#76: Beyond the Veil: Exploring Inner Realms | Constantin Morun

I could literally see my mother pregnant with me like in third person. I saw myself in the crib every, you know, grandparents and friends and family watching and being excited. So I got to see the various stages of me as a young boy, and then it took me to the other bigger vision

All right. Welcome to the new age, human podcast. I'm your host, Jon Astacio. And today we're talking with my friend Constantine. Marun who is a holistic life empowerment, mentor and coach. Now he wasn't always in this field. He actually was doing something completely different and you'll find out. But what we do talk about is, his transformational ayahuasca experience that changed everything. So stay tuned. Now, if you want to support the show, feel free to go to newagehuman. com and on the upper right, hit that contact button. I'm looking for some feedback. What do you like? What do you not like? And what type of content would you like to see more of in the future? With that said, let's get to the show. Constantine Maroon, thank you for coming onto the show. How's it going, man?

Hey, John, it's such a pleasure to be here with you. Thank you for having me on. It's going great. I mean, it's Monday. We're having a beautiful conversation ahead of scheduling this. So yeah, I'm excited. Let's, let's dive right in.

Yeah, yeah, let's jump right in. I definitely want to go into how everything started for you. Like what you're doing before and then what triggered you into your journey now So go ahead brother. I want to hear your story, man.

Yeah, I'll, I'll summarize it because we've been talking for hours. I've had an interesting journey so far and uh, in, well, last year I turned 40, right? So I've been around for a few decades, but I was born in Eastern Europe. In Romania during the communist time and it was a time of scarcity and fear and I grew up in that environment for Seven years before the revolution happened and then another ten years after that as the country was in transition And I didn't really realize what that meant for my life until much later But those my those my upbringing right in the Eastern Bloc so different mentalities different mindsets different ways to interact with people different ways to be with yourself as in like you couldn't really be who you Felt you could be like in my case. I knew that I was someone that was very emotional. I knew there was someone that was very into arts, but I couldn't necessarily be that because everyone that I interacted with from my caretakers or my grandparents, my parents, my teachers to everyone else was like, no boys, boys don't cry. Boys don't paint boys, boys don't do a, b and c. And I'm like, okay, so what the boys do science, right? Go to school, go to math or hard labor, right, which Respectable as well, but my parents being engineers They pushed me down the path of schooling which I'm of course very grateful for because it led To a pretty good life meaning that at around 17 My parents had to move to Canada to give us a better life And they did right so my brother and I and them moved to Canada, and that's where I finished my High school education and then I went on to university and I have a mathematics degree with a background in engineering and computer science and I've been in the tech world pretty much most of my life. Now throughout all of that I've had a lot of entrepreneurial adventures because I was big into gaming and at one point I was a professional poker player for a while and coach

nice

right and I did many many different things in my life. But it wasn't until about, I would say, two years ago where things took a turn for the better in all aspects of life. Now, I had a successful career up to this point. I mean, I work for Microsoft to this day. But even two years ago, I was working at Microsoft, was being impactful in what I did, enabling people to work from home, especially during the pandemic. But I came out of it feeling very burnt out. Very depressed, very anxious, because there was something missing, and I couldn't actually figure out what that missing piece was. Now, it's important to note, we talk about spiritual topics here, right, so I grew up religious, but not to any extreme, like we'd go to church every now and then, but I never actually believed in that system, and I kind of walked away from it when I was 17, 18, when we moved to Canada, and I was agnostic most of my 20s and early 30s, and this is relevant because what happens next is really interesting because two years ago I went to Ecuador. So when I was coming out of the pandemic, like most people, right, feeling a bit lower, feeling like, okay, what's the direction of my life? What's happening? I had this calling of mother ayahuasca, and I know you're familiar with it. And for those that I'm not yet, it's a plant medicine out of the jungles of the Amazon. And people talk about hearing the call of mother ayahuasca to to come seat with this plant medicine.

hmm. Yeah, what was that calling? Like was it like a voice? Was it like you saw something on social media? I'm very curious.

For me, it was just annoying. Literally, one morning I wake up and I'm like,

I Need to get high

Why it's based on my mind, right? And of course, it's important to note a couple of things. A decade prior, when I was doing the poker coaching, one of my clients at the time, he was really big into all these alternative types of healing. And he was telling me about ayahuasca and silent retreats and a few other things. And I was like, I'll never do that, right? It's like, he was excited. I'm like, man, that's cool. You do that. I will never touch that, right? And here I am a decade later. Hearing this calling and really it started in 2021 to be honest, but then it was still lockdowns, not for Canadians. This was very hard to get out of the country. And the way the calling was essentially is annoying. So I wake up. I'm like, huh, that's interesting. I do nothing with it for a few days, maybe a few weeks. And then it gets louder and louder, louder, right? I'll have dreams about that. I'll have. You know, I'll see the meditation and you come up and then I said, you know what, I need to look into this now. Another thing that's important to notice that I've never actually been allowing myself to be out of control, meaning that I've never been drunk, never done drugs. So for me to do something like this was very outside of my safe zone. So to speak,

you never got drunk

exactly. I've never got, well,

is great. Yeah.

