[Luke]

All right, here we go with episode 689, which of course, folks, means the show notes will be at lukestory.com/689. I'm here with my lovely wife, Allison Charles Story-

[Alyson] That's me...

[Luke] For our monthly drop-in.

[Alyson] Yeah. And why does it feel like we haven't done one of these in so long?

[Luke] Well, sometimes we record them well in advance, and so it seems like a long time ago.

[Alyson] There was a large gap. We have Yeah... quite a few things. We had a huge Costa Rican adventure.

[Luke] There's been a lot of living since the last one.

[Alyson] There certainly has, across various categories, dimensions. do you, do you wanna start with our Costa Rican adventure?

[Luke] Yeah, absolutely. I

[Alyson] Think there's a lot of ground to cover in there. One funny theme that emerged for me when I was thinking about it a little bit for our chat today was how in many ways that trip was my personal paradise and your personal hell. It's like we had... I think it was the first trip where for pretty much, I wouldn't say the entire thing, but the majority of it, we were having vastly, drastically different experiences.

[Luke] It speaks to the power of perception. You know, you can be in paradise, and one person can be experiencing it as that and the other one can be causing themself to suffer a lot, which was the case for me. I mean, not to say that it was all that, but it was definitely, it was a rough one.

[Alyson] Well, before we even left, I typically, if not always, tune into the land to which we are about to head to. So, and that starts to present organically on its own. Sometimes it's two weeks before. Like, I know when we went to Peru for that very long duration pilgrimage I started to connect with the energetics of the land and the communications from the Andes Mountains, like, far in advance, like two or three weeks plus before. So it varies trip to trip and location to location. But it was at least, I wanna say, about five to seven days before we headed to Costa Rica, where I could just feel the waves of like, it start-- it's time to start now to attune and to communicate. And so I did, and there was-- I mean, there were different messages, but one very clear, distinct one came to me, and the land really told me, "Come here as the new you." And I knew exactly, as soon as I heard that, I knew exactly what it meant and what it was asking. I knew exactly what I needed to do to do this. And a lot of it also pertained, you know, with that instruction for me to show up to this area of Costa Rica that would be a new area for us. We've been there before, but not t-to this region, and I knew it also involved my vow, and my vow is, "I embody and I experience pleasure with a vow that the field is enough." And so I wonder if in future trips, if it might be helpful for you to start this practice too. I don't know if it would make a difference. You know, I don't know if you do this, and I just don't know you're doing it. But I have found, I've done this for enough years and enough trips, that it really is a game changer when you start to just attune and acclimate to the energetics of the place to which you are about to arrive and, you know, start to give thanks before you even get there. I start to tune into what offerings should I bring to this land, and it's like a whole process, and I wonder if you should do that moving forward.

[05:12]

[Luke] I like that idea, and I've never-- I've, I don't think I've ever really done that consciously. Part of that would be the fact that I'm usually trying to get as much work done as possible before travel happens so that I can, you know, really take a vacation.

[Alyson] But has that ever happened?

[Luke] No, not yet.

[Alyson] No.

[Luke] Not yet. I mean, even this past weekend, I mean, I remember coming to you going, "I don't know what to do with myself," because I just refuse to work, you know. And there was over the course of the past two years, just taking on a lot, writing a book, et cetera. I'm having to teach myself how to just relax and do nothing because it's been some time before I've since I've had that kind of bandwidth. So I like that idea. And I actually, with this trip, I thought I was doing that. You know, I had turned in my book just a couple days, the final. There's been a lot of turning in of the book, but seems there's always more to do. There's so many different phases to edit and copy editing and all of that. so I felt like I had a kind of a clean break and was ready to have a completely new experience. But I discovered there was a lot of work that needed to be done while we were there that I was hoping other people could do, and it wasn't happening to my satisfaction. So, you know, it ended up being kind of a hybrid of work with breaks in between in a really beautiful place. But yeah, I think that it's good to walk into any kind of new experience with your perception and attention already geared toward having a new experience instead of bringing the experience of you and your life with you wherever you go. It's kind of like that wherever you go, there you are thing, right?

[Alyson] Yeah, because just that one message, the come here as the new you, I mean, you can kind of feel even when I just say that, the energy just gets you super intentional and super focused. Like, I don't... It doesn't feel mission-driven. You know, it's not like I don't know, went there on some hardcore mission. But I just really appreciated That it kept me on track in some way. and even though I went there with a clear focus and intention, there was such a beautiful surprise, too. You know, this trip, as we're saying, is, has very multifaceted, and we stayed at three different places, which I'm sure we'll unpack and get into a little bit more, but that was also for a purpose and an intention. So the first few nights we were there, we stayed at this beautiful place called Awa, A-W-A. Very small, quaint boutique resort, but gorgeous, really exceptional service. Remember Joni, our friend Joni? Joni.

[08:17]

[Luke] Joni. Dónde está Joni?

[Alyson] Dónde está Joni. He was one of the managers- He was super nice... or, yeah, he was super sweet. He became our buddy. But once we arrived there, got into our room, and then headed right out to the beach you know, I just have such a peace and feel so at home in these certain convergence points where, in this case, the jungle met the sand, met the sea, you know, this trifecta convergence point. And as soon as we got out there, literally right in front of our room, I was struck. It was the exact same vision that I have seen countless times for many years on different shamanic journeys, meditations. uh, for the last couple of years, I've done tons of parts work, and a certain part of me, especially this protector part that I had really been working on integrating more healthily and wholly into me the last couple of years, when we meet up to have certain conversations, like me with that part of me, her and our preference is always this specific area on the beach, and there's a really unique visual component to it. It can't just apply to anywhere where the jungle meets the sea. Like, it's this, it's a certain place that I go to, and it was this exact place in front of Awa. And so right out of the gate you know, due to you having the drastically different experience, which I'll let you share about versus mine, there were quite a few times where I was kinda off on my own doing my own thing because you were, like, hiding under the covers, having a whole shadow explosion of a big, black, dark hole. And so one of those times when I went out to the beach alone oh my gosh, like, I just got so... I was just weeping and having just a private ceremony by myself with this mystical land location that I had sat in the other realms, you know, shamanic realms for journeys and healing purposes, but now I had sat there physically and I heard spirit speak to me and my own soul. It was this message of, "You have arrived. I have arrived." And I was so moved. It just felt like such a full circle moment and such a deeply profound, oh, I could cry right now, like culmination point of like just how far I've come the last, you know Four years, just the depths in which I had traversed for three and a half-ish years, and, you know, I've been out of that for, you know, the last ten-ish months, I wanna say. But, like, still, to have that arrival moment and that arrival point and to just really get to be present and with these elements that I revere so much, with Goddess Oshun, with the ocean, with these ancient sands, with the mystical, lush medicine, profound, powerful medicine of the jungle. And then here I'm sitting at this place that I've seen in my visions and journeys and realms for years, and now I have arrived there in physicality and actuality. You know, it just-- it was so profound. And I brought offerings, and I gave tobacco to the land where I was sitting as an offering of thanks. And and then this grasshopper showed up, and it sat right next to me on my towel, and I thought, "Oh, my gosh, wow," you know. each power animal represents so many different teachings and medicinal attributes, but one thing that grasshopper is known for is it gives its own tobacco offering. It can secrete and squirt out, spit out this, like, brown liquid that some view as like a tobacco offering. And I was like, "Oh, my gosh, this is so cool." Right after I gave the tobacco, this grasshopper appeared seemingly out of nowhere. It was sitting right next to me. And so I gave it a piece of tobacco. Like, it gave me tobacco, I gave it tobacco. We're having this cool little party this grasshopper and I on the beach. And I thought... I was watching it, and I-- something told me to get my phone out because I wondered if it would go to the tobacco. I was like, "Oh, my gosh, this would be wild if it starts to, like, eat it or, you know, I don't know, do something with the tobacco." And so as I was filming it to see if it would do that, it wasn't even facing me, and then out of nowhere it jumped straight, like on the video, it looks like it's jumping into the camera, but it landed on me, and I had this trippy experience with this grasshopper for w-- could have probably gone on the entire three weeks we were there 'cause this is, like, day one. But it attached to my... Wait, was it my left or my right? I think it was my right upper heart area. one of the two. It was in my upper heart region, and it stayed attached to me for thirty minutes, which I Video proof of because my video was going the whole time, and I just wanted to commune with it, and I don't know, just receive whatever the heck I was supposed to be receiving. And also, I was talking to the grasshopper. It was just this whole trippy, you know, non-medicine journey I was having, and I was thinking to myself, like, "I wish Luke was here to see it." And then finally, toward the 30 or 30-minute mark you did appear. You had emerged from the room. You had gotten yourself out of the bed, and as you were walking close, I was, like, pointing to the grasshopper. And then Luke and I needed to-- we needed to go eat or w- You know, something, and I said, like, "I just don't want this grasshopper to go into my hair." I just had this intuitive feeling. I had my hair back in a ponytail, and just the way it was placed on me, I said, "You know, I obviously don't wanna hurt it, but I need to move, and I need to get up, so we can go live our life and go eat, but I just don't want it to, like, dart and jump into my nest of a ponytail." And it for-- I had this fear that it was gonna get, like, tangled in my hair, and I just didn't want the grasshopper's legs or it to get hurt or damaged. And so then you were like, "Well, I'll help you. Like, I'll just get it to dart off of you in a different direction." So I, okay, surrendered, went into trust, and then Luke went in to do what you were gonna do, and what does it do? It jumps directly into my ponytail, and it's, like, stuck in my hair, and I was like, "I knew it." But somehow, I think just with a shake of my head, it got loose, and it went onto the sand. but so yeah, you know, th-that's just one of many mystical stories, and that was my entry point into this trip. So I'm, like, in paradise and communing with grasshoppers and giving offerings and doing all of this and then I'll let you share what the heck you were doing.

[15:53]

[Luke] Well, yeah, there's also some beautiful irony in that you're having this tobacco initiation with your power animal, and I'm in the process of trying to reorient my relationship to tobacco or to nicotine. And so that's kind of the basis of why You know, what could have been and perhaps should have been a really beautiful trip my intentions were after the past two years of like using coca leaf, which we call mambe, and ambil, which is a really potent tobacco paste Amazonian sort of medicine. And I've been using those like a beast, which some people may have noticed watching the videos because my teeth are often black or green. When I speak, huge puffs of green powder often come out like a dragon. and I just felt that those medicines had really supported me in the process of writing the book because I was just, I was able to focus intently for hours and hours and hours for days and weeks and months and years. And so when I turned the book in, I thought, "Well, you know, my relationship at this point has turned to one that feels less utilitarian and less of a communion and started to feel more like a dependency."

[Alyson] Mm-hmm.

[Luke] And I'm very familiar with the disempowerment of feeling dependent on something outside of myself to feel like myself, right? And there have been a number of times over the years that I've either attempted to quit nicotine or have successfully for various periods of time. And so logically to me Going to Costa Rica would be a perfect reset because I'd be in a completely different environment. my book was done, so I you know, I didn't have that as an excuse. Well, I need to edit and, you know, I was like, I need that kind of hyperdopamine fixation, focus kind of state of mind that I was so used to being in. but I was just kind of-- it would get me-- it, you know, neither of those things get you high per se, but it's definitely stimulating. It's like if you were drinking strong espresso all day or something, right? So, um-

[Alyson] Well, and it also allows you to get focused, right?

