This Video Saved My Life | Psychedelic Concierge ep.2

Chasing the thing they think is going to make them rich and famous, so they realize that that's not the answer. The 7th day of me just literally sitting in one position, it like burst open in this wave of energy. It was this insane peace. I could see visually the connectedness of everything. I'm not ready for this. I wrote down on a piece of paper, and I still have this: working with Gerard Powell to bring peace and enlightenment to as many people as possible. So Gerard, are you there? There's like 3 or 4 comments on there that are, I was about to kill myself tonight. I came across this video and it saved my life.

Welcome to the Psychedelic Concierge podcast. I'm Zappy Zapolin, your host, and today I have Sean Gray with me. He is my co-founder of Psychedelic Concierge, and we've got an incredible origin story about how we came together and we didn't even know we did.

Yeah, that was a wild story, wasn't it? So it's hard to talk about the Psychedelic Concierge origin story without talking about like my path towards psychedelics, right? So when I was 22 years old, I'm, you know, football player my whole life. It's all I ever knew. Got out into the real world and, you know, floating in space, no idea who I am, no real world experience or anything like that. And somebody gave me a book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and it completely changed my perspective on life and money. And while all my friends were going and plugging into a job and plugging into somebody else's system, I was like, I want to try entrepreneurship and I want to go build businesses. I want to invest in real estate. I want to try building wealth. Like, I see the two different paths. So started having success out of school, started businesses, you know, made some money. Then I started working with some really big brands, started working with Robert Kiyosaki, started earning tons of money, traveling the world and having tons of success. And I think it's a lot of people's stories, you know, in some regard of like chasing the thing they think is going to make them fulfilled and happy and realizing it's not.

Yeah.

You know, I think Jim Carrey's got a great quote that says like, I wish everybody could become rich and famous so they realize that that's not the answer. But then at 25 years old, after having a bunch of success, I'm standing in front of my vision board in my 3-bedroom apartment on the Las Vegas Strip and looking at this vision board and it's got cars and trips and planes and toys. And I had it all, like everything I had wanted. And I'm like, and right at that same time, my mom got diagnosed with cancer. It put everything in perspective, right? Like, just like, what am I doing this for? You know, like, what, what the fuck?

Is this it?

Is this it? Like, what are we, what are we doing? Like, my mom's 59, or she was 55 when she got diagnosed. She ended up passing away at 59. But, uh, you know, I was like, is this really it? Do I go get another car, take another trip, add another zero? Like, is this really it? And I'm just questioning everything. And, you know, from the outside looking in, I was successful, had money, had status in the world that I was in, you know. And I was young and I was, you know, lots of potential, but I still battled anxiety and depression and was, but nobody would ever guess it. In that moment, I know this probably isn't crazy for this audience listening, but in that moment I had this crazy spiritual awakening experience where I was sort of taken out of my body. The ceiling freaking opened up. This presence came down. My legs started like violently shaking. I got pulled out of my body and I'm like hovering above my body and I see this presence. I start yelling at it, arguing with it. I'm like, I see you. Like, I know there's something next. Like, I'm done. I don't want to be here anymore. What's the point, right? Like, if— like, if you don't take me, like, now, I'm gonna take my own life. I'm gonna— I'm gonna take myself. And this is what it said in the clearest communication. Says, oh yeah, you think you're ready? You have no idea. But I'll let you experience this, but you're not done. And then it dropped me, and I fell. I came back into my body, and I smacked the floor. Mind you, I never done psychedelic stuff to this point. I mean, my shrooms, like, once in college, you know, as a recreation thing, but, you know, never studied spiritual awakenings or energy or, you know, plant medicines or any of that stuff. And I was 100% sober when that experience happened, which was terrifying to me. So obviously back then, like, what's reality? What am I— like, what just happened? Like, everything I knew to be true was shattered in a moment. For me, it led to more depression and more anxiety and Got really bad to the point where I was almost going to end my life, and I couldn't do it because my mom was still alive. I just knew the pain that that would cause her. But I was like, all right, I need to change my environment. This is funny as I'm telling this story because how deep it is, you know, and then what it's resulted in with Psychedelic Concierge. And it's like, it had to happen.

You couldn't have put those two together in your— yeah, in your mind.

