How to Do Drugs

00:00.00	Max Shank	Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to Monday mornings with max and Mike Hope you're having a great start to your week so far and we're going to get going with drugs. This week we're going to talk about drugs drugs inside your body drugs outside your body when to use them how to use them and let's just start with the fact that you're probably using all kinds of drugs every day and the word drugs is almost a little bit taboo. But we're gonna break it down step by step and go through what the most common drugs are and how to use them to your advantage rather than have them use you mike thanks for joining me here.
00:46.78	mikebledsoe	Yeah I was yeah, thanks for having? Oh yeah I didn't have I had you or do you have me? we have each other. Okay I always find it interesting I I remember one of my favorite people. Ah, he's like 50 years sober and you know when I first found out he's like ah I've never had a beer I've never had a cigarette I've never had like I limit my coffee all this stuff and I was like he's like yeah I'm sober I don't do anything I'm like oh you so full of shit like year quick. It's just so funny where like people want to draw the line of like you're ah you're using chemicals all the time to change your state and a lot of people use something like sugar as a drug or whatever to say that you've never done that.
01:33.75	Max Shank	Oh.
01:44.36	mikebledsoe	Is is really ridiculous, but your state is always shifting the chemicals in your body are always shifting and ah some of these chemicals are going to have a much more noticeable effect than others and and it's good to just be paying attention. To what's happening in the body and I think some people just are drawn to more intense state changes than others and there's nothing wrong with that. So yeah, I'm excited to talk about this today because I think that even people who've never done. Quote unquote drugs would get a lot of benefit from this conversation.
02:24.35	Max Shank	Well we got to start with a little definition then because what's what's a drug are we saying any substance that changes your state set is that a truck Aspirin's a jut.
02:30.60	mikebledsoe	Um, do.
02:37.49	mikebledsoe	Yeah I would for me like um.
02:42.17	Max Shank	Aspirin's a drug does it really change your state though very much I mean it has an effect. No question that is the most used like if if it meets our definition I believe that's the most commonly used drug unless you start including coffee and then I think that might be.
02:45.98	mikebledsoe	Yeah, it does.
02:57.39	mikebledsoe	Yeah I think coffee is probably the most widely used drug. It's got psychoactive properties. Some drugs are not as psychoactive but even Advil is psychoactive just to a degree in which is not noticeable the average person if I take something like an Advil.
02:59.15	Max Shank	Even more popular. Ah.
03:16.40	mikebledsoe	I May note I'll I'll probably notice something whereas somebody most people just would never notice that and some people are gonna hear that and go you're crazy. No not like that. But I noticed well it's like um, it's like all these people that are taking you know they they.
03:21.00	Max Shank	So you take so you take Aspirin and you see purple dragons start flying around the room.
03:35.38	mikebledsoe	They take pain killers or whatever and it's like they don't realize how much of it's inhibiting their mental state their their cognitive ability. You know I'm just killing the pain. It's like now you're killing the pain and your cognitive ability right now. So ah yeah, so like there's there's.
03:41.49	Max Shank	Moon.
03:48.71	Max Shank	Yeah.
03:55.11	mikebledsoe	1 thing I want to point out too is there's no such thing as side effects like this whole like ha but side effect the idea of a side effect is such propaganda. It's such. It's such a great marketing tool to make you believe that.
03:57.69	Max Shank	Oh I was just gonna say that go on go on.
04:13.14	mikebledsoe	We don't want this to happen and it probably won't happen but it could happen. It's some fucking liability deal. It's not true. It's like and if you go into Science Science people. Love talking about science but like in science there really is no side effects. There is they're just effects.
04:19.60	Max Shank	Well, it's marketing.
04:28.23	Max Shank	There are just effects well look at look at Viagra Viagra was heart medicine the side effect was hard cock now that's the main effect.
04:33.30	mikebledsoe	Had a side effect. It's an effect.
04:40.11	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah, so.
04:46.10	Max Shank	The marketing department got hold of this and we're like this ain't heart Medicine guys. This is our golden ticket out of here.
04:53.11	mikebledsoe	Ah, yeah, so ah so I think that and then there's people's perception of drugs is very interesting like I was saying in the beginning is there's like this line that gets drawn and of course there's the the personal line that gets drawn but it. It's always influenced by society's standard and so we have like this Fda thing the food and drug administration who ah the people there are responsible for telling doctors and and stores people who retail. But they can and cannot sell and also what kind of claims you can and cannot make and so a lot of times we go. Oh you know when it gets to the point where the Fda has to be involved now that's a drug or if it's a pharmaceutical now that's a drug or if it's illegal if the Dea which said. Different administration. The drug enforcement administration. But by the way was highly underfunded for decades and the only way they could make money was by stealing drug dealers money. But so their incentives for busting is a little going back to what you always talk about.
05:48.78	Max Shank	Oh.
06:08.30	mikebledsoe	The incentive set up so the Dea is in charge of putting certain drugs on a with on the schedule or schedule 1 schedule 2 schedule 3 so they're in charge of and there none of them are voted into office. They're all. Ah.
06:26.43	Max Shank	Oh.
06:26.87	mikebledsoe	Appointed and so you have this random group of people that are saying these are the drugs that are okay and these are the drugs that are not okay and the drugs that are okay aren't really viewed by the public at large as drugs and so people who are like oh I'm sober. Pretty much. It basically said I don't do the drugs that the Dea says not to do. But I'll drink my coffee. All you know this and that.
06:56.50	Max Shank	It's really interesting because the laws of the land or crime and punishment to certainly influence the culture to a certain effect right? and.
07:06.69	mikebledsoe	Well, some would say that that law is culture like it's It's the it's the basis of culture because it's it's using language to tell you what you do and don't do.
07:14.40	Max Shank	I Mean the chapter I mean isn't that kind of what religion is too. That's why that separation of church and State is so damn important right? because it's all what we inherited from the last guy you know it's this. It's this long chain.
07:24.23	mikebledsoe	Um, yeah.
07:33.76	Max Shank	Of parents and parents can be like ah a preacher ah Pope or a president and they're like this is good. This is bad behave yourself. We won't get mad kind of thing like and that's basically how it works right.
07:49.33	mikebledsoe	Right.