[Luke] Yeah. I mean, it's incredible for focus. I mean, coca leaf is I don't know. I should ask AI, like, how many pounds of raw coca leaf does it take to make cocaine? it takes a lot, so it's not like you're getting high. Co-cocaine is definitely on my no-fly list, you know, in terms of my sobriety and my boundaries with different substances. So it's been almost 30 years since I've used cocaine, but coca leaf to me was a really beautiful medicine. I just am not someone that's wired with the ability to moderate. I'm kind of a on or off person, as you well know, and I know that about myself. But I also know what my strict boundaries are with different substances, and there's things that I just won't touch because they've been so problematic and destructive to my life before. The combination of those two medicines was extremely supportive and something that I really enjoyed. And even today, it's been a few weeks since I've used those, and it's like, I think, "Oh, that would be nice right now," but it wouldn't just be right now. If I touch it, I'm just gonna be using it all day, every day. And so I just, you know, again, just don't like the feeling of being dependent. So logically, I'm going to a beautiful place with my lovely wife. I've turned in, you know, the final edit of my book. So I was ho-

[19:43]

[Alyson] Seemingly.

[Luke] Yeah. So I was hoping to have you know, just really change gears and kind of go back into my normal way of being, doing, feeling that is less pressurized than trying to meet deadlines and things like that. And so I thought also after interviewing some people over the years about iboga and ibogaine as medicines that are really useful for interrupting patterns of addiction and habits, you know, however you wanna call them. I would say in my case, definitely with nicotine, I would classify that as full-blown addiction. Coca leaf, I, you know, I don't know that I was addicted to it. I would say more habitual. more of a, you know, a psychological kind of dependency than like, "Oh, I need it," or, "I don't feel right," kind of thing. It's just, it's nice. I like it. I like chewing that stuff all day. and it really does work for high altitude. You know, it's it's widely known that, you know, the people in the Andes use that medicine to acclimate to high altitude and, uh-

[Alyson] Well, yeah. It's a sacred medicine Yeah... incredible healing

[Luke] Power. Yeah, and that was proven true when we went to Peru. Okay, so at any rate, I think, okay, you know, I'm not going to obviously self-administer a full iboga journey. It's not a medicine I've ever felt called to, but I just felt intuitively that if I was going to make such a big shift, and I'm in a new environment, and I'm at kind of a turning point in terms of my work that microdosing iboga would be supportive. So you know, once we land in Costa Rica, I disposed of the last of my ambile tobacco paste and and Mambé, and then had like half a little tin of my you know, loosey little nicotine pouches. And I just thought, "Well, I'll kind of wean off, you know, then the two or three days worth maybe," and I started just doing fewer of the little pouches and just kind of getting used to what my brain and body feel like without a constant IV drip of nicotine. And I felt decent the first couple days and and then started to realize that There was a lot of work that needed to be done in terms of the book marketing and promotion and things like that, because as of today, we're a few weeks into the pre-sale of the book. So it's available right now, by the Mm-hmm... at ahorsenamedlonesome.com. Um-

[Alyson] Check it out.

[Luke] Yeah, it comes out November 17th. So I thought I'd take a little breather there, you know, put this-- re-establish, you know healthy boundaries with those two substances and use the microdose of iboga to help me just kind of regulate the dopamine and you know, acetylcholine and all the stuff that those medicines interact with in your brain. So the neurochemistry of it made sense to me, and the timing made sense to me, and my intentionality also made sense to me. What I didn't know then that I know now is that when you're using nicotine specifically in the amount that I have been for the amount of time that I've been using it that it's difficult, to say the least, to just go cold turkey. And so which came as quite a shock to me I became incredibly lethargic depressed, extremely irritable, I mean, just mood swings, dark thoughts. I mean, a place that I've not experienced for a very long time. You know, I mean, you know, I have my off days and off hours here and there, and-

[23:30]

[Alyson] But this was different.

[Luke] Yeah. Like in I mean, life, you know, life is, can be stressful, and I take a lot on and, you know, there's days where I feel frustrated or stressed out or, you know, less happy than other days, but this was just like a tidal wave of negativity. And-

[Alyson] It was like you'd fell into a pitch black hole-

[Luke] Yeah...

[Alyson] And you were just, you had, you were just laying down there.

[Luke] Yeah. And so, I mean, I'm familiar with making shifts like this and know that it can be uncomfortable for a few days, and then you just kind of have to stick with it and pray your way through it. And, you know, we're in a beautiful place, you know, walking on the beach, in the jungle, and riding canoes up creeks. And I mean, it's like I logically should've been having the time of my life like you were You know? Objectively, we're in the same place having very different experiences subjectively. And so it was like this kind of vicious cycle because the more days I got in, you know, those were, those were days I'm, you know, I'm marking on the wall, right? Mm-hmm. Of like, okay, three days, four days, five days. I'm counting the days.

[Alyson] And you're wanting to, like, feel proud of yourself and good that you're accomplishing this.

[Luke] Exactly. And also, you know, it was like when I got sober 29 years ago, almost 30 years ago now you know, the first hour counted, the second hour counted, 24 hours counted, two days, five days, 30 days. I mean, those were quantifiable and meaningful, and I still celebrate, you know, my sober birthday every February 15th. And so once I got a few days in, even though it was torturous, I didn't wanna have to go through the process again, so I didn't wanna give up. But then it also gets into, and I mean, this is really one of the most difficult things about any kind of addict- addiction or attachment, is that it's difficult to when it's the addiction talking- Mm-hmm And when it's the higher self talking. And so of course, I had the thought like, bad timing. This was a well-intentioned idea, but I'm ruining the trip for myself and definitely for you to some extent, and this sucks. So you know what? It just wasn't the right time. I'm gonna find a little liquor store and get some nicotine in me, you know? But I felt like that would be giving up, and I felt like it would be erasing whatever progress had been made, and I really got so confused that I couldn't tell, you know, what was the addiction talking and what was me talking. And so-

[Alyson] And also, you know, we chatted about this, and I always appreciate, you know, thank goodness we have such a easeful time being fully transparent with one another, even in these like, you know, grittier textures and terrains darker areas of life. Like, we had chatted about how, I forget when it was, but there was like another time in our marriage where you had decided to shift off of something, and then there was like a reason why that time was not the right time, so then you got back on it. We're just like, huh. So we were trying to decode together Yeah Like what is what? Is this just another cycle of that thing happening that you tried two or three years ago, you know? Yeah, breaking-

[26:50]

[Luke] And I and I didn't wanna feel like a failure, and I know that you've had your concerns about the sheer quantity of those substances that I'm crushing on a

[Alyson] Daily basis. To say the

[Luke] Least. You know? I mean, that's the thing with any kind of addiction. It's How much life is it stealing from you? And those medicines to me have been very supportive over the past couple years.

[Alyson] Well, quick point though, 'cause I don't wanna leave this part out. Yeah. and this is something we've talked about privately countless times, but just to note in this conversation publicly, you know, my viewpoint when working with these sacred medicines is that they are sacred, and they absolutely must be treated as such. So there's also the, it's more than a nuance, the important layer of, yeah, when it's these particular types of, quote unquote, "substances," sacred medicines, like it's a very precarious line and situation where when it does start to shift over into more, quote unquote, "using" rather than, like, receiving and honor and as a sacred sacrament- Mm-hmm And when that honoring and reciprocity, when those energetics start to shift with these particular medicines, you start to enter into potentially scary territory too, because these medicines have a higher intelligence. And if they-- I, this is my personal feel. When these medicines begin to feel that they are not being treated with respect and honor and in a way that is good for them, good for you, good for all, I personally have witnessed, and I feel that as they should, they start to then communicate to the, quote unquote, "user" in a way to try to get their attention and to try to say, like, "This is not our way. This is not how we are to be worked with."

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And another thing that popped up on the test was Restore for hydration and mineral balance, which is huge because I'm in the sauna so often. And then there's Ease Magnesium, a fast-acting magnesium spray that absorbs through your skin to support relaxation and deep sleep. I have bottles of this stuff all over the house, including in the sauna, where I use it most often. It's a great way to get magnesium into your body. Because the smartest supplement routine is the one that's built personally for you. So take the quiz yourself and see what you discover. To take the quiz and explore some of this stuff for yourself, go to activationproducts.com/luke and use the code Luke for 15% off your order. Stop guessing and build a routine that's actually made for you. That's activationproducts.com/luke, and the code is Luke. Yeah. Well, that's the tricky thing about the class of these two sacred medicines in particular is that the alkaloids in them are habit-forming and if not addictive, you know? I've never had any issues with, "Oh, I'm kind of hitting the mushrooms a little too hard," or, "I think I'll have a little ayahuasca every night with dinner." It's like the psychoactive, more psychedelic entheogen categories. I mean, I've never, ever come even close to having any kind of dependency or even abuse or overuse or anything like that because I have such a healthy respect, if not fear for some of those medicines. In the case of something like 5-MeO-DMT, I mean, it's been years since I've worked with that medicine because I have such a healthy respect for its potency. And with these two medicines, they're not psychoactive in the same way, but they definitely affect your neurochemistry. Mm-hmm. And they affect your neurochemistry in a way that can be very habit-forming, if not addictive. And so that was my, you know, sort of balancing act over the past couple years was like, well, these medicines are serving me, yet I'm also using them consciously, but using them in excess I think, you know, probably beyond their what they're really intended for, you know? And so that might be fine for, you know, someone who's living a really shamanic path in another country that isn't sitting on a computer trying to write a book all day or, you know, managing a company or a podcast or whatever. To me, they became like nootropic fuel, you know? So it was much more of a, of a tool that, than it was a reciprocal relationship. So that is to say, and why I wanted to talk about this, just, A, in the interest of transparency and vulnerability because I like to keep it real and I never wanna pretend like I'm someone that has all of, all of this figured out. I've learned some things and have amassed some wisdom through my life experience especially in sobriety over the past almost three decades. But that doesn't mean that I'm immune to struggling with anything like that. I mean, I've seen many friends have really problematic relationships with ketamine and kratom, and I've been fortunate enough to not ever abuse those substances or have any kind of problematic relationship with them. So I'm someone who's also very cautious because of my background. But because these two don't technically get you high, eh, you know, it's like easy for me to justify overusing them. So that is to say, and I think the public service announcement here you know, I'm someone who's promoted the benefits of nicotine. I mean, it's widely known and proven scientifically now that you know, we have nicotine receptors in our body, and it's an incredible nootropic and appetite suppressant and even the mainstream academic and scientific community during the plandemic were admitting and acknowledging the benefits of nicotine as a defense against different pathogens and things like that. So the ancient peoples have known that nicotine is a useful and sacred medicine for a very long time, and even Western medicine is now finding the value in it. So it's really easy to justify using nicotine 'cause it's incredible for mental focus and things like that. However what I can say now kind of on the other side of that is that nicotine, as we know, 'cause it's a warning label on every nicotine product, is a highly addictive chemical. And so the emotional rollercoaster that I was on you know, I've come to find out after going that three weeks and then a week or two when we get back without it, I was just not getting better. You know? It's like there's nothing I could do to self-regulate or lift myself out of this chronic anxiety and, like, incredible brain fog to the point where- Oh,

[35:02]

[Alyson] You were very debilitated. Yeah.

