The discussion highlights the importance of setting clear intentions before using psychedelics, likening the process to tackling the dirtiest rooms in a house first. Psychedelics often bring unresolved trauma and challenges to the surface, so addressing these issues carefully is crucial for effective personal growth. This approach ensures that deep-seated issues are confronted, facilitating meaningful and lasting transformation.

It’s noted that nobody regrets trying psychedelics when approached with serious intentions and a commitment to self-improvement. The effects of psychedelics can be gradual and require patience, but by preparing oneself mentally and emotionally, individuals can harness their transformative power to clear mental noise, reassess beliefs, and achieve significant personal growth.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:35 – Ryan Stewman on the Impact of Dr. Chalmers’ Chiropractic License
00:39 – Journey with Ketamine Therapy and Its Remarkable Impact on Heart Health
03:58 – Ryan Stewman’s Journey with Ketamine Therapy and Personal Growth
11:18 – Ryan Stewman on How Ketamine Therapy Helped Manage Insecurities and Anxiety
13:52 – Ryan Stewman on the Evolution of His Ketamine Therapy Experience
14:58 – The Spiritual Insights Gained from DMT
19:24 – Journey to Finding Spiritual Community in a Methodist Church
28:58 – Breaking Free from Alcohol and Embracing What Truly Serves
29:32 – Ryan Stewman on the Decision to Abstain from Alcohol and Its Impact on His Life
30:21 – Dr. Chalmers and Ryan Stewman on the Benefits of Letting Go of Unhelpful Habits
31:09 – Ryan Stewman on Aligning Relationships with Personal Values and the Impact of Removing Misalignments
32:35 – Ryan Stewman on How His Wife Amy Shapes His Values and the Challenge of Maintaining Them
34:15 – The Challenge of Cutting Ties and Maintaining Core Values
36:49 – Dr. Chalmers and Ryan Stewman on Perceptions, Standards, and Boundaries
37:05 – Ryan Stewman on Prioritizing Family Over Social Engagements
38:09 – Dr. Chalmers on Avoiding Alignments with Misaligned Behaviors
40:11 – Personal Growth and Transformation
41:19 – How Growth Has Improved His Approach to Fatherhood
42:38 – The Positive Impact of Personal Transformation on Family Life
43:01 – How His Transformation Has Fostered Constructive Family Interactions
47:00 – The Benefits of Ketamine in Balancing the Sympathetic Nervous System
50:09 – Enhancing Gut Health and Well-Being through Sympathetic Nervous System Care
53:40 – How Psychedelics Could Disrupt Traditional Treatment Models
54:51 – Avoiding Traditional Treatments and Embracing Alternative Methods
57:26 – How an Unexpected Encounter with His Partner Reinforced the Value of Inner Guidance
1:02:31 – How Psychedelics and Inner Guidance Drive Personal and Professional Development
1:04:37 – Facilitate Personal Growth and Belief Reassessment
1:07:03 – The Rewards of Psychedelics When Approached with Serious Intentions
1:08:16 – Using Psychedelics to Address Unresolved Trauma for Effective Personal Growth

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:00] All right. Well, it’s kind of funny because, when we we did your. One of the things I tell people all the time is that, the reason that I’ve done all this stuff I’ve done is because I’ve been your friend. The whole, like, circle thing is probably the most accurate thing that I think that we’ve, I’ve seen because all the other stuff I’ve gone to with you, all the, all the different, you know, the all the Avengers stuff and all the different stuff. I’ve seen it all. We went to Cabo like, it’s like the guys you hang out with make you who you are. And so, like, the the book and the Ted talk and all that stuff I did was cause I knew you.

Ryan Stewman [00:00:35] So I forget about that time I tell you to go and get your chiropractic license.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:39] Yeah, that would tell you that was, that was that was very it was also very beneficial. Phenomenal. Phenomenal advice. Always. Always on top. It was. Yeah, it was very tastic. But it’s worked out well. It has been really, really, really successful. I’m really, really excited about that. And thank you for that. But it’s funny because like, that’s kind of what drove the whole thing. So that’s why I did the Ted talk. My buddy Jason, you know, Jason was giving me grief about it. He was like, he was like, hey, have you figured out the pain thing? He’s like, all you gotta do now is figure out how to fix addiction. He’s like, you get this whole opioid problem solved. And so that’s when I started looking into it. And, that’s when I went and did the, with fill in the research on ketamine and stuff like that. And it was I was just astonished that the research is so good and we’re not use that. And so that’s why I was like, I gotta start telling everybody about this. And that’s where the charity idea came from. That’s where all the things came from. It’s just like, this is the thing we’ve got to focus on. And the more I read about it, the more I started doing it, the more it was just the most unbelievable thing because it’s what I went and did. I don’t know if I told you the story of my ketamine. So the whole reason I did ketamine at the beginning was because I wanted to have integrity. Like when I talk to people about it and I’m like, well, I did it when I did. This is what happened, right? And so I just expected that, you know, I get high, it’d be fine, whatever, because I didn’t have any problems. My life is awesome, right? Well, what happened was about for about 18 months beforehand because of Covid. I brought everybody in. I was working, everybody had Covid. I got really bad Covid. It messed up my heart. And so when I would lay down at night, my heart would be really, really hard. Like way harder than you think it should. And I got echos. I did the whole thing and nobody could figure it out. On top of that, since I was in college, my heart rate has been in the 90s and nobody could figure out why. What we finally figured out was we trace it back to a car wreck I was in that gave me PTSD. And so here I am feeling great, thinking life is awesome. My heart rate’s 90. My heart’s beating so hard at night that I feel like I’m going to die. And so I go in and I do the ketamine the first time, and it was horrible. Like everyone told me. Like, you’re going to love it. You’re going to get high. Is me funny? I see all these things. So nothing felt kind of just kind of dead, like my skin was just, like, numb and then got done. And when I got done, I was sick as a dog, like the worst flu I’d had. Like, so my dad’s drive me home because he had to ask me to drive you home, and I’m throwing up outside the window like I’m drunk. Like it was horrible. And I get home and I feel like I’m just going to die. And I’m kind of curled up and I’m walking through the room, and finally I get to the bedroom. I just lay down, like, if I can just get to sleep, everything will be okay. And I lay down and it’s the first time in 18 months I can’t feel my heart beating. And then the next morning, for some reason, I’m showing people how to use a pulse ox. My pulse was back in the 60s for the first time since I was 20, and so I was like, okay. This did something pretty cool. So that’s where I was like, this is something we need to start incorporating with everybody else. And so that’s when I started asking my, you know, find my buddies who are having obvious stuff and what’s going on because every one of us has some type of PTSD. Everybody has these these things of his in the past. And so that’s when you and I started talking about it, and I have you run through it. So walk us through kind of how when you went through it, what it did, kind of how your process was, how it felt like what it did for you.

Ryan Stewman [00:03:58] Well, first of all, I think that, every doctor should try whatever it is that they’re pushing. You know, when I was a street pharmacist, I tried everything I pushed. You know.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:13] How are you gonna try?

Ryan Stewman [00:04:14] That’s the most integris thing. I’m not recommend anybody become a drug dealer, but that’s, like, the most integris thing you can. You know, you got a lot of these doctors pushing pills and stuff that they wouldn’t take themselves, and they. They’ve never tried it. So someone comes in and they’re like, I feel this way. So I think that is you’re right. That’s that’s extreme integrity. How could you you know, you got a couple of bottles of pills there. I assume that you’ve taken those before.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:37] Oh the races. Yeah, all the time, you know.

