Horror stories, clickbait, panic porn, your amygdala is constantly getting stimulated nowadays because the media understands that if they activate your fight or flight response, you’ll pay attention. The old saying goes “If it bleeds, it leads” and that applies now more than ever. We’re still in the middle of a pandemic that has kept most of the world inside and glued to TV and social media for two months. We’re constantly surrounded by news stories of how many people are predicted to die, how many deaths are already happening, and how quickly the disease is spreading, and how dangerous it is.

Millions around the world have been impacted by the disease, losing loved ones or getting sick themselves, and millions have also been affected by the reaction to it. The economic shutdown has made millions of people dependent on unemployment insurance for the first time to pay their bills and a system unprepared for such a gigantic influx of new applicants has suffocated under the weight. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses whose doors were shuttered by the shutdown orders across America that had to apply for emergency loans to the Small Business Administration didn’t even get their applications looked at before the money ran out.

The school and daycare centers are closed and parents are stuck between the rock and a hard place of trying to keep money coming in and pay bills while providing their own child care, in essence, trying to juggle working full time from home (or if you work in a hospital or food industry, still having to go in) with parenting full time.

So not only are we worried about getting sick or people we love getting sick, we’re worried that we won’t have enough money to pay the bills and feed the children that we’re now assuming the teaching . Add to that, we’re in the middle of an election year, so the political teams have no co-opted the elements for the crisis and the lines in the sand have been drawn, depending on where your political beliefs fall.

People are desperate. People are scared. A lot of us are not okay. So, what are some ways that we can get back to “okay” when it feels like the world is crashing down on us. Our “fight ot flight” center, the amygdala is constantly being activated lately. So what are some ways that people have stayed cool in a crisis? From just breathing to praying and meditating? That’s what we cover in this episode.

Some of the different methods we discuss in this episode include:

• The scientific process behind how the brain handles anxiety
• Learning breathing techniques from the Dutch Iceman, Wim Hoff , who can control his body temperature so much that he can melt ice around him
• How meditation can calm your mind when you feel a panic coming on
• The history behind the incorrectly called “Chinese proverb”, “May you live in interesting times.”
• How using a mantra (repeated phrase) can help when you can’t calm down
• The sad and unbelievable story of St. Dymphna, the patron saint of anxiety and mental health
• Miracles that have been attributed to the calming prayer cycle known as the Rosary, including one at Hiroshima during the atomic blast.

Welcome to See You on the Other Mike, where the world

of the mysterious collides with the world of entertainment.

A discussion of art, music, movies, spirituality,

the weird, and self discovery. And

now, your hosts, musicians and entertainers

who have their own weakness for the weird, Mike and

Wendy from the band Sunspot. Episode

293 of the CU on the other side podcast talking

about crisis and the paranormal.

And this seems to be the exact time we wanna talk about, crisis and

the paranormal because this is

weird. Like, you know, everything has been kinda weird

lately. And so this is the time

when we wanna say, like, okay. If everything's still gonna be weird for a

little while yet, what are we gonna do to kind of work

with that and handle it? And so just to kinda start

out, during this weird time, Wendy and Allison, what have you guys been

doing to stay centered, when the rest of the world is

getting just a little bit topsy-turvy? Staying

centered. Well, for me, the

great thing about it, was that it really hasn't

changed for me. I was already working from

home, so I was already just,

interfacing with people over the Internet since about August.

So, so things really hadn't changed for me except that, my

husband, who is a public school

teacher, he he had to start teaching from

home. So I was able to help him from from that because I my side

hustle is teaching, English over the the

Internet, to Chinese students. So, for

for me, I I've just been doing this all the time since

August. So it was, like, no different except that now I have

a buddy to work with, during the day. Okay.

As someone who works from home, even before this, did you have any kind

of, like, coping mechanisms for maybe

working in the same place where you live? I mean Yeah. Well kind of different

situation. Yeah. I, I

just feel that being at home, in

itself can help you develop more of a work life

balance. I know it's it's,

tempting maybe when you work at home to to make your life just all

work and no play, but since

you're already at home, you know, you could start

incorporating some play into your life as well. It

doesn't have to be all work and no play. I mean, you're at

home, so you have you have I don't know if I wanna hear about my

Mike, my brother-in-law, and the kind of play you have integrated into your

life. Man. Yeah. Yeah. He he has joked about

that. What's what's the joke?

Yeah. Oh, no. It's just, you know, that,

and anytime you get bored, you've got your significant inner.

What? You have your significant other right there. So,

it's it's great to have this extra time with family. I

think for everybody. And, I think if you just change

your perspective about it and and for me,

I've I teach Chinese kids. So,

I already kinda knew that this was coming, in a way.

I mean, I didn't didn't realize that everything that's

happened there would happen here. But

I knew what they were going through because the kids invariably would share it with

me of course and, it was very scary

for them but yet I mean I would see them every week

and you know their lives although they weren't going to

school, physically, you know, they were still you know,

being fed and getting proper rest and,

you know, yeah, you're cooped up but, I mean, no one's

torturing you. I mean, there are good things that you can,

welcome into your life now and the hustle and the

bustle has decreased. So I mean that's

a positive thing about this. So I mean

it is very difficult to think about the positive sides of the

situation because of

all the suffering that we know, people that are going

are going through out there. I mean, it's not me suffering and

I'm thankful for that. And so what my position

has allowed me to do is is, you know, reach out to

like all my friends over all these weeks and find out how they're

doing if there's anything that we can do to support them so,

and my husband has been shopping for the elders in our family

so that they don't need to go out and put themselves in in

harm's way, you know, because they're more vulnerable to the virus.

So, this staying at home, you know,

refocuses you and it can refocus you on

positive things if you let it. Sure. Of

course, you know, I I would really suggest a news

fast and I would suggest

that not only, you know, via, you know, watching

TV or radio, but also, you

know, maybe watching it on, you know,

social media as well. I mean, there's been a lot of craziness on

social media. People denying that this is happening. Well,

besides the See Another Side besides the See Another Side Podcast and

everything else, I think, you should not watch anything Yes.

Who can help it. Just watch us. We're gonna give you the news, but also

a positive spin. But everybody has their own opinion about what's going on. Everybody has

their opinion about what's happening with the reaction to

it. Right. And what's and and and the thing is is that,

you know, what I've discovered because I I've been reading the whole thing. I read

Reddit slash conspiracy every day, which isn't necessarily a good idea.

But it's supposed to be about being healthy, Mike. Well right. And that is not

the healthiest thing in the world to read that every day. But

I tell you what, it certainly is interesting to, you know, read

those kind of things and then, you know, see how people are feeling in the

world and realize that everybody's having a different perspective right now.

And some people are freaking out in in certain ways. Some people are

freaking out because they're they're at home stuck with people they don't wanna be stuck

with. Yeah. Some people are, you know and and if when you think about how

many kids are stuck with,

with abusive parents and all those kind of things. Like, there is a real

reason to freak out right now. But at the same time, there

are ways that we can kinda handle it in a positive in in a

positive way. And so I think, Allison, the first thing you're talking about is the

news fast. Like, go in there and start,

like, just close off the flood of information

that's coming in all the time. Because number 1, you don't always

know which sources you can trust. Mhmm. But number 2, people are

gonna get you know, the thing is if we think that,

discourse between people is what makes for a healthy

political environment, things we know how the social media

people talk to each other politically over social media. That's just gonna get

worse. Right. And so so, like, kinda like, the first thing

I would say is close the floodgates. Yeah. And I would

suggest too that get the news from

maybe people that you know. I mean,

what I mean by that is instead

of believing Mike Fox News or whatever, maybe

look around you to your local community and the

people that you actually know, and

the people in your family and see what they're going through.

I mean, reconnect with reality

in your local sphere rather than

trying to understand things in abstraction. I think I think

that's a that's a great message right there. Like, when it's going like, so what

you're saying is, look at the people around you, and and

this is the one positive thing before we get into, like, paranormal ways people have

dealt with it Yeah. Is, like,

reconnecting with the people around you that actually matter. You know? Right.

I mean, I think we found ourselves social media makes it really easy to

care about things on the other side of the planet, which not that we assume

we shouldn't care about them. But there are things happening in our own backyards and

things happening with our families. Yes. And these are the people you can

help. There's a lot of people that I know that they'll say Mike, oh my

god. Didn't you hear about this? And they get all outraged about something.

Haven't you heard about the mole children? What about the mole children,

Mike? What about the mole children? But then they'll go and they're like, well,

obviously, I haven't talked to my mother in 6 years, that stupid bitch.

And you're like, okay. I get it.