[Luke] I mean, I literally couldn't work. Like, I just-

[Alyson] You couldn't think. I

[Luke] Was a, I was a basket case.

[Alyson] Yeah. I... Yes. I mean, absolutely- Yeah... legitimately. And You-- It was a struggle for you to be nice.

[Luke] Yeah.

[Alyson] It was-- Yeah. I mean, it was-

[Luke] Yeah, it was dark, man. It was hardcore. So my public service announcement is like, yes, nicotine has a lot of benefits but man, if you really get habituated to it and you're using really high doses of it on a consistent basis quitting is very difficult. So I think that would be less so if someone, you know, they're working on a project and they're using nicotine a bit for six months or a year. but when I realized that I was a few weeks in and I wasn't getting better and the cravings just I mean, I felt like the craving got worse-

[Alyson] Hmm...

[Luke] You know, with time, which generally as you start to get things out of your system and, you know, just re-acclimate yourself, cravings sort of fade away, you know? And and that didn't happen. And also just the mental state that I was in was not improving, and I'm applying every possible tool I have at my disposal, which is sometimes internal tools and practices and also supplements and saunas and anything I could do to just get back to my modus operandi was not working. So I reached out to a couple people that are much smarter in the realm of you know, neurochemistry and neuroscience, and Ian Mitchell being one of them. And I said, "Hey, man, I'm gonna explain what's been going on with me here. I don't want you to co-sign some addiction," you know, I didn't wanna help him justify me starting to use nicotine again. So I was just like, "Be really honest with me. Here's my experience. I'm really struggling, and I'm hanging in there because I don't wanna feel like a failure, and I don't want to erase the progress I made, but I'm not getting better." And he's like, "Well, how long have you been, you know, addicted to nicotine?" And I'm like, did the math. Well, 1985, '86, I was 15 or 16 when I started smoking cigarettes. I've been addicted to nicotine for 40 years with a couple breaks here and there, right?

[Alyson] And I don't think you had fully consciously realized that until that moment.

[Luke] Yeah, I don't, you know, I don't think about Years in the past much, right? I just thought, I'm gonna pray and I'm going to I'm gonna employ my willpower and my, you know, capacity for perseverance and self-love, and I'm gonna commit to this because I think it's in my highest good to just be free specifically of nicotine. So, you know, he pauses and he's like, "Listen, you asked me to be honest with you. You are insane if you think you can be addicted to nicotine and then just stop and be functional. and so I don't wanna co-sign your... you know, or enable you to like, 'Oh, no, it's too hard. You just gotta be on nicotine for the rest of your life.'" But he said, "I mean, this is something you have to do with some planning and some rigor and definitely some support." And so even when we were in Costa Rica, I went to an online Nicotine Anonymous meeting 'cause I was just like, "What is happening?"

[38:28]

[Alyson] Yeah.

[Luke] You know, hoping to-- And I'm sure if I would've kept with those meetings, it would've been supportive. But what I realized ultimately was that yes, I had just finished my book, so in theory, it was a good time to have some space to go through whatever you know, difficulty that I might have experienced. But what I didn't realize and what Ian pointed out to me, he's like, "You're in the middle of your book launch now, this crucial kind of four-month period you know, before the book comes out and after it comes out, which means I'm going on tons of podcasts, be doing speaking events. I'll be doing you know, like a podcast tour, travel, book release parties, events. It is like more go time now than it was when I was writing the book, and the go time now involves getting back out into the world and actually being amongst people and socializing and things like that require me to be in a good mood and to feel like myself." so his recommendation was, you know, you're torturing yourself out of some sort of attachment to this idea that, you know, now you have to do this. This is the time. You have plenty of time. Get through your book launch, and then approach the nicotine issue with, you know, a bit more intentionality and support. And so You know, I was really white-knuckling it there for a few weeks and then decided I'm definitely not going to be using the ambil, which again, is a really potent tobacco. I mean, it's like swallowing a freaking pack of cigarettes in five minutes. and also the mambe, the coca leaf. And so I set my resolve that my relationship with those two substances has come to an end, and I wish them well and thank them for their service.

[Alyson] Amen.

[Luke] And at this time in my life, with all that I have going on it actually makes more sense to just keep my normal nicotine habit going, which is, you know, chewing on my little pouches. And so like the same thing that happened last time a few years ago when I-- we sat in a ayahuasca ceremony, and I threw all my nicotine away at the end of that, and I felt so ready, willing, and able to put that behind me. I went two or three weeks and had the same experience that I had this time, just complete basket case, and then eventually it was just like, "This is not worth it." Like, why am I doing this to myself? And so part psychologically, part pharmacologically, the minute I used some nicotine again, I felt completely normal and myself and was instantly functional and happy like I always was which is terrifying.

[Alyson] Right. Well, it's To

[Luke] Think that nicotine is that addictive, and if you use it for that Mm-hmm That you can really become dependent on it on so many levels.

[Alyson] Right. Yeah. Even in your neural pathways and neurochemistry. The whole

[Luke] Thing, yeah. And

[41:28]

[Alyson] Yeah. I mean, you

[Luke] Can't, you can't produce dopamine, hence the lethargy and the lack of motivation and depression and-

[Alyson] Right...

[Luke] All those things that were happening. It's like I've been propping up my capacity for just productivity and focus and mood regulation, and to just take that away in an instant proved to be really problematic. Well,

[Alyson] One, I never like to say I told you so, but I do vividly remember before we left for Costa Rica Bringing that exact point up to you know, and just from my outsider witness perspective, I just thought, "My gosh," like it didn't seem like that could be possibly healthy just on flick of a switch to just go from the volume of daily use that you had to absolutely like a screeching halt to zero. So I did have concerns about that I did bring up. But you know, I try to find a balance of I'm sovereign, you are sovereign, honoring each other's wisdom and personal fields of intelligence and choice, along with like intuition and oracle ability and capacity. And I did communicate that to you, but ultimately, like wanted to leave it up to you to make your own choices. And the other point, you know, just with the so many infinite nuances of all of this is like You know, at some point, I think it will be good to do an update on all of this when you do get to a point where you decide you want to figure out how to, if you want to get to 0% usage of nicotine doing a follow-up part two to this, because in cases like you, which you have been honest about with your e-e-extreme tendencies of on or off and y-you are a high dosage person, one thing that was recommended to you is like, "Oh, you know, you just-- it's simple. Just do some simple math." Like, on day one, it's five... What do you call the little pouch things? Pouches? They're

[Luke] Called pouches, yeah.

[Alyson] Okay. Well, I've

[Luke] Never- It's not a very cool name. They should be...

[Alyson] So it's just like, "Oh, on this day you do five pouches, and then you journal how you feel, and then, like..." And then I had to, I had to raise my hand pretty quickly in that part of the conversation just to be like, "I know my husband, and he knows himself, and we're both gonna say that simple math, like, 'Just do it this way, and you just slowly decrease,' that ain't gonna fly for someone like you." So it's like, I am curious in this moment, and will be curious to see when it does come time for you to officially quit, how the heck are you gonna? What is gonna be the methodology? Because for you know, someone who has a very strong addiction past, what may work for someone like me or someone else isn't necessarily gonna be a method that is gonna apply and work for

[44:28]

[Luke] You. Totally. I mean, that's the thing. We're all unique. We all have unique tendencies and unique neurochemistry. I mean, my brother Andy was using nicotine for a bit, and you know, very low dose, I mean, like the three milligram gum or whatever, which is very low, and it was helping him focus. He's a graphic designer, so he does, you know, a lot of computer work. And he was able to moderate and control it, 'cause he's never had an addictive bone in his body. And then he noticed that it started it was, seemed to be increasing his tinnitus, which he has much less so than I do. Oh,

[Alyson] Okay.

[Luke] And so he tested out, he'd take a few days off, and the tinnitus would quiet down. Huh. And then he would start using again, it would come back, and he's like... He just quit, like, no issue, right?

[Alyson] Hmm.

[Luke] But that's also someone who maybe toyed with nicotine for three to six months or something, not 40 years, right? Mm.

[Alyson] Exactly.

[Luke] So, you know, I just I just wanna warn people, right? Yeah. It's like there are some things that are double-edged sword that have their benefits. I mean, coca leaf is an incredible plant medicine and has a lot of benefits apart from the alkaloids that are stimulating that they extract to make cocaine. Nicotine has tons of of health benefits, so it's great. So none of these things are good or bad. It's about one's relationship with those things, and even opiates. I mean, opiates serve their purpose. Alcohol has its purposes. I mean, I don't, I don't have a binary, you know, judgmental framework around these molecules that exist, whether humans made them or nature made them. We all have our own in-individual relationships, but I just wanna be the guy who's like, "Yo, I did an experiment with nicotine that has lasted 40 years, and I wanna tell you, if you're using it a lot and you have kind of the addictive personality as I seem to have, unfortunately it's very difficult and downright scary to just quit." And so Where I am with it now is I'm in a place of peace, and I've been able to resist the self-defeating, you know, hit to my self-esteem of, like, trying to do something and quote, end quote, "fail" at it. Um-

[Alyson] Well, you were successful with completing Mambé and Ambía.

[Luke] Yeah. it's a little bit of a switching seats in the Titanic thing. You know, it's like, well, I put down the other versions of this medicine, and now I'm using it. the thing about it is that makes it difficult, too, for people is if you're if you're habitually using a substance that is harming your life, your relationships, your capacity to support yourself financially you know, you're getting divorces, you're losing a job, your company's falling apart. I mean, these are the kind of things that happen when you're addicted to alcohol, cocaine, crystal meth, opiates, et cetera. I mean, if you're addicted, your life is going to go down the toilet with the quickness. With something like nicotine, even though I admittedly am addicted to it doesn't really interfere with my life, and it's not really ostensibly bad for me. So there's not, like, really a reason to quit other than my own preference to not feel dependent on something. So it's kind of really an internal battle.

[47:54]

[Alyson] But side note, quick ten-second side note. Yeah. It also depends on what type of nicotine, because when there was the cigar chapter in LA, like, that was of a huge detriment to your life, our life. It was a huge issue in our relationship that got brought up many times to the point where it boiled over in the car, yelling, you know arguments. Yeah. So i-the caveat again, nuance again. It's like, okay, the pouches may be more chill, but it's like, how are you receiving this nicotine? And so it's like there were instances in the past where it was of detriment.

[Luke] Yeah, totally. Yeah. Well, you got the old bait and switch, you know? When Allison and I got together, I don't think I was using any kind of nicotine at that time. But what had happened was-

[Alyson] What had happened was...