Ryan Stewman [00:04:39] And so you can actually say, I take it. You know what I mean? Like, I think, you know, to be a cancer doctor, you should have probably went to school and then at some point got cancer and go through chemo, maybe you wouldn’t be recommending that. So many people. So just just my opinion. But back to the ketamine. You know, I went in there with a lot of reservations. I’m not a very vulnerable, open person. And the doctor was very cool that I dealt with doctor guest here. Really cool guy, combat veteran guy. And, you know, it made it very comfortable to, to go in there. But, you know, he’s like, we’re going to dose you up. You won’t feel it. We’ll see you in an hour. Kind of a thing. You know it’s not his job done. He got he told me no matter what you feel, you’re not going to die. So I had that going for me is I can’t overdose. I’m not going to die from it. So. And I’ve done mushrooms and LSD and probably pretty kind of any kind of illicit hallucinogen I’ve done. So I kind of had an idea of what to expect, you know? But the first time that I went in there, I turned the TV on with, like, you know, some serene visualization stuff and left my eyes open and, and, you know, a little nervous. And when I got home after it was all over with, I just kind of tripped watching the TV screensaver thing. And when, when I got home, I don’t want to talk to anybody. I just kind of wanted to. Run through my mind. What what I what the hell? It just happened. You know, and so the first time, kind of like years was an awkward experience for me. Second time I go back 2 or 3 days later. Thank you. Three days in between. And I go back 2 or 3 days later. And I thought, well, I know when you do mushrooms or LSD, if you keep your eyes open, you have an external experience. If you close them, you have an internal experience. And I’m trying to work on my mind here. So I’m going to close my eyes this time. And my only regret was that I didn’t have headphones on. So it was silent because I was with your eyes closed your ears and your smell will get. And it’s like a blind person can hear a mile away. Right. So my hearing intensified so I could hear them kind of mumbling through the walls and kind of walking around and stuff. So the, you know, the next time I went in there with headphones like no Bose noise canceling headphones, and I kept my eyes closed. And it was at this point three trips in the, you know, I’m like in this. The visualization was like, I’m in this room and I see all these people that I’ve known over the years that they’re like my parents, you know, I’m a I’m adopted by my dad. And so like my parents, people that have done me wrong and stuff and it it wasn’t like a voice or anything, but it was it was it’s going to be okay. You know, kind of like all these weird, traumatic experiences I had since I got my eyes closed and their silence in my ears, you know, it was like, it’s going to be okay. So about the third time I’m like, okay, I still don’t know what I’m getting out of this because I didn’t have, like, you had a heart condition or whatever the case. I didn’t have anything like that that I know about anyway. I’m not a feelings person, but, and I’m definitely not a doctor, so I wouldn’t know anything. And then the fourth time I go in there, it was like. I came out and I felt peaceful for the first time in a long time, and. I just felt at peace. I don’t know a better way to explain it. You know, I was calm and I’m a nervous wreck nine times out of ten. I mean, you’ve known me for years now, and and I’m just I’m I nervous, anxious person. And I didn’t have that. And about the fifth time, I started feeling like, you know. Okay, think something inside of me is healing. I don’t know what it is, but something inside of me is healing. And what’s crazy is I went back and did it again. Matt. Probably four more times. Thank you. They sign you up for six, and I went in and did four more or whatever it was, or I did it double and because I’m like, dude, I got a lot of yeah, first of all, it’s fun. Second of all, I got a lot of a lot of shit I need to digest. If the average person has one problem, I pray at a hundred. Yeah. And so, I went and I did it again, and it was really that second set that started. I felt like the first set was like conditioned in my mind. The second set was clearing it out. Well, shortly let’s say that this was this was last year. So let’s say it was in June. And it’s like a metaphor for life. A lot of people expect to get immediate results from something, and sometimes they do. Like your heart slows down. You feel good. Again about November. I’m like, no, I’m sorry. In July, I’m like, I don’t want to drink anymore. You know? Like, I didn’t go in there with an alcohol addiction. No, but I’m like, I don’t know what that’s serving me. And then about November, I quit smoking weed and I was the serious pothead, like, you know, all day, every day, smoking all day, every day. And I just felt like there was this voice in the back of my head on top of this calmness. It was like, you don’t need those things. And so I ended up, you know, the a lot of times you were telling me this too, that people go in there and they cure addictions, opiates, whatever the case, I didn’t go in there thinking I got an alcohol problem or a weed problems, like, oh, trick ketamine and see what Doctor Chalmers is talking about. But those that became part of it, you know, and I went. Nine months without alcohol. I occasionally drink. Now, again, it’s never been a problem for me. I don’t I’m not a not a drink every day of the week type of person. And I’ve gone now nine months without weed, which was a problem. And, even the other day when you and I were talking, you’re like, are you sure? Maybe this, that there’s like, I just. I’m not feeling it, you know? And I never really thought I would say that, and I can’t guarantee that. Well, I’ll never smoke again or whatever the case may be. But I didn’t go in there with those intentions. But they help. Now, the byproduct of that has been I haven’t been losing my temper as much. I’ve been trying to think things through, I’m more I’m I’m ultimately an insecure person, even though a lot of people wouldn’t think that about me. They’d be like super and super confident or whatever. But I’m ultimately insecure because when I said something that like, I come from an abusive household in prison at a young age and you’re molded at a young age, so if I said something to my dad, my dad, and maybe we need to bring this back, maybe not. But my dad was like, you would vote my ass if it was something that caused confrontation. It was an ass whipping, you know, I remember my dad used to spend his time on the job making different paddles and shit. You would come home. He’s like a major new paddle.

Ryan Stewman [00:11:18] Like fucking house for that. Yeah.

Ryan Stewman [00:11:20] But that was the kind of house that I grew up in. And then going to prison, you know, any kind of disrespect or any kind of slight confrontation leads to violence. So from ages six all the way to 21, every confident and then selling drugs in between that time period to any kind of slight confrontation, it’s led to violence in my life. And so that was my PTSD is that, you know, if I disagree with Matt about what color the wall is, he’s bigger than me and my beat the shit out of me, you know, and, and and so that causes a lot of insecurity and anxiety and, and it had me bottling things up when I needed to have conversations with employees at work.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:11:59] Or.

Ryan Stewman [00:12:00] Clients or whatever the case may be. And, you know, it is very stressful for me because, you know, I’m like, well, I need to tell. Let’s say you work for me and I’m like, I need to tell such and such to do this when if I do, maybe they’ll leave me like my, my dad, or maybe they’ll, they’ll hit me like my stepdad, or maybe I’ll end up in a fight. So it was just this, a real mental game that I’m playing with people. I don’t have the best tonality in my voice. I have never smoked for so long that, like, I’m just monotone kind of guy, and, I’m generally a nice guy. I’m not trying to be violent, but I just had that programed in me, something that I dealt with, and I still deal with that to a degree, but I feel a lot more peace after this, especially for the first six months after doing it. So whereas, like, I can just communicate to this person and let them know how I feel, and if they don’t accept it, then, you know, maybe they’re not for me, but they’re not going to beat me up. Do you ever been in a fight? Since my 20s. They’re not going to, you know, they’re not going to if they react, that says more about them than me. And, you know, it was, it was just I had some. You know, byproducts of taking it in my life that I wasn’t expecting. But they were better, you know, and and I really I after about the, probably the fourth or fifth time that I tripped Matt. The one through four will say, you know, it’s been a minute, one through four, very difficult a lot of washing down the drain inside my mind and demons and seeing things like, because I’m doing it all with my eyes closed after that first one. And so I’m seeing demons and and anger and rage and, and, you know, just dark thoughts I guess in general is a way to put it. But when I went back in for that second round in the guys, like, nobody’s ever done two rounds back to back and I was like, well, here we go. I’m, you. Know.

Ryan Stewman [00:13:52] I had a more peaceful and serene. And I was like, first of all, I don’t see how anybody does this shit in the club around people.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:13:58] Oh, I don’t have an any I.

Ryan Stewman [00:14:00] I don’t know how you could use that recreationally and, like, be at a party and be like, you want to do ketamine like, bro.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:14:05] I don’t like obviously not.