So I booked a flight to Costa Rica. No idea what made me choose Costa Rica. And I went down there, had a beautiful experience, and I just meditated. I studied Judaism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, quantum physics, energy. Like all of this stuff, just searching for answers. And I, you know, doing everything— I was just like, I want to be just rid myself of everything that the world has put on me over the years and see what— just be still with the truth and just with existence and see what that does for me. For the first 7 days, I was just sitting in this like one position, just really trying to open up my heart to love because I was so hurt and so angry at the world. Like, I knew that wasn't going to serve me because I was headed on this path of about to end my life. The 7th day of me just literally sitting in one position, it like burst open and this wave of energy, this rush of energy just started flowing through me, right? And it was this insane peace, this almost just like orgasmic feeling of joy and like pure ecstasy. I could see visually the connectedness of everything, right? How the table was connected to the floor and the tree and the ant passing by and me and how everything was just connected through this like energetic field that I could visually see. And for a couple weeks after that. It was incredible. I could see colors coming off of people's head, like see auras coming off of people. It was just like a whole new world was opening up for me. So I was working on writing a book at the time, and my book publisher called me because I'd shut off all my technology. Like, hey, where have you been? Like, what's going on? Are we doing this? Yeah, are you alive? And I didn't want to tell him because the first people I told when I came back from that experience was my family, and they thought I was fucking crazy. I decided, I was like, all right, I'll tell you. I told him everything, and he's like, wow, it's incredible. Hopped off the phone with me, calls me back 10 minutes later. He's like, Sean, he's like, I'd never heard of any of the stuff you were talking about before— the energy and these plants and like auras and chakras and spiritual awakenings. He's like, I wasn't— I'd never heard about this stuff before. He's like, then I called this client and she started saying all the same stuff you were just saying. And she goes, she mentioned this documentary called The Reality of Truth. That night I turned on the documentary and I watched it, and I was just did and go have those experiences to free themselves from the pain of the world. Right. And then I saw in the documentary, right, I was blown away. I was like, oh, the people actually go and do and have these experiences. And I saw Gerard Powell, right, Rythmia founder. And in the documentary, he talks about wanting to open up a place. And at the end of the documentary, it shows him that he opened up the place, I think. Right. And I wrote down on a piece of paper and I still have this piece of paper, Zappy. It says, I will be working with Gerard Powell traveling the world, speaking on behalf of Rythmia to bring peace and enlightenment to as many people as possible. I woke up the next morning, literally on the couch still, to my phone ringing from my book publisher. And he goes, Sean, he goes, did you go and watch that documentary? I was like, yeah, I did. It was incredible. He goes, I went and watched it too. He says, it turns out there's a guy I used to work with 25 years ago inside the documentary, and I reached out to him, and I don't know why, but something's telling me that I needed to connect you two. And so, Gerard, are you there? He had three-wayed me with Gerard the next morning.

Wow. Talk about manifestation.

Yeah.

Shit.

And I go, Gerard, you're never going to believe this. He goes, try me. He goes, brother, he's like, I'm not surprised at all. He's like, that's exactly how this stuff happens when you're— when you surrender and just start walking the path. He goes, well, he's like, I'm looking for someone to travel around and speak on behalf of us. Exactly. It's exactly what we're looking for. He goes, no doubt you're the guy. And he goes, uh, but I don't want you to speak about it until you've experienced it, right? Same thing we tell the guides in the program, right? And he goes, how soon can you get to Costa Rica? My brother, I have a flight. I'll be there tomorrow. I already have a flight booked. Wow. And he goes, I said, where in Costa Rica? Because I didn't know where in the country. And it was 20 minutes north of where I was staying. So Gerard put me up in the, at Rythmia for a week, and I did ayahuasca, I think 3 different ceremonies back to back. And I was about to say, hey, like, nothing happened. And he like saw me, he goes, he's like, have you recently had a spiritual awakening or some sort of spiritual experience? I was like, yeah, I did.

I—

before I came here, I had this whole experience and whatnot. He goes, he goes, in that experience, he's like, you purified yourself. It's like salvation, right? Like, he's like, you purified yourself. And he goes, if you really want to go back and heal more things, he's like, come back the next couple nights, do more, and go past lifetimes, ancestors, and stuff like that. And I did and had an incredible experience. So fast forwarding now, I come back from Costa Rica after having the after arrhythmia, I felt compelled to make a YouTube video and I just shared the whole experience. I just stood in front of the camera, just talked for 30 minutes, sharing the whole experience. And like overnight it got like 10,000 views. There's like 3 or 4 comments on there that are people saying, hey, I was about to kill myself tonight. I was planning to kill myself tonight. And I came across this video and it saved my life. And so fast forward to what, 8 months ago, something like that. Last year, right? You started following me on Instagram. Mm-hmm. And I reach out, I see the glasses, I'm like, oh, this eccentric looking guy, like, who's it? Click on it and I see in your profile, you know, Reality of Truth. I'm like, oh, this is the guy who made that documentary that put me on that journey, right? And so I shot you a message and I was like, hey brother, like what made you reach out? What made you follow? And you're like, I don't know, something told me we're walking similar paths and we should be connected. And I said, I got a crazy story to tell you if you're ever up for hearing it. And then I think we connected the next day.

