Danny didn’t fit in as a child. Nowadays he might be considered neurodivergent, but his parents never tried to change or “fix” him. He spent much of his youth with the nomadic Sawad people near Galilee.

For Danny, the desert represents oneness on a cellular level – being a part of nature, not separate from it. But forty years spent in the desert came with a dramatic toll on Dany’s health, which took him – at the time of the Arab Spring – to the UK and then finding himself unable to return to Egypt, and unable to fit in.

Links

• Danny’s website
• Walking Your Promise – Danny’s three-day retreat

Greetings and welcome back to Peripheral Thinking, the series of conversations with academics advisors, entrepreneurs and activists, all people working to champion the ideas on the margins, the periphery.

Why.

The ideas which will shape the mainstream tomorrow are hiding right there on those margins, the periphery.

And through these conversations, we hope to inspire you with this thinking, inspire you with these ideas so that you can bring them back to the mainstream of your, of your work, of your life, of the day-to-day.

In today's conversation, I um, I speak to Danny Shmulevitch.

Now, Danny is a true wilderness guide.

I dunno if he uses that exact phrase, but that's certainly my kind of feeling.

Danny grew up in the Sinai Peninsula and his kind of work and life has seen him living hunting Explor.

Learning from various nomadic tribes, whether the Bedouins or the, the sand tribesmen.

Danny's story is one from the wilds of Africa, uh, all the way to the, the kinda leafy surrounds of Gloucestershire.

It's a story of hunting.

It's a story of learning.

It's a story of healing.

Uh, I hope you enjoy the conversation with Danny as much as I did, uh, and you know, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Danny, thank you for joining me on Peripheral Thinking.

Good to be here.

How, how do you describe your work if I, I, in my mind I was thinking desert and wilderness guide, is that right or wrong?

Well, wilderness come into it, yes.

The definition of guide guiding.

Yes.

That's come.

I think it's probably, there is a link there.

Although I don't feel that I'm, yeah, I suppose I would take the credit of guide and leading it and, and so on for, in the last 25 years or more.

Uh, but the, yeah, the connection to that part of the world, the desert that I'm, very much, uh, feel at home there is, is is big chunk of my life.

So, yeah.

So it's, so, it's why ness?

Because when you receive people to your home, you don't feel a guide.

You know, guiding, I mean, you are, you're hosting people and you're holding creative, safe place to be in wilderness, which is quite something.

To be held kind of, to be vulnerable and safe in, in a wilderness of desert.

That's quite, profound place to be.

Because, uh, you know, when you ask yourself, when is the last time you held you, you, you felt vulnerable and safe probably in your, our bums arms.

Yeah.

I suppose that's how it feel.

I think the, the particular location where I'm running the world is, is probably the most feminine GPS in the planet.

I would say.

It's incredible.

So it's feel very mother, you know the mother earth is, is she is around you.

Yeah.

But not in, in a, you feel it, it's vibration.

it's kind of trigger deep, deep resonance within us.

I think that's, that's, that's what it is.

So it's my, I never feel that I'm doing anything.

It's just doing it.

And so where, where, where did you, where was growing up then?

So your name, your name's from, your name is from, uh, you were saying outside Prague, but, so where was, where was growing up?

But, but I, I grew up in Galilee, so that was kind of my early days of, when I, beginning to orientate, my relationship to the , to the world.

Mm-hmm.

I think as a child, I think it didn't feel that it's the right place for me to grow.

For whatever reason, whatever happening around me, it was shut me down for many, many years and I hardly could speak.

So I grew up, that's my first connection to the indigenous people.

There, there.

That's where I felt comfortable.

I suppose, you know, nowadays I probably will, you know, be under the category of special need or autistic child or something that's, you know, not communicating.

Mm.

That was, that was my, the, my formative years was basically in a, in a, around the firing in under the canopy with the, the tribes around.

Is that what your family were doing or is that what you were doing?

That's what I'm doing.

No family.

Were in a community though.

In, in certainly there.

Um, but, um, but I, I wasn't, I was very, definitely did, couldn't fit myself.

Today would be, as I said, it would be something wrong with this child, so.

Mm-hmm.

And my dad gave me the freedom to grow around the fire, which was, I thought it was a very, um, you know, not try to definitely, they didn't try to fix me.

And I think that's probably the, my deeper connection to what I'm doing now is, is to work with that quality of, well, quality of freedom if you can describe it like that.

Cause it obviously wasn't any nomadic communities in a, they're not fitting in.

Yeah.

Their not fitting in fit me very well.

Right.

Yeah.

Okay.

Later on I become kind of the voice to the voiceless.

Mm-hmm.

for this, for this people.

Right.

For somebody who was not speaking for a long time.

Not speaking, not fitting in.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so Galilee obviously a hugely kind of evocative name for, clearly lots of yeah.

Biblical mythological tradition

But it was, nothing of this, this biblical background is resonate with me at all.

It almost, uh, kind of, get me out of here.

that's not my terrain.

It felt somehow energetically very uncomfortable.

I probably, I can today can understand it a bit more why?

But I think if we go to that historic location, the, you know, the place is saturated with conflict and, And a lot of righteousness of course.

And, so, my understanding that God doesn't have religion, so.

Mm-hmm.

So I never understood religion.

If God is not religion, why we, what's, what's nothing's all about?

