to, you know, our friendships and relationships as we're working through those, you know, one of the things to do is when you. If you have like a. A yes, but, you know, besides someone's name or a no, but can you. Is this a person that you care enough about to have an uncomfortable conversation with and see if the relationship can change and develop differently? Can you express what's really happening? Because at the point you're willing to walk away from something, then how much more growth can you get from that? When you're willing to be vulnerable and put something out there and see if someone's willing to meet you in a place of change.

Right. No, it's so true.

And those things don't feel really enjoyable. We don't think about that and go, yay, I'm going to have a conversation that's going to really be uncomfortable.

Well, I know. It's like having what my parents used to call come to Jesus talk with your children. You know, you've got to confront something they're doing that you're not happy about and, like, you avoid it because it's uncomfortable. But if you don't do it, then you run risk of not everyone growing up in a way that's healthy. You've helped lots and lots of people transform their lives. I'm just curious, do you have a story or two? That stands out in your memory about how working with them and intuition or whatever came through changed their lives in a major way.

I'm just curious. People go, I have lots of these stories. I love these stories. I have lots of them. There was one particular client who came in and she actually did a medicine journey. And as you well know, these are really, really powerful for a huge amount of transformative change. She came in for a medicine journey, and she did not talk to her family. She really didn't talk to her mom, if she would call. Her mom didn't answer. You know, it was just one of those rul rife spaces. And she had her journey. And there was this profound understanding that landed in her during this journey about why she chose the mom that she chose and how she was meant to learn from this. And she had this softer understanding of who her mom was after she came out of the journey space and, you know, back down to earth. We say she called her mom, and her mom immediately answered. And she was like, oh, my gosh, my mom never, never answers for me. And her mom answered. The whole energy around their dynamic had an immediate shift, and she was able to have a conversation with her mother to heal this deep wound that had been there her entire life and sort of walk back into her life. And she has two little girls and really show up differently for them because her short temper, all the things that were annoying, like suddenly she kind of reset her nervous system and everything felt easier for her, and it was just a profound transformation for her. And then there's another client who she called. This was not a medicine journey, but she called and she said, I think I love my husband. I know I love my husband. We've been married for 20 something years, but I'm ready to divorce him. I have to divorce him. And I said, okay, why do you want to divorce him? And she said, because he leans one way politically and I lean the other way politically, and this just means he doesn't love me.

And.

And she was just bent on this. And I said, okay, you know, let's just step back for a minute. Let's just think about this for a minute. And. And I. And I kind of walked through and with the help of her spirit, and she was legit ready to walk out of her marriage. And with her spirit, kind of got to the bottom of politically. You know, right now it's so charged that we tend to vote based on our fears. And so her husband's deepest fear, when I felt his energy, I was like, it's providing for you and your daughters, it is financial provision. And your deepest fear is your safety as a woman. And so you guys are going to vote based on your fears. It doesn' anything about how you feel any other way. And. And I said, and at the end of the day, your votes are going to cancel each other out. So stop talking about politics. I was like, stop talking to him about politics. This man loves you. You love this man. Letting politics come in the way of your beautiful marriage is close to insanity. And got it right. She was like, oh, my gosh, it's because he wants to provide for me. And I'm like, yes, whoever he. His political choice of candidate has nothing to do with how he feels about you or what he thinks about, you know, your daughters. Like, come on, you know. And so that it's. She even emailed after and she's like, I just can't get over the profound shift. Like, I feel like I understand my husband better. And I. And I understand it. And she's like, and I'm not talking about politics with him anymore. Like, right, there's better things to talk about with your partner.

That's very cool. Let's go back to medicine Journeys for a minute. You say, do medicine journeys, and I'm curious what, what different medicines or plant medicines you use in journeys.