The other there's a whole world out there of horrible things happening,

but maybe this is a good chance to think about the people in your own

life. Right. Because we know they're real. I totally agree with that. And I

also think that if you're curious and you wanna educate yourself

to find trusted resources online that are, you know, like scientific

journals and actual, like, the people that are doing the

research on the virus rather than reading opinion

articles about people who think like, oh, the testing statistics are only

showing this or that, like, just find out, you know, there's there's some

interesting information out there. Do with it what you want. But,

I find that reading that rather than reading the opinions or just

everybody spreading stuff around that they heard. I heard that this makes it worse or

you're likely to get it if somebody's sweaty touches you or, you know, it's like,

hold on. What are the people that are actually

researching and finding? And just, you know, stick with that. And

then, of course, stick with your your local people and your family and

friends and stuff like that. But Well, always worry about information

sources that are designed to do 2 things, sell you

advertisements and to get you clicking.

Like, think about those things, number 1. And I kinda you know, we could have

a whole discussion about media, mainstream versus independent

versus conspiracy. That whole world, we could talk about.

But let's talk about things that you can do in the crisis from a paranormal

perspective. Alright. Why you know, and the way that our brains

activate and and things like that. And the thing is the first

thing we we need to think about, I think, is anxiety.

And, I mean, anxiety seems to be maybe this is because of social

media. Anxiety seems to be more in the news than ever, and people are

feeling constantly anxious. This is before. This is when we had a regular

world, and we weren't I wasn't speaking to you from my freaking basement.

Right? Wait. But, Mike, you're not in the basement. You're

floating on a psychedelic, Mandela

pattern of some sort. So Yeah. You're journeying into center of your mind

right now, Mike. For the listeners, Mike's Mike's background is a

is kind of Mike a kaleidoscope thing going on. Yes.

So Sam says, Mike children, crab people, and killer

clowns. Oh. Killer clowns. Oh, no. Yeah. My favorite things. You know,

what I love about that, Sam, is that for a Halloween show in the year

2000, Wendy and Ben and I were Mike, we're gonna play killer

clowns from outer space, that song by the Dickies. Such a great song.

It's an awesome song. It's the theme song from the movie and we're Mike, it's

gonna kill. And it certainly killed the audience's

interest in our band. Oh, no. Just we're

Mike, oh, Killer Clowns. You guys love that song. Like, this is gonna be funny

and everybody who gets it and then we play it. And then nobody Yeah. And

it's got the the little, like, circus,

Mike, as part of the guitar solo. It's so brilliant. Right. But, yeah, there were

3 people in the room that were really into it. Me, Mike, and Ben.

Right. And everybody else was was like,

wow. You guys are stupid. So thanks for that, though, that reminder of

my failure. The it's always there for you,

Mike. But because it makes me feel anxious. Yeah.

Yes. No. But the thing is, we all feel fear and anxiety at some point

in our life. Right? Like, it's Oh, absolutely. And, you know, it seems like

social anxiety and stuff like that has increased. And but now we're at a

point where are we feeling anxiety about not just other people

in the way of, anxiousness, like, what are they gonna think about

us? Now we're worried about, are they sick? Are they gonna think that

we're not doing enough against the virus?

Yeah. You know, we're worried about what people think of us when we go out

in public. Yeah. Yeah. Get in your house. If you don't have

you know, what happens when you don't have your mask on at the right time?

You get judged. And everybody's, like, looking at you. Right.

People are cracking. You know, there was a guy. There's a a full adult. He

must have been 30 years old yesterday at the playground. I take my daughter to

it. And so we were walking around the playground, and I she asked me every

day, can we play in the Oh, no. Like, no. I'm like,

no, little girl. You will get sick and die. No. I

don't say that to her. Jeez. But I do say, like, no. We can't play

yet because people are still getting sick, and there might be germs on the on

the things that she seems to understand it. This guy is sitting on the swings

just cranking out the swing. Just Mike going like, he's going,

just pumping. And And I'm like, is this some kind of act of civil

disobedience? What's he doing? Mike gosh. You know, what is the, you know, what is

the point of that? But the thing is, like and then I kinda watched him

as he, like, walked away. And I'm like, where is that guy going? Maybe he

needed some exercise because the gyms are all closed now. The gyms are

all closed. But the the it was just an interesting thing. Like,

why is he deliberately disobeying the order that the playground is closed?

This adult, not a kid who doesn't know the difference, but an adult. And

that's his way whatever of of coping

that he's dealing with the anxiety. And it's,

I mean, anxiety is a good thing in the way that if we did

not feel anxious, sometimes when we actually were in a life or

death situation, not just at the park, like in the swing set, but we're actually

in a life and death situation. Anxiety makes it so we're afraid of something that

can kill us. And that's our amygdala response. Right? The amygdala when

you're getting down to the lizard brain,

we have this part, the brain stem, which is the first part of us that

evolved, and the amygdala is part of that. And so we

have this response in our amygdala to things that we should be

afraid of because they might kill us. Yeah. So that's

that's Mike the

in in the times of prehistory, you

know, when somebody was out there on the savannah

and they saw the grass moving in a certain

way. Well, oh, hey, they might think there's a

lion about to pounce. I'm seeing that in the

grass, and they run. Right? And

maybe there's not a lion there,

but sometimes there is a lion there. So the the people

sorry when it comes to lions. No. People ran away Mike,

survived, and we're the descendants of those people Many,

many, many, many, many generations ago. So

we're the ones that prevailed, the really anxious neurotic

ones. Nice. John Drajka,

our our Patreon from New Jersey. Hi, John. You can't you can't enter

stores in New Jersey without a mask. Also, all playgrounds are So they must have

implemented the rule there then. The masks. The no mask. Well,

New Jersey, New York, and,

actually, Michigan are the hardest hit states right now.

So so, yeah, they they are doing whatever they

can to limit the spread. I mean, obviously, that guy is probably

not going to be the guy on the on the playground by my house. Probably

isn't spreading the disease or whatever. But the thing is,

it made me anxious of what he was doing. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I was

like I'm like, why is that What's that all about? Maybe maybe he's like,

hey. You are taking away my like, this is unconstitutional.

Mike personal freedom. Yeah. And it I mean, yeah. Yeah. You're living in

it. I mean, it's absolutely unconstitutional what's going on

here. But the thing is, is this I mean, what what kind of

where's the, trade offs we're making? And and I feel I feel anxious

myself because I'm Mike, I don't want him to do that, but yet I support

his right to do that. But yet the governor would not support his right to

do that. So it's coming from it's coming from all sides. And yes. Off the

walls. For all you know, the guy might have just needed a few minutes of,

like, clarity and a little exercise, and he's just, like, you know what? I'm just

gonna go I'm gonna pump on that swing for 5 minutes and then And

then I'm gonna, you know, go into the decontamination booth. It might

not have been as as much as you read into it just because of your

anxiety, you know, like And you're absolutely right, Gwen. It it it I think to

me, it was a matter of that all of a sudden I am seeing

people break the rules right in front of me, and that makes

me feel anxious at the same time. Right. So I I guess we're going into

all of these things where our amygdalas are firing over

stuff that, stuff that's not a lion.

Right. Yeah. Absolutely. So here's the thing.

We have these innate responses, and

the the difference between us and maybe some other life

forms, I don't know. But I do know that we

are, at least most of us, thinking beings. So,

I mean, it's hard when you get those those

deep responses, like, from the lizard brain to remember

that and to activate your frontal cortex

and and use those things in combination and

and Mike really deliberate and say, well, I have the time now

to think this through. And so I'm

going to recognize as those I

recognize those responses as they occur, and

I'm going to think through them Mike should I, I mean, is this a

situation where the anxiety is driving me

in the correct direction or is it

driving me in a counterproductive,

direction? So we can we can think about it. And

that's the the gift of the situation now is

we have the time. We have the time to

focus inside ourselves. We have the time to reconnect

with family members. Everyone who

is essential to your life is probably with

you now, And you have,

this break from, you know, this merry-go-round

that we've been on of, you know, productivity and just going to work and

just, you know, all these things that we wish we could have a break

from. And now you you have it. So let's

not let this opportunity pass. Yes.

You're gonna feel anxiety, but let's think about it. I also

wanna I just wanna stand up for a second for the people that because,

we were talking about this in our sunspot live hangout on Thursday,

and and our guitar player was saying that he thought it was gonna

feel luxurious. There was gonna be a ton of Mike, but in reality

and for, you know, working couples with kids where both parents

work and now they're also homeschooling or trying to manage their

children, you know, doing schooling online, actually, they have less time.

Mike, I have the luxury. We we don't have kids. So

I have gained, you know, by not driving to the office, that's, like, an extra

hour for me. It's like, hey. It's a free hour. I can even if

I just meditate. But then I realized that there's people who are trying

to cram in meetings. They're teaching, and then they have their their kids.

They're bouncing back and forth. So it's kind of a unique situation for

everybody. Yeah. So time is not necessarily a

like, extra time isn't necessarily a guarantee. Certainly. Yeah.

So I would say for everyone This is a total nightmare for parents. Yeah. Just

Like, if you don't have school or daycare, this is a complete and total nightmare,

especially if you have to work from home or even worse

if your job No. Or even worse if your job's gone.

And you're applying for unemployment, and the unemployment's not coming through because

the system can't handle it. Right. Exactly. That's nuts. These states these states

systems where unemployment come from, they're only designed for several 100000 people.