God is not a Muslim is not Christian, it's not Jewish, it's not Buddhist, Just God.

It definitely that God definitely didn't have a beard.

Unlike us.

Yeah.

Well that's part of kinda, you know, we putting God on a pedestal, which is basically a may for some reason still.

And that's, that's off-putting for me anyway.

Yeah.

I was looking for the Godess.

What you are describing there, the nomadic communities kind of not fitting in and feeling a kind of resonance, a connection with those.

So I've just, cuz I'm really curious also feel that kind of real sort of attraction curiosity to that idea of the, the nomadic people, which of course is obviously in many ways very, very different to the kind of context that I live in now.

But I'm kind of really curious.

Tell me more about those tribes.

Well, I think this tribe in Galilee was, and then later on in the Sinai Desert, it's a different tribe that I met later on in Kalahari Namibia.

It was a springboard, it was a kind of introduction to, to community, to people that holding a connection that's, or information I would describe it, that's not available to, to the modern man.

And that's, that's the information that I was seeking, I suppose.

Of the knowing.

How do they know?

How did they know how to find a, you know, to dig to find water?

So I think they're knowing their sense, their antennas.

That was, I think the curiosity of, to find out more about how they navigate their life.

And it's not, it wasn't through thinking.

it was a very, real vibration field of feelings.

So it was something connection that we are, so I, I felt very, I've drawn into it.

It was, uh, you know that question, how do you know it's a kind of scene to be able to sing.

it's not a visual scene.

It's, it's, it's a, it's a kind of a feeling scene that can see you, I can feel you.

And that's the connection that I was launching to.

And I, I today understand where it's coming from.

And I think it's, but that was the magnet for me to explore that which make me feel very comfortable.

Just going back, how old were you when, so you spoke about your dad kind of letting you, uh, gave you the freedom and

In very, my early, 5, 6, 7, I was already, you know, in a field.

Dad used to come and collect me.

four-wheel drive, that's, but I, he knew that I'm safe.

And these were, these were just sort of tribes who were nearby?

I mean, like how do you

Yeah, the grays in our fields.

So, yeah.

So they were, but I could sense that there's some non-trust gap there.

you know, the, the connection was, you know, it was, people that not fitting in and they couldn't relate to them, their language there, everything about it.

And there was obviously it was a relationship to, um, they didn't seem like, like, um, primitive or whatever kind of category that, just grazing their animals.

So

obviously look, look at, look at those people that they're, less advanced or let's put like that, but it was probably, the description obviously was probably nowadays will related to racism.

But the, so the time with them kind of nurtured that idea, that question, that curiosity in your mind, the attraction to these people, which were, like I say, kind of voiceless, nomadic not fitting in.

And so that, that from there, spending time with more, more tribes, different tribes and into kind of, into the Sinai, into new areas.

What was the sort of, yeah, what was the journey?

I it is really, probably unconsciously I attracted to it because you are looking for a real connection.

And I think, to understand that connection, we probably need to go to our own, historical connection, which is going back all, all the way down to to our mother, of course, the ultimate kind of, mother, mother nature.

And there's something to do.

Now I'm a bit more accurate about that, that experience, that feeling be before I, you know, I just, I don't think I was fully aware of what I'm looking for.

I mean, today I can put some translation to it, a bit more clear translation, why, what happened really.

And I think that connection with the mother, it's, it's a wellness connection that we all experience.

We all, that's, that's universal.

You know, nine months we are a hundred percent connected.

Every cell with us, and then we coming out, walking towards life, and then the separation start.

and maybe beginning to experience all sort of, events that some of them could be quite dramatic and we might describe them abundance or rejection.

Or, or just not good enough.

And we, we looking for that connection all through our life.

We want to re, to reconnect.

You know, we all longing for this wireless connection.

And it's been imitated through relationship and okay and, but it's, , that level of connection, it's, it's very rare.

How do you resonate with someone on that level of oneness, which is on a, we're talking about on a cellular level, really.

it's not a esoteric oneness.

It is, um, there is, configuration in two ones.

There is something very, precise.

It's a very, the geometry of one.

It's, it's beautiful.

And that's, that's kind of connection is, wouldn't say it's not available, but I think it's, uh, it's hard to.

I mean, we get the grip of it and that make the enough, the, a connection that make relationship.

but very quickly after that, I think we, we experience, we tend to experience relationship with convenient.

how do you wake up every morning and fall in love with a partner with something else?

But that's the oneness if, if you can make that connection otherwise it is, most of us experience the, falling in love with the idea of each other.

So let's go back to this.

It's interesting, the desert, for me, the desert represent that oneness.

And it's on a cellular level, not the story, not the kind of that, not the, the story that we are the humanist, kind of the human condition around mother, you know, the, that we are not, uh, So that's, that's the, I think the bigger mother, the mother, what we call mother nature.

I think probably that's where I feel most comfortable.

And that's where the retreat based on, I suppose that's kind of the connection to what I do today.

Because I think it's, there was a, it's very quickly, uh, we call it nature, but we are that nature and we, we find it very much easier to dissolve to that connection to that, the bigger form of configuration of mother nature than our own mother, mother nature.

and eye witnessing it kind of every day, it's kind of bypassed all the trial allow of human condition and that, that connection that we all looking for, I think is, is, is marriage.

It's, we are eight.

We are experienced the oneness.

