THIS Is How Media HIJACKS Your Mind: Stop Censoring Yourself & Heal The Tyrant Within | JP Sears

Turn off the news, really minimize social media, don't look at your phone for the first hour of the day. Removing those kind of things are absolutely vital before we have any hope and hell of understanding what we actually think.

There's new threats coming, right? It seems like there's always something that the narrative is pushing. Do you ever get tired? Do you, do you ever get exhausted by the next wave of the next thing that's coming down the pipe?

Whatever I'm getting emotionally charged at, that's a mirror for me and my self growth and my spiritual realization. So when I look at a headline of what Biden's doing, Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, I'll get an emotional charge. And I have to ask myself, how's this my mirror right now? How am I being a tyrant towards myself? How have I already enslaved myself? How am I censoring myself? And there's always answers when we can ask ourselves, what's the mirror of life teaching me right now? With what's going on? Then the tyrants become our teachers.

Well, jp, thank you for having us here on the ranch. You call it a ranch?

I do. I don't know if it is a ranch, but I call it a ranch.

You have animals? We're going to do a tour after this. What kind of animals do you have on the ranch?

We have eight goats and 22 or so chickens and two dogs. And then there's a lot of deer. Like they, they just come out on the land. There's out in the pasture out front, there's I believe, three baby deer and the mama that are always there. The mom goes off and jumps over the fence and does deer things, comes back and you see the little deer feeding off her and yeah, those are, those are always here.

It's so cool. I was, this morning, I was thinking, what is the burning question for jp? And I know that you're an Aries born in April and I thought, does he identify as a Ram or a man?

Yeah, I identify as a Gemini. I don't think our birth dates really have anything to do with when we're born.

And that's because there's two types of astrology. There's the Vedic, there's the regular. Do you use astrology in your life at all?

For real?

Yeah.

No, I don't. I value it, but I don't. I've just. It's one of those things like breath work we were talking about earlier. I've just never been. I've never immersed myself in it. All the knowledge I've you know, no other people who have is like, dude, that sounds awesome. And other people sound so full of crap with it. It's just a way for them to disconnect from self responsibility and blame something else outside their circumstance or rationalize something in a superficial way. But, like, on the legitimate side, I get fascinated, but I haven't done a genuine immersion in it.

Yeah, I've immersed myself in all of your videos. I, I on Instagram, I get like, tons of friends that send me all your stuff. And you were really like, the voice of reason for me. When the COVID Theater came through, I thought, God, why is there so many people in health and wellness and personal development that are just fucking silent? They're just silent. And you were first on scene. You really had the quejones, which is Spanish for balls, to really speak your truth and to really, really. It propelled you. I feel like, in a way, did you even see that coming? And what was the biggest challenge of that for you? When Covid came on scene and you started to really say, well, this is what the public needs. This is what the world needs. How did you generate the confidence and the courage to do that?

Yeah, appreciate the question. And I wouldn't say I knew exactly what I was doing until I was doing it for a little while. Like, looking back, I can realize, like, oh, pretty much right away I'm speaking up just to say it simply for freedom. But at the time, I didn't really know. It's just like, no, I'm calling it, like, I see it along the way. And why is freedom becoming political? That's weird. This is allegedly America. So I just kept voicing my voice and, yeah, and to me, it's the, the least, the. The most tyrannical people in our lives is our own selves. And when we look at censorship and it's like, dude, that pisses me off. Nobody censors us more than ourselves. So I was just doing my best to call it, like, I see it along the way. And part of that is was and still is my self therapy. Because when you look at what's going on in the world, it's so easy to be stressed out. But I find there's two types of people. Those who get stressed out and they stay stressed out, or they look at what's going on in the world, they get stressed, but then their stress dissipates. And I find the distinction is people who do something about it, they can immerse themselves, kind of be eyes wide open. What's going on in the world, but it doesn't drown them. They don't just feel worse because they're doing something about it. And I was doing something about it and just my own little way along the way. So that was important for my mental sanity because it's like, well, look at. Looking at a very corrupt communist takeover of our country. That is a very stressful thing to experience.

Yeah.

But if you're doing something about it, then that action is the outlet. So. But much like yourself, I was so surprised. Like, cool. There's so many people who are brave and using their voice, representing truth the best way they can. But then it's like, whoa. I am so surprised about the fear based compliance in people who treat their own perspective like it's an enemy and therefore project that out onto other people and shame them, try to intimidate them for using their own critical thinking. So fear is a hell of a drug.

Yeah, it is. And. And so is safety. I feel like safety can be a drug as well. There's no such thing as safety. Like, to live is not a safe thing all the time.

It's one of the most dangerous things you can do.

I think it's on your website too. You're like, I live every day. I scare myself once a day, maybe in the cold plunge, like four times a day. Cause it's super hot out here. And you also said that you love freedom and free will. And I was thinking about that. I'm like, I wonder, I truly wonder. I'm curious what you feel about free will. Do you combine that with Dharma? Because your free will can be adjusted depending on whatever soul contract you signed up for. Now, a lot of those terms are esoteric. In other words, is it destiny or do you have any say in the way that you live out your free will?

It's a great question. You know, sometimes I. I wonder that. And I certainly have the objective truth answer. So here it is for the first time in all of existence. Now I have no clue, but I wonder about that. And with that, I also wonder, like, cool. If we have our destiny soul contracts, if everything is basically predestined and we can kind of flirt with that, like, well, if there is truly no time, then philosophically we could consider everything that ever has, is or will happen has already happened. And here we are just having the experience of it in this field of the illusion of time. And if that's the case, how is that still awesome? Well, free will would be how we choose to experience what was already predestined for us. So the philosophical question is, does free will determine our actions or does free will determine how we experience what we inherently don't have control over? And if we pretend we have control over literally nothing and our egos don't like that, but maybe the mind of God says you don't have control over anything. This is all predestined, like don't tell yourself, don't freak out. But how we experience it would at least be under our control because you know, in any given moment we can choose to see what's good, what's bad, what's pleasant, what's bad. We can project anything onto it that we want. So I don't have the answers, but those are just more questions that I put on.

I don't know if there is a singular answer. It's like if we're God experiencing God's self and everything is nothing at the same time. I think what you said is so profound, it's so wise. And the wisdom that you pulled came from like a lot of travels and being a Czech faculty for seven years and you had this beautiful relationship with a friend and a mentor, Paul Czech. And it was really cool actually. I was doing some audio research about you and I was listening to the episode and one thing that you said was when you came to Paul, in order for you to then teach others, you really had to believe in yourself. And it was him that believed in you so much that it made you believe in yourself. I believe you said exquisite degree to an exquisite degree. It made me believe in myself and that really touched me. The relationship you have with Paul is special. How has that changed?

Yeah, well, I mean the first part of the change, it's changed me. As you mentioned, I've learned to believe in myself because when I was 20, 20 years old, that's when I met Paul in person for the first time. And, and he shared just an immense amount of respect for me. He shared how he sees great things for me. And here I was like this super inexperienced 20 year old kid who it literally accomplished nothing but to see the way this person who I so respected and looked up to the way he believed in me, he was the right messenger for me to see believing in me because it's like, well, I don't think he's full of shit. He has my utmost respect. And for him to sees something in me, maybe he's right. So I learned to believe in myself seeing the way he believed in me. He was a great model for me to then do that internally. And yeah, so I mean that was when I was 20 years old now, or 20 years old. I'm 41 now, so that's over half my lifetime ago. And I'm so grateful to still have Paul as a connection, a friend in my life. And of course, our relationship has changed because when I was 23, I moved out to San Diego to work closely with Paul at his institute. Learned so much from him, had so many great times. And in some ways, he was very much like a surrogate father. And then as the child grows, leaves home. And so while I'm not there on a daily basis with him, I still so much enjoy being connected with him and sharing our perspectives in life with each other.

Why was he surrogate? What do you mean by that?

Yeah, you know, I think human nature is men who aren't fully men will make other people into their father to either replicate the father they had or the father that they never had. And I. I had a great dad. He was great, yet still in human nature. I'm going to project the father figure onto Paul. I mean, he was at the time, twice my age. So it was a very natural thing to do and no shame. I think a very healthy thing to do, especially when it's recognized.