yeah, there's another, I mean, not because I, I don't like drinking. I mean, I'll enjoy a glass or two, but as I grew up, I was always the older person in my friend's group. So either the DD or the designated driver, or I just saw how they would get drunk and how, um, how terrible it was. And I was like, I don't want to do that. And, you know, mixing the fact that I got married very young, I wasn't necessarily at many parties. So, you know, circumstances led to such a way that I never actually got into it. So for me to I want to do something like this. People in my life were like, that's odd. You don't do any of this stuff, why would you want to go there? And, anyway, long story short, I went to Ecuador for three weeks, from which twelve days were in this retreat, what I said with plant medicine, ayahuasca, and Saint Pedro, which is a different type of medicine from a cactus, amazing as well, but way different. And it really transformed my life. Not only did I make amazing friendships with the people I got to bond with, which were a lot, ten plus people, but also seeing the transformation of others with my own eyes. And keep in mind, I went there as a skeptic, but with an open mind, because of my science background. I was like, how can this be? And I would see people that, one of my dear friends, for example, she could barely walk at the beginning of the journey. She Had come out of 10 days in the ICU with COVID not long before right where she almost died three times and then seven days later after a couple of ceremonies, she's running and playing soccer with us. And this is a 50 year old lady.

wow.

They can barely walk day one and we are 10, 000 feet up in the mountains, right? We're like even walking a bit uphill takes your breath. So to see transformation and there was not just that's one great example that's close to my heart that she's a dear friend of mine, but there were so many what I'm seeing people transform from day one. To like day 5, day 7, day 12. And that's pretty much what started my journey. I guess maybe we'll stop there until we go to the last two years because those have been something else.

Well, so I want to just address the fact that you had acknowledged when you were younger, right? You were very creative. And that was just, they just put a pause to that. And then, um, You went hardcore, left brained, logic driven, just career, engineer, electronics, Microsoft, and then that burnt out. And it does sound like the burning out was because you weren't aligned with yourself, right?

Correct, yes.

And then, um, as you were burnt and crispy, you, uh, had a calling for An awakening or something that's going to help you out a trajectory change, right? So I'm actually curious. Um, uh, and this is not the first time I'm hearing a story. It's that similar where you get burnt out and then you hear a calling. So it's very interesting. Um, but see, let's get into that trip. What did you, do you mind sharing what you experienced on your first ayahuasca trip?

No, I love to share. And yes, I have one thing before we jump into the sharing piece. You touched on something so important. I wasn't allowing my heart and for those that are seeing this as opposed to just listening, there's a sign right above here where I'm pointing, which says, follow your heart and looking back, right? Because now I have 2020 and vision being able to look back on my life. That was a huge catalyst aligning myself with what's in my heart. And you also mentioned the idea of being artistic. Here's the funny thing. I, because I was suppressed as much as I was as a young child, which I didn't necessarily have memories of, that I could bring up whenever I wanted, I didn't actually think I was creative. Because I, I couldn't draw, I couldn't sing, I couldn't play a music instrument, so I thought, you know, I'm not creative. Of course. As I now look back on my life and I had a chance to work with some beautiful mentors and look at what I do, I'm like, yeah, I'm creative. I mean, I've been all my life and everything I've done, including now my podcast and everything else I do. And yeah, I picked up drawing and all these other beautiful things. Now to answer your main question, the journey. So the first time I said with ayahuasca was day two of my retreat. And the reason I mentioned day two there is because I was sober for the first day and a half and what I witnessed there and the interaction I had with people had me Wondering what was going on because see I got there Knowing no one, right? And I remember the first thing I get in there. I I I check in To my room and this is very rustic because you're in the mountains. You're close to the jungle, right? So it's a beautiful place, but very rustic. I got to my room. No problem. Come back Sit down at the table to just message people home because they had Wi Fi around the common area and I hear two people Talking Romanian in the background. I'm like really in Ecuador two people talking Romanian So I turned to them two girls who became really good friends now Romanian but here's the funny part. One of them was from the US one of them was living in the US Origins from Romania. I'm from Canada and the other one Even though Romania as well lives in Greece, at the time. Right, so all of this brought us together. It was really interesting. But then as the day progressed, things got more interesting. More people came in, and as they were coming in, I had the feeling that I knew a lot of them from somewhere. I'm not sure if you've ever walked into a room where you're like, Huh, I know that person from somewhere, but I can't remember where from. You might have never met these people in my life, not even once. At least in this life, the way I see it. And then I met people from Amazon, from Google, and another peer of mine from Microsoft that I hadn't met before, and since then we became very close friends. And I'm like, this is really interesting. And then I sat down with one of the shamans, because before you go into medicine, you sit down with one of the traditional shamans to do kind of like a bit of a pre cleanse and set intentions and whatnot. And that blew me away, because I remember going in with him, and he was asking me why I was there. And I had this. I had like three reasons why I was there, but the main one that I would tell people because I didn't want to be, I didn't want to be judged, was very superficial, like, I'm here to learn more about myself, and that's pretty much it, right? And the shaman looks at me and he's like, no, but why are you here? And I'm like, okay, this is cool. That's how it started. So then I got deeper, right? Emotions overwhelmed me. Um, you know, I cried, you know, had a beautiful conversation. He pulled some tarot cards, which I've never actually had tarot cards pulled for me. And looking back, of course, I was like, Wow, that's fairly accurate. That's interesting. How does that work? So anyway, long story short, go to the medicine. I, you get a lot of instructions. So I'm someone that did a lot of research going in. So I know that the intentions you set are actually very powerful. And you can ask the plant medicine. It doesn't matter if it's ayahuasca, psilocybin, psilocybin, psilocybin, psilocybin, psilocybin. Or Saint Peter or anything else, you actually can put intentions where it's like, okay, be gentle with me or do your best or whatever the case might be. And I was actually scared. I'll be honest. So I was like, okay.

be two, man.