And I think that's where, I suppose why people are drawn into kind of what we call nature.

It's a sort of place without judgment.

Yeah.

It's without judgment, without you know, you don't have to be good.

You don't have to, you know, is the, is the place of truth.

I mean, that's the, that's the truth of you is beautiful.

And it's no different between this beautiful oak tree and yourself, it's uh.

So it's the terrain of nature.

There's no, there is.

Separation.

It's only in this container of the mine, which I call it kind of the bonai condition, and little pots there and trying to navigate through it.

But, um, but that's not who we are.

So, um, just go, going back for a moment.

So the, uh, that, that question that you were asking of the tribes, who, how do you know, how do you know whether it's water?

How do you know, how do you, how are you able to hunt?

I mean, I'm really curious about that.

They couldn't actually, of course it came up.

There's no, it didn't come up with any, uh, scientific explanation to it.

But when, when I witnessed the hunting, the hunt was there as we were walking in the morning and kind of first on and we stopped and then.

I questioned, why are we stopping?

He said, well, they can see the antelope, And that is in Namibian desert in Kalahari.

And I just looking around, said, well, I, I don't see any antelope.

And my guy said, well, yeah, yeah, they, they can see an antelope.

so my left brain obviously kind of doing the usual, yeah, I believe it when I see it kind of thing.

And then we carry on and walking and then, and here it was the antelope.

And that's, that's, that was a big wow in my life, kind of, so that, that's kind of, how do they know, that's the way of seeing, and I could sense that they're sensing something, , but to name it so accurately, to name it antelope, that was a big deal.

And that's, that was a big question of, of how do they sense the world around them, the environment around them.

the second one was, I stay behind and they start to move, in a very, very beautiful oneness, you can call it in a, like a flock of sting.

towards, towards the antelope.

And obviously my question again, it was why not running away?

And obviously noticing and then they need to come very close to it because to be effective with arrows, they have to close them.

and the not running away.

And that's, that was, that's, that's as beyond any, I couldn't translate any, none of that.

And then of course, they needed to get, you know, 20, 30 meter to be effective and then, and then the arrow just went and on the ground.

When I asked them how, how that works, they said Well, they become like the antelope.

That as far as you know, it was, you know, I, I couldn't, I couldn't put any science behind it.

What, what, what do you mean, become just the antelope?

Yeah.

So if they become like the antelope.

Yes.

So that, so of course the antelope not running away.

I can understand that.

But they're not antelope.

And that's the first, probably my first glimpse of one.

They knew how to do awareness with antelope, basically, not just with antelope.

They, the new, they, they're still live in awareness.

That's hunter gathering, still, still live in awareness.

The separation start, agricultural age with, that's, it was the beginning of the separation of, of nature and, and us and agriculture and control and all the rest of it.

And I think that's evolutionary.

I think that's where, you know, where we are.

It's, we're kind of trying to fit down to where we, you age of, we call it digital age, but it is very much rerun to our head kind thing.

The thinking, the left brain at go 5,000 years go back, I don't think would help them or sell them to, to hunt the antelope.

So that the brain was somewhere else.

It's probably more in the gaps or, as they call it, we've got thousand eyes in the body, they see from a different place.

But even when you ask them to remember, when you ask them to draw self portrait, they couldn't do it.

the, the drill landscape, there's no separation between, the self hasn't been evolved yet.

That that was when we have kind of a, children between nine and 11 to draw.

They couldn't.

There wasn't me and, and nature or the environment.

It was the first skin is is was out there for them.

So then that was a, i, I don't think we can close the gap of to feel it, but I think we're getting from time to time in our life, I think we've got a glimpse of that connection, which happened.

It's why I was attracting, you know, the held all my retreat in the desert because it's was something, the connection there.

It's a very, think it's something to do with our makeup, the cellular level of our own terrain.

I mean, Desert is a silica desert, and you know, our skin is silica where eye is, silicon air is sil, all the mineral.

It was very, I think it was.

The process of dissolving into that, the vibration field of desert probably It's quite, um, it, it is profound connection.

I, I'm, I'm not surprised that power three prophets start the Korea and that desert, you know, find it's, you know, all something happened and obviously after 40 days you do come glowing.

And we seen this through my work.

You can see the, the glow very, very short time.

So you, you were hosting people in the desert then?

Yes.

Yeah.

So you witness the transition, people go and been in solid you for three days, just drinking water, doing fast.

And so everything is calmed down and that's just kind of speed up the kind of the, the connection.

But it's the most tender energy between people that I ever experienced.

And that's, I suppose, that I would qualify.

That's probably the, unconditional love would be very accurate.

And the unconditional, the last unconditional love that we experienced is again, is with, with the mother, is our mother.

And I think that's what we actually, that's, that's what's happening in the, that's the connection actually.

There's unconditional love.

And that's probably why we refer it as the mother nature as well.

Mm-hmm.

So you were, you were hosting people, uh, in the desert, running these things, but you're not in the desert now, so, what changed?

Well, life kind of, you know, sometimes kind of put you on a, on the edge and ask as if, what did you learn?

Things change dramatically in, in the desert 10 years ago in.

The political weather changed, but although the inner, my inner weather changed too, and I, I experience.

Very profound, uncomfortable experience with my health, which I didn't know at all what happening.

And I was in the middle of, in the middle of the desert with my son, with Jonathan, was building a school with the children.