Yeah, he told me something when I had a really bad. Not bad, I just had a really intense ayahuasca attachment. I took on an entity, and he healed me. His house. And it took me two years, but at the end of it, he said something so profound. And he said, when you. When you heal the child inside of yourself, the universe will put one in your arms. And that's just like a universal truth where you're going to have to heal your shit no matter what. If you want to have a loving, fun, expressive life. And when children come in, they just magnify everything. Do you find that's the case for you? I mean, sometimes you float on a mountain with a cape, but for the most part, like, you're still an everyday human like the rest of us. You just have a massive mission in the world. World.

How do you.

How do you see that unfolding in your own life? Where. When Wilder came in, what came up for you?

Yeah, you know, so many things. One, what came up for me when Wilder came into my life is the realization of, like, this is what really matters, this little boy. God has entrusted me to be the steward of this soul along with my wife Amber. So it's like, that's one human. But that is the most important thing. And that was a little bit surprising to me, but it's unequivocally true. Where it's like my mission, like, reaching millions of people, doing whatever, helping awaken humanity. Yeah, that's important, too. But it's nothing compared to the responsibility, the privilege, and the joy of being the parent to this one little human. And with that, it also helped teach me, like, what really matters. Like changing a diaper. That's what really matters. Caring for loving him, hugging him, feeding him, taking him on a walk. That's what really matters. Not admiration, not recognition. Kind of like the. I knew it. But it really sunk home even deeper when I had Wilder, which is the things we know won't make us happy, that we still try to make ourselves happy with, like, money, status, fame. Yeah, all that stuff. It really made me realize, oh, this really doesn't matter. In another change is when Wilder came into the world, especially when he was conceived, we learned he's coming along. That's when the whole pandemic was really blossoming. In the spring of 20, freedom's on the line. Then nine months later, he comes in, and we still see the dark cloud of the tyrants, what they're trying to do. Wilder. Help. Help create a shift in me where, like, I'm just not afraid to lose what I have. Like, being on YouTube, there's a risk of being. Certainly a risk of being deplatformed, speaking the messages. And I do my best to be aware of what the censors are censoring and say things in a creative way so I'm not kicked off. So while I try to do that, I realize, like, I'm not afraid of having things I've built taken away, because I know what really, really matters. And my work is about creating a better world for my son, one where I don't have to explain to him what freedom was. And I look at other people's children's children, I see a little Wilder. So Wilder helped create that shift in me where I didn't have fear of loss holding me back. Because it's like, oh, now I realize what really matters. Therefore, all the things I could lose, they're in perspective. They don't really matter. Yeah, I'd be stressed for a little while, but it doesn't matter. Compared to this immense joy and this divine light, that does matter.

I love that love is sustainable. The other stuff, it's going to wash away in the ocean anyways. The love that you feel for your child. Like, I was sharing this morning, I looked in the shower, and Nova's looking up at me, and it's These moments and people that are parents get it. But we also all like, we all know what it's like to be held by our grandparent or our mother or father, people that love us. And I think about the way that that motivates me in life. The way it motivates me is not just from anger. I think when I was in my 20s, I had a lot of anger. I mean, I still got some anger. Hey, I'm human. But in my 20s, it was a lot of unintegrated anger. Anger at my dad, anger at how the world was, why people treat each other so shitty. How have you shifted your fuel source, especially with Wilder and being a dad, with the energy you receive? I mean, there's probably a lot of energy that is shot your way that wants to pull you down, criticize you, and really take you off of the pulpit in a way. How has that fuel source of love shifted you as being a dad to be this, have to have this be a sustainable journey?

Yeah, you know, great question. And first off, like, the things that want to pull you down because there's always there, the quicksand can only pull you down if you get in it. So realizing what matters helps you realize where the quicksand is so you don't get in it. So to me, the dumbest thing of as a father that I could do is to like go into the comments section and like, oh, this person didn't like what I have to say. Let me engage and pull myself down or worry about things that don't matter. So not getting in the quicksand is a pretty important thing. But being a father, I feel much more like a whole man now, where I feel as though my mission is so clear. It's a mission I'm worth dying or I'm willing to die for. Because, like, there's my child. Yeah, of course I'd be willing to die for him. And the mission is all about a better future for him and his children and other people's children. Hopefully I won't have to die for it. But the love, like living for something beyond yourself, I think is the greatest fuel source for anybody. And that can be a child, that can be a mission. And if it's put together, it's even more potent. So for me, there's endless fuel. When we're fueled by something that's greater than ourselves, when we make it all about ourselves, we're limit, we're working with unsustainable fuel because it's all about our ego and our self preservation and That's. That's okay. But when that's all it's about, it's not very potent. But you also mentioned anger, Josh. I would say I might have had a different relationship with anger than you, where I didn't really let myself get angry for many years of my life, first few decades. But now I. Anger becomes a fuel, and it pushes me in the direction of what I love. But for me, it's like, healthy. Like, now I can look at a headline like, oh, Klaus Schwab is going to do this. I feel angry about that. And of course, what's that anger do? Like, cool. That's what I don't want. Here's what I do want. Let me use this primal source of energy, anger, for fuel. So I love being able to connect to anger. Because I was so dysfunctional. I was like a sociopath. I couldn't connect with anger. I had such a fear around it. So. But kind of like the. The mama bear. Not to misgender my parenthood, but the mama bear energy, it's so beneficial for the mama bear, the father gorilla, to be able to get angry when something is a threat to the innocent.

God, that's such a micro and macro. So in your 20s, you had a repression of anger. And I think as a society, we're like, I don't know, 13 years old evolutionarily or something. And everyone, it seems like, doesn't want to say the wrong thing. They don't want to express themselves out of fear of judgment or especially fucking cancel culture that seems like the plague that is overrunning things like almost like the mycelium and the German forest. It's just like everyone's being succumbed to this fear. What do you feel about your brain in the development of you as a soul that's allowed you to face that fear with humor? Face the fear of judgment, face the fear of being canceled. What is it about your soul that loves to use humor as a way to be brave? And look at that face of the snarling dragon that says, no, I don't like what you're saying, or no, I don't believe in what you're saying is true. How do you face that?

I think there's a. It's almost a mantra for me. But it's old, wise words. Ona who first said, I'm probably a bunch of people. But nothing is as it seems. And humor is a way to take a sword, to slice away the surface of how something seems to be, to expose a deeper reality, a deeper truth of what's really there. So we get serious when we interface with things as though they are the way they appear to be. It's a very serious world. But. But we inherently know when we don't take something seriously, we know it's like it's not that important or it's. It's. That's not that serious because we're connected in that moment to the wisdom of nothing is as it seems. So this, like, this seems big important. Well, we realize it's not really. It's not the end of the world if it doesn't happen. So for me, the humor, it becomes that sword to slice away how it seems, but it's not really to expose something else. And I don't know, I think we all have a sense of humor. It's a sense just like we have a sense of sight. And I think also at an archetypal level, different people. I think we connect all the archetypes, but whether it's through astrology or some other uniqueness, I think we're predestined to be more connected to certain archetypes for us to express with our life. And I think the archetype of the joker, the jester, is just more authentic to me. Not that that's all that I am, but it just seems to be like part of my personal expression. So anyway, that's long ramble to.

I love the ramble.

Speak towards what's.

What's palpable about you is I watched a video of you like it was 2004, maybe one of your first videos you did with the Czech Instit. And as I watched you speak about, I think it was holistic health and posture. There was this part that I could sense and it was that there was that like, humor and the gesture inside of you. How do you balance that world of like serious and teaching and coaching with. Also, hey, this doesn't really matter. This isn't that big of a deal. Let's use humor to slice through it. How do you hold those two worlds?

Yeah, it's a great question. I don't know. But if I'm taking a guess at it, you know, probably hold those two worlds not well.

You juggle them.