Yeah. And I said, you know, be gentle with me. And she was. And all I could remember. It was like, okay, yeah, just say, be gentle, be gentle. So you put your intentions. The way the ceremony goes is that it's split up in multiple parts. So the first part is all around gratitude to be able to sit with the medicine and you get tobacco, which kind of clears up. That's also a sacred medicine for them. And then you put your intentions in the fire before you take the medicine. And that's when I, you know, I said, be gentle and all my other intentions that I came there for. And the medicine takes about half an hour to an hour to kick in. And it's interesting because you're set in a maloka. Maloka is like a gazebo that has one entrance to the south, I believe. Don't quote me on that. It might be a different direction. But anyway, and the shamans are at the top. And here's the beautiful part. The shamans take the medicine with you. So, in a trionic, you go to a doctor here, and they're like, oh, take this medicine. I don't touch this stuff, but you take it. They take the medicine with you. And so do the fire keepers, because you have, well in that case we had two fire keepers at the beginning, it's usually one or two. And these are people that tend to the fire, which stays on the entire night. Anyway, we get the medicine, and I had no idea what to expect. They said, you know, it's between half an hour to an hour for it to kick in. And you, the interesting part is that you can start hearing people purge, or getting into it. Purging is very common with ayahuasca, it's about releasing energy you don't need. And purging, most common one, is through throwing up. So you have a bucket, and you have helpers to help you out. But you need, sometimes, you know, you need to go to the washroom. You may yawn, you may cry. All those things may happen. So, anyway. We, I started hearing people. And I'm like, oh, this is, this is interesting. This is interesting. Because some people were like, you know, crying. And some people were laughing. And some people were yawning uncontrollably. And some people were just like Sleeping. I was like, okay, I don't know what's going on. For me, how it started, it was visual, like many others. And I remember, I had this real kid playing in my mind, which was, I kept feeling people having a hard time, and part of me wanted to reach out to help. And I, my subconscious mind would be like, no, it's time to take care of yourself now. It's not about taking care of other people. It's because you see, all my life I've been someone taking care of others. And that's part of who I am, or at least who I was back then, but I still believe that, you know, there's an element of helping others, but you need to help yourself first before you can truly help others. So that was like, a message that keep happening in my mind, and then the visual aspects kicked in. And I kept having this one vision that I repeated like 10 times, where I'll be somewhere in space, there was this magical door, Mother Ayahuasca was there, and she would, uh, be like, Hey! Come here, Konstantin. Let's, let's go through this door. And I would be all excited, I would go to the door, and then my ego would be like, Nope, we're not doing that. And then, the vision would stop. And that happened for, I don't know, throughout the entire night. And, that day I didn't go much further than that. Right, because I asked her to be gentle, my ego was like, No, we're not playing that game right now. But, here's the beautiful part with something like Madagascar or other plant medicines, is that You don't get what you want. You get what you need. And a lot of people had intentions that got nothing in the first night. And they were disappointed. They were like, Oh, you know, I was just nauseous. I was just this. And those same people, every single one the second time we did the medicine, which was a few days later, had the most amazing experience. Because you see what happens is there are certain things that the medicine has to work within you to open you up to receive whatever it is that you want to receive or you need to receive. And I was no different, right? That first day I was kind of opening a few things, showing me a few things because I asked you to be gentle. But then the next ceremonies were, were beyond that. Again, not difficult because I was still asking for you to be gentle the next two. The last two I didn't, and they were deeper. But anyway, that's kind of the idea. I wanted to give you some background for those wondering how this goes and how it happens in, in reality.

It's, it's interesting how, um, they, they give you the, the idea or the, the permission to, to ask for the experience to be gentle, right? You're, you're communicating before you even jump in. And, um. I can only imagine what it would sound like that first day where you have people, just a broad spectrum of reactions, uncontrollable yawning versus throwing up and just like, yawn, laughing, like I'd be confused on how to feel, you know?