07:51.41	Max Shank	So we have this idea that there are some good drugs and some bad drugs and the best example because you got to know that there's a lot of things that are done in a very short-sighted fashion and it's really hard to. Calculate all the costs of certain things like I live in California and I believe up until like 3 to four years ago marijuana was like totally illegal right? something like that. Let's say within the last five years right
08:26.77	mikebledsoe	What was medical it was medical was it but it's been recreational flight maybe 3 4 5 years but before that was was like medical in the late 2000 yeah Yeah, 50 years
08:28.16	Max Shank	My friend who is a bouncer for. Yeah, okay, but let's say illegal for a long time and and like yeah and like a and like a pretty bad punishment I think too like you would go to Jail Yeah, that's whack yo.
08:49.65	mikebledsoe	There's people still doing time.
08:53.94	Max Shank	Ah, but my friend who was a bouncer at a bar. He said when there was a reggae concert. They would be full capacity and people would just be in a cloud of smoke and there would be no violence. There would be no car accidents and then when there was a country music band This is a guy who is bouncer there for 20 years at this local bar country music goes. Ah the bouncers are. Running around all evening. There's fights breaking out everywhere. People are beating each other up. There's drunk driving and it's like you gotta you gotta check reality a little bit because what is causing more immediate problems alcohol or Marijuana Now. That's what I'm saying. It's so hard to calculate right? because it's not.. It's not about the substance. It's about the behavior and I think that would be like a good thing to just remember regardless of whether it is a drug that daddy says is good or a drug that daddy says is bad right.
10:01.57	mikebledsoe	But but I yeah totally agree and I think that people and there's just a big problem in our society today is people.
10:04.10	Max Shank	It's more about the behavior than the substance itself.
10:16.80	mikebledsoe	Are more likely to judge something as good or bad based on what some authority figure has has to say than witnessing the results for themselves right? when it comes down to how much violence happens in regard to alcohol versus weed. It's it's incredible. The.
10:20.24	Max Shank	Of course.
10:35.59	mikebledsoe	The violent the aggression goes up with alcohol with we to go it tends to go down and ah you know I'll I'll take a high driver over a drunk driver any day of the week so I don't I don't drive I don't drive either way. But I'll tell you what.
10:46.74	Max Shank	Right? And both are fun. Um, right.
10:54.64	mikebledsoe	I'm pretty athletic when I'm high I'm not very athletic when I'm drinking and I'm pretty sure that carries over to you know maneuvering a vehicle.
11:05.70	Max Shank	Here's another here's another quotable phrase though. The devil is in the dosage if you want to do some endurance Work. You get a little high if you want to lift something real heavy. You just get a little bit drunk, not not over the top. But there's going to be a different effect. You're going to go sympathetic nervous System. You're going to go. You know, get ratcheted up into more fight or flight mode with a little booze in you a little liquid courage and if you light up.
11:32.60	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
11:38.62	Max Shank	The cannabinoid system by ingesting inhaling whatever some thccbd you're going to be able to push through those normal endurance plateaus that you would hit psychologically. So. There's a big difference between a. Using drugs and using drugs and that can be a fine line for some people but you know along with the devil is in the dosage and the substance is less important than the behavior you got to reconsider. Ah. Labeling some is good and some is bad and like does it really make sense to throw like a drug addict in jail or a drug user in jail I mean part of the reason you know I'm kind of switching topics here a little bit but a lot of reason that gangs have power is because. Certain special drugs are illegal and if they were legal there would they wouldn't have any there would be no incentive to go buy drugs from a you know a thug with a machine gun if you can go get it at Cvs like you got to imagine the.
12:39.83	mikebledsoe	No.
12:55.91	Max Shank	Benefit to society would be much better.
12:57.34	mikebledsoe	Yeah, people don't really think about that I I think a lot of people miss that and that making a product black market making it Illegal. You're gonna get arrested for it. It's hard to make that actually creates some some interesting variables. But. 1 of the things that it creates is it creates violence because now now you have to be secretive about It. You have to form gangs to protect Yourself. You've you've got to do all these things and then in addition to that The ah the.
13:26.74	Max Shank	4
13:36.58	mikebledsoe	Dosage starts getting really concentrated like cocaine becoming illegal. They were trying to figure out how do we? How do we make it more potent so that we can because shipping right? We got to hide it and ship it and so we got to make it more potent. The same thing is happening with weed over the years is an ounce today is not what an ounce was twenty thirty years ago because we can. We can you know, go further with this. So 1 thing I've noticed is when something's on the black market just becomes more concentrated a huge example of this right now. Which is in the news which is fentanyl and fentanyl I think is whether like the number one killer of ah of americans right now the number 1 or number 4 in certain age group. Okay, but it's it's in which is incredibly high but it's.
14:19.98	Max Shank	Ah, in a certain in a certain age group in a certain age group. Yeah, which is insane. No no one is thinking like I want to do some fentanyl today like.
14:31.50	mikebledsoe	It's probably because no one's thinking that but it's cheaper than heroin at this point right? So and heroin exists because Opium was yeah but.
14:37.40	Max Shank	Well and remember heroin is bad but diamorphine the prescription grade heroin totally fine, right? So it just like depends on the context huh.
14:49.70	mikebledsoe	But smoking opium was became illegal and so they had to concentrate it and make heroin and then just keeps getting more further and further concentrated because it's black market or or it's tightly controlled.
14:58.25	Max Shank	And that black market creates a lot of wealth too I mean look what happened I mean I I'm so skeptical of almost any of the history I read now because I just feel like it's ah it's a huge. It's probably a huge web of lies.
15:11.20	mikebledsoe	As you should be.
15:17.54	Max Shank	But I remember all these things that I've read anyway. So I'll just throw that caveat out there but the Kennedys weren't they huge bootleggers of alcohol.
15:24.96	mikebledsoe	Huge yeah, they were well. They were responsible for bringing from Ireland they they were like importing their big importers of ah I forget you know whiskey or whatever, whatever it is. They're they're bringing it from ah I think it was Ireland so yeah there.
15:35.10	Max Shank	That's what I'm saying.
15:41.25	Max Shank	I Mean one one.
15:44.10	mikebledsoe	And they had a they had like a a monopoly on it. So yeah, it built Ah ah, a lot of wealth.