So it used to be I, I would oscillate into one world or the other. So the, the. What I've learned is holding both worlds works well, but dropping one world and getting all consumed in one world, like everything has to be a joke. You lose yourself or dropping that world, everything has to be super serious and sincere and like vulnerable and like let's do 10 minute eye contact. Because life is fucking great, isn't it? I just want you to see how connected I am, Josh, going all into that world. So for me, being fluid with the two worlds is important. And sometimes it's like, oh, you know, we're 40% of the humor world and 60% of the sincere world, making this new world called the present moment. So I, I think resourcefulness is the what I've learned. Be resourceful, use humor, sincerity as resources. What does the situation call for is the question at hand. You know, when my wife is having a hard time, maybe she's crying, she's super stressed about something I've learned, okay, My resourcefulness, what this moment's calling for. It's not for me to make jokes, to deflect from the intimacy and the emotions. It's okay. I'm going to draw from the sincere world. What I'm looking at, like, what Bill Gates is doing now seems pretty damn serious. So it seems as though oftentimes what helps balance that out is let me draw from the humor world now. I take what he's doing, like, to me, like, it, it matters. Yeah, it's pretty important. So it's not 100, it's a joke. Like, dude, it doesn't matter. Like, it's just, we're gonna have some humor. We're also going to have some sin sincerity there as well. That's my Biden impression. I just forget how to talk for a minute. But yeah, you know, as I've grown and I still have way more to go, allowing myself to be humorous, sincere, anything in between, without attachment has been important to me because when I started, like, teaching as a young person for the Czech Institute, I would purposefully constipate my sense of humor and not really let that naturally express itself because I was insecure. I wanted people to take me seriously. I was trying to manipulate how they saw me so I would just be overly serious. And then, you know, when I started doing comedy, I probably went the other way. I was like, dude, well, I want people to think I'm funny. So I'm going to constipate the sincerity and the seriousness and just be funny all the time. But those are just resources and tools to be pulled out of the toolbox of human expression.

Holy shit. You just talked about the most universal experience I think every soul goes through. And that is how do I just express myself actually who I am? Because the pendulum is like so far to the right. I mean, look at fucking MeToo. Look what happened with the MeToo movement, it started actually really pure, where it's like, hey, there's a Hollywood mogul who's pretty much an asshole, and he's abusing people sexually. That's good. We need to fight against that. We need to stand up for that. But then it kind of. The pendulum swung so hard the other way. Whether it's you as a soul or us as a society, it feels like these pendulum swings are massive. Even with the COVID theater. I call it theater because it's a show. It's like a big show.

It's not even a good show.

It's not even a good show. It's a show that has really shitty ramifications for us that make us lose our sovereignty and our freedom. What is it about that you believe our human evolution that makes us have these huge pendulum swings as a soul and as a society?

Man, I don't know, but just taking wild and crazy guesses, like, we love polarity, we love pain, we love pleasure. We. We think we just love pleasure, but we need pain in order to know pleasure. So we need to lose ourself in order to find ourself. And who we are, we're probably the eye of the hurricane. This. The calm stillness in the middle. But knowing some of the extremes helps us know who we are. Yet, as a society, we tend to be pretty extreme about going to the extremes. And if I had to guess in a short phrase why that is, I think it's because we're forgetful. We forget who we are, so we have to swing to the opposite side. You know, the collective does. So I think the more we remember who we are, the less we need to betray who we are by swinging to the, you know, extreme of this way and. Or extreme of that way. But I don't know, it may be we're just dumb. And we need to learn not to go to the extremes by going to the extremes. Wow.

There's. There's a religious text called the. The Logos. And I actually learned this from Alan Watts, and he said, we all drink from the river of forgetfulness. That's like the journey. That's the stream that we're on. There's times where I'm like, I don't know if I believe that. And then there's times where I learn something and I get wiser from someone that I respect, and I'm like, ah. There's a part of me that already fucking knew that. That already knew that was true, but I forgot that it was true. And I. I would be Suffice to say that when it comes to humor, many people forget that they are humorous. Yeah, they just lose. They just lose. It's like a muscle. So if I don't train in the gym properly, then my musculature won't hold me upright, I won't be healthy, my metabolism will suffer. But humor is the same way. So what are the ways in which you have sharpened and grown your own humor, and what did you have to let go of in order for your humor to be powerful?

Yeah, you know, I think, and I won't pretend to be fully let it go of it, but I've made a lot of progress and still have a lot of progress to go. But insecurity, I think insecurity is the principal constipator of humor. And when we're truly in a humorous state, we're so present in the moment where, you know, humor becomes an expression of connection between two people. You know, I'm sure you've been in conversations with friends and you're making each other laugh more than a world class comedian ever would. You know, they, they've worked on their jokes for hours and hours and hours, years. But how are you and your friend making each other laugh just as hard with unscripted material? It's because humor becomes an expression of connection. And I think insecurity is what disconnects us from other people, and it certainly disconnects us from the spontaneity of our own humor. Humor, it's always based on the present moment. And the more insecure we are, the more afraid we are of the unknown. But when we become more secure, it's like we have the confidence to go into the unconfident world of expressing what we don't know is going to come out. I might say something and you might not laugh, but if I'm secure enough to go into that insecure world of I'm gonna say something, I don't know what I'm gonna say. I don't know how you're gonna react, but if I've got the security, I'll go there anyway. But going there is the only way you sharpen the sword. It's just like someone who hasn't worked out ever so insecure going in the gym, you know, they, they feel judged. They, they don't know what the hell they're doing. They're gonna think they look stupid, and they will look stupid.

Typically, the person that's wearing the most bomb gear, they, they're probably the most insecure.

Exactly. But going to the gym is the only way they'll get stronger. Yeah, any skill, you. You're gonna suck at it. In the beginning. You're gonna feel insecure. But doing that thing you feel insecure about is the only way that skill will develop. So I think it's the same thing with humor. You likened it to a muscle. I think that's very accurate. So simply using it and using it more and then using it more is, for me, the recipe to sharpen the sort of humor.

Do you ever get nervous in front of big crowds anymore?

Usually not. I definitely get excited, so my emotional energy goes up, but it doesn't recognize, register as nervousness, or registers as excitement. And certainly, you know, I've been in front of crowds in one form or another for over 20 years, and in the beginning, super nervous. But it's just kind of like using humor. The only way to, in my opinion, to get. I wouldn't say confident, though that could be used, but I'd say get connected with the crowd. Because being nervous in front of a crowd, the nervousness, in my opinion, is just a symptom of being disconnected from the crowd. You're not allowing that within yourself. So I'm nervous. Nervous before a speech or a performance. It means I'm really not allowing myself to be connected to who and what's there right now. So I think the only way to get confident and connected is you do the thing over and over and over. You walk through the dark forest that you don't want to walk through, and.

Eventually the fear, the Dragon of Fear, seeps back. It's like. It's almost. I'm curious how you feel about this. It's almost like that Dragon of Fear or Insecurity comes up to disconnect you, to actually bring you closer to your heart, to make you connect with the people. And then once the dragon sees that you are just kind of goes away in the forest. How would you describe that? Is it a protector? Is it. Why do we feel that way sometimes as human beings?

Yeah. What comes up for me again is forgetfulness. Like, we forget we're loved no matter what. We forget that we matter, and we substitute that with the amnesia of we need other people's approval, and we make believe that we know who we need to be for the crowd, whoever's there, to get their approval. So we forget, hey, we're awesome the way we are. We're connected. I matter and start to hallucinate. I need someone else's approval in order to matter. But also the trick of the Trade is. Trying to get other people's approval is one of the worst ways to get.

Their approval, because they can sense that you want their approval. So in a way, it's like this. It rejects them. It repels them from you, absolutely.

Trying to get someone's approval, it's manipulation. Now, it's not the most horrible form of manipulation and deception there is, but it's manipulation. People don't love to be manipulated. They'd rather have you come at them authentically, in my opinion, without wanting anything from them.

It's a trauma response. It's. It's fight, flee or fawn or freeze. Fawning, where I'm like, God, I hope JP loves this podcast. I hope. I hope JP accepts me. You know, that definitely in full truth crossed my mind. But it crossed my mind, you know, and I. I felt your heart since day one. And I felt that on the stage at Paleo, when we spoke together on that stage and you had said to Michelle, you know, when I hear divine wisdom like that. And then you had this joke. But I can tell in all of your jokes, your heart is in all of your jokes. And that's what I really respect about you. There's a lot of comedians out there that are just. They're super vile. And, yeah, they make people laugh, but it's kind of at the cost of someone's. It's someone's pain. The way that you do humor is, like, exceptional because you're doing it from your heart, but you're also bringing light to issues that are taking away people's freedom and their sovereignty and really, a threat to the world. How do you see that unfolding for you in the next year? Because there's new, I'll put this in bunny ears, threats coming. Right. It seems like there's always something that the narrative is pushing. Do you ever get tired? Do you ever get exhausted by the next wave of attack or the next thing that's coming down the pipeline? How do you manage all of that? How do you hold all of that?

