#266 Ayahuasca ceremonies, healing with plant medicine, and dedicated inner-truth seekers, with Michael Thornhill.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

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Please note that while an effort is made to provide an accurate transcription, errors and omissions may be present. No part of this transcription can be referenced or reproduced without permission.

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Michael Thornhill  0:00  
I had the same but much more powerful experience within the Ayahuasca ceremony that was something to describe which is beyond words, which is a knowing it's not a knowing with the brain, it's not a knowing with the mind. It's a knowing with the entire being that is unwavering. That is impossible to be not true because every cell in the being recognises that as the truth

Agi Keramidas  0:35  
you are listening to personal development mastery podcast, providing those with the desire to grow with the simple, consistent actions needed to master personal development and create the life they yearn for. I'm your host Agi Keramidas. A few years ago, I found myself unfulfilled and unmotivated like I had lost my sense of purpose and my life was merely passing by. Since then, I've been on a continuous journey of personal development that has transformed every aspect of my life. Now, my mission is to inspire you to grow, stand out and take action towards a purposeful and fulfilling life. In this podcast, I invite myself inside the minds of remarkable entrepreneurs, authors, thought leaders, spiritual teachers, people who share the journey milestones and learnings for you to be inspired to grow. In this episode, you will find practical action points that you can implement right now. So make sure you follow the podcast to get them as soon as they are released. In today's show, I'm delighted to be joined by my king Thornhill. Michael, you are a traditionally trained plant spirit healers, professional channel and advocate of trauma informed care. A big part of your own healing journey has been recovering from addiction, trauma and abuse. You now dedicate your life to helping others heal themselves. You are the co founder of Casa Galactica in Peru, where you help people activate their intuition, empower their healing and embody their truth. Michael, it's a real pleasure to speak with you today.

Michael Thornhill  2:23  
I thank you so much for having me. And yeah, an absolute pleasure to be here. So grateful. Thank you very much.

Agi Keramidas  2:31  
It's it's the conversations that I enjoy really, really much of having my cleanse. There are many things I want to ask about the traditionally trained plant spirit healer, before we go there, I would like to go a little bit further back and get some background from you and maybe that own healing journey that led to that. But if you could just take us back before all that what was happening with Michael go towards the maybe the situation that three get the transformation?

