Gregory Schwartz: Healing Ourselves, the Planet, and the Systems Between

17:34Gregory Schwartz:That was my, and I don't want to get into it, but my dissertation was about how nature and capitalism interact. And that's, I mean, that's, again, ground zero. but yeah we've we've become so separate we we harvest from nature it's this thing to conquer it's this you know sovereignty and dominion and so we're just slowly slowly waking up to the fact that yeah if this soil is all ruined and we just keep parasitically moving on that's that's not a good long-term model and we've done that really we've always done that on on planet earth there's an incredible book about it called Dirt. It's just that we have enough people now that we can't do it anymore.

18:16Gregory Schwartz:You know, we've reached a critical mass. And in a way that's good because we're realizing, well, we actually have to change now.

18:24Darin Olien:Yeah, it's extractive rather than, and like you said, you can get away from it, with it for a while. But also the narrative breaks down when people you know take parts of it like when they say climate change and they add a bunch of stuff onto it and and then it's hard to trust it whereas i love it too because i've we're similar in that approach like if you if you realize that most people if you said hey if i could have your family have water power food shelter and sovereignty who's gonna push back on that right who who in their right mind is like yeah man you could get the the biggest brawniest guy going yeah hell yeah let's do that or you could also get the most passive going yeah that makes sense let's decentralize let's do all that stuff but these these big conglomerates are are you know Again, it takes a bit to break this thing down.

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23:21Darin Olien:What's, from an ecological standpoint, what do you think some of the steps that we can take to integrate a little better? So, I mean, we have to get, we all have to get our hands back in the soil.

23:42Gregory Schwartz:And you talk about this a lot, and you're lucky enough to have, and you've cultivated this, but space. I live in central London. There's no space for this. But, you know, community gardens, local gardens, backyard gardens, get our hands back in the soil. It reminds us that we have a relationship with nature it also you know localizes production a bit better incredible stories out of say detroit where there's these urban wastelands that turn into organic farms i interviewed a lot of those farmers for one of my past books it's amazing so this sort of like real powerful relocalization there's community choice energy and you know local micro grids interviewed people doing those in africa but even east coast where again you're you're funding it yourself you're making money off of the extra production.

24:29Gregory Schwartz:It builds communities. One thing I'll say also is we have to look at, as a geographer, I think about scale. We talk a lot about the individual scale, like what can I do? And then let's say corporate or government scale. But the community scale is kind of skipped over. It's incredibly powerful. That's really the scale that matters for the last 10 ,000 years. You know to me, but history doesn't really tell stories that way. But you're just big enough to have, to be able to pool money and do something with that, you know, make a solar array, put up some wind. And you're just small enough to be, to use your word, which I love that you use it all the time, sovereign.

25:11Gregory Schwartz:So think on the community scale and see what you can do. And it brings together neighbors as well. One, you know, one big problem is that we just don't talk to our neighbors. you know I mean I live in a building I live on such a dense street I just figured out yesterday that I think about 600 people live on my one little block in London and I don't and I'm very outgoing and I don't really know many of them you know anyway yeah so local scale community get our hands back in the soil obviously you know renewable energies and that's what pours out of me right there we have to work on those big and small scales too.

25:54Gregory Schwartz:I mean, you vote for people that are going to do the right thing and you change your own personal habits. We both agree about eating largely plant-based. I don't like to quote-unquote force feed that to people, but the numbers are just so unbelievably positive for the planet and for our bodies, and it's not for everybody. And I always say, hey, just, and I think you kind of share this, just kind of move in that direction. Yeah, eat more plants.

26:18Darin Olien:Just eat more plants. However you want to see more plants. Yeah. More fiber, more colors, more. Yeah. Yeah. And the proliferation of that too is like if I'm growing tomatoes, the tomato plant is so damn abundant that you're like, share it with your neighbor, share it with your friends, share it with like, you know, it's, and then every tomato's got hundreds of seeds and it's like, that's nature at its best.

26:44Gregory Schwartz:And nothing's better than homegrown tomatoes. Like store-bought, nothing like it.

26:48Darin Olien:It's crazy. It's like every plant is so giving in its ability. So, you know, again, nature has the blueprint. But we're, you know, I think it's like 93 % of our lives are inside and disconnected.

27:06Gregory Schwartz:Well, and I always say it's all built into the system. I mean, you eat these plants that are grown out of the earth, so they have antioxidants. Animal products have some, but I think that's a residual from just eating plants their whole life. And so antioxidants obviously counteract oxidation process. and then we get out into nature, and you're no better proponent of that from your videos. You know, anti-oxidation, negative ions, sunlight. I mean, it's, like you say, it's all built into the system. Sometimes it is rocket science, but the habits are not.

27:39Darin Olien:Right. You know? Exactly. Yeah, so, and you said, too, it's like that turning from the mind into the heart, too. And that, you know, this whole society seems I got to do more, I got to think more, I got to produce more. And it's kind of divorced of rest, recovery, contemplation when you actually have to have that. And I just did a kind of a release of, his name was Dr. Picard, who talked to Andrew Humerman, and I never did this before. I listened to Andrew's podcast with him, and he was talking about mitochondria, and he said it in a way that I never have been taught. And these mitochondria are absolutely, and this is one of the top mitochondria scientists, and he's like, no, they're listening.

28:39Darin Olien:They're not just a powerhouse. And they got into psychological listening, flow state of the mitochondria, And they have to have rest. So it's like this little thing that we've just put over, oh, it's a powerhouse of the cell, and we eat good food, and blah, blah, blah, and it just produces this energy.

29:00Gregory Schwartz:Yeah, 3D mechanistic.