I, I was, I was too to be honest. I was like, I don't know what's going on, but this is interesting. And the great parts, I mean, because you're in a community and you're going through something tough together. I mean, science shows us this, right? People bond a lot quicker over anything. That's, that's not quite traumatic, but let's call it intimate, vulnerable, right? Because that's what happened. And every day after a ceremony, we would be gathered in a big group. Yeah. Again, something like a gazebo. And we would share anything that people want to share. Some people didn't want to share much, some people did. And that brought people together. That was super emotional for me too. I remember like, you know, I was bowling with people because I could feel their emotions, I could feel everything. And the other premise in St. Pedro, that's what it does. It enhances all your senses. Sense of smile, sense of hearing, but more importantly, sense of feeling. And seeing with your mind's eye. Which was Phenomenal for me to experience. I was like, wow, this is cool. I was like, I don't know how this works, but

Ayahuasca and then San Pedro, is

Yes, the way it worked is

within the same experience,

Yes, one of them. So the way it was supposed to be, it was supposed to be Ayahuasca On day 2, day 4 would be Saint Pedro, day 6 would be the combination of them With Temazcal, which is a sweat lodge Then day 8 would be Ayahuasca again, and day 10 I believe you finish with Or day 11, whatever, you finish with Saint Pedro But because of how things worked out, we actually did a, we did ayahuasca day two and then we did the Temazcal day four, which had, so you start with St. Pedro, and then you add ayahuasca at the very end. And that was by far the most powerful experience I've ever had in my life, and it was for most people. Because not only are you doing plant medicine, but you're inside a sweat lodge. For eight hours and a sweat lodge. It's not higher than maybe I want to say three feet. I mean, you can't really see my hand, but it was very low. So you had to be crunched. You had to sit down quite a quite a bit. And they were like, I don't know, 30, 40 people in something that's no more than like 15 by 15 feet at best. Yeah, but that's the idea because you get to feel everyone literally when the medicine kicked in for me. It was the first time I said was saying Pedro. I could feel everything, Jon I could feel it. The pain of other people. I could feel the joy, the sorrow, all of it to the point that like the most vivid memory I have for the first encounter with this is, you know, the medicine takes an hour to two hours to kick in. I had a friend of mine. Well, a person that became a friend later on, he was like kind of few seats to my left, so to speak, and I was by the door. So if you imagine a circle, I was by the door that's at the bottom. Um, And he was going through something tough and he was literally crawling out of it. And one of the things that they tell you when you do any, any type of energy work, plant medicine and otherwise, do not touch other people, right? Because you transfer energies, there's something that happens, right? But as he was crawling and he was on all fours in front of me there, I felt compelled to put my hand on his back. And when I did that, he collapsed and we both started crying like I've never cried in my life. And I felt So much pain like I've never felt in my life, but it wasn't physical pain. It was like emotional, spiritual, like all of it. Like I can't even describe it to be honest. It was so powerful. And I think it went on for like five minutes. I don't even know how long. But that was what he needed in that moment because he was about to give up. And in that moment because we had that exchange. He was able to go back to his place and continue the journey. And then he had helped throughout the ceremony from other people. But that was Again, that was like my first encounter with like this enhanced feeling emotion, which is something else I would add that that medicine is, I mean, all of them are powerful, but that's when you realize the power of your feelings and emotions. Yeah.

That's very interesting. Um, that, that enhanced you, uh, I guess, empathetically and the mere touch of somebody, even though you weren't supposed to, you're like, I'm gonna do it anyways. And then he just transferred some of his pain to you. I mean, I've seen movies about that, right? And just conversations about that to hear that you experienced that was pretty interesting.

Yeah, because like what I feel happened that, um, it's the idea that. You said the great world that transfer, right? I took on perhaps some of his burden, which allows him enough space to be able to continue on this journey and heal whatever needed to be healed. And it wasn't like I had a conscious thought, Oh, I shouldn't be touching him. It was very instinctive. Right? So it felt almost like that carrying energy. I was telling you about in the first ceremony. It's like, no, this, this needs to be done. So it's like very unconscious movement. It's like, okay, I put my hand on like flat on his back. Instantly collapse. And, you know, we both go into this emotional

Yeah. No,

release because it was an emotional release really, right? Because like when you feel your emotions, when you cry, that's what you're doing. You're releasing your emotions, which by the way, I've never been good at because I grew up the way I grew up. And let's be honest, most men have a challenge with releasing emotion. And I'm not saying just men because I've seen it with women as well, because it's so easy to be put down when you are showing emotion when you're crying. Right? We hear it all the time. You know, I'm guilty of saying this in the past to perhaps some women, it's like, you know, stop being so emotional when in fact being emotional is what allows you to not only heal, but truly get to the bottom of whatever it is that you're looking for.

Right, that, that release. Um, so it's interesting how you, uh, you provide space for him within your own body, which, which was, and then my, you're like, let me take on some of your pain. Oh, instant regret. Um,

there was no regret. That's the funny part. There was no regret. So that's, I love that you said that because you think that there would be, but no, it felt like that was what was needed. It gave me a release. It gave him a release and it solidified our bond because we became really close friends after that. Right. Anyway, that's a different story. But yeah,

Well, yeah, when you share someone's pain, of course, you're gonna be really close. Do you, before we get into what you're doing right now, I want, um, I'm curious what, um, what, if you don't mind sharing, what was your experience when you said, I don't, I'm not worried about you being gentle. Like when you said it's okay to not be gentle. You said like the last couple of days, you're like, you know what, let's just go for it.