The children build their own school and we just, leading it.

my health was deteriorating and I was, my suspicion was water, of course, that drank contaminated water.

and it was a point that I needed to go to, well at, at that time I didn't, hospital didn't come across my mind cause I'd never been in hospital before and was kinda so I came back to here, to England and um, collapsed and, and found myself in emergency unit.

And I remember what they say when I, you know, you're just lying there with all sort of tubes and wired into all sort of machines and say, well, you, you broke the NHS liver inflammation and we prepare you for liver transplant.

So that was, uh, that was interesting, uh, news, which didn't quite resonate with in my space at all.

So I, I obviously, I, I did challenge that.

I said, well, I, it sounds like a big deal and so I need to think about it.

So you've collapsed, you know, you've collapsed.

There's been some complete sort of breakdown of body, which is a, uh, so, you know, massive liver information.

So kind of liver failure, I guess that that is mostly

liver failure.

Yeah.

And so liver failure and, uh, you've had to come back to the uk.

So you are in a hospital, uh, and the doctor is saying to you, you have liver failure.

We need to transplant your liver.

That's a very clear sum up.

Yes, yes.

Which does sound pretty intense.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sometimes you have to put some translation to, from time to time to my, uh, story.

So, and that was led to interesting dialogue with the doctor, which, uh, I, that led to a conversation that was nothing to do with my health.

He wanted to know what I'm doing.

So you,

So you basically said, he said, you need a liver transplant.

You said, this sounds like a big deal.

Uh, I'm not sure I'm ready for this.

So what, what happens at that point?

So that point, I asked him to, some time basically to, I, I need some space to do some work.

I told him I'm working with indigenous people and there's something that I feel that I need to do before we going to the, the mood of fixing.

Uh, and I, I had a kind of sense that, you know, all my 40 years in the desert kind of brought me to that place of asking, okay, what did you learn?

Right.

It was a powerful kind of shift in my kind of, okay.

You, you're teaching, you're teaching this work called, you know, how many years?

this is your kind of, I say walk the talk.

So when, when you say work?

I describe, you know, when I say the work.

There was a feeling that there was something you needed to do for yourself before you submitted to this sort of, big kind of medical intervention.

The big.

So they're saying, we're gonna take your liver out.

Your feeling was, No, I don't want to go there yet.

Um, there is, there is some healing that I can do or some time that I need to give to, to respond before that happens.

Was that, that was the, what was kind of coming up for you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it, I knew that it was a kind of a, a place that it's either you kind of give your power wave to okay, you are the expert, you'll fix it, or you're creating a space, a condition for healing, and which I knew that that is, that, that's what I call the, the work.

It's certain, Condition in our own alignment in our body, that creates a space for healing.

But we have become very good to, to do the kind of the super glue business and we can fix this and we can fix that.

So it was a choice there.

It's either you are, what I call doing the work is, create alignment with your own constitution to do the work, or you submit yourself to the fixing business.

And so the doctor agrees, says, Okay.

Said, we'll, we'll give you, I'm, I'm happy to support you there, but we'll be, we are going to check you in every half an hour.

And how did you have a feeling at this point for how long the work would take?

I mean,

I, no, I didn't.

What was coming?

No, I didn't, but I was, wasn't any anxiety or fear, but I, I knew that I need to shift myself to, completely, you know, for me to do the work, what was required and is, is to be out of your mind.

How long you can hold yourself in this, um, condition of being out of your mind.

Mm-hmm.

Completely present and, lead yourself into it.

I, I didn't know if I can hold it for and for how many hours.

But that's, that's, that's what, that's what happened.

And that's the work basically.

And that's, And I know that that was the challenge of what, what was required there is for me to get out of my mind, to be able to.

Is it possible to answer the question?

I mean, how do you get out of your mind?

How did you get out of your mind?

I think, I think that, well, I think breathing as, you know, when you, when you brisk consciously, you can't think.

Mm-hmm.

You know that, I mean, that is a, that's a practice that we all kind of exercise daily.

But to hold it for such a long time, for five hours of Omaha, that's the space that when the body beginning to align itself and you, you get, uh, when I say align yourself, align, really, I'm talking about on a cellular level, when you configuration of who you are, really not your story, not who you are, but on the, on the cellular level, who you are on the, on your, is what is your nature, that's the point where the body beginning to very quickly beginning to restore itself.

And I knew it, I knew it from, I've been witnessing it, the tribes and people that, that, I just recover very, very quickly.

but with the great support of the people around him.

But I knew that that is my own, that's, there's nobody there, just I need to leave myself into it.

Cuz if I, if I think about intentionality around breathing or awareness around breathing.

Yeah.

Like, for me, you know, for sure the, the mind definitely hasn't gone away.

And so in its kind of all, its sort of chattering, sort of controlling, responding form.

Yeah.

Uh, and so in a way, is that what you mean by kind of outta your mind also?

Really quite.

It's really funny, isn't it?

The, the phrase outta your mind has such negative connotations in kind of our, our culture here, but in, in what you are talking about, it was the source of recovery.

It was the place of recovery.

That's, that's what's required.

I mean, that's, that's the, you know, that's when you, um, when you are out of this container of the mine container, the condition of that's running kind of basically, it's a very mechanical impulse that's running our, uh, most of our lives.