[Luke] What had happened was I had gone to Costa Rica for on another trip years ago. This is 2018 or so. and sat in a series of ayahuasca ceremonies, and as is the tradition with the Shipibo people, everyone's smoking these mapachos, which is like a big, fat filterless, hand-rolled-

[Alyson] That's just pure tobacco.

[Luke] Yeah, of really great wild tobacco. And so I was actually off nicotine when I went there, and then I thought, "Eh, when in Rome," you know? And like, I remember the first night, there was, like, the angel and devil on my shoulders, like, "Luke, that has nicotine in it. Don't do it." And then I was like, "Well, it's part of the ceremony. I mean, I'm not gonna what, am I gonna start smoking mapachos every day? Of course not."

[Alyson] Eh.

[Luke] By the second day, I'm, like, going around, picking them out of people's ashtrays in the maloca and just huffing the hell out of them. And then came home and didn't use nicotine for a while, but it ignited that-

[Alyson] Mm-hmm...

[Luke] You know, it ignited that nicotine addiction. So when we got together, I was a non-smoker completely, and then-

[Alyson] I would never date someone Yeah... is a smoker.

[Luke] And then I'm out in the backyard just blazing cigars all day long, Wow A, I'm just not present for our relationship because you can't really smoke them inside the house, and I'm-

[Alyson] B, it stunk like all to hell. Yeah. C, you're buying the very expensive, fancy cigars.

[Luke] Cuban cigars, yeah. If so. They're not cheap. but that Yeah... my point being habits, attachments, addictions are much easier to justify and prolong when they're not destroying your life. Mm-hmm. You know? so where I am with it right now is, like, watching that justification, but also just having some compassion for myself. I could be much worse off, you know what I mean? Where I came from and how far I've come, like, chewing on some nicotine every day is really not the end of the world. That said, I do envision a time when I don't feel like I need anything to feel like myself. It's kind of a disempowering feeling. And I suspect, I'm going back to the iboga microdosing. I did not find it to be helpful, with all due respect to that medicine. I felt that it was making my anxiety worse, and so there were days where I would use a little bit, and it wasn't psychoactive at all. It was definitely a sub-perceptual dose. But I did find it made me more irritable and just kind of amped up, so I elected to stop that. but I think in the future, honestly, what I would probably do is go to an Ibogaine treatment center and spend as much time as I need there and just completely reset, you know, my neurochemistry to the point where it is not so torturous to try to quit.

[51:38]

[Alyson] Now, I'll admit, magnesium's not the sexiest supplement in the world, but it is one of the most

[Luke] Important. I've relied on Magnesium Breakthrough from BiOptimizers for years, and it's one of the few supplements I actually notice when I stop taking. Now, everyone knows magnesium's great for sleep, but beyond that, it helps you wake up more recovered and handle everyday stress with a little more grace. But as I've learned over the past couple years, some chapters of life are more demanding than others. More travel, bigger projects, less downtime, and so on. And that's exactly where the new Magnesium Breakthrough Advanced 10 comes in. Advanced 10 is designed for those times when life asks more of you. And here's how these guys crushed it. They built on the original with 10 bioavailable forms of magnesium, then added vitamin B6 and ionic trace minerals to help your body absorb and use it more effectively. Now, the original Magnesium Breakthrough is still my foundation, but now BiOptimizers has truly taken that formula even further for the times when life goes to 11. So this is probably a fit for you, whether you're traveling more, working longer hours, or just under more stress. Advanced 10 gives your body the support it needs when it matters most. To get yourself stocked up, here's what you do. Go to bi optimizers.com/luke and use the code LUKE15 to save, guess how much? 15%. 'Cause when life levels up, your recovery's gotta level up with it. So hit up bi optimizers.com/luke, and you can also find that link in the podcast show notes. Mm-hmm.

[Alyson] Mm-hmm. and honoring also that you were able to thankfully make a shift about, I don't know, three-quarters of the way through our trip when the dark black hole had swallowed you enough for long enough that, you know, we finally had a come to Jesus conversation one night, and thankfully, I was heard. Thank God. And, um-

[Luke] That was when I was screaming at the bats.

[Alyson] Oh my gosh. That was night three of the bats swooping at our faces and heads. Yeah.

[Luke] Oh, God.

[Alyson] Yes, a lot going on, and honoring and celebrating all of the wonderful animals and creatures who visited us, which the list is a plenty. but yeah, that night, I thankfully was heard. I had to get quite stern and clear. uh, but by the grace of you hearing me and by the grace of God, by the next morning, you assured me in that conversation a shift would happen, and it did. And you know, I know you still struggled with the no nicotine, but you were able somehow to climb enough up out of that black hole that you were at least a little bit more pleasant to be around, and, you know, you did what you could.

[Luke] Well, that's the thing. I was so I don't know, just confused and delusional that there were times when I thought you were being difficult prior to that conversation. You know, I mean, I was having thoughts like, "God, why is she being such a pain in the ass? She's really irritating me." I was just finding like you were just doing things that bugged me and then when we had that conversation, you know, you were Stern enough and clear enough in your delivery that I had a moment of clarity and was able to see like, "Oh, wait, actually this is all me. She's having the time of her life living her best here, and I'm the one that's actually causing these conflicts and things like that." So thankfully, I was able to have that clarity and humility and just take responsibility for my own state and how my negative state was impacting you and kind of really coloring your trip in a, in a way that I didn't feel good about, so.

[55:34]

[Alyson] I even felt that you were being mean to some of the animals. I mean, of course you weren't, like, killing any of them or, like, hurting them, but I didn't like the way you were talking to, like, the spiders. I got so mad. Those, you know, honoring these incredible... I had a whole alchemical process with these giant jungle golden orb weaver spiders that are the size of your face and build these majestic, just mind-blowingly beautiful, quite literally golden webs. Like, the silk that is excreted from them glistens with gold, and when the, depending upon the time of day, the way the sun hits it, they get illuminated with glistening gold or sometimes, like, these like, almost iridescent blues and purples. They're quite mesmerizing and incredible. And also, if you let them, they will just take over your jungle house. They will take over your jungle kitchen. They will take over your pathways. Like, they, you have to really find this relationship with them so that you can both live freely. But yeah, it got to a point where like, some of them would encroach on the pathways or the outdoor shower enough that the, I would hear you, like, with your stick. Again, he was not harming any of them, but he would, like, try to displace some of the way in which the web was going over the walkways, and I would hear you out there talking to them in a way I didn't like, and I was like, "You're, and you're being mean to the spiders. You're being mean to the monkeys," or, you know, I just-

[Luke] Well, I couldn't find a symbiosis, you know? Yeah. I couldn't, I couldn't get into the rhythm of the, of the land because I was so out of sorts, you know? And so that was definitely a part of it. I was, I had to apologize to the bat.

[Alyson] Yeah. To the

[Luke] Bats, You

[Alyson] Cussed at the bat, I think. You, like, said it was stupid

[Luke] They kept, they kept coming in, and they wouldn't leave our space, and it's difficult to sleep when you know there's, like, bats possibly crapping or-

[Alyson] I do

[Luke] Concur with that Crapping on you or biting you, so yeah. Yeah. So anyway, that was the chapter. and again, just, you know, a cautionary tale for people who don't understand the, you know, the impact of of nicotine addiction and, like, how hardcore it can be. I was actually shocked. I had no idea that it would be that big of a deal and that difficult. So you know, it's just a... I don't tell anyone what to do, but it's something to be aware of if you start seeing all these biohackers like, "Oh, nicotine's really good for you. It's great for focus," and there's tons of, you know, non-tobacco nicotine products out there and whatnot. so like with anything, they have, they have two sides. They can be beneficial, but also really easy to habituate to, and if you're someone like me that goes hard, man, it's really difficult to let it go.

[58:36]

[Alyson] Well, honoring you and thanking you for your honesty. Thank you for, again, your willingness and capacity to hear me and listen to me when I approach in certain ways and honoring the fact that you were able to with honor place on the altar of completion Mambe and Umbil. And so yeah, you're doing- Yeah... doing a great job.

[Luke] It's a step in the right direction.

[Alyson] Yeah. I personally would feel off. I know we've been covering this story for quite some time, we have other things to get to, but I do wanna close out my end of the Costa Rica conversation with thanking the animals. I wanna thank the sloths. Remember that cute little baby sloth? And when it would rain, it looked like he had a little wet toupee and Mm... little glistening nose. The cutest little baby sloths, and I know they weren't technically capybaras, but we called these little creatures capybutts, and we'd be so excited, these cute little like giant rodent-looking... What did we decide they actually were?

[Luke] I forget, I forget their name.

[Alyson] They do look like a cousin of a capybara, and we would call them the little capybutts, and they'd run around. They had these little cute little wiggle butts. Remember the dart frogs?

[Luke] Yes. Yeah, the poison dart frogs.

[Alyson] Couple of those. Huge

[Luke] Scorpions.

[Alyson] A couple of humongous scorpions, one with the claws and the arms out and the tail lifted, ready to strike, um-

[Luke] Those are the biggest scorpions I've ever seen.

[Alyson] They were very large. Yeah. Also, I saw two of the hugest hummingbirds I've ever seen. They were so glorious. And the awesome monkeys. That was like honestly, other than the convergence of the jungle, sand, ocean part for me, I think the monkey conversations and howls and sounds, especially that one night where you were kinda freaked out, but I was like in just such a mystical heaven. I was just... I could actually cry now thinking about it, reflecting on this one particular monkey. I don't know what was going on in its life that day, that night, but it just was in its own world and in its own vocalization and the most powerful expressions that I just knew it had endured something. And it wasn't typically most nights or sunrises, its monkey conversations. This particular night, it was dark. You could tell they were close, like very close, and it was just this one in this wildly expressed way that just was so moving and captivating to me. Oh, I miss it so much. The howl

[Luke] Monkeys, man. They're

[Alyson] Wild. So beautiful. And the green macaws The beautiful jungle uh, parrots the snake, the turtle, the, of course, the bats in the house three nights, the huge toad. Remember that Yeah... fatty boy?

[Luke] Yeah.

[Alyson] Huge toad.

[Luke] Yeah.

