Welcome to the Cricket Fixes podcast, where we tackle the
tough topics of personal development sprinkled with some
raw vulnerability and a touch of humor.
I'm your host Cricket, and each episode we're diving into the
realms of healing, growth and self discovery.
So let's be fearless and awesome together.
It's time to get your cricket fix.
I am so excited to Welcome to the Cricket Fixes podcast.
Neil Markey, Co founder and CEO of Beckley Retreats.
Neil, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, Krista.
Good to see you. It's so good to see you.
So just to give everyone a little bit of a back story about
how we've connected through my, through Heather really, who
works for Beckley Retreats, being a good friend of mine, she
not only brought me on as a consultant, but then in March of
2024, I became a participant of one of Beckley Retreats, which
was such an incredible experience.
So I definitely want to talk about my experience as well, but
I just want to say what an inspiration you are in the
psychedelic space for the work that you're doing.
I am honored that you are a guest.
I'm excited to Share your story in the series of how our
medicine work. And I can relate to this really
leads us to what we can call a life purpose.
So I would love to dive in with Yeah, I, I want to dive in with
something that I. I can't believe it's been.
It was March, so 18 months ago. That's just amazing.
Wow. I don't know where's.
It go it's it's bonkers and it's also pretty remarkable what's
changed in my life, right? So I think that's also why I
want to do this series is because I've become such a
proponent and advocate for psychedelic therapy for, you
know, for a lot of people, not everyone, but for for a lot.
So what I would like to dive into that I think you'll you'll
dig is if you could set an intention for this podcast show,
a message that you would love to land with this audience.
What could it be? I think it's that you don't need
to be broken or like severely clinically indicated to get
potentially tremendous benefit from these programs.
You can actually be doing, you know quite well by a lot of
measures and like generally happy and these programs can
help you, you know, go from good to grade or from grade to
greater. And that's good, important for
us to do too. Yeah, I love that.
The way that I see it is like really unlocking your potential,
your most authentic self and even from a spiritual
perspective, me connecting me, me with my soul and my, my
purpose. So I, I think you have one of
the most fascinating backgrounds.
So I would love for you to share or just a little bit about your
background and your career and then how you moved into this
work. Yeah, it's, it's been a windy,
adventurous Rd. but I was studying math in my undergrad at
University of Maryland. September 11th happened.
I ended up joining the officer program thinking I was doing the
right thing. I wanted to help.
I thought we were at risk and then ended up as an officer in
the Army. And I went to Iraq and then got
a chance to go try out for a special mission unit called the
Ranger Regiment and went to Afghanistan twice with them.
And then I got out in 2012 and went to Graduate School and was
at Columbia University. So like a good program and by a
lot of measures was doing really well, but I was by a lot of
measures not doing very well. I was isolating.
I was really angry with, I honestly, I was so pissed at my
Piers because no one really even knew that there was a war still
going on, you know, and I like couldn't stand that, you know,
it drove me nuts. And then I like many veterans
tried different approaches like SSRIs and anti anxiety
medications and sleeping pills and had some benefit and then,
you know, but it was limited. And then the thing that really
made a huge impact for me was meditation.
And I'm a big believer and proponent of meditation now 13
years later. And then I had some
professionally facilitated experiences in that grad school
period and those were super helpful for me.
You know, they were, it wasn't one and done by any means, but
like each one I think helped. Let me let some things go or
unwind some things or look at some things differently.
So, yeah, I'm a big believer in these experiences and maybe I'll
pause there, but that was kind of my first exposure to this
work was in the transition from my military service.
And then I went on and did some corporate stuff for a while,
but. Yeah, I.
Pause there. I love that.
So, you know, I, I also appreciate that you say it's not
one and done because I think managing the expectations around
working with this medicine is really important.
And it almost to me, I'm not sure if this was your
experience, but it's kind of like this layering, right?
It's almost like you need the one to then get the the benefit
out of the next one and then the next one and the next one.
Which kind of surprised me when I started working with it is
because I I was looking for all of the answers at once.
