The following Earth Angel media presentation is brought to you commercial free as a gratuity from the sponsor producer named after the show.
Please consider their message. Find other high value shows listed at earthangelproject.com. Enjoy the show.
Welcome to Soul Decodes. Join us as we wander off the path to find the ideas that fascinate. We talk about spirituality, the mind, the ego, wellness and hidden history with tips, travels and tales. Charms for a better life.
Sarah, welcome back to Phillips Island. Thank you. I feel like I've never left. It feels like it was just just moments ago.
Funny that isn't it.
So, what but thank you. Thank you for being back. I always look forward to that first one was was very delightful.
I was so excited because after we finished the podcast, I actually plug the recording in and it actually recorded.
Nothing like 45 minutes blank.
But it wouldn't be the first time that happened.
I was reading. I read my novel out and I recorded about 45 minutes of one very, very complicated chapter because there's a lot of dialogue and I wasn't recording and it was like that's never going to happen to me.
So, I had something similar. This is years ago. I had one of my pilot friends. He's an F-16 pilot, very established pilot. He currently still flies for JetBlue, which is where I most recently flew as a captain for JetBlue.
And we were, we're on an overnight together somewhere in Florida.
And he, all the pilots have different nicknames like we each of us had call signs and it's kind of like a, I don't know, it's a pilot thing.
Kind of like Goose and Maverick and Top Gun.
Same thing. But what people don't know is that you don't get to pick your own. You don't get to pick your own call sign.
Who designates that?
Usually it's based on something you did and almost always the most embarrassing thing.
It's almost always the most embarrassing thing you did. So, my friend, I'm going to actually have him on my other podcast. My other podcast is Studio 17.
And Studio 17, I interview people that have amazing stories or novel. They're game changers. They're business innovators. They're entrepreneurs, problem solvers.
So, it's completely a different podcast than this. But I was sitting there with my friend Pete. Well, his call sign is stinky.
Oh, I could imagine. Oh, no.
I'll let, I'm not going to, you'll have to listen to the podcast because I told him, I said, I want to redo that interview because it was an epic, epic interview.
And did you get to the reasons why he was called stinky?
Yes, but I'm not going to say.
No, no, don't. No, I have to listen.
That's going to be how the interview, that's going to be. So, some things are better left. Let him tell the story. But it was precious. I was laughing so hard.
My imagination has already gone wild.
So, let me just tell you quick. Here's a quick story for you. I mean, here we are. We're minutes into the podcast and we haven't even covered our first topic.
But this is, but this is what girlfriends do. So, I was, I was in a job. It was out of Toledo and I was a check airman for a company called Flight Safety.
And Flight Safety does training and check rides for corporate pilots and private pilots. And so, I was a check airman and one of the, the other instructors, we had a group of instructors.
And there, when there's a group of you and there's like eight of you that are always doing the same things and you're teaching and you're doing check rides and all this stuff, you get to know each other pretty well.
So, even though they're not military, I gave everyone call signs. I assigned them. My name was Dealer.
Dealer.
But there's reasons for it. I'm not going to talk about it.
Are you dealing cars or cocaine?
Well, there's, I won't even go there.
Dealer. Oh, that's interesting.
But, do people then ask, people say, well, how come you're called Dealer?
Well, they do, but it's none of their business.
No, is that what you're saying?
It's none of your business.
I'll tell you if I needed you to know.
It's none of your business. I'll cuss before I tell you.
But, but it's interesting because one of the things I did was I dealt out names.
And you, you, there's a science to it. There's this thing.
And what you do is you observe people.
Like there was a girl that was one of the instructors and she, during the training, it was after hours.
And this is before GPS, before internet, like you have to say, okay, jump in the car, drive five minutes down this highway, make a left at the second light, you know, the way we used to do it.
Right. And back when, when everything is in black and white. Yeah.
But, but we were supposed to meet after hours and all of the instructors were going to get together for dinner.
And she gave instructions. They were the worst instructions ever.
Like we ended up not even getting together for dinner. It's like we couldn't find each other.
They were like the worst instructions ever. So what did I name her?
OnStar.
And there's another. I like the satire in that.
And then there's another guy. Now get this.
This guy was, he's, he's maybe like five foot. I'm going to say about five foot eight, like not super stature, but not short short, but he wrote wore those round glasses with the wire frame, like almost like Ben Franklin glasses.
And he was a former air traffic controller. And now he's a pilot. So there's all that.
Well, being a former air traffic controller.
And with his stature, if I got away to you're not drinking, she's drinking right now, but she's going to spray this.
I'm not drinking. I'm drinking water, not gin. I need a gin.
But I don't want you to spray my microphone.
I'm covering my mouth.
I don't want you to spit it. But so think of MASH. Think of MASH.
MASH is the TV show.
The TV show.
Yes. But you'll have to remember I didn't grow up watching that because I grew up in England. So that's a very elusive concept.
Oh, yeah.
Okay. Well, there's this one of the characters on MASH is a guy named Radar. Did you know that?
No.
Oh, this won't even be funny then.
Well, conceptually it might be.
So there's this guy named Radar. You have to watch at least one episode.
I will now.
So you can find out who Radar was. So anyway, so I named him Radar.
And every one of the instructors thought it was perfect because he was a former air traffic controller.
He looked like Radar. It was like perfect.
Well, I got called into the boss's boss's boss office and he's like enough of the names.
Oh.
And I'm like what? And this guy's name, his real name was Greg.
What a humorless environment.
Well, I know. But still it's their names and names are names are important. Right. But call signs are important.
It's his fault though, isn't it?
So and call signs are so important because like I can see somebody like I haven't seen my friend.