And I don't know. I don't think I get tired, but maybe I'm in denial. It's weird. You know, I think one of the things that tires us out is when our expectations aren't met, you know, what we think is going to happen and what life serves up is very different. And then the space in between those can be very tiring because we weren't prepared for it. It. But I. I hate to say it, but I. I just expect more corrupt stuff. And, you know, we look out two or two years into the pandemic, and they've pretty much eased off all their mask mandates. And, you know, they really chilled with the injection forcing. And it's like, dude, they're, they're not done. Like, it looks like it, the tide's receding. But yeah, I mean, I, I, I think it's like, dude, that was their first inning, so let's be ready. So I don't know if that mindset has me where I don't get tired. I also have so much fun with all the horrible crimes against humanity. They do, because I find the hypocrisy of it, the theater, which is not good theater, it's based on shallow lives, horrible acting. I just find so much amusement in the crimes against humanity. It makes me feel like a sociopath when I say it that way. But, but anyway, that's, that's why I think I'm not tired. And, you know, over the next year, like, I don't know, I'll, I'll do my best to roll with the punches. I've got, you know, several common, consistent outlets for it with the way I do videos, stage comedy, and, and then, you know, I'll, I'll be open if there's surprises or inspirations for, like, now this mode of expression or this way of adding to the mission or doing this differently. So be curious how, how what changes or what doesn't?

I, I don't feel like it matters. I think you're going to continue to, to march on, and that's why people are magnetized to you, because you found this, J.P. you found this really cool loophole with sarcasm and satire where you actually can't just get shut off by the powers that be because it's, quote, just a joke. But underneath, every joke is like this. You're like a Trojan horse in many ways. So if people don't know the Trojan horse analogy, I think it was ancient Rome where the soldiers would hide inside of this big wooden horse. They would roll it into the village as a, quote, gift. And then at night, the soldiers would climb out and they would essentially win the war. They would attack the village, and they would divide and conquer. So do you feel like that at times that what you're doing in the world is the Trojan horse? The humor is the Trojan horse for the real issue of what you're speaking about?

I don't know. You know, I don't know. I think certainly with censorship, because it's. Censorship is a major concern of mine. And sometimes I'm asked like, JP, how the hell are you still on YouTube?

Seriously, how have you not been deleted?

It's like, I don't know. But. But I do have some clues. I mean, one, I, we know what the hot buttons are that's going to get someone deleted. So not saying those deliberately, like dying on that hill, that's not my hill to die on. I want to be on YouTube and other platforms because it's a method to reach people. Yeah. And so there's that knowledge. But then there's also you mentioned, you know, I speak the language of satire. So when the AI is whatever, like reading my words, basically, if you read the script of a video, a lot of the videos, because it's written in satire, you take out the body language, tonality, you just read this script and be like, oh, well, this idiot toes the line of the narrative.

Great.

So I think there's that. And then also sometimes when I have to say what I need to say in different sketches, I'll use different metaphors in an analogy where what I'm like, the topic I'm talking about, I never talk about it. Literally, it's. Did you happen to see the life jacket video? I did.

I love that one with Mickey where you guys are both wearing the life.

So yeah, he and I did a piece of that video together and you.

Guys have to watch that. We're gonna link that right now. It's so good.

So, you know, the life jackets were a metaphor for the vaccine and then that video, the vaccines weren't mentioned once. So that's just becoming more creative as a creator, like connecting to the audience and, you know, intuitively and also logically understanding what's already on their mind that I can access. That will be a dot to connect them to what I need to say that I can't say due to censorship. So there's just playing that creative dance along with speaking a lot of satire that I think are helpful reasons for still being on YouTube. And I'm. Who knows how long I'll be able to keep going on it.

I. I don't know if you saw what Mike Rowe posted. It was him and a bunch of his homies wearing diapers. And he was like, just in case I shit my pants, I need all of you to wear diapers just in case you shit your pants as well. And like you said, he didn't mention any of the theater at all. And I'm like, that's leadership. You know, the ability to not be a slave to our anger and to emotionally self regulate when I went through the journey in early 2020. I mean, part of the reason we moved to Texas, JP Was because Carrie got pregnant with Nova. We didn't want to be in California. We lived in this beautiful spot. I'm like, it hurts my heart that I left. We had the cold plunge overlooking Encinitas right there. We were in Cardiff, and. And every day I would wake up and do the cold plunge and work out. And I had, like, this dream life. Right when Covid went down about three months later, we were watching the sun, the sunset, and this cop rolls up and he goes, you guys can't be out here without a mask. And there was this visceral. And we were literally just watching the sunset. And there was this visceral response in my nervous system where I knew that this was war. It wasn't like, okay, I'll kind of put on the mask as I watch the sun.

It's no big deal.

It's no big deal. I'm just going to let go of my freedom, which is so fucked up to even say that out loud. But that was when we decided we're not going to live here anymore. We had to go. And it had nothing to do with right or left or, you know, liberal, conservative. I don't even really like those terms. I think those terms are divisive terms, too. I'm a human being. So are you. But my question with that backstory is, like, when we came to Texas, I knew that it was going to be a place that was focused on freedom. You got here a while ago. I think you guys have been here for four plus ish years. So this what pulled you out to Texas? Because it wasn't because of the COVID Theater. It was something else. Like what actually brought you out here?

Yeah, the people. So I was. What was it? I think October 2017, before we moved here. But I was coming into town to do a speaking gig with Aubrey Marcus. He was running something for onit, and he asked if I'd come out. I said, yeah. And my wife, fiance at the time, she was able to come with me. And we were in town for maybe 36 hours. It was a very quick trip. But during that time, you know, connecting to some of these people I already known, but in meeting other people, my wife's with me. The human connection with these genuine people who are going after their life's mission and. And succeeding, not just like, hey, here's my vision board of stuff I don't do. It's like, no, these people are living their soul's mission. I get so inspired by that. They can be in a completely different area, but it still inspires the hell out of me. So it connected with my wife too. So we just left the weekend looking at each other saying, like, should we move to Austin? So we, we didn't. We weren't considering considering it, but we just started considering it out of the feeling we had through the connection with wonderful people. And then we were able to come back into town for a week about a month later just to like, feel it out. Like, all right, like, is this a yes?

Yeah.

Or not? And it was a yes.

Can we handle 108 degrees for 45 days in a row?

Well, this was the fall, so.

Okay, you got lured in. This summer has been a motherfuck. I don't know what's going on. If this must be global warming, must be the change in the planet.

You know, it's either global warming or Bill Gates using government controlled weather technology. It's not the weather. Yeah, we know that for sure. Yeah, I like, that's how I know I live in a lunatic world full of friends. When we look at things like that due to see their global warming or it's government controlled weather, nobody can say. Maybe it's the weather when.

When snow. When Snowpocalypse happened January 11th, that's when we moved into our house on that day. And we were coming down this 620 and there was all these cars, like sliding down the road. I'm like, this had to be done by a weather robot. Maybe this is China publishing us because there's a lot of freedom here. You know, I find myself going into those loops and I think. I think this is why Jonathan Jarrett McGill labeled you with this conspirituality trend. It's in your Wikipedia. I don't know if you've actually read your own Wikipedia or not.

I haven't.

It's fascina. I'm like, who wrote this? It seems like it needs an update from JP himself, but he said that you're part of the conspirituality, which is like this blend of esoteric and kind of woo, trying to appear as knowledgeable and wise. And I actually think, I'm curious how you feel that the label conspirituality is actually a tool. It's a language to kind of deaden and dissolve the wisdom that's actually coming through. Real influencers, real leaders. Of course, in that world there is people that are full of shit. The ones with the vision boards that don't do anything but what do you make of that? Are you aware that that person labeled you with that? Do you even care?

I definitely don't care. I don't know who that person is, so I wasn't aware. But I like the term conspiraciality. It sounds like you cross between conspiracy and sexuality. So it's like someone who's like. Like, I'm aroused by conspiracy theories. Like, it gets me sexually going. And I do think you're right. The. The term conspiracy theory in general, dude, the past two years, it. It's worn off. Like, it used to be potent. Like, no, you called him as conspiracy theory, that nut job. But now it's the boy who cried wolf. Where.

That's right.

So many conspiracy theories is like that. It's, like, literally proven to be true. Just give it enough time. Not all of them, but here in the two years where there's been active propaganda using the term conspiracy theory. Conspiracy, the. As nothing other than quick, easy ways of smearing and discounting people.

That's right.