I'm like, those are my favorite stories. What are you doing tomorrow?

We connected on the calendar the next day. And I told you the whole story, how, you know, 8 and a half years later, hey, because you made this documentary, I ended up having this experience, ended up working with Gerard, right, to help them launch their social media and do some marketing efforts early on for Rhythmium, made that video that saved these people's lives because you made that documentary. Wow. You said, you said, Sean, I've been doing this work for a couple decades. I've been in this space for a long time. I see what's coming. I see where we're at. You're like, now's the time. You're like, now is the time. Legislation's changing. It's going mainstream. It's becoming less taboo, less fringe. Like you say it all the time.

The difference is now the demand is here.

Yeah. There's 39 million people in America that are psychedelic curious, right? 74% of those people want their first experience to be with a trained guide. And you're seeing that demand and the fact that it's projected to be a $12 billion industry in the next couple of years.

Yeah.

And you said, what do you do? What are you working on? And I said, brother, I build businesses and I build communities and I build structure around bringing things that I feel like create more freedom in the world because that's my purpose and mission is creating more freedom in the world, you know, more social freedom, more financial freedom at the highest level, more personal freedom, which I think is the work that in my heart that we're doing here is we're helping people reach what everybody's really searching for.

What I love too is, you know, when I go into the business with people who have plant medicine experience, it's like I know who they are, you know? I don't have to question, oh, what's this person's intention? Are they in it for the right reasons? It's like I could see that vibrating in you. I was like, this is like the universe sending me the perfect guy who knows everything I don't know. Yeah. And if we collaborate together, we'll be at the beginning of this wave of an industry. And as you and I always say, when you come out of a prohibition, the acceleration on the uptake of people is so—

Totally.

—intense that we need those million guides or whatever the number is to support what's about to happen anyways. Yeah, totally.

It couldn't have been more perfect timing. And I feel like that's how it's been with everything in— as we've been building this, right? You know, we've been very thorough with it. And we haven't rushed it. We haven't forced anything. But we always say, right, it's like, it's like the stones rising out of the water with every step that we take. Right. Just always and just in time.

Yeah. And I think, you know, there's this thing that in the Transcendental Meditation where they say, if you're doing what's best for nature and society, you will be supported by nature. It feels like, you know, for me, I needed somebody like you that could be a professional, bring professionalism 'Cause this industry needs professionalism more than it needs anything else.

[Speaker:ZAPPY ZAPOLIN] 'Cause so many people wanna work in this space, but they don't know how, they don't have the opportunities, the connections, the credibility, the understanding of navigating the space. They have no support around them, no community around them. It's a very isolated space for most people. That right there, I think, is to me one of the kind of indirect benefits and impacts that we get to have is we get to help people stop having that cognitive dissonance between the life that they know they wanna live, the person they know they wanna be, the impact they know they want to bring to the world, and what they're currently doing. It's like, hey, we're gonna bridge that gap. Yes, right, between both worlds. And how we do that is by creating professionalization.

You got to practice what you preach as well. And I think, you know, for anyone wondering, did I microdose before this? Of course I did. So, you know, it's one of these beautiful industries where the product really works as advertised, and the more support and the set and setting, as they always say, the better that is, the more you get out of it. So I feel like what we've created with Psychedelic Concierge is the opportunity for people to do what they love. The fantasy of, I love guiding journeys, I love transforming people's lives, but how do I do it? How do I make money at it? That doesn't feel right. And then we come in and we explain to them, hey, you're doing something incredible. Like, you are changing somebody's life, and there is a professional way for you to do this, and you can get all the fulfillment, but you can also be rewarded because it's really hard to support other people when you are in lack.

And yeah, you can't serve at the highest level, to your point, when you're in a scarcity mindset, when you're in the survival energy.

So you're showing up with this scarcity mindset and then yeah, you might be able to help one person or two, but you know, this is an opportunity where there's millions of people that need help. And so for you to help people and, a big way.