Ryan Stewman [00:14:08] Crazy. It may be the way you do it in your nose. It’s different in the way that they put it intravenously into you. But either way, like, I don’t want to be around nobody, you know, even when I take shrooms or something like that. I really don’t want to be around people. I want to have that experience to myself. Maybe it’s because I’m an introvert or whatever the case may be, but when I went back that second realm, it was, you know, it was it was fun to say it was like, okay, so maybe we watch some of these demons and some of these issues out of my maybe flesh it out of the brain a little bit. And I actually got to enjoy it. And it was probably if I did it eight times, which I can’t remember exactly what it was, but if I did it eight times, like six, seven and eight were actually really fun and I got to enjoy it as opposed to like waking up out of it, go and do it. I going to fix some shit in my life, you know, so well.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:14:58] So the funny thing is, is that like, that’s that’s the piece that I like the most. So what I did the ketamine. Great. You know, it was miserable while I was doing it. But after it was great when I did the DMT. That one was weird because I did the DMT kind of like you later. It was a big deal later. So I did it, didn’t he? The only kind of reaction I got was like, it was like more lights. Like I look at the picture window. The window looked huge. But the peace thing you were talking about, I felt that. And it was like every single problem in the universe, not just mine, everybody’s was gone. And I was just in this like sea of everything’s fine. Like everything’s totally fine for the first time ever in your entire existence. And it was amazing. And that’s how I remember everything about like, oh my gosh, like, my dad’s going to see this. Like, Lou’s going to see, like, this is, this is the greatest thing ever. And that was kind of it. And I’m like, all right, cool. I literally came home, took a shower, came back up to the office and like, did some I didn’t work on patients, but I worked on stuff here because it was so much different. And then what happened with mine was that because my intention. And so when we when we go through this, a lot of times it will set setting an intention. So the mindset you’re going in with, how comfortable you are in the setting of the area and, and then what you wanted out of it. When I was going through it, I didn’t know what to expect either. And so what did happened was one of the guys who went in beforehand, I was talking to him, and afterwards I was like, so, like, I mean, what do you think this guy is the CEO of a giant neuro neurology group. And so he’s he’s a really cool guy, but he’s very like, he’s is what a CEO would you do you expect for a CEO? And, he, I asked him like, we’re at an event and I was like, how, like how was it? And he spins, he looks at me dead in the face. And as it was the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. And I was like, okay, why? And he was like, all the shit I thought was important. These I knew really knew wasn’t. He was like, I don’t care about it all anymore. He was like all the stuff that was on the back burner, that stuff. He was like, that’s actually important because I’m laser focused on. And I was like, that’s cool. And when someone says it, you go, that’s cool, but when you feel it, it’s different. And so when people ask me like, well, what’s the what’s the difference? The reason why people think that DMT is like the connection with God is because I think it is like I, God, always talk to me, but I can I can understand his voice now. And it’s funny because like, if God ever tells you something about somebody else and then God because God’s that I want to personally communicate personal relation with just you. And so what I found out was that, I was not the man I needed to be. I was not, I was not living my I was not being a Christian. I was supposed to be, and so it was like, all right, like it’s time that it’s time to turn this stuff over. And it wasn’t one of those things where, like, I heard a voice that was like, you’re not this person. It was just like, you can do better, right? You can be better. And I was like, all right. And so it’s funny because, like, I was talking to me the other day and she was like, we were talking about different things in Christianity. And she’s like, so I don’t ever want to do psychedelics because, you know, it’s this and that. And I was like, I can tell you one thing for a fact. Nothing has radically increased my. Walk with Christ like many psychedelics because the psychedelics psyche, which is your soul, and dahlias, which is to show and light on. And so psychedelics shine light on your soul unless you understand what’s wrong and what’s right, so you can move forward. And it was one of those deals where it was like, I didn’t find a church family. I need I need to start walking that road a lot tighter. Because I wasn’t going to church like, you know, I read the Bible all the time, like, I was studied by stuff. And I did have a church family. And it’s funny because now it always is so funny because how hard, you know, got us to talk to me sometimes. So I had, like, at school, I have eight people, like no little eight families come up to me like, you should come to Saint Andrew’s with us. And I was like, all right, within like ten days. And then one of my patients was like, you, we’re talking about someone else. He was like, well, I gotta say it, it was amazing. You should go check it out with me. I’m like, you know what? You’re legit. The ninth person who’s mentioned this in, like, the past two weeks. I’m like, all right, I get it. I’m going to go. And the day before we go like that Saturday, Lou and I are talking about, you know, hey, our school is amazing. We love our school. We have to find another a bigger community for our kids. We use the word community 2 or 3 times and we get there. And he’s like today’s sermons about community. And how do you find it here at Saint Andrew’s? I was like, all right, I got you. This is where we’re going to go.

Ryan Stewman [00:19:24] Is that like a Catholic church?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:19:26] It’s a it’s a methodist church. So it’s kind of like Catholic light. Where where is that? A, it’s kind of. But it’s by the Audi dealership. Oh.

Ryan Stewman [00:19:35] Park somewhere?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:19:35] Yeah. It’s like literally like a mile from your office. Okay. It’s super the big, huge, giant white church, a big white steeple. That’s the one. If you drove down park, you’ll see.

Ryan Stewman [00:19:44] Oh, yeah. Brick, red brick.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:19:46] Yeah, yeah, I.

Ryan Stewman [00:19:47] Pass it every day. I never put two and two get set. It’s. I’m like, it sounds familiar. I drive by it every day on the way to work.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:19:52] Yeah. So the the pastor there, Arthur, is awesome. Like he’s.

Ryan Stewman [00:19:56] Great. Greg. Parking lots always packed it. It’s got something going on.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:19:59] They got they got a lot of stuff going on. But it’s cool because like the way that it’s just they’re no nonsense. It’s like this is how things are supposed to be. And they teach, like directly to it, like Arthur does a great job. But they also it’s funny because they also have women who also teach. And one of the women got up one time and talked, talked about it. And she was and she was like picking up her cross or carrying a cross for Jesus. And I’m always looking from a stoic, you know, things like, hey, Jesus suffered. You’re going to suffer, right? And she goes when I hear, you know, take up your cross for Jesus. She was like, it makes me think I should be more like Jesus. She’s like, I should be nicer. I should be more loving and should be more kind. And she’s like, and that really helps. It was funny because I, I ran into my head and I was like, I don’t see any as the way she said all of the steps. You said I was like, I don’t see any biblical problems with that I like. It’s just not the way that I would have thought about it. And so it’s really cool to get kind of a secondary view on something else, like it’s, it’s, it’s a different light. And it was really kind of cool. But Arthur’s fantastic. So we started going there and I was like, this is where I’m going to go. And so that was and that’s been a that’s been a bigger part now. But the whole thing is just been you know, I knew I wasn’t it was funny because I kept seeing I kept thinking about the parable of the talents, and I know why it kept coming to my head. And I finally figured it out is because when you hear that story right, there’s one guy who hides his talents as one guy who, you know, waste some, the other guy who goes out, invest them, and does really well. And we all think we’re the guy who invested in, did really well. Like, if you looked at my life, you’d be like, dude, you’re doing pretty well. Like, you’ve like, you know, everyone, you you’re successful. Yeah. Everything’s great. But the thing was, is that I figured out I was the guy who was hiding the talents. And so it was like, I got to do better because I know how. And so I just need to be better. And that’s when the whole. All right, like, I’m gonna do the bodybuilding thing. I’m gonna. I’m gonna do the charity thing where to make this thing work. And that’s when that really kind of took over. And so it’s just like, that’s been the biggest thing for me is, you know, I knew I could do better. And that was exactly like, what Mike, my, my buddy told me. He was like all the stuff that’s really, actually important. He was like, I can see it now. He’s I can focus on it. And so it that’s been a really big thing for me is how much more I’m focused on where I need to go. And it’s funny because it’s like I keep I keep doing self check and be like, is this really like, is it really a positive thing? And I’m like, well, you know, I’m working really hard to be, you know, nice for my kids and be, you know, more lenient and go through all our family values more with them and spend more time with them and more dedicated my kids now I’m more dedicated to, you know, getting in and pushing the message and getting people healthy. So it’s one of those things are it’s everything’s been just turned up a notch. But I have a more I have more clarity around it. I like why I’m supposed to be doing it and that this is definitely the right path. And so I but that was the day I didn’t get as much of the ketamine from that. But I did get some of the other stuff, and I talked to a bunch of guys who like their anger just dissipated, and they just kind of figure it out, like, you know, even from the ketamine where they need to go. And I know that that it works really well with the because that’s how cannabis is for me. It’s very psychedelic. It’s like. It’s funny because people like these killers to escape. I’m like, no, I use cannabis to get in the middle of it. Like, because I’ll do it because I get really in my head and be like, is this the man you want to be? This is where you’re trying to go? Like, could you have said this differently? Like all the time? Like, that’s what I do, you know what I mean? So but it’s that that’s been the big thing now is this is just I know that there’s a lot better place I can go to. So, so what else is kind of like you’ve seen in the past couple months where you just, like, realize you kind of look back like I’m a different person.