So the ones that I currently use for clients is I like to work with MDMA if it's appropriate, if someone's, you know, heart and body can withstand. And I like to use psilocybin, so mushrooms as well. Those are my two favorites. I like to layer them on top of one another. But if someone, you know, really, I get the hit, they can't handle the MDMA or it's not going to be best for them, then I will just work with the psilocybin with them. And then sometimes there's a little bit of ketamine in there just to blow past any resistance. Not everybody needs it, but some people do. You know, be it a lozenge or a nasal spray or whatever, I'm not a huge IV drip or a big dose like that. But I like to work with MDMA because it blows the heart open and it creates this uninhibited space for people to work through these deep, older traumas that they have trouble working through. And it creates this sort of, you know, blissful feeling where you're able to process the trauma, to understand the trauma, the hardship, the heartache, and. And sort of reformat it without going into a dark, deep space. You know, if someone has trouble with serotonin or brain chemical wise or heart stuff, then MDMA is not going to be the best choice. And then the mushroom. What I love about working with mushrooms is they're so natural and they move the energy through the physical body in these deep, powerful ways. And so it just creates connection. Because what mushroom really teaches us is there's no separation, there's no disconnect. Think about the mycelium, right? Everything's all interconnected, so there's no separation. And so I find that when clients are journeying on mushroom, it's this deep reminder of what they are connected to, this deeper reminder of the connection to themselves. And it's almost like a gateway to create these physical, energetic shifts in the body.

That's great. Well, I got into ayahuasca about five years ago, I think maybe a little longer. I've done about 30 journeys with that. And I'm writing a book right now called Chicken. It's called Ayahuasca for the Soul, based on the chickens for the soul concept that we played. And what I've been doing is, is work getting people to tell their stories about either a series of journeys, like, because I go to rhythm a lot, where they do four nights in a row, or talk about one journey that absolutely shifted their life. And I'll just share one with you really quickly. I was editing this yesterday about a man who was in the Maluka Maloka and he's like on his mattress and the medicine's coming on and one of the assistants walks by and he goes, oh, she's hot. And then all of a sudden, mother, my mother Ayahuasca goes, really? That's how we're going to relate to women? Wait a second, you know, so he had to literally become his daughters and see what their experience was like being young, being anxious, teenagers, his wife. And all of a sudden he said, I got what it is to be a woman and how the way I was approaching all that was totally off, you know. And he also got to see how his daughters revered him. When he was in their space, he became them. And just like, you know, that kind of an experience in one night transforms your whole life. And I think, you know, many of the psychologists I talk to and psychiatrists talk about sometimes these medicine journeys are the equivalent of like two years of psychotherapy. You know, it's so much faster, a hundred percent.

I wish every, every man could have that experience, right, of seeing what it's like to be a woman. And every white person could have the experience of Being, you know, a black person and all the different ways to experience humanity would be so powerful. But there is this profoundness that can happen. So it's interesting you bring up ayahuasca. That was my first plant medicine I tried was ayahuasca and I did not love it. I was like, oh, it just, it kind of blew open the doors a little bit too much right off the bat. And I kind of had to like do a little bit of settling in, you know, afterward. And I also knew I was really psychic and intuitive. And so it just was a lot to handle in a big group setting at that time. But it did give these profound awarenesses of like how I relate to the world or what music in particular that came through for me, what music does for me. You know, it's. It's so interesting to see what, you know, Pachamama brings in through that. But have you. So I love that you love ayahuasca. Have you tried iboga as well? That's the African.

No, my son did. My oldest son. I got divorced from my first wife when he was very young, like, I don't know, three years old or something. And she was crazy and certifiably. And I just had to leave. And he wrote a book about it as well. But anyway, the point being that he became a heroin addiction and for a number of years and it was iboga that got him off of that. He did a journey, I think in the Bahamas somewhere. And it was an all day experience. The total recapitulation of his life. Saw everything. And he was pretty much un. He was what I want, untransformational. He couldn't get to him. And then a boga changed everything. So, and it's interesting, Jerry Powell, who runs Arrhythmia, who started that place, which is a ayahuasca retreat center, his first experiences were in Iboga. And then the Iboga told him you're supposed to do this work for the world. But not with iboga, but with ayahuasca. It would directed him to do that. And so he's done like, he's done like, I don't know, 300 journeys now or something. He just gets downloads after download, after download, keeps evolving, all this. And what I found fascinating the last time I was down arrhythmia was this shaman who's probably in his 40s, that his teacher was a shaman, it was about 90. And he said he'd been doing ayahuasca journey like once a week for since the time he was 18. So think about that, like 70 years. And he said, why do you keep doing it? He said, because I keep learning things.

