Vladislav Andreev - Entheogenic Renaissance From Russia With Love

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Vladislav Andreev

Welcome, fellow voyagers of the mind and spirit, to our sanctuary of exploration and enlightenment. Today, we have the distinct honor of welcoming Vladislav Andreev, a visionary partner at FANATIC, whose journey through the realms of business strategy and sustainability has been nothing short of awe-inspiring.

With over two decades of wisdom gleaned from the intricate dance of marketing, sales, and negotiation, Vladislav has been a guiding light for companies seeking not only profit but also purpose. Through his mastery in developing and implementing brand strategies, he has woven a tapestry of success for diverse clients, from industry giants like P&G and ABInbev to innovative disruptors like Yandex and Buyln.

Yet, Vladislav's brilliance extends far beyond the boardroom. As the founder of One Species, he champions sustainability and excellence, reminding us of our sacred duty to nurture and preserve our planet. And in the realm of consciousness exploration, he leads the charge with An Entheogenic Renaissance, a bilingual platform dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of entheogens and their profound healing potential.

In this space of profound inquiry and discovery, where the veil between science and spirituality is lifted, we welcome Vladislav with open hearts and minds. His passion for remote work, purpose-driven endeavors, and the transformative power of psychedelics align seamlessly with our mission to explore the frontiers of mental health and well-being.

So let us embark on this journey together, as we dive into the depths of psychedelic therapy, unraveling its mysteries, embracing its wonders, and envisioning a future where healing knows no bounds. Welcome, Vladislav Andreev, to our circle of seekers and dreamers. Your presence enriches us, your wisdom inspires us, and together, we shall illuminate the path to healing and transformation.

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Creators & Guests

Host

George Monty

My name is George Monty. I am the Owner of TrueLife (Podcast/media/ Channel) I’ve spent the last three in years building from the ground up an independent social media brandy that includes communications, content creation, community engagement, online classes in NLP, Graphic Design, Video Editing, and Content creation. I feel so blessed to have reached the following milestones, over 81K hours of watch time, 5 million views, 8K subscribers, & over 60K downloads on the podcast!

What is TrueLife?

Greetings from the enigmatic realm of "The TrueLife Podcast: Unveiling Realities." Embark on an extraordinary journey through the uncharted territories of consciousness with me, the Founder of TrueLife Media. Fusing my background in experimental psychology and a passion for storytelling, I craft engaging content that explores the intricate threads of entrepreneurship, uncertainty, suffering, psychedelics, and evolution in the modern world.

Dive into the depths of human awareness as we unravel the mysteries of therapeutic psychedelics, coping with mental health issues, and the nuances of mindfulness practices. With over 600 captivating episodes and a strong community of over 30k YouTube subscribers, I weave a tapestry that goes beyond conventional boundaries.

In each episode, experience a psychedelic flair that unveils hidden histories, sparking thoughts that linger long after the final words. This thought-provoking podcast is not just a collection of conversations; it's a thrilling exploration of the mind, an invitation to expand your perceptions, and a quest to question the very fabric of reality.

Join me on this exhilarating thrill ride, where we discuss everything from the therapeutic use of psychedelics to the importance of mental health days. With two published books, including an international bestseller on Amazon, I've built a community that values intelligence, strength, and loyalty.

As a Founding Member of The Octopus Movement, a global network committed to positive change, I continually seek new challenges and opportunities to impact the world positively. Together, let's live a life worth living and explore the boundless possibilities that await in the ever-evolving landscape of "The TrueLife Podcast: Unveiling Realities."

Aloha, and welcome to a world where realities are uncovered, and consciousness takes center stage.

No. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the true life podcast. I hope everybody is having a beautiful day. I hope that the, the world is treating you like you want to be treated. And if it's not, well, I hope you understand that there's a test involved and that's just the way it is. You'll find a way to make the best of it. And, uh, Last night, I was talking to a gentleman in Egypt. Today, I'm talking to a gentleman over here in Lithuania. We're talking about psychedelics. We're talking about the way in which the world is changing. We're talking about journeys, and we're going to cover a lot of ground. But let me just go ahead and introduce the incredible Ladislav Andreev, fellow voyager of mind and spirit to our sanctuary of exploration and enlightenment. And it's a great honor and a distinct honor to be welcoming Vladislav, a visionary partner at Fnatic, whose journey through the realms of business strategy and sustainability has been nothing short of awe-inspiring. With over two decades of wisdom gleaned from the intricate dance of marketing, sales, and negotiation, Vladislav has been a guiding light for companies seeking not only profit, but also purpose. Through his mastery in developing and implementing brand strategies, He has woven a tapestry of success for diverse clients, from industry giants like P&G and ab and bab to innovative disruptors like Yandex and Boylan. Yet Vladislav's brilliance extends far beyond the boardroom. As the founder of one species, he champions sustainability and excellence, reminding us of our sacred duty to nurture and preserve our planet. In the realm of consciousness exploration, he leads the charge with an entheogenic renaissance, a bilingual platform dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of entheogens and their profound healing potential. Vladislav, thank you so much for being here today. How are you? I'm good, man. I'm so excited. And after you saying all those nice words about me, I didn't know how to behave. I mean, I melted pretty much. I've never heard anything like that. Somebody talk about this. So, yeah, I'm extremely excited to have this conversation. Thank you for bringing me here. Yeah, the pleasure's all mine. Maybe give people a little bit of a background. So you and I are complete opposite sides of the world over here. Maybe you could speak to a little bit about where you're at, how you got there, and any kind of background you want to fill in. sure happy to so I'm russian born and I as they as I say I was born in the crossroad pretty much between europe and asia in a city that is known for literally ending russian monarchy it's called the ekaterinburg and next to it there is a border that literally separates europe and asia so I know like both of the worlds and I've been living there at the outskirts of this industrial city for the majority of my life and then I moved to Moscow, I worked in the corporate sector throughout my entire life and my first foreign trip was at 19 years old when I went to US for work and travel, it was in Maine and I was amazed, I was blown away for months of summertime that literally changed my life ever since I've never been the same again and after that yeah I mean in 2021 I uh went to uh private like entrepreneurial direction let's put it this way and you know the war started in 2022 and uh actually changed again everything that I knew but yeah there was an interesting moment I guess can I like share for like another couple of minutes yeah as long as you want man this is fascinating please yeah just you know tell me to shut up from time to time because my my thoughts they jump for here I want to hear it I i think it's like what they call nowadays like neurodivergent but whenever you feel that I'm losing track let's just you know steer back but anyway so it was january 2022 and me and my wife we bought tickets for uh istanbul so we've been living in moscow and uh we're together since six years ago so um we wanted to you know spend some time in istanbul in a nice hotel in the mountains so we found it and it was supposed to have a jacuzzi in a fireplace and uh we bought tickets for february 22nd 2022 and on february 26th so if I remember correctly we were supposed to come back so on the 24th of february is the day when the war started basically we were supposed to enjoy ourselves in the jacuzzi in the fireplace and we go from the old part of istanbul to the new part to pick a car and we go for breakfast And a friend of mine recommended a really nice place with fantastic croissants. So we're ordering breakfast, and the friend of mine writes me a message like, are you OK? I'm like, yeah, what happened? She's like, Ukraine is no-fly zone. I was like, what the fuck? And then immediately, you know, our life just changes entire direction because, I mean, we still take the car, we take the three hour drive of doomscrolling and then it's just doomscrolling in Jacuzzi, doomscrolling at the fireplace and trying to understand like what to do with our life. And then accidentally a friend of mine, an ex-colleague reached out with the help. And then basically on 6th of March, so the war started on february 24th and 6th of march I have like six days left in my visa in schengen and the friend of mine in lithuania says you know there's a program that could try and help you relocate business from russia I was like okay I'm buying the tickets and you know well I'm russian citizen I don't have any other passport or whatnot so I arrive on 6th of march to poland it's a connection flight to further go to lithuania And then, you know, Poland has its, you know, beef with Russia, let's put it this way. So I'm there and, you know, the customs officer is looking at me at my passport and like asking me, like, where are you heading to? Like, Russia. He's like, do you have tickets? I'm like, no, but I'm going to buy them. You know, it took him like 10 minutes. He called somebody, you know, browsed through my passport. It was intense, but luckily I had the background, the negotiations, you know, that helped me. kind of stay cool but eventually let me and ever since like march 2022 uh we're here we got our dog here relocated from moscow we took her from shelter during covet and we joke that she's the only family member that has european passport unlike us so yeah we're thinking about you know marrying her and reconcile with the family But yeah, so the topics of psychedelics. Yeah, just a quick one here. So I've been familiar with psychedelics since like 21 years ago or so. And they've been a integral part of my life every now and then. They helped me a lot and they helped me heal my own traumas, several of them by myself. And it was like... self-learning experience of therapeutic approach let's put it this way but then when the war started I've been drinking a lot like a lot because you know it's just hard to process like move all the stuff like change everything in our life and you know took a while to recover but then last year a friend of mine told me that you know there's a tv show you should watch for netflix how to change your mind I was like okay let's check it out it was in may last year and I watched like Fuck, finally, you can talk about it out loud. I was like, really? Like, seriously? Is it legal? And then, you know, I started to get into the wormhole, I guess, the rabbit's hole and eventually quickly realized that there is a psychedelic renaissance happening. I was like, oh, my God, I need to catch up. So ever since, pretty much, I started to dig into the topic, started to read medical publications, medical research articles, listen to webinars, podcasts, and read books and gather as much data as possible. In September, there was this program by University of California, Berkeley, which is called Psychedelics in the Mind. So I went through it in like three days and like, I need more. I need more. Yeah. you know it just went on and on but then at some point they realized that you know the amount of information about psychedelics in in Russian in particularly is extremely limited and you know surprisingly enough there are people from Russian background like uh Alexander Sasha Shulgin for instance child of Russian immigrants there is another persona who is not widely recognized the Unfortunately, her name was Valentina Gorkin Vasson, spouse of Gordon Vasson. And actually, if it wasn't for her, Gordon wouldn't have went to Mexico in the first place. And the reason being is that, well, she was born in Moscow, by the way. Her parents relocated her after the Russian Revolution. so she came to west they got married and then they went to Catskills in US for their honeymoon and she noticed that there were peculiar mushrooms there that looked really familiar as if there were the ones that you know were growing in Moscow but Gordon wasn't you know that fascinated about mushrooms he actually kind of either not disgusted by them or like didn't like them basically. But Valentina at some point came out with a theory that you know Slavic people are mycophilic and like western or Anglo-Saxon as she called them and as Russian propaganda calls it as well are mycophobic. so gordon was mycophobic whereas she was mycophilic and you know there's a lot about mushrooms in the slavic cultures and lots of time especially but anyway she was the one convincing him you know that we should look into mushrooms and things like that so she was the first woman to have a psilocybin mushroom trip and she published an article in life magazine if I remember correctly or maybe wrong here or newsweek But anyway, the magic mushrooms are it. So anyway, the funny thing here or actually tragic is that when you go to Wikipedia and you open like Valentino Vasson's page and you can find that page is in English, which, you know, makes sense. It's Wikipedia after all. It is a Spanish. Yeah, again, makes sense because Mexico, Maria Sabina and, you know, the magic mushrooms. It is in Arabic. I don't know why. I mean, seriously, I have no clue. But the worst thing is that it does not exist in Russian language. Yeah. And I was like, what the fuck? I should fix that. So I just started to blog about it. And there's this social network called Telegram. It's kind of similar to WhatsApp, but very different. It's from a big Russian entrepreneur who at some point in time, he just copy pasted Facebook and then sold it and then created this masterpiece of Messenger. But anyway, it's like a social network, so to speak. So I started there. But then a friend of mine in India convinced me to start a video blog as well. And I was like, hell, why not? So here I am. It's amazing. I'm glad. I'm glad that you are doing it. Well, maybe we could speak to this idea of, you know, shamanic culture, mycophilic. Is there a shamanic culture in Russia? I know that there's a lot of history in Europe about mushrooms and ceremonies and altered states of consciousness. But is there something unique to Russia that maybe people should know about? Yeah, there are some things, of course. And first and foremost, the word shaman, if you go to the origins, it is Russian root. And there aren't many words in English language that have Russian roots. So like What was it? Sputnik at some point in time got replaced by satellite, Pogrom. And there was another one that I missed. But anyway, shaman is Russian. Well, I don't know, like some of variations of Russian languages because there are many of them. It's not like only Russian and Russian. There are other like ethnicities who indigenous cultures basically and their languages that are being pretty much destroyed nowadays. But anyway... So if you go further to the east, of course, there is a shamanic culture and, you know, there are shamans that live in Altai region, which is pretty much close to Everest and, you know, all the heights and all the mountains there. But generally speaking, on the country's level, they say that, you know, even the president has his own shaman and some other like, you know, healers or whatnot, some mystics here and there, even in the Russian CIA and something like that. but of course it's like unofficial. I mean the culture is there, the legacy is there but it's not like present and visible but it is quite common to know a kind of shaman or like a healer or something like that and they are in the culture but in the majority of cases the shamanic people and rituals are conducted with the help of