I have some pilot friends from Detroit. They were in the guard.
Kujo, Knocker, Knocker and Kujo, two of my best friends. Right.
That you. You don't have like you don't even have to know their real name.
Like you just know it's Knocker and Kujo.
I don't even know. I don't remember the name. Right. You don't have to remember it.
Well, so the names are important, especially like.
So they called you in and they were angry with you.
So Greg was there and he had my boss and his boss there and they were hands on hips and admonishing me like I was a five year old.
And they're like enough of the call signs. I'm like, wait a minute.
I mean, these are nicknames. It's fun. It's like all this stuff.
And they're like, well, but, you know, Greg doesn't want to call sign.
I'm like, well, that's the fun of it. Like, you know, it's kind of like camaraderie.
It's a spree, a spree de corps. So they didn't understand your intention then.
It was totally a loving kind. Like it's fun. Right.
So I was like, OK, well, if he had to have a call sign, what what could it be?
Like they're like no call signs. I say, well, Greg, what do you want us to call you then?
He said, just Greg. I'm like, OK. So you heard him say it.
Can I call him just Greg? And they're like, that's what he said.
And I'm like, OK, great. You're just Greg. So we just called him just Greg.
And he was OK with just Greg. Well, no, he wasn't.
But he agreed to it. So we just. He didn't have much choice.
So we went from radar to just Greg, but at least he had a name.
But it even made it more funny because. Yeah.
But I'm in a different place now. Like, I wouldn't push that issue.
Yes. Because. But you're being very playful.
I was being playful, but some people don't receive it that way. Yes.
And so I think if you're insecure, you probably wouldn't.
And that's not your problem, is it? You know. But you should be able to have it.
What would my call sign be? Oh, I'm going to think of.
OK, think about it. Let me know on the next podcast.
Think about it. Oh, I can't. You can't force it. Oh, no.
I said, no, we'll know on the next podcast. Oh, no.
I know it's not in my mind what your call sign would be, but it'll come to me.
Oh, you're going to give me a call. Yeah, I think we should give each other.
Oh, my God. Yeah. OK, well, that'll be another one.
If I don't like mine, you don't have permission to use it ever.
Well, that makes it more fun because I'm using it.
So anyway, so let's talk about this podcast.
First of all, how did you feel about last week's podcast? I loved it.
I felt I enjoyed it. And that's really, really important to me.
I wouldn't want to slog my way through anything.
I can't imagine you slogging your way through anything.
So that was great. It was funny. It was energetic.
We went all over the place. We can recapture themes that we glossed over.
It's organic. And it's just us hanging out. And it's pretty right.
It's very right. And so what do you think we could do?
We could do better. Do you think it's like nothing? I like it.
I'm the same. And maybe we'll get some feedback from some of the listeners.
Well, I think also I think I haven't heard it in all her views.
So I'd like to listen to this and review it. We've only heard ourselves.
That might give me a better angle to think of what we could improve on.
And then we can do that as of this moment.
Yeah, I thought it was delightful. And I hope the listeners can just track with us
and going in and out of all our craziness.
I know we're talking about very important themes as well.
That's what we're weaving. I want this to be fun.
So there's this balance that we want to meet. We want to do the soul decodes,
which I think is really important because ultimately we're on a journey.
And so eternal journey. This never ends. It's so awesome.
It's so funny. Can't wait. So so there's that.
But also I want to give pragmatic, practical things that people can do.
How do we actually apply this stuff? It's not just some esoteric, some some concept.
It's not conceptual. It's actually how do we actually apply these things? Right.
How did you do it? How did I do it? And then just have fun. I love laughter.
My hope is that when people listen to this, that they they fall in love with you the way I have.
You know, just I hope they can engage us and just be part of our family.
Or they could just think we're the most boring bitches on the planet and never want to listen again.
I know. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
You know what? We're going to find out within a few episodes if it works or not.
So so but how would you like today to go? This is your broadcast.
Well, I think how would you like it to go? When we left off the last podcast,
you had posed a question that we talk, we ask each other three things.
So I could ask you something and I could preface it with my experience.
So my question to you would be, what's the worst thing that's ever happened to you in terms of being in a dangerous situation?
So real quick, I can just tell you about mine. I was over the Everglades and I was practicing a power on stall.
I hadn't got my private pilot's license at that point.
And I went into a power on stall and I was about 4000 feet.
And I had to get out of the power on stall, which was I think opposite aileron and then just put the nose down.
But I decided that I wanted to take it into a spin and recover from the spin at 4000 feet. Yes. Nice.
So I took it into a spin and I knew how to get out of it.
We weren't told to do that. We weren't allowed to go into a spin.
And I got myself into a spin and I had to apply the techniques to get out of it.
But there was a I don't know, maybe a couple of seconds, three second laps where I thought, fuck, Sarah, you better have got this right.
Because if you haven't got this right, you are dead.
You will just go into the spin and not recover.
And I did. And I came out of it and we're all good.
But that was the closest I'd come to being in a dangerous situation and only had myself to get myself out of it.
So and it was there was two seconds of absolute, well, not fear, trepidation.
OK, so I'm sweating now.
And I never did. And I never did that again.
That was like, OK, you got this. It's kind of self critiquing, isn't it?
So it gosh. Thank you for sharing that.
And this is with you. Were you solo or I was solo over the Everglades.
I had about 40 hours and I was just practicing my maneuvers.
My check ride was the following week. And yeah, I did.
Yeah, that was rough. It's pretty sporty. It was.
It's pretty idiotic. I call it self critiquing.
Great way of putting it. So your question is loaded because the truth is I honestly was dangerous.