Ryan Stewman [00:23:37] Well, you know, I, I’m, I’m extremely more calm and well thought out. You know, I kind of spent it relating to business. I spent probably the first 12 years being in business. Just kind of feeling, feeling like this ad or work or feeling like this sales pitch will work or feel like we’re doing a good job or whatever. And now I’m at a point where I’m I’m dealing more with less emotion and more data because, you know, I feel like I hid behind feelings, you know, like you have good days and bad days, whether it work or whether home. And now it’s am I was that really a bad thing or was that for me? Was that really, you know, good for me or is that detrimental? Did you know? And I’m more present with my kids. A lot of that has to do with quitting weed, too. But I really think that, you know, the ketamine was the precursor to stopping the marijuana. And I’m not anti marijuana, you know what I mean? Like I it it’s just that I’m anti marijuana for me because I’m such an all in type of person. I was doing it so much like all day, every day, like an ounce of weed every two days, plus a vape a damn it was. I had a fucking problem. So you know, and but I don’t believe that I would have ever made that decision to get off of. And it was weird because like I said, months later, I just walked in one day and I was like, you know, I’m going to, I’m going to quit smoking. And my wife was was like, yeah, right. You know? And then I just never did again. And and so that has led to me, you know, being more active with my kids and being more, empathetic towards people, you know, and trying to be less extroverted because they are less introverted. But by nature, I just want to be left alone, you know? And and that’s just how I am. And, you know, I’m in a I’m in a point in my career specifically where, you know, I have to work with people and, and I’m really like a self-employed type of guy, you know, me managing a team and stuff. It’s like, dude, I have to do it myself, you know? And it’s learned. It’s helped me learn to have more patience there and, and try to really plug in with them a lot more, as opposed to just getting mad at them and blowing up, it’s, you know, really calm my mind to where, you know, I mean, I get angry just like anybody else, but it’s not as much manifesting externally as it did, in the past where, you know, I might yell at somebody instead, you know, I might yell at a situation, or am I, you know, explain to somebody why I’m upset or whatever the case may be. And, you know, I still struggle with the insecurity, but I, I feel more confident than I was before because I feel like, okay, I’m making better decisions. So I have to have some confidence that I’m making a clear headed decision as opposed to, man, shit, was I high when I did that was I and so, you know, but like I said that that was the precursor to all that happening. And it’s really made a, a big change for me. My wife and I, I couldn’t tell you the last time that we got an argument, you know, we’re married, so there’s like little, you know, don’t do that. Or usually. And there’s always that in marriage. But, you know, we haven’t gotten in a knock down, drag out screaming match, which didn’t happen a whole lot before. But once it’s more than I wanted to. But I couldn’t tell you when the last time that that’s happened, you know, so, you know, I just say that it it. Once I stopped and I never put two and two together until now. But once I stopped the ketamine, I felt like. And I see. It’s like God was telling me, everything that you want is on the other side of marijuana. If you can quit that, you can handle anything. And I quit weed once in 2020, and I quit December 31st, 2019, and then quit it all the way through 2020. And that was a wild year. Obviously, there’s plenty of reasons to smoke weed until about August, and I was going to do 75 hard. And our friend Steve Kugler was like, well, you know, you can’t drink. But it doesn’t say in the book at this time. It doesn’t say that you can’t smoke weed weeds calorie free fun. So you could replace one with the other. And I was like, that’s probably not a bad idea. And then I went on like a really big winning streak for two years and in life in general. But then it got back to where it was an everyday thing again, and it was just over it. So I feel like, you know, God was calling me. He’s like, listen, everything you want on the other side of this. And it’s, you know, shit. I clearly don’t have everything I want. I feel like I’ve got more struggles now because I’m still cleaning up for some of the decisions that I made under the influence and stuff, but I don’t think that I would have ever quit or even listened to that voice. You know, God saying, hey, everything you wants on the other side of weed. Shut up Satan. Yeah. Like, and I really do feel like that was the thing that made that catalyst in my life. And I can look back now and honestly say, I get along with my family better. I get along with my friends better. I cut ties with people who weren’t serving me. Yeah. And, you know, just overall more peaceful.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:28:58] Why do you feel like. Because when you’re certain you’re talking about cutting ties with people who don’t serve you anymore. It’s funny because, like, that’s how I was with alcohol. Like, I was just like, same thing with cancer. I was just like, I’m done, like I like. And what’s so funny now is that I’ve been. I haven’t had anything to drink for like six months. And I’m like, I don’t understand why I drank for so long. Like I’m like, what did it like? Cause I start thinking back from, like, how many times I wake up in my bedroom and be like, how did I get here? Like how many stupid things happened to me that I should have known earlier, but I never did. And then, you know, after this, it was just like, this doesn’t serve you. Let it go.

Ryan Stewman [00:29:32] You know, I don’t think I’ve been drunk in years. I will drink. We go out on date night and I have a drink, and I, like, sit and drink for nine months. And then we went on spring break, and we’re sitting in Breckenridge, Colorado in a hot tub, and Amy’s drinking. I was like, a few drinks, you know, and and. But I haven’t been drunk in years. That’s not my thing. I don’t like being out of control. So as soon as I start feeling that creep in, it’s like water from that point, you know? So, I don’t think that I’ve been impaired enough not to even drive in in years. It’s just that I don’t I don’t excessively do that, probably since 2020 to be since we have those tequila parties in the house, you know, and but, I will say that it there’s never been a time in my life where I was like, man, I’m glad I was drinking that night, right?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:30:21] Yeah.

Ryan Stewman [00:30:22] Like, I can I can say that there was that was a lot of fun. But then, shit, maybe I don’t remember so much of it. It’s like, man, it would have been fun without it.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:30:30] Yeah, or.

Ryan Stewman [00:30:31] With less of it, you know? And, I don’t I don’t recall a time in my life that I could ever look back and go, you know, that made that experience alcohol, made that experience that much better. Yeah.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:30:44] And that was that was this kind of thing with mine, too. I was just like, okay, this is it. But I’ve also kind of noticed that there’s other things that like, I’m just kind of letting go. So like when you’re talking about, you know, seeing people, me like, I’m going to let these guys out of my life, you know, I’m just going to go a different direction, you know? Have you have you realized, have you felt like that realization is easier, the discernment on who you should be with you? Everything is easier as well.

Ryan Stewman [00:31:09] Yeah. You know, few years ago, Matt, I decided to get serious with some standards for my life. And, while under the influence, drinking, smoking, living the fast life, I realized that, you know, I was giving a lot of people a past that didn’t serve me. For what? Whether it was an employee or whether it was a friend or in somebody in business. And I would make excuses for them. And no, I would come home and, you know. Have a conversation with my wife because this is my best friend. She’s, you know, I’m like a I’m a dunes dude, but I believe in like, bro’s over hoes. You know, I’ve always just kind of had that. And so and I say this for reasons like when I grew up, women came and gone. But your buddies were there forever. Yeah. Until I met Amy. And then I’m like, okay, that’s my bro. And then, you know, like she’s she’s above everything else because she’s really my friend. And then my wife. Yeah, right. Because I’ve been divorced, wives can come and go. But they weren’t really my friends. They were a wife that I married. Amy is my friend. So I look at her as she’s my friend, then my wife, because I value friends more than wife. She’s my best friend and then my wife, then the mother of my kids and all this. And so anyway, I say that because I come home and I talk to her, you know, like, oh, we were doing this and that and, you know, these guys were up to this. And she’s like, you know, you end up becoming who you hang with.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:32:35] Yeah.

Ryan Stewman [00:32:36] And as much as sometimes we don’t like to listen to our wife, we listen to our friends. Right? And I’m like, yeah, you know, you’re right. I don’t you know, I don’t want to get sucked into that or do that, you know, and, and and so, you know, I developed these standards a few years ago. My wife’s very high standard person, and, I grew up with no standards because I grew up poor. We have poor people, don’t have standards usually, you know, and not all of them. Some of them are poor, but they’re they’re good people. They got good parents. That just wasn’t my lot in life. I grew up with poor parenting and poor financially and poor mental programing, unlike how my kids are growing up. So I set the standards and I started realizing, like, you know, is this person serving us or they serving me or are they serving them? And I looked up in life and I realized that a lot of people were just serving them, not us or me. Yeah. And but but I’m serving us first, then me. If I’m somebodies friend, I’m a them first person. It’s like probably my my biggest downfalls. I want to I want to make other people happy first and then I’m not used to being happy, so I just suffer the consequences of making them happy, you know? Yeah. And I look up and I was like a lot of I had a lot of people in my life serving them first. And I’m still a people first person. But I look around and I’m like, you know, I developed these standards. And I was like, man, if they just don’t follow them, I can’t hang with them. Yeah. And it’s been difficult because, you know, I had to cut ties with a lot of people. And it doesn’t mean that they’re horrible people. Some of them are, but it doesn’t mean that they were all bad people. Or I was just like, man, we’re not on the same level. Like, I don’t hang out with single dudes. Yeah, I’m not a single dude. Single dudes do different stuff than me, right?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:34:15] No.

Ryan Stewman [00:34:17] I want to go home and lay next to my wife at night. You know, they’re going to chase pussy. I’ve already tamed it, you know what I mean? And, like, it’s just different, you know, I don’t I don’t hang out with ladies. I don’t have any female friends. I have people like Lulu, your wife. That’s friends with my wife that I see her if she’s at the house for ladies night or whatever, but I don’t. Even female employees. Female clients. I’m taking somebody with me. I don’t I don’t hang out with them, you know, and especially in my position because I don’t want to end up, you know, getting some kind of MeToo case and not and even doing the right, you know, and so, you know, I just started looking at things drastically different. It’s like, hey, these are my standards. This is how I keep the sanctity of my friendship and my marriage with my wife. This is this is how I want to live my life. I don’t think, you know, God would would want me hanging around people that act something totally different than I believe in. So I don’t see a reason for me to believe it. And what sucks is some of that shit with some of the funnest stuff that I’ve ever done, you know what I mean? But at the same time, it’s like you hear that story, Matt, in Hollywood all the time. It’s like, well, you know, I got this job and we were in this movie, and now I’m the star and we’re living the fast lives, and the next thing you know, they are caught in bed with a 12 year old or something, like, yeah, you know what I mean? And not that I would ever go down that path, but it’s like, man, if you hang around enough people doing the wrong thing, you become that person doing the wrong thing. And, you know, so I developed these standards, but I wasn’t really living to them. And then, you know, going through the academy and, and then getting off of the toxins and stuff like that allowed me to really hold firm on those standards. Like, does this person meet those standards or they, you know, it? Can someone coming into our workplace meet these standards and live by these core values and serve this mission? Can somebody coming into my life, can they live by these standards and and have these core values? And the the downside of that is people that don’t have standards don’t have core values that don’t understand what it’s like to to live a life that way. They think you’re being judgy or they think, oh, he cut me off. I thought he was a people person first person. It’s like I am as long as those people fit my standards. Standard list, people don’t know what it’s like because you and I both know somebody be like, oh, one of my core values is integrity. And then just commenced to telling you lies right there. Like you didn’t know the whole story. Yeah. Know then get mad at you and you’re like, I don’t want nothing to do with that. It’s like, well, I wasn’t lying. Okay, well, the survey says something totally different, you know? So it was very difficult. But I think if I hadn’t had that piece from the experience. And in the direction of getting off some of those intoxicants. The, the you know, there’s no telling what I could have done something stupid.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:36:49] Well, that’s always that’s always been the thing, you know, like I talked about when we first started, it’s the people you hang out with are the people you’re going to. Yeah. And so, you know, if you choose, you know, it’s one of those where you hang out with somebody and they’re a dirt bag you didn’t know. And like, there’s they’re always good to you. Like, it.