Amanita Muscaria to the best of my knowledge. which is not prohibited in Russia, unlike all the other psychedelics and drugs, pretty much. So Russia is like totally on the war on drugs path still. I mean, they don't give a shit about the progress. But I don't know if I've answered your questions. I guess you can find shamans nowadays. But yeah, not that common. Although very popular Russian singer that's being used by the propaganda machine is kind of nickname is Shaman. So I guess they're playing this aspect. Oh yeah, the funny thing, I remember there was this anti-narcotics policy in Russia. I think they've accepted like four or five years ago. So they're trying to bring people to traditional values, so-called, okay? So I tried to understand like what are those traditional values? So shamanism is a traditional value of Russian society because, you know, shaman is that, you It comes from Russia and it's part of the culture. But then again, if you go on the Wikipedia page and look closely at the description of what shaman does, is that typically that person is using infusions. So, I mean, this is value of the culture. Why you're not using it? You should be. But yeah, they're totally prohibited. It's fascinating to me. When I read a little bit about some of the Russian culture or the Eastern cultures, the Eastern Orthodox, it has this really rich... history with mysticism and like through miss when I think of mysticism, I think of a religious experience. And when I think of that, like, that's what happens to me, like on a really deep psychedelic trip is like, there's this connection to something greater than me, which is mystic in a way, whatever word you want to use to describe it. There is this connection to something bigger than we understand. It's this ineffable. And I, I think that there's, I'm hopeful that not only will our relationship continue to blossom, but so too will the investigation into Eastern mysticism, particularly Russian in that area. I think it's a really rich area that has a lot of knowledge that in the world of psychedelics, we should become more familiar with, man. What do you think? Yep. yeah that's totally true there's this only one problem is with the religion aspect is that in the majority of places in russia the kind of dominant religion is russian orthodox and it in my view it is probably one of the worst religions thus far because it tells people to suffer and to accept it and do nothing about it so it has nothing to do with the mystical experience of psychedelics at all people just go there to you know pray for something that you know I don't even understand what but if we go towards a more ancient direction so-called because prior to uh orthodox there were other religions like you know the greeks had their own religion figures and russian of course had only gods of thunder for instance like sun you know and their animism and one of the oldest idols found on the planet was like 11 000 years old it was actually next to the city that I was born at it was found in some swamps and it's like a it's called shigir idol so if you google it you can find it I think it's 11 000 years old so I mean What I'm trying to say here is that the religious aspect is there, the mystical aspect is there, but currently it has no place in the society at all because of many, many reasons. And of course, Soviet Union kind of played its part, but nowadays it's just too far from reality. Maybe she was ashamed. Yeah. Sometimes I wonder, you know, and I wonder if these wave of psychedelic renaissance that seem to make their way into society, they seem to usher in a transitional phase. Like there's so much change that comes with these times. And just like the last wave of psychedelics, when we saw an explosion of creativity, we saw this outbreak of violence and just times are changing. And it seems that we are in echo of that again today. And isn't it interesting that we're, beginning to see this new emergence or this reemergence of the psychedelic experience. I wonder, are those things connected? Do you think it's somehow like in theogens are the planet talking to us and creating change agents? Man, I do hope so, because otherwise I just I don't get it. Like, like, seriously, it's about time because humanity is just killing itself, like literally shooting itself in the leg, then in the hand at some point, eventually in either heart or head. by you know like consuming all the fossil fuels and over consuming of everything basically so infusions are there to help us realize that and I have I did this There was this study done by two Swedish researchers, and I made a post about it on LinkedIn. It's somewhere there under Entheogenic Renaissance. So they did a meta-study of the kind of connected correlation between the mystical experience that is... people are having when they're consuming high doses of psychedelics and the connectedness with nature and oneness and as a result more like conscious decisions environmentally friendly and more sustainable in the long run and I mean long story short for pretty much all people who consume psychedelics and think it is obvious right but then again when you read it in a nice research publication you can find it very promising because ideally if you know all the people uh who run big corporations have this therapeutic like proper therapeutic approach with psychedelics they could change a lot in terms of how they do, like make decisions within their business, like what their business does, whether or not, you know, they pollute mother nature or create a new product that's going to be destroying it for just profit and things like this. And I have a strong belief that, you know, once those people are introduced with the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, they're not going to be making stupid decisions that would be in, you know, their own hands. favor or the shareholders favor or the short-term gain and just kill the entire ecosystem pretty much what was this name Al Hubbard if I remember correctly you that there was this guy the second wave of psychedelic uh emergence he was a Canadian I don't know mobster or something like that so he was involved with um Humphrey Osmond as well at some point in time. So he had these strange ideas that once you get all the CEOs on LSD, they will change the world. So I think I kind of share that thinking in a sense, but of course, not in that manic way. But then again, with the emergence of psychedelics from a different perspective, like not only healing, but also coaching. It gives you a different perspective because people who are high in the organizations, they're either burnt out, they lost their purpose, they lost the meaning of life and things like this. And once they get introduced to psychedelics, things can change for better. Yeah, that's really well said. And I agree. I think if Leary was around today, it would be a different conversation. There'd be a lot more people that were... were receptive, you know? And I recently went back and I watched the Buckley, the William F. Buckley versus Leary debate. And like, it's just so interesting to see both sides of this really conservative view and then this other view and to see where we're at today. And I echo your sentiments about the world of business. And, you know, I do think that if we can begin and maybe it's an age thing, you know, maybe, maybe it is, you know, maybe these things are connected. If you look at the drugs on which the boomer generation ran, it's primarily alcohol, which is, you know, it's, it's, it's a horrible drug. It's the worst drug. It just kills your spirit. It kills everything about you. It deadens you to the reality of that. You are a part of nature. It's set. It's so separating and isolating. And then all of a sudden you have this new wave of entheogens or psychedelics that are like, you have this new perspective. You're like, wait a minute. I'm going to destroy nature. I am nature. That's like punching myself in the face. Like it's so dumb. Why don't I treat the people that work underneath me as part of me? Like why don't we work together? And so maybe this next wave, much like a psychedelic trip, each wave gets stronger until you hit the peak. Maybe this wave of psychedelics is this one where we're beginning to be like, oh shit, here it comes. You know what I mean? Like it's starting to come on pretty strong right now. yeah man I hear you that resonates strongly and I do hope that happens. the only thing that puzzles me is that if you look at the current psychedelic renaissance and everything that is happening actually it is pretty much ex-british colonies. Right? I mean, I don't know. At some point in time, I had this epiphany. Well, US, right? Canada, Australia, first country in the world to, you know, start psychedelic assistance therapy in the first place. South Africa, not so much, but they're producing. You know, I mean, not India, definitely. They're not that strong. But, you know, it's just what I'm saying here is that out of, let's say, other part of the world, like Eastern Europe, the hemisphere or you know southeast asia for instance there is like totally different sentiment there like you know federico duterte from philippines like sri lanka's struggle and their continuous war on drugs and you know all the limitations in india it's just nothing's happening there and you know it looks thus far that it's just only like one big superpower of us and you know the acolytes of united kingdom so to speak and then that's it and the rest of the world's like what What? What are psychedelics? Never heard of it. Like let's pray to them. But of course there are the countries that are like forward thinking like Portugal who legalized all drugs. Like you can consume no problem at all. And they have a decrease in numbers for heroin users like four times. That's insane. Yeah. Yeah. My hope is that It's a Trojan horse. I think a lot of people in positions of authority have taken the Huxley view of psychedelics as a disassociative, and they can be. They could be the Soma in Brave New World where people take it and they feel happy about their imprisonment. But I think that's the Trojan horse. I think what's going to happen, and I see it happen in the U.S., is you see these pharmaceutical companies like, listen, let's just give these people their damn Soma and let them be happy about this. But all of a sudden, you're seeing this rattling the cage of the medical environment, like, let me out of here. And it's escaping out of that medical container, and they can't control it. And I think it's to a point. Well, it will get to a point where it escapes the medical container, not only through the cage, but through the people facilitating the medical exploration of it. Like you're seeing, at least in the US, I'm seeing, you know, doctors being questioned like, oh, so you're going to provide psychedelic therapy? Have you ever done psychedelics? And the doctor's like, nope. And it's like, well, why should I listen to you then? And you're seeing maybe someone who's been on the underground without a medical degree who may have been a veteran that's worked through their own PTSD or worked through the death of their child or worked through their alcoholism. Now, this person, on some level, is being treated as the expert that the doctor thinks that they should be. You know, maybe we need both, I get both, but like I'm seeing that sort of escaping the medical container. Like, hey, maybe we don't, maybe these people that we're calling experts and professionals, while they are on some level, maybe this other person who's been a 25 year person who's worked at the bottom of an Amazon company, maybe that's the expert. Maybe that person has some ideas about how to really get through tragedy. But that's what I see. I see it as a Trojan horse on some level. Is that too far out there? Listen, I think you're onto something here because I can tell from my own experience. So you've touched several topics that resonated strongly. So first of all, there's alcohol. And as I said, alcohol is the worst drug in the world and even worse than heroin. And my father was an alcoholic. My grandfather was an alcoholic. and I seen them drinking themselves to death. So at 12, when I was 12, the country went kaput in terms of their economy in 1998, the economy meltdown. So my father lost job. And for the next five years, he's been just drinking basically. And