29:02Darin Olien:Yeah, and it's absolutely not the case. Wow. It's a conductor of a flow of energy. Yeah. And they were even talking about how you're in a flow state. that is representative of this little muse of a mitochondria being able to flow and even going into the chi of traditional chinese medicine and it starts to mitochondria at the core of it so the point is that the more you look into this stuff the more more magical yeah it's it's and And so that is energy. That is flow. That is heart. That is like, so what are we doing? And it was very clear that you can't just work out or do things and not have a recovery state.

29:57Darin Olien:So this rest, this contemplation, this meditation takes on this whole new level of us moving forward. it's not just GDP produce produce produce stress yourself out yeah stay in that state of and that's

30:16Gregory Schwartz:very western and really very American living in England now for a few years four and a half years it helps me to see that you know America is so badass in so many ways and I would never bash America, it's just a comparison. UK is less constantly go, go, go. They get up a little later. Coffee shops open a little later. Rush hour's a little later. And first I was like, what the hell? Six o 'clock. I'm ready to go. I was standing in the middle of the street. Literally, I was like, I need to sit down at a coffee shop and start typing. So Americans, we push, push, push. And in some ways that puts us ahead.

30:50Gregory Schwartz:But in some ways it's just manic. And then you can get to the other extreme where there's societies where it's a little too sluggish to get going. I think UK gets it pretty right, the balance. Some would argue with that. But I absolutely agree. And I was just reading about Rupert Sheldrake. I don't know if you've read his stuff 20 years ago, Morphic Resonance Fields. And he's talking about how just these, it's like a cloud storage for human beings and for nature and our memories and even our DNA. And he's saying how that can affect things like mitochondria. It's just this energetic realm. Again, it's not so mechanistic and three-dimensional.

31:32Gregory Schwartz:And also that mitochondria, I just read this, I feel like a novice, have their own DNA. They evolved separately from us, you know? So it's like clearly we need to look into that more.

31:44Darin Olien:Yeah, and almost they have kind of a bacterial evolutionary start. Yes. You know, and then they become us or part of us and then be providing this ecological necessity for us to conduct energy of every cell and the heart has more and the brain has more. And like, it's just, it's mind boggling.

32:12Gregory Schwartz:Well, and everybody's talking about that now. I saw your book on the shelf, Good Energy, which I just read as well. It's all about mitochondrial dysfunction. And that's the thing now. and we should becoming aware of it. So I'm glad you're bringing it up. But it's so subtle. I guess that's sort of your point. It's so subtle.

32:29Darin Olien:Exactly. And so this awakening that you've had, you know, professor and political ecologists and studying real shit going on in the world and everything else. But at the same time, I also feel this, like this year has been one of the hardest years of my life in terms of looking at some stuff and healing some stuff. Yeah, gnarly. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, incredible. And I can allude to it or talk about it a little bit, but it's led to some of the greatest kind of unpacking of stuff. I'm like, God, I'm 55 and still unpacking stuff from my birth and stuff like that. Whatever it is, it's the time to do it, without questioning stuff.

33:19Darin Olien:And I know for me, I demand not out of stress or whatever. I just demand more out of my life in stepping up into the highest expression that I can. And it seems to me that that's similar to you because I don't think spiritual awakenings happen if you're not on a soul level kind of going, hey, man, there's more to this thing. You've probably been a little different, you know, been a sensory perception. So what happened with you and what's emerging now?

33:59Gregory Schwartz:Sure. And we can go at this any way you want. I'll give like a two-minute summary of the arc of it, and then I have all of the stages, which I can condense, because I kind of also want to give people a guide because it's just so mysterious, you know, and not that theirs will be just like mine. But, I mean, basically I had been a super spiritual kid and then just craving awakening, fascinated with this idea of enlightening and just begging God for years and years and years, begging, like, show me everything. Show me behind the curtain. Let's do this. Screaming up into the sky when I was camping, just forever and ever.

34:37Gregory Schwartz:And finally it hit me. The lightning bolt hit me when I was 31. and I just cracked open and everything changed within a few days and didn't come back online for three or four years. My resting pulse doubled for a year and a half. I never slept more than three hours a night, never. Often went two or three nights without sleep. I was, I was sending shockwaves through my body often, grinded my teeth down, hair started to go gray, I left my girlfriend, my job, my apartment. All of this within a few days totally shifted. And then that carried on. And then it was really just this light that hits you.

35:18Gregory Schwartz:And it gives you this bliss because you're in this light. And it also burns away all that's not the light. And that is very, very painful. And so I was experiencing astral travel. I became a very clairaudient. I was taking dictation from spirit guides, and I mean hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages. One time I went into my childhood home, this was here in L.A., to visit my mom during my awakening, and I went into my bedroom, and I just laid down, and I lost track of time, and I just went into other dimensions, and I was just floating out there, and I did that a lot. I came out of the room, and I said, mom for like three hours I think I was just in other dimensions she put her arm in my shoulder she said no Greg you were in there for four days what and I was like what yeah so I was just gone that happened a lot and so I was just in other dimensions and I lost the ability to function in the third dimension anyway when when I finally settled back in four and four or five years later the hurdles that used to be there were gone and so my life just accelerated you know and I went back, started my PhD, got it in record time.

36:34Gregory Schwartz:I got a full-time professorship. I wrote two books. I got married. I had two kids. I became top-ranked master's sprinter. Like all these things just went, you know, because there was nothing in the way. It was just my choice, my decision, and then it would just happen, you know, and I thought, well, this is something, and then again, I didn't want to share about, I shared my journey, and then it was too much for people, and so I said, well, I'll wait. So that's the short version. Wow. Yeah.

37:05Darin Olien:Yeah, I mean, there's, I can relate from a 20. Yeah, tell me. There's a 25 years ago I did an ayahuasca. I'd never done a drug in my life, and I knew it. I was supposed to do that. and um not that i need to get into all this but i did it and it was blissful and it was showed me everything and more um so showed me my soul validated every intuition in about three seconds and like you know it just took me on this journey but then my my intention was different i did it again and and again and then one more time and it messed it it threw me into a realm that i felt like i had kind of no business i didn't have the tools and so i was a bit messed i couldn't similar to you i couldn't function yeah there's a lot of information coming all the time 24 7 and i I sort of tried to go to sleep and just kind of like that.