Ryan Stewman [00:37:05] Takes a while to find out. It’s like a job interview, right? You know, it takes a while before you find out that that employee, you’re going to make it sometimes.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:37:10] Well, you know, a lot of times people are, you know, I’ll show you this side of me. Yeah, you know, because I need XYZ from you. And then, like, you finally find out that they’re like, they’ve got stuff going on. You’re like, well, now that I know, I can’t, just like you said, I can’t hang out with you guys anymore. And it’s one of those deals where like, typically what I’ll do is I find that stuff out, so I’ll just be busy, right? Like, oh, yeah, sorry, I can’t make the thing. I got this just because it’s like I go again. I don’t be like, oh, you’re so judgy. Like, now you’ve chosen to be the man you’ve chosen to be. I just want to be around that.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:37:42] And that’s okay for you. It’s cool with you, you know? Right.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:37:45] It’s funny because, like, I don’t drink, but I still give, I, I will said if you invite me anywhere. So you’re like, if I, if I know you drink, I will bring you tequila. Like that’s my thing. I still give everybody a synchro tequila because it’s it was amazing. I just don’t I have it just doesn’t alcohol doesn’t serve me anymore, but it still serves you great. But they just can’t, he said. It’s just it’s not my thing anymore. And so I just don’t do it.

Ryan Stewman [00:38:09] Well, I think the hard part of being me to Matt is people are like, well, you know, humans have felon. He’s been to jail. He’s probably one of us. Yeah. To the, you know, degenerate lifestyle people. And then they find out it’s like, no, the trouble you haven’t gotten into yet. I got into into the 90s and early 2000. I learned my lesson then. I mean, because, you know, I’m a guy that I’m a I’m a rule minder. I mean, I haven’t had a speeding ticket in 20 years, and I’ve had, what, six Lamborghinis and eight McLarens, like, you know, that’s not saying I don’t speed. I, you know, I’m very conscious about any time I’m going to cross any line, including just going fast down the road, like I’m doing my best to stay out of trouble, you know? But then you also, you know, I’ll never I’ll never forget there’s a and this is important lesson for people. Once you show somebody a glimpse of who you really are, there’s no taking that back. Right? You know, like, if you if you thought it was this just super nice, always welcoming, you know, guy. And then I snapped on you one time, you’d be like, dude, Arnold, the deal is with him, but he ain’t who he thinks he is. Like, one of the biggest things that people ask my employees or, my kids or my wife behind my back is like, you know, what’s he like when nobody’s around six? He’s the same all time. Yeah. You know, there’s no secrets with that guy. But I remember one time I was at an event and you were there two, you just didn’t know what was going on. But the stars of the event, like the host or whatever, I saw them go into the bathroom and do blow with the friend of mine. Now, the guy that I know does blow. He’s single. He’s got a shitload of money. You can do whatever the hell that he wants. Like if he couldn’t ruin his life if he tried, right? So like, he’s got money to get himself out. And once I saw this happen, I was like, they can’t take that back. I saw a weakness in them that I would never do that. As a 40 year old that’s probably 40 at the time, was like as a 40 year old man, I would never do that, you know? And so when you show somebody, you know, what what you’re really about and what you’re really doing, it’s hard to take that back, man. It’s impossible to take it back because you might be saying, trust me, it’s like I saw.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:40:11] You doing XYZ or, you know, but you know, hey, man, I need a favor from you. Like, it’s like, is that really much because I saw a side of you that I’m not sure that’s really.

Ryan Stewman [00:40:21] Where we’re at, you know? And again, it didn’t have to again, because of the peacefulness, it didn’t have to end in some kind of violence or anger storm or whatever. It’s just like, I’m just going to, like you said, silently, excuse myself. And, you know, I go to events now. For example, people like, hey, we come speak at this event or we come do this or whatever. It’s like, so long as I can be home that night. Yeah, you know, I’m not going to go to a four day event, hang out some. Where am I going to do it? I want to be home with my family. I realized when I was in the ketamine trip, I realized the most important thing to me was my wife and my kids. And so I’ve tried to my best over the last year to build a life based on us. Right? Because, you know, I got to break a cycle in my life to where I get to be a good dad. I didn’t have that example. And my wife is a great mom. And so, you know, that’s what’s important to me. Plus, my kids are getting older, man. It’s not going to be very long before they got their own cars. I mean, Jackson’s like two years away from driving.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:41:19] Yeah.

Ryan Stewman [00:41:19] It’s not going to be long before he’s out doing his own thing. He’s already got a girlfriend that he talks to all the time, you know. But I want to enjoy these moments with him, you know? And Harlan is almost to an age where she’s not going to crawl into bed in the middle of the night, you know, and I won’t ever get that back again. Right. And, you know, I’m on a webinar earlier today. A zoom with somebody and some one person in my phone rings is one of my coaching clients. This is my son’s call and he never calls during the day. Let me answer it. It’s Jackson, and he goes, dad, can I get the B-B gun and kill the squirrels in the backyard? Like, absolutely, son. Yeah. So make sure you don’t hit anybody with it.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:41:57] Yeah.

Ryan Stewman [00:41:57] But like, those are those moments in that relationship that mattered to me. I’ll remember that forever. Some of that guy on the zoom, he’s like, call them still boys in line when he said they’re rednecks in the middle of the city, you know? And so, you know, I realized through those trips that like, you know, I haven’t been I’ve been prioritizing everyone but myself, and I can still do that. But I need to prioritize those that matter and make them before me because I’m just like a I’m a selfless person, but I need to to put them first. And and it’s really changed. Like I said, wife and I couldn’t tell you last time we got in a real fight. You know, I couldn’t tell you last time. I even had to yell at my kids other than when you guys shut up.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:42:38] I’m trying to do something that’s.

Ryan Stewman [00:42:39] Loud up there or whatever, you know, typical parents. Yeah. So, and and even the other night, I caught my son Colton. I grounded him from his his, iPad because he’s smart enough to his mom. And I walked in my office, and he was in there in the dark sneaking his iPad, which is where my office was. Yeah. And I said.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:42:58] Dude, are you in? Sit down.

Ryan Stewman [00:43:01] And, dude, when he sat down, I said, were you in there on your iPad? He goes, yeah, like, I can’t even be mad at him because he told me the truth. Most kids would have lied and tried to hide it or whatever. And but had this been a year ago. Ryan. Oh yeah. Maybe a little over a year since I did ketamine. Had this been a year and a half ago. Ryan, I lost my shirt on that seven year old 100%. I can’t believe after I told you do something. You didn’t do it like I would, I would have totally blown up. But instead, here I am going. Wow, I’m proud of you. That you. You didn’t lie to me. Yeah, I was like, because nine times out of ten, kids will lie. Yeah. So you know, it really. But it’s because of that piece is the only reason I can.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:43:38] It’s funny because like that, it’s very visible from somebody who’s watched you for the past, you know, 5 or 6 years. Like, it’s because it’s funny, because, like, people ask me all the time of, like, what’s he actually like?

Ryan Stewman [00:43:48] Yeah, there you go.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:43:50] And we hang out. It was funny because, you know, and I’m like, he’s the same guy like that. You see here. You see there like he’s the same guy, like all the way through. And it’s always funny. But you know, that’s one of those things. It’s like. The little things that I watch you and I can just tell it’s like the dial has been turned out like the the amp meter has been turned down. And you can just like, it’s like you can breathe and process things now. And before it was like you were always. It’s like someone who’s always had too much, you know, monster, right? Or too much Red bull. They’re just a little Jerry. And now you’re, it’s a it’s gone. And so that’s been really kind of fun to watch kind of because that’s, that’s one of those things where we see it from a from a health standpoint. We know that your psychology drives everything else inside of you. And so if you’re in that sympathetic fight flight mode, which it’s.

Ryan Stewman [00:44:39] Always.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:44:40] Was, yeah, you got to be messed up. You’re going to have, you know, all sorts of issues with skin and all sorts of other problems. How are your hands?