Michael Thornhill  3:14  
Yes, I guess the trigger for transformation was incarnating. On Earth. I think that's the first one I could say. But if we want to break that down a little bit more. I was I was heavily addicted to a lot of different drugs. I was partying a lot. I was DJing a lot. I was living in the UK. And sometimes I feel like the culture in the UK lends itself quite well to addiction and drinking and alcohol. But I think I was taking that to quite an extreme level. Yet I was very I would what you might call a successful addict. I was doing very well in business in headhunting and recruitment and energy headhunting and also then had my own company for renewable energy headhunting where we were giving some money to charity. We were we were doing renewable energy work. And it was it was more aligned than the work I was doing previously. But I still find myself very heavily addicted to drugs to work, to money to sex to whatever it may be. And for me, the catalyst I think, really well. A few different catalysts. One is the catalyst of then having your own company and then still being depressed when you think well, if I just have my own company, and if I just don't have to do what anyone else says, and then it for a little while, it was okay. But then, after that, it still was still there. And the addictions were definitely there. And I guess with more time, space and money, that also means that the limitation for the financial limitation for addictions is also not there. So I was definitely down spiralling in that sense. But my mother who had been who had been ill my whole life, she passed away about six Six years ago. And at that point, that was really a catalytic moment for me to look death in the face, to really consider my life more. And I had an extra motivation, one might say, to heal from these addictions. So even though that I tried several times to reduce drinking, smoking drugs, to have periods of abstinence, it was always very short lived. But I got into meditation, I tried meditation, and I started working with an energy healer, who then told me about ayahuasca. And it was when I then had my first Ayahuasca ceremony, whilst I was living in Berlin, in Germany, I had a profound transformational experience that within this one weekend, I stopped drinking, smoking stopped drugs stopped all these different things, actually, even it was, it was just miraculous. In a way, that was very different. Because there was a, there was a substantial change where I didn't, I didn't crave it as much, it wasn't just like before, it was always like, Well, I'm just gonna not do it. So there was a, there was a fundamental change in my being that I didn't want that as much. And following that, the short version of the story is, I did another Ayahuasca journey very shortly afterwards, week or so. And then after that, I realised that I needed to integrate my experiences. And I took a month trip to India to learn Reiki, but I ended up staying there travelling, I ended up going into Nepal and India and learning yoga, and staying there surrounding myself with different spiritual practices that were really awakening me into this new life that was there because I was very closed down non spiritual, non religious, very logical chemistry degree medicinal chemistry degree from Manchester University. And this whole new world was illogical in my mind at the time, and I then had a trip to Peru booked to go into a shamanic initiation course, where I went into the jungle for three months to work more with Ayahuasca to go deeper into my own healing process, and also to learn how to facilitate ceremony and ultimately how to lead ceremony. But I ended up staying here after that and got an apprenticeship, working studying with indigenous shamans, facilitating at a retreat centre, and continuing to go through my own process of healing and evolution, which was going to even deeper levels of the core of addictions, which the first ceremony I recognised was a lack of unconditional love. And then over the past six years or so has been uncovering in healing from violent sexual ritual abuse that was completely repressed, completely unconscious, and was a large cause for the depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies and ideation that I had no explanation for. So before I had no explanation for why I was addicted to things, and was just told that I was an addict and told that I was a bad person, which continued to compound the limiting beliefs which are already present within my being. And then through this healing with plant medicines, I've been able to uncover the root cause of addiction, the abuse, the suffering, the trauma, and then gone through a process of healing that and stepping into service to help others heal and evolve as well. And it was whilst I was in the jungle that I met my wife, Jamie, who's from Oklahoma in the States, and incredible healer, intuitive, medium, and all around awesome human. And together, we founded Castle Galactica, because we found that there was a lack of trauma informed care, or lack of safety and integrity, and many ways that people work with medicine. So we've really created a hub for trauma informed healing practices in care, with a multi dimensional nature with plant medicines, embedded with unconditional love, and imbued with empowerment teachings to help everyone remember that they're their own healer. And all this work that people come and do with us, is really an activation for people to come home to the truth of who they are. And that can be then shared in their own life and whatever way their souls blueprint may be.

Agi Keramidas  9:22  
Thank you. And I want before we carry on with this, I want to go back a little bit with because something that intrigued me very much so when you said that you went to Berlin and you had that miraculous experience of your first Ayahuasca ceremony. What my question is, because you said that earlier on you, you didn't have any spiritual calling or anything like that. That's what I understood it. So what kind of transformation and maybe I know that it's not easy to describe in words, many times but What kind of transformation can happen in one weekend or in one event that can turn someone in that case, in this case you into completely changing their path? Is there something that you can describe about that experience that really changed the way that you were you live your life really,