So that the wisdom that comes through them, the perspectives they offer, and potentially the truth that they tell gets to be shut down. And it doesn't. Nobody shuts it down other than someone's own mind discounting that person because someone else called them a conspiracy theorist or whatever. So the playbook, it's very apparent what they do. It's like, oh, yeah, cool. He sees that. So run the play. Conspiracy theorists. Cool. If you want to discount someone, please do it based on their own merit. Use your intellect. Find the flaws and what they're saying and share a nuanced discussion of why they're an idiot, which will reveal if they're actually an idiot or not. But, man, to me, it's. It's the Boy who Cried Wolf. Like, when I hear now when someone says, hey, he's a conspiracy theorist, I'm like, I should probably pay attention to him. Like, oh, Dr. Robert Malone is a conspiracy. I've met him so many times. He was one of the most genuine human beings. Sophisticated physician. Oh, he's a conspiracy theorist because he's brave enough to put his career and his life on the line in the name of truth. Oh, so he's a principled person and. Okay, I'll pay attention to that. Conspiracy theorist.

Yeah. The difference between a conspiracy theorist and a normal mind is about six months. I heard that from a few buddies recently.

True.

You spoke in D.C. at a very large event for freedom. What was the name of that event?

Yeah, it was a march against the mandates rally. It Was what, January or February of this past year on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

That was a huge moment for you. I'm sure there was a lot of. Not pride from a false place, pride because of, you know, the world you're creating for your son and the sustainable love that you have for why you do what you do. Did it break your heart, though? Because I'm sure you saw a juxtaposition there. There were probably people that were for what you were saying and against what you're saying as you travel the world, I mean, what do you see that being like a big moment for you that breaks your heart?

Yeah. You know, it didn't. My heart was made more whole. It didn't break at all. It was such a. The experience felt historic. And I knew it'd be special because it was maybe two weeks before they reached out to see if I'd come speak and emcee. And my wife and I have agreements around my travel where I'm basically able to travel two weekends a month for comedy shows, which helps give us the best of both worlds, where I get out, do that thing, help earn a living. But also I'm here parenting with a family. So I let her know, like, hey, you know, they invited me to do this. I think I'll probably say no because I've already got a couple weekends of travel that month. And she just looked at me and said, no, no, no, you have to do this. So for her to tell me that I. I knew, like, all right, this is going to be a special thing.

Yeah.

And then there were, you know, 40,000 just freedom loving people. There weren't counter protests. We fully expected it there. We. Why wouldn't there.

Yeah, I would assume.

But it was just this beautiful event. 40,000 people, different religions, different backgrounds. Some were vaccinated, some weren't. Everybody uniting over this common thing called freedom. That's what we were there celebrating. And, you know, we standing literally on the very place where Martin Luther King Jr. Gave his historic speech on civil rights as I have a Dream speech. So seeing his name literally etched into the stone, it just felt like we were really riding on the backs of giants. And Martin Luther King Jr. You know, one of his sentiments was so relevant to what that event was in DC and still how we're living. He says one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. And he knew how to use disobedience in a way to savor humanity. And I think his sentiment was exactly what that event was built on. Like, hey, there's tyrants that want to control every aspect of human life. And they're not gonna unless you allow them. But disobeying their will in order to honor your free will, it just means not only does humanity win, it means we already have. Unless you surrender it, in which case you win because surrender was your goal.

Wow. I think about the collective mind in the 50s and 60s when civil rights was really becoming more apparent that it was needed, that you probably shouldn't judge someone by the color of their skin. Huh. Totally novel, right? Do you feel like right now with COVID Theater that in a way, with respect, I mean, I know we can't compare them exactly with respect to what happened with civil rights. Do you feel like there's a part of that energy from the civil rights movement that is coming to us now because of the attacks on our freedom based on what you choose to inject your body with or not?

Yeah, you know, I do. I didn't live through the civil rights movement. So speaking just from speculation. Yeah.

And I want to respect that. I know it's different, but the energy of freedom is the same 100%.

The energy of division versus freedom, the energy of honoring humanity versus controlling humanity. Respect versus disrespect, free will versus imposing your will on others. So there's a lot of commonalities and. And I look around where today with what's going on, there's so many people expressing so much power almost effortlessly where they have no fear. It's like, dude, like come and take me, whatever. Like there's no way I'm going to sacrifice the well being of my child, my family, myself. And I think that's so easy for so many people because of the giants who have come before us. So, you know, like the civil rights. So many of those pioneers cleared the way in the forest to make our path easier. Again, some of the differences at the literal level are differences, but energetically I think there's so many similarities where we get to benefit off of the literal and metaphoric blood that was shed during the civil rights movement.

I get the sense that as a society, as a collective humanity, that we're still an adolescent. Like we really haven't learned to play nice yet. I wonder if that's part of the design. I don't know. I don't have the answers for that and maybe you don't either. But I'm curious how you feel about exactly where we are in the book. I remember I was in an Ayahuasca journey once and I had this almost Like Minority Report, you know, where Tom Cruise had his fingers and all this stuff. And I. And I felt that we were in this giant, gigantic book where you and I are like a sentence on one of the pages. And I realized that, like, I don't exactly know where this thing's going to go. I don't know how the story is going to unfold, but I am for sure going to be someone that actually left it better for the people on the next page. How do you see us in this universal story, this universal book? How would you describe that? I mean, just that concept alone.

Yeah. Well, I love your perspective. I think that's beautiful perspective with where we're at. And one of the things I look at is because you look at the evil in the world, so much of it is just like super obvious today. I don't think evil's really hidden, whereas 10 years ago it's probably there, just better hidden. So I look at all that and for me it's easy to externalize it all and forget the spiritual principles that teach you. You perceive nothing other than yourself. You wouldn't get mad at anything that's happening unless it's showing something about you. So at times I have to remind myself of some of the most basic spiritual principles of whatever I'm getting emotionally charged at. That's a mirror for me and my self growth and my spiritual realization. So when I look at a headline of what Biden's doing, Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, I'll get an emotional charge and I have to ask myself, how's this my mirror right now? How am I being a tyrant towards myself? How, how have I already enslaved myself? How am I censoring myself? How am I treating myself like a piece of. And there's always answers. And when that happens, when we can ask ourselves a question like that, like what's the light, the mirror of life teaching me right now with what's going on? Then the tyrants become our teachers. And I think we can sometimes just fall into this sense of we defeat them by doing all this external stuff. And that's a pretty darn important world interface and the external. And so much mission is going on there. And it's great. But also I just wonder, like maybe the way they're really defeated is the internal consciousness shifts. Like right now we have a lot of tyrants in the world because it's a perfect energetic match for the world right now. And if we see the tyrants in the world and then we see ourselves in the tyrants, we can Notice that and shift that energy within ourselves. So now, at an inner level, we vibrate less at the tyrant frequency, which means the mirror is going to show us less tyrant frequency because we're changing who we are on the inside. We're vibrationally changing. Therefore, the mirror, if it always shows us who we are, if we can learn from the mirror, we can change who we are, who we're allowing ourselves to be. And therefore, what we see in the mirror progressively changes because we're learning from what we see in the mirror. In my opinion.

I resonate with your opinion. I think of the term 2020, you know, perfect vision. Look what happened in 2020, right?

Amen.

I really feel like this is happening for the good. Doesn't feel like it all the time. Sometimes I get so upset. I mean, I had to go through Hawkins Ladder, you know, I was at, like, total despair for a moment. I'm not totally at enlightenment over it either, but I'm, you know, I'm above 250. I'm above courage. And why this conversation is so meaningful to me and to us is because when we engage in this way, we can actually see what's in the mirror. We're not looking at a cracked mirror that we're all fragmented. And I think there's a lot of energies out there that are trying to crack the mirror we're looking through. Case in point, something that really is near and dear to my heart is this gender dysphoria campaign that is happening in the world. It's not just here in America. I mean, it's everywhere. A buddy of mine, Mike Dillard, was like, yeah, I signed out of YouTube, and I called, cleared it, and I looked at the iPad, and we were on vacation with my kids. And he's like, every single video on that front page was like, a man who was trying to be a woman. And confused. This is totally not tracking their behavior. This is just what YouTube has to show. What do you make of this? What is the genesis of gender dysphoria in America?

