A Psychedelic Journey with James Eshleman

george grombacher 0:02
James Eshelman is a guide at the center of all directions. He’s helping people through transformational peak experiences and catalyzing growth, building meaning and helping people to lead more fulfilling lives. Welcome to the show, James.

James Eshleman 0:16
Thank you for having me.

george grombacher 0:17
Yeah, excited to have you on, tell us a little about your personal life more about your work and why you do what you do.

James Eshleman 0:27
Yeah, I think, you know, the work that I do in the world really stems from a lot of the disposition that I was really came into this life with. I’m very curious by nature, I’m very inquisitive. And I have always had a depth of understanding of my inner world and, and sort of the, the wellspring of life that bubbles up in me, and when I guess, around 2017, I found psychedelics for myself and my own healing. And it showed me a lot of doors that I could walk through. And as I walked through each door, I found more and more meaning and significance in, in who I am, and what I’m here to do in the world. And I just fell in love with with that, both for myself and then an intuitive ventually evolved into being a steward for other people, you know, guiding people through through doors of their own. And it’s, it’s the thing that gives me a lot of ways the most me helping people guiding people stewarding people through transitions, big and small transitions could be a transition to being transition of personality, a transition of job and career relationship. And I see this work with psychedelics largely, largely that it’s, it’s transitional work. And, and, and it’s just a lot of fun. And I think I think it ultimately is taking it to, to really the depths of the experiences that sort of working towards the ultimate transition of, of death, which I don’t think is not something necessarily to be afraid of, but to really learn that it’s actually a tool that we can embrace. That helps us move through life more fluidly.

george grombacher 2:44
I appreciate that. So in 2017, what were you looking for? How did you how did you come to psychedelics

James Eshleman 2:54
I was, at the time very depressed, I was working in finance. And it’s a world that sort of, lacked substance for me. I was disconnected from myself disconnected from what my purpose in the world was, felt like I was waking up every day, I’m doing the same thing over and over again, and sort of in the hamster wheel of life, right? And, and I knew that there was something more like there’s a deep knowing that I had something more to bring to the world. And in and I was standing up or sitting at my desk one day, and I guess, just in a moment of clarity. I had no intent to do this that morning. But I just walked into my manager’s office and quit. And I was thinking I’d get it two weeks notice and my manager said, Okay, pack your things, security’s gonna escort you out the door. And that was sort of, you know, the, the tip of the hat, the acknowledgement that I wasn’t meant to be there in a lot of ways, and, and that was a shedding of an identity that I really needed to let go of that my world was financed and that that’s where I belonged. And so as I let go of that identity, it made room for really a new identity to begin to form, which was not something that I knew at the time I didn’t know what that identity was, but but I knew I needed to follow the curiosity and follow the unknown, and travel, you know, into new and undefined space within myself and psychedelics really helped me do that.

george grombacher 4:55
And psychedelics, what is what is the medium, for lack of a better term How do you? How did you engage in it?

James Eshleman 5:06
Well, the classic psychedelic, I think we’re all really familiar with, particularly ever is psilocybin mushrooms. That was, that was a medicine that I had that was eventually led to, but I started with Iosco and it was a ceremonial uses very intentional ceremonial use. And within ceremonial use and intentional use of psychedelics, there’s a way in which these experiences can shed light on the deeper self, right, we have sort of our surface self or self that engages with the world. And then the deeper self, which is sort of the essential pieces of us and psychedelics. And Ayahuasca in particular, really is a great medicine for bringing us in contact with the deeper self. And I think the ultimate goal, and with these substances, and then to with life is to bring the deeper self and the self that engages with the world into closer and closer alignment. And the substances are really good at doing that.

george grombacher 6:14
So the initial experience was valuable enough to you profound enough to you to say, Okay, I need to pursue this further.