38:17Darin Olien:How long was that phase? That was a concentration of about a month to six weeks. Oh, okay. And then I started kind of trying to call myself back because I was like, I can't function. Like I can't, I don't even know how to pee. Like it was just really intense. And I don't want to scare people to like, you have to go through awakenings like this. But similar to you, I, like, give it to me. Like, you know. It's very cavalier.

38:51Gregory Schwartz:It's our, like, football guy approach. It's like, just head on, boom.

38:54Darin Olien:Yeah.

38:54Gregory Schwartz:And I realized I was too cavalier because when it hit me, like, it hit you, it was way more than I could handle. Right. It's like asking to catch a six-foot wave and a tsunami comes. Yeah.

39:05Darin Olien:And you haven't even surfed the six-foot wave yet.

39:08Gregory Schwartz:Right. Right. Right. And, you know, so, yeah, I mean, it's also why I say heaven and hell are accessible here. You know, in whatever that means, I think it's a misperception that we wait and we go to some other dimension after we die and then they're accessible. No, they're accessible here. We just haven't tuned our receptors enough to perceive all of the dimensions that are going on. and when you do, yes, you can go there. And when this light really hits you, you are transported to places for hours or days that I would call heaven. And I had such anguish for such extended times, and it sounds like you did too, and there's many versions of that that are called some sort of experience of earthly hell.

39:57Gregory Schwartz:And there's this line in the... And I'm no biblical scholar, but there's a line in Matthew that appears a lot, and it's when people would do wrong, they would be cast into the darkness where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth. And I thought, oh my God, I've never heard a better description of what happened to me. And I was there for months, that really difficult part. I was literally crying and grinding my teeth. I was like, wow, that's exactly, you know, and I was separated from God. I just felt it so palpably. And I thought, so I've experienced some version of heaven and hell. And I say, people that have gone through a full awakening, whatever.

40:31Gregory Schwartz:I call mine kundalini because that's the best description. you've been stretched so much that you're, you've seen so much bliss that your default setting is joy. You realize no matter what's going on, chaos, problems, underneath it, the universe is always smiling at you like everything's going to be okay. And you've also had so much pain that you have a natural compassion for the pain in other beings. You can't not once you've had that pain. That's my belief. And that's how you tell if someone's been through it, really been through it. They're stretched and they have those two extremes.

41:06Darin Olien:Okay, everybody, are you ready to upgrade your operating system? I know I am. I'm always game to do that. Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. That's what we're doing over at Super Life Patreon. This isn't just behind the scenes membership. It's a global experiment in conscious living that I am connected to, committed with in every cell of my body. Each week, you'll get exclusive access to deeper podcast conversations, extended interviews, voice notes from the road of me personally, personal reflections, behind the scenes footage, community wellness challenges, and even surprise drop-ins that I no longer do on social media because I don't really dig it anymore.

42:00Darin Olien:We're talking decentralized healing, reclaiming sovereignty, ancient wisdom meets future tech, and a tribe of people with you walking the path. If you love this podcast, the Patreon is where we go deeper, get more real, and reclaim our power together. Join us at patreon.com forward slash Darren Olean. That's Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com forward slash Darren Olin, D-A-R-I-N-O-L-I-E-N. Join the movement, support the mission, let's rise together. Yeah, and I think, I don't know about you, but I certainly now realize that I can gently

42:55Darin Olien:habitually contact those areas which i do every day every morning i i'm excited to wake up i'm excited to go into those spaces and ask questions in it and like facilitate my own oh wow that's interesting i have my own technique of accessing that and and that's where then discipline over time really matures instead of you know at 30 years old give it to me and the lightning bolt beats the shit out of me for a little bit and then the ego fights and all of this stuff and it doesn't have to be that way so yeah and I think you're teaching that too you're kind of moving into that like you don't have to do it this way yeah uh yeah yeah so yeah I mean I'll run through if I can, just the basic steps, but I completely agree that there's so much fear and mystery around

43:52Gregory Schwartz:these awakenings, and they're a little bit scary, and they're also not talked about for various reasons, and so I said, you know, it's time for me to help steer others, give them an option of, here's the basic pillars, I'll walk you through it with me, and let's have a beautiful awakening, and it's going to be challenging no matter what, but let's take away the unnecessary delays, the unnecessary life disruption, and make it more enjoyable and really also quicker. Wine was slowed down a lot by unnecessary factors. So yeah, first, you know, there's just this general, you know, you raise your energy.

44:30Gregory Schwartz:This is where a lot of people are right now. They're sort of riding this wave on the planet where you read good books, you get around good people, you go into nature, you plug energy gaps, you try to push out negative energy or avoid it a little bit so that you can elevate your energy. Not avoid it, but just kind of minimize. Some people want to go deeper into illusion when they feel the light coming, they go back into mainstream food, mainstream education, mainstream religion, and that's comforting to them, and that's fine. They'll be there as long as they want. And then people ride in the wave, and then there's people who where I would call true trailblazers in this space.

45:06Gregory Schwartz:Next phase is you take the red pill. You're like, hey, I'm ready. I'm going to catalyze this awakening. For most people, that comes from a crisis or a moment of pain in their life. For me, it was just like years of deep desire, and it was really cavalier in me. And so I always say, and I'll give this little tidbit, sort of how you just said it, but rather than saying, you know, show me everything, I always say, I preface it now and I say, I'm talking to God or Spirit guides, please give me gentle, clear guidance. You know, because if you ask for it, you're going to get it. And so next is, you know, and a lot of these you will recognize and a lot of people recognize, and this is my own framing, but learn to speak the language of the universe.