Yeah, yeah. For me, it's Marxism. And. And to me, the root of Marxism, its goal is to destroy objective truth. Now, you can never destroy objective truth, but you can destroy people's perception of objective truth. You can essentially brainwash them to not see objective truth. And gender is incredibly objective. It's like, cool. You can be a man who pretends to be a woman. You can feel like you're genuinely a woman. Awesome. That doesn't make you a woman. Like, there's an objective biological reality. So in order to disempower people, you have to get them disconnected from truth. That's one of the reasons why communism disconnects people from God. That's the ultimate source of truth. So I do believe at the root of identity politics and gender dysphoria is a very intentional agenda to weaken people, to make them more controllable. And of course, it's done in a virtualized way. Like Mickey Willis uses the term weaponized morality. You know, it's all presented like, yeah, this is good. Like, you're cool. You're. You're making people kill themselves. If you don't support this and you don't want to do that, you're a good person, right? Okay, so you're going to support this and like, hey, this is great. Like, he. Little Johnny is 9, and we got him gender reassignment surgery. This is good. So he can be himself. And you can have extremely wicked, evil agendas happening. And evil people, they're evil, but they're not stupid. So they're not going to say, hey, public, here's our evil agenda. It's going to be really horrible. No. Will you comply with it? No. No, They're. They're evil. So there's always deception, manipulation with evil. So the. The devil masquerades as an angel of light. The evil agenda will always be presented as a good thing. That's why weaponized morality happened. The evil thing is presented as a good thing, which gets good people to comply with the thing that they think is good. And they're good people. That's why they get tricked into it. They're not stupid.

They're good.

It's an emotional reaction that gets good people to participate in what they think is good that is rooted in evil.

So it's so profound, what you're speaking. And I think it starts very subtly, kind of how you boil a frog where it doesn't know it's going to die. And it starts with conversations like Reid Hoffman, the founder of Lake Din, said, we're going to put pronouns on. On people's names. Now, look, I'm not saying that you should or should not do that. If you want to do that, that's fine if it's coming from a good place and you actually care about respecting someone else. But I feel like there's this moral justification where I put. On my LinkedIn, I just put dude, because I'd like to be identified as a dude. But there's this war of the psyche that we're all under. And I wonder how you'd explain it where, on one hand, people's empathy is being hijacked. They care about their fellow human being, they want to help. The very, very small percentage, I think it's half a percent or 1% of people that have the actual gender dysphoria. It's growing more now because of the narrative and what's happening. But what do you make of that? This war on empathy in the human mind and people's wanting to do good but actually being taken by a wolf in sheep's clothing?

Yeah, I think we have to be smarter than dumb and realize we can do incredible harm while we're trying to do good. You know, it can be so uncomfortable to see someone uncomfortable that we want to help them. And the method that we're doing that we're, quote, unquote, helping them with can be incredibly hurtful on them. And that is very selfish of us to inflict hurt with our helping hand because we don't have the courage to experience our discomfort. So Jordan Peterson, in his recent video about getting kicked off Twitter, you know, he got kicked off Twitter for basically not going along with a transgender narrative about the actress Ellen Page. And he talks about how when. When adolescents are going through puberty, hormonal changes, feeling insecure in your body is to be expected. And if you, as an outside observer, are so selfish that you want to make that person's insecurity go away.

He.

Says letting them feel their insecurities is the best thing you can do for them. I'm kind of paraphrasing, but that's what I feel like. You have to let someone sit in their discomfort. And when there's a weaponized morality option to make the discomfort go away. And that's going to help me. What we're seeing is that's not going to help them. That's a very harmful, wicked thing. And I would dare say it looks evil from my point of view.

This is the slowly but unfortunate, maybe even quicker uncoiling spiral of this narrative where people are walking this paved road to hell with, quote, good intentions. And I believe this is a phrase from the Bible. I'm not a very religious man, but in the Bible, it said something similar to what you said. The greatest place for the devil to hide is actually in the church. It's inside of the church walls. And so if we look at media as, let's just say it's definitely not a fucking church. Media is not a church. But if we looked at media like it had four walls, what wall do you feel like Your comedy is knocking down, you know, if you, if you were not against something, I know you're for freedom and you're, you're for humanity, but by you being that way, what are you naturally knocking down? What are you naturally bringing attention to?

I think, simply said, knocking down deceptions. And I don't even, I don't even think the comedy is about then presenting a better alternative. It's more knocking down the wall of deception. And then, okay, viewer, now you see what you see. I don't want to implant truth or my opinion into you. I don't want to brainwash you in the other direction. I want to knock down the deception so that the miracle of your own being, your own critical thinking, your own heart can see and perceive what you see and perceive once the deception's gone.

So I feel like we're in this amnesia where you've talked about. We've forgotten so much about who we are. And in a way, this is a super big blessing. Although there's been times where I'm like, this does not feel like a blessing at all. Like, this is the least thing from a blessing for someone that's suffering. You know, mental health is on the rise because of kids being forced to wear not just one mask, but a special kind of mask. And now in California, they're bringing it back again with this second wave. What do you tell to a parent or a human being that is suffering from their amygdala, their empathetic wiring being hijacked? Like, what is truth that you could speak into their soul to, to give them a. A different path?

Yeah, you know, it'll be easier said than done, but it's, you know, a journey probably worth entering one's way along on. Human connection, it's. We've been told it's the deadliest thing for us, but I think it's the most enlivening thing for us. Human connection reminds us who we really are. Human connection, it, it, it's something that just enlivens us. I think we need it. And part of that human connection is understanding what do I actually think? Not just what's my brain thinking, what are the thoughts in there? But what do I actually think, and what does my heart want? And then I'll add two other questions or pieces to it. The more we as people can let our words and actions be congruent with what our thoughts are and what our own critical thinking is and what our heart's guidance is, the more peace and purpose we feel. But when our words and Actions are out of alignment with our critical thinking, thinking in our heart, we start to suffer. I mean, there's. There's a kink in the energy field of ourself, but to me, tremendous peace of mind comes. Cool. We've got our critical thinking, our heart's guidance, and then our words and actions have the courage to be congruent with that, whatever they are. To me, that relieves a lot of suffering, no matter what the external circumstances are.

Well, jp, if we have a bunch of people that are aligned, then they're not going to be consuming all the things of the system that is propagated by their misalignment.

That's the problem and that's the solution. If you like people.

Yeah, I do like people. And I love, I love what you stand for in the world, you know, and. And this is coming from a place in me where it's been a journey for me to get here. I think about my insecurities. In 2015, we've talked a lot about insecurities, and I think there's a blockage, like you've mentioned, of insecurity kind of covers humor for most people. And I find that before I do bigger podcasts, I would assume that this will probably be one of our most downloaded interviews. But it's because I genuinely care and I still get that feeling of nervousness inside of me. And I think that that nervousness comes from a place of me being really excited without my breathing. But what do you think it is within me and all of us that might feel this way? And honestly, the more I do it, this is almost episode 500. The more I do these, the easier it gets, the better it feels. Like you said go through the forest. But what actually creates that inside of us, that constrictive energy? Is it that we just need more life experience, or is that the experience is calling us to let go of a belief or a trauma that is really siphoning our energy?

Yeah, I mean, I think so many great insights just embedded in your question, but sound a little cliche. But I think the. The nervousness, the constriction, to me it's fear. And in a common denominator of maybe a lot of those fears is the fear of being who and how I really am in this moment. Will that be accepted? Will I accept it? Will I get approval? I don't know how I will be in the. The upcoming given moment. So there can be fear of the unknown. So I think the. Which I still get, certainly. But the more we get accustomed to Being curious about how we're going to show up rather than trying to align with a fictitious expectation, the more those constrictions go away. And by the way, the constrictions is beautiful, like, for, like, cool. That's who and how I'm showing up is with a little fear of who and how I'm showing up. Yeah, no need to judge it.

I remember I interviewed Gay Hendricks. He said his very first speech ever, he told the crowd, hey, you guys, this is my first speech ever. I'm really nervous right now. I'm feeling like I'm sweating. And now he's just like. Like, he's probably written like 50 books or something. This is like one of the greatest speakers, greatest emotional intelligence practitioners of our time. And there he was, you know, on stage for his very first time. And just like I called it out right now, it's like, that is actually what we need in the world. We need to have, like you said, our critical thinking, our heart, our intuitive faculty in alignment. How would you propose that we do that? I'm not saying you have a crystal ball. I'm not saying that you need to give us the ultimate golden ticket on that. But how do we become more aligned? From a practical sense, you know, what do we do?