I'd seen it's awful. And, you know, he died eventually out of a heart attack, if I remember correctly, six months after his father died, because as well, he just followed him to the grave. So when I got into the topic of the psychedelics and I started to understand, like, maybe I can get like proper education. So I found like a couple of institutions, so to speak, where they have like either a master's degree or something around the psychedelics or psychedelic therapy or psychedelic coaching. And then I applied there. Of course, they didn't accept me because I don't have any medical background. Because I'm not a clinician, because I'm not a psychiatrist. So, yeah, they did let me in, which, you know, kind of makes sense. But I would argue because, you know, they had this point which says, like, interventions and behavior. And I am thinking to myself, so for the duration of three years, I've been working for British Negotiation Consultancy and conducting behavioral change workshops there. So, of course, you can say it's totally different because I've been telling people how to change their behavior in specific context of negotiation. But I've been doing that for like thousands of hours. So technically I'm fit. But, you know, the funny thing is that the rules and the constructs are there that, you know, the limit from entering. And then one moment I have this epiphany is that pretty much, you know, you remember the stone ape theory, right? Of course. I mean, everything's a social construct pretty much. And then you look at those rules and you think like, so just explain it to me. If there's a person who got a diploma, is that person is like totally qualified or not? And I remember seeing a person LinkedIn, it was like psychiatrist, like clinician and something like that. Diploma here, diploma there. And then she says that vaccines are killing people. I'm like, Who the fuck gave you diploma? Seriously. So what I'm saying here is that I guess the genie is out of the bottle. That's what I said before we started recording, but you're onto something here because all the clinicians, they may have the knowledge of the therapy and the approach, but if they don't know how psychedelics work, it's just not going to fly. But there are a lot of shamans and underground gurus and facilitators. The problem is they're, of course, not either licensed, but license means shit, literally nothing. it always depends on the personality and there's been cases with maps with the scandals here the scandals there it doesn't mean that the person who has a diploma is the proper person to conduct either therapy or be ethically like I don't know strong in their commitment to heal other human beings. So what I'm saying here is that I guess is just very important to understand like who is this person to whom you are entrusting your psyche whenever you are using psychedelics pretty much. Yeah, it's such the gray area. And that's one of the big issues that I see in places like Denver or Oregon or Kentucky that's working with Iboga now. It's these places are trying to figure it out. And in doing so, and in trying to figure this out, it shines a giant light on this concept of when the instrument becomes the institutionalized, it begins to lose its edge. You know what I mean by that? Like, like psychedelics work. We know they do, but when you begin to institutionalize them and build a diploma around them and build all these people around them, like it starts to lose its effectiveness, you know? And, and that's, I understand the need for safety. I get it. I understand the need to make sure that the people that are applying the therapy have your best interest in mind and they want to be trusted. You don't want to have another Jim Jones or Charles Manson or something like that. But at the same time, at what point in time does the inflow of money become more about creating profit and the institution than it does about the health? And that that's not just psychedelics. That's everything. That's one reason I love psychedelics. Cause it shows you that it's like, Hey, look at this whole thing. It's all like that. It's all a construct. It's new knowledge on the same information. Yeah. It's interesting. I think that that's on some level. When you look back at the sixties, that's why they were banned. Like on some level, psychedelics opens your eyes to the idea of this is all bullshit. Yeah. All of it. You know, yeah I know I know I think this is the one of the reasons they're prohibited in russia because people would recognize quite soon enough that the king is naked But yeah, I think the problem is that, you know, the capitalist society, you know, however you call it, but it has its ups and downs or advantages and disadvantages. I guess one of the advantages that increases the level of quality of life and everything. But the disadvantage is that the pursuit for profit actually harms in the long run. And if you I don't know if you had stumbled upon a book called The Emperor Wears No Clothes. I don't remember the So the guy, it was like some US guy in the 80s, he created a book that was basically a compilation of all the historical data about weed and the cannabis in the human history from like Encyclopedia Britannica and other factual sources. He puts it all together and basically he says that, you know, hemp got prohibited because DuPont invented nylon from, you know, dinosaurs and million old trees and then they wanted to make profit. And how do you make profit if everything's made out of hemp? Prohibit hemp. Make profit. So what you're saying is that of course it's losing its age. And whenever, you know, we're talking about therapy, I really find it hard to imagine to have like, you know, an appropriate LSD or psilocybin experience within like white walls and, you know, the hospital facility. I was like, I think it can like lead to very tough trip, but of course it's not like this everywhere. but because it is somewhat unregulated and you know the genie is out of the bottle there are cases where I I've read an article about like some ketamine clinic in u.s in the mall where you just get in they give you ketamine and there's nobody in the room and you're just lying there with the ketamine ingested in your veins and tripping like what the is this this is just too much you know The McDonald's of transformation. Yeah, but that's awful. That's awful. That caused harm. And actually, you know, that can backfire because, you know, people go there, they experience hard emotions, they cannot deal with them, they reopen their trauma, and then they, I don't know, either... just commit suicide or do some stupid shit and then they start to question like why did they do this? oh they went to a ketamine clinic like matthew perry last year they went to switzerland 150 000 for a ketamine treatment like seriously and then he decides to have a ketamine on him all with in a pool at a pool and just drowns like that's what happens when you don't teach people safety Yeah, ironically enough, that guy was an alcoholic for a long time. You know what I mean? I think that... we're so quick to, and probably out of love, probably out of kindness, we're so quick to blame a substance for someone's departure rather than we are the problems that underlie that symptom, right? That's totally true, man. Absolutely. I cannot agree more. It's like, you know, blaming the guns. Yeah. It's an evil gun. It's an evil one. Yeah, it kills you. But nobody even tries to address the reality in which people live, the reality, the stigma, the taboo that surrounds them. And whenever you cannot consume, it creates additional problems. It creates additional issues. I mean, if you get hospitalized, you cannot even talk about it out loud because it's prohibited because, I mean, they're going to arrest you for... consuming. And this is ridiculous. So that stigma definitely needs to go for the harm reduction to happen. I guess that's what I'm doing in my podcast. You are definitely trying to, you know, give the knowledge to people because even though psychedelics are safe, like extremely safe, people can do stupid shit. And you know, that french student that died in amsterdam and the reason they prohibited psilocybin mushrooms not like truffles is just you know no precaution measures that you didn't have a trip sitter no set and setting just went on walking around the sea and decided to test the gravity I guess but uh still you know people do stupid yeah yeah I i go back and forth like on some level You know, especially after, like, some deep trips, man, where I just, you know, leave this planet on some level. You know, and I'm calling my mom and my sister, like, 3.30 in the morning, like, I'm pretty sure I'm an alien. You know? They're like, shut the fuck up, dude. Go to bed. You know, and I'm like, no, you guys don't get it. Like, I'm talking to the aliens right now. you're an alien too you don't get it you know it's like so on some level I'm like okay this can be something that makes people maybe obviously it's not for everybody maybe it should be restricted to some people but you know who am I to say someone else can't do it like when I when I start going down that road it does get kind of slippery on some level i Well, there are some things that we should definitely remember. If a person or their first bloodline relative have schizophrenia or bipolar disease or predisposition, I would definitely advise them to avoid psychedelics. Why though? Because of the literature that says that? What is the real evidence behind that? So technically there is evidence. I mean, if you look at the data. So the idea there is not that they create schizophrenia or bipolar disease, but it's that they kind of fast speed up the processes, basically. So if a person have a predisposition, it may or may not, let's say, convert into full-blown schizophrenia, bipolar disease in the, I don't know, next few years or 10 years or decades. But psychedelics can speed things up if, you know, there is no preparation, no set and setting. And, you know, it can open a deep trauma, for instance, and people won't be able to deal with it by themselves. Those things are still like cautionary measures. And ideally, I wouldn't advise to, you know, people with like, I don't want to call it like weak psyche, but like problems that are not addressed through therapy, like, I don't know, traumas, especially to consume psychedelics by themselves, because they may end up creating problems for themselves. I mean, they can theoretically heal themselves, but without the proper trip sitter or, you know, like a shaman, a guru or therapist or coach or whomever nearby who can really help and create the container and, you know, facilitate the healing process, it may really create additional harm for human psyche. So what I'm saying here, and I've looked at the data, I tried to like address properly, like all those claims that, you know, psychedelic cause schizophrenia, they don't. they speed up the processes, that's it. They're like you know there's this phrase they're meaning enhancers but they're enhancing so the enhancing quality is there and because it is psyche because it's deep rooted in like subconscious and the genes it just you know sparks up a disease pretty much so that's the thing. So for that reason I wouldn't advise people with yeah schizophrenia or bipolar disease or you know if they have first bloodline relatives to consume psychedelics And probably not if they're on SSRIs and MAO antidepressants as well, because some substances can lead to even like fatal combinations. So better to avoid. Those are great points. I'm hopeful in the future. I was talking to Alexander Ledbedev, who's out of Norway. Amazing individual. Russian guy. He's epic. I'll introduce you guys. You guys would get along great. He's a super smart guy. He's one of us. He's one of us. And you know, we were talking about what's happening inside the brain during a really high dose trip. And there's a lot of imagery. There's a lot of feedback and there's a lot of speculation. I spoke with Brian Roth, who spoke about, you know, all this money that they've done for funding, looking at the 5H2A receptor. But when you really start, when you really pull the curtain back, we don't know that much, man. We spent millions, maybe billions of dollars. Yeah. Like, it's kind of bullshit, man. Like, it kind of makes me laugh in some way. Like, Jesus, we spent so much money. You guys don't know shit. You don't know shit about it, man. You know? And so that's where, like, I come from a family that my dad is bipolar. And I kind of think on some level there has to be boundaries. And I understand a clinical setting for someone who may have some sort of cognitive impairment. But possibly... psychedelics could be the answer for that you know if you look back to the way psychedelics were used back in the day it used to be that a professional would take them so they could thoroughly understand what it's like to be in a psychotic state I think there's real I think there's real juju there man I think it's not real juju I think there's real stuff there that like makes you feel like oh my god this is what it's like to be in a state in another reality and then once you begin to understand that maybe you could have some empathy for someone who's going through these episodes on some level right absolutely and if I remember correctly prior to all those huxley and ombre osmar nailing the psychedelic in the first place he was called the substances were called psychotic mimetic mimicking psychosis so of course there you go but understanding what it's like to have a full-blown psychosis and I know I remember like I've had those trips where I felt like I'm losing it I'm just I'm gonna be like a mental institution like member for the rest of my life that's it bye-bye I'm not gonna come back And I had those moments. They were fucking scary. Yeah. Can you share one of those moments with us? Oh, man. So, yeah, we went to a festival. I think it was Spongold. Yeah, yeah. It was Spongold in Moscow. We went, the three of us, from a different city. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared for the weather. So we went there. And, you know, so one of, I think it was like either two seasons. b or something like that so it was not like lsd or something weren't sure I mean you kind of test it you just you know trust whatever somebody supplies you and then uh we went there and one of the guys or three of us he had like kind of seizure pretty much at some point in time so I had to run for an ambulance and you know bring the ambulance brigade to him and then eventually it was all good but then we had to go to like a hospital or something and then it started to kick in and then I lost it. I thought that's it they're taking me here to just put me in the mental hospital. I'm gonna stay there for the rest of my life but of course as with all the trips with psychedelics it all passes away after some time and you become normal or you never become normal pretty much but still you know kind of That's awesome, man. Thank you for sharing that. I think that's important. I think that I know one time for me, I had taken like 18 grams of mushrooms. I'm like, I'm going to go deep. I took this 18 gram dose. And what I've learned on that dose, Adam Tapp and I were talking about this. It seems to me, at least on psilocybin, on these really higher dosages, that there's like a double peak. On some level, there's like a breakthrough. And then things get foggy. You're like, pfft. can't remember but then there's another peak of clarity and I remember on the second peak like I i I just got like so biblical and started thinking like oh yeah I get it you know and it just made sense to me like now I get it And when I look back on it, like there's this clarity, like Jesus is an alien, like all this stuff that was probably in my mind already. But I was in a different world and I can remember it like, oh, my God, it's so clear. This is the truth. Without a doubt, this is the truth. And it was so clear and so pristine. But then when I came back down, I'm like, I was fucking crazy. That's not true, you know, but. To see it with so much clarity is really something you can look back on and be like, oh, my God. It gives you a different perspective of different mental states and what is possible and empathy with people. It's so helpful if you can get through it on some level. Yeah, man, it totally resonates. I remember having those moments and epiphanies exactly as you described them. And this is one of very fascinating qualities of psychedelics is that, you know, I mean, you are on the other part of the world. We've never seen each other before in our entire life. And yet we have this same profound experience. And this is like insane. And we're all like part of this bigger noosphere, I guess, the global subconscious or however you call it. but I remember those moments and I remember I think it was like maybe 18 years ago or so when I had one of those moments you know the breakthrough moment that you just described yeah and then I realized that oh I understand now now I get it and then I had this thought right there right at that particular moment that okay it is important that I understand right now but will I remember it tomorrow yes yeah And of course, you know, typically it evaporates. But integration, as far as I've learned, it's, of course, critical and important. Yeah. regardless if you, this is just a theory and I, this, none of this, this could all be bullshit, but this is just what I think about sometimes. I think that those breakthrough moments and the very difficult part of our trips are the manifestation of neuroplasticity in real time. Like that's your brain rewiring itself in real time. That's what you're freaking out. It's like, boom, your brain is creating new neural pathways. Like, and like, even if you don't remember exactly what happened when you were freaking out or when you had that breakthrough clarity, I think that after that event, you've created new pathways that allow creativity or thoughts to flow in a way that they haven't flown before. And that's where the real teaching can begin to come in. Like, hey, you know what? How come... you know, people should be better at math. Not everybody learns the same way. Can we find a way to teach music through math? Like, you know, and that's kind of what was happening in the 60s was these new ways of learning. These people were taking, you know, why not? Like, why does it have to be this standardized bubble? Like, what about this other stuff? And like, I think that that's what psychedelics on some level are doing is they're providing new pathways the same way new neural pathways are being connected. Like, what about this way to learn? What about that way to learn? Is that too crazy? What do you think? I, I think you're into something here as well, man. That makes sense. I mean, I haven't thought about it. And to me, it sounds like you're a new idiot totally. But then I'm trying to recollect from the knowledge that I've gathered so far. And it does make sense. Because when you're in psychedelics, kind of the patterns of like regular connectivity within the brain and the neural networks that are disrupted and all the the new patterns are being created so hence neuroplasticity so when all parts of the brains are activated at some point at the same moment uh it creates I think pretty much like the beginning of a new neural circuit in a sense and if you or like concentrating properly enough on like trying to memorize it and kind of calcify it I guess you can then take it to your regular life with you yeah at least the residuals of it you know what I mean like it's like putting these on like a new set of lenses oh that's a new color and I've never noticed that maybe it's not but you've never noticed it before then you notice that color everywhere it's That gives me hope. That gives me hope that this first phase of this – I think there's layers to this psychedelic renaissance. And I think that the first layer is getting through our trauma. It's moving through the PTSD. It's moving through these new things. But if you look close to the edges, you can see this creative cycle or this new movement happening. I'm so excited for it. Just me and you never knowing each other and talking to people on the opposite side. Like you said, talking opposite sides of the world, having these experiences, people from everywhere could be listening. We could be influencing people right now that we don't even know of, man. It's mind blowing. It is mind-blowing. The only thing about the psychedelics is that, you know, whenever we're talking about, when we're talking about higher levels of the, like, Maslow's Pyramid hierarchy of needs, right? Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, the entire, like, world is totally different. And it recently came from Sri Lanka and India. And, you know, it's totally different lifestyle there, of course. And, you know, India is, like, number one in terms of population and everything. a lot of issues there and of course other countries as well so psychedelics can help with solving a lot of them as well as you know helping treat like multi-generational wounds between cultures and if I remember correctly prior to the escalation of the conflict between Israel and Palestine there was a study for like use of ayahuasca for both like groups from Palestine and Israel and it showed promise because people were willing to let go you know all the grudges all the like trauma from all the generations that were happening there sitting there and basically driving their behavior and they're willing to let it go. So in my view, you know, creativity is all in nice for US for sure but the rest of the world is not there. I mean, there are so many problems out there. I mean, all the wars and people make stupid decisions to kill people. I mean, I just don't get it like seriously. This is like the most valuable, I don't know, aspect or how you call it, like life. It is the most valuable thing that can ever be. And then people decide to kill each other. And there's like, are you fucking stupid? Like this stupid? Like what's wrong with you? Yeah. I don't get it. I don't either. I, it, it, It breaks my heart on some level. It breaks my heart to think that I'm funding it on some level. My money, my taxpaying money is going right now for murdering children and women. Me, I'm responsible for that on some level. It makes me want to cry. I'm like, geez, what do I do? How do I stop that? I Go live in the jungle, I guess, is the only answer. Self-sufficiency, you know, solar batteries, like, you know, garden. Even then, though, like, you're just a cop-out. Like, maybe this, maybe having conversations with people, as insignificant as it may be, like, maybe... Maybe it's the conversation of inspiring someone to go within and figure out why they hate something. Maybe that's how this works. You figure out how you become the best version of yourself, and that's how the world changes. I hope. I don't know, but We are. We are. I think we're at a turning point where we've got to decide and everybody has to decide for themselves which side you want to be on. You want to be on the side of life? You want to be on the side of death? Like which which side are you going to be on and what are you going to do about it? It could be something as simple as like, you know what? I'm going to tell everybody in my life I love them. That could be it. That could be the thing you do to make the world better. Right. Maybe. Why not, man? True, I fully agree with you because, you know, it's time to change something. And, you know, we should be the ones driving this change. Nobody's going to do it for us. So unless we take the first step, there's not going to be a second step even. Yeah, yeah. Totally, people are messed up. Yeah, it's crazy. I see it changing, you know. There's a great book called The Fourth Turning. And in that book, they talk about the way in which the generations... Have you heard about that book? No. Oh, it's great. I might have a copy I can send you, but it speaks to the idea of generational cycles. And if you look at like every hundred years, there seems to be this thing we bump up against, you know, the world wars and just the disintegration of the idea of money or international finance versus national finance. These things just come to a loggerheads at some point in time. And so... Yeah, I think on some level that we need more people to not only experiment with psychedelics, but experiment with what is possible in their lives. And I don't know what, you know, I think that there's a move towards sort of therapy as a biopsychosocial spiritual model. I know it's a mouthful of words. That's interesting. Yeah. What do you think about that? Is that