45:57Gregory Schwartz:which is signs and symbols and dreams and numbers and all of this coming at us, you know, Nietzsche said, those who were dancing were thought to be insane by those who couldn't hear the music. And that's just so, so true. And a good friend of mine, pretty prominent neuroscientist, Tara Swartz, she says, well, there's value tagging, there's your reticular activating system. So she puts neuroscience behind it and basically how you filter through all that's going on and notice and imbue emotion into the things that matter to you, basically noticing the signs.

46:32Darin Olien:Right.

46:33Gregory Schwartz:You know, and so much is coming at you. And it's just so interactive. And there was one time, just to show how interactive it is, I was driving around town. It's just mostly happening here in L.A. when I was awakening a little bit up in the Bay Area. And I was so scattered, and I just screamed out as I was driving, God, you take over, you take over. Two seconds later, oncoming car surged in my lane, totaled my car and I couldn't drive anymore two seconds later oh my god so he was he she God was saying you need to be still you're just driving around like a scattered and then I just had to sit at home and it was great it was good for me you know um so go ahead yeah no I think

47:13Darin Olien:I you know the thing that I also and we're talking about very personal experiences and I believe this strongly. I'd love to hear your thought in that when we ask however we ask it, however our soul needs to or wants to evolve vis-a-vis through this life, it's a very personal experience for everybody, everybody listening. It's extremely personal to them. So we can share our story. We can maybe give some guideposts or some things to be aware of. But also that personal, like however the symbols need to hit them, however the awakening needs to show up for them, it is extremely personal. And I don't like when there's a guru, there's a thing in between spirit, God, your guides, all of that.

48:12Darin Olien:That's like, hey, I can share something with you, but you got to listen. And then the listening is only going to come through your own desire, of course, on some level, but also your own ability to hear and listen and perceive and receive. And that's a very personal, it's like trying to learn a language. But I can't teach you your specific language. I can maybe, and you're probably doing it too, you can probably, you know, hey, be aware of this or this. Of course.

48:46Gregory Schwartz:It's absolutely so personal. And one of my main awakenings was this phrase, and it really saved me. I didn't want to miss opportunities, so I say, I am the door that opens. And like you just said, that person has to open their own door, and then it will come. And one of the things that, like you just said, Catholicism, and I don't want to blame Catholicism. I was raised Catholic. There's many beautiful parts of it, but Christianity likes to...

49:13Darin Olien:Religion itself. Religion itself, right, right, right.

49:16Gregory Schwartz:Because there's so many beautiful parts of them, but the institutional parts want to separate us from God and say, well, you have to come through us. And I don't believe that's true. And there's also this erasure of the idea of transformation in Christianity specifically, but Eastern religions, it's fundamental. And that goes pretty deep. Even I believe erased, you know, in Jesus' lost years, 12 to 30, he's not written about. What was he doing? And there's all these accounts of him traveling and learning and growing and transforming. And I personally believed he was transforming. That's the way, that's the path.

49:49Gregory Schwartz:And so we erase that. And so we think, oh, no, there's no transformation, but there is. And it's highly personal. A really good example of personalized messages is, so for instance, I still fancy myself to be an athlete. And the thing that gets me is, if I feel a twinge in my hamstring, I think, okay, what did I do? What did I do? What did I do? What's this message? My wife is a singer. If she gets hoarse, she's like, what did I do? What did I do? What did I do? they wouldn't reach me if I got hoarse. They were like, well, I'll be okay. Her hamstring, she doesn't really, she's fine. So it's very personalized.

50:21Gregory Schwartz:So interpreting those messages for sure. One more phase. Go ahead. No, no, no. One more phase is, and these are fundamental, is get still and resensitize. We have, as I said before, we have these antenna and most of them are broken and dulled and we just don't we think in third dimensional space but we are multi-dimensional beings and you know we're like we're like iPhones with unupdated software we can't tune in you know and a better analogy I would say is we we think that we are cars driving down the road and we're like yeah I'm pretty good I'm fast I can turn I can steer you know as we navigate life but we're F-16 fighter jets just rolling down the runway we don't realize if we learn to use the controls, we can fly.

51:09Gregory Schwartz:We can go supersonic. We can do all kinds of things, you know? And so, you know, part of that is developing the clairs, which is clairvoyant, claircognizant, clairaudient, you know, developing those, and there's a lot of guidance about that. Those are your base tools to really get what's going on outside of you and around you and in you and, you know, sort of get into the space where you're doing things that are almost miraculous because people don't understand them, you know? and that's when I started and it was like banging my head against the wall in the beginning I was all in my head so I had to it was really a process and anyone can learn that you know it's just a process but I started you know really hearing my spirit guides it took me a while to figure out what that was and writing down again hundreds and hundreds of pages and to the point that that's all I did I mean I would just write those things down and then I lost my own sense of self like who am mind what do I think of what you know it's just this back and forth and now relatively balanced in that space but when even now like you say when my I can go there and when my wife and kids leave leave the house they'll just go somewhere and they'll come back and I'm sitting in the same spot it's like three hours later she's like you meditating and I was like I guess so you know just been right there right but anyway that's an important you know that's massive right is developing those.

52:29Darin Olien:And do you find that as you integrate, the integrations become, of course, more balanced within your physical being, your mental being, your spiritual being? Do you find that the more balanced you are, the more, what's the word,

52:55Darin Olien:expressive or integrative or giving or teaching. Activating. Yeah, for me it shows up and behind the scenes of everything I do is this energy. Even though the world doesn't say, oh, I do a docu-series, I do a podcast, I do a community thing. But underneath it, there's a much bigger wave of the reason I do it. And sometimes it just takes a bit to mature in terms of how it's expressed, but I always bring the energy of, I want to continue to create, a different way to live for myself and others in the world and it shows up in a lot of from health yeah from alternative energies to growing your own food to building community it shows up in a lot of different ways yeah um how are you finding kind of this massive spiritual awakening awakening integration with you know the professorship and the ecology like how are you kind of

54:15Gregory Schwartz:working that whole thing yeah that's a good example uh and a good question uh yeah and you're really talking about in my terminology uh you know well you said it embodiment and integration and also purpose and you know i'm still figuring that out as far as integrating all of those because I still have this life as an athlete, this life as an academic. And, you know, I've started helping people heal kind of one-on-one, just healing because they just to see all parts of themselves. And usually there's a blind spot and then we just figure it out. And now I realize, again, it's time to start sharing about this, but about, you know, awakening.