Michael Thornhill  10:24  
absolutely are describing our subscriber thinking two forms. Firstly, I'll describe at least one way, in this in this first weekend retreat, I was feeling the contact with my mother's spirit. And I experienced this in an energy healing session. And it was tangible, it was real. And it didn't make sense to me in this energy healing session. And I didn't know and I tried to rationalise this, that perhaps I was going crazy, or was finding some way to deal with the grief of loss of my mother, and that I was making things up. And then I, I had the same but much more powerful experience within the Ayahuasca ceremony that was something to describe, which is beyond words, which is a knowing it's not a knowing with the brain, it's not a knowing with the mind, it's a knowing with the entire being that is unwavering. That is impossible to be not true, because every cell in the being recognises that as the truth. And that I had never had that experience before. I also in that moment, recognised and realised that due to the illness of my mother, as partial of that, and to what I didn't recognise as trauma, I didn't uncover that too, later on. But for whatever reason, this lack this whole this void of unconditional love, that I wasn't, I wasn't aware of what unconditional love was, I could see that the love experience in my life was very much conditional. And I went back to the experience of being born in this lifetime. And experiencing the unconditional love of my family as I was, as I was kind of born, and then laid on my mother's chest. And the family, for that moment, felt unconditional love and happiness. And then I also saw that very quickly, as kind of life takes hold, and having a family and all of the trauma that arises through being human, quite quickly tainted that. And that wasn't accessible to me, and it definitely wasn't accessible in my conscious memory. So I could see that the synthetic addictions that I was chasing was was I was actually looking for unconditional love. And simultaneously having the recognition that I am unconditional love, and that unconditional love is available to me that it's never left. So there in that moment, I realised that what I was looking for, was already here. So that, and that's not someone telling me that that's not a therapist saying, Well, you know, you're addicted to this, because of this, this and this, go away and think about that this was just an absolutely deep knowing experience. You know, and I've worked with therapists before and after ayahuasca and that's nothing against therapy. It's a very, very powerful practice. But this is just an experience that was taken straight to the core of that, and I had not, didn't have any spiritual inclination, didn't have any recognition of what this and it was this undeniable experience that once you see that, once you know that you can't go back. So and then simultaneously, in the next part, I had an experience where I found myself going out into the cosmos, and having communication contact with these different energetic beings that were showing me again, experientially showing me through feeling somatically, very deep, like awakening of the cells of the body, every time that you drink, every time that you smoke, every time that you that you you go and follow through these addictions, you are going away from your life path. This is not your life path, you're distracting away from your life path. And then I could see that the institutions that I would I, you know, grown up in, and that had believed and, you know, working in the rat race working in very capitalistic companies, and working all these different things, I could see that that was also a lie. And that wasn't that wasn't part of my truth, my truth, because it could be someone else's truth. That's not to say that it's right or wrong. But I could see for me that this was just an illusion, on top of illusion on top of lie on top of what might call mind control to try and get you to continue to turn that wheel of the capitalistic wheel in that way. And I could see this again, experientially and bear in mind, I just started my own company and we were successful. We were making a lot of money and and it was a good company. It was it wasn't it wasn't there wasn't necessarily bad. We were doing good things. We were doing good work. And then in that moment, I could see that that wasn't that wasn't What I was here to do, and I kind of came back down to earth purged. And then again, I knew I can't go back, I can't go back, I can't unknow what I've what's just awakened. So that was when I decided that I should go to India, because I need some time to integrate this. And, you know, through deep, deep processes and continued and, you know, not necessarily easy decisions continue to follow that awakening that seed of awakening. And it wasn't until, you know, many years later that I could really see what occurred in the IRS ceremony, or is actually really, really aligned in terms of what my life would be, because I never thought that I'd be here, owning a retreat centre, running a retreat centre, being married to my wife, and dedicating our life to helping others. That was not anything within my field of awareness. So when that arose to me, it was confusing.

Michael Thornhill  16:05  
But there was something with inside me that I would say, continued to fuel that fire, there was a curiosity there was that deep knowing there was something that was so true about that experience, that even though that there were so many thoughts, limiting beliefs, doubts, and all those things, they were not enough to douse the fire of awakening, they were not enough to put that out. But there was a choice. At any point in that moment in time, I could have chose to ignore that. But that was not what I chose.

Agi Keramidas  16:43  
I had this is a truly fascinating story. And it fascinates me very much how complete like 180 degrees or some are somewhere around that, that angle, the U. One contains this path. Because and you you mentioned that I had goosebumps at some point, when you were saying it was you said something about the unwavering knowing with with the entire being, it was not just the intellectual or even bodily, no, and it was all of you that realised the truth. And once you see that, you can't go back. So I think what you said that you, you, it was the spirit difficult to ignore once you see the truth. And there was another thing, and I'm just reiterating now some things that really made the strong point when when you were speaking, what you said about the addiction that you said that every time you will drink or smoke, every every single one of those occasions was taking you and you saw that clearly it was taking you I think you said away from your life's path, it was these kinds of description. So thank you, that's a truly fascinating both story and there are probably 100 things now that I could ask out of that, but I will go back and discuss you mentioned already healing evolution, you mentioned this words, and I wanted to go into that a little bit the healing the evolution and the plant medicines and how they are combined. So maybe we can take take them one by one. And healing is the first thing that I want to ask about. And in particular, you know, apart from the, the level of physical healing, which everyone is familiar with, there are some let's say different levels or aspects of healing for for the lack of of a more of a better word of that show. Can you tell me the role of actually, if you can describe to me I don't want to ask two questions at the same time. Just let's start with one describe to me, How does healing How do you explain healing or how do you describe healing in in your, in your world? What what is healing? I hope my question is clear.