15:49.41	Max Shank	Well and something about human nature people. Love booze that's been in our history for thousands of thousands of years we've been drinking booze and smoking different herbs tobacco ah hashish.
15:57.12	mikebledsoe	Oh yeah.
16:07.96	Max Shank	All these different things. So it's not like it's inherently good or evil it's it's what you do with it. It's not about the substance not about the behavior and if you have that kind of compassion for people who use drugs that you may be thought before are evil. Then you'll also be able to have more compassion for yourself when you start recognizing how many drugs you might be using that are like the good drugs or the okay drugs because frankly, if you give a 12 year old a 15 year old or a thirty year old ah, tiktok and they do a few hours of that every day that's probably more destructive than getting a little high and doing some yoga or something you know I'm saying so it's all it's more about the the context.
16:56.14	mikebledsoe	Yeah, well I think we're talking about there too is the difference between exogenous and endogenous substances right? So a behavior driven as an but it's not a substance. There's an external event.
17:05.94	Max Shank	Um, well it's still an external. Yeah, that right.
17:14.83	mikebledsoe	That's causing your body to create a substance if you sit there on Tiktok for 3 hours your your blood chemistry is likely looking very different 3 hours into it than beforehand.
17:24.29	Max Shank	There's serotonin. There's like a dopamine on and off you're just in this and oh like I call it story time roulette basically because it's 1 screen at a time you shut out the whole rest of the world you develop hardcore tunnel vision.
17:30.58	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
17:41.19	Max Shank	Your vision gets where vision like is going into the fucking basement because people are looking at stuff that is less than twenty four inches away from them a lot and look I'm I'm not one to say that's right or wrong. But if you don't start. Looking at things farther away and going on walks and taking in long distances your eyes will completely deteriorate anyway to your point. Yes, if you're consuming media and the hormone cascade is the result of that I would still call the. Scrolling media the drug that is initiating the production of endogenous compounds.
18:26.50	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah, and the same for the the runners high. It's like when those things where I meet someone's like oh I've been sober I'm like but you run like ten twenty miles every other day or every day to stay sane right? They're like oh I gotta like you know.
18:32.68	Max Shank	Yeah.
18:43.23	Max Shank	Okay.
18:46.49	mikebledsoe	I Don't work out if I don't get that hot and if I can't work out hard if I can't push it I got someone gets an injury and they they're you know they just they get depressed and everything just goes in the shitter because they can't exercise I'm like you are so addicted to those neurotransmitters and those hormones. Um, and one of them being a nadoide na nadoide is this is the substance your body creates when you get into that runner's high that that what most people call endorphins. It's not endorphins. It's a nadomite and. Um, it's part of the Endo Cannabinoids system and that's it's really powerful because it's it. Ah, it's very similar and it and it attaches to the cell the same way T Hc does and so. This is why you'll find people who like to roll jujitsu or go for long endurance events and they smoke weed Beforehand or have an edible beforehand because not you get that you get that runner's high immediately. So I get running and I actually everyone knows when they slip into that Groove. It's.
19:57.33	Max Shank	Like a flow. Yeah.
19:57.98	mikebledsoe	You know you get like five miles in you get into the flow smoke some weed beforehand you'll be in flow in about 60 seconds and then when your body also pumps out the nadomite on top of that t hc that's a it's a double dose of runner's high so you know ah that that. Nothing wrong with that I enjoy doing that myself. Another example of this would be I've gone to the peruvian mountains and I fly in and immediately someone hands me a big bag of coca leaves. So just raw coca leaves which is not cocaine cocaine. Takes coca leaves and they break it down into ah such a concentration that you know it's it's incredibly higher. But I take the coca leaves I I wrap some stuff in there. It's some enzymes that basically help it break down better I chew on it and now like it does elevate my mood. And I can deal better with elevation. It keeps you from getting elevation sickness. So little little things that ah that are just I think about those 2 things kind of together because.
20:58.13	Max Shank	Ah.
21:11.70	mikebledsoe	Ah, it's just a simple thing to add in. That's gonna give you more of what you already were We're gonna get or wanted.
21:18.98	Max Shank	Well and the devil's in the dosage. You know people are really fond of the term biohacker and I got to say it sounds like a really cool thing to be and I guess ah you know my. Natural state with things is one of mockery. So I like can't help but make fun of anything that sounds silly or you know people who say forward ambulation instead of walking it just like makes me laugh I can't take them serious. Ah, but the the nuance the context. Ah, using these substances to your advantage I mean imagine trying to build a business without a cell phone and imagine imagine imagine trying to build a business with a cell phone and a cell phone is another dopamine machine. You can use it or it can use you social media same thing you can use it or it can use you a little bit of Coca leaves boom mood elevator ah less sensitive to the higher altitude. Fantastic! ah. Tiny bit of booze wham maybe a deadlift pr a little bit of marijuana and maybe your best five mile runtime ever or flow state. You know, better music. Whatever um, so the context matters so much the dosage. Matters so much and recognizing that anything that is changing your state that way. It is a drug and the good and evils of it should be determined on an individual basis rather than like broad strokes with law in my opinion. You know that's that's my perspective is that the cost of having like a war on drugs which seems like it's just been a colossal failure to me is way lower than the benefit across the board.
23:21.85	mikebledsoe	Yeah I mean the the intentions of the war on drugs I mean there's a lot of speculation that you know had more to do with just suppressing minorities and and things like that and it's a great excuse to put people in Jail maybe shut up protesters. You know that went after psychedelics in the.
23:32.45	Max Shank	Yeah.
23:41.22	mikebledsoe	Sixty S because of the Hippie movement And yeah, there's a lot of that going on and the other thing. Um.
23:45.80	Max Shank	I mean it seems it just seems crazy that there's a such thing as a nonviolent crime in the first place but to have nonviolent crimes like go to jail instead of like compensate who anyway the whole thing is like.
23:55.68	mikebledsoe	Right.
24:04.71	Max Shank	Crazy to me. Yeah.