[Alyson] And the hawk, the jungle hawk, and then I saw an owl. I'm not sure if you saw it. Those beautiful the blue butterflies, and also the one that looked like the green UFO. Remember that guy? And and the-- on day one, that poisonous caterpillar the very first time I went out onto our deck of our hotel room, I was sitting there and this fuzzy what could appear as like, oh, look at this cute little caterpillar. I wanna pet it. But thank the Lord, my intuition it was right next to me, but my intuition said, "Hold up. You should probably research before you pet this cute caterpillar." And it's, like, the most poisonous caterpillar in Costa Rica, and it puts its cute little green, I'm putting cute in quotes barbs into you and puts venom into you. So thank God my intuition was loud and clear that day. And then us getting stuck in the mud, and we couldn't exit the land that one day. Just like what a trip of lessons and medicine and alchemy. I had one of those golden... Or I'll close on this. One of those huge golden orb weaver spiders. uh, and spider happens to be one of the main totems of me and Luke's marriage, and I love, you know, their medicine, you know. Yeah, master weavers and weavers of magic and all the things, and their the only creature on the planet that we know of that creates webs. They're so special, and these are so huge and, like, can be quite intimidating. And I was in the outdoor kitchen one day, and something had appeared so close to my nose and eyes and face that you couldn't... It was blurred out. It was, like, a millimeter away from my face. I could just see that it was large and had looked, like, black, and I thought it was a huge, like, jungle wasp 'cause it was in front of my face. It was up high, so I just blew the air and, like, moved my hands. I was like, oh, trying to swoosh whatever this thing was away. I looked around in the kitchen. I didn't see a wasp flying around, so I thought, "Oh, I must have gotten it away." Went back to cooking my little skillet of scrambled eggs, and about 30 seconds later, something told me to look down, and I looked down, and that huge size of my hand golden orb weaver spider was attached to my thin little bathrobe again on my upper chest. There must have been something going on with my high heart area on that trip. And I looked down, and it was just perched there looking at me, and I did not hurt it or harm it, but I, you know, flicked it off of my bathrobe. And it took me about, I don't know, 24 hours to go through the full alchemy process of shifting from fear to love and then being able to attune with the beautiful golden webs, and I ended up working with it in a meditation. It-- actually, their web medicine I allowed it into my central nervous system, and I-- it-- to-- for some healing and had a beautiful experience, but so much deep alchemy on that trip, so honoring all of that.

[1:04:36]

[Luke] And also got to explore the Caribbean side of Costa Rica

[Alyson] Yeah, you're ending- Which-... like light little note. Yeah, we got

[Luke] To-

[Alyson] Yeah.

[Luke] Never been to that side. Yeah. And also part of, well, part of the trip too was I don't know. You know, I love, I love America and all, but it was nice to be somewhere where there were no chemtrails-

[Alyson] Yeah, not one

[Luke] Day... for a couple weeks, and fewer cell towers, and just, it's just less matrix-y. Yet, at the same time you know, we stayed at our friend Fern's homestead.

[Alyson] Yeah, shout out to Fern and Maxim. Thank you so much for allowing us to, Yeah... what do you call it? House sit? Or-

[Luke] Yeah, there you go. And that was, you know, that just happened to work out timing-wise, but also I'm someone that has these fantasies and ideals around living on the land and living from the land, and I got a more realistic perspective of what that entails.

[Alyson] Absolutely.

[Luke] And just how different things are when you're in another country. You know, there's no Whole Foods, right? We go to the grocery store and it's like, "Whoa, really gotta read labels here," you know? It's just, it was difficult to find healthy food there. And I don't know, just there's, the... Like, I get so annoyed every year when I have to register my car and go get it smogged. I'm just like, "Oh, this is annoying. It's my car." Well, down there, you don't have to get anything smogged, so it's like every little tuk-tuk and motorcycle just, like, blowing exhaust in your face. There's, you know, there's no utopia. I think different places on earth have different benefits and there's good things about them and some that are less so. But I got a little more of a real experience of what it would be like in this idea that I have that we could move to another country, and, you know, everything would just be perfect. And everywhere you go, you're there, and also there are just a different set of challenges. So it's so amazing to look up in the sky and not see tic-tac-toe patterns everywhere, yet at the same time, you get behind someone you know, on an old motorcycle that's, like, blowing diesel fumes into your face, and then you have that, you know? Mm-hmm. So it's like, I don't know, I don't know if there's any perfect place. It's really it's a state of mind, and you were able to turn that place into a perfect place because your attitude was adjusted accordingly. And because of what I was going through, I couldn't do that. So what could have and would have been you know, just absolute paradise was not so much that way for me.

[Alyson] And those purifying rains- Yeah... how heavenly. Oh Yeah... Lord. I never thought, this will actually be my last thing, I promise. but I just never thought, like... I would assume that in my mind the quote-unquote perfect vacation or trip involves, like, very minimal rain, right? You know, you wanna be out and about, and you wanna be, you know, hiking and in the sun and getting your tan and... But what a, again, alchemical surprise when El Niño was going through, and I mean, the heaviest rains I think I've experienced in my life, and the most powerful thunderstorms regularly. And I mean, the rain sometimes went on for, like days, like, sometimes with no end in sight, and I just could not have loved that more, and I relished in that Those rains, they were just so purifying and so magical and powerful. And I thought, you know what? Like, what a cool, unique experience to go somewhere, like very close to the equator, and experience this level of rain. It felt so special, and I felt so honored. So that was such a cool surprise where I wasn't grumbling around. I wasn't like, "Ah," you know, like, "Where is the sun?" Like, I actually didn't care, and I thought I just would sit. I would have our doors open, and I would just sit and watch and listen. I took so many... I'm gonna record some meditations and journeys to the sounds of the rains and of the monkeys that I recorded there, and it was such a treasure

[1:08:32]

[Luke] I spent a long time adding healthy habits to my daily routine, but it wasn't until I started paying attention to what was really draining me that everything changed. Here's the short version of the story. Years ago, I lived under two massive cell towers in LA. No matter how clean I ate or how many health protocols I followed, my sleep was terrible, my nervous system was fried, and I felt awful. So that experience sent me down the rabbit hole of man-made EMFs and how to reduce their effects, and that's exactly when Leela Quantum became a key part of my strategy. Here at home, I use their quantum block to create a more coherent environment, and when I'm out and about in the world, I wear their Heal 360 capsule. It's quantum charged with these little titanium spheres that generate a coherent field around the body. The result of that is that I get home feeling more like myself, especially after travel or long days in EMF-heavy environments, which heads up is any urban area. And when I'm flying or expecting higher exposure, I take it a step further. That's where I add their EMF-blocking clothing. It shields against 99% of measurable wireless radiation. So if you don't wanna spend your life living in a Faraday cage and you wanna be healthy at the same time, here's what you do. Visit lukestory.com/LeelaQ. That's L-E-E-L-A-Q. And if you use the code LUKE10, you're gonna get 10% off your first order. Now, obviously, we can't avoid the modern world, but you can move through it with much more resilience, and that's why you wanna get over to lukestory.com/LeelaQ

[Alyson] Okay. We complete?

[Luke] Yep.

[Alyson] What would you like to talk about next? your book? Any book updates? Um...

[Luke] Yes.

[Alyson] Cool.

[Luke] I think this is the first podcast where I actually have-

[Alyson] Oh

[Luke] An advance reading copy.

[Alyson] Let me give you a round of applause.

[Luke] The uncorrected proof of A Horse Named Lonesome. Here we Yay... for those watching on the video. And when this box arrived, I mean, what a sense of accomplishment and sense of relief that particular phase is

[Alyson] Over. Wow.

[Luke] I have never worked on anything in my life remotely as deeply and consistently and just with as much love and intentionality as I have this book. I had no idea what I was signing up for. A lot of people in my industry use ghostwriters, you know, where they have an idea for a book, and then someone who's really good at writing books writes the book for them. And it's called a ghostwriter because they're sort of in the background and don't get the credit, and you put your name on the book. And for a number of different reasons, I didn't wanna take that route because I really wanted to see what I could do and just challenge myself and and also learn how to write. You know, I don't know how to write. I didn't go to any kind of, uh I never studied literature or English. I dropped out of school as soon as I was legally able to. And so I thought, wow, this is gonna be really fun and exciting, and it ended up being, you know, one of the most challenging couple years of my life 'cause I just have such... If I do something, I just, I have to go all in. You know, I just can't half-ass anything. It's just not in my nature. So because of that I took something that might have been relatively easy for someone else and made it quite demanding.

[1:12:07]

[Alyson] Aw.

[Luke] And so, um-

[Alyson] My heart feels so tender hearing you say this 'cause I'll never forget the day, it was towards the end when you and I were talking about just... I mean, I've never seen anyone by far come close to working as hard and pour so much into a project as I witnessed you with A Horse Named Lonesome. I mean, not even close. Towards the end when we were talking about that, I'll never forget, you said something to me, it just kinda broke my heart. You were like, "Do you think it's because I didn't go to college?" Do you remember when you said that to me? And I just thought, oh my God, like, I just, it I just melt, wanted to melt into the floor because, like, I don't think it was, it's just that. I think it's, you know the other things that you just said, and there's a combination of reasons why it became such a potent journey for you. But I just wanna honor you. You know, you've, like, I think you've said this before, I'm not outing you, like, and you barely have, like, a seventh grade school education. You have wisdom and education in so many other ways that are so far beyond what most humans have. But, like, it's just so commendable, you know, like, your past and your background and such minimal schooling. And it's not because you're my, you're my husband, like, this is the best book I've ever read, you know, and you're such a talented writer, and yeah, just, I don't know, it kinda melts and breaks my heart at the same time that it just feels so tender. I don't know.

[Luke] Well, I mean, if I was writing about something that was Further removed. If I was writing more objectively about a topic, I think it would've been less less challenging as a, as a, an experience, as a project. But because the framework of the book is a memoir, so there's kind of three parts to it. There's stories from my life, and more importantly, the lessons I learned from having those experiences. And also, there's a big component of the book that's interactive with the reader. So there are all kinds of exercises so that people can derive some value and-

[Alyson] Intermissions. I-N-N-E-R. I call it

[Luke] Intermissions

[Alyson] And they're, and they're super cool, very effective.

[Luke] Thank

[Alyson] You. I tried them.

[Luke] But I think one of the reasons that it was so consuming was because I really had to go into the depths of a lot of really dark and painful experiences in my life things from my childhood, all the years that I spent in addiction. And so in a way, I invited myself to relive and reintegrate so many of the experiences that I've had. And they're things that I don't like to think about or talk about or write about. It's like I just wanna move on from you know, many of the ways in which I suffered earlier in my life. And so it was like For anyone that's had a plant medicine experience or something, or any kind of transformational, transcendent experience that you have to integrate, you know, to learn how to acclimate to that experience and recontextualize it. There was just so much work that went into spending time in those stories in a way that I haven't in a long time, and I

[1:15:18]

[Alyson] Mean, you had to ponder if you were gonna approach your abuser.

[Luke] Yeah.

[Alyson] I mean, there were so many layers to this would not be a part of a quote unquote normal book journey.

[Luke] Yeah. Yeah, it's like imagine, you know, journaling about your life for two years straight and specifically targeting the things that you don't wanna think about or revisit or re-feel. And so there was a lot of re-feeling in order for me to integrate the experiences and communicate the stories in a way that wasn't just a wild story, but is something that held value for the reader to the point that if they had not had the exact experience I had, say, of childhood abuse or something like that, or addiction, that how could I tell the story, develop some teaching around that story, but also do it in a way that is completely inclusive of anyone and their life experience. So in order for me to do that, I had to go to the depths of my darkness and excavate that, to bring that to light, to make it relatable for people so that they can apply the same solutions and find ways to connect to themselves and to God and to other people based on their unique life experience. Because-

[Alyson] Mm-hmm...