You've got to be okay yourself. What are you unconsciously bringing to a ceremony because you haven't done the work yourself, right? Which is why we're also so deliberate and exclusive with the people that we allow into the program, because you always say you can't guide someone where you haven't been.

Well, the other point I want to make is, you know, as sacred as this medicine is, it's important, I think, for us always to remind people that the value that you're bringing by holding space for somebody and helping them to have a good experience, it's so transformative for that person to really sustain the work because it is such heavy lifting.

Yeah. And such a big responsibility. What we're doing is not only giving you the knowledge and the tools and the certification and the credibility, but we're also saying, hey, here's how you build the business. And hey, here's all the tools that you need. Hey, here's the infrastructure. You can plug into this. There is first the niche within the person that you want to serve. This could be elderly, it could be midlife crisis, could be veterans, could be mothers postpartum, it could be fire fighters, it could be first responders, it could be athletes, peak performers, CEOs. There's all of those niches. And then within that, there's all the things that they're trying to solve and overcome and whatnot, which require different medicine. So while somebody could come to you thinking they want to have a psilocybin experience, and that's maybe what you focus on through intake, you could be like, no, you need ayahuasca, you need iboga, or you need ketamine. And I can refer you out to someone who's also trained up to this standard. Yeah. Right? And now you have a referral network and affiliate commission. And another thing that makes us really unique is, of course, the CPD accreditation and being the first, right? Is cool. And only right now, as far as I know. And we'll always be the first. Always be the first. And right now we're still the only in terms of the CPD and CEU accreditation. But I think the guest faculty, people stepping into Psychedelic Concierge and our program and our community, get to leverage everything, the groundwork that you've done for the past 20 years.

One of the things I love is a lot of times people get on the phone with us or they start talking and they're like, "Well, I wanna do this in the future and when it's legal and all this stuff." And then we, you know, of course we're smiling and we're like, "Guess what? Almost all of it's legal right now." Okay, you can prep people for journeys, you can trip sit them, you can guide them in integration after, you can make recommendations.

The small part that is illegal, and it's only illegal in certain jurisdictions depending on the medicine, so there's still ways around it that could keep you protected. Outside of that, All of this work is perfectly legal. Now, of course, you have to be knowledgeable and you have to be educated. And because all of that work outside is perfectly legal and there's not a standard or regulation, which is why we're doing what we're doing. Yeah. That's why you're stepping into the container, because you're on the cutting edge of it with mitigating as much of the unknown risk.

What we're creating is the opportunity in legal places and through church memberships and things for people to actually have more of these experiences themselves, which then allows them to be more effective guy. And we've got doctors, we've got psychologists, we've got mushroom experts. Johns Hopkins.

Yeah, Johns Hopkins. Cannabis leaders, all kinds of people.

So it's, you're learning from the best and you don't need to blaze this trail yourself. And our program, just so people know, it's gonna take you probably 18 or 20 weeks to go through all of the different modules and to really learn this stuff.

So this is for people who are serious and— We don't accept everybody. I mean, we've had thousands of people interested at this point, probably close to 1,000 applications at this point.

So maybe we've taken less than 10%. Yeah. These aren't just people that you go, "Oh, wow, they're an expert.

I wish I could—" Yeah, when their retreat center or when their clinic is hiring, who do you think that they think of first? Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. So much collaboration.

So outside of launching your own business, there's career opportunities. We work with these clinics and retreats and job opportunities and stuff, and they want trained people. Yeah.

And I know upcoming we've got our Psychedelic Career Expo that's going to happen and we're going to show people because there's got to be over 20 different career paths that you can be in right now. You're going to be—

you don't even have to have it all figured out if you're just like in the space. Yeah, but it's like, hey, we're giving you the opportunity to have it all figured out and be on time. Yeah, it's pretty freaking cool.

Pretty cool. Because, you know, like ketamine, I got into ketamine 10 years ago when somebody told me about it. I realized it was going to be the Western medicine approach to bridge people into plant medicine. Yeah. And now I'm seeing people who are like ketamine experts on TV, and it's like, how long you've been doing this? Well, 12 months ago I learned about ketamine. It's like, wow, like, this is the kind of thing where like, if you're really in now, yeah, you're still at the beginning. We're in this first or second inning of the game right now, and And it's the biggest game ever. Yeah. So thanks for being in this with me.

Thanks for being here. I love it, brother. All right, I'm honored. Cool. So let's keep walking the path.

Yeah. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Psychedelic Concierge Podcast. And if anybody out there wants to be part of it, we're easy to find. So come join us and we'll see you next time.