James Eshleman 6:28
Yeah, the first, the first ceremony wasn’t really, I went into, I think a lot of people go into their first psychedelic experience thinking that it’s going to solve all their problems, and change everything for them. And, and, and that was my disposition, too. And I went into it. And I had a beautiful experience that showed me some things. And, but in isolation, it didn’t solve all my problems, but it did start to change my life. And so I sat in sequential ceremonies. Really, that month was a setting to tomorrow, I was the ceremonies that month, and I started sitting regularly. And it was the regular engagement with this medicine, that I just, I really just had a hunger for the work that these, the Ayahuasca provided. And, and so I kept coming back. And it was, it was over the course of time, that I really started to, you know, chisel away at a lot of the conditioning that showed me the depth and beauty of life.

george grombacher 7:47
So, is it possible to articulate this this experience? Is it all the senses? Is it your thinking, your visuals?

James Eshleman 8:00
It’s so extrasensory, you know, in so many ways, I mean, it does engage the felt the feeling body and the thinking body and the emotional body. And there’s a big visual component. And, and, and so, it’s sort of has this way of expanding out the perspective in all ways, right, in all sensory ways. That allows people to begin to see outside of themselves, right, allow me to see outside of myself where so much of my focus was on was on me, the ego me the identity be who I was and what I was doing in the world and, and started to shift the alignment towards the deeper self through the sensory experience.

george grombacher 8:59
Do you think that that you mentioned that the Ayahuasca ceremony was intentional? Do you think that you have to go into this with that sense of intention or to simply consuming the psilocybin mushrooms or Ayahuasca? Is that going to give me the experience?

James Eshleman 9:22
I, I see the intention, certainly intention setting process I think is actually really important. You don’t always get what your intention is right out of the ceremony. But it’s the practice of, you know, contemplating yourself and contemplating your life and contemplating your intention deeply. That brings you into contact with something that’s really pure, right. It’s usually you know, you really dial into it, it’s set. I think the common thread is often that people are see can get deeper level of connection with something. And, and when you allow yourself to set the intention that you’re really want a deeper connection with something and go through the practice to of defining what that means for you, it can bring you into a place of reverence and appreciation for one all that you have, and to all that you can invite in to life. And I think those are really important considerations. Because they offer, they really helped set sort of the guardrail of the experience, you know, to say that this is not just something that I’m doing recreationally or doing, you know, just for fun, because, you know, I mean, these, they can be really fun experiences, they can also be really difficult experiences. And if you’ve gone through the process of defining, you know, a little bit more, in a little bit more depth about what you truly want out of life, it gives you the fodder for the fire to continue to move forward in the experience, especially if it gets difficult.

george grombacher 11:11
So when you say it gets difficult, tell me more about that.

James Eshleman 11:15
Yeah. Well, we’ve got I think it’s difficult to face emotions, no, it’s difficult to face condition after names, is difficult to face, our fears. Right. And, and these medicines really invite us to confront the things that we haven’t ever confronted in our life. And, but it’s also really beautiful, right and inspiring, and helps us develop courage and trust, in who we are so much like life itself has a lot of difficulties to it, you know, whether it’s the psycho emotional stress that we experience throughout life, right? Or the the, it can be difficult to to be living from a place of fear and misalignment, as well. sort of subtle difficulty. And so these medicines help us confront what is what is sort of holding us back in life. And it’s not always fun, but it’s certainly worth it.

george grombacher 12:37
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how our ability to rationalize is potentially a superpower, but more of a weapon of mass destruction in our lives, because I can justify just about anything I can be as myself and just about anything fair to say that an experience like this sort of strips that away and shows you what’s really going on.