Where did you face the most danger?
I can honestly say I don't even know how I'm still alive because I've had so many of those instances.
Goodness. So many of them.
Danger comes in different forms. And I think that probably the scariest thing.
But it's the situation that you've put yourself in because no one put me in that situation.
Here I am in a 152. This is you are accountable for this danger.
So there's been so many times where I've looked backwards at something I did.
Well, like like drive a motorcycle way too fast, like way, way, way too fast.
All right. When you're doing it, you're not thinking because you're just a kid, right?
You're just. Oh, so you were young. I was very young.
Yeah, I was 25. OK. I was younger than that. Yeah.
But you're when you're when you're a kid, you don't think about that.
But when I look backwards, I had no idea how how much danger I was in.
So I get I get more upset about the danger I was in.
Like the day I could have been wiped out in a heartbeat.
But part of that was me because I could wipe someone else out.
So round a bend on some gravel or something. Yeah.
And there's that. But let's go back into this a little bit more because like
I give you the short answer about the most dangerous thing, and that is when you have
when you're in a T-38, which is the Air Force's supersonic trainer, it's the Thunderbirds
used to fly the T-38 before they had the F-16s. Right.
So I was an instructor pilot in there.
So you'd have a student in your plane and then you'd have a solo student
in the airplane right next to you. Oh, my goodness.
So the most scary experiences are when you have that because you have two students
that are flying against each other.
I say against. They're in the same formation. In unison. In unison.
But sometimes it feels like they're against each other.
But they're learning. But when and especially if the student not in your flight,
not in your cockpit, but in your flight.
So there should be the solo student pilot who's on your wing is arrogant.
That is that that was probably the scariest I've ever had.
Wow. Because they're not coachable.
Yeah, they're not reachable. They're in.
And this guy came from a guard unit.
So he already knew that he was going to graduate and go to an A-10,
fly an A-10 Warthog, which is the tank killer.
He already knew. So he's all about himself. And he was flat out dangerous.
So complacent. Well, if you think you're that good and you're arrogant,
you are going to be complacent.
Well, there's there's an adage like pilots have all these sayings, right?
But the old and bold. Yes, you know it.
Tell it. Say, OK, there's no such thing as an old and bold pilot.
Yeah, there is old pilots. Yeah, there's bold pilots.
There are no old, bold pilots. Right. So but that's the case.
So I basically told him to go to route, which means get off my wing
and just take 50 feet to the side of me, just because. Right.
When we're in formation, we're three feet apart. Wow. Close.
Oh, yeah. It's three foot wing to the clearance. So I shook him off.
I've sent him to listen to your command. He had to. Yeah.
I said the ride's over. We're going back. So I terminated early.
I came. It's called this. And then you have to take him into a debrief.
Oh, totally. I took him with flight commander because he wasn't compliant.
He was he was not doing what he was supposed to do.
He wasn't obeying an instruction. No. It's insubordination. Exactly.
So I had to fail him. I don't like to fail student pilots.
But at some point when you're not see, we used to it's not all about skills.
It's not all about skills. It's about what we call airmanship.
Airmanship is simply are you thinking like a pilot?
Are you thinking like an aviator? Are you thinking like a captain?
Because anybody can fly an airplane, truly.
But can you think so you can get all of your maneuvers correct?
You can be perfect, perfect execution.
But if you make boneheaded decisions, you fail. Yes.
So I failed him for airmanship. Yeah. And yeah.
What was his what was what was the decision that he made
where you understood that he's arrogant and unreachable?
Was it a breach of a direct order? Well, he did a
there's information. What you do is you you send people you do rejoins.
You have to practice. So what you do is you shake you shake the stick
and they go out away from you and then they rejoin on you.
And they're straight ahead rejoins. There's turning rejoins and things like that.
One of the cardinal rules is that if you lose sight of your wingman
or the other airplane, if you lose sight of them,
there are procedures you have to go through. Right.
Because if you don't know where that other airplane is,
you can end up smacking them pretty easily. Quite. Quite.
Well, what happened was we were doing a turning rejoin.
He was on the inside of the turn. So his belly was up to up to me.
So I'm looking up at the belly of his airplane and I know he couldn't see me
because he was too high.
Normally in a T-38, you'd be able to look at the other airplane just over the canopy rail
and you'd be able to see the other airplane.
But he was way too high and I know he couldn't see me.
So I told him to break out and break out means that discontinue away from the plane.
And the breakout means that he goes to one altitude, I go to the other
and then we can rejoin after we're in sight.
Because I saw him but I knew he couldn't see me. He didn't break out.
He continued to close on me and my student was flying in the airplane.
I'm flying. So the closure continued and I told my student pilot, I have the aircraft.
Good. And I literally pulled my airplane up. Good for you.
The student flew right underneath me. Good for you.
So I just let him pass under me. You had to take control.
Because he's not listening and he's not doing the right thing.
He's not following protocol. My student wasn't strong enough to comprehend that.
Why? Yes.
We're about ready to get smacked by the other airplane.
But things happen very quickly when you're at 350, 400 miles an hour.
So that was probably the scariest life situation I've had.
Yeah. That's a very, very interesting one.
Can I just ask you, so when you talked to him in the debrief,
was he irritated with you or himself? Did he get what was going on?
Oh, yeah. Or was he trying to defend himself?
No, he parked his airplane and he was storming off like a spoiled brat.
Oh, was he? But that didn't last long because my flight commander was...
He was very...he understood what was going on there.
Because this was evidently not the first time this child had behaved that way.
And the flight commander explained to him, yes, you're going back to an A-10.
Yes, you will be flying a cool airplane only after you graduate.