Michael Thornhill  19:29  
Yes. That healing in its purest form, in my experience, is the recognition of oneself as the one infinite Creator. And the recognition that reconnection to source the real awakening to the infinite self to the true self to the unconditional self to the one that was never born that that one that never dies, and that awakening to that, in its purest form is healing. Now, there are many different, what might you might call distortions from that level of purity, and different kinds of steps along the way, which are also very valuable. Just like you know, you can go, you can go to a doctor, and you can have a knee operation. And that is that is healing. But on some level, on some level, there's an experience that if you've had a painful knee experience, experience, and you have that physical healing, but I'd also argue there's an emotional context to that, that you'll be so grateful to a doctor that Wow, I'm so grateful that that doctor was able to study I'm so grateful that the technology exists, I'm so grateful that we're actually able, this is a this is a miracle, I wasn't able to walk on my knee, and now I'm able to walk again, is that not the Infinite Creator expressing itself through human form, therefore being a reflection to you of the magic of the infinite truth of reality. So we can break that down in different parts. But when we bring that to plant medicines, what plant medicines, as I've kind of described, just kind of very, very small fraction of my experience of working with plant medicines, what plant medicines give you they give you the experience of that direct connection to oneness, God, creator creation, the universe. However, whatever filters that you might have, whether that be a religious filter, or a spiritual filter, or even a scientific filter, whatever it may be, they give you access, direct access, that awakening of the entire being that I've described, that is a deep knowing that is not that is someone telling you something, it's giving you a direct experience, and through direct experience, that is healing, that is awakening, that is truth, truth that cannot be told, it can be invited, and you can experience it directly. And that's what plant medicines are very, very powerful with. And just to stay on the top context of healing. We work with ayahuasca and our 10 Day Ayahuasca healing and evolution retreats. But we also work with a plethora of different Amazonian and Andean plant medicines, which are designed to heal the mind body and the spirit and the emotional body. So we treat every aspect of the being with the recognition and the awareness that many physical conditions and ailments can be a product of stuck spiritual or emotional blockages that were not dealt with at the emotional and the spiritual level can then manifests into a physical illness, because it's not been dense enough to be recognised or to be aware of. So when we're dealing with that, at the root, cause the root cause might not actually be in the physical, the physical might be like the leaves of the tree, or what's arising. So if we're going to go into the route, it might go into karmic, it might go into personal, emotional, spiritual conditions, that might be a choice for incarnation experience, it might be karmic, or it might be abuse, or it might be repressed memories, or it might be a whole plethora of different things. But whatever it is, the plants work intelligently to help heal that at the root cause. So I'm just gonna pause that because I feel like he might have another comment or a question that might have been stirred

Agi Keramidas  23:31  
up? Quite quite a few actually. But I will repeat, in my own words, something you said that it was in a way that the answer the direct answer to what I asked you about the levels are the aspects of healing and the physical healing. And you mentioned the stack emotional or spiritual energy show really meant that. And also, from my experience, the especially chronic diseases or things like that usually manifest as a result of something else, rather than just the body. I'm not going to even go into the traditional medicines approach that we are like, like, a machine or it's mechanical and biochemical and all we need to do is fix the chemistry of the body or the physics of it. And there was another thing that you said about plant medicine and I think it was mainly about ayahuasca, you're speaking that it gives you direct access to the experience. I suppose for many people, that would be something that they really want or desire and they can, it can really change their life. Is it though this direct axis Experience, can it be problematic? Can it be dangerous for someone? And if so, what is that? Is there a line between, you know, going down that path and exploring and wanting to gain that direct access and and the word, the phrase spiritual awakening comes to mind which whatever, however it can be translated, but is that a fine line between, you know, going and doing and accessing this directly versus not? And going maybe in more slower traditional ways that don't have this kind of direct and immediate impact on one's life? Spiritual? You know, understanding, so say?