Ryan Stewman [00:44:47] Yeah, that was the other thing. That’s funny you asked that. I forgot all about that. But, you know, I had a hand problem at one point to where I couldn’t even hold a piece of paper without it hurting, and nobody knew what it was, and no doctor could explain it. Nobody. Anything. And I’ve still to this day don’t know what it was, but it went away. Literally. I didn’t put two and two together, but it went away after that ketamine stuff. It didn’t go away instantly. Yeah, but, you know, just gone now. Disappeared. You know, dude, I mean, it was so bad I couldn’t break up weed with my hands. I couldn’t use scissors. I couldn’t type on a keyboard. I had to go into, like, David Goggins mode just to send an email out. You know what I mean? Like going be hard to get this email out because my hands were it was paper cuts all across all. Yeah. I mean, I know, you know, but it just for the audience paper cuts across all my fingertips. And and when you have a paper cut, you know, when you touch everything it saw will imagine that on all ten of your fingers at all times. And there was, there was I mean, I would put Band-Aids on them, I put ointments on them. I went to dermatologists and all that stuff. But it had to be some sort of stress related thing. But it it definitely went away, probably August or September of last year. So a few months after the ketamine thing. So it was probably some neurological thing going on in my head causing my hands. It was manifesting itself in my hands. And then whatever, you know, rewiring happened through the ketamine process because that was something that definitely took place after that. And that was that was a. That was very difficult. I’ve forgotten all about that. I don’t know how. Just had an out of sight, out of mind. My hands were were jagged, broken for months. We’re not talking about. Came in one week and stay there for two months. I mean, they were gone for like nine months, maybe. And I’m like, I guess this is just my lot in life. I better just get tougher. Hands. Hands look like I ran a marathon on my hands some days because, you know, paper cut it. If you got to keep using it, you don’t have a Band-Aid on it. You know, rip the rest of the skin off. And then there’s sensitive skin underneath. My fingernails were growing, and then the skin that would usually bond your cuticles or whatever they’re called that usually bonds to your fingernails. It would start cracking and breaking, too. And dude, that was hell. I forgot all about that.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:47:00] Yeah, well, that’s that’s sort of stuff we see a lot because that’s a it’s a sympathetic issue. Right. And so if we start turning down the dial on the sympathetic nervous system because that’s what PTSD this is for me. This is what PTSD is. It’s like your sympathetic nervous system gets turned up way too high and it just stays there. And so you’re always in this fight flight mode, like, you know, because I talk to veterans and stuff in there like that, I’m always and everywhere I go, like I’m looking for the exits, I’m looking for the danger. I’m looking for this. And like, like that’s just who I am. And then like, it gets it gets really, really bad. And then you go through the ketamine or they go through the psychedelic process and afterwards they’re like, I can let it go. Like I can, I like they’ll tell me, like I catch myself in restaurants and stuff like that. And I haven’t found all the exits, I haven’t found all the danger, and I haven’t been there. I just it’s like I can breathe again. I can just relax.

Ryan Stewman [00:47:50] And yeah, I feel that because, I mean, I’m not comparing myself to a veteran, but being in prison, I’m the same way when I sit down somewhere, I’m trying to assess everybody who’s a threat. How the hell do I get out of here? What I gotta do is the airport, bro. Some of the gnarliest fights I’ve ever been in with my wife were at the airport leaving the airport because they had just, like, fried my nervous system, like. Oh, yeah, you know, especially. And I think the last time that I was in an airport was like 2020 and especially back then because they’re like, put your mask on, you have on. And they were like, dude, everybody yelling at you and and people standing up and people bumping into you. And then people like, dude, fuck that plane still in the air, bro. Put your bag up. You don’t got to get, you know what I mean? Just in. And dude, so we would leave there and I would just be frightened and had to come out some way. Yeah. You know, and it was me and Amy be I’d be just angry as hell. She’s like, what in the world?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:48:42] I can’t believe you’re yelling.

Ryan Stewman [00:48:43] At me for not getting in the truck fast enough for whatever. Yeah, I gotta get the fuck away from this place, you know? And and and imagine now, if I went, I’d be, like, just idiots in the nice, you know?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:48:55] Yeah. The I’m not going to deal. I’m not going to worry about this stuff I have no control over has been one of the things that I’ve noticed. I’m just like, all right.

Ryan Stewman [00:49:04] Yeah.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:49:04] And it’s funny because I let them stand.

Ryan Stewman [00:49:06] Let them let them bump each other in line. Even though we have a sign thieves like, let them be, you know, D squad when they just called a squad and they’re standing around the gate. Just let them do it. That kind of shit used to drive me up the wall, bro. Yeah?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:49:19] Like who? Where are the who’s breeding with these idiots? Where does that come from? And yeah.

Ryan Stewman [00:49:24] You know, I also had a fear of flying, so probably that didn’t help either. And, I haven’t worried about a plane crashing in the air in a long time either, you know, because I would get up there and be like, shit, nobody knows how to run this. But those two guys.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:49:39] Yeah.

Ryan Stewman [00:49:39] And something happens to them, you know? Then we’re all in trouble. But I remember I flew through last year the, like, storm of the century. And the two guys that were with me, they’re like, you know, bro, dude, can you pray for us? And neither one of them are like religious. Yeah. Well, and and when we landed, I was like, I don’t know why, but I wasn’t scared of that flight. You know, it’s like, you know, I don’t know. So I guess there has been a lot more affected. And really, maybe what I considered as is side effects of it, you know.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:50:09] Well. And so like it was fun. Is that so? One of the reasons we started bringing psychedelics in and we started bringing all the mental work in to the practice, was because what I started figuring out was, I can IBS and celiac and ulcers and all that stuff. I can make those go away. Like it’s not that hard. What’s really hard is keeping them away, because what happens is that because of the sympathetic nervous system, you’re either in fight, flight or resting digesting. So if you’re stuck in sympathetic all the time, your gut is going to mess up all the time. It’s it’s I could, I could, I could hold it together with supplements. Right, right. Like, oh, I feel so much better while I’m taking the supplements. And there’s a big piece about, you know, we all have to have the chemicals we have to have around the body. And that’s one thing. But the deal was, is that the reason you need so much of that was because your brain was stuck in sympathetic all the time. And as we started breaking the sympathetic nervous system issue, people’s gut started getting better. Their skin started getting better. Like we started seeing, like, wrinkles and stuff in these women’s faces just kind of go away because they were always just like that. That tension they always carried with, with the go headache sort of clearing up because we worked on the mind in this way. Now, now we’re bringing the NLP and all sorts of to just like really kind of go over like this is the big thing and like when I talk. Doctor patients now like gum. We go over goal setting really intently and I’m like, this is so important. It’s 70% for you, 30% for me. And then like, why are you such a big deal and goals? Because if you don’t get your mind set properly at the beginning, if you don’t learn to track these things properly, your mind is going to be their biggest enemy. Like I tell people like, you should not weigh yourself. If you’re if you have health goals because if you gain 5 pounds of fat, I’m sorry. If you gain 5 pounds of muscle and lose 5 pounds of fat, your scale hasn’t moved at all and you don’t do that overnight. So as you’re doing this every single day that you look at that scale your scales, telling you that you’re a failure even though you’re losing the fat, you’re gaining the muscle, right? So it’s the scale hasn’t changed. You’re like, I’m a failure every day. But if you learn how to put your goals where they’re supposed to be and you change the metrics, your mind is going to start playing for you. And so as soon as you start seeing the return on investment for your energy, for what you’re doing, for working out and taking yourself months and getting healthy in the hold up, once you start seeing it, you’re like, well, this is a lot easier. I mean, I’m going to portray this maybe this more as we’ve been working on people with their with their, you know, thought process in their mind, the mental stuff, you’ll be getting a lot better, a lot faster. And it’s been really, really cool to kind of see that. And that’s why I’m like, we need to start rolling the psychedelics in for everybody. And it’s one of those things where we started, it was like, oh, this is great for PTSD. You know, I would talk to I would talk to veterans. And I was like, how bad is your PTSD? And I’ve heard it. I, you know, it’s not every person said this from I’ve heard it enough from different people. And like, I know what my guns tastes like. And I’m like, that’s that’s the scariest thing I can ever think of. Like, because I talked to guys and they were like. It was every day I had to come up with a reason not to kill myself. It was so bad. And then, like, they’ll run through the psychedelic stuff and some of these guys, it was like I talked to one of the guys and he was like, when I was going in, he was like, I didn’t care if I died because I didn’t care. I was ready to go like I was I was going to do it or somebody else was because it was that bad. And they’ll go through like six weeks of stuff and then come out like it’s just gone. Like all the, all the horrible things are just kind of gone. And they’re like, you know, I still have bad days, but like, I have, I don’t even understand why I would want to kill myself now. And you start hearing this from different guys and start reading the research. You’re like, why? Why are we not putting this on with everybody? Why is everybody not taking this well?