Yeah. They're not designed for a 1000000 people, and we've got, like, 16,000,000 people in

the country on unemployment. So the thing is your anxiety is real,

and it sucks. And the thing is your amygdala is

firing off, and it's it's firing off not from something that we understand. It's firing

off for something we don't understand. Yeah. You know, when they when they

removed amygdala or they had a you had a a chimpanzee

that had, a damage to their amygdala, you

would find that chimpanzee Mike, like, doing dangerous

things because it no longer understood fight or flight. It no longer

understood anxiety. It would just be like, oh, that looks

dangerous. Let's take a look at that, which is like, we all have friends we

all have friends like that, and then maybe they damaged amygdala. They

absolutely might have damaged amygdala. I mean, they also might be sociopaths.

But they they they could have damaged the meatballs. Well, you know, what I

thought was interesting is, you know, one of the first things I thought

about, when this whole thing happened was that everybody always

talks about the, what's known as the Chinese curse.

Right. Even though it's not Chinese, which we'll get to. Oh. Right. May you

live in interesting times. And that was the point. The point was like,

oh, interesting. Because interesting can also be something positive

or something negative. And so they

even call it the Chinese curse, and it's like, oh my god. Is it really

like, the Chinese have that kind of thing? I mean, it it's a long history

in China. And it goes back to, like, the

19th century speeches of, Mike, an English politician by

the name of Joseph Chamberlain. And, you know, he

said that he had heard it in China. And in the in the

19 thirties, this guy comes out and he goes, you know, I was talking

to Austin Chamberlain, who was the brother of the

prime minister at the time, not Wilt Chamberlain.

Nice. No. But whoever was the whoever was the the prime minister

of, you guys of the United Kingdom before

Churchill, and everybody says that he tried to appease Hitler, and he's obviously

not thought of as the greatest guy in the world because his I mean, without

him, we wouldn't have had Winston Churchill. And so maybe his actions were

necessary. But at the same Mike, and also he was trying not to get people

back into a world war because after World War 1, people

were like, we don't wanna do that again. But

so Austin Chamberlain, the brother prime minister, they were having

a a discussion with this French guy, Frederic Rene

Caudier junior. I don't know junior. How do they

say it in French? And he he concludes the letter with a rather, you know,

Mike, regular we were living in inter interesting age.

And this Chamberlain responds because many years ago, I learned from one of our

diplomats in China that one of the principal Chinese curses heaped upon an

enemy is, may you live in an interesting age. Surely,

he said, no age has been more fraught with insecurity than our own present

time. That was in 1933. And,

you know, where the Chamberlains who one one was a brother

that was prime minister that was appeasing Hitler, the other was a dip

Neville Chamberlain. Neville. Thank you. I thought I would kept on thinking of the

Neville Brothers for some I would Neville Brothers because

of that. But so that, like but their

father had said that he heard that from a Chinese guy,

and there's not really it's not really Chinese.

Like, he may have been drinking with a Chinese guy at the time the Chinese

guy said it. Yeah. But there's no documentation.

It's not a traditional Chinese curse whatsoever. Just Oh. Yeah. And but there

were other there were other, curses

that went with it. It wasn't just may you live in interesting times. Another one

was, may you catch the the tension of

those in authority? Okay. I like that one. That's

interesting. Yeah. Yes. I think there was a third one too,

but I'm not remembering it right now. There's the other the thing is

why it's like it's like your friend that gets a Chinese letter, like, tattooed

on them or Mike a Hebrew word tattooed on them. You know, it's it's kinda

like they're like, in Hebrew, this means badass.

And then you look at it, it's like the Hebrew word for cabbage. If you're

Mike, Well, let's be honest, cabbage is pretty

badass, Mike. I do like cabbage. Okay.

I can't deny. But there's also, like, the idea

that, you know, man, the Chinese word for

crisis is, danger

plus opportunity. Yes. So

I I like that you're going that way, Mike. I don't know

but, there are, actually 80,000

Chinese characters and there's only 26 letters in English

so I got a lot of learning to do. But, what you

just said you know those 2 those the combination

of crisis or you know danger and opportunity.

So I know that this is a challenging time for everyone but

don't let the danger take away the opportunity

for you. There's a lot of opportunity in what's going right going

on right now and, don't don't miss the

opportunity that is also

being presented to you. You might have to look look for it really hard

but you might be able to find something

in this that you can use to you

know, for the benefit of yourself and your family. Right. Because the thing is,

and this is why, you know, what I was thinking about before, you know,

that I said that whatever I think about this or whatever you read

or whatever your friends are talking about and all the people that are raging on

social media, whether, you know, for this, for

the lockdown, against the lockdown, shaming people who are

out in public or saying you should go out in public. Whoever's doing

that, remember, what you think about this,

like, the big picture doesn't matter because, like, the people

in charge have made the decision. So it's up to

us to try to make the best of it

and to look at the situation from where we are and

then say, like, okay. This is where we need to chill

out or this is how we can have a positive impact. So if we look

at the ways we can make positive impacts in our own homes, in our own

families, in our own lives, Like, if we're thinking of if

we're worried about the global conspiracy and that Bill Gates is doing this whole

thing, don't worry about Bill Gates. He you

know, don't whatever Bill Gates is doing, it doesn't

matter to you. Like, we have we

have a a way that we can take care of the people in our

lives, and that seems to be the one thing that

we do have control over. Like, we'll never have as much control as Bill Gates.

And maybe we don't want it, though. We might not want as much control as

Bill Gates. Right. Of course not. You don't wanna be Bill I

mean, obviously, you don't wanna be a lizard person.

And I'm not saying he's a lizard person, but you guys have

used Windows Mike ME. Right?

So you know that. Obviously, Bill Gates.

Here's the Mike that we're talking about. Person for you right here. We're talking

about staying but let's let's not focus on Windows ME because one

of the techniques for meditation is to focus on the present moment. There you

go. Yes. There you go. About the future just

this very moment. The now. And that's and that's exactly right

because let's let's start so I know. K. We had to kinda talk about the

whole thing in order to get to,

like, get beyond the weird stuff. Like, everything has to be said before we can

start talking about ways, that we can use

spiritually, paranormally, whatever you wanna think of it.

If even if you're a chaos magician, you might be, I don't believe in anything,

but I believe in focusing my will. Okay, chaos magician.

You can be an atheist and still believe in focusing your will and focusing

your Mike. And so let's talk about different

ways that we can change our

present mindset to where Wendy you're watching the news and you're like, oh my

god. We're all gonna die. How do we change that? And I think the

I think the most popular way right now is through meditation.

So, Wendy, what were you gonna say about meditation and kind

of ways to take that anxiety and

maybe tell your amygdala there's no lion here?

Well, we've talked about this so many times before, you know,

and but it's it's worth bringing up just the the fact that

meditation is kinda like a free escape from any situation.

And one of the meditation techniques that's very well

tried and true is the mindfulness technique where you focus

on, you know, you just focus on your breathing and or

it could be an activity Mike, for example, I'm just gonna

take a sip of coffee.

I'm gonna focus on the texture and the flavor and the temperature and

just only think about that and let everything else, the current

stress of the situation, the worries, the concern I have for other

people that are dealing with worse situations. Just all of

that is in an instant poof. And so

the mindfulness technique is really useful and it they say to, you know,

just don't think about the past, don't think about the future. And

it's something that, prison inmates

often it's it's a technique for coping for people who have

long sentences that, you know, they don't want them to sit

and dwell on their regrets and how they got there and all that. Right. What

do you do if you kill? Like, what what do you do if you're in

prison? That's, like, that's a I didn't really thought about that. Well, I was looking

to try to find stories from people who have dealt with, like,

tragic situations or things that, you know, and I I just to

to preface this, no. This situation we're in is not

you can't compare these things. You can't compare it. But but you can look at

what the reason Wendy, I'm sorry. You you're not living with a, 3 year

old. So I, you know I will I will

compare this to prison. I think that it's worth looking at ways that

humans in the past have dealt with situations that were difficult, that were,

you know, where everyone's kinda or a large group of people are going through a

similar kind of thing. So I was looking for stories Mike how people survive the

great depression, techniques that they used, people,

like, even as extreme as concentration camps, like,

imagine what those people had to do. And I'm not likening these

situations by any means, but it's still interesting to see how humans have dealt with

things. So one of the articles that I found was a story,

from a man who spent 27 years in

solitary confinement, and he was providing some

tips on making the best use of the time alone. And I have to say

that, this article, he's very, very the optimism

and the positivity was kind of the key here. But one of the things

that he said How long how long did he spend in solitary confinement? Well, it's

27 years, but he it wasn't Was this Nelson

Mandela? No. It was just he he was accused of

murder. And then while he was in prison, there was a prison riot where

he was accused of 5 people being murdered in the

riot. So it extended his situation.