So, It's definitely shutting down the, it's a domination of the mechanical mind is somewhere in the background, but it's, it's, um, but deeper you go into it, yeah, I would qualify to out of the mind because I think it's, the mind wasn't, wasn't on the screen of, in the space there.

And, and time wasn't there either.

So clock time, it wasn't something that I was aware of.

So I think you, you might call it kind of breaking dispell of time.

Mm-hmm.

Just in mind, but breaking dispell of time is very much part of the, uh, por too.

So kind of useful just to kind of keep reminding myself the conversation.

We're, what we're describing here is you in the midst of a, sort of a kind of medical emergency , um, where the liver, the liver has failed.

, the doctors are basically saying you need an emergency transplant.

You've asked for time, kind of space for you to go into.

What, I guess, could we describe as really a, a sort of deep, sort of meditative space, just absorbed in the body, the body being everything, to kind of create a space where the body can heal.

And, and so I guess, did you kind of go into that sort of, uh, believing that that's what needed to happen?

I, I need to go into the space so the body, body can heal, or was it just like, no, this is the right response, irrespective of what happened?

I know for my, all my well that I've done that the body never lie.

So it is, it is, it is the anchor that, and I'm witnessing it, and I could see from, from my experience with the tribe, that's that's where they're working from.

That's, that's, They don't have NHS around the corner.

All the principle of, healing is, is related to that nature of our body.

So I know that, I mean, we've got this power.

And of course it's not a controlled power, it's not a mind power.

And that's true to all of us.

I think it's, it's a birthright power that we all have.

How do you resonate with that?

That's access to it and, and gain your power back, as we say.

I think that's our challenge, I think, in where we are now.

And I was aware what happening, cause the nurse used, you know, they're coming in and out and just plug you and my eye closed.

then after a few hours, um, doctors come and just whispering in my ears said, well, I dunno what you're doing, but carry on because it's working.

Right

to stable, stabilize the blood flow, and, and I'll come back in a couple hours and we, I want to talk to you about it.

So, um, that was kind of, and um, I mean, when it.

Came back with a long chat about it and just writing and writing and writing and asking what you're writing and said, well, I'm writing now the book of quantum medicine and you're going to be in my book.

So I got all the reference.

So, uh,

this is the, this is the doctor?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think what happened in NHS now, the doctor know it, but they're not free and allowed to talk about.

And that's what, suppose that's what's quantum medicine is about now.

Right.

So, I guess incredibly, incredibly fortunate that this was the doctor in this situation

Yes.

At this time that kind of allowed the conditions for this seven hours of transformation.

Yeah.

You know, it's, that's life.

I don't know.

I don't believe in coincidence.

It's, you know mm-hmm.

, it's kind of Whatever's been orchestrated and we were all participating in it.

And it was, I, I knew that it was, there's no point to argue with life.

It was, that's either you participate in it or you

So essentially this, this day at, at breakfast, there's liver failure and at tea time there is a healthy liver.

Well, it will, you say it, it took a long time to restore it.

Cause it release a lot of new cells and like to release kind of the old cells.

So it's that, that's said you will have at least couple months of very inflammatory, experience going to be on fire and you need to.

Watch that fire.

And that's brought me to my next chapter, which bring me to, that's kind of a big leap to climate change.

Right.

Okay.

And that's what's the reason why I'm doing what I'm doing because I, I experienced it in my body.

I was in fire.

When you say you were on fire, what do you mean by that?

When on fire, you know, my body was in, you know, also, and it was, emotionally obviously was a lot of anger and rage, how, you know, by yourself in a situation of when your body's falling apart.

it was very interesting in the conversation tha t I had with the doctor and said, well, you know, inflammation is not what we do.

Um, we are kind of the fire brigade here in a hospital.

He said 95% in a hospitals, it's, it's inflammatory.

All the disease, all what happened, 5%, the rest of it, it's on it's few broken limbs, probably.

the skin problem, all our, so all, it's all inflammatory.

And I thought, well if, if we are on fire, then what the chance of, you know, that's, that's it.

For me it was such a clear projection to the climate change.

Mm-hmm.

Until we find a way to cool ourself.

I don't think there's a chance, you know, the next COP not going to save the planet.

and if you look on a kind of a global map of the climate change, it's, the way it's represented itself is it's fire/ it's rage it's fire, anger it's fire, conflict, it's fire.

War, it's fire.

We are in a very, very fiery terrain.

I dunno if you're familiar with AIC term, they call it High Peter.

it's based on a natural kind of earth, fire, air, water.

So when we out of balance, then that's, we could be drowning, but where we at now is it's, is obviously fiery.

It's, we are in a very fiery state.

And if you ask every electric engineer, we'll tell you, if you're not connected brown things, you're going to close fire.

And that's the connection, the brown thing, the earth connection.

I think that's what's missing in our, we call it nature, but it's the grounding that we're talking about.

We understand balance in our head and yes, we need to bring balance, but you only can ride a bike when the body registers balance, not because you understand balance.

Mm-hmm.

So we understand balance, but if the body not registering, it still be out of balance.

And I think that's where, that's our challenge is to feel it.

We understand things mentally and experience even the emotion, the weather around it, but feeling we tend, we muddle feeling an emotion, but feeling it's a very, is the lop experience.

It's either you feel it or not, and I think that's maybe it's worthwhile to distinguish feeling and emotion.