54:58Gregory Schwartz:And all of those, I asked my guides maybe 20 years ago, I said, I said, what question you asked me? I said, how do I integrate all this? I said, which should I do? And they said, do it all. So I was like, oh, thanks very much. But, you know, I guess another short example is the first TEDx talk that I did, I showed the overlap. I said, it was called something like how to heal your body and the planet with the same steps. So it's like, I try to integrate, you know, I try to integrate. And I really like what you said, though, because, you know, often we have these, well, I'll start this way. There's people who are super simplistic, but when you find your purpose, you're a messenger, or you are the message, or you're both.

55:45Gregory Schwartz:Again, it's very simplistic, but messengers are people like writers, psychics, movie directors, maybe songwriters, where they They are a conduit for the message, and they have amazing messages. Their personal presence might not be this elevated. You might not spend a day with them, probably unexceptional, but their message is... Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay.

56:11Darin Olien:It's had that happen where I've met somebody like, wow, that's underwhelming.

56:16Gregory Schwartz:Exactly. Yeah. And that's not their role. Right. They're a messenger.

56:20Darin Olien:Yeah.

56:21Gregory Schwartz:And then there's people who are the message, which is their vibe and their personal presence. and those is the message and so these are you know sometimes amazing performers sometimes spiritual leaders sometimes uh you know musicians or actors their presence sometimes it's the matriarch or patriarch of the family that's just this vibe i never forget meeting very nearby here in westwood walking down the street 17 years old michael jackson walks by me with his entourage He was known to be in that area at that time. He wasn't so famous yet. He was but and I had a Letterman's jacket on. He had, this is how old I am.

57:02Gregory Schwartz:We're the same age. He had just filmed Thriller video in the, you know, the Letterman's jacket where he's the, and he walks by me and I said to my sister, she was going to UCLA and I was still in high school. I said, yeah. And he goes, I hear him say, hey man. I turned around and he goes, come here. So I walk up and he says, I like your jacket. He's like, where'd you get it? And I was like, I don't know. My mind couldn't function in his energy space. It just went to liquid. I was like, I don't know. And we were standing there for a long time. When we walked away, I said, how many? He asked me like five questions and he must be used to that because, but anyway, his vibe obviously is so powerful.

57:44Gregory Schwartz:I never saw him sing in person, I wish. so he's the message he is a vibe that you have to experience and you know saw the dalai lama speak one time is this clarity i had around things like that and then there's people that are both who you can do it at any level um you know the greats in history jesus you know krishna um and even people nowadays like tony robbins and really categorically uh you're that type of guy You have messages, and you are an elevated presence in person. We can do it at any level. When I'm at my best, I'm both, but it's just categorical. But knowing which one you are kind of helps.

58:27Gregory Schwartz:You're like, oh, this is – so then you don't struggle to be this or that, or you just be you. I think my wife is the message. She's a performer, and her presence is like, wow, that was great. But she's not necessarily expressing things as a messenger. Right. Anyway, now I forgot your question, but maybe I answered it.

58:48Darin Olien:Yeah, no, but integration. I think, you know, and again, I think this is, everyone has to answer this for themselves too. Yeah. It's like the more I open, the more messages come through, and I am compelled to integrate and put something in the world. I'm just compelled. I'm pulled strongly into it. I'm working on a new docuseries right now. Oh, you are? I'm just pulled into it. I love it. And it's like I love showing up in front of a camera, and I love building behind it. I love building that energy, creating the stories, creating the, finding the people, like sharing that. And the more I show up, the more I'm compelled.

59:41Darin Olien:to do certain things, and the more other things kind of fall away. I used to run around the world in superfood hunting. Now it's kind of like a past. Yeah, yeah. There's another lifetime.

59:51Gregory Schwartz:Well, and they say, you know, I like this quote. I don't know who said it, but your passion is what you love to do, and your purpose is what you must do. Right. That's the compulsion, you know. And I've always known, I mean, ultimately, I've always felt very strongly that my real purpose is to, on as big a scale as possible, simply share these messages. And I don't know how that comes out. You know, social media is a nice new avenue for that. I've written a couple books about that, but I see myself, I like expressing myself in person. So I like when I'm in a college classroom, I like that. But I see that happening on a bigger and bigger scale.

1:00:26And I have to figure out how to express that.

1:00:31Gregory Schwartz:And we're constantly doing that. We're constantly doing that. And an interesting part of the embodiment is, We have these intellectual and spiritual insights, and that's a part of us. And then very often we'll post about those. We see people post about them, and that's beautiful. I'm not shaming them, but they haven't yet integrated it most of the time. It's not into your habits. It's not into yourselves. It's not into your subconscious. It's just, hey, I found this idea, and they present it as their own.

1:01:00Darin Olien:And or they want it, but they haven't integrated it. Exactly.

1:01:03Gregory Schwartz:We share where we're working right now, not what we've conquered usually. Usually. And so, you know, it's like when I was in the middle of my awakening, I was compelled to write a book. And I just self-published it, and it didn't sell very well. And I asked my spirit guides, and they said, no, this was us writing to you. This is your guidebook to keep waking up. I was like, oh, you know, I thought I was there, you know. But it was just, I was very clearly articulating it. But my life was an absolute mess at the time. absolute mess. So no, I hadn't, you know, integrated it yet. And, you know, it just makes another really necessary part of this, and it can be scary or it can be manageable, is what I call complete collapse.