Ryan Stewman [00:53:40] Because obviously the world we live in is not into the cure. It is into the treatment and monetization of human beings. And if everybody was enlightened and smart and they couldn’t convince you, this presidential candidate or that presidential candidate or this senators, you know, these are good ideas. Like if everybody had it’s like, you know, if everybody had common sense, which used to be a thing back in the day, but now they now they seem to like, you know, reserve that common sense away from people and, you know, and, and, you know, if a guy is going, I mean, think about this logically, and you already know this, but just for the audience, if a guy was going to kill himself, then he’s going to pay for therapy, he’s going to pay for antidepressant pills, but he can go spend 1500 bucks on ketamine. He doesn’t need any of that anymore. How many people in that industry’s jobs are gone? Yeah. You know, it’s it’s not in the best interest of the machine. We’ll call it for for that to happen. And, you know, I I’ve tried my best to stay out of that machine. You know, I’m like, well, if I don’t feel well, I’m sure my body will heal it now or I’ll come see you. You’re like my last resort, and you know that. You’re like. And you broke your necks like I’m good.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:54:51] You literally broke your hand and you’re like, I’ll sleep it off.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:54:54] Yeah, but I was like, all right.

Ryan Stewman [00:54:56] Yeah, that’s just just me. Because I don’t want to be a part of that machine. I have an addictive personality. If they would have given me, not you. But if I went to a doctor and they’ve given me pain pills and shit, I may not have been able to kick that. I’m a prime suspect for that. So. Or they give me antidepressant pills. I’m a prime suspect for that to, like, be on that the rest of my life. You know, I’ve already had to beat Xanax. I’ve already had to beat Adderall. Back from, you know, I’ve been on Adderall since I was, like, 12 years old. You know, it was one of the first test studies of people back in the day, you know, because I’m older, in dirt, so not older in dirt, but I’m old enough. I’m 45 in, in, you know, I’ve been on Adderall from like 12 to 28, 29, 30. So and then getting off of that was was difficult. And so I was like, I knows, like when I start something just like the weed thing, I’m all the way in on it. So I’ve tried my best to stay out of that machine. And but you’re right, I don’t. I know why they don’t give it to these people, and it’s for the wrong reasons. Because if we can help less people taste their guns in this instance and let’s let’s people regret their families and more people step into who they were going, who they’re supposed to be. And yet, you know, in the Bible it says that God created man in his image. So if you look terrible and you act terrible and you think terrible, do you think that was the image that God was like, you know what, dude, I want this. The press. Fat slob of a person. This is my image, right? But what happens is we get here on this planet and everything. But God seems to talk to us, you know, the the the drugs. You know, you could do drugs. You know the temptation. You could fall victim to temptation. And we talk ourselves out of everything but being God’s image. And then you. And when, man, you know, if my kids stop reflecting the image that I’ve made for them, I might stop talking to them. You know, it’s very possible that that could happen. You know, if my kids get on heroin or something that’s like, you know, I can try my best for a while to help them. But after a while, I’d be like, dude, I’m just going to have to let him roll with it. I can’t. And so then then what happens is your distance from God. You’re not in his image anymore. You’re not following the plan because I have this big theory, that voice in the back of your head is God. And and what? What will happen, though, is that second voice, which is actually your own voice is the voice of Satan telling you, oh, you can’t be rich, you can’t be healthy, you can’t beat this. You need this X thing from external to do this. I think you know that first voice is God. It’s going to give you an idea. Hey, Matt, become a doctor.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:57:26] Yeah.

Ryan Stewman [00:57:26] You know, then then that second voice is your own voice, which is equally as dangerous. Is Satan going? Did you not smart enough to be a doctor? What are you talking about, bro? Like, go get a job at a carwash now and you know, hey, Matt, be be a pioneer in the psychedelics game and come out here and change people’s lives. Brush. That’s illegal. You can’t do that. You know what I mean? Like, but that first voice is that pure voice, and that second voice is the, the they they call it the reasoning. It’s the reasoning why you can’t listen to God and after why he’s going to, you know, how many people do you think in America had the idea to create a Snuggie? And then God had to been like, okay, you create a Snuggie, this stupid nobody will buy that. You create a Snuggie, this stupid nobody, okay. Will you?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:58:08] He probably gave that idea to 50.

Ryan Stewman [00:58:09] Million people before one guy goes, I’ll cut holes in a blanket. Yeah. You know, and then that guy got rich. Yeah. You know, and imagine how exhausting it would be for God to be like, dude, I have to talk to 50 million rejects word reject because they’ve rejected the voice of God. Yeah. Before I found one loyal sheep that will follow me, and I’m going to stop talking to them, you know?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:58:30] Well, the thing is, is that what I’ve noticed is. And I don’t know if I told you the story about Lou. Lou’s more or less my reason. I believe that God tips his hand so much for people that he proves his existence to them. And I think it’s a very individual thing. And I don’t think I’ve told you the story, but. So before I met Lou, I figured out how to talk to girls. I feel like the psychology of women are pretty well. So I was picking up women like that. Well, and it got to the point where, like, my friends wouldn’t even, like, listen to my stories anymore, like, oh, I was I was sitting like, I don’t want to hear anybody’s name unless you’ve dated them for ten days, because you have all these girls that you keep around for like 3 or 4 days, and you get rid of them. That was true. Not again, not so. That was a good thing. I’m saying that’s a bad thing. That’s what I was doing. And I got super lonely. Like, it was like. I remember, like, the night that I sat down and made my list about Lou was. I’d been. Yeah, it was that was three different women, like, in the last two and a half days. It was like Friday, Saturday and then Sunday I was home. And that’s why I was like, I’m done. Like I was so depressed and I made this list, this giant list. And it’s not like it was very detailed, like 5 or 6 or over. Didn’t want somebody who was white one, a dark like brown hair, like I needed somebody who was smarter than me. I need somebody who is compassionate and kind and like, I made this giant, like straight teeth, like a larger built woman, because I didn’t want a small stick and all these, like, ridiculous things. And there was like 30 or something. I’m on this list. And I was like, oh, because I made the list of what I needed as a partner to make me the man I needed to be. And I was like, this is what I want. And I prayed about it and I was like, whatever. Two days later, that was. So that was Sunday. So Wednesday night, we I went with a buddy of mine early for some reason to chop up legacy to just kind of see what was there. So we’re at my casino shops at legacy, and, we’re getting up to leave. And this voice that I, I now recognize, but I didn’t recognize at the time was like, if you don’t talk to her like I did, you see the back of her head as if you don’t talk to her. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life. I was like, all right. So again, like, legit, like I could, you know me. Has there ever been a time where I didn’t have something to say, right? Right. Because, like, I am the most boisterous person I know. Like, I talk all the time. I’m like, I couldn’t figure out what to say to her, but I’m like, I’m just going to go over there anyway because that’s a smart move. So I walk over there and I’m standing next to her and the guy makes my drink. I’m holding my drink. I’m thinking, you’ve got 10s before. You’re the creepy guy at the bar because there’s nobody else here. And you shouldn’t. You should just go back to your table. Well, so the guy who’s hitting on Lulu’s friend, voila said something, and Doyle goes, you should be careful. My friend here and points at Lulu and goes, my friend here knows people who know, people who know people. And I laughed and Lou turned and looked at me and she was like, are you eavesdropping on our conversation? Didn’t you hear? I know people who know people who know people. And so she had to start talking to me, which is weird for me because it’s not how I like to open those things up. And so we start talking. And then again, I like lose the ability to communicate with with women. Like which which I was freaking out. So I’m like, what? What is going on? Like, this is not who I am. And so like, we had dead silence and I was like, awkward again. And then my phone rings and because I’m 26, the ringtone on my phone was the James Bond theme song. And even now, as I’m cringing at how horrible that is for, you know, a man to have as his ringtone, she goes, is that the James Bond theme song? And I’m embarrassed at the time, like that’s how bad it was. I was like, yeah, and she is it from Thunderball? I was like, what? And she was like, oh yeah. And she’s like, that was the first movie I ever saw in a theater. And so she carried this whole conversation the whole time. And so that was one of those things when I finally got to, like, figure out who she was and like, all the things she was like, legitimately every single thing on my list.