And it's obviously we experience our everyday life is we want to be felt, you know, the feeling felt that's where we're beginning, you know, the first tantrum of every child is when the child start to feel when you, we are not feeling felt when our parents.

You know that the parents love you, but if you can't experience love energetically, so we understand each other most of the time, but getting each other at something else.

So a lot of these, these kind of, these insights, the connecting the internal weather to the external weather, you getting more awareness, more clarity of these things coming out of this sort of cataclysmic medical emergency.

But so, so you've had this, you've had this day, you've then had, you know, like you say, months of recuperation and rebuilding and sort of fire and kind of, sort of ill health as you, as your body and liver is recovering?

Yes.

My, well, my reaction is obviously was grounding.

And what I did, I just walked for seven days.

I did the camino.

That was my recovering my grounding work.

And it's important, easy.

It was, uh, My, my job was a day walk, but that was the most difficult walk I ever done.

And how, so how long after the, the, this, the, the day we call it, the day, how long after the day did you do the walk?

Oh, a few months after that.

It was crazy.

It was, I, I wasn't ready to do that even, it was just the doctor said, don't, this is, you are, you're not, you're too weak.

But it was kind of, it's the only place that I could actually, yeah.

so it's, I would say probably three months after that I was walking right to the and walking this long, long walk.

Very, you know, I, I did it very, I pasted very, you know, I just, I didn't walk every day.

I stopped and I did some writing and drawing and cook and a lot of cooking and building bread ovens and along the way.

And yeah, it was, it was, it was a journey for seven week and, But very, you know, it was a lot of hard meridian walk there.

Mm-hmm.

it was a bare feet and doing things with my hand and that was a, yeah.

One of probably the most powerful journey I ever I ever done.

It was simple.

It was steps by step by step, but it wasn't easy at all.

And that's true to the, the whole experience that I even go back to the hospital.

It, it's simple but not easy.

it's very simple to breathe.

It's not easy.

And would you say that's simple but not easy, that has characterized much of the last 10 years particularly?

Yes.

So this, this medical event was 10 years ago, right?

Yeah.

They're coming back from the desert.

This all happening.

Yeah.

So the, the journey in the last 10 years, has that been a continuation of the simple but not easy?

It's, that's, that's, I would say that's the line.

That's

Mm-hmm.

You know, it's, um, know, taking sabbatical from the organization to dismantle all this identity of, you know, Danny of the desert.

It's that, that was a big journey, yeah.

And when I say simple, it's, you know, yes.

It's, I just have to grow vegetables and um, cook and walk and sleep.

And it's, it's all very, it's a very simple principle of nature, but, but obviously it's not easy because we are still wired to very, very strong mechanical mind that kind of want to be in control.

it was not possible for you to go back to the desert after this happened?

Since it's, it's happened the same week that it's happened.

The spring, uh, Arab revolution start.

Okay.

Yeah.

It was all, it was.

It's so interesting that it was Wow.

Happened in the same week.

So your, your medical emergency and the Arab Spring at the same time.

Yeah.

So it's, everything's happened on, on that time was, was just, interesting, weird connection.

So the regime changed.

Everything changed.

I couldn't go back so.

And because, because the regime changed, it's not possible for you to go back?

It was politically for me, it wasn't safe to go back.

But you know, it took me at least couple year two kind of to really kind of, I, I realized that's, I, I gather for my own organization, the trustee look, this is not safe for you to go back now.

And why, why is that?

What was the, why is that, why is it not safe?

it's, It's, go back to my early days of not fitting in.

What I did in a desert and in, in Sinai Desert.

We're talking about the sign idea now in Egypt is, I was working with the community that.

Not fitting in the Bedouin, they're not fitting in.

And I was kind of a threat to, basically, to the, to a regime that didn't quite support and liked watch, you know, that engagement, that it's beyond tourism, let's put it like that.

Mm-hmm.

I was just creating infrastructure there, empowered the women and restoring the culture.

Working in a, the gardens there, which is, basically resuscitating kind of the whole community there.

Money was a big money coming into that.

So it's, it's a, the not fitting in was very, you know, it was, what you basically, who are you, what you're doing here?

Mm-hmm, right.

And I was kind of connected to influence people.

So one day you're sitting with the first lady, uh, the next day sitting with, people around the fire.

So it's, it's just too many dots that they couldn't fit in.

And so I think they're probably the most, the only category that could fill in, well, you must be a spy or something like that.

Mm-hmm.

So, uh, particularly with kind of background from the Israel connection.

So yeah.

So you're seen as seen as a threat, can't go back.

And, uh, after the, all these sort of cataclysmic events and then the recovery, simple, but not easy.

But then you also kind of find yourself in and that where you effectively are home homeless again.

So homeless but at home, can't go back again.

Can't fit in again.

Can't fit in with the people who you were fitting in with because of these changes, health changes, political changes.

So sort of a, a kind of forced homelessness again, a forced to move again.

And so then the, the kind of new, the new home, the new old home I guess is, is back in the UK, is that right?

Yeah.

I mean that's, that's my children here.

And, It's felt kind of more, kind of a hiding place.

And I remember my boys said like, you know, dad, you've done the wow, and I think you can do it here as well, but you don't need the wow.

Just, invite people around the file with cup tea that will do, there's, and that's basically what kind of like, kind of put the, the structure around it based on that, connection to the fire to, you know, nature is okay.