Michael Thornhill  26:00  
Yeah, absolutely. Great. Question it. So the first thing what we describe our work for Castle Galactica is that we're for dedicated in a truth seekers. So we describe that Jamie and I would describe ourselves as dedicated industry seekers. And that's how we, how we share our work with people. This is the particular way that we work with people for healing, and for evolution, a very specific intention here of dedicated in truth seekers for healing under what a healing and evolution. Now, when you describe the fine line for us, there's it's more of a clear, opaque line of safety, there isn't there's not we don't, we don't work with fine lives in terms of fine lines, in terms of safety margins, we work with very clear boundaries, if something is appropriate or not. It's just as if you were going for an operation, if you're going for a heart surgery, the doctor wouldn't say, Well, there's a fine line here. You know, you might die. So good luck. Unless Unless obviously, in that situation where there was no other option, that it's it's a life saving surgery, there's a risk. So very much here we have medical guidelines on our website, we have a very, very deep intake process, which begins with if even without, you know, signing up for anything, you can have a free 30 minute consultation to talk about your own personal conditions, your own situation with regards to health conditions, mental health conditions, we then have very detailed content about what medical contraindications are. And the risks are to help people make informed to form decisions. Once we have this very, very also, in depth health and wellness screening questionnaire that goes into, you know, 100%, confidential, trauma informed care practices for your mental, emotional, physical, spiritual health background. And then once we are able to review that, we have a one on one personalised consultation with you to go through that form. And to really dive into in depth to make sure that there's no contraindications with what you're going to be doing and what your situation is, at that point, we accept you on to the retreat. So for us, that's it's a very clear line if something safe, or something's unsafe. Now, where there may be kind of room for interpretation is, is is this experience for me? Is this okay, I'm safe. I'm physically mentally safe to do this is this experience for me? So the next thing is that the part of the work that we do that is not part of the work that is it is prevalent within iOS schoolwork or plant medicine work. It's it's more than minority is in depth, trauma informed care and safety practices. So

Agi Keramidas  28:50  
can you explain that for me? You said that a couple of times already, the trauma informed care. Can you explain that to me how you mean it?

Michael Thornhill  28:58  
Yes. So it's a very interesting perspective, which, which takes into account that everyone who comes to work with us may have experienced some level of trauma, while simultaneously seeing them, every every person who comes to us as whole and complete and having everything that they need. So it's a similar, it's not creating victim mentality. It's not necessarily giving someone special treatment in the sense of, oh, well, you've had this happen to you. So we need to treat you differently to someone else. We give everyone the same treatment and the level that you might have experienced some level of trauma. So we create an environment that if should some level of trauma arise for you during the retreat experience, you're held in a safe cushion that as that arises, it's able to be held to be loved to be healed. Whereas conversely, what may occur is if it's not in a trauma informed environment, you may have an experience of retraumatization so if something is I have a deep level of trauma, like in my case of abuse that has arisen that was completely unaware of. And in my case, I have experienced retraumatization. I know what it's like to be not looked after a well being in another ceremony experience outside of our own work early on in my path, and it's not necessary. So in the same situation, if you can think of you can think of if you were in a therapy session, for instance, and some of this level, if some of this trauma was arising, and the therapist was not trained, or aware of how to deal with something, if a repressed memory was come up in a therapy session, that could be really traumatising for the patient, because they might not feel heard, they might feel like they're left alone, they might feel like they're ridiculed or something like this. So every aspect of the work that we that we do is based in trauma informed care practices, that goes right through to everything about that what I've already shared about how much information that we give people on the front end, that everything is a choice, how much medicine that you drink, which activities that you participate in, that we collaborate with people as through the health and wellness screening, about creating a personalised treatment programme, which means that we work with different practices, modalities, and plant medicines that are specific for that person. You never have to participate in anything that you don't want to even if you've come and we've poured you the IRS and you go, actually, I decided that I don't want to drink this, that's absolutely fine. We don't, we don't make anyone do anything they don't want to. And this goes right through to you know, as we're helping people through into to ceremony, we're always talking to you, hey, we're going to we're going to help you we're going to help you to the to the bathroom. Is it okay, if I put my hand on your shoulder, we'll take you giving, you know with regards to touch and professional touch and, and Ethics and Conduct. So we really take this to what I would describe a very high ethical professional standard, which is actually really passionate for Jamie and I to create these practices care practices. Because Jamie and I both have experienced deep levels of PTSD, deep levels of trauma, deep levels of abuse. And we understand and we know what it's like to have those levels of PTSD come up into a situation, and what level of care and standard is required. Now, on the other side of things, you might not have any trauma come up. And you might be someone who's actually more on what you might call the evolution side of things, and is looking more for this experience and awareness of, of one reality, have direct conscious direct connection to that, or consciousness of all things and all this type of stuff. But these trauma informed care practices still hold you in that environment that create trust, that creates a level of integrity, of confidence. And we do everything we can to create this environment that enables you to be vulnerable, not because we tell you to be vulnerable, but because the nature of the work that we do, and the way that we do it invites that vulnerability invites the de armoring of the processes of whatever might have happened that caused you to close down and close that heart. We give you time, space and nourishment to be able to realise the truth of who you are in your own way, just like a flower opening on its own accord, one by one each leaf in the perfect timing.