[Luke] Everything that we go through as individuals is, of course, unique, but there is one universal problem, and that is the problem of separation and mistaken identity, of not knowing who we really are. So the process for me was looking at all the experiences in my life All of the false beliefs, all of the trauma, all the wounds, all the dysfunction, codependency, addictions, whatever. It's like I had to excavate all that because those are the things that have blocked me from intimacy and from connection, and everyone's going to have their own blocks. The point is to illuminate those blocks, identify them, heal them, discard them, move over, and what's left when all of that static is removed is the connection that was always there to begin with. So there's nowhere to get to. There's nothing to learn. It's a process of subtraction. And so for me, I had to really take a really honest and deep look into what those blocks are and what those blocks have been in my life, and that was, that was really difficult. Hence, turn the book in, let's go to Costa Rica and celebrate you know? 'Cause it's Womp,

[Alyson] Womp...

[Luke] Wow. I think there's kind of an emotional a part of that too, I think, was an emotional hangover, right? Of just like, oh my God, I'm just like-... digging in the trenches Yeah... day after day, month after month, and feeling like, "Oh, now that's over. I can just get back to being my happy-go-lucky self," when it's, there's even an integration process in finishing that kind of deep work.

[Alyson] For sure. When It's

[Luke] Just...

[Alyson] Yeah. Yeah. When you walk the path in a certain way and choose to write your own book, what comes with that is a multitude of initiations and a kind of forced embodiment because someone who lives with integrity cannot... The parts of themselves and their soul won't let them put out and publish a book that they're not embodied living the actual teachings that you're imparting to others.

[1:18:30]

[Luke] Yeah.

[Alyson] So it's so, you know those who know, and those who want to write a book and haven't yet, like, and if you walk in a certain way, just know, yeah, it's I don't wanna call it a reckoning, but, uh-

[Luke] It has been. I think it's the difference between writing about a place versus writing from a place. If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably write about a place.

[Alyson] Yeah. I'm thinking of doing a cookbook.

[Luke] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I have ideas for subsequent books, and they're, I wouldn't say superficial, but definitely not, you know, something that I would have to go through the trenches that I, that I worked through. But thank you know, for your support and also thank you for you know, accepting that I was much less available and present for a long period of time and it's just, you know, I was on my mission, on my purpose, and there's nothing that could have stopped me from doing that. had you been- Less patient and allowing, it would've been even more difficult, so, you know. Right. You allowed me to have my process and just be completely absorbed in it and you know, you really showed a lot of unconditional love and support just by you allowing me to be in my own process, which is extremely intense.

[Alyson] Aw, thanks, honey. I appreciate you. Yeah,

[Luke] So thank you for your support. Amen. And also yours, you're all over the book. I mean, there's so many things that I've learned from you and from our relationship, so many pivotal catalytic moments that we've shared in the course of our relationship that Helped me be the man that I am that was capable of writing this book and-

[Alyson] Aw

[Luke] Delivering what I hope to be a really potent message for people.

[Alyson] That's so beautiful. Thank you. Can I did the kind of divination style. I haven't looked yet, but I put the book to my heart. I cleared the energy. I shifted into the field, and I just asked what excerpt would be most fun for me to read and for the listeners to hear. Cool Um-

[Luke] Our friend Kim did that yesterday- Exactly... and brought me to freaking tears.

[Alyson] Yeah, that was so profound. I'm so glad you guys shared in that experience. Oh, man. I think it was so beautiful to kind of watch because it just felt like such a profound moment that you both needed for very different reasons. Like she received a beautiful dose of heart medicine, and so did you at the same exact time through Yeah... reading and this divination style. So here we go. Oh, interesting. I happen to open to the page that has the subtitle Sobriety and Unchained Recovery. the sobriety with the P before it, which Yeah Luke's trademarked, uh-

[Luke] It's a coinage. They call it a coinage. A coinage. I recently learned when you coin, when you coin a term.

[1:21:31]

[Alyson] Yeah, he coined that. I love that one. It's sobriety with a P before... want me to read just a paragraph?

[Luke] Yeah, I love it.

[Alyson] Okay. oh, here we go. this is from Luke's A Horse Named Lonesome, Sobriety and Unchained Recovery. What follows is one way I've navigated sobriety and spiritual growth based on my history, my temperament, and the risks I was willing to assume. Avoiding all mind-altering substances likely remains the wisest and safest choice for most of us. Others find that boundaries can bend without breaking. I'm not suggesting anyone in recovery should use entheogens as I have, nor is any of this meant to disrespect abstinence or the structure that saved my life. I offer permission, not promotion. That's a good, that's a good sentence That's a great statement. I offer permission, not promotion. "The invitation is to pursue whatever supports your wellbeing without comparison or borrowed certainty." Wow. I'll read one more paragraph. This is good. "Psychedelics were not a loophole in my programs, in my program. They served as a necessary override, clearing corrupted code that blocked growth. I'd already redefined my sobriety by the time I began extending its limits. Settling it for myself was one thing, but what it meant for others was another. I knew these ideas were always going to be controversial, especially among more orthodox voices, so I do my best to be mindful in how I share them." And then what follows is him sharing your experiences, but-

[Luke] That's cool. It's neat to hear.

[Alyson] Yeah.

[Luke] Yeah.

[Alyson] You're a great writer.

[Luke] Thanks. Yeah, it's fun. Now I have to go read the audiobook, so I need to actually kind of practice and start reading it myself so that I can hopefully not go over time in the studio and get it done. I'm not great at reading aloud, so I'm gonna have to warm up and practice a bit.

[Alyson] But isn't that interesting that of... How many pages are in your book?

[Luke] Oh, I don't know.

[Alyson] Take a look.

[Luke] I've never, I've never looked. Well, today-

[Alyson] Let's see... now's the time.

[Luke] I know there was around 85,000 words, 253 pages.

[Alyson] Out of 253 pages, I opened to the exact paragraphs that cover what we started this episode with.

[Luke] Yeah.

[Alyson] That's pretty cool Funny how that

[Luke] Works

[Alyson] It's, I tell you know, having written an oracle-based, you know, sacred shamanic medicine book myself they are real true living divination tools. So it's neat to see yours working in a similar fashion. do you wanna tell them about Lonesome Conversations

[Luke] Or well, it's, yeah, it's been, it's been running for a few weeks now. So Lonesome Conversations is a limited series an additional podcast here in this feed that comes out every Friday, and I'll be putting them out every Friday until it feels like it's time to stop. And Lonesome Conversations are focused, shorter episodes, more of a rapid-fire Q&A with guests who have a wide variety of expertise, anywhere from a DNA expert to a trauma therapist to Kambo practitioner and everyone in between, many of the people that listeners have heard on the show. But the idea there was to really focus in on the themes that I cover in my book, which are around existential separation, interpersonal and relational loneliness disconnection versus connection, intimacy addiction, plant medicines, et cetera, all the things that I cover in the book. So what I wanted to do was to get different perspectives on things that I've been spending so much time exploring, and that's been super fun. Also, at times frustrating, because I'll ask someone questions around this kind of topic, and some of the answers are so mind-blowing, and I'm like, "Oh my God, I-- why didn't I think of that? I could have put that in my book," you know?

[1:25:48]

[Alyson] Oh,

[Luke] Funny. Yeah, 'cause someone will come with something totally out of left field, and I just go, "Oh my God, I can't believe I spent years just looking at this from every possible angle," and it speaks to the, you know, the individual experience that we all have of life. So it's been really affirming to me and inspiring and educational because just when I think I kind of have wrestled a topic into a model that can be shared in a way that's helpful to people, all of the guests in Lonesome Conversations have brought something completely different to the table, which has really expanded this topic. And the reason that I chose to write a book about this topic and put out this additional podcast series is I really think that the root of most human suffering has to do with our lack of capacity for connection, you know, to ourselves, all parts of ourselves, the integration of everything that makes us, and the the illusion of separation that happens when you're living inside a body. It's so easy to start believing that you are a body, that you are your thoughts, that you are your feelings That this egoic persona is who you are. And so every person that I've talked to in Lonesome Conversations has illuminated another facet of the human experience when it comes to remembering who we are and finding our way home.

[Alyson] Hmm. Beautiful. And your book website again is?

[Luke] Ahorsenamedlonesome.com. And if you buy the book between now and its release date on November 17th, there are a number of different bonuses. one of them being a series of Lonesome Conversation a, an audio series of those conversations that have never aired and won't air. Some of my favorites and some of the spicier ones you could say along-

[Alyson] Spicy...

[Luke] Along with a comprehensive e-book, which is the transcripts from all those conversations. It's a collection of six.

[Alyson] Oh, that's a great idea.

[Luke] Yeah. And then if people buy two or more books, they get an invitation to the Lonesome Inner Circle Book Club. Mm. Which is going to be once a month for four months, starting at the end of this month, September, going through December, where there is a live session with me, and we unpack some of the topics and themes and cutting room floor excerpts that didn't make it into the book. So it's an opportunity for me to interact with people and ask and answer questions with people who have purchased the book that don't yet have it. So it'll be an introduction for people into my experience of writing the book, what's in the book, and essentially the beginnings of a community are consisting of people that are interested in finding more connection. So I'm really excited about that. It's been a long time since I've done any sort of community or coaching Hmm Retreats or speaking events or anything like that. So he, uh-

[1:28:49]

[Alyson] Can people enter at any time? Like, because they need to get on it. They need to make their pre-order now if they wanna be present to each of the four.

[Luke] We will offer replays. Okay. So we'll record each of the sessions, but I highly encourage people to-

[Alyson] Yeah, live is better

[Luke] Buy two books or two or more. and also, when you buy two books, there's a plus one feature. So say you buy a book for your best friend or spouse or something as your second copy.

[Alyson] Hmm.

[Luke] You also get a plus one invite, and you can bring your-

[Alyson] Cute...

[Luke] Your friend into the-

[Alyson] Maybe I'll make a surprise appearance of mine.

[Luke] You definitely will. You just don't know it yet.

[Alyson] Oh.

[Luke] Yeah. So I'm-- That's the thing I think I'm most excited about, right, is the you know, the opportunity to really interact with people and introduce them to the book in a really personal way. And then you know, once the book comes out, I'll be Having book release parties and speaking tours and events and all kinds of things, which I'm really excited about. As you know, I've been very reclusive and just insulated the past couple years, and a lot of my relationships have kind of fallen to the wayside. Mm. Which is the irony, of course, of writing a book about connection. So many of my connections have kind of petered out because I just haven't had availability for them. So I'm in the phase of, like, reemerging into the world, and the book club is the first way that I'm going to be doing that.

[Alyson] Well, all right.

[Luke] Yeah.

[Alyson] Party on.

[Luke] Thank you for, you know, thank you for asking, and thank you for those of you that have already pre-ordered the book. I really appreciate the support. It's, this is the most meaningful project I've ever done in my life by far. Nothing compares to this, so.

[Alyson] After watching you go through it's just like if I could literally scream from every rooftop in the entire world, I would. It's just like I, it's, in some ways I almost notice, I haven't thought about this till right now, but I feel like, and maybe my book and deck have been out, Animal Power has been out for long enough, I just forget the feeling I felt when mine was about to come out. But it's almost like I have a stronger urging for people to buy your book than I remember pushing for mine, because I'm just like, "Please, you have no idea what he went through." And also, like, the, and just incredible, like, there's for sure a ton of stories in this book that you've never told on any episode. As transparent as you are, like, there's things in A Horse Named Lonesome that are gonna blow people's minds. And so I just like, I don't know, I guess just as your wife and having watched what you went through, I just wanna scream and yell to everyone like, "You've, trust me, you want to get this book."