It's not theatrical and dramatic, like beautiful canopy of star in a desert, but.

It's a space between the trees here.

Mm-hmm.

So it's, uh, it's different, but it's, uh, it's still, the particle of nature is all around us all the time.

Even if you live in middle of London, in a brick house, you know, the brick house is pure nature.

You know, it's particle of Micah Silica and and sspa.

It's come from deep, deep magnetic earth.

It's, you know, held by mother nature all the time.

Mm-hmm.

We don't need to walk 5,000 miles to find, you know, peace of nature.

We are, we are, it, we are in it all the time.

we just romanticizing nature, but we, we are nature and we living nature all the time.

Yes, the installation is very intense and that's what's interfere with our, the energetic nature of, of who we are.

And that's why we find it challenging.

but the fabric of it is nature.

So all, all of these, all of these different threads, kind of going all the way back to, you know, sort of finding a connection with these nomadic people, that, kind of, residents that identify with sort of not fitting in, through all of those sort of cataclysmic events you were talking about the sort of the, the kind of personal transformation of kind of healing yourself in that moment, and also then the, the kind of big changes happening in the desert and sort of Danny of the desert not being possible, being based in the UK, so how and where do all these things come together?

What would you, how do you describe your work now?

I think the, I think the, the base of my work based on the, that the body never lie.

That's kind of, that's the benchmark, that's the anchor of it.

So kind of we bypass the work is bypass the mental story, the all the, you know, I'm not interesting to, you know, this is, that's not what I, I'm not a therapist.

I'm not dealing with drama and the drama.

I'm just, it's, it's really down, down to the similar level to understand and to witness.

And I do encourage people that come in here to not believe a word I say because they need to experiencing it and you need to own it.

You are the program.

I'm just, I just created the space for you, which is very safe and held.

So probably what I brought from desert is create that space that people can feel vulnerable and safe very, very quickly and held to be able to create that process of dissolving into the bigger version of who who you are, which is.

Be more accurate about, it's about your nervous system beginning to communicate with the, the system of nervous system all around us, the, the what we might call nature.

Mm-hmm.

And when our body beginning to resonance with that field of, you know, field of lit, terrain of nature, that's, that's the closest oneness experience that we've begin to feel.

That's, that's basically, I'm resuscitate encount with the mother connection.

Mm-hmm.

, and that's happened very quickly in three days.

You are witnessing expansion and I'm talking about expansion that is measured very accurately.

So it's not something, again, it's nothing spiritual about it, nothing esoteric about it.

It's a tangible feeling that you, that you are, that's the, uh, outcome of it if you like.

So, so the three days you're talking, you are, you are referring retreats that you host where people can come three days?

Yeah.

The three days is orientation, first day is orientation to it.

Second day is fasting, just drinking water.

And that's the whole, the whole diet around that is, is basic and to alkaline yourself, and to bring, bringing from this roller cost, uh, life situation to zero balancing.

The zero balancing is equivalent to the steel pond.

If you look looking at ponds when the pond is completely steel and you throw p you'll see those beautiful ripples if the pond is messy and lucky, and then you don't see the ripples.

So imagine that your heart is in the middle of the pond, expanding the contract, your beautiful ripples.

So we, in three days, you create that stillness, and that's, that's where the expansion taking place, that's where the healing, that's the place of healing that I call.

Now to go back to the hospital, with all the interfering, with all the magnetic field around you.

But you, you still can do that.

You know, you don't need to do it in, in a, you know, climb a mountain or travel to the next piece of nature.

You are it, and you are, what required is to exercise this muscle and to create this self skin around you.

When the body beginning to heal.

The body will heal only through stillness.

But you need to, you are, you are in charge.

You, you need to lead that, you need to create that condition.

And again, it's not the mind condition.

So to dissolve, to surrender to that space, to, allow the body to, do the work, uh, we need to lean, and trust that there is another brain in our, you know, in our, call it a hard brain or guts or whatever that's have the enough, that they have all the tools to do it basically.

So throughout the three days you are have a glimpse, and it is a glimpse.

Three days.

It's very quick.

And I refer it to the kind of a rocket NASA sending to the moon.

And sometimes they're adjusting the rocket, three millimeter in space.

And you are asking yourself, what is three millimeter in space?

But three millimeter and 60,000 mile different.

And that's what the three days is about.

That will sce in your life because is a place until you know it.

Mm-hmm.

You know it, and now, you know, it's, it's really just asking to be responsible.

So you're hosting, hosting these three day retreats.

Where, where do you do that?

I do it here in May Hill, it just.

Which is in Gloucestershire?

Gloucestershire.

Mm-hmm.

So, and it's a very beautiful piece of land, very feminine woodland, under peach trees.

And it's, um, it's short three days.

Yes.

But it's very, very profound.

So it's a reveal essentially these three days, like you say.

You, you, yeah, it is, uh, you, you definitely own it.

I know people go back to their life, but they had something that is.

the river can't go back.

I mean, you, you, you went through it.

So what, what, what, what is bringing people to, to these retreats with you?

I think the people will sense that there's something, they, they could hear something, they're sensing something.

There's no, again, it's because it's information not available to the mother man.

But that's what I mean by tapping to the knowing that we don't know that we know.

Mm-hmm.