Yeah. Now it's important to know that what this plan is in the way it works is that there are, there seems to be always three rounds of the medicine, right? So they'll give you the first round. They let you have the experience because you're supposed to last about two hours. And then they'll come again and they'll give you more if you want to. And then only a percentage of people take it very small. And then a third time and they come back and some people took three shots. Some people took two. Cool. Every single time I took only one shot of ayahuasca. St. Pedro I did a full three shots every time But with ayahuasca I did just one and that was more than enough for me I know that if I had taken more I would have gone a lot deeper But there was still a big element of fear in my life at the point and fear is something that I've been able to shed more and more as I progress on the spiritual journey and Realize the fear is what's holding us back from being true Who we truly are supposed to be in this, in this life and who we are at the source. So the more we shed fear, the more, the more we get to do, right? So, I mean, I didn't know that back then. So back then I was like, ah, anyway, so to answer your question, I was scared. But I said, you know what? It's my last time sitting with Ayahuasca, for example. My last time sitting with St. Pedro. Do your best. Show me what I need to see. And it was tough because the last Ayah ceremony was essentially. About releasing anger, which I didn't even know I had. And I'll explain how I got to that. And then connecting to my inner child. And here's how things beautifully align. Especially looking back now, I'm like, wow, that was beautifully orchestrated. Now, I never had any idea what an inner child was. And how we are, you know, a defenseless child at heart. And we have this inner child within us that's wounded in some parts. And it's about providing space to heal. And remember who we truly are. So literally the morning of, I would say that last AYA ceremony, which was like day nine or ten, I wake up earlier than normal. I'm going to this place where people are smoking, which I never go to, but I felt compelled to go to it. And there was this older lady there that's more of a, they had this thing where people could stay for months. They wouldn't necessarily do plant medicine every time, but they might do once every month or whatever. So she was there. Very nice lady, and somehow the conversation came up with the inner child. And I said, you know what, I've heard someone talk about this because a shaman talked about it a few days prior. I said, I have no idea, how do I even connect to my inner child? And she's like, well, what worked for me and what worked for other people is, you wanna, when you're in the medicine, bring up the image of your inner child. And if you have pictures of yourself as a child, that helps to look at them before you go into the ceremony because you have a fresh memory of that. So I thought that was cool. So, as I was waiting for the day to, to get to the ceremony, which ceremonies are always in the evening, uh, for, for ayahuasca, I went and I remember that on my phone, I had pictures from when I was a young boy because my mother's father was big into photography, even though that's, you know, most people don't have access to those things because people didn't take pictures. I had access to that. So the entire day I'm, I'm looking through like, I don't know, dozens of pictures. I'm like, cool. And then, in the afternoon, I had a session scheduled with a Reiki massage therapist, which I scheduled many, uh, days prior to that, and it just happened to be in that day. And she's an amazing, beautiful soul, and we did a Reiki session, and at the end, she's the one that told me, Brother, you have so much, so much anger within you. Until you release that. You cannot connect to your inner child. And you see, she didn't know that I had a conversation about the inner child with anyone else because she was one of the helpers, so she was always in the kitchen doing things. I never told her that. So that's interesting that this comes up again. And I asked her, I said, how do I release this anger? How, you know, how do I connect? And she's like, well, you're in the planned medicine tonight. It's about setting intentions. So you can set an intention to release your anger and then it will allow you to connect to your inner child. And I'll be honest with you, John, it was a very tough ceremony because I took one shot, and I went deep right away, and it was about anger, and it was about releasing, and that meant purging, and purging in the washroom, and purging in the bucket, and I was very resistant, to the point that I felt a knot in my throat for two or three, a good two or three hours, and I was resistant to release that, and the medicine wasn't taking me further, it's like I had this inner knowing that if I don't release that, then that's it, that's my journey's done, and that's it, that's my journey's done. And eventually, there was one more break before we were gonna get into another round. So the way it worked, essentially, between every round, they would give you a break to go to the washroom to freshen up. Unless, of course, you had to go to purge. That was a different story. So I said, you know what? I'm gonna go try one more time. And that's when it took me really deep. I was able to release the anger. At least the one I had, and I came back and I thought, okay, this is going to be good. Now keep in mind, this is like four or five hours after I took the shot. It's supposed to be gone out of my system at this point, because it only lasts like two hours. And we get to a point where we're all standing up, we're doing our final thank yous to the fire, to the medicine, to everything else. And as I'm standing up and looking at the fire and the shaman, there's a cross for me. With my eyes open, I go into a full blown vision. And I'm, I'm shown this magnificent art gallery. I saw myself. It happened to be my art gallery. It was the opening night of my art gallery, and I had all these amazing paintings of geographies from different planets. I didn't recognize them. And as he was guiding me the hallway, kind of like a movie following, we got to a set of stairs, and then he went down. And as I got to that, he opened up another portal into a vision with me as a two year old, three year old, perhaps, drawing and painting, and hearing voices telling me, you know, boys don't paint. You're not supposed to be doing this. You need to go to school, all those things. And also, uh, voices about people telling me, Oh, you should be Drawing this, or you should be doing this. You should be doing that. And a third person. I saw myself, my odd older self, grab my young self by the hand and tell him, you paint from the heart. Don't let anyone tell you what to paint. And then the vision stopped. And I was like, wow. Okay. That was pretty much the end of my experience with Aya. We had the same ceremony after that was different, but this was kind of the end of Aya. So it opened up the door. To me connecting to my inner child now prior to that, and I'll land on this and I'll pass it back to you before it connected me there. Once I released the anger, I had a lot of visions with me as a young boy, but I could literally see my mother pregnant with me like in third person. I saw myself in the crib every, you know, grandparents and friends and family watching and being excited. So I got to see the various stages of me as a young boy, and then it took me to the other bigger vision. I mentioned it.