Well, yeah, in the practical sense, I think we have to remove what blocks us from it. So when we look at just our critical thinking, we have to quit outsourcing our thinking, which means interfering shit coming in to interfere with our ability to connect to what we actually think. So turn off the news, really minimize social media. Don't look at your phone for the first hour of the day. So I think removing those kind of things are absolutely vital before we have any hope and hell of understanding what we actually think. And then the feeling, man, the. We have to be great friends with discomfort because, like, cool, what's my hurt feel right now. That means we have to be able to be in touch with our emotions, which means we can't be in a state of fear, of feeling afraid. We can't be afraid of feeling our anger. We can't be afraid of feeling feelings, because if we are, we're not going to be sensitive to the subtle feeling language of our heart. So we have to clear the noise so we can get in touch with our critical thinking. And we have to become friends with discomfort so we can get in touch with our heart. And then the third piece of my opinion is having the courage to let that inner world of our critical thinking and our heart flow into the outer world. Through our words and actions. But that courage also stems from being friends with discomfort.

Damn, I love that there was this war in me for many years. Actually, I found Paul's book in 2008. I was a personal trainer. That was my previous life. And it was the first time I had ever really explored my quote, feelings. I usually would just mash them down, go for a workout, drink a beer, smoke some weed, whatever it is. I think that's probably the story for many human beings. But this phrase emotional intelligence, you know, that that's really something that has guided me. Like how do I truly with humility, become more intelligent about my emotions. What has been one of the biggest turning points in your own life that made you more emotionally intelligent?

Well, you know, one thing is a mindset shift of looking at what's uncomfortable and reframing it from believing, hey, if it's uncomfortable, it's bad for me. No, no reframing that too. If it's uncomfortable, it's probably going to be good for me. The cold water we got into, that's uncomfortable, that's good for us. A workout, that's uncomfortable, it's good for us. Then what's comfortable is usually bad for us. Cool. It's super comfortable to eat a bunch of sugar. Super comfortable to sit on the couch all time. The all going to be bad. Taking a risk in our career, going after our dreams, uncomfortable. But that's what's typically really good for us. So that reframe of uncomfortable is good for me is important. And then the second piece that's been very meaningful in my life is having tough emotional conversations in my personal life because those are like the emotions, I want to avoid them.

That's where you get a PhD in human kind.

Yeah.

Is in conflict with your lover or your spouse.

Yep. And, and I love avoiding those emotions because it's way more comfortable. But I find the relationship, it benefits so much by talking about what needs to be talked about, holding space for emotions, having my emotions. And I'm still have so much room to grow here. But, but that, you know, trying to protect in that realm means we're also protecting in our, you know, just our own self and ability to have the courage to let our words and actions be in alignment.

And your time with Paul in the Czech Institute and being a husband to Amber and a father to Wilder and many things in between. Like, is there, is there something that, that really comes up for you where you, you go, you know what, when that happened, it was really hard, but I know it happened for My growth, for my good, for my intelligence. Is there something that, that arises for you there?

Yeah. I mean, so many hard things that I didn't love in the moment. Yeah. You know, like, one was when I was 23, I moved from Ohio out to San Diego. That was, was very hard in the moment. The, the purpose was pretty visible. So it was hard. But you know, there's that. I, I look at old relationships ending and it's certainly always hard in the moment. And man, I, I know there's other, better examples with probably more blood and gore and discomfort.

Yeah.

But these are just a few on the surface that come to my mind. And certainly having hard conversations with people, it's not sexy, it doesn't look impressive. But for me, that's always the scariest thing. Having a hard conversation with someone who I really care about to say what needs to be said in a respectful way, yet a courageous way, and to have the ears to hear and communicate emotion. Those are probably the times, honestly, that I dread the most, that scare me to death, that are the toughest that I get the most benefit from and come out a better, more whole person. Oh, what? Yeah. One other example comes to my mind. When they started the pandemic back in spring of 2020, I had all my live comedy shows canceled for. It's like, we don't know, like, this is going to be a month, two months, like 20 years. Like, we, we didn't know this was not really about a virus then. So it's like, dude, is everybody gonna die? So. But at the time, so much of my income for my family was wrapped up in doing live comedy shows. So that forced a time of innovation because I, I, like, I just knew, like, cool, like, this is going to be different. What's going to be great about this? Where's the opportunity for innovation? So I did a lot of innovating in my business and I'm like, dude, like, I make videos. I know that I've always hated doing product sponsored videos before, where I don't even do them anymore because it just sucked. Like, I. The company pays me to make a comedy video about their product, but pretending like it's an actual comedy video for the consumer, it's just a commercial. So I stopped doing those.

Yeah.

But it's like, no, I have the opportunity to do every. How can I? And I realize I want to do a podcast model of sponsorship on my videos. Why have I never thought about that before? I don't know. Probably because I didn't need to. Times are super Easy. So that then now on all my videos, it's, here's the comedy video. And at the end, it's just like a podcast brought to you by Bioptimizers or whoever the company is. So that was a stressful time. Comedy shows are canceled, don't know when they're coming back. All this potential income going to be gone. What are you going to do, jp? Stressful time, but something really great came out of it.

But you had the fuel source of Wilder and Amber to feed you through that. For people that are single, maybe they don't have that fuel source. Has this ever come up in conversations with your single friends? The way that you relate to your mission, your purpose, and what drives you versus what drives them?

Yeah. You know, I think, and I can even look back at me when I was single, to me, oftentimes it comes down to you make everything about yourself when you're single, when you don't have a family. And that's not a bad thing, man.

When I was single, I would just eat a turkey sandwich, hang out at the house for three hours, sleep eight hours a night, like, exactly.

But when you're in a committed relationship, and especially when there's a child, you're. Especially as a man, you're responsible for something more than just yourself. And that's not a curse. That's a great blessing. You're. You're compelled to make life and situations more than just about yourself. So I, you know, if I was single when Covid hit comedy shows are canceled, I don't know if I would have been motivated to innovate and do new things the way I am. Because it's like, oh, it's just me, like, like whatever. Like, I just feed myself. That's kind of easy. Not much pressure there. Nobody to take care of. So, yeah, it's an interesting thing to think about. But to me, it's. It. It can look like, hey, having a family, that's more responsibility. Yeah, on paper it's more responsibility, but it's way more fuel. Makes things easier, I think so.

I remember to quote again, Jordan Peterson, he was talking in the Maps of Mania program, one of his videos, and he referenced this analogy of if you want to grow, if you want to have a beautiful life, if you want to be fully expressed, you have to find someone and shackle responsibility to each other. You actually have to. I think he called it being a beast of burden. You have to be a beast of burden. And I love that because it falls on some of the lines of epictetus. And the stoic philosophy of, well, you know, don't ask for a lighter load, ask for a stronger back. And I think that's so beautiful because it hasn't gotten any easier for me as a dad at all. I would actually say that it's gotten way harder, but my ability to regulate my emotions has been the determining factor.

You've gotten way stronger.

My capacity to breathe, my connection to my heart, my ability to have, like you had said, those hard conversations with Carrie or you with Amber, like, that's the juice. That's the real shit that we're all hungry for in this world. And that's why when we hear a podcast like this kind of sticks to our vagus nerve, you know, we really, we feel it. And as you go about your creative process and everything that you're doing with whatever wave comes next, what. What stokes you up? What lights your heart on fire about the next things that you'll create? Or maybe if you have something cool you've been working on, you can share it with us. Like, what lights you up about your work in the future?

Yeah, being open is one of the things that lights me up. I don't like to stay attached. Like, this is how I've been doing it. So being open to, like, surprises that come along, that lights me up. And also a current piece on that. I recently started a new YouTube channel alongside my main channel, but the new YouTube channel is called JP Reacts. And it's a different expression where these videos I'm reacting to viral videos where I'm calling out the lies and corruption of tyrants, calling out absurdities and woke culture, and also highlighting the amazing work of other freedom fighters. And. And it. For me, it's such a different expression than a normal comedy video. You know, while at times, like, I'll say funny stuff, it's just all spur of the moment, but also I get to express much more of what, like the sincere perspective intertwined with funny, witty comments or whatever, jabs at the tyrant that I might have. So as simple as that is where I'm watching videos and narrating along the way with whatever comes out of me in the moment. It's so fun, so satisfying. So, yeah, I love doing new things. And that's one of the new ones on my radar.

So that's where. And I've seen these on Instagram where somebody's talking about something, maybe they have like a fish on their face and their hair is all frazzled, and then you sit next to them and you just go, huh? Is it like one of these comparison.

Screen videos, the ones you're talking about, I think are the. The dumb ones where.

Yes, I am.