24:05.20	mikebledsoe	It's insane. It's insane. Well, the other thing is I wanted to mention this earlier which is prohibition people don't if we look at prohibition of alcohol that happened you know a hundred years ago in the us ah, it created Al Capone and all these gangsters and. All this and they were having shootouts with the cops they lift prohibition on alcohol. What? what happens the gangs just kind of go away like like they they may still be operating but they're not nearly as violent. Maybe they they probably moved to a lot of them that were in the business of trafficking. Alcohol probably moved into opium or something else that was illegal. I mean if you watch narcos which is based on true story. But you know obviously it's hollywooded up. Ah you know they basically go oh the weed's not paying enough. We'll move to cocaine and so. Those types of people who are always looking to play at the edges are always going to go there no matter what the substance is that that is black marketed.
25:09.64	Max Shank	No no question. It's hilarious that phrase crime doesn't pay but when you define something as a crime it pays handsomely like who's who's who's more wealthy than a Colombian Drug lord.
25:17.60	mikebledsoe	Ah, crime pays when you don't get paid Just don't get caught.
25:29.59	Max Shank	I mean unless you own a pharmaceutical company then you have legal drugs even more widespread use and you're even richer like those are some of the richest people on the planet. You know you look at you look at the different. Okay so is Netflix a drug is watching.
25:39.83	mikebledsoe	Oh yeah.
25:47.96	Max Shank	Media for hours and hours a drug. Yeah I mean there's no surprise that people gravitate toward maximum curiosity and maximum safety simultaneously. It completely satisfies our 2 most primal desires. Ah, that define human beings we want safety so you're inside your house or wherever you're in your own little world looking at your telephone or watching the screen and then you see the most outlandish you know game of thrones narcos like ah people like. Raping and killing each other and you're like I'm safe at home and I'm watching this like crazy dragons flying around everywhere. It's it's makes sense to me and look what are the the top companies in the world right now. It's ah like Facebook Amazon Apple Netflix. What's the g fang can't remember right now I should know that Google thank you I guess I could have googled it and figured that out. But that's so isn't that incredible.
26:49.90	mikebledsoe	Google.
27:00.84	mikebledsoe	That's now a definition in the there's else Google now made the dictionary by the way.
27:03.90	Max Shank	Well I mean what's incredible about that is that they have avoided um, being considered a monopoly that's that's incredible. We're gonna get too far off track I take it back. We'll save it for another time.
27:21.71	mikebledsoe	Alright I'll bring it back but let's get back the drugs so I like the classified drugs in the 2 categories. So when I talk to people and they get they they want to challenge me on like yeah I'm like.
27:21.84	Max Shank	We we can't do this. We have to stay on drugs. Um.
27:40.57	mikebledsoe	On on drugs and by the way I had someone on Instagram the other day just posting trolling me in the comments telling me I was ah was addicted to drugs and shit and it was pretty comical. They got blocked fuck them but they I mean you can talk a lot of shit to me in the comments I'll I'll respond back I enjoy. Back and forth. But when you just start when it starts getting ridiculous and there's not actually a conversation you're getting blocked. This person is probably listening to this I have a few trolls that know way too much about me which is which is a little creepy but um.
28:04.53	Max Shank	So.
28:10.62	Max Shank	Um, ah must make you feel pretty special.
28:17.83	mikebledsoe	not not the kind of special I want to feel but ah when I get talking to people and they go ah, you know they they start lumping in say alcohol and heroin and with lsd in the same category of drug and I go. These are not the same. They're the opposite of each other to to put them in the same category and the category is drugs and I think it's good that we're using that name for this show and using it in this way because it really should be normalized I think the only way is to do it is to say drugs are. Fine and we need to talk about the drugs inside this context when you're growing up. There's like don't do drugs and all these things fall into the same thing so we're programmed to drop everything in the drugs category and there's 2 different types of drugs. There's drugs that make you feel less and there's drugs that make you feel more. And there's a lot of those are just like two sides of a spectrum. It's a concept. There's so much in between I mean when I think about using drugs I think of myself inside of a sphere and I can go not just three hundred and sixty degrees but three hundred and sixty degrees times three hundred and sixty degrees go in any direction I want to push my state into but there's largely. There's feeling less drugs and feeling more drugs and the feeling less drugs would be heroin alcohol these things that sedate you in a way that that it it. Keeps you from having the full human experience right? right.
29:56.79	Max Shank	Reduces your sensitivity and others increase your sensitivity like alcohol and weed are the perfect examples that I think most people can understand.
30:03.78	mikebledsoe	And so most people I think they associate or I'll talk to someone about having mushrooms and they go why I don't want to like you know I blacked out once on alcohol and I'm like this is you're not going to black out on mushrooms for one and but you're. Your awareness on alcohol is being so depressed and your awareness on on mushrooms is being if you've never done it if you've never done any psychedelics. It's It's an expansion that you'll never you'll break through multiple levels of expansion of consciousness that is indescribable. And the to to put these 2 things in the same category I think is a a huge disservice and it's a great way to just not learn about it. You know people just they just would rather not know shit about it and just. Avoid it because someone told them to yeah, it is easier. Okay, um.
30:59.36	Max Shank	Well, it's easier to do that. Also right drugs are bad. Okay, you know, ah I mean the less nuance and context there is the less clear your understanding is going to be the more likely you are to just follow the closest. Authority figure. Um, so this this idea that we go into an a a meeting and then out in the hallway you got chain smoking and donut eating I mean look if you if you're an alcoholic and you.
31:19.82	mikebledsoe	Accurate.
31:37.67	Max Shank	And you like having that term attached to you and maybe you used to like beat your get drunk and beat your wife every night and now instead you chain smoke and eat donuts I think that's an improvement. Okay maybe we can do better but it's still a step in the right direction but this this whole idea. Of like substituting 1 addiction for another and that could be a whole um, different thing I've had some great talks with people about addiction and the hardest part is to define. It. The best definition I've heard is ah. Repeated behavior that gives you an outcome. You don't want that That's my favorite definition for addiction. So regardless of what the substance is go for it.
32:16.51	mikebledsoe	E. Well I would say yeah people are one of the things I've noticed in my coaching with people is they get addicted addicted to emotions you know they they get addicted to to guilt. And because they're addicted to guilt I mean just experiencing guilt a terrible outcome. But yeah I think was it a? Ah, What's his name toll.
32:46.91	Max Shank	It's like the familiar pain versus uncertainty a lot of people go into that.