Agi Keramidas  33:13  
You can force it, you can do anything to or you can do is nurture it or keep it safe. So thank you. That's a wonderful metaphor as well. You mentioned and you mentioned the phrase earlier dedicated inner truth seekers, can you give me a couple of characteristics of maybe the dedicated bit more than the other? I think the other is more clear to me the industrial seeker, but the dedicated one, what does it imply?

Michael Thornhill  33:49  
Yeah, well, I'll just talk firstly, about if you think about the process of what we've just said about our intake process. So you're going to have a full health and wellness screening questionnaire, and you're going to have a full intake process to go through that, that requires a level of someone who wants to actually say, right, I'm dedicated, I want to put the time and effort in to go through this process. And that, in itself, our intake process is also a filter on some level, because we want people who are ready to provide all that information, to invest in their own safety and invest in the safety of everyone else around them as well. But the recognition for dedicated now say this, this applies to plant medicines, but also all spiritual paths. And everyone who's listening is on a spiritual path. How many times have you had a chance or had the opportunity to say, I don't want to look at this. I don't want to go any further with this. I don't want to do this. So at that point that dedicated in a true seeker, it really implies that you are dedicating to discovering and embodying your inner truth and the recognition through that point. And through that there may be different challenges that may arise but the data Keishon is a dedication to yourself. It's a dedication to love. It's a dedication to the unconditional aspect and nature of your being that loves in spite of everything. All it can do is love. So, the dedicated in a true seeker, as we share it is something is an invitation for wherever you may be on your spiritual path. If you resonate with that saying, perhaps already there is a part of you, like I've already mentioned, the cells in your being, which are tingling, or as a recognition in our awakening, we dedicate our lives to helping dedicated inner truth seekers recognise the truth of who you are. So if that awakens anything in you, please feel free to contact us for a 30 minute consultation. And we can discuss more about your own dedication to inner truth.

Agi Keramidas  35:53  
That's fantastic. Thank you for this answer. There was something that's coming to mind that someone might think, you know, I would really like to experience this. However, the thought of then being drawn to leave everything behind and go to India and study yoga and meditation, there might not be in my my egos collection of, you know, thoughts and what might one not want to do? I'm not sure if there is a question coming out of this. I was just, you know, expressing something that that came to mind. Based on your experience? What is it that as a result of having come someone coming to the retreat and having the Iowa ceremonies, what are some maybe some common obviously, for its will be individual, but I suppose there are some common benefits if I can use that word of or things that change in one's life afterwards. So are there some that come to your mind as frequent ones?