[Luke] Aw, thank you, sweetie. That's the same feeling I had when you wrote your book the first year we were together. For those that don't know, Our first year was spent with Allison writing her book. And then we moved to Texas, and it came out, and I mean, I recommend it to people all the time to this day. Yeah. And the card deck. And you were also a huge inspiration, just watching the dedication that it took. I mean, your book is a very different type of book-

[1:31:56]

[Alyson] Mm-hmm...

[Luke] Than mine just in the way that it's formatted. But you put everything you had into that book, too, Thank you... I saw you do it, and then, you know, went to your book release parties, and it was just like, shit, maybe if she, if she did it, maybe I could do it.

[Alyson] Aw. Yeah.

[Luke] You seemed to do it with much more grace than I did, I think, you know? you seem to be, like, still kind of living your normal life while you wrote your book. at least that's how it appeared to me, but it was also our first year together, so I don't know. There were

[Alyson] Lots of initiations in my process. There were. I think you just forget.

[Luke] Yeah.

[Alyson] There were definitely times I came down to you, like, just on the verge of... Yeah.

[Luke] That's funny. I blocked those out. Yeah. Like, I think- I, or-... your book writing is, like, you were dedicated. I mean, there was hours and hours you were spending. But I just remember you being, like, feeling successful in doing it and, you know, getting it done. And-

[Alyson] Uh-huh. Yeah, there was

[Luke] That too... things like that. I think you had a bit more of the cultural sensitivity, you know, with the publishing side of it. I didn't have to deal with much of that in terms of, I'll just, I don't know, what do you call it? people are so sensitive around language these days, you know? Mm. In the, in the woke era people are just super sensitive and don't want people's feelings to be hurt by words, which I would argue is your choice if you let words hurt you or not. Mm. But that said despite the nature of some of the controversial things that I talk about on this show around the pharmaceutical industrial complex and, you know, the government and so on, my book isn't really about any of that, so I didnMm I didn't get a lot of pushback in terms of like, "Hey, you need to tone this down," and, you know, I wasn't talking about conspiracy theories or anything like that. So I was able to you know, go through the process with my publisher with very little interference, you know?

[Alyson] Mm-hmm.

[Luke] Which was good. So I remember that part of it with you, of just having to dance around some of the topics that you were covering because of cultural sensitivities and whatnot.

[Alyson] Well, I just had to hold the line for what had to be held, and yeah, there was no way around the lines that I knew I needed to hold, and yeah. so anyways, that's

[Luke] A whole other conversation. What's, and

[Alyson] What's

[Luke] Funny too is that we ended up with the same publisher, two different imprints

[Alyson] That is, that is true

[Luke] Of Hachette. So yeah. I remember a box came like a month ago or something from Hachette, and I was like, "Why are they shipping my book already? It's not done." Yeah. Yeah, it's not even done. It was, it was a bock of, a box of your book. So we're both under the same umbrella, which is kind of funny that it ended up that way.

[Alyson] I used to think burnout was just the price you had to pay for being productive. Then I found something that helps me stay

[Luke] Focused for as long as I need without feeling smoked afterward. It's called NuCalm. It uses a neuroacoustic software to help shift out of fight or flight and into deep recovery in like ten minutes. And the cool thing is there's no gadgets to buy or haul around. You just throw on headphones, open the app, and within minutes you start to downshift or upshift if that's what you're looking for. I've been busy writing a book for the past couple years, and it's one of the most mentally demanding things I've ever done. I'm talking hours and hours of deep focus, revisiting old memories, and organizing a ton of ideas. So before I start a writing session, I'll use one of their Flow State tracks to get me into zen. Then I'll lock in with a Focus track for the next few hours of writing. And I'll tell you what, my wife can attest to this. When I have those headphones on, it's literally impossible to distract me. I'm like a machine. Then afterward, I'll use Recharge or Rescue to help my brain and body recover from hours of intense work. Just twenty minutes of that feels like a full nervous system reset, and NuCalm science supports that. I highly recommend you check out NuCalm, and here's how you do it. Go to lukestory.com/nucalm to start your free seven-day trial. That's free seven-day trial, folks. You'll also save fifteen percent off your subscription. So whether you need better sleep, sharper focus, or a fast reset, NuCalm has a track for it. And again, here's the link, lukestory.com/nucalm. That's N-U-C-A-L-M to get that fifteen percent off. And whether or not you buy it, I highly recommend you at least give yourself seven days for free

[1:36:17]

[Alyson] So we can do two more things this episode- Okay... and I'll let you pick what's first. Luke's Latest or the Field Reveal Energy Forecast?

[Luke] Let me do Luke's Latest 'cause that'll be quick. For those that don't know about this segment in these episodes, we sometimes do. So I'm always on the lookout for new discoveries, new technology, supplements ways to improve your well-being. And so it's just like I'm a geek and that's my habit. And thankfully, a lot of brands send me stuff to try out all the time. I would say maybe not half the time, 20% of the time, it's just not impressive and not something I feel like sharing because I don't think it's worth spending your money on, to be honest. So I get things. Sometimes I don't even open them in time to do these episodes, but I did have a couple new additions that I'm super stoked on. one of them is this thing called the Melalight. For those watching the video, you can see it right here. For those just listening, it's about eight inches tall, and it's a little bedside lamp-

[Alyson] It's cute

[Luke] That only makes red light, and it makes red light that doesn't flicker. So think of it as a manual nightlight. Now, the funny thing is, there's like buttons on the back that say 30 or 60 minutes. When I first got it, I almost chucked it because I thought those were the power buttons, and I couldn't get it to turn off. Hmm. And it was really annoying, so I messaged John, our operations manager, and I was like, "Sorry, dude, this thing sucks. It doesn't turn off." And he's like, "No, dude, it has a touch sensor on the front."

[Alyson] Oh.

[Luke] So you just, you just touch that and you... And it doesn't plug in, so it doesn't make EMF. You charge it, and it lasts forever. So this is a really cool thing I just put on my nightstand, and if I need to get up in the middle of the night or, you know, before we go to bed, I just boink, hit that little button. I

[Alyson] Like that the light is, like, kind of frosted and mellow.

[Luke] Yeah.

[Alyson] Ow, I just hurt my neck.

[Luke] Yeah, it's very subtle. It's not very bright, but it's enough to see around, you Mm-hmm If you're you know, getting ready to go to sleep or you wake up in the middle of the night. So kudos to Melalight for making,

[Alyson] Like, how do you spell that?

[Luke] Like melatonin.

[Alyson] Oh,

[Luke] Okay. So M-E-L-A light, Melalight.

[Alyson] Okay.

[Luke] And we'll put, um... I think we'll have a link to it in the show notes at lukestore.com/689. The next one is, and this one I was like, "Oh, God, just what we need, another, like, powdered electrolyte." But our friends at BiOptimizers, a longtime supporter of the show, a sponsor of the show, sent me these, and I was like, "Oh, whatever," like, "We don't need that." And then I looked a little deeper into it, and they formulated something that has a much better ratio of minerals. It's not so sodium heavy. It's actually much more potassium heavy, and also has a ton of their great magnesium in it. So this is my new electrolyte of choice, which is especially important if you're living somewhere like Texas in the summer and sweating a lot. It's called Electrolyte Breakthrough. So these guys made a really clean, easy to They're quite

[Alyson] Tasty.

[Luke] Yeah. And they're tasty, and they pass my my scrutiny in terms of the ingredients they use Then there's another one called True Myco and True Micro, and these are microgreens- Hmm... that are grown right on site and then freeze-dried and delivered right to you. And you Are they

[1:39:36]

[Alyson] Capsules

[Luke] Or? No, this is a powder. Oh. So it's a, like, highly concentrated, highly bioavailable super greens powder.

[Alyson] That you put in, like, smoothies or?

[Luke] Yeah, I mean, I just put them in water, you Oh... usually. But you if you didn't wanna taste really strong kind of a sprout vegetable kind of flavor.

[Alyson] I like to get my greens in this way. I like to put powdered greens into smoothies.

[Luke] Yeah. And I mean, over the years, like, this is a category that's really been played out, like, "Oh, super green powder." I mean, this is going back 30 years. I've been taking different versions of this. But these guys did it in a really unique way. It goes right from their farm that they completely micromanage to make sure that everything is grown with the utmost care and it's also just very potent. So as someone who really dislikes vegetables, this is a great option for me. So that's a new one there that I'm into.

[Alyson] Oh, it smells like greens.

[Luke] It's potent, yeah. It's, it... To me, it tastes like... And I have... Maybe this is what it is. I have some notes on it somewhere, but it's like I love sprouts. I like The Sprouting Company. I go through phases of making sprouts, but you know, it's a little laborious, and you have to keep them fresh, and they go bad. This, to me, is like all of the nutrient density of sprouts but in a powder that doesn't go bad and get moldy.

[Alyson] Hmm. And

[Luke] Then the last one is... I gotta make sure I pronounce it right. Oh, that one's called Urban Roots, the True Micro and True Myco. The Myco one also has healthy doses of mushrooms like chaga, cordyceps, and lion's mane, and it's the full fruiting body. It's not just a bunch of sawdust like many mushroom companies use. And so when they freeze-dry the whole food microgreens, they retain all of the potency of the nutrients that you're looking for. Nice. I'm

[Alyson] Gonna try them.

[Luke] This thing right here, this jar, is a company called Tonic, and the product is pronounced Kova. Like K-O-H-V-U-H but it's spelled Q-O-V-A, and this is a daily longevity powder. And what got my attention about that is, A, that it's really clean, but it also has a lot of the other supplements that I take from different companies in all of these different capsules. Mm. And over the years, I'm just like, "Dude, I'm sick of taking supplements. I have capsule fatigue." So this is really good for energy production, for longevity pathways, NAD support, senolytic clearance, mitochondrial energy, methylation, Autophagy, and gut immune health. So it's got NMN, which is a precursor to NAD. It's got the antioxidant CoQ10, spermidine, and apinogen- apogen- apigenin, and they use a liposomal delivery system to improve bioavailability. So and then it also has some probiotics and things like that help with the absorption. But what's rad about it is it comes in a jar, and it's I don't know how they did this, but it just has no real flavor to it, so it's really easy to mix in things. And rather than taking 45 capsules, it just comes in a big scoop, and one scoop of that is like a clinical dose of all these incredible nutrients that again, I'm-

[1:42:52]

[Alyson] Is this good for men and women?

[Luke] Hell yeah

[Alyson] Even the sperma- This is all my... spermidines? What's the sperma stuff?

[Luke] Spermidine?

[Alyson] Yeah, what's that?

[Luke] Well, it's one way to really increase your sperm health for men, but it also has a number of other benefits that I can't remember right at the moment, but I have done a podcast about it.