1:01:49Gregory Schwartz:Your perception of your identity and your perception of how the world works and what reality is must collapse because those were fabricated as a mosaic from just pieces all around, you know, education, religion, parents, not consciously.

1:02:05Darin Olien:Right.

1:02:06Gregory Schwartz:And so they have to collapse. And clearly you've had this experience as well. And it's very disorienting. It's that's a feeling of going insane because the bedrock reality is swept up from under you. And that's really tough. And I actually had so many, it's kind of complex, so many breakdowns. And then when you break down, you hit rock bottom, you have get emotional, and then you're forced to think in revolutionary ways and then they have a breakthrough. And I had that so many times over these years that I started to kind of anticipate it. And I thought, oh, I'm getting super discouraged. I see a breakdown coming and then I saw all the steps and I would just skip all that and get really excited because I knew a breakthrough was coming.

1:02:45Gregory Schwartz:And then everything just, you know, it was from years to weeks to minutes. And then I just, wow, this is accelerating. So it accelerated that breakdown process. And that's what can happen in those tense times, you know.

1:02:58Darin Olien:Yeah, you're right though. I mean, you know, even look at today, like there's a lot of people that don't want to, even though many messages come to us from many systems that are at play right now. And you're like, if you don't want to see that they're dangerous, they're corrupt, they're polluting,

1:03:22Darin Olien:they're challenging the world at large, whatever, you just pick a system, right? Yeah. If you don't want to see that there's potentially people behind that, we don't have to get into conspiratorial things, but just take profit over the health and safety of people is pretty clear that there's no conspiracy around that, That there's a level of profit that is infinitely more given strength in certain parts of society than any other. Going back to our point, if we run around the world, you see like, why don't they have clean water, power, food, and shelter? Why is that not there? Why can we go down here in L.A.

1:04:09Darin Olien:and see a bunch of people with mental health issues and there's no one taking care of them? Could we do something with the fourth largest economy on the planet in California? Of course we could. Of course we could be a pillar of infinite super life, for God's sakes, right? But there's things at play. And so, you know, I think it's also important not to get bogged down by the things, which is why I've kind of grown to also have this thing against the algorithms and social media. It's like, I don't, they're trying to feed me more of this, of whatever, and I was like, I just don't want any part of it.

1:05:00Darin Olien:So going back to the system breakdown, there is a level of people that absolutely do not want their matrix to, they don't want to look at that. And they will defend it until they're dead. Right? They will defend, they will not give up the reality that this is happening. And just pick, you know, just, and it happens to all of us, I think, until we're ready, you're going, holy shit, like, this is...

1:05:34Gregory Schwartz:Because it's a lot of effort and a lot of disruption. And yeah, Yeah, I agree. And I have ridiculous examples of that. You double down so much, and you even know you're wrong. It's just this fear.

1:05:46Darin Olien:Yeah, giving up that foundational, even though that foundation is completely delusional. Yeah. That's what you've been taught. That's what keeps being taught to you through news or whatever. And then you're just holding that up, and then you just want to go, la, la, la, la, la. So it does take a level of courage to kind of break through that and kind of build up again. So where are you sitting now with like, let's go back and we can bounce around here. But, you know, you've seen a lot both internally, inside yourself. You've seen a lot in the world. Where do you piece it together now? And what gives you hope?

1:06:32Darin Olien:What are you excited about? what do you want to put your energy towards? What can society put their energy towards? I know that's a massive question. It is. But just off the cuff, where do you see that possibility and opportunity even in the face of what excites you?

1:07:01Gregory Schwartz:I am inherently an optimist and I know that in the same way that people's health and the health of the planet have some very obvious problems that can relatively easily be fixed so that's what gives me hope. I know that it's just, we just need the right plumber to come in with the right wrench, you know, and that's, of course, a thousand different angles, and so that's some of what gives me hope. I also feel like what gives me hope, because people ask me this a lot, actually, you know, what, it's a good question, I mean, a common question, but also it's be one example of the truth. You know, because I talk a lot about, it's my job really as a professor or I write books and I talk a lot about it and that's really important.

1:08:00Gregory Schwartz:You got to spread messages. But I'm kind of evolving into a space where I realize make one real existing example of the truth that you want to see. And I believe that I am that. I'm a good force in the world. But I mean, be a community with a solar, micro solar grid. Create that backyard garden like you have. Mega. that looks amazing. And so the more little examples we see like that, there's this, you know, this critical mass. And so that's what encourages me. I think, you know, you can't, it gets scary when you try to monolithically take down these systems and, you know, and we do have to chip away.

1:08:38Gregory Schwartz:But I think that, yeah, when we start, we start small and make something that actually exists, it creates these aha moments and it creates a vibrational reality and a seed where people feel it and sort of by osmosis they think yeah i can do that those are incredibly encouraging to me one of my previous books i just interviewed a hundred business owners that are moving the world in the right direction because i want to be able to say look we are solving these problems yeah i don't want to be you know doom and gloom yeah and i see my role as mostly you know clearly articulate being a guide mostly being a guide and clearly articulating where we need to go.

1:09:19Gregory Schwartz:But when that, you know, as I move forward, really, again, I want to just solve basic problems, which is change how we grow food, change how we produce energy, you know, on local levels, but larger and larger levels and starting to look at some partnerships there. But so that's practical solutions. And over here, it's guiding narratives, because I see that guiding

1:09:41Darin Olien:narratives is and helping shift beliefs is absolutely fundamental.