Right, you do, right. It is so fascinating to me that things that, that come through and teach and, and. And like the. The amount of different plant medicines for different things, you know, is reading recently about weightuma and I was like, oh, that I need to put that on my list. It's like a natural sort of heart opener. Right. I think it's Peruvian. And I'm like, that sounds like, fascinating to try because I do think the different medicines kind of bring in and teach and heal different things, but I do. Yeah, right. I think there's this movement of getting back to them because I do believe our ancestors knew intuitively to use these medicines to move the trauma out of the body, to move the energy. And because we got so away from that for hundreds of years, it's like it's all stagnant and coagulated and sort of pent up, which is why there's so much anxiety and so much stress in our world today. And if we can utilize those tools to kind of move it out, I think that's a really powerful use of that.

Yeah, no, I agree. It's not the only work I do, but I think it's very important for me and for the people I work with and the ones I've gone down there and taken groups down there. And it's been very transformative. I'm thinking, as we speak about this one thing the shaman said that was there last time. One of the shamans, he said, when you drink ayahuasca, you're drinking pure nature and all. It's awakening the pure nature in you and what's in the way of that. And then he said, if I throw a ball at you, you don't think, oh, there's a round projectile coming toward me. I better lift my left arm, open my fingers, when hiss that I'm going to close them. He said, you just intuitively go like that. He said, all of nature is intuitive. It doesn't, it doesn't think about all that stuff, you know, it doesn't go like, the mushrooms are not going, I better send out my mycelium to connect with their mushroom. They just do it, you know.

Right.

And so I find that I'm much more natural than I used to be. Much, much less, I want to say, calculating. That sounds evil, but much less kind of planning everything out, you know, and having to be perfect, controlling it. Yeah, exactly.

You know, it's funny, I. After My first few journeys, and I journeyed first with MDMA and mushroom, which I have a special place in my heart for those things. But when I journeyed first with those, I noticed this profound shift in my nervous system. Like I. And I understood my family. You know, the first journey that I had, I had visions of being in my mom's womb and seeing the things that were going to happen in my childhood that were quite dysfunctional as a lot of us experience, right. And. And being okay with them knowing they were going to happen. And then I got insight on every member of my family. My mom, my dad, my sisters, why they chose to come in, what they were working on, you know, and it wasn't for me to run back and tell them that's not what I did, but it was just to understand them that created this softer compassion. And since those journeys, it's like everything in me softened and the trust. And Jack, I don't know if you've experienced this, but the trust that built from that understanding, it does allow us to just release that grip that I have to push this, I have to make this happen, I have to do this, I have to do that, I have to be this, I have to have this go this way or that way. It's almost like there's so much trust that can come from those journeys that the grip is released and we sit more in that. Let me attract and trust to me what needs to happen and let me release the control. And it. It's almost more powerful to live that way is how I've felt it.

I once said we only try to control things we're afraid of. We control toxic waste, we control the garbage, we control nuclear stuff, you know, whatever, because we're afraid of it. And so if we're trying to control our emotions, trying to control our sexuality, you know, our. What are our perceptions, you know, we don't share them, etc. It's because there's fear involved. And I think that, you know, you were talking about elections. People vote based on their fears. And so I think that for me, just. I just much more trusting. You know, we've all heard this phrase by now that the universe is happening for you, not to you. And I think that's really true. I mean, I'd read those words before, but I think in the last five years they really landed that, you know, everything that happened to me was for me, was for my growth, was meant to be. You know, writing a book with a woman right now about getting unstuck, it's about Bringing up, limiting beliefs and then transforming them and creating new beliefs, unconscious, limiting beliefs without using medicine to do that. And it's a really powerful technique. But she talks about how every one of us has to go through boot camp when we're younger. And boot camp can be really hard, like Navy Seal boot camp. Or it could be really easy, like band camp. Some people had these wonderful little childhoods, and they grew up unicorns and all that. You know, it wasn't me, but the idea that you. It. It builds resilience. You learn qualities like perseverance and strength and self sufficiency and all kinds of things, and then you have to, like, transcend all that and then move into what she calls heaven on earth, which is what are, you know, is available to all of us. But when you. I think we spent so much time feeling resentment or guilt or shame about things in the past instead of just knowing that they were there. What can we learn from them? What were they teaching us? And it was part of my dharma to go through that. And then everything. One thing she teaches, there's nobody to forgive. Because if everything was happening for you, those people that bullied you, those people that did whatever they did to you, they were a teacher. So why would you have to forgive somebody who was on your side, even though it didn't look like it at the time?