too crazy? You know, there is something to it, for sure. And, you know, I think the biggest problem with psychedelics is that it happened, like, previously in, like, mid-20th century, and it's still happening here and there, is that there are pretty much, like, two concepts uh like uh protocols of consumption so the the therapeutic protocol and the recreational protocol they're all totally different right so whenever we're talking about psychedelics of course a lot of people are consuming them without the intent to heal their own trauma right with an intention to have a good time to party to I don't know enjoy something experiment I guess and try something new or maybe they're cornered or peer pressure is there and they're like oh okay you're trying it why not I'll do it as well So other reasons, of course, are there. And the thing about them is that not all people experience them in a proper way, I'd say. Because if you look at the history of relationships between humans and psychedelics, it was always the ritual consumption. It was not like... There you go, mushrooms for all, you know, it's not like this, like they kick you on in Greece like every like what was it like three or four years they've been conducting those ceremonies and you know in Latin America and South America as well, it was ritual and there were shamans and over here and there. So whenever we were talking about democratizing access and you know providing it to all, we definitely need to make sure that people treat them like accordingly. because, I mean, you still can get like worst night of your life and then, you know, never touch psychedelics ever and think that it's the devil's doing pretty much and then tell everybody that they make people crazy and you should prohibit them. but if they do it like in a stupid way so I guess what you're saying here to me resonates in the fact that we definitely need to teach people about like how to properly use them because it's not it's not a can of coke you know I mean you cannot just occasionally take like 250 micrograms of LSD and you know hope that it's just gonna pass I mean seriously it's not gonna work that way right But yeah, teaching people is important in my view. You have a unique background in negotiations and language. Obviously, you speak multiple languages. No, only two. Just Russian and English. I just tried to learn Spanish. It didn't work, unfortunately. But still, though, you have two lenses through which to see the world. If you speak both English and Russian, it's like you have two different perspectives to conjugate the actions of the world on some level. And I'm curious, like what... Do you think that psychedelics have helped your relationship with language? Oh, that's an interesting question. Never thought about it. I think could be. I mean, hard to say. I never really put my thinking into it. But in some cases, I guess it made me kind of realize that, you know, I understand things without like translating them. Yeah. properly because there are both words and phrases in each of the languages that cannot be translated properly and then you just understand them you understand the meaning but if you like stick to old thinking of I need to translate this and then kind of put it in my like structure of the language that I possess, you're then trying to implement some rules that just don't fit. Whereas psychedelics, I think they create this general acceptance of something new and give the ability for brain to not try and fit everything within a certain box, so to speak. I don't know if that makes sense. Yeah, it does. the reason I ask is that sometimes in a psychedelic journey, you know, it's, it's difficult to bring things back. There's no linguistic pathway to do it. So you bump up against something meaningful that you can't describe. And that sounds a lot like what you're talking about. Like, you know, in German, they have schadenfreude, like you feel happy when something bad happens. We don't have that particular term in English, but now that you know about it, you can, you can comprehend it. It's sort of, it's, you know it's not exactly there but it's similar. it's the ineffable is something meaningful you can't explain but learning other languages allows you to see the world in different ways. it's fascinating to think about, right? that's true and you know the fact that there are so many languages out there. this is like insane and it's just not possible to learn them all. so in a sense, i mean you're lucky. you don't need to learn other languages because the entire world speaks english. well I mean, not all of it, of course, but in the majority of cases. But nowadays, with all the technologies, it's just not a problem. You know, whenever I see people like my countrymates traveling all over the world, not speaking a single word in English and trying to shout in Russian to a foreigner and trying to understand, like, why are they not understanding them? They're shouting, like, loudly. But, you know, still they somehow survive and they use the translation tools and everything. But, of course, my view is best to learn the language if possible. Unfortunately, I'm not that capable. Yeah, it's fascinating to think about all the different languages and how we can see the world through those different ways. You're doing some stuff in India, too. Maybe you could speak about some of the projects you have going on down there. It sounds like a pretty awesome one. Yeah, sure. I'd be happy to. So there are many reasons why related and connected with India. So first and foremost, 12 years ago was the first time I went to India and I went to Vipassana meditation, which is a 10 day meditation. Well, theory decides that it was created by Gautama the Buddha. and it was like given in exact instructions from one person to another for the duration of past 2500 years so I went there it was a cultural shock by default but then surprisingly enough on my way back I I stopped at some guy's place through couchsurfing and that person became my best friend for life. Like seriously, I literally recently saw him like a week ago. He's got a child, a newborn, and you know, I mean, I'm part of his business pretty much. But because of the war and all the sanctions and everything that happened, you know, the Western world, let's say canceled Russia and Russians and being a Russian passport holder nowadays is like a burden pretty much. but India has a different kind of relationship with Russia and you know they remember the help that the country provided them in the second part of the 20th century when they've been experiencing a really tough time with food and everything so you know when I come to India and they ask where I'm from you say Russia they like smile widely and say a couple of words in Russia because they kind of have this warm nice feeling towards so we were thinking with my business apparently nobody was interested to work with us in the western world because of the sanctions and my business is strategic marketing consultancy in russia and we work with private sector we don't yet work with government even though 90 of the economy is government related but anyway so western world was closed for us and we thought why not india And then I came to India again at some point in time. I think it was my seventh visit there. And I think it was like either high or something, probably just weed or hash that we spoke with friends. And then I had this epiphany that, you know, there is this awful thing that was like... came to like my knowledge is that it's called a feminicide if I remember correctly so basically whenever um a couple has a child and whenever they know that the child sex is female they make an abortion okay or if a child is born and she's a girl they kill her So to me, it was awful, and I wanted to do something about it, like literally do something about it. So I thought that we could try and use our knowledge and our collective experience to come up with a project that would change lives of women in India for better. So we started to dig further, and we quickly soon realized that in India, they've outlawed ultrasound for pregnant women because of this particular reason, actually. But we quickly realized that there is another big problem, and it's called menstrual hygiene and the topic of menstruation in the first place, which is a taboo in the majority of societies all over the world, not only India. So women in India suffer a lot. So first of all, the penetration of pads is like 14% on the total market level. But the stigma around the topic is so big that whenever a woman is menstruating, a father of the household would refuse to use the toilet. And then they have the menstrual huts in some regions where they send women to menstruate there and then they're being raped and, you know, get impregnated and all the awful consequences. So, you know, I started to think, like, what can I do, you know, about it? I mean, I don't have money. I don't have anything that I can change the world. But I had this thought and unfortunately didn't realize but I'm still working on it. So I came up with a project that would help through education, alleviate the stigma. And with my team, with the researchers, the sociologists in my team, we dug deeper and we realized that what we could do is offer like an approach to do an educational intervention about like basic physiology or you know health for adolescents of age of seven to nine and the reason being is that the first of all there is no period yet there is no stigma yet there is no taboo yet but it also is important to address men in the room because men are the problem And it's a patriarchal society as many others. So we thought that we need to teach both women and men, but how to when their children are more susceptible to new knowledge, basically. So we got the project. I think we need maybe like $15,000 to just start in several schools in India. We counted all. We just don't have money. So we called it Shri Shakti. It's actually my wife called it. And then... spoke to many people and you know a lot of people are willing to help and it's just not moving but I had this epiphany that you know if I make it happen within the previous year and the previous year I was india's like chairing g20 and I thought that you know if I somehow get to narendra modi and narendra modi is the prime minister of india he's like very widely um like supported person in India and you know just a lot of Indians are proud although not all but still so anyway if I get to him and tell him that look man I mean it's G20 this is the moment when you can really launch this project and show to the entire world that you are leading the change as Gandhi promised at some point in time and indeed empower women because if you understand like the deeper roots of problems is that you know if women were to have an equal participation in the economy For India, for instance, they would have quadrupled their GDP pretty much in three years. And this is insane. And, you know, people and women use the dirty cloths to cover the blood from the menstruation. This is ridiculous. So here as well, psychedelics could help. Like weed, for instance, has antiseptic qualities and it alleviates pain, menstrual cramps as well. So for me, it was just, you know, it resonated strongly. I wanted to do something and I think one of the reasons I wanted to do this is that, well, I told you about my father, he left family quite young when I was like 12 and my mother, she had like three jobs to, you know, put me on my knees, my feet. And then, you know, at some point I was like maybe four or five with like, yeah, extra job here and there. And I owe it all to her. And if it wasn't for women, we wouldn't have all been here in the first place. And I understand the LGBTQ community and such, but still. So I thought that I could try and change something. Haven't succeeded yet. I don't know, man. I think just having that epiphany and having the passion to do something, maybe it hasn't succeeded at the level you want it to. But to say it hasn't succeeded, I don't think it's a fair statement, man. The fact that you're here telling me about it, man, to hear about it, I think is success in itself. And I'm thankful that you're doing it, man. Thank you for that. It's awesome. Thanks. Thanks for listening. yeah well hopefully people that maybe check out this podcast can reach out to you and yeah that'd be nice oh yeah oh the fight sorry yeah just there's one bit to this story so first of all everything's on linkedin and my profile and you can find it in my post is there and I think you can find a post from me but This is like mind-blowing thing, man. I think it's like an exclusive here. So if you find a particular post on my LinkedIn feed from May last year where I announced this particular project and it's called like Fanatics Project Dedicated to Women's Health. So when you copy the link to this particular post, instead of women, it says Fanatics Project Dedicated to Activity. Let me just wrap that up a bit. So the presentation that is attached to that post is called Fanatics Project Dedicated to Women's Health. So the word women in the link, when you copy the link to that particular post, is being changed because it has word activity instead of women. But the funny thing is that it makes no sense. word activity has more letters in it than women. so I mean if you can like literally do it right now and I mean I can send you the link uh just give me a second and the thing is that it amazes me the most and I think one of the reasons is that you know all the algorithms and the ai in general was written by like white men pretty much and I think they just you know thought I know why not let's just change something here and there nobody would notice And then it happened, and I think it led to, oh, yeah, it was 10 months ago. So can I send it here to the chat? Yeah, if you go down to present on the bottom, you should be able to share your screen, and we can do it live. Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah, let's do it live. I mean, because this is, like, ridiculous. I mean, I just don't believe it. Let me try and present. It sounds like... Maybe it's being filtered through the lens of that country's censors or something like that. Why would the algorithm do it unless it was something that was... Am I sharing my screen right now? Yeah, we can see it. Okay, cool. So if I click here, so this is the post, right? And it says overview of an ex-project dedicated to women, right? Okay, I can see it right there. Okay, so what am I doing here? I'm going here. And copy link to post. Okay. And then I input it here. And I project it to activity. Like, what the fuck? Like, seriously? I mean, like, literally, women has five letters. Activity has like, what was it? Eight? Like, how come? If there was a similar post, is it possible that maybe... No, it's not possible. I mean, this is the name of the company, like seriously. Okay. I don't know. LinkedIn, we're doing this live on LinkedIn. Maybe you guys can help us out, man. What's going on there? I don't get it. Yeah, that person, Reid, I think he's here, right? It's Reid Hoffman. Mm-hmm. He was the owner or founder of LinkedIn? Who was he? I tagged him. Board member. He didn't react. Maybe now is the time that he could. Only 3,300 impressions. You've seen it. Yeah. Interesting. It's definitely algorithmic. Someone is changing that. I don't know. Is it the algorithm or is it because it's offensive to some men in India? I don't know, man. I did it, but I didn't make this. I think I was making this post while I was in Lithuania. So it has nothing to do with India by default. I think it's universal. You think it's universal? I hope so. I think I'm positive because there's no other explanation to it. It's just probably somewhere, somebody at some point in time had that bias. I think it's Hamlin's razor that says, don't attribute to malice what could be attributed to unconfidence. Yeah, could be, could be as well. I just don't understand the logic behind it because there is some, right? It's an algorithm after all. I mean, there is certainly, it's like either or like, yes, no. And you know, what is the criteria there? Yeah. Yeah. So ever since I noticed that I'm trying to even, uh, further highlight the role of women and especially in psychedelics area in field as well because well I told about Valentina Gerkin for instance but there was another lady and she's not widely known and actually there's a nice suggestion that we could do is to celebrate a day of a trip sitter. So everybody knows Albert Hoffman, right? I mean the father of LSD created it and you know blah blah but you know when did he trip like the first conscious trip it was april 19th at 4 20 right like exactly 4 20 because it was logged in his journal so it's not like a widely known fact but actually if you dig deeper and you read the book and you find the evidence you would see that he wasn't tripping by himself he had a trip sitter and that trip sitter's name is was susie rammstein okay? So she was a lab assistant and she was with him on that day on riding along on another bicycle to his house taking care after his you know high as fuck ass while he was on first ridden acid trip and taking care of his needs and calling the doctor and calling other people and making sure that he was fine. So she was the first trip sitter on record in the western world Moreover, she had her own moment in June. Damn, I forgot. It's also posted on my LinkedIn in theogenic renaissance. But yeah, I found it. So yeah, 12th of June, 1943. She was the first woman who had acid trip because again, she logged it and she had a nice tram ride. So I actually suggest that, you know, if there is a day that is celebrating a trip sitter, it should be June 12th. I love it, man. The June 12th trip-sitter day. It should definitely be that. People should adopt that, especially here in Denver or in Oregon or in all these places, man. And all their women. Yeah, without a doubt, man, without a doubt. There's a group, Women in Psychedelics, that would put you in touch with them. They're super awesome, and they're lawyers, attorneys. It should definitely be a holiday. Just send them my post on the Entheogenic Renaissance is there because I think you should do it. I mean, like, seriously, with all the legacy, with all the discrimination, with all the inequality, I mean, still the world is run by white men in the majority of cases, right? So we need to do something about it. Because I think I have this theory. I remember one of the reasons I wanted to do that project in India to change the opportunities or enable women to empower them and change their life in the first place. I had this feeling that when a woman in power, say a president or a premier minister or something like that, she wouldn't have started a war. I would disagree. I think that people at the height of power are pretty much psychopaths. Do you know any women who study wars? Well, I don't think it's fair to say that one individual starts a war. True, true. But I think like I'll use our president for example. Like I don't think it's Joe Biden pulling the strings. I think that there's a group of people that facilitate the decision to go to war. I think putting it on one person is too simple. I don't think that one person decides that. Could be, could be. But, you know, when we're talking about authoritarian regimes... Would you consider companies authoritarian regimes? It depends. Because there's women CEOs that are complete psychopaths. There's a girl that runs UPS. She's a psychopath. It's self-selected. I think power self-selects psychopaths. And it corrupts absolutely. I would love to believe that women would be better leaders. But I think that the leadership position is on some level like... self-select psychopaths and regardless of what type of generals you have you're a psychopath if you want to be in that position like people who want to be in power should never be in power man ideally yeah that's true no that I agree fully and you know of course it's a theory it's like my thinking there's a lot of truth behind it but it's complex man it's not black and white i I get it I get it it's just you know generally speaking women are more like empathetic in the first place than men and you gotta give it to them it's like I don't know whether it's nature whether it's society whether it's culture whether it's evolution but still but anyway um still the something that we should tackle you know at least on 12th of june yes I agree 100 with that I i think that more women should definitely be celebrated and that we should be definitely deserves it yeah absolutely man we need all the heroes we can find right now we need to inspire all of the people we need to inspire relationships and come together to like I think that's what the psychedelic experience is is that like we're all part of this thing man we're in so tired of all the division like i It bothers me, man. It bothers me. Yeah, yeah, man. man. This is the reason that I created the company registered one species because I mean, they're all one human beings. Like what the fuck are you doing? Like what color of skin? We all came from fucking Africa. Are you idiots? Seriously? Yeah. And I think that's what the psychedelic trip shows us, man. Like you're part of, maybe you didn't come into this world. Maybe you came out of it. And I think if people could begin to see that on some level, like you, you are nature, you know, part of it you're the cosmos we're particles nothing just a speck of dust pretty much just you know compiled in the shape of a persona that we perceive through our eyes and what we perceive is not what reality is because it's just a construct within our brain yeah yeah it's so true man it's so true I think it speaks all this conflict speaks to the idea of pain and suffering and the generational trauma and maybe maybe that's You know, I don't have a real great answer for that. I know that if I'm honest with myself, I think that I carry a lot of the pain that my parents had and the fear. More importantly, the fears my parents had. And that manifests itself in ways that are destructive to my relationships. But being aware of that is the first step in fixing it. You know what I mean? It's tricky. Yeah, but there is evidence from neuroscience, which basically says that this phrase totally makes sense. So once you realize that there are certain neural circuits that drive your behavior and they start to dissolve. So that's what psychedelics do. They allow you to observe them. And the multi-generational trauma that you mentioned for me is like extremely relatable because I went through that kind of therapeutic model that was created by Cybin. And I guess, you know, Cybin, they're like producing like alterations of Cybin molecules that are like kind of new agey pharmaceutical company, let's put it this way. So they got some therapists who were doing the clinical trials and stuff, and they created their own model. They called it Embark. I don't remember what it stands for, like, specifically, but I went through it. It's like open source online education for therapists. I'm like, oh, okay, that's interesting. And I remember there was this woman, she was a black woman talking about, you know, multigenerational trauma, about the PTSD, what she called it, like... Oh, damn, I don't remember. It was like really nice, not like traumatic, but like slave disorder, post-traumatic slave disorder or something like that. So she gave an example of, you know, like two women talking to their children in the same space. And, you know, a white woman, you know, praising her child, saying that he's like her, the wonderful kid and whatnot. whereas the black woman would say to her child that you know that awful is useless completely and she was saying it's not because she didn't love him, she does but she says that so because you know if she was asked like 200 years ago by the white monster about her child and if she were to say that he is you know this brave and strong, he would have been taken from her soul to somebody. So, you know, it's just being given from generation to generation to generation and children are being and sitting there and basically getting this new trauma. So I thought that, you know, in my background, actually, like Russian background and the communist regime and all the wars and all the bankruptcies and everything that happened. I mean, there are so many layers of trauma. I don't even like... I mean, when I realized the depth of like the multi-layeredness of that trauma cake, I quickly like realized that it's just not gonna be resolved for like another 100 years because people don't believe in therapy in the majority of cases there and they don't address those issues. And unless, you know, they