And if you don't graduate, you're not going to that airplane.
So keep your priorities. Learn what you need to learn.
So I thought the flight commander did an amazing job settling that boy.
And did he settle? Did he turn out to be a good pilot?
Well, he graduated. Right.
I don't know if he's a good pilot. I don't even know if he's still alive.
But I did what I could do. So that's a really good question.
But you have...I mean, in that case, you have three lives.
You have a, what, multimillion dollars worth of equipment.
You've got to think quickly, get down.
And so basically, that experience for you was based on the arrogance
and complacency of someone else. And he wasn't in the right formation.
He should have been able to see you. And he couldn't.
Well, he lost sight. He should have broken out by himself.
He didn't. I directed him to break out. He didn't.
And then you had to break out. So I had to remedy it.
So it was airmanship, but it was also the rejoin.
He failed the rejoin because he lost sight.
It's not about losing sight. It's about not doing the procedures.
So very good question. Wow.
I didn't expect we'd be talking about aviation today.
Well, it might come into it now and again.
That's where I met my husband. He was doing his instrument rating.
And that's where we met. So that's kind of a unites us in a little way.
It's kind of fun. So now it's my turn to ask a question.
I have to have a sip of my gin. It's water. It's clear fluid.
So last time we had our first episode, we talked briefly about belief systems.
We talked about beliefs and I have a perspective on what beliefs are.
So there's like beliefs and there's truths and in your mind,
how do you personally discriminate between what is a belief and what is truth?
Does truth actually exist? Well, like what is truth?
Yes. So truth would be what is beautiful,
what is as good as beautiful and what is the best outcome.
So truth has to be beauty. It has to be coherent and beautiful for it to even stand as the truth.
If it isn't beautiful and it's not coherent, it's not likely to be the truth
because whoever or what created this reality is a beautiful, benevolent, lovely being,
whatever this God structure looks like.
So for me, truth is always going to be associated with beauty and with love
and something workable, something reasonable. That's how I ascertain what I believe truth to be.
So when I look at the human condition, the heaven on earth is the truth for me
because it's beautiful and human flourishing is for everyone.
No one's going to hell and everyone graduates this human cycle.
So truth to me is always contingent upon a beautiful, loving, happy outcome.
That's how I determine cosmic truth. That is so beautiful.
That actually very much complies with or conforms with my view
because one of the things I struggled with as a child was, you know, I mentioned, you know,
there's this Jesus figure and I thought, how can a father, like the story is
that there's this father who slaughtered his son,
who sacrificed his son to relieve us of our sins, of our responsibility.
A scapegoat is an appalling doctrine.
That story never resonated with me. I'm not saying it's not true.
So if there's Christians out there, I'm not, I don't want the hate mail.
I'm not saying it's not true.
Send in mail if you'd like to talk about it.
I'd love to hear about it. But the story never made sense to me because...
How could it?
Well, here's the question. Like, you know, again, I'm not about badgering one religion or another.
I'm just trying to make sense of things.
So the reason is within the construct of truth versus belief.
That's my question. Like, how do you discern between a truth and a belief?
They're not interchangeable terms for me. Truth is one principle.
A belief system is what we're all doing.
We're all forming a belief system about the nature of this reality,
whether we realize it or not. Who am I? What am I doing here?
Where am I going? Where did I come from?
How does the doing happen?
And what are the mechanisms that keep this whole thing in place?
And I have a belief system which I have plucked from all religions
because I've always tried to get to truth and truth is love.
Truth is beauty. Truth is a good outcome for everyone.
But a belief system could be completely erroneous.
There could be no truth in someone's belief system
because the belief system itself is a very poor quality.
So a belief system is not an interchangeable term with truth.
Excellent. So this is very much in line with what I was sharing
because when I was a child and looking at the Jesus figure
and listening to the Jesus story as an example,
my idea was like I couldn't comprehend how a parent could do that to a child.
And I also thought, well, wait a minute, he's being sacrificed.
To whom is he being sacrificed?
Yes, and why?
And why? I never understood anything.
I still don't.
No, I don't either. You can't fathom it.
Because to me it's not fathomable because it's a piece of mythology.
It's not the truth.
Now you and I both have kids.
We wouldn't ask one of our oldest child,
we wouldn't punish our oldest child for the actions of a middle child
or a younger child because we would know it would be totally unreasonable
and totally unloving to do that, not just in any way.
So you and I would never do that just as parents.
We'd never punish a child for the other one's mistakes.
We'd never lord another child.
And I can just see it in motherhood.
Now if I wasn't going to do that to my child and I wouldn't,
why would God do that to us?
Why would he pick out a scapegoat and say this person is going to be brutalized
and scourged and damaged and tortured because you all fuck things up?
A, no one's fucked anything up because there's actually nothing wrong with this planet.
We can get to that.
But we would never put that as a human being on another human being.
And the fact that we think God is capable of doing that
would not be a truthful version of God as far as I'm concerned
because it's just not loving.
Fair.
So we're fine tuning this idea of what is a truth and what is a belief.
And so what I've learned over my lifetime is that
when I observe the world around me,
that there's certain things that reinforce certain things I believe
and there's things that pop holes in or punch holes in some of my beliefs.
So as a child I wanted to believe the narratives that I was growing up.
There's all sorts of narratives.
When I look at history, there's all of this history that were put forth into us.
The Pilgrims, they were friends with the Indians.
They loved each other and shared technologies.
Okay, that's great.
And they ate turkey and made soft dip ice cream.
I mean, it's like...
Now you're being facetious.
Really?
So there's these beliefs.
But then I liken the truth to being us.
There's only one truth.