Absolutely. You know, it's funny. I've been learning a lot about, like, being in victim mode because I think it's easy for us in society to get tripped into that and how if we're really in our power, it's kind of like that. Like there is no such thing as victim mode. You can't be someone's victim. There's always a reason or a choice in the participation in some way, shape or form. And that, I think, can also push buttons or be an unpopular opinion. Because sometimes we want to be in that victim space because we just can't see how we would create something else. And so it sounds like that's also a little bit about kind of what she's talking about there. Everything's working for you to trust in that.

I also think the victim space can be a comfortable place to not have to do anything from. You know, you can just hang out in there and blame everybody for everything and not have to take.

Take risks a hundred percent, or to get in that deep space of feeling the pain. Right. Dropping into the acceptance of whatever's happened or transpired, which I think is largely about overcoming that victim space, when we can drop into that Place of love. You know, I'm thinking of this random thing, Jack. Years ago I had a really bad accident and like car accident and like totaled the car. I spun and rolled and I was T boned at a light. And in that they actually ruled that it was my fault. And I'm sure it was. I'm not the best driver. I own this. It's not something I'm good at a lot, lot of things and driving isn't one of them.

So.

So I. Afterward, you know, it's easy to kind of be victimized. Like, why wasn't he looking? Why did he hit me in the rear? Why did he, you know, why did it happen? Why did God let this happen? Whatever. And instead I went right to the place of sitting in a deep meditative state and, and sending energy to this man that I didn't know, the one who hit me, and just thanking him for participating in whatever it was that I needed the wake up call about and thanking him for. And that felt so empowering because it allowed me to own the responsibility of it and there was no victim space in it.

That's beautiful. I love it. Let's shift gears a little bit. I know you run these women's healing circles. Talk to us about that.

Yeah, I do. It's more like retreats for women is what it turns out to be. So my next one, it's not publicly listed yet, will be soon, but it's going to be in Italy. So it'll be in Tuscany in May, the beginning of May 2025. So we, I like to, to get a beautiful space and a. In a beautiful part of land. And I like to ask the land and the country, like wherever we are, like, what energy is provided there, you know, what are we seeking there? And Tuscany, the specific place we're going to, this private villa, it's on, it's like on a. I always say wine farm and my friends make fun of me. I think the correct term is Vi. They make their own organic wine and they're passionate about it and they cook all the food right there from scratch. And it's this, you know, four or five day retreat where we, we pull the energy of the land. It's about owning the past and really diving into the past and that, that sort of fertile soil as to how we want to bloom in the present and what we're creating in the future. Right. The journey of the wine, if you think about it that way. And so I'm really excited about that. I try to do, you know, one of Those a year. So next year it going to be Tuscany, which I'm, I'm really excited about. And then from there, you know, what spirits told me to be open to is a group of women who want to go deeper into the healing to create a little bit of a longer time connection together over the course of, you know, nine, 10 months, whatever that looks like. And so that trip to Italy will kind of serve as that opening to and for this, a group of women sort of looking for, looking for purpose, you know, looking for kind of. They know kind of who they are, but they don't know how they're contributing to the world. Like they're in that place and looking for connection and community.

I've run a couple retreats in Tuscany on a, on a, in a villa, on a winery. You know, it's amazing. The energy is just something different, you know, isn't it?