And of course, there's, like, there's all kinds of

controversy around whether he actually did that or not. So but to the point

of just wanted to read one of the things that he said and and he

said, I've watched quite a few people fall apart, lose their minds, but I went

in another direction. So 27 years later, I'm still sound in mind and body and

spirit. I attribute that to just reading and cultivating

myself. That's the thing. When you're thrown upon yourself, you

realize you are more equipped than you realize. A lot of the system keeps

us from realizing our own power, and it's good opportunity for people to tap into

that. So he was kind of looking at everything from the perspective of

his own inner ability to improve and to

to use that time to cultivate his own self.

And I I love that you, included that, Wendy,

because, I just want to add that,

you know, there have been people who, experienced

concentration camps Mike, Viktor Frankl, for

example, wrote a a great book that people might

wanna check out right now called, Man's Search For Meaning.

So It's not again not a beach read. Like, I've read No. A read.

It's awesome. It's it's it's a life changing book, but don't just be Mike

don't be like, you know what? I'm gonna take this to the beach. No. Take

take, the Da Vinci Code to the beach and save this

one for, like, reading a chapter a night for a while and then meditate on

it. Yes. So, I mean, there have been people

in, terrible situations that,

have have overcome those situations. You you mentioned

Nelson Mandela. You know, we have Viktor Frankl. We have,

we have Thich Nhat Hanh, for example, who, he's he's

a Buddhist and, he

is a great person to to look into many of his

books. You know, he he, lived

through the the Vietnam War and a lot of,

different traumas, that went on with the people

there. And, so he's a Buddhist

monk, and he, just, you know, his

methods are very accessible. And, I would

really recommend, his some of his

techniques. Like like you were mentioning, Wendy, you know, the

technique of as you're doing something, you know,

really be in the moment. Scott and

I call it eating the orange from reading something from a Thich Nhat

Hanh book about, like, how he was eating an orange and

having this incredible, like, spiritual experience. I mean, something that we take

for granted every day. But but just, you know, wondering about

existence, about how he got here and how the orange got here and,

you know, how, you know, the fact that the orange is so

nourishing and and so, beautiful and and

just so refreshing And, you know, how it's

a miracle that all these things have come together in the form that

they currently are. So you can

live your life in a moment. And you can also

use those breathing techniques and and I have some more to talk about as well,

Mike, whenever you think it's appropriate time. I've been doing

some, Wim Hof

breathing techniques and, he has some interesting advice for this time as well.

Well, I think we should talk a little bit we're gonna get to Wim Hof.

Definitely because he is the balls, obviously. He's a popular fella

right now. You know Yeah. Right. And and for good

reason. For well researched reasons. The University of Wisconsin has,

the, you know, the center, for, like, consciousness studies

and Right. You know, we have a whole thing. Like, the University of

Wisconsin in Madison here, where Wendy and I are, has a center specifically

based on meditation who had started by,

Richie Davidson who actually Yeah. He actually worked with Stanley Krippner back

in the 19 seventies at the Maimonides Institute in New York,

for sleepers. Wow. I did not know he worked he worked at Mamanidis. Oh,

they did a lot of cool, very paranormal work. So Richie happened to Mamanidis.

Was Mike Stanley Krippner's assistant on a bunch of stuff. And so I did not

know that. Mike buddies with the Dalai Lama or whatever. Like, they might be lizard

people, but they're cool. And And he just wrote a great book recently

too. I forget the name of it. But But the thing is I would recommend

that book as well. And so it's Mike somebody who's wearing on the staff, doctor

Charles Raisin. How does meditation help during extreme

situations? When it works, it calms the body and Mike, even in

beginners. Although it's important to emphasize that not every benefits from meditation, like

our mother, Allison. She went through a family tragedy, and she tried transcendental

meditation in the seventies, and she says that she just couldn't do it. Uh-huh.

And like everything in life, it's not necessarily for everyone. For people who have

actually learned to meditate previously and have an active practice, mindfulness can help

put things in perspective. This can also be hugely helpful in extreme situations

and can help people think more clearly. And, you know, people

think that, you know, asking about misconceptions about meditation is, like, some

people think that meditation is really difficult to start. True. In fact, it's easy.

Right? It it does seem like, you know, you think, like, oh, my god. It's

gonna be hard. But if you just, you know, if you try

for a minute, 2 minutes, you know, when they're talking they're talking to

him, they were discussing the, you know,

remember when all those kids were trapped in the cave? Mhmm.

Right? Remember when all those kids were trapped in a cave a few years ago?

They were talking to him about, you know, like

because it they were it was in Thailand. And so

Oh, yeah. I do remember now. You know, their soccer coach was a

a Buddhist monk, and he was using meditation to calm their minds That's

lucky. While they were stuck in the cave. Like right.

It's lucky they had a Buddhist monk because if they woulda had me, I'd have

been Mike, we all gonna die. We gotta get out of here. We're gonna

die. Right. And that that, so

panic can actually exacerbate the situation, you know, especially in a

cave, you know, if you have limited oxygen. Oh my gosh. You wanna make

sure that you're calming yourself so that you're using

less oxygen. Is that right? Right. So the thing is, so

meditation obviously, you know, there's a physical

aspect to it and getting there. And in extreme situations, the first thing

focusing on your breathing. And also imagining, like,

see if you can feel all of your different parts, like your extremities.

Woah. Woah. Like, think about Right. Yeah. But no. And What I

mean is so Wendy you think about meditation, you're thinking about, like, hey, I'm feeling

my fingertips. And you're Mike, okay, my fingertips aren't touching anything, but I can they

can feel something. And then but as you

imagine energy going through your body, you can feel that different part even though nothing's

happening there. And so there is a physical aspect to meditation,

that can take you out of the moment and into yourself, which

is where you might need to go in moments of extreme anxiety.

And that's what Wim Hof, the Mike man,

that's what he specializes in is that kind of

body control. So, Allison, what does Vim have to teach us at the

time? And what are your experiences? I'm curious to hear about this.

Okay. So, I'm just at the very beginning of

this and, you know, still trying to wrap my head around

it. So I do have obsessive compulsive disorder.

So I I just wanna share with people that

that sometimes, you know, you might be listening right now and if

you're in the same boat that I have been in,

you might be thinking focus on my breath. That's the last thing I

wanna do. That gives me extra anxiety. And and

I used to experience that as well because even in yoga, you

know, yoga traditions, Buddhism, you know, you name

it. If you're doing some kind of meditation, there

are lots of different varieties. So transcendental is different than

Mike mindfulness, for example. There's there's chakra meditations. There's many

different kinds of meditation. So, if mindfulness doesn't work for

you, don't stop there. I gotta say that. But also if you're

feeling anxiety about the meditation itself,

just know that that is not unusual either.

I felt that myself, you know, like sometimes

when I'm breathing, I feel like I'm not doing it right or I can get

myself so worked up that I I feel like,

I I can't breathe or I can't get enough oxygen. You know, when I

focus too much on something, in a unhealthy

kind of OCD way, which I've dealt with all my life.

But, the thing about Wim Hof is he has particular

types of techniques and,

I have been enjoying them because I haven't fallen into that same

trap, because you're actually you're

hyperventilating when, you're doing Wim

Hof's method. So you're getting an extraordinary

amount of access that, like, your system. Isn't that bad? Do you need the paper

bag? No. Actually, actually yoga? The whole

hot yoga is the No. No. Those are

different You know what I'm talking about? Or like, hot yoga? Mike Yeah. Yeah. It

heats your breath. Yeah. Yeah. There's so much breath work you

could do and actually there's another book to the side here, which I have I'll

have to grab in a moment. It's called Get High Now. It's about

if you want to change your mental state,

but Mike does. There's a little post post

script. It's called get high now so people would buy the book, but then in

tiny little letters, it says without drugs. Clever. So

yes. So there are just no.

But not. It's not boring. That's the thing. There's

a ton of techniques in there that can change your state of mind

right now. So if one doesn't work, you can try another. It's just a

book full of incredible methods. So if one doesn't

work, don't give up. Just look at it like play. Like, I'm

gonna try this and see what what weird thing it does to me. And have

you had success with any of these, Alison? Like, is there any special one that

you found that worked really well? Well,

like I said, a lot of the breath techniques

really kinda stressed me out,

because of that that just hyper focus

Oh, sure. On the breathing. But, with the Wim Hof

method, you're getting a lot of oxygen. So I

didn't have that fear that, you know, I'm not getting enough oxygen,

and it's a little bit simpler than some of the techniques

in the Get High Now book, which are just they're

very ordered. Mike, in the past, I've made, like, recordings

of what I'm supposed to do and then listen to the

recording of myself so that I could make sure I was doing it

right. Mhmm. So, you know, one of my OCD things is not feeling like you're

not doing something right. But, It's because you're not. Wimalov, you know,

although, you know, you can go, like or you have been able to in the

past, go study with him personally. He

beyond that I've got you to study with me. He makes

He can learn. So many things free on YouTube.