32:57.87	mikebledsoe	Be here. Not be here now that's Ram Das Ah not Ram das the power of now. Well he talks about the pain body and basically there's certain things that you're basically getting addicted to this is I associate this with being accepted or loved or whatever it is or.
32:58.60	Max Shank	Ram Das Tolly is a power of now.
33:06.41	Max Shank	Threat.
33:16.22	Max Shank	Right.
33:17.83	mikebledsoe	This is how I learned to survive when things became stressful or I'm afraid that I'm not going to be loved so now I need to respond in this way and so we we get addicted to there's this emotional pattern that is wreaking Havoc on our lives and so we're addicted to it So there's it Oh fuck. Yeah.
33:23.85	Max Shank	Right? Well you ever met someone addicted to drama. You know what's you know? what's funny I've never heard.
33:37.74	mikebledsoe	Get away from them. But we're all dick. But.
33:42.42	Max Shank	A group of people who says I don't want any drama more than people who are addicted to drama like ah a person who's not addicted to it a person who actually doesn't want trauma doesn't even use that phrase but a person who's addicted to it.
33:59.97	mikebledsoe	Totally totally.
34:02.10	Max Shank	Always uses that phrase. It's one of the most and and I I'm like addicted to peace I like like drama is uncomfortable like I want to avoid it at all costs I don't mind a little confrontation but I don't want to. So for me I was just like whoa. This is insane that someone could actually want this like this and continue to either consciously or subconsciously manifest these situations of hardcore drama.
34:34.76	mikebledsoe	Yeah, well we're we're all addicted to drama I mean if you if you buy into any narrative at all. It's because you enjoy the drama of it people watch Tv because they enjoy drama yeah, where what.
34:36.34	Max Shank	Very exciting.
34:48.98	Max Shank	You.
34:52.42	mikebledsoe	What is the character they are playing in that story. They may be a more dramatic character. They may be emotional emotionally unstable. They may pick more fights but we're all living in a drama but you know what character are you playing in that drama and so.
34:55.36	Max Shank	So.
35:02.42	Max Shank	Right.
35:12.25	mikebledsoe	You're kind of like the sit back and probably only step in when it's absolutely necessary kind of character whereas Karen Karen is out there just yeah and then you got Karen out there picking fights in the parking lot.
35:16.69	Max Shank	I try to be like a Buddha guy.
35:25.83	Max Shank	Well and and that can make you feel like you are solidifying your self image or your ego right? So a lot of these back to drugs.
35:34.96	mikebledsoe	Yeah, all right? Let's get back to drugs. Um. Ah, the eye roll I don't think so I.
35:41.98	Max Shank	If we had just done some cocaine before this. We'd be more focused. Yeah I've never I've never tried it but I've heard. It's really fun. Um.
35:52.25	mikebledsoe	Yeah, ah and a handful of times. Ah I don't think the the repercussions aren't worth the fun compared to other drugs. Other drugs are just superior. It's kind of like when you start doing mushrooms. Why people start eating mushrooms like.
36:01.15	Max Shank	Oh. Yeah, ah.
36:11.28	mikebledsoe	Why was I drinking so much you mean on Friday night I could have eaten some mushrooms instead of drinking 12 beers. Wow the next day is that's pretty cool.
36:16.96	Max Shank	Yeah, yeah, the the when you when it comes time to pay the Piper mushroom certainly seems a lot kinder than alcohol. Ah, how about? So I mean.
36:30.61	mikebledsoe	Ah, just about anything's kinder than alcohol.
36:36.86	Max Shank	Ah, is sex a drug. What do you think there are sex addicts out there also known as males.
36:40.20	mikebledsoe	I Mean we're talking about it causes ears out, you know. Um, well you know, Ah, there's a certain chemical response happening in the body when you're having sex and you know sex with different people is going to give you different responses as well. So You know you might be addicted to a certain fetish or.
37:06.27	Max Shank	And.
37:08.96	mikebledsoe	Something like that. Yeah I mean I know people personally who identify as sex addicts and you know it was giving them a result they did not want and there's I shit man I I've had some sexual experience a lot of sexual experiences that ah.
37:14.35	Max Shank	Ah.
37:28.19	mikebledsoe	Would put in the psychedelic category of a lot I if you would ah if if you pulled the what's happening to my my dick out of the equation and I would say I don't know if I'm having sex or if I'm having a dmt experience. It's it's It's very.
37:30.83	Max Shank	Oh.
37:46.99	Max Shank	Sublime.
37:48.80	mikebledsoe	Very similar Actually the older I get the more similar they become which is actually really exciting because I can just take get a little hit. Yeah well part of it is learning how to channel that energy. So most dudes are just.
37:51.59	Max Shank	Um, it's an in intersection. That's pretty cool. Well, it's kind of like the meditation and mushrooms. Ah convergence right? like you were saying you can be.
38:06.31	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
38:09.88	Max Shank	On mushrooms can get this like crazy effect. But um, it's kind of like a shortcut in a lot of ways where you could get there with lots of meditation and releasing the ego and really being here now and being present. It's just that most people need a jumpstart of some kind. To allow themselves to get there to cut through all of the ego and trauma and things like that and that's why um, there are such big changes after just 1 experience right.
38:41.48	mikebledsoe	Yeah, huge benefit. There's most psychedelics and I like you you brought up meditation because you know you got this guy this monk sitting on a hill meditating for 30 years to achieve a state. Come back with some wisdom to share or just keep to themselves because I mean most of that's just for you anyway or you know I spent I spent a decent amount of time in South America with
39:03.44	Max Shank	Yeah.
39:15.49	mikebledsoe	Ah, the Ayahuascaros and what chimaro like healers down there is how they they go by by the way. The word shaman is ah is a northern europe like siberian word. It's not even south american so sometimes people give me like a shaman like you're appropriating I'm like no.
39:27.16	Max Shank	Oh.
39:33.98	mikebledsoe	You're appropriating. Are you from Siberia no all right shut the fuck up. But anyways, ah it's funny what it's it's mostly like white. Ah ah, whatever they call. Ah.
39:40.20	Max Shank	Where do you find all these people good god.
39:48.92	Max Shank	Hey I'm not white I'm pink Dude don't look at me. Yeah, um, yeah.