So powerful.

I know, I know. Then I always get to go to Florence for a couple of days and enjoy that as well. You know, one of my favorite on the planet, we've done them in Bali, which is a whole different kind of energy.

I've looked at Bali that is a very. I love Bali. It's a very different energy, but I've looked at that too. How do you, how do they compare for you?

I don't know. They're like, there's something more historical kind of because we're Europeans, you know, from our heritage, that they kind of. You feel like you're, you're sitting in that energy. Whereas Bali, it's much more, you know, Bali, I mean, the country it's in is really Muslim, but on Bali, I think they're Hindu. And so you get this beautiful quality. Everyone in Bali, when they grow up has to learn an art, whether it's singing, music, dancing, painting, whatever. And they're all just more creative and they're happy, they're supportive, they're loving, they're artful. So it's, it's a different kind of energy. It doesn't have that same heavy historical like Europe has. It's a more of a lighter kind of Eastern energy for me. We rented a couple villas on the ocean over there and did it that way and it was great. I loved it.

I love that. Yeah, Bali helped a real special place in my heart. I used to live and work in Surabaya, Indonesia, actually, right after college I got a job over there running a business English program for a university. And it was. We actually, I went to Bali and so this was way back before it Was really even developed a lot. And there was such a rawness to it. And a lot the people are so open hearted, naturally. It's just so beautiful. And so when I. When I went to India, after India, I actually ended up in Bali for about six months again, you know, kind of staying there. And so it's a very special place because I do think if you're open to it, there's so much spiritual energy that can come in there in Bali.

Well, one of the experiences we had here, someone told us about this woman who was a healer and a Buddhist. I mean, a Hindu priestess, I guess you'd say. And she was fascinated. She went to college, she came back. She had no. She had. There were no jobs. And so here she's got some degree, like in business or something, and all of a sudden she falls into a coma for like two weeks. And she's being downloaded all of this historical spiritual information. When she wakes up, someone says, she starts talking about all this stuff. And they say, you need to go see the priest, the monks and the priestesses. I think you've. Something's happened. And all the women were really pissed off at her because they had studied for, you know, 20 years to learn all this stuff. And she got it in two weeks of just lying there in a coma. Like, that's not fair. But anyway, she did this work where she would sit up on a. Like a cement platform and you'd stand below her, like. Like your head was here and she's up here, you know, lotus position. She pour water on you for like five minutes. And you could feel the karma coming off of you. You could feel. It was energetically one of the most cleansing experiences I've ever had. I watched people laugh, I watched people cry. It was about eight of us who wanted to see her. She was quite, quite profound. I don't remember her name, but she.

That's.

That's the kind of thing that happens, like, when you're in India, you know, you just. Well, yeah, I want to go do that. You know, check it out.

Comes out of the woodwork. You know, let's. When I was in Bali, actually, the. The teacher who taught me mediumship, he was an English guy. He was like in his 60s. He was a retired truck driver and boxing coach. And he was a profound medium. And we were there one day and I was like, yeah, I just got like some sore parts of my body and whatnot. And he was like, oh, we need to go see Guy. And it was like some random local who's sitting in this little, like, cave, like, dwelling. You kind of had to know he was there. And you go in and you hear people screaming because he's like, literally pulling your body. It's like torturing people. And you're so scared and you get in there and I laugh. Like when I'm in a lot of pain like that, I just laugh. So I'm in there and he's yanking me around. I'm just giggling like crazy. And then I felt amazing after. I was like, what in the world is this so cool to me, like, how, you know, all of us are gifted and intuitive and we have these special. This magic about us. Right? We're all special. And it's so profound to me to see, like, how it comes through for different people and then how they choose to serve with it if they do. I love that. So, yeah.

That's so cool. So cool. I'm just thinking about all the different healing experience I've had, like in a rainforest with shamans and them beating on my body with nettles and spitting liquor over my body. And this one place they took an egg, they rubbed the egg on your body and they open the egg up and it would all be black inside. They had been pulling all this toxicity out of your body into the egg. And then they would show you because it was. The egg was black inside and. And we are all like skeptics. Well, show us another egg. What does it look like before you do that? Sure enough, it was a regular egg.