[Alyson] Right.

[Luke] Um...

[Alyson] I remember the term.

[Luke] Yeah, I don't have any notes about it. it comes from Japanese natto, the fermented soybeans-

[Alyson] Uh-huh...

[Luke] Which is loaded with spermidine, but it smells and tastes like athlete's foot, so it's a pretty tough sell for people, unless you know, grew up in Japanese culture and you're acclimated to that potent kind of flavor profile. So sper-

[Alyson] I also remember when you would eat it would just be like you would... There would just be globs of strings, like-

[Luke] Yeah...

[Alyson] I was like, "Is that all right to ingest?" Yeah. Like, it just did not

[Luke] Look edible. Natto is an acquired taste. Yeah. I personally don't mind it. I grew used to it, but again, it's one of those things, like it'll go bad if you don't eat it fast enough and things like that. So yeah. The spermidine is definitely one of the heavy hitters. Basically, you know, there's like a top five or 10 things that I like to take on a regular basis, but I just... Like I said, I get capsule fatigue, and I'm just like, "Dude, I can't take 100 capsules a day." And also, I don't wanna overwhelm my system with these little nutrient bombs, and so I find, you know, taking this particular product, which I've been on for about two or three weeks now I don't know, it's just much more subtle and just blends easy into a drink, and I'm getting all that without having to pound a bunch of capsules. I

[Alyson] Know you really like something when you don't tell me about it.

[Luke] Exactly.

[Alyson] I'm like, "I'll still..." We do these episodes, I'm like, "Wait, where has this been? Where has that been? I haven't seen these things." I'm like, "Oh, he got it. He knows that this is a treasure, and he's hoarding this, and he doesn't want me to be like, 'I wanna take that too!'" 'Cause you wanna try everything. Well,

[Luke] That happened with the the Peak protein, that amazing collagen product. Yeah. You know? I didn't hide it from you, but I was like, "Oh," 'cause I see you taking collagen, and I'm like, "Well, this is a... This is the best collagen I've ever found." And then all of a sudden we need to get a bag for each of us 'cause we're going through it so

[Alyson] Fast. We need his and hers. Yeah. Yeah. That's just so funny, though. I've noticed that pattern through enough time has gone on, where I'm like, "Wait, he didn't tell me we got these things. Oh, it's because he really wants them."

[Luke] That's part of it, but Honestly, part of it too is I've learned over the years that you have your own navigation system, and I think early on I was, like, pushing you to take all this stuff all the time 'cause I care about you and I want you to be healthy and feel good too. So I also just don't wanna overwhelm you, and-

[Alyson] Mm-hmm...

[Luke] You know, you have your own protocol going with your various-

[Alyson] How about we strike a healthy balance? You could allow me to know that a new thing has shown up, then I can do my intuitive dip in to decide. Sure. Because then I'm like, "Oh, I am resonating..." Well, I like the Light too, but for the ingesting stuff, those, both of those products, Yeah... speak to me. So anyways.

[1:45:56]

[Luke] Yeah, that one's a good one. I mean, you could definitely handle that 'cause it doesn't really have a taste and it mixes-

[Alyson] Yeah... into something. I'm very taste-

[Luke] You're not into

[Alyson] The-... small.

[Luke] You're, you have, like, maximum capsule fatigue even more than I do, so.

[Alyson] And I take so few, and I can only take one at a time 'cause I just like, that's all I can-

[Luke] Yeah.

[Alyson] Yeah.

[Luke] So I think that's it. That's my latest. Okay. Just those couple things. They're all interesting. Wonderful. So we will

[Alyson] Close out this episode with our monthly The Field Reveal Energy Forecast. For those who don't know, this is my new brand of offerings that are slowly formulating and emerging and wafting out into the world. I've been working in the background on Thefieldreveal.com. That's not live yet and I don't know when it will be, but I'm working diligently and daily on that and some other really cool offerings that involve love and people who are ready for finding their life partner to be able to do that in a beautiful way that involves these Field Reveal practices. So once a month, I shift into the field, the divine field, and just see what the field has to report to me, and then I report back to you in this fun way. Are you ready?

[Luke] I am ready.

[Alyson] Okay. This month will bring a hailstorm of new ideas and possibilities, plus a lot of energetic chatter all around. So, you know, with this energetic chatter, it just, it just might feel like there's a lot in the field. It might feel like you're kinda being pulled in a lot of different directions. So one solution is to ensure you eliminate distractions and make sure you're focused on practices that empower you to stay in your center. What is your go-to practice that helps you stay in your center?

[Luke] New Calm. Yeah, that's

[Alyson] A

[Luke] Good one Doing the, doing the NuCalm meditations. Also the ah, the visor, the hypnagogic- The helmet?

[Alyson] Oh, the-...

[Luke] The hypnagogic light-

[Alyson] Right...

[Luke] Experience, which is a, like a, you know, substance-free little psychedelic journey, anywhere from five to 20 minutes. And so those two tools for me are definitely Key in terms of keeping my perspective in reality, and I find, like, it takes me there much faster than just sitting down and meditating on the natch, which I also do, but I don't know. Over the years, I've learned that I can get more benefit in a shorter period of time if I have a little assistance. Oh, good. So, you know, just taking time to go within and kind of disassociating from the experience of having and being a body and all of these thoughts and feelings and sensations, and just going into the quantum field where everything is one.

[1:48:58]

[Alyson] Mm-hmm. For me, it's chanting. I love kind of any divine chant, but especially the one we do often together about Jesus. Love that We did

[Luke] It today.

[Alyson] Yep. Did it a couple times today I,

[Luke] I came into the closet, the closet in our bedroom, and Allison's in there doing her chanting.

[Alyson] Sitting on the floor chanting.

[Luke] Yeah, it was like your... It's the last room I would ever, like, suspect would be the spiritual center, but yeah, sometimes I find you in there, and it's always inviting to join in, so I'm glad I did today.

[Alyson] And I also love just simple, quick gratitude practices. That always helps me regain center instantly, is I just, like, look around at our beautiful home, look at you, look at Cookie, and I'm just like, "Ah, I'm golden." Number two on the Field Reveal Energy Forecast, breezes of new positive life force are entering too. Sweet new opportunities are also presenting on the horizon. So focus on the opportunities that further ignite your new era, perhaps your new business, your new pathways, not the old. So again, amongst all of this, quote unquote, "energetic chatter," potential noise, and just a lot presenting to you this month, another good solution practice is to make sure that you are setting your gaze on the opportunities that are going to further propel you into your new directions, not things that are of your past that are just gonna kinda keep you stuck or getting tugged in a direction that you actually don't wanna be going in. Number three, trust change, and keep letting the new you emerge and trust the new directions revealing. So the power animal that would support you in that would be the dragonfly. The dragonfly is huge on new directions. Another key theme is you do not need to rush. So don't confuse the chattery energies for a false sense of urgency. Be the centered focus still in any potential swirls. And I'll close out with covering mind, body, spirit, emotions. So for the body, a good helpful focus would be on your posture, your spinal cord, and your fascia. Yeah, both Luke and I had just gotten to a more upright postural stance. That felt good. For your mind, the affirmation, there's no real urgency. I am focused. I am calm. I am centered. For your spirit, a helpful affirmation would be the simple, I trust in my evolution. I trust in this evolution. For your emotions, you could remind yourself with their wide range, I appreciate being blessed and raw Because you can feel a sense of appreciation and blessing for the full spectrum of emotions. I think that is very supportive in us being in healthy in relation to totality, and also in healthy relation to equanimity is, you know, if you feel an emotion that maybe in the past you have, like, kind of tried to separate yourself from or labeled as, like, a naughty one, how about just working the practice of with their wide range, I appreciate being blessed and raw, 'cause it's a blessing to be able to feel everything. And the overall statement that supports this entire The Field Reveal energy forecast is, "I am at one with me wholeheartedly. Happily, I can be at one with me." And that is this month's Field Reveal Energy Forecast. It's kinda fun being like a meteorologist of spirituality.

[1:53:10]

[Luke] I'm picturing the green screen backdrop.

[Alyson] Oh, that's coming. That is, that is coming. when I get back on social media, I have been, like, preparing all the different parts and pieces of The Field Reveal brand, and the match component, which is the love component of it. And when it comes to social media, yes, me doing the green screen effect and speaking these reports these forecasts out on Instagram and TikTok, they are coming.

[Luke] I can't wait.

[Alyson] Yeah.

[Luke] The storm front is moving through. Clear skies ahead, folks.

[Alyson] Yes.

[Luke] Well, thank you again for joining me for episode six... What was it? 689, my dear. Okay. And I look forward to the next one, and thank you for your support with my book.

[Alyson] Mm-hmm.

[Luke] Thank you for the incredible degree of tolerance that you displayed on our recent trip, and for loving me unconditionally through my waves and struggles. And it's such a testament to the power of unconditional love.

[Alyson] Well, we gotta be there for each other through you know, speaking to the full spectrum of this beautiful, odd, special, quirky, mysterious human life experience on Earth. we've gotta be able to, you know, for those that we choose and feel an alignment and resonance with, be able to show up for our people not just when things are light, but there's also that beauty. And thank God you are willing to hear me, and thank God I am willing to express to be heard, because there does come those fine lines where it's like, okay, I wanna let him be in his journey, and I wanna let him be in the process he needs to be in, and also stay attuned to my gifts as an oracle and seer to know when enough is enough, and when the day comes to have said come to Jesus conversation and be like, "Okay, like I wanna to let you feel that and go through that, and something's gotta shift now." And you let yourself listen to that, and it all happens. So it's just, it's such a beautiful dance.

[Luke] Through thick and thin. Yeah. I wish I could cue the Black Crowes song Thick and Thin right now, but I don't think we're allowed to play commercial music, unfortunately.

[Alyson] Aw.

[Luke] So thank you, dear. Until the next one.

[Alyson] Okay, bye.

[Luke] What's up, friends? Glad you could hang out with me for this week's episode of The Lifestylist. If you wanna make sure you never miss a single damn thing, hit that subscribe or follow button right now, 'cause new episodes drop every Tuesday. Plus, the last Friday of every month, we do our raw Ask Me Anything session based on your questions. And here's something a lot of listeners don't know. At lukestray.com/podcast, you can search the entire back catalog. I'm talking over 600 episodes of biohacking, spirituality, healing, and straight up truth bombs. You can punch in any topic or guest you're curious about, and you'll pull up exactly what you want in seconds. And hey, if today's episode moved you, share it with a friend. Text it, post it, slide it into a DM, whatever. Word of mouth is how this community grows. And I've got one request for you. If you've gotten value from this show, one simple way to give back is to leave a quick rating and review. It really helps me reach new people and lets me know which episodes hit the hardest. And I can't emphasize enough how much your rating and review matters. There's a reason why almost every host begs their audiences to do it. But unfortunately, most listeners don't take action. So be the one who does. And once you do, go back and hit up lukestray.com/podcast where you can dive into all the archives, the audio, video, show notes, and of course, transcripts. Thanks in advance for supporting the show, and until next time, be well, my friends.

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