Like, there are so many techniques

that he he gives you everything right there and he does it for

free, because he's not I mean, he

has become an international superstar, but really what he wants to do

is he wants to usher in this new wave of

evolution where people take control of their minds and

bodies. All I can think of when you said international superstar though was

that line from Rock me Amadeus when Falco is like, I am a

superstar so popular. And that's all I can think of. And I'm

also saying, like, singing along the Rock me Amadeus and sitting in the

ice and melting the ice ice. Totally a goof. And I was

thinking Totally. Wim Hof superstar. That's

a good one for Easter, Wendy. Absolutely. So,

his methods are very simple. He usually

does a cycle of, like, 30 breaths

and, where you take it all in but you don't

let it all out. And, he does have,

he does have many, videos and just a

audio file too on YouTube, which leads you

through it, the 30 breaths. And then there's there's a

hold at the end for Mike 75 seconds

and, where where you're not breathing. That's where you

pass out. No. Then you suck it in again. And,

you feel incredible at that point, after the

cycles. So, I I would really

suggest going on YouTube, and he did, an interview, which

they have a a really good snippet with, with Russell

Brand on his podcast Under the Skin,

recently and it was all about the coronavirus.

The reason why he thinks his method

could be effective against bacteria

and viruses is because, not

only has it allowed him, his method,

to to, accomplish extreme feats

Mike, alright. So, he and his

students have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro,

I think a couple of times now they're gonna try to do it again in

September if all these restrictions are are lifted. But

they they wear boots, but, and

shorts, and then that's it. They they climb Mount Kilimanjaro,

you know, essentially in their underwear, and they don't

do any acclimatization whatsoever. And

then, one of the times they did it, they were able to do it. Right

now underneath this entire thing. Of course.

Well, you know, none of us need to be wearing pants. Another benefit

of the situation. What are So, I hate pants.

Anyway, I know. But he was able to,

climb, Kilimanjaro in his underwear

with, 30 of his students in 28

hours. He went to the top and got to the all the way to the

bottom. In Wendy Oh my goodness. 28 hours. It usually

takes, regular climbers, 5

days. So and people, there were mountaineering

societies that were Mike, you are gonna die. That seems dangerous.

Especially Yes. Like, what's gonna happen to your willy? And you have to acclimate to

the different altitudes. Right? Yes. So there are actually, 2

books. One book that, was written

by, Scott Carney, which is about Frozen Willie's.

No. Yes. So search Frozen Willie's on

Amazon, and it'll just be fun to see what you get. But anyway, you know,

just search the author's name, Scott Carney. I'm listening to,

the book right now and, I

do I have it here? Oh, yes. It's called it's called

What Doesn't Kill Us. So it's Just freeze the thread.

Detail. Yeah. If you want if you want detail

about this method, check out What Doesn't Kill Us, but the new

book by Scott Carney, which elaborates on, not

just Wim Hof but other methods as well. It's coming

out on Monday actually and we're recording this on

Sunday 12th. So it's coming out on Monday it

is called The Wedge. So it talks about how

you can actually modulate responses that

have been thought to be involuntary up until this point,

up until Oh, wow. Wim Hof at least. They

have thought to be have been thought to be completely involuntary.

Now let's get back to why does Wim Hof

think that he can activate his immune system?

Well, he has shown in

test with scientists in, in

studies under controlled conditions that he

could, be injected by something called,

endotoxin And, it is,

something produced by bacteria, but, before they

inject it into you, they they make sure that it

can't cause you any real harm, but it tricks your

body into thinking it can. So

when you get injected with endotoxin, you immediately

get very severe symptoms, flu symptoms,

and what they were amazed about is they

injected Wim Hof and it had no effect on him.

He was able to do his breath technique and turn on his immune

system to completely stop responding,

in the way that you would typically respond to this

injection. So So Wim Hof the scientists should

be at the front line of the coronavirus. Yeah. Yeah. So so

he did that in, I believe, it was 2,000 and 11. In residence. Seriously.

Okay. Superman. So he did that in 2,011,

and then, just in, I believe this is

2014, they repeated the

study with his students. Because,

they they had initially thought well, you know,

everybody's physiology is a little bit different, perhaps he's just some kind of

weird anomaly and it has nothing to do with the technique itself. He's obviously a

weird anomaly. Yes. But no, he isn't because he's been

able to teach these things to his students. So they did

this other study and, you can find it online,

through NIH, and it's

voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system and attenuation

of the innate immune response in humans. And this is where,

they studied several of his students.

These subjects had been they actually had

been, they weren't his students, I shouldn't say

that. They weren't his students originally. They were just,

volunteers that had just been, carefully selected

by, the researchers so it's not to

be, you know, just to be more of a random sample.

So, they selected, you know, a bunch of

people and, then they

had some of them, get Wim Hof's method and some of

them didn't, And then, so they were able to see

that Wim Hof's method really works

to, activating the immune system

which, you know, we didn't think that we had conscious control over, but

he's he's showing that, we actually

have many, many ways,

we can or many things we can control that we thought

were completely involuntary. He's been showing

that, his method, you know, is busting these myths

and, you know, rewriting a new chapter. So I'm

very excited to get the new book by Mike Carney

and to continue working on this. I'm not so excited about cold

showers. That's part of the method too. But,

hey. We live in Wisconsin. Let's use the cold. You know, it's like, we

always you know, I'm not moving anytime soon. You focused on a

certain kind of method, the Wim Hof method. And Yeah. What

I've been doing to alleviate stress lately is

actually a funny thing, because I was a meditator

every day for a long time, and I did my, Mike, you know, I did

the whole whole deal. And, you were you

were chanting om? Yeah. I did the om chants, the mantras,

you know, that kind of thing. Yes. Yeah. So it's mantra meditation.

Again, another different form. And,

there's a there's a there's a certain doctor Wayne

Dyer meditation that Wendy and I have done. That's Mike the thing is

and he chants it in your ears when you listen to it. He's Mike,

And his breath goes on forever. Have you done it together? No. I just

I bought it and then I shared it with him. But the also, the problem

is that when I go when I try to do the, I've got

my cat, freaks out. And so, like, he he

attacks me when I try. And so but I was having trouble,

quieting my monkey mind. Yeah. During

meditation. And so I started doing the rosary because you already Interesting.

You already know the prayers. If

you already know the prayers. Alice and I grew up RC, a

Roman Catholic. And so Mhmm. But it it was a way to,

like, do the same kind of thing, but

just have it be a little bit easier for me at least because I was

saying the prayers instead of focusing on some kind of mantra or even worrying

about trying to manifest something. Because I was trying to practice

chaos magic for a couple years where No. I did not know this one. The

whole thing and, like, Mike tried firing sigils in different ways, all these kind of

different and it was an interesting thing, but I always felt very,

silly. And chaos magic can feel silly.

This idea that, you you you focus your will on

something and then you fire the sigil off and then you

might be in this mystical state through meditation

or in chaos magic, there's a ton of masturbation stuff. Yes. Yeah.

It's all masturbation and chaos magic. What? Yeah. So sex magic to to

empower Yeah. Like, it's it's this idea. You know, using the orgasmic,

response to empower your schedule, for example. Yeah. But the thing

is chaos magic all felt kind of somewhat not necessarily selfish,

but it just felt like, you're trying to recreate

your own belief system. And so when I was thinking, I was Mike, I was

like, well, there's already a belief system a 1000000 people are doing. So why don't

I just try something? Just do the rosary, and

I found it extremely calming. It takes about 15

minutes to get through. And the rosary if for you non

RCs out there Yes, please. As our father, as

Allison and my father would call the Catholics, he grew up a Christian

Scientist. So, like, he grew up in a cult. Yep.

And, so he would call us. He's like, oh, yeah. You're an

RC Mike your mother.

So with with the rosary, what you do is you you

have a a bunch of beads. It's a it's a prayer

psalter is what it's called. It's it's a grouping of prayer prayers. And so you

have a bunch of beads and then you say a prayer and then you

you go to each bead and each bead is a Hail Mary. Hail Mary, full

of grace. That's nice because it helps you keep track.

Right. So you go through the beads and then you get to the end of

the one bead thing called a decades and say 10 Hail Marys and then you

say, like, an extra thing and then you say an extra thing for, like, Our

Lady of Fatima, who we discussed in the Marian prophecy,

episode. And then you go on to the next one, you say in our father,

and then you go on to the next one and and say another one. And

so you do this, like, list of prayers, and it just kinda it's

just a way to, like, chill out or whatever. It was invented by the Dominican

priests maybe Mike 800 years ago.

But the thing is a lot of people say that there's been miracles

associated with rosary prayers. And Wow. The most

in Mike, there's been a bunch of miracles associated with them, but

I I I Mike any miracle before that

20th century with a grain of salt. Because in the early days,

and we discussed this in our Saint Patrick's episode. In the early days,

the Catholic church didn't really try to

do much, in, like, researching miracles and

making people saints. So people in the early days of the Catholic church were

just made saints by being particularly holy and and

praying a lot. And it wasn't until, like, the 20th century

where they really went in and they were like, okay. We gotta check out

these miracles. And in fact, they will send out

atheist scientists to investigate the miracles

and make sure that each

particular miracle couldn't have another explanation

before they make a person a saint. And

one of these interesting things happened in Hiroshima in, you

know, August 9, 2 1945.