There's a knowing though, that you, you know, it's there.

You can't name it.

It's probably most of it unnamable until they're actually doing it.

Uh, but there is enough, there's enough there to, they could hear something,

Some kind of discontent?

Yeah, I think, you know, there, there's some, you know, we all come in from this very scattered loss and loneliness experience and, and, and, and there's a reason, you know, that's this, this scattered experience.

It's, it's that lack of that, you know, it's that pond that is the messy pond is, well, that's where you feel nobody gets you and.

Mm-hmm.

That's really the core of loneliness and, and lost.

So yeah, people put it like that, but, you know, because I'm basically encourage people, um, the opposite is people looking for the rope and, and I said, you know, you don't need the rope, really.

What road?

When you say that, what, what road do they think they're looking for?

I think, I think, I think that people do.

People feel powerless.

Mm-hmm.

Lost and powerless.

That's probably the main drive.

It's, um, and okay, maybe I'll do another workshop point at course another, it's a, it's a, that's where kind of, or take another therapy and until people realize that it's actually all within us, it's not another recreational weekend not going to fix it.

Mm-hmm.

And it's not about fixing it cause it's about healing and healing taking within you.

There's no, it's, you need to lead it.

You are the CEO of your own, that need to lead it.

There's no workshop or, or any other therapy that will fix it.

And I think that's probably what, what they come out of it is it's simple manual again.

Simple, but not easy to follow, but it's, it's available to all of us.

It's about responsibility more than anything else, yeah.

Developing that capacity for responsibility?

And these moments, these, these, just, this, this kind of brief, the brief reveal, the brief kind of connection with the word connection with myself there, that illuminates, that allows me to see my capacity, my own responsibility, my own kind of groundedness.

You're experiencing it.

It's, it's you.

It's not a, you don't believe in anything.

It's not a story.

Mm-hmm.

it's not about me.

It's not about, it's not another theory.

It's not another belief system.

It's not, it's a hundred percent.

A hundred percent you.

Mm.

And when you experiencing it and own it, I think that's the invitation to possibility and it doesn't matter how many time I've done it, I'm, it's a, it's a very, very rewarding to see that landing in such a short time and be in such a glowing space and without trying or fixing it or.

it's simple.

What a journey.

So all the way the, that sort of thread all the way from, so time of the tribes in the desert, Danny, the desert, medical emergencies, transformation, Arab Springs, uh, then a kind of rebuilding, replenishing, re sort of vitalizing here in, in the UK, running these, running these treats, helping people get a sense of their own power.

A sense of their responsibility.

A sense of their connection.

And the ultimate is the one is with your own constitution.

Yeah.

You actually resonate with your own configuration of who you are really on acellular level, not on a story level.

That is the ultimate part.

That will, that ready to serve, I would say.

And you made reference earlier to the kind of links with climate change and the kind of fiery planet.

What, how and where do these, do these things meet?

Well, I'm, I, I'm interestingly invited to next COP in a Desert, and that's in November.

So it's, which I'm going to run a workshop, alongside, in parallel to the COP in inside the desert, so that will be my first return there.

So I think the connection is very obvious and profound.

I think it's un unless we manage our own fire, uh, the planet will be fine.

It's, it's, we really, really need to sort out our own climate.

What will you be doing at COP?

I'm, I'm running, uh, basically the retreats there, that will be kind of, hopefully we can restore kind of.

It'll come, it'll be, it's, it's not gonna be Danny of the desert there, so it'll be very different setup, but it'll be direct link to climate change.

How we shifting our, basically that, acidic constitution that we are living in.

Because what, what happening now, I mean, and the diet that we are living in is, is just, it's just too fiery.

It's the red meat, it's the dairy, is the coffee, it's the sugar, it's the alcohol, it's all of that is, is is acidic.

But that's only a fraction of the, the fiery bit, the acid condition that we live in.

The big chunk of it is the, is the mental diet, of course.

Mm-hmm.

Cause every, every stressful thought, and this came from the doctor that I, in hospital, every stressful thought that we'll have cascading to our body and release acid.

You know, you can eat as green as much as you like, but in the end of the day, it's, it's, that's the diet that we need to work to be more aware of.

And that feels like a really good place to end it.

Where, where would people find more about your work and your retreats and all of this amazing story?

I think it's, well, I think if you Google, um, it's called Walking Your Promise, which is interesting title.

Walking Your Promise is to align with your domain, of course.

Is who you know, it's, it's, we are a gateway to life and you know, we are very lucky to be here.

You know that like the acorn is a gateway to become a tree.

Acorn is not a tree.

Acorn, it's just have a business plan for 500 years to become a tree.

And we are that gateway to that life looking for, to do, we are okay with our day job.

That's true.

But what is our real job here?

That's what, that's the promise.

It's like, describe it as a kind of metaphorically, you know, the dancer looking for the dancer.

it's not because you want to be a dance to dance, but if you are a dancer, then the dance will find you.

Danny, thank you very much.

Good to talk to you.

Beautiful.

Wish you all the best.

Thank you.

I hope you enjoyed the conversation with Danny.

Um, to check out more of Danny's work, you can find him at dannyshmulevitch.com.

Uh, to save you the spelling trouble, I'll drop all of the links into the show notes so you can easily find your way there.

Maybe you wanna check out one of the retreats he runs, uh, which I am also very keen to do.

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