Wow. That's interesting. One that. After everything should have, I guess, melted away or you're, you're, you know, you're, it's out of your system, apparently you, and then all of a sudden you have that vision. That's pretty interesting. And to connect with your inner child is pretty cool. Um, would you say you're using that for what you're doing now, as far as like being mindful of that inner child that you have more of a, I guess, an awareness of, or more of an intimate relationship with?

100%. I mean, I see the journey, those 12 days in Ecuador as pretty much my spiritual awakening and the catalyst to put me on the path that I am right now. And the reason we're even having this conversation to begin with. And the inner child is one component of many that were opened up in that 12 day period. And since then, I've done a lot of work on my inner child through Various mentors and coaches, one of them being a hypnotherapist. And that's helped me immensely. I didn't realize I had trauma until I started digging into it, and I'm like, oh, wow, this is interesting. And the more layers I heal, the more layers. Layers come up like an onnia, right? But it gets better and better because you're shedding essentially these layers that are not you. And the way I see it and the way I describe it nowadays, I'll grab a pen here for those again, that can see. So I have a pen, right? It's, it's a gold pen for those that can see. But what's gonna happen, you know, this is you when you're born, right? Then you get some ideas from society. It's gonna start to get covered up with layers, right? And it's gonna be layers upon layers. But what tends to happen is as you start removing layers, you're gonna see pieces of yourself. And as you see pieces of yourself, you're like, huh, I wonder if I can see more. And the deeper you go, the more you unravel who you are at your heart, at your heart level, at the soul level. And that's the journey I've been on for the last three years. I'm not saying I've gotten to the end of it. I don't think that's a lifetime journey. Some parts may be still hidden, but once I realized that I wasn't my job, I wasn't my career, I wasn't my choices, I wasn't my lessons, I wasn't any of it, and I was really all that's below that, which is, in my heart, that's when it liberated me. And it allowed me to find my purpose, to find my gifts, and bring more of them into the world. And it also allowed me to work with My limiting beliefs with my negative thoughts and overcome them so I can make progress. It appears to be much faster in someone's externally than it may feel for me internally, but people will be like, Hey, constantly like you do more in a month than I do in a year. How, how can you do that? And it never dawned on me how, and we can talk about it if you're interested, but that's what I do today. I continue on my own journey, but I now help people. on their own journeys through the science, bringing them to spirituality, which is something we haven't talked about. But the idea is that I know how it was before. I feel for people in the situation because there's many of us like that. And the idea is that we can start with what the science tells us and then open up the canvas, so to speak, open up the heart so you can see that science and spirituality are very connected. You actually wouldn't have science without spirituality.

And, um, First of all, thank you for sharing that. And, uh, the visual will definitely help. I, I definitely understand what you're talking about with that inner journey as you, cause I'm doing the same for myself and yeah, you get to uncover parts of yourself. That you forgot about because of life experiences like an onion and it's I always smirk or Laugh on the inside when someone says we're like onions because I think of Shrek and I it's the funny thing is the first time I ever heard of comparing ourselves to an onion was Shrek. So now it's just like that's that ingrained Image when someone's like, you know, like we're we're layers. I'm like, I know I know

I love it.

And so I love it also Yeah, you bring up a good point where you do come from, like we said earlier, and that's why I wanted to go into your background for people to understand that you have spent a lot of your life really living in your logic self, your left brain self, the physical, tangible self you gotta be when you are dealing with a lot of technology and very technical and to go and start to bridge the gap from that physical, um, to spiritual and non physical plane, that ayahuasca trip was it for you. That was just, that was the calling. And, um What you're doing now, like you said, is helping people in that journey. And I know that, um, we're coming closer to the end of the show, but I definitely want to give you space for sharing. Uh, I feel like you tell me, are you, do you, I feel like you're, you're like, I want to share something about bridging the gap, uh, from. You know, technology and spirituality, and I do feel like maybe the correct question would be, how do you use that experience of yours using the left side of your brain and now transitioning to kind of like jumping back into your right as, as you had access as a kid? How are you using that in your, um, with your clients and how you're helping them with their journey?