We know what happens in Hiroshima. They

drop an atomic bomb. Now there's 4 Jesuit

priests, like, really close

to where the bomb dropped off. They survived

the initial bombing. This of Jesuit priests,

Hugo LaSalle, Hubert Schiffer, Wilhelm Kleinzorga,

and Hubert, Seizelik. And they're at directory of the church of Our

Lady of Assumption, which is one of the few buildings

that survived the bomb blast. He writes in his diary, father

Chizelik, that they only got injured a little bit,

and the windows broke inside the church.

But they didn't, you know, get hurt, and they

were, like, less than a mile from the explosion. The doctors who take

Ketham afterwards come in and say, look. This

radiation is going to kill you. You

were not very far away from ground 0 of where the bomb

dropped off, And, like, you're going to get radiation sickness. Even if you don't

feel it, you're going to get it. Well,

they don't die. They don't even get radiation sickness. 1976,

31 years later, father Schiffer attends the Eucharistic Congress in

Philadelphia and tells a story. He confirms everybody's still

alive. Nobody's sick. They're examined by doctors, he

said, 200 times over the course of the years, and there was no

radiation found in their bodies. And he said, well, what happened

was we prayed the rosary every day.

And that That's amazing. That's what protected us from what happened.

And he's Mike, we were living the message of Fatima,

from Our Lady of Fatima and her appearances in, the, you know,

early 20th century. And we prayed the rosary every

day, and he said that was the mirror

the the miracle of Hiroshima that these priests

ended up being okay, even

surviving surviving a literal nuclear blast,

and they attributed it. And what I think is

interesting about that is because when you look at miracles of the rosary, there's stuff

that happens in the 17th century. There's stuff that happens in 15th century. All that

kind of stuff, you're like, okay. Well, back in the day,

they saw the Loch Ness Monster every 15 minutes. In Madison, we had

a, you know, 19th century newspapers, they saw

a lake monster, like, Wendy times in the second half of the

19th century. So how much can we believe the newspapers?

But with things that happen in the 20th century, in modern

medicine, during a time when even our parents were alive, this

miracle happened. Right. So that's what I think is very interesting. Very.

Yeah. Going back to look at things that have been

verified, you know, when you're when you're looking for truth, I mean,

really take verification seriously.

Right. Okay. Oh, I hear hear a little ball busting here. Thank

you, Scott. Going back to my chaos match discussion.

So you were doing your regular hobby and calling it magic. Quite

the magician over

there. Quite the magician over there. Yeah. Hey, Scott.

You were the focus of my Mike project, didn't I mention? Man.

Oh. Okay. Mark Johnson.

Sounds like you could focus your mind on anything as long as you're focusing and

not thinking about stressors. Is that way off base? And

you know what? I don't think I don't think it's way off base at all.

That's the, you know, that's the idea is that

it's changing your focus from something negative or something that's making

causing you anxiety at the moment. And as long as the lion's not eating

you, right, it's okay to change your

focus for a few minutes. Right. And it's okay to, you

know, try to try to use whatever is happening in a way

that's constructive for you. So, you know, we're talking about

refocusing, taking control, taking agency,

and, you know, that's gonna look different for everyone.

Yes. But these are just some examples you can use. The mantra thing I

mean, Mike, if someone isn't, in the in the RC

club, you know, you could you could still use that

concept of repeating something that's calming or, you know,

just use you could still use the beads if you wanted to keep track. But,

you know, it's just the the idea of focusing on something that's like a

mantra of whatever nature doesn't have to necessarily be religious or it

could be whatever your own belief system, something from

that. Sure. And it it could be an affirmation, like,

who's that guy on Saturday Night Live's fall year? Al Franken.

Al Franken. Right. That meet So maybe rewatch those

on YouTube. And Yeah. Or you could use a song lyric or something, anything

that you find comforting that just, you know, I'm good enough. Or funny.

No. But honestly Right. I mean, it doesn't have to be

deadly serious. It could be funny. It could be playful. And here's

that book, everybody. Oh, yeah. No. I I have Get High Now. I bought

it as the ebook, and so it has games you can play. And then the

thing about Get High Now, Without Drugs

is that if By James Nestor. You find Check it out. It finds little ways

that, your mind you can trick your own mind and stuff like that

even in a non, chemically altered state or not

like, we we talk about chemical alterations, but also remember that

meditation can cause the same kind of feelings that

psychedelic drugs can. You know, there's there's a couple more things I kinda wanted to

talk about when it came to, paranormal ways of dealing with

crisis. And one of the most interesting things I found about was the

patron saint of stress. What? Hey. There's a

patron saint of stress? There's a patron I did not know that. Saint of stress

and of crisis. There's a couple different ones. And one is named

Padre Pio, who is a 20th century state who who is

canonized by pope John Paul the second, and his

story actually deserves a whole episode because he's a

he's a stigmatic like, he his story is called right alone and

there's Satan stuff. He can fly perhaps,

but I know a lot about him. Mike fly locate. Yes. That's

awesome. I know a lot about him as well because, in Milwaukee

on Brady Street, we had a a doctor who, you

know, practiced there for, like, 50 years and was, you know,

honored, by the medical association was was a real

doctor. But, what he would do,

in his off time is, do presentations

around the country about Padre Pio. So, there

are people even today, that are

devoted Oh, yeah. To, Padre Pio, and

his miracles. So, yeah. That's a that's a good

He's on show. Internet search right there. But the first person you pray

to in a time of crisis is

saint Dymphna. Or maybe so, saint

Dymphna, now she lived, supposedly in the 8th

century, but her story is first recorded in the 13th

century, in France, and she was an Irish saint.

So sometimes she's called, like, the belle of Ireland or whatever.

And Wow. So let's let's go back to the,

the 7th century here, and let's talk about Saint Dymphna, because she is one of

the first people you pray to when you're in some kind of crisis,

and I'll tell you why. Her story is well,

let's just say Mike most of the saints, her story has a trigger warning

involved. So Dymphna is 14 years old, and her

mother's a Christian, but her father's a pagan. And he's a he's a

Mike a lord king. He's got a little fiefdom

in Ireland, and the mother's a Christian, probably converted

by Saint Patrick, a man and

her dad's a pagan. But when she's 14 years old, she says, I'm

going to be a servant of the Lord and takes a vow of chastity. Shortly

thereafter, her mom dies, and her father Damon

loved his wife so deeply. He was just depressed for

months, and he starts going crazy after his wife dies.

The thing is, this is back in the 7th century or whatever, and they're like,

well, you gotta get, you know, you gotta get remarried. Maybe you should marry, like,

a chief's son's daughter or something like that to unify that kind of tribes

or another king, a princess. But he's like, I only will marry

someone as beautiful as my dead wife. Oh. Uh-oh. So he's

vain. Can't find. Well, yeah, he's vain. But they can't find anybody. And

so what he does is he's like, I should probably marry my

daughter. What? No. But

Did I write this story? I said trailer warnings.

So Yeah. She learns of her father's intentions, and she's

like, no way. I'm not getting involved in this Greek bolt.

And she flees the country along with

her confessor, her priest, and

2 servants and the king's fool. That's the best part. She

takes the fool along with her. And they go to

Belgium, and they take refuge in the town of Gille. And so

once she's in Gille, traditionally, it's said that she,

built a hospital for the poor and sick of the region

and because she had money because her father was a rich king. And

then she, you know, so she's trying to take care of people. She's trying

to, you know, be a saint, And her

father eventually hears about this, and he sends, like,

men to go after her. And he

goes to Gilles, Belgium to find his daughter,

and then he kills her priest. And then she says you he says to her,

you gotta come back to move Ireland. And she's Mike, no way am I coming

back to Ireland and being my father's wife because that's

weird, dad. So in their fight,

he cuts her head off. At 15 years old, he cuts her head off.

This is this is this is What are we talking

about here? How is this how is this relaxing to us? Saint Saint

Dymphna. I've I feel really relaxed right now,

Wendy. So what happened? I'm just just I'm just thinking

of the fountain of blood, like, shooting out of her neck. That just

woah. I could fall asleep right now. Sweet dreams.

Okay. Well, I know. But this is this is how saints get created,

and that's why I'm going into this. Yes. So she's beheaded by

her father. She's like, both her and her priest

are martyred. The the residents of the

town buried her in a nearby cave. And so,

some say that her remains are in, like,

a shrine to her in Massillon, Ohio today. But the

thing is is that the hospital that she built

is still there. Wow. So this hospital in

Belgium has taken care of so she is the patron

saint of, the

mentally ill, the nervous, runaways, the emotionally

disturbed, and those who suffer neurological disorders.