Before, like, what happened?

Just me.

That's exactly how I would think.

Exactly. You know, but. But there it was. So. There's so many opportunities for growth if we just open ourselves to them and then open ourselves to the, you know, like you're saying the things we're drawn to, attracted to the things that we get, the intuitive impulses that we need to do or not do. So anyway, I. I love this conversation. I don't even want to end it. But we're going to do it soon.

Where did the time go? Let's talk about medicine more. It's just. It's so.

Well, is there anything else you'd like to say? You've got a few minutes here. I don't know what the right question would be, but just, like, if you've got something you'd like to express or talk about, let's do it.

I don't. I mean, I just have so enjoyed this conversation and I just really want to, you know, call to people if they're really feeling that. That pull or that call to either plant medicine or their own intuition or to sit and meditate or just whatever they're feeling called to like, trust it. Like go into a deep place of trust and then allow the universe to kind of show up, up for you. Because when we really decide that we would want something from the universe or we need something for our spirit, or our spirit wants us to get something, it's going to put it in front of us. You know, we just have to be willing to open to it or be vulnerable for it and make that choice.

That's great. So if people want to work with you, and I know you do a lot of different kind of things we've talked about, I also. You also speak. And that's how we discovered you. Jocelyn along, my staff saw you in, I think it was Mexico.

Oh, yeah. Hawaii. Yes.

Was it Hawaii? Whatever. It was, yeah. And. And then she fell in love with you and said, you got to go do a session with Dana. So I did. And I thought, wow, this was way cool. But today I think I'm in love with you. So it's pretty good.

I love to be loved. No, no.

You're so dynamic and fun and open and loving and all that good stuff. So if they want to find out more, you have a website, talk about that and what are some of the things they'll find there?

I do. So the website is D and we'll.

Put that in the notes. Yeah.

Danachildsintuitive.com Great. And then on there it's like the, you know, if there's an upcoming trip, like the retreat will be on there soon. Any classes? I'm teaching, like next year in February, I'm teaching a mediumship class. This is one that I don't teach very often, but spirit has been very clear with me that this is to be offered. So that will be taught. It'll be live, zoom and live in person, February and March. And there are also online courses. Like the Intuitive New you is one of my just personal favorites. That's an online course. There's, I think there's six or seven online courses right now that will be there. And then I am, you know, phone sessions, my calendar's open. People can book, you know, phone sessions, medicine, journeys, if they're interested in that. There is a place where they can do like a little 15 minute consult to just see if it's a fit. Because I want to feel them and I want them to feel me. And that's something that we don't just book. We just really want to Talk that through. And those are done here in person. And then, you know, the other thing is I do work with Four Seasons in Oahu. I am their, their wellness partner. And so I'm there live. That's where Jocelyn found me. But I'm there live in person twice a year. Typically it's July and the end of December, beginning of January. So I'll be there the end of this year and the top of and person can people can, you know, clients who stay there can do in person sessions or come to the meditations complimentary in the mornings.

That's great. Well, I really encourage everyone watching to go to her website. I, I know from my experience, from Jocelyn experience and so forth that the work that she does and what you'll experience and get from it, you could just pick up the energy today. I mean, I'm going like, yeah, I should probably call her again.

Thank you.

You're very welcome. You're very welcome. So anyway, just thank you one more time for joining us. I appreciate it, Dana.

Thanks for having me.

You're welcome. And I'd like to thank all of you who've tuned in to join us today as well. And if you found this conversation valuable, please let your friends and family know about the Jack Can Fill podcast and this special episode with Dana Childs. And be sure to tune in next time, where once again, I'll be talking with a powerful transformational teacher, healer or leader who will share the wisdom with you about how you can become more conscious, show up more authentically, and how you can create more love, joy, health, prosperity, success and real fulfillment in your life. Until then, start listening to the inner voices. Check out her website. You'll be glad you did.