39:52.28	mikebledsoe	You are definitely pink. You're not white I'm pink too. Ah now the ah ah new ages. It's like all this the new age crowd. You know they it's like oh so worried about appropriating I'm like you're appropriating shit left and right more than anybody just chill out.
40:11.70	Max Shank	Um, isn't it isn't appropriation just called a appreciation or or sharing I mean like what if it's if it's good. It's good.
40:11.11	mikebledsoe	Ah, but ah, it's pretty. Yeah I'm like I'm like anytime and when I when I hang out with we'll we'll say quote unquote shamans in South America because that's what people are are gonna I think understand better when I hang out with them and I'm like oh I'm like I'm gonna take back what I learned to. So where I live and they're like perfect bring it back to where I live show people like oh you're appropriating I'm like the only people we should be caring about is the people who I got it from and they're telling me to spread the word like this is how culture works this is how evolution works evolution works by appropriating what someone else has created. And then making it your own so people ah people people get upset because some people are really good at making money off of the thing they learn from another tradition and those people are poor I get that that's a whole other but it's it. That's such a deep conversation. Maybe.
40:56.14	Max Shank	I Mean if you like it I think you'd probably do it.
41:06.84	Max Shank	Ah.
41:13.97	mikebledsoe	Maybe we just do a show on appropriation later. But ah so but I go down. Yeah yeah, but ah, you go down to South America they've been sitting with this medicine as thousands of years it at least if not longer thousands of years
41:16.74	Max Shank	Expect a lot of eye rolling for that one for me.
41:33.21	mikebledsoe	And you know they it's ah I equiate equate them that the knowledge that they get when um when a lot of these South American Healers have been introduced to Concepts of Buddhism and hinduism a lot of that they were completely ah ignorant of. Those philosophies of those religions and practices until the last couple decades because while the internet and people started traveling for these things and brought their own. They're like they like oh what we're doing down here is the same as buddhism like it's the same.
41:58.70	Max Shank	Right.
42:10.39	mikebledsoe	The the same wisdom is being accomplished in a much shorter period of time and ah, it's very interesting that people will will put meditation on this pedestal while using all sorts of drugs unknowingly and but. Using psychedelics as something is like oh you, you want to lean on that like human beings have been leaning on and evolving alongside psychedelic medicines for you know, probably tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years so the idea of like. Not using this tool that we've been using for so long that's going to expand my consciousness seems kind of ridiculous.
42:52.41	Max Shank	Well, it's all ridiculous because everybody is trying to alleviate a pain that they're feeling and the most primal pains are ah hunger sexual desire. The desire for safety and then as human beings. It's even a greater challenge because we have to harmonize this concept of meaning and mission and perhaps legacy and so that's why there's such a huge amount. Written passed down for generations. You know you have the bible. You have the doo de jing you have the book of the buddha you have these ah shamans in different parts of the world. I mean we have been trying to figure out how to live for a very very long time. In a way that is is comforting that pain that we feel and that discomfort is the fire for achieving your goals also and if you squelch that fire with ah. You know, tiktoks or heroin. Well I mean I guess that's where you're going to go I mean there's no worries. That's just it's going to work out differently than someone who uses that fire of discomfort like ah a Martin Luther King right and he does he goes the complete opposite way and he takes that pain and he transmutes it into something that he can share with the rest of the people and and that's why the word appropriation makes me laugh so much because it's all about sharing. Ultimately, the reason we write stuff down is so we can share it and the different pains that people feel may have different specific origins but they'll they're all rooted in some of those primal desires your ah desire for acceptance. You know, childhood et cetera growing up attracting a mate like all these different things like how can you um, use that pain for action rather than just quench that fire in a destructive way right? So it's it's very It's very interesting to see why people use drugs and really how they use them.
45:27.25	mikebledsoe	Yeah, and this is why it's very important to pay attention and this is why I like psychedelics is because Psychedelics taught me to pay attention and in days after a mushroom experience and. Being concerned that I was going to lose whatever wisdom I had had ah received in that first ceremony and then days later still paying better attention to my state than I ever had before and that's that's part of the point of meditation too.
46:00.96	Max Shank	20
46:05.43	mikebledsoe	Especially if you look at something like Viposana Meditation it's all about being present with the sensations in your body being and that would be sight smell hearing as well and so most people when they start meditating me do eyes closed. But there's also eyes open meditation but it's ah it's a more advanced thing. Yeah, it's it's pretty advanced. Ah.
46:22.72	Max Shank	You can meditate with your eyes open that sounds pretty advanced. Maybe you can put a training course together for that level one. How to sit still with your eyes closed. Level 2 How to sit still with your eyes open.
46:39.77	mikebledsoe	Ah, yeah, yeah, So the the point is the point isn't the ceremony. The point is not when you're sitting in Meditation. The point is bringing that level of awareness and that ah being present with. Your body the the world around you and yourself and all these things as you move throughout your day and so noticing I'm not that familiar with Karma yoga.
47:04.93	Max Shank	That's karma yoga right? isn't that karma yoga. That's you as I understand it's bringing the awareness of meditation to every task that you do and the first time I really got it the first time I really got it was
47:15.20	mikebledsoe	Um, oh you're right.
47:21.25	Max Shank	When I was ah cleaning the leaves out of my pool with a long skimmer and I'm not proud of it. But you know just days before that revelation I had considered killing my neighbor's tree. So The leaves wouldn't fall in the pool I was like I was like what I was like why is this happening to me and anyway I didn't kill the tree I just started to really I I know it's ridiculous. It's all relative isn't it only absolute is relativity but I was really annoyed.
47:47.20	mikebledsoe	Why is this happening to me. Ah.
47:58.55	Max Shank	That the leaves were falling into my pool and the indignance of it all was in retrospect quite hilarious and so instead of like you know, murdering a tree. Ah I started to really enjoy the process of skimming the leaves out of a pool so it was like my little water Zen Garden and.
48:13.51	mikebledsoe	Um, yeah.
48:17.59	Max Shank	The more you can bring that awareness to everything you do the more clear you get on who you really are and what your mission is what you stand for you know what your value and values are the easier. It is to bring that level of awareness to all that stuff you do and. It's no surprise that we have figured out a lot of this stuff in the last several thousand years and I think if you can if you're looking for wisdom I would look at stuff that has lasted a really long Time. So if you take ancient, wisdom and modern Tools. You'll probably be at the most peace and very wealthy if you take modern, wisdom and ancient Tools. You will probably mess yourself up. Pretty bad.