James Eshleman 12:57
Yeah, certainly, you know, the mental structures that we put into place to help justify, you know, our ways of being in the world really become the, they are experienced as fragile in the psychedelic states. And I think that’s an important piece of it. Right, because what, what we’re ultimately trying to lead to is the part of us that that’s durable. That’s that’s sort of everlasting, which is the deeper parts of ourselves, you know, the, the light, right, or some might say, the soul, the spirit, it’s the essential piece of us. And so those structures can really, you know, break apart, and then they’re not really something that we can round to those experiences, because they’re often intense enough to shatter the foundation of anything that isn’t real and authentic in us. And it’s, it’s through the destruction of, you know, I say destruction, these are intense terms, but through the dissolution, I should say, of of those structures, the, we we orient more towards the the clarity more towards the honesty, more towards the truth. And, and then that becomes something that we can really build an honest a real honest foundation upon, you know, and that helps us move through life more easily more fluidly.

george grombacher 14:44
I, certainly, I certainly agree that the more truth that we can be living in that’s that’s going to make life better and easier. What am I what? And maybe this is unanswerable or unknowable, what am I really x assessing, am I just accessing different parts of myself? Am I connecting with a universal energy of some kind?

James Eshleman 15:10
Yeah, you know, all the above and, and you know, some might say God, source of iron, you whatever, you know that word is for you, it brings us into connection, that something outside of ourselves say that sort of shatters the silos that we keep around ourselves keep ourselves safe, but also keep ourselves separate. And, and so when those silos, disintegrate, it’s a lot easier to see that we’re a part of a larger hole. Right. And, and it’s a beautiful thing, because it, it, it allows us to embrace our own insignificance, you know, that, that our lives, you know, have have an insignificant to them. And that there’s, there’s so much going on here. I mean, just in the scope of what life provides. Life has been happening here for billions of years. And we’re here for just 100 If we’re lucky. And in that, there’s, there’s a real authentic significance that we’re just here to play and to experience, love and connection, it sort of allows you to reprioritize the things that truly matter. And I think that’s a really beautiful invitation of this medicine is to drop the things that we think are important, and begin to open up to the things that truly matter.

george grombacher 17:01
Yeah, that is a that is a compelling, compelling promise right there. I think that that’s awesome. All right. So somebody says, I’m very interested in exploring this further, what is that? Walk me through, walk me through the process.

James Eshleman 17:19
So somebody comes to me, people come to me often and lead them through sort of consultation sorts, which is a screening process to determine if it’s, you know, a good fit. And, you know, that could mean a number of things to be psycho emotional disposition, you know, are you in crisis, or is there you know, some basis of groundedness in your life, and, and then evaluating, and understanding the contours and aspects of somebody’s intention, what’s really calling somebody to this space, you know, what’s calling somebody to work with these medicines. And, and then it’s a dialogue and a conversation about, about life, and about what people want out of life. And, and then from there, it’s, you know, once we’ve kind of developed that sense of readiness, then we just jump right into the process, and I lead people through preparation. So I’ll take them through. A, it’s akin to therapy in some ways, but I’m not a therapist, it’s more of a coaching and guiding container, where I’ll help them really define the nuance of their intention to get a better understanding of what’s driving them both to live the way that they’re living now, and what’s driving them to want to live in a new, more refined, more open and available way. And then that leads into the facilitated experience. And and then through the facilitated experience, after afterward, you get a lot of insights from these journeys. And oftentimes, they’re so big and so expansive, that it’s difficult for us to comprehend them on our own. So the beauty of having a guide is that a guide can help to call out the parts of the experience that we might be taking for granted that we might miss as meaningful because we then from our own sort of programming and conditioning, and then that’s where the integration comes in is helping to make meaning of the experience. What just happened? How does this impact me? How do I make and changes in my life. What do those changes even need to be? Right and, and, and so the integration and in my mind that preparation and integration is oftentimes more important than the facilitated experience itself. Because there’s so much that can be distilled through a intentional and conscious practice of being in relationship with the thing that we are seeking, and how we can apply the thing that we are seeking into our life.

george grombacher 20:38
James, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you and how can they go on this journey with you?