Ryan Stewman [01:02:31] And that’s why God told you to shut up, right? You trying to run game on her? I know Lulu, she went and went. Oh. Oh, no. I thought you were a goofball.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:02:40] Oh, yeah. She wouldn’t talk to me again, but that’s the that’s the thing. So, like, I started listening to that voice, and that’s the voice that was like, you’re not the man you’re supposed to be. But it’s quiet. But the cool thing about it is that when it says something to me, at least to me, this is my walk. When it says something to me, it’s through all the way through me. And then I’ll be like, oh, and I’ll do exactly what you talked about. Like I’ll be like, oh, well, that’s not real. I can’t do that. That’s not why I’m so, so no, but now I recognize the voice and I’m like, that’s what I’m doing. Yeah. Like I don’t know how to do it, but that’s the next step. Like that’s where I’m going. And so that’s been the biggest thing for me is that I feel like and it’s funny because like it’s like again, it’s like, well, how do you know that? Like that’s what you’re supposed to do. I’m a much better man today than I was. In any metric. You want to go back. I’m a much better man today than when I first did the dirty. And the funny thing was, is that I thought it was pretty great that, like, I again, it was one of those. It was like, you know, I’m successful. My wife loves me, my kids are great. Like, I’ve got fantastic friends. Like, life’s pretty good. Like, that’s that was my that was my problem. I was like, I was like, life’s pretty good. I can just coast. And then I finally got this. I was like, dude, you’re not even near the person you’re supposed to be now. And that was the big message for me. And that was why I was just like, all right, we’re going to change. And then as I started noticing, like I’m like, oh, I’m just moving. Like all the things I’ve done I’m proud of, which is I’ve never been like that. And so I was like, this is the thing we need to start making sure people understand is that, like, there’s there’s ways to kind of figure out where you’re supposed to go, what your purpose is like are by am I checked in, where am I supposed to be? And that’s been the thing I’ve I think I’ve gotten the most out of it. But that’s the thing that Aaron Rodgers talked about it. You know Mike, my buddy who did it, who did the DMs. He talks about it like all the guys I know like Rogan talks about like all the guys who’ve done like the psychedelics and that sort of thing have all come back and been like, you know, I knew I figured out how to kind of like drive in the right direction now.

Ryan Stewman [01:04:37] Then you almost unlearn stuff. You know, one thing about weed, I will say, is when I smoked it, I’d be like, you want something on the news? And like, I don’t know about that shit, you know, or you watch some political agenda, you’re like, that sounds like bullshit. You know, it gives you a perspective that in psychedelics, the same way, it’s like, maybe I’ve been taught wrong about this particular subject. Maybe my thoughts that I formulated about this particular thing are maybe they’re wrong and maybe, maybe I can become successful. Maybe I can be a calm dude. Maybe I’m not. Maybe I’ve been telling myself my whole life I’m an angry guy.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:05:15] Maybe I’m really not that angry after all.

Ryan Stewman [01:05:17] And if it gives you an an objective perspective where you’re like, maybe all these things I thought about myself or I thought about other people or society or structure or education for sure. Some of them are right. Two plus two is four, right?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:05:35] But maybe, maybe something is wrong.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:05:38] Yeah. Yeah. Like that’s that’s from one of the things I’ve noticed is it’s like, you know or like, well you can’t do that. That’s not right. And like, why. Yeah. Because everybody everybody knows like everybody’s wrong.

Ryan Stewman [01:05:51] Yeah. Like everybody’s lacking common sense.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:05:53] Yeah. Everybody knows smoking like like it’s funny because people don’t know this. But like 50, 60 years ago they had doctors promoting camel cigarets.

Ryan Stewman [01:06:01] Yeah of.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:06:01] Course. And they’re like, smoking’s good for you. And everyone. Just everyone thought it was. And we finally get the research and we’re like, oh, it’s not sorceries. Everybody thought we’re good for you. And we finally do the research. We’re like, it’s not that much better than placebo. Yeah. And so like there’s like all these little things that, you know, you start kind of waking up. Im like, wait a minute, hold on. Like, this isn’t this isn’t this doesn’t serve me.

Ryan Stewman [01:06:22] Because I think it clears your brain from the noise and allows you to get that voice like you’re saying.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:06:27] I think that’s the biggest thing that’s done for me is it’s cleared up the noise. So and that’s been that’s been really, really kind of I think the biggest deal. So as we wrap up here pretty quick. Have you? Have you like the guys who have done it? Because I know you’ve been talking to some guys who have done it now. Like, have you found anybody that there’s got to be somebody out there who, you know, wasn’t satisfied or didn’t didn’t, you know, turn around and do something. Have you noticed like like, you know, like guys have done the job of these guys, like, changed, like their lives for better or.

Ryan Stewman [01:07:03] Yeah. I don’t know anybody who, who’s done it either regrets it or said they got nothing from it. You know, the big key to doing this, I would say for the audience, is when you do it, you have to stay on that path because it’s going to be really easy to get clear and then go back to drinking or go back to whatever vices you have and, and go, oh, well, you know, that was fun. But if you take it seriously. Yeah. And and you really want to improve from it because it’s one thing like, I can probably go do ketamine and go, I don’t want to really improve, I just want to trip.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:07:37] Right.

Ryan Stewman [01:07:39] But if you really, like you said, set the intention and you really want to be better from it. Again, I don’t know anybody who’s regretted it or said that it didn’t work or, you know, has it, you know, made an attempt to be better. But you also. That’s up to you. It’s not a magic, you know, you took it. Now life’s better. I told you, you know, for me was six or so months later before I started dropping substances. Yeah. It wasn’t an immediate. Oh, that was the first trip. Dude, I gotta quit this. It wasn’t like that at all. You know, no, I don’t know anybody who’s had a negative.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:08:16] Or.

Ryan Stewman [01:08:19] Non pleasant experience with. Now everybody that I’ve talked to said the first few were rough.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:08:25] Yeah.

Ryan Stewman [01:08:25] And so you have to prepare yourself for that. You’re not going to you know unless you’re a child you’re not going to have a clear head. You’ve got some drama. Maybe it could have been your parents divorce, a girl that broke your heart. You were cheated on by a boy. You’ve been divorced like all of those things. Cause, you know, mental trauma. Yeah. And so when you go in, that’s the first thing it’s going to like when you go into a house to clean a house, you don’t go clean the clean room first.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:08:53] No.

Ryan Stewman [01:08:53] You go start with the dirtiest room and move from there. And that’s what this is going to do. It’s going to go and get the dirtiest room, the dirtiest compartment, I would call it in your brain. Then it’s going to start cleaning that out and that stuff’s going to feed over into the next room. Then it’s going to clean that out. And then after a while it’s like, okay, the house is clean. Yeah.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:09:12] Well that’s that’s been the biggest thing is that again, it’s the intention that you go in with, you know, because I’ve had people like, oh, I did trips for fun and people have told me this, like I did shrooms for fun. And when I set the intention, I went in there with all the stuff, like they’re like, it was totally different. And what I got out of it was totally.

Ryan Stewman [01:09:28] Different because you get what you focus on. Yeah. So if you go in there with the focus, that’s what you’re going to get. Just like when you were focused on the right woman, you found Lulu. I did the same thing. I made a list and I found Amy. Yeah. It wasn’t, you know, the next day it was about six months later. But I’m like, you know, we’ve been dating for a couple months. It was like, you know, I made this little description here, and, you know, I don’t want to get a relationship, but I think you kind of fit the description. Yeah. And because I had something to focus on, I knew what I did and didn’t want. So if you go into this, it’s the same principle. You know what you do or don’t want. You have the ability to go in there and set the intention of, hey, this is what I want the outcome of this to be like. And focus is super power for the brain.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:10:06] Yeah. And that’s been that’s been the biggest thing. So since we focus on where we’re supposed to go, you get so much easier. So. Well thanks man for thanks for coming in. I know that you had, you know, personal stuff and I know that a lot of this stuff, you know, people are going to want to hear and listen to and kind of realize that, you know, they can, you know, against another way that, you know, it’s always funny because, like this, some of the things people have said over the years and I’m just like, like who don’t really know you or you’re just mad because of something else. And like, he’s legitimately like your your biggest flaw is that you give people too many second chances. I like that legitimately. Like you’re one of the nicest guys I know. And we were like, well, he’s always angry. And like, he just he just sits like that. That’s just how he looks.

Ryan Stewman [01:10:45] Just my face.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:10:46] Yeah, that’s.

Ryan Stewman [01:10:46] Just my face.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:10:47] But I’m okay for coming in because a lot of guys are going to hear this and go, you know what? If someone like I can go check it out because that’s that’s where a lot of this comes from. And a lot of the guys who need the help won’t go get it because they think it’s unmanly or they think it’s you or whatever. So this is going to help a lot of people, man. Thanks. So thanks a lot for it.

Ryan Stewman [01:11:04] Yeah, man. Anything I can do to help you and people that need it. And bviously I got even more. I have to talk to you. Even more results than I thought. So, you know. Yeah, I can say that. I can promise this. It’s. My life is not worse because of it.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:11:18] Yeah, my mind is substantially better. I like man, I am so much more now. So. Well, thanks, buddy. We’ll, we’ll chat up. We’ll cut it up and send out. So cool. Awesome. Thanks, man.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [01:11:27] Yeah.

As always if you have any questions, please send them to [email protected]

Check out Chalmers Pillarsofwellness.com for Wellness updates! And ask me any questions you have at [email protected]. I answer all of them and look forward to hearing from you.

The Chalmers Wellness Stubstack just launched. Comment, Like, and Interact with other people on their wellness journey. Communities can make a difference.     DrChalmers.substack.com

Dr. Matt Chalmers

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only. Before taking any action based on this information you should first consult with your physician or health care provider. This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions regarding a medical condition, your health, or wellness