No, I love the question, Jon so thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about it. One thing I'd like to mention there is that in the universe, there are a bunch of different universal laws, right? One of them being the law of balance. So what I have found is that when I started on this journey, I made a big jump to the right side, like you mentioned, and tried to ignore more of my left side. But the more I was trying to do that, the more resistance there was. Because if you're too much on the left and too much on the right, It's like you're not going to be beneficial for your overall life and, and mission on this planet, in this, in this incarnation. But, um, if you find a balance, or strive for balance, I feel that's, that's the most important aspect that we can, we can do. And that's what I'm, right now, what I'm like, I understand that there are things in this material world. the work a certain way and also the center of spirituality and looking at how do we breach that so that you can bring the balance for yourself and others. And to answer your question, how I help people right now is I looked back at my life and I said, what were some of the big catalysts? Of course, Spiritual awakening to Ayahuasca was, but that's promising is not for everyone and not everyone is going to go to Ecuador or Peru and or Columbia to do this and they shouldn't, right? Because again, it's not for everyone. You got to check with your doctor, which I did. You got to do all these things to prepare yourself for and it's tough. It's not an easy journey. But others have done it through meditation, through breath work and other modalities. But, at the same time, people can start making a lot of progress on themselves, even if they don't believe in any of this primalism or any of the spirituality, and that's where I come in, because I look at a lot of my peers in the professional world, not just Microsoft, but other people I've met throughout the years, and many want to improve themselves, right? And we talked about what were the catalysts for me, so one of them was the spiritual awakening, which again, is not for everyone, and it might be coming later for some than it did for me in the journey. But then the other two that were really big for me, were finding my purpose, or my why, or my mission in life, and the gifts associated with it. So what, meaning that all of us have a set of gifts that we came into this life with, that we brought with us. And they're very apparent in your interactions with everyday people, but you don't necessarily see them. It's kind of like the saying, you cannot see the forest for the trees. And you sometimes may help from others, or from Yourself, if you do enough digging like I did to start finding this. So the reason being is if you know in your heart what your purpose is, if you know what your gifts are, it's going to be much easier for you to bring them into your life. And that's how it was for me because I did an inventory and I was like, well, I'm not bringing most of this in my life. So there was no wonder I was depressed and anxious and burnt out and even suicidal at times. Because I wasn't doing what really brought me joy in my heart. And as I was contemplating, this is something that came up for me only recently as a big aha moment, because I mentioned the story where people in my life would say, Hey, Konstantin, how, how come you do all these things? You have a full time job, you have a podcast, you help people on the side. Now you're building a business. Then you have a, you know, family life, dogs and all that. How do you have time for that? That was the question. And that comes up, especially from friends that have known me for a while. It's like, wow, that's impressive. And my answer to them was always, oh, you know, I just found my purpose. I know what I want to do and I spend time doing that. And what really dawned on me is that what I did find actually was not necessarily my purpose and my gifts and found out what my limiting beliefs were and eliminated them. I actually found time. And this is what I help people will do right now is I help them in this crazy busy world to find time to do things that they want to be doing in their life. If you want to improve yourself with that found time. Sure. You want to spend more time with your family. Amazing. If you want to build a business or have a better career, that's amazing. And it's finding time without giving up anything that you don't want to give up. So if you want to make the same amount of money, but find more time. Perfect. If you want to increase performance, And find time, but not sacrifice anything else. Cool, we can do that. And what I've come to realize is that, in my case, that's what I did. I aligned my purpose with myself, so now, what happened? I stopped big distractions. Like, I used to be an avid gamer. Right? I would work, and then I would jump on the computer and play games. Well, as soon as I aligned myself and found that, all of a sudden, gaming sounded and felt less important. So literally, almost from one day to the next, I dropped it. Well, guess what? I found Three, four hours a day in my schedule. Wow. Okay. Then there was Netflix and all the other distractions, like the phone, right? The social media. Like, there are ways you can discover. But that's one side of it, right? That's finding time in, like, whatever you do. But let me give you another example, which usually blows people away, and I'm curious to see your take. Let's say you have a meeting with your manager at work, right? And you're hoping that you're going in to get a raise, and you're like, oh, I did amazing. And you go in. You have your review, and it's not great for whatever reason. It doesn't have to be with you. It could be that the company doesn't want to give you a raise because they have no money or they don't feel like you should get. Now you get out of the meeting and you're likely not going to feel amazing, right? It's going to be, you know, you're going to be a bit sad, whatever the case might be, right? Now, what tends to happen when you have thoughts and beliefs that are more on the negative side, and you decide what negative is because it's different for you and I, John, but you decide. What happens then? It triggers, and we know this from psychology, it triggers emotions and feelings. So then if I have a thought that, wow, I can't believe I didn't get this raise, I'm not good enough. Right? I didn't do something. That's going to trigger an emotion and a feeling associated with that, which is going to bring reminders from your childhood or whatever, where you felt like that. That's going to go back into your thoughts and, thoughts and beliefs, right? That's going to be another belief. Yeah, I can't believe it always happens to me. This is unfair. Blah, blah, blah. Right? And it does this vicious cycle. And then what happens after the stage? Well, there are actions that you're going to take because the day doesn't just stop. Time doesn't just freeze. You're going to go back to work. You're going to go home. Then you're going to, whatever, maybe it's the weekend. It's going to impact all your actions. Now maybe you're going to sit on the couch and watch Netflix for five hours. Or sit in bed and not be able to go to sleep for three hours, which is a very common one. So by tackling those limiting beliefs, those negative thoughts, by having tools to be able to actually be like, as soon as you notice them, feel the emotions associated, because of course, some things will happen outside of your control, but then let them go. You're essentially finding time. Because that time you're about to waste. Well, it's back in your time bank. So essentially, you're bending time when I was telling this to a friend. She's like, Oh, you're doing time bending. I'm like, that's a cool way to look at it. And when it dawned on me, I'm like, wow, that's actually powerful because I don't know about you, John, but I could use another five hours in my week. Could you? Could anyone in the audience use another five hours in their week? And that's what I help people find.