Michael Thornhill  37:13  
Yes, absolutely. So firstly, just to say that drinking Ayahuasca doesn't mean you have to go through a whole process of going around the world and, and doing all of these things like like I did, that was that was for me my path. And what we also have, as part of our work at Castle Galactica is a full integration programme that helps you reintegrate into your life in a way that works for you. And ongoing support after the process. And that wasn't available to me when I when I started when I went and just did this one ceremony. So that is a big part of that. But in terms of if I could describe the time of common the common kind of levels of experience, which one might find is, you know, often people who come with physical illnesses and conditions, you know, we just had someone who was on a retreat, who had Lyme disease, and had a lot of physical symptoms and was on medication since 2013. And whilst on the retreat with us, after coming off the medications and having increased flare up, and after being on retreat with us, all the physical symptoms stopped, all the physical pain stopped. And that was the first time since 2013, that she'd been without, without pain medication, without these different medications. So So what one might describe is that there can be physical symptoms and conditions that one might have had that cease to exist. And so that can give a different level of quality of life for anyone who's lived with pain or any level of pain to live and experience life without that pain without needing medication can be very profound in itself. Some of the other the other common kind of experiences that one might have is that you might be in a situation that historically might have been very triggering for you. And then you can find yourself with someone saying something or doing something that would have been something that would have been like, Oh, God, I can't believe this person has said this, oh, my gosh, all of my buttons have been pressed all at once I got, I can't, I can't deal with this, what am I going to do, and then just someone does that again, after a treat. And you're just like, that was interesting. That doesn't affect me anymore, which is kind of like a signal of the deep, deep inner work that's arose. The other the other kind of the other kind of experiences that I can describe is, and this really comes along as well from the plant medicine but also the container that Jaime and I hold because of being multi dimensional healers, non dual teachers, empowerment teachers along the side of this is the recognition that these teachings can then be applied in one's life to help create more space for the truth of who you are to arise. So people often find themselves it's much more passion or desire for the things that they truly like, gravitate towards things that are more in alignment and and kind of move away from things that are less aligned for them. But this can also manifest as just experiencing more joy, peace, compassion, awareness. And a great catalyst as what we say that can often occur within a within an Ayahuasca retreat is that it can be a catalyst for healing and evolution and awakening that might have taken 10 years from practices of practising yoga, or doing therapy alone. So there is, I would say, a couple of different ways to look at this, this is a recognition of the the healing which has already occurred. So there's this change of the entire being, which might manifest as all those things I've just said more love, compassion, less pain, physical symptoms, illnesses, no longer occurring or manifesting in those ways. So there's a complete change. And then there's the trajectory, which you find yourself on, you've then change that trajectory. So then if you keep doing that in a work, if you keep practising that if you keep integrating the teachings, each of integrating those direct experiences, in five years, you can only imagine the different trajectory, which you found just like you change the train tracks, and that train has gone in a different direction for five years. And you can imagine where if you'd gone five years in a different train track, how substantial that difference can be. So for me, I'll use that as my own experience, this experience of when I drank ayahuasca for the first time in 2016. If I had not had that experience, where would I be, you know, I might have committed suicide, I might have died from a drug overdose, I don't know what would have happened. So to quantify that for the individual person, it's a very unique experience. But what we can really guarantee is that you'll go away with more of who you are, and less of what you're not. And what context that that comes into. It really depends on the individual. It does depend upon the dedication of the poetry seeker, and also one's own particular soul path, path and blueprint.

Agi Keramidas  41:57  
Thank you. That's a love your answer. Thank you very much, Michael. I'm going to ask you in a moment about, you know, how can people connect and find out about Casa Galactica before I do that, I wanted to ask you. Based on the conversation we have, is there any something actionable emerging that you can share with a listener? And let's assume here for a moment that the listener is an inner truth seeker, but probably not dedicated or maybe not established? Dedicated one? Let's say he's a que OC is curious inner truth seeker. So what's something actionable that one can do? Based on this conversation to, you know, take one next step towards that direction?