1:09:45Gregory Schwartz:And we're not conditioned in the West, I see that our subconscious limits and limiting beliefs and unupdated beliefs, I think is our biggest limitation in the Western world because of how we're conditioned, again, by the evolution of philosophical thought from European Enlightenment and some of our religious influences. And so we're detached from those, and those can remain stagnant and really hold us back. And I always say that, you know, the smarter you are, the problem with smart people is they believe everything they think, you know, and it's, I was one of those people. I just, I was in my head and we have to, I love smart people.

1:10:30Gregory Schwartz:I'm saying we have to be able to be both and head and heart. And when we get there and we access those, it's going to help us shift. And I do believe in sea change, and I do believe in, you know, and that comes back to those resonance, morphic resonance fields where at a certain point, everyone just knows something, you know. And so for all those reasons, I'm optimistic.

1:10:57Darin Olien:Yeah, I would echo that, you know, and going back to what you said about the small changes that you can make, by doing those, you instantly change your field. And then that field is also resonant to other people. So you actually start running into other people with those same beliefs. 100%. Immediately. And it's exponential. And I think part of the survival of my optimism comes by way of the people around me. like a good friend of mine, Troy Swope, got a company called Tarum Labs. Well, guess what they created? Algae-based, plant-based alternative to PFAS at scale. Wow. At scale. Like it's already in the world.

1:11:47Gregory Schwartz:How have I not heard? Wow, that's amazing.

1:11:48Darin Olien:Yeah, because it's fairly brand new, but it's—

1:11:51Gregory Schwartz:Mostly for nonstick surfaces or for what?

1:11:54Darin Olien:Nonstick surfaces right now, right? So it's in— That's huge. It's in some massive fast food businesses, right? The wrappers. It's already changed. No one knows about it.

1:12:05Gregory Schwartz:I learned about that from your book. I didn't know PFAS was on the wrappers of these burgers. It's just diabolical.

1:12:12Darin Olien:It's diabolical. It's everywhere. So it's heat resistant. It's stain resistant. It's incredible. Right? So he's one example. Another Chris Patton, who I've had on my podcast a couple times. I can't even tell the world but 2 % of what this guy's doing. And talking to him every week about the alternative energy stuff that he's absolutely doing in the world that probably will never even be talked about but will be infesting in a good way the society. So Paul Hawken, the work he's doing, and the work he's doing with some big companies and stuff, these kinds of people would only be in my life. They wouldn't be in my life if I hadn't said yes to a bunch of small things that I have continued to believe in and do myself.

1:13:09Darin Olien:And it becomes then they are inspiring me, and then I'm trying to share and then I'm meeting you. And it's all of these types of things that give me so much more optimism than left by myself. Because they're badass people and they're committed to their thing. And I love what you said, that you can do one thing and number one, make your life better and healthier in your family and support your community and then lean in more to the next habit. And then your field, the integrative field of awareness with action, I think is exponentially one of the healthiest things you can do. It's not just about filter your water and drink that clean water.

1:14:07Darin Olien:It's I'm doing something because I love myself. I'm doing something because, number one, I have the awareness that there might be pollutants in there. And now it means so much to me to not have those in. And then, and then, and then, and then, right? So all of these things added up. That's how things change, right?

1:14:27Gregory Schwartz:Yeah. And I like what, absolutely. And I like what you said earlier about, and it's obvious, but it needs to be said, how incredibly individualized it is because when you elevate your field you start to realize your purpose in your role and that's that's super important and you start to realize hmm this is where i'm leaning this is what feels natural to me and we do get stuck in in societal roles but when we find i love stories about like oh i can't remember it was stravinsky or tchaikovsky was a lawyer so he was like 30 and then he was like you know i'm gonna write music and his parents were

1:15:01Darin Olien:like no you idiot why would you do that you know but i love stories like that um and so that's a

1:15:07Gregory Schwartz:huge part of it because we have to give give our gift and you just get in a space like you're talking about your your docu-series you're like this is where i need to be you know and that's i think both of us you know you you've done tv you've done books you do this podcast both of us and you're doing it on a massive level are the storytellers and we need storytellers we need people that guide the narrative, you know, because I thought, oh, should I make better solar panels, more efficient? Should I be a farmer like my parents were, both of them? And I like those things, but I realized, no, I think I'm a talker and I'm a listener and I'm a receiver and I'm a guide.

1:15:47Gregory Schwartz:And so that's my role. And so once we realize what our role is, and against all odds and against all, you know, we do that, it's amazing. I joke with my wife a lot. I say, we got to do what we're supposed to do, because if I had to go sing and entertain people and you had to give geography lectures, the world would not function, you know? And it would be not good. She probably would be doing better than me. But yeah, so that's huge. And there's so many things in the way of us doing that. But it's our, we have, again, your word, sovereignty. And when we claim it, everything shifts, you know, from the inside out.

1:16:26Darin Olien:and just think about that example you gave of like a few reverse roles with your wife and again we're being told this is what we should do and that's kind of part of the upbringing like our parents only know what they know and you should be a doctor you should be a lawyer you should be all this stuff but it does take this self reflection of going yeah but what do I really want to do and then And sitting in that soul and taking action in that, I don't know if there's anything more fulfilling. Yeah.

1:17:04Gregory Schwartz:And you can just feel it that you're on that cross. And for a while, I remember Gary Byronchuk, I don't remember how to say his last name, but Gary Vee said, he said, do your day job, keep your day job, but then afterwards just grind on that speciality until it can take over. Exactly.

1:17:24Darin Olien:And right now my day job is professorship, which I love.

1:17:28Gregory Schwartz:But grinding is helping people heal and helping people awaken and guiding that narrative. And I feel unbelievably alive when I do that and like I'm in the right place.

1:17:42Darin Olien:But yeah, I mean, oh, there's one idea I wanted to put forth as well,

1:17:46Gregory Schwartz:which is a really important part of the process.

1:17:52Darin Olien:and just a tool, and I wanted to give a little gift to anyone who's listening, these couple sentences, but reframing.