Whatever the truth is, none of us know all of it.
So if I were to invite you and Tony over for dinner with us
and afterwards we're going to make a thousand piece puzzle,
get some good lighting, a little sip of wine or whatever you want,
and then we're going to make a puzzle,
you're going to have some pieces and you're going to synthesize
or try to piece together what is this?
Is this a barn? Is this a car? Is this a tractor?
What is this, right?
And I'm going to look and say, is this a dog or a deer?
Or is this like a piece of hay?
Or a Barbie doll.
A Barbie doll.
And what is this?
And we're going to collaborate.
You're going to say, oh my goodness,
it looks like these pieces belong here,
so why don't you take these and I'll say,
oh, you're working on the barn.
I'll give you these pieces and we're going to collaborate.
And you're going to share little bits of information
about what you see.
Believe the truth to be.
What you believe the truth to be,
which is ultimately what this big puzzle is.
Well, what you've got to bring into that,
if you've got belief in truth, you've got to bring what faith is.
So we have to try and understand what faith means.
To me, I understood that in order to arrive
at the correct belief system that was going to allow me
to create the reality that I'm living in,
I had to have faith in the magnificence of God.
Whatever this God is, is so impeccable, so awesome,
and that there's some amazing plan for everyone on planet Earth.
So that was the trajectory that faith was,
an air-type faith was what I needed in order to establish
a belief system so I could arrive at truth.
So faith is a critical factor.
You've got to be really, really careful
about what God-type you believe in.
I like what you said, but I'm a little bit lost.
So you're suggesting that faith is a precondition?
Yes, it should be.
What about people who don't have faith,
they don't believe in God, they don't...
They still have beliefs.
Yes, so they have beliefs.
My brother is an atheist.
Tell me about atheism.
I have family members that are atheists,
and I love them like crazy.
They're some of the most beautiful, beautiful people in the world.
So I know this is...
I don't know if this is where you wanted to go with the questioning.
There's no structure to this.
No, let's just roll with it.
But I'm trying to ask questions that people in the world might ask.
So what about atheists?
I don't want the answer from a religious answer.
I have no interest in religion.
Religion is good for wars. That's about it.
Really?
That's it.
But in terms of...
You mentioned that people need to have faith,
and they have to have a belief system and things like that.
Where does this leave the atheists?
Outwinging it, in the dark, in the cold.
Not a belief system that I...
Because my brother's an atheist.
Tell me about that.
And so he doesn't believe...
Well, we said this at the beginning.
You opened with this.
It's very difficult when you see...
I don't know whether we recorded this or it was pre-recording.
It's very difficult to reconcile the existence of God
with the world that suffers so much.
So my brother's like that.
He cannot believe the suffering,
and he cannot understand that a God would create it.
So therefore, there is no God.
He just believes his life is about being the best version of himself.
He believes that when he dies, his consciousness will be extinct,
that it's not going to go on anywhere.
If it does, he'll work that out when he gets to it.
My husband, he's not quite as a hardcore atheist as my brother,
but he doesn't necessarily believe in a bigger picture.
And he's not too worried about that,
because what he wants to do is be of service in this life,
take care of his family, and be a good, righteous person
without any idea of wanting to talk about the transcendent,
about God, about what reality looks like.
I, for some reason, am wired differently,
and I'll talk about this awakening I had when I was 33,
but I think some people are born pre-wired not to consider God.
A favorite philosopher of mine and a neuroscientist is Sam Harris.
He understands the structures of the mind
and is quite spiritual in his practices,
but he doesn't need to understand the bigger reality
and doesn't necessarily believe there is one.
He's more agnostic than atheist,
and I think some people are necessarily wired like that,
and a lot of people aren't.
If you look at humanity over the, what, a couple of hundred thousand years,
most of us are pre-wired to think there is a bigger picture,
and we're all trying to find what that is.
Most of humanity has lived and died trying to find answers to God.
Very few people are atheists, and if they are,
it's because they can't reconcile suffering with the existence of a God,
and I totally get that because this is a brutal, brutal planet.
I mean, there's people dying and being tortured right now as we speak,
and I totally get why people wouldn't believe in a God.
It's a very easy thing to incorporate into your belief system,
and that is a belief system in itself.
The non-existence of God is part of a belief system.
So this is a good segue to my next question I was going to ask you.
Oh, my God, I'm nervous again.
Okay, so is there a devil and demons and dark forces that influence us?
Yes or no?
It's not as easy as that.
So, yeah, well, light has no meaning without dark.
In has no meaning without out.
Up has no meaning without down.
Bravery has no meaning without cowardice.
So we live in a world of polarity.
So, yes, there is darkness because we wouldn't know light if there wasn't.
So we live with the contrast.
But my question was specifically...
Demons, ugly little trolls coming out the walls.
Well, you know, for real, like there's the flip Wilson,
remember the devil made me do it, you know.
Do you remember that?
I believe that the devil...
I think it's a very, very...
How could I put this politely?
The devil is basically saying, well, the devil made me do it.
That's what you were just referencing.
There's no accountability in that.
And you're not likely to work on yourself if you believe that a devil
or a dark force is possessing you.
So it's a very, very disempowering limited belief system.
So I don't believe in the devil, but I do believe that there's a necessity
on this planet for darkness so we can seek the light.
Okay.
This is a very relevant question because I actually have family members
that are very, very hardcore Christian.
Salvation, the devil, demons, the whole thing.
And I was recently asked the question whether or not I believed
that there was a devil.
So I asked you the question because I was...
Yeah, so what was your answer?
Well, you know, I said that the question is not...
The answer is not relevant.
And the reason I said it's not relevant is I do...