49:04.37	mikebledsoe	Agreed agreed. Yeah so paying attention helps to know what drugs you may be taking whether it be caffeine or shallow or deep breathing or whether it's lsd.
49:21.17	Max Shank	A.
49:22.60	mikebledsoe	You're gonna if you're paying attention to your state from moment to moment you're gonna you're gonna know what you should do more of in less up or when you should do things and when you should not do things but I to me takes a lot of practice ah paying attention while intentionally putting yourself.
49:41.25	Max Shank	The modern tools can help my my favorite addiction I mean look food sex. Yeah I'm all on board. But Youtube is 1 of my addictions because you can have a true expert on.
49:41.26	mikebledsoe	And these state changes. So ah, the modern tools mean out.
50:00.46	Max Shank	Nearly any topic take you through their whole thought process on anything I can I can go down the Youtube Rabbi a hole for hours and hours. That's why I use the modern tech to ah, click it off at a certain timeframe.
50:05.16	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
50:18.58	mikebledsoe	E.
50:20.31	Max Shank	So you know when I'm on my phone. Ah 5 minutes only if I'm on my computer I get 15 minutes and that's it and at least that pause will allow me to. Ask the question of is this really what I want to be doing right now. So that pattern break alone can be tremendous. That's why I was telling you before we got started here um on the door of the pantry in the kitchen There's a little sign that says pattern break.
50:38.56	mikebledsoe	Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
50:56.39	Max Shank	So before you open the pantry with all the snacks in it. There's a little sign that essentially reminds you intention before ingestion like is are you going here because you're hungry. Are you going here because you're sleepy. Are you going here because you're bored. Are you going here because you're deeply uncomfortable. And I think food is the most difficult drug because you cannot practice abstinence permanently like you cannot quit cold turkey cold turkey you must continue eating food. So like you could quit heroin forever. But you can't quit food forever. There's there's a give and take there. So the fact that you always have to have a toe in there makes it very challenging and look It's no surprise. What do we have like over half of the people obese ah something like that I get I get it I get it hey we we won the game of life.
51:47.30	mikebledsoe	Something like that insane.
51:55.94	Max Shank	We're dying of being too fat instead of underfed in this country that's look we won nice job. Everybody now let's consider how how we can swing the pendulum back a little bit. Food is tough. Food is a tough one but it all comes down to a few of those basic principles.
52:05.41	mikebledsoe	Yeah, well said.
52:15.40	Max Shank	Intention before ingestion. It's not about the substance. It's about the behavior. Um, you had a couple good ones too. But it's community matters a lot I think who you associate with the the 5
52:30.76	mikebledsoe	Um I I yeah I've noticed in the last couple years the impact of community because I I'm ah I'm a very social person by nature. But.
52:33.58	Max Shank	The 5 monkey rule.
52:49.29	mikebledsoe	Um, a very social person by nature and I've also just like the downfall of that is being too open at too many different energies and and a lot of times like I almost feel guilty about not almost I do there are times where I feel guilty about. Denying people my my attention knowing that by giving them my attention. It's bleeding me dry and ah yeah, just over the last few years I'd say I'd say like the last four years I've gotten
53:11.00	Max Shank	And.
53:24.89	mikebledsoe	Very intentional about my community and the people I surround myself with and not only does it change my experience from moment to moment as I'm in those communities with those people and and having my cup filled but my behavior that comes from being and and community with certain people is just.
53:43.43	Max Shank	Ah.
53:44.77	mikebledsoe	I Like how I am I like who I'm being I like my behavior much better when I place myself in certain communities and I so you know work with a lot of people and the thing that I've noticed you know people like I want to solve my.
53:54.30	Max Shank	Um, totally.
54:04.90	mikebledsoe	Financial problems by doing all these things I need more systems and business and I need no marketing and I'm like yeah you do need to know all that stuff. But you're not going to really be able to implement it if you're if there's no Community. You're not going to loan wolf your way into the good behaviors. There's There's some people that may be able to accomplish what they want as a lone wolf but it's not gonna be as enjoyable and and it's and it it may not they may accomplish their thing but may not be happy at the end.
54:31.39	Max Shank	Also Also, you don't get extra points for doing anything all by yourself as I once thought there are no extra points or Credit. You're given at the end I always thought if I did something all on my own people would be like wow. Look how amazing he really is he You don't get any of those extra points at the end. It's total waste.
54:52.82	mikebledsoe	No okay community is a huge leverage point I mean we see this in the gym people come in to lose £15 but they stick around why community they want to be around people who are like minded we have similar goals.
55:09.10	Max Shank	The the.
55:10.83	mikebledsoe	Have similar values and you know I like putting myself in community where they value something that I want to value more you know, ah people people say they value things They don't actually value. They. They they tell you they value things they want to value but most people if they haven't reached their goal if if their values were already aligned with their goals. They have had accomplished that or beyond such a trajectory reaching it. They would be obvious that it's just happening. But people want to be different which means they have to change their values. You have to change your values to reach your goals. So Yeah and I yeah you just go in their House. You can see and so community I like to choose to hang out with people who value.
55:50.00	Max Shank	Um I think actions speak louder than words in that case, you're hundred percent right like it's easy to see what someone really values.
56:05.81	mikebledsoe	Something more than I do that I that I want to value more and so I use community to shift my values because you know I hang out with people who make more money than me they they have spent more time valuing dollars than I have.
56:21.19	Max Shank	Ah.
56:22.58	mikebledsoe	They spend more time thinking about it and they think about it in ways that most people don't and so just by putting yourself in that environment. You don't even have to be talking about money. But you're just like it's the way they're being. It's there's an osmosis going on.
56:26.89	Max Shank	Oh my God oh.
56:41.13	Max Shank	Dude, that's so true I remember that was the first you were the person who mentioned that to me and it stuck with me was ah you know don't necessarily just listen to what people are saying notice how they are being. And I thought that was ah, an interesting distinction that I'd never really considered before and the atmosphere or the climate in the company you keep is totally different and money is a perfect example because you got to be so careful. Um. Hanging out with people who have a scarcity mindset around money like you probably want to hang around with people where five ten grand is not a lot of money if you want to be wealthy like if ah if people are telling you all the time about the thing they bought for.