Michael Thornhill  42:52  
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'll share a few things. The first thing is, if you're curious, and you're curious entry seeker again, I just invite you to book a free consultation for us. And we can discuss more about that curiosity, provide you with more information that might help transition you from a curious in a true seeker to a dedicated in a true seeker. Because the doubt might be through lack of information through lack of education, so we can provide the answers to you that can help shift and transition you. The second thing is, with regards to where you are right now, is that everything that you seek is already here. So you can look for that whatever that next step for you might be to take you from a curious and a true seeker to act upon that curiosity. And whatever level might take you a little bit closer to becoming what we might describe as a dedicated entry seeker. And that can be in a myriad of different ways. But begin to investigate that curiosity. If you just allow that curiosity to be there, you might not take any action. So the invitation is to take action that feels appropriate for you. With regards to that, also, we have so much content and availability for people who are interested curious or dedicated in a tree seekers. And if you sign up to our newsletter, on our website at Castle galactica.com, then you'll get a five hour fundamentals of Healing Trauma workshop completely free. And within that there are a lots of actionable steps, lots of actionable steps that you could just take that workshop itself, and you can begin to implement that and that can also help transform someone's curiosity into perhaps what might what would describe more interested or dedicated in that way so we have a whole bunch of other stuff as well such as a beginner's guide book to strengthen your intuition as well. So that all comes with that. So but it's about actionable steps that one might take right now is and I think this is this is this is an interesting one that can ask is what is it about my experience in This reality that I am taking for granted as the truth that I'm not questioning, is there something is my experience is the lens which I see through my life. Is this my viewpoint of these my beliefs? Or is that just the possibility? Is there just the possibility that some of these beliefs that I have, the way that I see the world might actually be a product of my environment? They might actually be things that people have said to me, they might actually be other institutions, or other people or family members ideas? Is there a possibility that if I explore that, I might see through the illusion and have an experience of reality that is much more aligned. And these types of questions that might come from that curious imagery seeker, seeing through that lens, changing that lens, really wiping the lens of what we see, and just magnifying and purifying the truth of who we are. So that would be something as an exercise that I would begin to question.

Agi Keramidas  46:06  
Thank you. That's so wonderful. And I will put the links to your website and the show notes. I have also Michael, some quickfire questions, actually three of them to wrap this conversation up. And the first one I always ask is, What does personal development mean to you?

Michael Thornhill  46:30  
A personal develop for me means being brave, being brave, and, and continuing to heal, to continuing to evolve with the humble recognition that one does not know everything, and one can never know everything.

Agi Keramidas  46:50  
Thank you. And hypothetically, if you could go back in time and meet your 18 year old self, what's one piece of advice you would give him?

Michael Thornhill  47:02  
Probably say, Don't worry about doing all the drugs, have fun, you'll get over it, and you'll have a healthy life later on.

Agi Keramidas  47:19  
Enjoyed while it lasts. And based on the conversation we have we had today, is there one book in particular that you would recommend to the listener?

Michael Thornhill  47:32  
Yes, I would recommend for anyone who is looking for deeper understanding of reality of consciousness to look at that channelled book called Raw, which is our A, the Law of One. So raw, the law of one channel by colour rocker and some other people, as well. And that is a very deep exploration of consciousness, and will be a great next step also.

Agi Keramidas  48:06  
Michael, I want to thank you very much. This has been a truly intriguing, fascinating conversation. I want to wish you all the very best. This is very important. I believe what you're doing and I was telling you earlier before we started recording that, looking at your website made me realise how thorough and comprehensive one can be and you certainly are that show. Thank you very much again for the conversation. I wish you all the very best in your mission with empowering and healing and enlightening others. Any last parting words from you?

Michael Thornhill  48:53  
Know just just absolutely gratitude and thank you again Aggie for having this this beautiful conversation and you're very, very grateful. And to everyone. And yeah, invite you to check out our website. We also work with people online in a myriad of different ways of channelling sessions, trauma, healing sessions and courses, as well. So even if you're not feeling the call to come to Peru, please check out our website. And there are many different ways that we can assist you. And I think just the final reflection is that I would say to everyone is that there are many, there are many paths back home to the one. So choose the one that you enjoy, and choose the one that feels most resonant for you. Do the do the thing, which is difficult sometimes and ask for help. And whatever way that that might be. There's so many different resources available to us these days. You know, variety, varying from free, free experiences through to, you know, retreat experiences and beyond. But just invitation to ask for help and trust in your process of healing and evolution.

Agi Keramidas  50:03  
Thank you for listening and I hope you got great value from today's episode. And if you'd be so kind, please take a moment to leave me in Apple podcasts review sharing how personal development mastery has made a difference to the day and I will read the review in the podcast. Until next time, stand out don't fit in!

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