1:17:59Gregory Schwartz:To reframe anything that happens in your life is an unbelievable skill. You know, we just label things, good and bad, but the universe isn't really moral, it's magnetic. And so, and if we see, you know, everything that's happening to us as working in our favor, we stop labeling it. And I know you know this lingo, but it's important to say. and you know two if anyone's listening or watching and and they're in a lot of pain or they know someone that's in a lot of pain these two sentences really helped me and can really help you literally write them down put them in your phone and just keep them one is what is the bigger more beautiful truth that i'm not seeing here because your pain is real but we get myopically focused on the pain and we forget the context, which is always something incredibly beautiful.

1:18:51The second one is, why is this the best thing that could have happened to me?

1:18:57Gregory Schwartz:And that's a tough one, especially in some situations. You lose a loved one. I mean, that's really, really tough. But in most of those situations, you realize on some level, your soul subconsciously or consciously, you called this forth. It's sort of an answer to your prayers. Because if you say to God, I want to be rich.

1:19:13Darin Olien:I want to be strong. I want to be a great, loving partner.

1:19:17Gregory Schwartz:It doesn't just give you those things necessarily. You get the conditions that make you change so that you become that. Those conditions are difficult things usually. And so that's reframing, and that's an unbelievably important skill.

1:19:34Darin Olien:It's huge. Huge. If people just take that in for a second. I'll give an example of that that can maybe help when things get really gnarly. and that's the hardest thing in my life that happened is when my dad died, right? So in that moment, you're like, holy shit, right? My dad just passed away of alcoholism and he was one of my, at that time, he was a tricky guy as a father for a big part of my life, but we were really good friends later in life. When that happened, there was a lot of pain and grief and, of course, throughout our entire family and myself included. However, if I were to ask that question in that moment or whatever, I ask it now because I do have the experience that I feel closer to him and he's still around, right?

1:20:31Darin Olien:There's moments even like two weeks ago where I had something and I've kind of like he popped in like he was there and I shared with him like going I miss you physically but this is what's going on we celebrated like a moment right so the point is that there was a gift in his passing and the ability for him to be closer to me without the challenges that he had in his life Right, right, right. Right? So his ability to love is unimpeded at this point.

1:21:08Gregory Schwartz:That's a great example, and you talked about that well in your book.

1:21:11Darin Olien:Yeah. So those types of things are, but yeah, it's a courageous question. It's tough. Yeah.

1:21:20Gregory Schwartz:But when you're in a crisis, you need those tough questions because it's actually soothing because you're in so much pain, you know, and at least it lets you look at it in a way. because I was down and out for so long, and I developed some of these life states. It's like throwing a life raft.

1:21:35Darin Olien:Yeah, and it's that understanding that what if all of life is happening for you? Your little brain can't figure it out all at one time.

1:21:46Gregory Schwartz:I mean, goodness gracious, yeah. I mean, I couldn't function for so long and for years. I mean, I was living, thank God for my sister. She was the one that really understood what was going on with me, and she was like, you can live with me, everything's okay never would have made it without her this is in manhattan beach i mean beachfront manhattan beach that's like a nice place to go through a terrible time but i would walk out of the house i'd say yeah i'm gonna go get some orange juice she'd say okay it's a corner store i come back seven hours later without the orange juice she's like what happened i'm like i don't know i don't even know where i was just in outer space you know so that was there was like three years of that, and she was just right there.

1:22:28Gregory Schwartz:But it was—and again, I don't want to scare people, like you said. I want—on one hand, I want to say, and the ancient Hatha yogic texts about Kundalini awakenings actually do caution. They say, look, you're opening up some powerful stuff. Don't be cavalier like Darren and Greg were. Have some caution, some respect. But it's, you know, it's massive what's about to happen here and so um i want to help people have that you know reasonable caution but still have a sort of a successful journey and just kind of want to make you know part of me talking about it today and i'm so happy you brought me on is just to

1:23:09Darin Olien:make it less of a taboo maybe to talk about or um you know just a little bit more approachable

1:23:16Gregory Schwartz:and some people are saying oh my god yeah i've had that experience and or maybe they've wanted to and they want to, you know, so just hearing people talk about it because the world's waking up and a lot of us are going to have these really, really massive awakenings. And there's so many levels of that even. And, you know, some people had them in a past life and now I call it, they're just having, they have a path of light. Everything's kind of smooth, you know? And I wondered about that. And so I sort of asked and they said, oh, your friend, she has a path of light.

1:23:44Darin Olien:I had a

1:23:45Gregory Schwartz:great golden childhood, but then I had a dark night of the soul for sure. I mean, whoa. Yeah. But, um, so there's a lot of different ways. And like you said, super personalized, but, um, yeah, we don't have to be scared. We should be, um, respectful and, um, you know, look for like-minded people. Like you said, that helps immensely because it tends to kind of make us become hermits and, and that's part of it. You got to get away, you know, still be silent. Yeah, complete stillness. A really interesting way to get complete stillness, super simple. Watch a sunset from when the sun is up to when it actually goes down and stay there until the light completely changes to darkness.

1:24:31Gregory Schwartz:So you're actually so still that celestial objects are orbiting around you and you are still still. And the entire color and visuals change. it really is a censoring feeling you have to sit there for about an hour for that I did that a lot to just feel steady so that God didn't have to give me any more head on collisions dude

1:24:56Darin Olien:thank you for sharing your story it means a lot to me and there's a lot of parallels but yeah it doesn't have to be scary for people it can be unique to them And I'm stoked you shared. There's a lot more we can unpack, especially around many of this stuff. But thanks for opening up today.

1:25:22Gregory Schwartz:Absolutely. Thanks for giving me the avenue. And I knew we had similar experiences. And I almost feel selfish for sharing so much about mine because we have such similar. But I think it was nice. So thank you as well.

1:25:34Darin Olien:Yeah, brother. Thank you, brother.