57:22.14	mikebledsoe	Down. Yeah.
57:31.70	Max Shank	$5 off coupon I mean I'm not saying that makes you bad it just means that there's still like ah missing the forest for the trees or pennywise pound foolish kinda thing going on there like you don't want to be in that environment of scarcity versus abundance.
57:40.21	mikebledsoe	Yeah, when this goes back to yeah and this applies to you know drugs as well drug abuse. So if you around a bunch of drug abusers. You're gonna keep abusing.
57:57.00	Max Shank	Totally.
57:58.20	mikebledsoe	And the the money one I think is a good one because people can almost everybody can they understand it. They experience it and.
58:04.52	Max Shank	And.
58:10.32	mikebledsoe	I think I may have lost it. Maybe it'll come back. Oh yeah, that changed that that changes people's state Incredible. Go check your bank account. What's that experience like.
58:12.61	Max Shank	Well money is kind of a funny, a funny, a funny drug too like I see I see money as energy.
58:29.50	mikebledsoe	For the average person. You know the average person. Some people they they don't want to go check their bank account. They're afraid to look at it. Some people are excited to look at it. It's having an impact.
58:37.83	Max Shank	I Like to look at my bank account and whack off. Ah I'm joking that I don't really do that. But I actually try to look at it as little as possible to still know the direction that the ship is going because I I don't.
58:53.10	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
58:57.39	Max Shank	I never wanted to have to like make sure I had enough in the account to buy something essentially but you know you get to a certain point I don't know I think like by today's values or something like that if you make over a hundred k you basically have as good a life.
59:01.57	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
59:16.88	Max Shank	As the top 1% in terms of like the basic needs like you don't have to worry about food going out guacamole on your chipotle that sort of thing and then beyond that then it's just this new game like trying to trying to be a billionaire.
59:29.61	mikebledsoe	Yeah, well that.
59:35.29	Max Shank	Unless you have a solid mission that you want to use that fund those funds for like that's got to be some form of mental illness now. It's a very constructive. It's a very constructive mental illness. It's like how you think that you deserve love.
59:44.14	mikebledsoe	There's something else going on there.
59:52.97	Max Shank	You know I have that thing like people want love power attention in that order and so some people don't think they'll ever really deserve love because they hate themselves on some level or their mom did which is kind of like that you get the whole idea. So They think I'll just get as powerful as possible. And then people have to love me or fear me or whatever. So It's ah it's a very funny thing the different way we could do a whole thing about about money that would be kind of fun. Maybe we'll do that after business next time but that's a.
01:00:22.31	mikebledsoe	Yeah, we should definitely do that. Yeah I'm put in the notes right now I remembered we'll close this up soon. Ah, the the it came back to me the what I wanted to say about the money in community is.
01:00:28.69	Max Shank	Yeah, yeah.
01:00:39.46	mikebledsoe	I What I witnessed a lot of people struggle with is they need to find new community so they can take on these new habits and behaviors. But they feel guilty about leaving their old community behind they're like oh you know and and then your old friends are gonna call you a sellout and this and that and like.
01:00:55.24	Max Shank	Totally.
01:00:58.10	mikebledsoe	And so so many people are afraid of of leaving that community and like leaving them behind but the reality is is they're leaving themselves behind now they're they're happy where they're at you want to change, you got to jump ship and people are gonna judge you no matter? what.
01:01:13.89	Max Shank	No doubt.
01:01:16.65	mikebledsoe	And ah yeah, the more successful you become the more prominent you become the more of a target you become and so I have to say the more popular I become the more people I have to turn down to hang out and they may talk shit about me but I've only got so much time.
01:01:24.57	Max Shank	No question.
01:01:36.27	mikebledsoe	And the day and my energy is important to me and I'm gonna I'm gonna keep it that way.
01:01:36.44	Max Shank	Yeah questions. And that's great to hear from you because it sounds like you are just learning how to draw boundaries in the last few years that sound right? Yeah and it's funny.
01:01:49.15	mikebledsoe	Yeah, I'd say the last four years say it's been about yeah yeah about 4 years now it's been ah I had to like I did cut a lot of people off a lot of people are mad at me. Yeah.
01:01:58.91	Max Shank	I'm just learning how to be open. Yeah, Ah yeah for me I'm like coming from the opposite end of the spectrum you have like this super social like Chimp energy and I feel like I have this cat like a tiger type of energy where I like just. Have such hard boundaries drawn that if someone doesn't like it I'm like ah tough shit Basically but that also shrinks your circle so much. So finding that balance point or creating that balance that you really like is ah it's fun. That's why I like when we chat.
01:02:21.57	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
01:02:28.47	mikebledsoe	Mm.
01:02:34.28	mikebledsoe	Yeah.
01:02:36.48	Max Shank	Because we come at it from such different angles. But interestingly enough we still seem to agree on like almost everything because we really focus on the nuance and the principles and there are very few absolutes and that's what makes it so interesting. Same with drugs. There's no, there's no absolutes. It's like you either use them.
01:02:48.62	mikebledsoe	Yeah, yeah.
01:02:56.25	Max Shank	Or you abuse them. But I guarantee you're using them.
01:02:59.98	mikebledsoe	Yep yep, any final thoughts.
01:03:03.41	Max Shank	Maybe just that everybody uses them some people abuse them.
01:03:05.89	mikebledsoe	Sound are good. Ah, ah 1 thing I want to mention is set setting and dosage. So the set being your mindset. What What's your state of mind the setting. What's your environment like. And the dosage those are your 3 variables to pay attention to with everything but in regard to drugs set setting and dosage are the 3 most important things to focus on if one of those things are off. You may have a poor experience.
01:03:30.95	Max Shank	No.
01:03:42.19	mikebledsoe	You make sure that all 3 of those things are dialed in you're in for a good time and I'll leave it with that where do they find you max.
01:03:53.60	Max Shank	http://maxshank.com or at ma shank.
01:03:54.77	mikebledsoe	Excellent and I've got a strong coach summit coming up and marching go to http://thestrongcoach.com/summit and I imagine some people be doing drugs there as we listen to music at some point during the weekend. So if you want to hop in there come on over.