When you wargame this out, I say wargames.
When you look at all the potentialities and you evaluate them
and you just kind of think it through logically,
it's not relevant because of how we live our lives.
So my answer to this person, and it was a private conversation,
so I don't want to disclose who it was,
but was that whether or not there's a devil is not of any consequence
to me for a couple of reasons.
First of all, I believe that the idea of a devil is an archetype
that is, because we are humans, because we are We the Peoples...
I don't like human, I like We the People.
But because we're We the Peoples, we want to express things,
we want to animate things, we want to give things life
that we don't understand, we don't comprehend.
Anthropomorphize things.
Isn't that the term we need to personify something?
That's the term you use. I don't even attempt that word.
I have to try better next time.
But here's an example.
So we're in the studio, let's just say there's no moon,
it's night time, we walk up here, it's pitch black.
And we walk into this room and I say,
Sarah, what do you see?
And you say, I can't say anything, it's pitch black.
So what do you see? I see darkness.
Are you really seeing darkness?
Can you really see darkness?
Well, you're seeing the absence of light.
You're seeing the absence of light.
Same thing like, what is evil?
Well, is evil, is it a thing or is it the absence of love
and goodness and kindness?
It doesn't have an independent existence,
it only has an existence based on the fact that we live
in a world of polarity and opposites.
Well, and again, but we, again, the archetype of a devil
is we're trying to bring something to life,
that there's nothingness.
Here's a better example.
If I took a chamber and I sucked all the air out of it,
that's just a vacuum, you'd call it a vacuum.
And I'd say, well, what is this?
And you'd say, I'd say, what's in there?
And you'd say, it's a vacuum.
Well, but there's nothing in there.
It's the absence of air.
Yeah.
So the conversation is like, we give it a name,
we call it a vacuum, but it's nothingness.
So whether it's light or a lack of light,
whether it's love or a lack of love,
or whether it's air or a lack of air,
we tend to name things that don't exist.
Yes.
And we give them life, even though there's nothing there.
Yes, we animated it with a false concept.
So the idea of like a polarity, like,
and I'm familiar with, like, you make reference,
I don't know if it's in one of your books,
or maybe it's a conversation we had,
but these seven spiritual laws and the law of as above,
so below, and the polarity and things like that.
Yes, the Kabbalion.
The Kabbalion, yeah.
And I like to talk about that sometimes,
but this idea of the dark and the light,
that's the visual representation of it,
but it's more an expression of the flow,
the in and out, the flow of life.
But I bring it up because I don't think that,
I don't think that the way we live our lives is,
it doesn't change whether there's a devil
or there's not a devil.
In other words, my capacity to love, to empathize,
to give charitably, and you're like one of the biggest
charitable givers I've ever met.
You're so, every instance I've ever,
you tip better than anybody I know,
you give more than anybody I know,
like you're such a beautiful giving heart.
The way you are is not going to be influenced
by whether there actually is a devil or there's not.
You're going to be your best version of yourself
independent of whether or not there's a devil.
I wouldn't be able to be the best version of myself
independently from there's a devil
if I believe the devil to be real,
because I've met Christians who really believe
there's an evil force in this world,
and it compromises their own power because they're scared.
They're very scared that you've got this god and the devil
fighting for supremacy and that human beings
are somehow pawns caught in this cosmic game.
So this plays very much into one of your themes in your book,
that there's this idea of this big god
and this tiny little human.
Tell me more about that.
So big god, little human,
that's the monotheistic belief in reality.
You've got this big god, he created this existence.
There was some horrible calamity back in the Garden of Eden
when Eve, she took a bite from an apple
because God had said you can't eat from this,
and she did, and this is the knowledge of good and evil.
And I get that conceptually, and I can't get into that now
because it's like the whole chapter in the star-side prophecy.
We'll just do it next time.
Yeah, we'll have to.
Exactly.
But you've got this big god, little human,
and it's actually more important to understand big god, big human,
and you've got the god who's big
and he's all knowing, all doing,
and he can create a miracle or he doesn't.
He can put favour on our life or he doesn't.
And that human beings are somehow just winging it, running around,
doing their best, but not understanding that they're all so big.
So this big god, little human is a tragic concept,
and it's one that a lot of my writing is written to address.
And then you've got this devil.
So the devil is this...
I mean, most Christians, I've known a lot of Christians,
I have beautiful Christian friends, and we can talk about spirituality,
but I find that they're living in fear a lot
because they believe that some of the crappy things
that are happening in their lives is a result of the devil intervening.
He gets into your mind.
That's terrible, disempowering position.
It's your own thoughts that are doing this.
This is you.
This is not an intervening, hostile, negative force from Satan
that God couldn't control because Satan's a former angel.
So if you believe in the existence of the devil,
you've also got to believe in the existence of the incompetency
of a god that couldn't control him.
So it was just a joke.
No, but I get what you're saying.
Okay, we've got probably time for two more questions.
One from you, one from me.
All right, you go first.
Well, no, you go first.
I just asked you if there's a devil and we went in there.
Okay, so I'm in your studio and I'm looking at your beautiful panelling on the wall
and I love it.
So this is creative.
It's beautiful.
I mean, you've got these beautiful panels, beautiful fabric,
and you created something that stops the sound bouncing around
and it's beautiful artwork.
I listened to the sound from last week and it actually did a good job.
Did it? So it's utilitarian.
A little bit of a carryover sound from the hard surfaces,
but not bad for a studio.
So let me ask you, so you're creative.
It's obvious that you're creative.
Have you always been creative?
Did you draw well as a kid?
Could you mould things from pottery?
Now you're talking about you're an artist.