No, not that you're the dumb one, but I've seen some of those where it's. There's a split screen and then, like, you're literally just watching someone watch that video. Yeah, to me, there's not much valuable to add there, unless you like watching someone just. Just make goofy faces. But what I'll be doing, like, I'll. I'll pause the video, like, whatever. Like AOC's pretending to be in handcuff. So I'll pause and I'll give narration, commentary, and then hit play again. Like, just today one went out where it took a Tucker Carlson piece where he's. I think it's like an 18 minute long video of his where he's sharing the behind the scenes of what the Green New Deal actually does to countries. And along the way, I'm stopping and giving commentary context and. And just sharing my own feelings, like, how do I feel when this comes up? So it's kind of like watching a football game in someone's color, commentating, except they're hitting pause along the way.

I love that. My nephew. I don't know if you listen to the podcast, so shout out to you, Tristan. I love you, you. I miss you. He watches people play video games.

Yeah.

And then they. And there's like a channel. I think it's like one of the biggest channels on YouTube. It's kids that watch other kids play video games. So they're not only. They're not only outside of reality, they're outside of a second reality where they're watching people play a game that isn't even real. And it rounds out the last part that I want to talk to you about. You've been super generous with your time, man. So this Oculus, this Metaverse, we talked about this with Dr. Ben lynch, and he saw it with his kids, and we've talked about technology and propaganda with Sky King. Like, we've explored this subject. But for you, what does it mean, the metaverse, to you, and what does it mean to humanity? What is the safety and what is the danger?

Yeah, for me, it means disconnection from reality and disconnection from this beautiful world. You know, technological advancements, like, cool. Like, let's just acknowledge that's fun and exciting and give yourselves a pat on the back for all y' all who invented it. Great. But just because we can do something doesn't mean we should. And just because there's innovative technology doesn't mean it's going to be beneficial. Innovation doesn't mean beneficial at all. Like, cool make a sharper knife doesn't mean stabbing yourself with it is any better. So people who are compelled to live in these realms, they're not people who have, have thoroughly exhausted this reality and conquered their dreams and done it all. So, man, there's literally nothing else here. So I need a make believe reality because I'm so advanced. I've meant I've done everything you can in this. No, I would dare say they're people who have never left the metaphoric basement of their mother's house. So people who I know, who are alive, who, who inspire me, who I want to emulate in some way, they're people who are plugging into reality and living and playing that game full out. Not people unplugging from reality to plug into someone else's technology. So big picture, that's how I see it. I also see it as cool. The more people plug into that, the more thou who runs that technology will control those people. And I don't think there's an accident or coincidence there.

I have my heart broken. I saw a child, a picture, a picture of a child, the beach, wearing a metaverse Oculus. And I thought to myself, how is that even possible that a parent would let their child do that? You're at the beach and you have Oculus, you have a metaverse on your face when you're at one of the most beautiful things places in the world. You know, the, the salt water and the sand and the ocean. And that is a metaphor on the micro, of what is occurring for us on the macro. And you know, there's been times where I do let it affect me. It weighs me down at times like what's happening in the world. And then there's times where I'm like, well, there's no meaning to it all, so we may as well enjoy the damn thing and love my son more and eat fruit by the lake and go on the paddle boards, like, do all these fun things. How do you make meaning as an awakened being? You know, I do consider you to be an awakened being, and that's actually part of your branding.

Awaken with J.P. see, I guess the branding work.

The branding works.

Thinking I'm awakened.

You definitely tricked me. You got me. How do you. How do you make meaning of that? How does one make meaning during the awakening process?

How does one make. Yeah, how does one make meaning during the awakening process? I think always Looking for the lessons in the hardships, the discomfort. Because pain without meaning is suffering. I think I've heard Tony Robbins say that. But it doesn't have to be that way. Pain with meaning, now that's growth, that's purpose. Pain with meaning is purpose. So if you look at the amount of physical discomfort you go through in a workout, but you take away the, the meaning, the purpose, like the benefit you get from it, nobody's gonna sign up to like, cool, flood me with lactate acid. That's gonna be great. And no, nobody's. Because there's no meaning to it. But that pain with purpose or that pain with meaning equals, oh, I have the purpose of becoming better. So nobody's gonna attach the meaning of anything for us. They could tell us what the meaning is, but it doesn't mean it's our meaning. So I think we need to resource from within our meaning on various things. And we have to purposely build that as a habit by asking ourselves and even just imagining it, what could the meaning of this be? What do I want the meaning of it to be, for crying out loud? Cool. I got rear ended. What's the meaning of this? Am I going to get a lesson from it? Am I going to see it as a metaphor? Cool. I went through this stress. What's the meaning of it? What's the lesson? So we can't outsource that. It's got to come from within. And for me, that helps transmit a lot of the, the pain and suffering that comes with awakening. I mean, it doesn't feel good breaking out of the cocoon when the cocoon is who you thought you were. So to turn that into purpose, we need to put the meaning on it.

It may be a challenge to what you said. I don't know. It may not be. I think about if somebody gets in a car accident, if somebody loses a leg, if somebody goes through a horrific event. What I find in our society, especially with the whole good vibes only, which I think is bullshit, is that people are forced and really shamed into finding the lesson as quickly as possible and bypassing the process of discomfort, effort of actually feeling the. Of what's going on.

Yeah.

Do you find that this is the case, especially in the spiritual community?

100 it's spiritual bypassing. It's using what's the lesson as a method of denial. So the lesson there is don't go into denial like the, the pain you're trying to avoid by finding the higher lesson. I understand that. I do that so often.

Yeah.

But that Pain needs to be felt. Like we can't bypass us the first four stages of grief, we gotta go through them. Yeah, but even from the get go, getting curious about the meaning, not to bypass, not to deny, but being curious about it, for me, it helps me along through the pain either faster, and I don't even know if I go through it faster, but at least the pain feels more purposeful. If there's a lesson there, like, cool, I have an immense heartbreak. And cool, learn this. Still there, but at least there's some light in the sky.

There's a difference between wisdom or just intelligence. And I think true wisdom is when we go through an experience that kicks our ass and we take the time to actually let the emotion flow through us, the sadness, the grief, the anger, and actually, actually be an intelligent being, because that's what happens in nature. Look what happens to an animal in nature when they almost die. A gazelle gets chased by a cheetah. It breathes, it shakes it off, it gives itself a moment before it goes back to the stream and starts sipping water. And I think we need more of that. We need more connection with our intuitive nature, our humor, which you're so amazing at. So thank you for your gifts, man, for sharing your gifts on the podcast, for sharing your gifts to the world as we say goodbye. This question that I always am, this the question that started the podcast, and it is how does, how does Josh Trent live his life? Well, how do we live our lives? Well, it's really about well being. It's about wellness. How does JP Sears live his life? Well, what does wellness actually mean to you.

Right now? What the North Star is. And my sky with that question is human connection. It's my wife, my son, certainly friends. And then there's outer rings of human connection. But man, being a father, I'm reminded, like my little boy, he was just born yesterday and now he's a year and a half old. So I, blinking my eyes and seeing a year go by at a time, it reminds me how precious this gift of life is. And life is all about human connection. So that's something that can never be taken away from us. It's, I think, our greatest source of power. That's why some people have the agenda to minimize human connection. So living well, human connection yourself, that certainly. And other people in real connection, not proximity, not agreement. We live in a society where we pretend human connection happens through intellectual agreement. No, no, human connection happens through a field of accepting someone else for who they are, whether they believe the same or different than you. That's for me, what life is about and how we live.

Well, my whole body kind of lit up when you were speaking there, especially about the tacit agreements we make, the victim of intellectualization that we become at times. And I'm super grateful for you, man. Thank you for having us here on the ranch. There's animals, so it's a ranch. And thank you for being on the show. This has been really amazing.

Oh yeah, thank you for doing what you do, Josh. You were a beautiful force of good and a bright light in the world and I appreciate you having me on, brother.

Thanks, JP. We're talking more about jp@joshtrent.com podcast. Join us there and also follow JP with the other billion people it seems like. Yeah, follow you.

Find me@world economicforum.com we're up to some great things I think you'd want to be a part of and where do.

They actually find you?

Awaken with jp.com is another cool, probably.

The better place are you guys from my heart to yours until JP or I see you again, which is probably going to be very soon. We're both wishing you love and wellness. We'll talk to you then. Hey, thanks for watching the podcast cast. I appreciate you being here. If you haven't done so already, click the subscribe button and the little notification bell so you never miss any of this free weekly content delivered from my heart with care right to yours. If you love this video, you'll love any of the videos on this page. Just click the one you want to watch next.