Very interesting how you positioned it that way. As the benefit, the time. Yeah, I don't want to summarize what you said. I'm like, how would I react? So, Mr. Time Bender.

I love that.

Yeah, when you pile on, uh, the stuff that you do like, and it's part of your lifestyle. Yeah. You're going to be doing a lot of things. And people are going to see that, but it's your lifestyle now. And that's what it seems like is happening with you. Your, your lifestyle has expanded into things that you're passionate about. And people are like, wow, okay, cool. How are you, how are you doing all this? And you're like, cause it's my life. This is what I

Right? I never connected the two and two and now that I'm like, oh, it makes so much sense. And if you think about it, let's take some common, I'll call them symptoms. Let's say you suffer with imposter syndrome. I call it the symptom because the root cause is something other than imposter syndrome. Right. But imposter syndrome is something that many people suffer with. And for those that don't know, it's essentially the idea that at any point in time, someone will figure out that you don't know what you're doing in whatever job you're in or family situation. And that's going to cause a lot of stress for you. There are things such as hesitation, overwhelm, stress, burnout, right? Those are things that come up, fear of failure, fear of success. See how each of those ties back to time. Because if I am someone with imposter syndrome, How much time am I going to waste in my day looking over how I word my conversations or my emails? Or how much energy I'm giving to something that is not important about like how someone perceives me? Like that's time you buy back. How about hesitation? If I'm hesitant, I'm not going to make decisions. Which is going to lead to what? Procrastination. And then we know what that turns out into. You gave the beautiful example, right? You're going to watch Netflix and do something else. You're losing time essentially. I don't want to say wasting time. Because I don't think anything is wasted in this reality. You're just losing it in that moment. So it's about finding it and bringing it back. So every problem in your life, see how it relates to time. Because if you look at, I don't know about you, John, but every person I talk to is like, Wow, I'm so busy. I have so many things. And I don't have time for myself. I don't have time to do this. I don't have time to do this. And I want to be doing this. Literally, I do not know one person in my life that says they're not busy. And guess what? I was the same. I was like, yeah, I am busy. Now when people ask me, they're like, Are you busy? I'm like, yeah, I am busy, but I am busy with the things I want to be busy with. I have a choice over that. And most people don't think that. So that's, I would say, very important. And I guess I'll add one more thing. I know we need to wrap up here, but you mentioned the science to spirituality bridge. And what's important to know that everything I help people with is science backed, meaning that even if you're not spiritual, which is most of my clients, it's all science, meaning psychology and neuroscience. The idea that there's something called neuroplasticity, which They discovered more recently than you think the idea that your brain is not set in its ways. You can make changes and new neural pathways that can be made and changed, which means that you can relearn and unlearn whatever you want, should you want to, right? So if you have a part of you that you don't like, well, this is your chance to change it. And you can start doing research right now, right? Or you can reach out to someone like John or myself to help you on this path. And that's really what this comes down to is, look at what people have discovered so far, if you're not spiritual yet. But if you're listening to this, you're likely very spiritual, which means you can combine the two, and then the power is exponential. And what do I mean combining them? You can introduce meditation with these practices. You can introduce breath work. You can introduce plant medicine should you want to, right? There's so many elements of spirituality. And then you can start looking at how science and spirituality really are coexisting, and how science cannot exist without spirituality. And that's when you get the full power of everything that you're doing in life.

Yeah. So now that we all know who you are, What are you working on now that you feel, would be of benefit for anybody listening, for them when, when they do get in touch with you?

Thank you so much, Jon I really appreciate the chance to do that. So there's two parts I'm working on quite a bit right now as a passion project as I still work my full time job. One is the podcast. Like you, I have a beautiful podcast called Unleash Thyself. It's about unleashing the best version of ourselves from within and liberating ourselves from all the indoctrination and all, all the societal expectations. And finding who we truly are at our heart. And that's a podcast with science and spirituality. And I, I put a lot of effort and time into that because it's giving me a lot, I'm learning a lot, and then I want you to learn as well along with me. And the second project is essentially this, um, building this coaching practice, building these programs that can help people on their path. So my, my mission in life is to inspire, empower, guide and support individuals on their journey. So they too can find joy, fulfillment, success, their purpose in life and make the world a better place for all of us. So that's, that's my mission. I look to bring that to everything I do. So what I've shared with you, what I help people with, I've been testing it with people close to me, people in my professional life and paying clients and it's working amazingly well. So I'm like, you know what, I need to build something on top of this. And there is a coaching practice being built. Courses and group coaching is coming up as well down the road. But that's, that's been a big place for me. And you and I had some offline conversations around this. I want to thank you cause I got some wisdom from you and we got to share some stuff and it's been beautiful. So anyone listening, if you're interested in working with me, like John said, reach out through the links he provides. Remember my name does not have an E at the end. So anytime you look me up, Constantine, and I know it's funny cause that comes up all the time, but I also feel that's. A good way for people to remember, because I'll try it with the E at the end, and it's like, huh, doesn't work. Anyway, that's it, Jon so much. I really appreciate you, brother. It's been a beautiful conversation.

Yeah, man. Thanks for coming on, man. Everybody, check out Unleash Thyself. Links will be in the notes. Once again, thanks for coming on, Constantine. let's stay connected, man.

Absolutely, brother.