I didn't know that until I was older.
I didn't know that when I was a kid.
I was told that I wasn't creative by my mother,
so I had no idea I was until I broke free from that conditioning.
Fascinating question.
So the root question, you're observing the creativity in the studio,
but you're...
We should put some pictures up of this, by the way.
Okay, we can do that.
But your root question is that of creativity.
So the short answer on these particular sound panels is that I made them myself.
The fabric is from whatever was being cleared out at the fabric store.
Right.
It was a dollar a yard or something, and there's a wooden trim
that's just pine stapled together.
And did you mitre it yourself?
I do all that myself, yeah.
And then the filler is an organic insulation.
So it's actually an attic insulation that's organic,
and I compressed it down, and it does a great job.
I mean, I could probably have more of them, maybe put some on the ceiling,
but I'm just not there.
But you created artwork out of them,
because you could have just done this in black fabric, right?
But it's great.
So creativity...
It wasn't creativity.
It's because I was...
Because you achieved it.
Because I was broke.
It was broken.
You know, when you look at those panels, let's be honest,
those panels, if I were to get those...
My brother, Jeff, is in Chicago.
He's arguably the best audio engineer in the world.
And I asked him, it's like,
hey, can you price out these noise abatement panels from my studio?
And were they expensive?
Sister, they're crazy expensive.
And I'm like, yeah, I'm not doing that.
Yeah.
So you...
I'd rather have my money...
You got creative out of the necessity of not wanting to pay through the nose,
plus believing that you could just put this together yourself.
Welcome to my world.
Yeah.
Because Robin and I have been married 29 years now,
and when we met, I said, just so you know, I'm broke.
I have no money.
I have expense...
I was like...
I had so many expenses for my recent divorce.
I was so broke.
Like, we literally would look in our...
We would look in our cars to find...
To piece together $5 so we could share a meal.
Wow.
I mean, that was...
So creativity for you was based out of necessity.
It was necessity.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So in that...
But now, you know, living on a farm, you're creative.
Like, if you need that...
Like, the other...
My farmhand was out here several Wednesdays ago,
and he's driving, and the wheel of the trailer fell off.
Oh.
And I'm like...
Oh, my God.
I had the...
I whistled him down.
Did you see this happening?
Yeah, I saw it happen.
It's just a little trailer.
It's like, you know, three foot by five foot,
you know, heavy duty wheels and stuff.
The wheel just departed, and it's...
He's dragging on the axle, and he doesn't even realize it.
So I whistled him down, flagged him down.
It's like, hey, stop, stop.
So I got the trailer, and I...
It turned out the cotter pin came off the axle.
Right.
And it departed.
Well, I don't have a cotter pin, so...
So you got a hair grip.
So I got a nail.
Oh, you did?
You bent it.
I put it in there, and I bent it around it.
I made my own cotter pin, you know?
Great.
And he watched me do it, and it...
But you become very resourceful when you're on the farm.
Yeah.
Nothing goes to waste.
We recycle every food scrap.
Very satisfying way of living.
It's very gratifying, because you might have this little piece of lumber
or this little rod or this piece of plastic,
and you don't know what it's going to be used for,
but you know you're going to use it for something.
Right.
And you become very...
You're like a MacGyver.
I don't know if you're familiar with MacGyver.
Yes, I know who he is.
You're almost like a MacGyver, because you're like, oh, my goodness.
To run out to the store, it's like...
It's a 25-minute excursion to get from here to the closest store.
And you've got to shop.
Look what it...
And you're just going to do it yourself.
Yeah.
And you're like, you know what?
I need a piece of plastic.
It's here somewhere.
That's great.
But so, anyway, how did we get there?
Well, I wanted to know, because it's very creative in here.
Your panels are very creative.
So creativity for you was out of necessity and self-reliance,
because you know that you can do it yourself.
So you've got a certain self-belief.
Hey, I can do this.
So there's a confidence that goes with that.
Yeah.
So I think that the short answer on creativity is that it's...
Necessity is the mother of invention, which is creativity.
So, you know, I think that's a great saying because...
Me too.
...my whole life is about creatively solving problems.
And I think that we humans are so...
We, the people...
Are creative.
...are so creative.
Yeah.
And I...
Well, we're made in God's likeness, right?
If that's true in the Bible, then we should be creative.
And it's the creativity that's actually going to bring you alive.
And that's why I tell people, like, my clients, my students,
I call them my padawan.
Padawan.
Do you know what padawan is?
No.
Okay.
I've heard of padawan in Utah.
So, yeah, are you familiar with the Star Wars?
More Star Trek than Star Wars.
Okay.
So Star Wars, you know, there's the Jedi Knights and there's Yoda.
There's these Jedi masters.
Right.
Well, if you're a student Jedi Knight, then you're a padawan.
Padawan.
So that's P-A-D-O-W-A-N.
P-A-D-A.
W-A-N.
Padawan.
Wow.
So I'm on a Ninja Warrior Knight in training.
Love it.
So I treat all of my students like padawans.
I want to be a padawan.
You are a padawan.
You are.
I know a padawan when I see one.
I'm going to get a bumper sticker.
I am padawan.
So, but one thing I teach them is that, you know, I ask them the question,
obviously from last episode until I said, who are you and why are you here?
And we have this discussion about their soul and you're on a journey.
We usually, we come to this agreement.
I let them, I use the Socratic method, which means I'm going to ask them the questions
and I'm going to ask them questions based on their answers.
Yes, yes.
And let them come to some conclusion of their own.
I'm not going to tell them what to think or how to think, but I'm going to ask,
skillfully ask questions to let them come to some conclusions.
Yes.