The patron saint, the survivors of incest and sexual assault, but

also anxiety. So when you feel anxiety, you say a

prayer to Saint Dymphna. And the interesting thing

is that that hospital is still around, and in fact, they don't

call, Mike, they call the people who are their patients

that they take care of. They don't call them patients or, you know, they they

call them borders and that they're just staying there for a little while. And

they give mentally ill people and stuff jobs and stuff Mike to do

in that town. And so this happened in the 7th

century supposedly, but the her story is first written in the 13th

century. But the thing is that hospital and that the town

of Gio Belgium still is a place that's a

safe place for people who are mentally ill. And that's why Saint Dymphna

is the patron saint of anxiety and the

mentally ill. And you pray to her when you feel

extraordinarily anxious or, you know, anxiety and that she will, you

know, she will pray to God for you. Because that's the thing about saints. Saints

can't do anything because only God has power, at least in the

Catholic church. Saints can't do anything for you, but they can pray

for you. So you pray to the saint to pray for you because you think

that God likes the saint better than you because it's a saint,

and you're just a sinner. That's right. So they intercede

for you. So that's what they do. Right. You pray for intercession on your behalf

from that saint. And so that was an interesting thing. I'd never heard of Saint

Dymphna before, but her story obviously was very gruesome,

and gross. But she is but

And stressful, you might say. Say it was stressful. But what happened is

that it ended up having something where, you have a

very modern idea of how we treat mentally ill

people, not just sticking them in a Utica crib,

like they would have done in a 19th century sanitarium. But by

giving them jobs and something to do,

And this was started in the in 13th century. So this

idea, it just I don't know. It's a patron saint story, but

also had a kinda nice obviously, not her beheaded is a nice ending. But

the ending of what happened in the town is something positive that

happened. And Right. Saint Dimpf Making the world a better place.

Saint Dimpf is a comforting presence for a lot of people who feel

anxiety. And she can she can,

she can be an example of, you know, you can't control everything,

but, you know, can you make the the world better?

Can you make your own community better? And that's what she did. You can't control

everything when your dad is a freaking pervert. That's right.

Well, you know, what else you guys is there anything other thing

in particular? Like, because, obviously, you

know, mantras might deserve their own episode at one at one time because

I think that the idea of the mantra, it's not just

because I think of a mantra as, like, okay. I'm Stuart Smalley. It's a daily

affirmation. It's just Mike you go back into yourself, and you're like, okay. We're gonna

we're gonna kick some ass. We're gonna do well. We're gonna make sure this it's

gonna be a great day. Nice. I know you have that kind of Yes.

Well, I found, through the years, I really like

a certain kind of, yoga called chakra chakra

yoga. So, that does

incorporate some chanting for the different yo

for the different, chakra areas of your body. So what do you chant?

And I'm not gonna do the chant live,

but I would just say Oh, come on. That's prime contrast. I would just say

check out chakra sorry. Check out,

chakra yoga, because again, this is

another, another tool for your toolbox. They

might not all work, for you. I mean, you gotta

find the one that works for you. And if you're a chaos magician, you only

need one tool in your toolbox. Oh, geez. Yes.

Yes. You know which one you've got in your toolbox, Mike. But,

beyond that, there are a lot of different techniques you can try.

Chakra yoga is one of them. I liked

I Mike, some of the different chants because,

you know, they don't they don't mean any I

mean, they they are supposed to activate certain areas of your

body, but, unlike transcendental meditation,

which is, you know, it's tied in with venerating a guru, which

I don't go in for, chakra

yoga is, you know, more about, you know, reconnecting with your

own energy and your own power.

And, you know, some of the yoga poses like,

the camel pose, oh, man. I have such trippy

experiences with that one. Wait. Hold on. So You're on video.

Let's see the camel pose. Okay. No. No. I'm not That's

for the Patreon. I can possibly do it. Yeah. I was gonna say Yeah.

Patreon's get to stay out and shout the cow pose. Yeah. You're blending

all the way back, so, there's no way that you can possibly

But is it a is it a dromedary kennel? I don't know. Like, I'm just

making a joke about you. So anyway, camapause, does

really funky things. I mean, I nearly

Mike I see colors. I,

you know, all the chatter in my mind stops involuntarily,

you know, it's not like I can keep anything in my head so

it's it's kind of an interesting switch, for

me to do the camel pose and then to have, you know,

see the colors and that this rush of energy and,

you know, like almost a humming in your ears sometimes. Wow. That's

cool. So I feel, you know yeah. Something I would do the camel pose.

Something happens. So you might you might wanna just

try some different things and, you know, see what

does it for you. But, there's a lot of fun exploration to be

done. I'm gonna do the camo pose, say a bunch of hail Marys, and see

if I can fly like Padre Pio. There you go. You got it.

That's your own program. Yeah. Now so, Wendy, what have you been doing? Like, what's

Oh, man. Okay. You've been meditating? You've been what what what how have

you been keeping cool when when everybody tells you

you're gonna die? Well, I'm a regular meditator, although my practice does lapse

because I'm human. And, so I've I've been making a

conscious effort to reinstate my practice and keep it

regular. Okay. So and and

people who know me really well know that I'm also kind of obsessive about, like,

setting goals and keeping the the don't break the chain technique where

you try to Yes. You know, do something every single day, and they're

typically small things. So what I recommend The Jerry Seinfeld

don't do the chain. Right? But I think, even if you just set

a little goal for yourself. So if you say, like, for

3 days, I'm gonna try to do these things. I'm gonna try to

meditate for you know, you can set it something very reasonable, even it's just

5 minutes. And nobody can say they can't find 5 minutes,

you know, but 5 minutes of meditation, do a couple pushups,

you know, do, eat something, a piece of

fruit, whatever. So, like, right now, I'm on day

7 of a 10 day challenge, which 10 days is kind of a long

stretch. So I recommend starting it off with something maybe shorter

and then working your and you give yourself a little reward. So after you make

the 10 days and you get to splurge or do something really

fun that you have been holding off on. So so

my, this is a week into my 10 day challenge and I feel Mike I

was just noticing yesterday how much better I feel. Because I've been, like,

having a smoothie every morning, getting a little exercise and fresh air

each day. I've got my, like, push up sit up regime, but that's

it's not necessary. But the meditation is key. And just having that

that little tiny break in the day where it to me, it's just like a

mini vacation. You're allowed to just forget about every like, it's

okay. You know, whatever's happening in this world is just

it doesn't need to be in this world right now. So I give myself that

10 minutes or whatever. And but feeling the success of being able

to check off for this many days in a row, I've done something Yeah.

Little healthy things for myself. So I'm finding that to to be

very, effective myself. It's not really paranormal, but

but then, and really quick, I don't wanna monopolize the conversation

here, but I I did wanna say that something that I want to try to

do that I have it on my list of things I haven't yet

fully, you know, made an effort for. But the gratitude practice is

something that a lot of people recommend. And that's just, you know, where

you consciously take time to appreciate

the things that you do have. And there's actually neuroscience

behind it that and I'm quoting this from an article

from positivepsychology.com that by consciously

practicing gratitude every day, we can help neural pathways to

strengthen themselves and ultimately create a permanent grateful and positive nature

within ourselves. And that's just, you know, by doing it daily, you kind

of train yourself to have that innate

appreciation of the good, which just affects every

aspect of your daily life. So I think it's worthwhile to to

give that one a try. And, hopefully, I can try it and report back on

my results. Sure. Well, I gotta say that, the gratitude I mean, I I

did the 5 minute journal. Well, I still do it actually

fairly frequently. Yeah. I did the 5 minute journal as a habit for at least

a year, and I I both you guys, I have been

grateful for on many occasions in the past. Thanks, Mike. I'm

grateful for that. Aw. Sure. Well, no. But you think about you

think about the people that, make your life easier or fun,

and then you can you think about that, and you realize that it's easy to

think about the people you wanna fucking strangle. But why does that make you

feel good? Right. It does not it does not make you feel good, but it's

easy to think about it. It's easy to get lost in righteous anger and be,

like, oh, my god. Yeah. I'm so mad at that person, and I just wanna

I wanna stab them. But it but when you think about the people who make

your life great, that leads the rest of your

day to be much better. And chemically, when we express

gratitude and receive the same, our brain releases dopamine and

serotonin, the 2 crucial neurotransmitters responsible for

our emotions, and they make us feel good. So there is a,

like, even if you're just, like, I don't like this. It's it's something I'm not

enjoying this thought process. Those chemicals are gonna

be starting to generate. So you're doing yourself,

like, an actual science or something good. You're doing yourself a

chemical product. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You're doing yourself

a a a favor that is scientifically proven. And,

I just wanna say, you know, one last thing here, you know, just,

following on with what you're saying, Wendy, about meditation,

it doesn't have to be for a long time each day. In fact, doctor

Richard Davidson at UW Madison, who we previously

mentioned, he and his colleagues have found in,

again, laboratory studies under controlled

conditions that they can actually change

someone's brain, and they've verified this through PET

scans, with as short as 2

months of meditation that is is just

for 20 minutes a day. So it's the simplest form of mindfulness meditation.