use psychedelics, it's not gonna happen because how do you get to multi-generational trauma with just talk therapy? i find it hard to believe but with psychedelics you can because you have this contact with I don't know either like previous lives or the global subconscious or the understanding of all those traumas deep-rooted in your like genes or somewhere deep in your psyche that you got from your mother's milk or something like that and you know the depth of that trauma is enormous and I don't see that anybody's addressing it anytime soon unfortunately So yeah, man, that's awful. But there's promise. That's brilliant, man. Thank you for sharing that. I couldn't agree any more. And maybe this is why people have bad trips. Imagine just compressing. Everything that your parents told you for the last five generations about how horrible you are, are carrying that trauma of abandonment for four generations. And then all of a sudden, in the depth of a psychedelic trip, you realize, oh, shit. It hits you, man. You freak out a little bit. And you should. That is the emotional release of a generation of trauma manifesting itself through you in an hour. But of course you're going to do something like you're going to lose it a little bit. You're going to cry, start punching stuff maybe. I get it. But that's the release that people need to free them from the chains of the generations that have told them all these lies. And that's called breaking the cycle. People that have been in abusive relationships. I've seen men in my life treat the women in my life horrible. And when I had a realization, I went and confronted some people in my family. I'm like, do you guys see what's happening here? This is unacceptable. Everyone has treated you like shit, every one of them, and you've enabled it. And they look at me and go, you're the problem, George. Me? I am. I'm telling you what the problem is. And they're like, I didn't want to talk to you right now. You're out of your mind, George. And I'm like, here's the pattern. Look at it. Tell me why I'm wrong. And they're like, you're wrong because you're wrong because I said so. And it's like – Then the next level is, well, how do you integrate that? Like, you go tell the people you love about this pattern that you have seen disrupt their life and ruin their life and still doing it. And you bring it to them with all the courage. Like, fuck, I hate to tell you guys this, but this is what I see. And they're like, no, no, no. You are the problem, George. Hold me? You know, it's, then what do you do with it? How do you integrate that? Like, oh my God, people don't even want to be around me now because I pointed something out to them that killed me forever. You know, it's... It's a trip. But here's what I know. One person doing that can be enough to inspire someone else to do it. And that's a new chain of reaction. Breaking, interrupting that pattern in your life can make sure that it doesn't happen for the next generation. And that is like exponential growth right there. One person can create exponential growth for humanity by interrupting that one pattern in their life. I I couldn't agree more man I I think there's like just to build on top of what you've said uh there is this the thing you know uh you know I I always kind of annoy my wife don't drink I mean I mean this is good bad for you you know don't smoke and that stuff but anyway um what I like realized at one point in my life is that unless a person you know desires to something about their life, it is simply pointless to try and convince them to change something because as you said, they will tell you that you're the problem. They don't have any problem. They're doing totally fine. So I think what you're saying, it totally makes sense because instead of like telling people what to do, you're showing them and leading by example pretty much and they get inspired. They see, oh it's possible. So you can quit alcohol like using psychedelics and Or you can get, I don't know, rid of addiction or PTSD or trauma and you can live a better life? Seriously, huh? But if you tell them, go try psychedelics, they're goofy. You're like, wow, you're a drug addict junkie. You're like, what's wrong with you? Because this is a very intricate part and I think it's very nuanced. But I really love that you say it because it resonates strongly. Alcohol is an interesting one because if you look at like AA, I think it was Bill Wilson who actually incorporated LSD into the 12-step program. He tried to. They didn't let him because it was the substance and they were against it. They said it compromises the politics of like the – the charter or whatnot but he had the belladonna experience that helped him quit alcohol in the first place it was in 1934 so he went to the clinics in new york to get treated uh from alcohol use disorder and they gave him belladonna and he had this room in the white light and ever since he never touched alcohol but he was psychedelic pretty much yeah but sorry you have been talking about the alcohol and the dangers of it and the aaa So it's – even to this day, like sometimes when I'll talk to people who have battled addiction, there seems to be two camps. One camp is like, yeah, I'm addicted. I was addicted to alcohol, but now I've taken these psychedelics and I'm no longer addicted to it. But then there's another camp that's like you can never, ever touch another substance again. But you can still have coffee or smoke cigarettes. Yeah, right. Psychoactive substances pretty much. But yeah, I think, well, to me, it's probably the first camp because I haven't had an alcohol since November last year. Yeah, thanks. It's not that I went through AA or anything. I just basically did what I'm supposed to be doing with theogens is that I updated my software, so to speak, and told myself that I don't need it any longer, pretty much. So I don't really feel the need to go for a drink in the Yeah. When I see people drinking, I have no craving, which is really nice. But what I wanted to say here is that it requires self-work, of course, and concentration and the efforts put into it. Because I remember having thoughts that probably I should quit drinking, probably should do it sometime, and then just delaying and delaying and delaying it. But then... Once it's done, it's definitely better. But I don't really understand all those people from the second camp, though, about the other substances. It does make sense. As you said, I mean, tobacco, sugar. I mean, yeah. You know, for instance, in Arabic countries, alcohol is prohibited. It's haram and you cannot really buy it or consume it. But they consume like tons of sugar, like tons. And I would argue maybe it's even worse. I don't know. Yeah. It's interesting the relationships we have with things. I know when I was younger, I used to smoke or whatever. And like tobacco or nicotine is a tough one to kick. Oh, that's a tough one. That's for sure. It's tough, man. I struggle with it from time to time. I mean, either you quit and start like, oh, man, I'm not going to do that. But I'm struggling with it still. You know what helps? I grow a tobacco plant. It's called Hopi tobacco. Sometimes I'll just chew those leaves. I don't smoke anymore. I don't dip anymore. Sometimes I've changed my relationship with... on someone by growing that plant and then just chewing the leaves. Like, I think it changes your relationship to that substance. And in doing so, you know, it changes your relationship with it. Like it's, it just, it's occasional, like, Oh, I'd choose some of that. It feels pretty good every now and then, but. Yeah, just earlier today, my wife, she asked me to roll her cigarette. And I ran out of because in Sri Lanka, I bought it back. And then I came back. It's like, I'm not smoking. So we went to the store, and I rolled her but I didn't. And I was like, whoo, that's an achievement. Yeah, it's of course, it requires more work. yeah it does it does it's it's interesting the it's I don't know we as human beings we addict like that's what we do on some level like that's our that's what we do we find something we like and want to do it all the time and do it more this system is faulty that's for sure yeah it's interesting I love this conversation that's so much fun Appreciate it. Likewise, man. Thanks for offering this opportunity. It's a real pleasure. And I definitely learned from you. And I think I'll ask, how do you do it in the background so that I could do it as well? Because I want to bring people to this type of conversations more and more. to have the opportunity to speak with fellow psychonauts from all over the world. Yeah. For everybody watching, Vlad's got his own YouTube channel in Theogenic Renaissance, and he does a lot of really cool work on there where he's discussing a lot of cool topics. And if you're listening to this right now, you should definitely... All his links will be in the show notes, but... Yeah, I think that the world would benefit from you doing some more interviews with people. I love your take on stuff, and I think you're doing a cool job there. But if you can mix in a few people that would bring more people into the tent, man, I think that you'd be doing the world a favor, man. You know what? Appreciate it. We'll talk more after this. But yeah, I'm thankful to get to talk to you, and I'm stoked for your time, man. Thank you. Likewise. Thank you, my friend. It's a real pleasure. So before I let you go, where can people find you? What do you have coming up and what are you excited about? Oh, where people can find me? So I think you can find me on Instagram. It's the other Russian. So it's the underscore other underscore Russian, which is easier. Unfortunately, on Twitter, it didn't work this way. They have a limitation. That's why on Twitter, I'm the other Russ. people made me think that I'm a Russian spy and you know conceal it um what else but telegrams in Russian so yeah I think like either Insta or Twitter uh but LinkedIn is the most uh used social network by me and then only recently when I became a blogger I started to use other social networks before it was just LinkedIn. LinkedIn is more professional. But what were other questions? Sorry, I'm just sleeping here. That's all right. It's late over there, man. Yeah, it's 11 p.m. So the first one was where can people find you? The second one is what do you have coming up? And the third one is what are you excited about? Coming up? Like ideas or... Yeah, well, I mean, obviously you got the YouTube channel coming up. Is there any events that you're working on for the India project that you have coming up where people can reach you for that particular area? Yeah, so for India, it's definitely better to get in touch with me on LinkedIn because there is a lot of information about the project. I'm currently working on building brand strategy for an open foundation. It is a non-profit from Netherlands who is organizing the biggest conference on psychedelics in Europe and probably in the world, it's called ICPR. So you can find me there. It's happening between June 5th and 8th in Harlem, Netherlands. Other than that, man, I'm just trying to make my blog work and, you know, get rid of my other work duties. I want to talk about psychedelics and preach about the therapeutic potential. The third one, excited or what was the difference? Yeah, what are you excited about? Dude, I'm extremely excited by the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. I just, I cannot, I mean, whenever I meet a person, I think like literally first or second phrase is just, have you heard that LSD can treat PTSD and depression? Yeah. My wife is pissed because she asks me not to talk about it because I talk too much about it at home. But yeah, that's the topic that fascinates me still every day for the duration of I don't know how many years. That's insane. I strongly believe that they have insane therapeutic potential. But, of course, safety measures are required as always. Fascinating. All right. Well, hang on briefly afterwards. I'll talk to you just briefly afterwards. But, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as we did. Go down to the show notes. Check out Vlad. He's got a lot of projects going on. He's really fun to talk to. Reach out to him if you're interested in anything he's doing. I'm sure he'd love to talk to you. And that's all we've got for today. Aloha. Thank you, brother.