So I ask, so I'll ask the questions like, Sarah, do you believe you have a soul?
Yes, I do.
So did your soul come to be part of you when you were conceived or was it before you were conceived?
And when you leave this earth space, does your soul stop or is it going to go someplace?
Well, that yes to all of that is part of my belief system.
I have no idea, right?
Because none of us know, but part of my belief system is my soul live prior to its existence in another body.
And I think I've been animals, dinosaurs, fish, reptiles, going right back down to plankton.
I believe the evolution of my soul has been animating all sorts of different forms.
No way of proving that, but that would be the essence of my belief system based on the fact that there's evolution
and it's a massive journey that we started on billions of years ago and it's going into eternity.
So that would be your answer.
Yeah.
And everybody has a different answer.
Some people just say, I have no idea.
No idea.
Well, we don't.
And that's fair because we don't.
I don't know either.
We don't know anything.
And so it's winging it, trying to explore life and putting a belief system together.
Well, that's why we're decoding this.
That's right.
There we go.
We're going to figure this out.
So decoders.
We're going to figure this out.
So, but I ask those questions because I want them to comprehend that this is a journey for them.
Yeah.
See, in the Western world, we're all about like getting there.
It's making that million dollars or getting that car or that home or that boat or whatever.
It's I'll be happy when I get there.
I know.
I've never had.
So what I try to express is that can you be happy on the journey?
Can you get to a point like, okay, you want to be a millionaire?
I'll show you how to do that.
I've done it.
You've done it.
It's not hard to do.
You have to get past yourself.
But so being a millionaire is not going to make you happy.
No, but you don't know that on this side.
You don't.
No, you don't.
You would have asked me that.
I would have told you I need a lot of money and I need a really nice house, a flashy car,
and I would have thought I'll be happy.
And all that happened to me, had a ton of money, had everything I wanted, and I wasn't happy.
And that's when I started writing, Is this the best God could do?
Because I prayed that night and I said, you'd better show me something that I'm not getting because I am not happy.
And I thought I had everything and I thought money was part of that and it isn't.
But it does buy you freedom and opportunity.
So I'm not knocking what money does, but no money.
Any type of you've got to be happy in the journey.
Once you're happy in the journey, you can become a millionaire.
That's really easy to do if you get your thoughts right.
All you need is to have faith, a vision, and you execute that just by upping your vibration in the moment.
So I have sympathy for people who believe that money can make them happy.
Now, if you were to ask a homeless man in Skid Row in Los Angeles, would money help you?
He's going to say yes.
He's going to absolutely stake his life on the fact that if he had money, he'd be happier.
And he would to some degree because he'd have more security.
He'd have more freedom.
He'd have food.
He would have a lot of things.
But happiness doesn't come from having millions.
It doesn't.
So you've reinforced the journey.
I think we both agree it's the journey.
So the sole decode is about figuring out the journey.
So I don't want this to go too far because I don't want these because I could talk to you for hours.
But but so now I get to ask you one more question and we'll close out and then we'll pick up another one.
So, OK, but let's take notes about what we do next episode.
That'd be great.
So my question to you is this.
You have so many cool things happening.
You've got a charitable foundation.
You've got books you've written.
You're starting this podcast with me.
What would you if I were your fairy godmother and I gave you a blank piece of paper and I said, whatever you put on this piece of paper is going to manifest this year.
What are what's at least one thing?
But what are some of the things you'd put for yourself on this blank piece of paper on this blank piece?
What would you put on there that's going to manifest this year?
Everything.
That's huge. That's a big number.
That's big.
Yeah, because I've been working for nearly 25 years towards this.
So it's not like this is just happening in this podcast.
There's massive backstory behind this.
OK, we're going to find out about that.
It sounds like a good prelude for next.
Yeah, let's bring let's make that the first topic.
What's everything mean?
What's everything?
OK, so let's close up.
Any closing thoughts for our listeners this week?
Inspect your mind.
Even if you can't stop what you're thinking, just try and become aware that you are thinking.
That's a huge stepping stone towards happiness.
Excellent.
And I'd say my my closing thought is to enjoy the journey.
Every one of us thinks that happiness is the next turn, the next corner, the next achievement.
I'm going to just say that happiness is a decision.
Yes.
And we can cover that choice.
I know that's a let's start with that.
Happiness is a decision we have to start.
OK, cool. I'll see you next week.
Thank you again.
Thank you so much.
Love you so much. Take care.
All right. Bye.
You can make a difference in your life by taking your health to the next level.
Listen now to learn how pure will make your world better.
I'm here to talk about the best products and nutrients from world class companies always adding to their quickly growing wellness lineup that now includes Korean skincare, medical grade nutrition, and
Association's difference in Normally used care.
These include regular well-being food, research, study, health care, origin, potency, and natural and ethically sourced healthy solutions for fat loss, muscle gain, immaculate skincare, immune system support,
alternatives in a physician's desk reference and healthy coffee that rivals the world's
best, but for only about a dollar per cup.
Sol decodes listeners looking for vitality, youth, beauty, and better health can get 25%
off retail by visiting livepeer.com forward slash Sarah Terry and signing up for free
as a preferred customer.
If you are a content creator, influencer, or home-based entrepreneur looking for worldwide
cash flows from the emerging gig economy, your state of the industry brand partner affiliate
program can bring you up to seven different payment vectors as bonuses.
As a content creator aligned with live pure and earth angel media, you will enjoy massive
co-marketing benefits, including a cutting edge website that is personally branded to
you or to your business.
Sign up as a brand partner at livepeer.com forward slash Sarah Terry or drop us a note
at connect at earthangelproject.com to get more information.