They found in PET scans that it has actually

changed the brain to be more like the brains of advanced

Tibetan monks, you know, meditators who have done this for

years, who have whose brains they've also studied. So they can they've

compared study participants brains to, to

these Tibetan monks and found that you can have positive changes

in your own brain that are, you know, verifiable by PET

scan in as little as 2 months, and that's from just 20 minutes a

day. And then eventually we can all become meditators like Alexander

David Neal and create a tulpa that kills our Oh.

So there you go. The fast You wanna talk about the fastest way to

alleviate stress? It is to,

oh, I can't think of it, to crush your enemies,

you know, have them bow before you and hear the lamentations and with

and cries of their children. And and you can do that. You

can do that. So just postpone that righteous anger for a little

bit and and so you get to the point where you can create that

pulpit again. Yeah. The murderous the murderous tulpa. But the

thing is, it is important to stay positive in this

Mike. And I'm not just saying that as, like, I'm not just saying this is

Mike a character from the movie Trolls, who just says like positivity.

Yay. It is the thing is the best way we can conquer these

kind of things is, is to focus

on how what we can do for ourselves and our family and all

these kind of things number 1. And I think that we've covered a lot of

those ways today. If it's from meditation

to Mike looking at biofeedback, like I think about my my my watch

tells me what my heart rate is. And if I see

that my heart rate like Mike read if I read an article on Reddit, my

heart rate increases, I should probably stop reading that article.

If I see somebody online that I hate, I should

probably just Mike, you know what? That's not gonna make things better. Just

block them. Like, get get it out of your life. Just finish it up.

And remember that the things that sometimes feel Mike they're

difficult to do, you have some resistance to because I know I've been

reading lots of people saying, like, you know what? I don't wanna set a goal

to be healthy. Like, I just wanna sit here and eat and

drink. But, it might not be easy, but it's just a

tiny little thing and it's kinda like taking your medicine. You

know? Once it actually starts working and you start noticing,

feeling better, then it gets easier. So it's it might be a

little, you know, and it's okay. It's okay to feel

bad and it's totally fine to binge. Oh Mike gosh. Oreo

caramel coconut cookies. Hello. That is

my quarantine Right. Splurge binge food of choice. But

anyway, yes. Mike quarantine binge, has

been potatoes. I'm like, that's it. Pandemic's on. What is it?

Bowl of stew and put them in a pot? Potatoes again. Potatoes.

Yes. First of all, I wanted to say thank you, John,

for getting the quote right where it is. Crush the enemies, see them driven

before you, and hear the limitations of the women,

which is from Conan the Barbarian, which Oliver Stone wrote. Goodness. And the

actual that quote is based on something from,

either Genghis Khan or Attila Khan. But the thing is, like, they said something of,

like, what is Conan, what is best in Mike? And that's what he says,

in that particular film. And, I mean, Oliver Stone is no slouch,

obviously. But that's the thing. It's okay to binge sometimes too. Right? Like,

sometimes Yeah. You're gonna do stupid stuff. You're gonna be like, hey. I'm gonna

eat that entire bag of Oreos or I'm gonna eat that and, you know, and

that's gonna happen. So don't feel guilty about, like, living your life. And don't

be hard on yourself. It's okay. Right. Well, that's the important

thing. You know, I always say I think I've talked about this in a podcast

before. And in the movie Mumford, which is a,

a Lawrence Kasdan film from, I don't know, 20 years ago

now. And there's a psychologist in that movie,

and the psychologist is talking to a, you

know, like a a nebbishy kinda character. And the

guy talks about his dreams or actually sexual fantasies. And his

sexual he's even turned down in his sexual fantasies. And he's

like, oh, my God. This guy can't even get laid in his own

fantasies. And so even in his own head, he's

punishing himself. For what? And the idea is

Mike there's, you know, there's plenty of time to feel

bad about all of this or whatever, but

you don't need to punish yourself, for what's happening in the

world. Just do your best. And it's not helping anyone to feel

bad. So why not feel good? It is not.

So, I mean, I think that's a that's a good way to close out this

particular episode that everybody out there,

life is hard. Do your best. Don't punish yourself.

And keep your community around you, you know. Don't be afraid to reach out to

people like us. Exactly. Right. We're here.

And we're especially here for our Patreon community. And you

can find, the Patreon at

patreon.com/sunspotmusic is where you can find,

and that helps keep the podcast and the songs and the videos and everything

like that coming, that pays for our hosting fees.

It pays for our email list server, and little things like

that. Patreon.com/sunspotmusic. If you're interested

in becoming one of the coolest people we know, please check

that out. Like Christine who just signed up last week. Thank you so much.

Signed up last week. On this particular episode, we were talking

to John Dreyjka. He is a Patreon

since 2016. Cheers to you, John.

Mark Johnson, Patreon not too long after John actually probably Wendy

2016 and has been a, Patreon since then.

Everybody out there, or actually brand new Patreon,

Iris. Yes. So excited to have her in the community. Love,

Iris. Yes. Thank you. Talented woman joining this morning, making

our Easter Sunday special. We want all of you guys to remember that,

no matter what, it's gonna be okay, and you're breathing, and

you're eating, and you're living, and you're doing fine. So it's hard, and

it's weird, and, like, it's just

we none of us have lived through a time like this. And I know to

the people, like, I was just talking about a guy that survived the nuclear blast

in Hiroshima. Right. Or you think about the people that lived through the Ukrainian

famine, or you think about the people that lived in Ukraine. Yeah. And

we're like, hey. We have tiger cake. We're like, my Internet

went out. I know. Oh, god. And those people are

like, I ate shoelaces. Right.

Or, you know, we have an upcoming episode about the Wendigo

and, the the kind of things that people had to eat.

Spoiler alert, their friends. When right. When

food ran out in the, you know, the first nations in in the

1500, 1600, the thing is life is

hard and we get that, and it's okay to feel that way. But you know

what? We're gonna make it through, and it's gonna be alright. Just meditate,

pray the rosary, do some chaos magic by

yourself in the room, whatever you gotta do Gosh. To make it

true. Find the positive in it. Find, as you were

saying, Mike, we're we're in a situation of,

both, danger and opportunity.

Find the opportunity and focus on that. Pursue

that. We are living in the interesting times that the Chinese didn't actually tell

us about. So either way, you guys are

awesome. Thank you everybody who joined us on YouTube. And anyway in the future, please

leave comments. Visit us at our

website, othersidepodcast.com, where you can find hundreds

of episodes of paranormal stuff and

interesting interviews with musicians and actors

and paranormal authors. Researchers. Re Mike,

very intelligent researchers and also people who star in paranormal TV

shows. And we're sorry about that. We got a little of everything. But either way,

we'll see you guys on the other side. Cheers, everybody. Bye.

This week's song is a meditation track meant to relax you

in just 5 minutes. It's got a beat programmed to

slow down your heart rate. It's in g major, which is known as

the most relaxing key. It's got a Tibetan singing bowl

for meditative properties, and there's even some sounds of rain

so that you can experience a touch of nature.

Hopefully, this will give you 5 minutes of

peace.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. You can find us

online at othersidepodcast.com. Until next

Mike. See you on the other side. You know, Wendy,

this lockdown isn't all bad. You don't think so, No. You know why I don't

think so? It's because we've had a chance to spend more time with our

Patreon community, than we have ever before,

by the extra livestreams and

more activity in the, see you on the other side and sunspot private Facebook

group. It's just we've been able to spend more time with the people who

support the things we do, and that to me has been one of the most

positive things to come out of all this whole, safer at home experiment.

Yes. Your glass is more than half full, Mike. And I like that. And I

get really refreshed. Great. Yeah. It seems like

everybody's getting better at hanging out online Yes. You know, as an

alternative. So it's really nice to get to see people. You know, and 3 cheers

to our newest, Patreon member. That's Anna h.

Anna, thank you so much. You're welcome, Anna. Thank you. And, we'll see you

inside to see another side. How many times can I say see you inside in

a sentence? That's a tongue twister. But Yes. We will see you inside the

private Facebook group where we talk about, the latest coolest paranormal

stories that we see, fun videos, and, just have a discussion about

the things that we talk about on the see another side podcast. And a

special shout out to doctor Ned. Doctor Ned. He's on the Patreon level where he

gets a shout out in every single episode. So, doctor Ned, thank you for your

patronage and your support. We absolutely appreciate it. And we appreciate

all of our Patreon members, all the all the new people we've met in the

last month, all the old people who've been stuck by us for years. We

appreciate every one of you, and we look forward, to the

next see you on the Mike Patreon hangout, which we're gonna

schedule for the end of May. And we will see what date works best

for everybody. But we can't wait to see your beautiful Mike faces

online again. Yes. Thank you so much, and I hope

everyone has a fabulous week.

I'm gonna do the camo pose, say a bunch of Hail Marys and see if

I can fly like Padre Pio.