James Eshleman 20:46
You can find me at this center of all directions.com. I do. Psychedelic guiding transformational coach, I lead people through a rich transitions in their life. I also do men’s work and have a number of offerings available. I am also on Instagram at James Eshelman. Yeah.

george grombacher 21:11
Beautiful. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show James your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas. James is the center of all directions or center of all directions.com

James Eshleman 21:24
center of all directions.com Perfect, go

george grombacher 21:27
there. Check it out, find him on Instagram. I’ll link all those in the notes of the show. Thanks again, James. Thank you. Till next time, remember, do your part by doing your best

george grombacher 16:00
So if I want my iPhone, and my Tesla and my Bitcoin to work, we need to get the metal out of the ground.

Pierre Leveille 16:07
Absolutely. Without it, we cannot do it.

george grombacher 16:13
Why? Why is there a Why has production been going down.

Pierre Leveille 16:21
Because the large mines that are producing most of the copper in the world, the grades are going down slowly they’re going there, they’re arriving near the end of life. So and of life of mines in general means less production. And in the past, at least 15 years, the exploration expenditure for copper were pretty low, because the price of copper was low. And when the price is low, companies are tending to not invest more so much in exploration, which is what we see today. It’s it’s, it’s not the way to look at it. Because nobody 15 years ago was able to predict that there would be a so massive shortage, or it’s so massive demand coming. But in the past five years, or let’s say since the since 10 years, we have seen that more and more coming. And then the by the time you react start exploring and there’s more money than then ever that is putting in put it in expression at the moment for copper at least. And what we see is that the it takes time, it could take up to 2025 years between the time you find a deposit that it gets in production. So but but the year the time is counted. So it’s it’s very important to so you will see company reopening old mines, what it will push also, which is not bad, it will force to two, it will force to find a it will force to find ways of recalibrating customer, you know the metals, that will be more and more important.

george grombacher 18:07
So finding, okay, so for lack of a better term recycling metals that are just sitting around somewhere extremely important. Yeah. And then going and going back to historic minds that maybe for lack of technology, or just lack of will or reasons, but maybe now because there’s such a demand, there’s an appetite to go back to those.

Pierre Leveille 18:33
Yes, but there will be a lot of failures into that for many reasons. But the ones that will be in that will resume mining it’s just going to be a short term temporary solution. No it’s it’s not going to be you need to find deposit that will that will operate 50 years you know at least it’s 25 to 50 years at least and an old mind that you do in production in general it’s less than 10 years.

george grombacher 19:03
Got it. Oh there we go. Up here. People are ready for your difference making tip What do you have for them

Pierre Leveille 19:14
You mean an investment or

george grombacher 19:17
whatever you’re into, you’ve got so much life experience with raising a family and doing business all over the world and having your kids go to school in Africa so a tip on copper or whatever you’re into.

Pierre Leveille 19:34
But there’s two things I like to see and I was telling my children many times and I always said you know don’t focus on what will bring you specifically money don’t think of Getting Rich. Think of doing what you what you like, what you feel your your your your your, you know you have been born to do so use your most you skills, do what you like, do what you wet well, and good things will happen to you. And I can see them grow in their life. And I can tell you that this is what happens. And sometimes you have setback like I had recently. But if we do things properly, if we do things that we like, and we liked that project, we were very passionate about that project, not only me, all my team, and if we do things properly, if we do things correctly, good things will happen. And we will probably get the project back had to go forward or we will find another big project that will be the launch of a new era. So that’s my most important tip in life. Do what you like, do it with your best scale and do it well and good things will happen.

george grombacher 20:49
Pierre Leveille 21:03
Thank you. I was happy to be with you to today.

george grombacher 21:06
Damn, tell us the websites and where where people can connect and find you.

Pierre Leveille 21:13
The it’s Deep South resources.com. So pretty simple.

george grombacher 21:18
Perfect. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show up here your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciate good ideas, go to deep south resources, calm and learn all about what they’re working on and track their progress.

Pierre Leveille 21:32
Thanks. Thanks, have a nice day.

george grombacher 21:36
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.