But I can look back and say I also wasn't ready for all the
answers at once. Yeah, yeah, that's definitely
how it works. There's.
A layer, it's layered and there's the, the, the, the
deeper the trauma, the more times it needs to be let go.
You know, I mean it, it, everybody's just so unique and
individual just depends. But a lot of times people do,
you know, after one or a couple or a few sessions do live
dramatically different, more positive lives, you know, So
it's not, doesn't need to be like 20 years down the road, but
I think it's good for people to to know going in that, you know,
and it's not, it's kind of like developing like skills, you
know, because you have to, you have to then go kind of live
differently. You have to like make, you have
to consciously make different decisions.
You need to adopt better habits or this kind of state of being
that most people have after the experiences where they just feel
more light, they feel more connected.
If you don't in that period introduce some new ways of
thinking and being, it's, it's very common to revert back, you
know, because there's already like so much momentum in that
old way, you know, by the time you're a young adult, a lot of
how we're showing up in the world is kind of it's, it's
patterned, you know, it's kind of deep in our psyche.
So you do need to make some real conscious effort to like make
permanent shifts. Although these experiences will
give you a real window, It can be really helpful to do that.
You, you do have to, it's not like Western medicine where you
just take your pill and go on with your day, that it just, it
takes a whole different approach.
And it's good for people to be aware of that.
So they kind of know what they're getting into and, you
know, have the right expectations.
Yeah, absolutely. I can remember from my first
journey, which was in August of 2022, that for me was releasing
some trauma from my childhood. And it wasn't until November of
2023 that I did my second one. And that one for me, I know it
couldn't have happened if I hadn't taken all of that wisdom
with me, but really given it also that full year.
But it was that second one that I, I call my rebirthday.
And it was preparing for it three days before I gave up
alcohol and I never touched it again.
And for me, that was really powerful.
And I, I say that to Cher again, you're coming.
My intention going into that journey, which by the way, I
need to leave the disclaimer that I, I did it medically,
legally and medically supervised.
But what I found from that was the rewiring had started.
I went into that journey with an intention to just be able to
give it up for 30 days at a time again.
And what the medicine showed me is no more like we're, we're on
a new path now. And I found it was so much
easier to release that kind of addictive, that habit cycle even
even and rewiring the, the neural pathways in my brain to
be able to, to let it go for good.
So. Yeah, that's a huge win.
If you can just reduce alcohol consumption can be an absolute
life changing decision. But it's really hard to do, you
know, And we have a lot of people that come through
programs and won't even have expressed that desire, but then
will tell us months later, I just have much less desire to
drink. Something's different.
Something shifted in me. And so, yeah.
Yeah, I, I had to share that because I, I think it does speak
to that kind of layering is I know I wouldn't have been ready
for that without the first one and releasing some other
patterns in my life. So, you know, which is a great
topic of like the preparation and the integration is so
important. And while we're not focused on
that, I, I also think, you know, to your point, that's what
you're mentioning, it's what you do with it after too.
So along the way, was it from a journey that you had done where
you had started to feel like I want to help bring this to the
world? Yeah, well, maybe I'll I'll
finish that little journey. So I was like in grad school,
learned how to take much better care of myself.
Actually ended up going and doing a teacher certification
and meditation at Jefferson University.
And so was teaching it for a bit of time while working on a a
small business with my brother. And so was living in community,
you know, alcohol, strong meditation practice, purposeful
work. You know, you do all those
things and then, you know, life is a little bit more smooth.
And then I ended up taking a job at McKinsey and company because
I had been deferring a job offer that I had and I asked him for
another deferral because I was enjoying what I was doing.
And they basically said, no, we're not going to, you know,
kind of be your permanent backup plan.
So I, I went there because I am curious and I had to see behind
this curtain and, you know, I, I'm, I'm so grateful I had that
experience. I learned a lot, you know, and I
got to, you know, see a lot of different business challenges
and things. And, and, but if I think, if I'm
honest, my mental health probably starts slipping the
wrong way in that period just because super intense
environment and I had learned some practices, but you know, I
wasn't, you know, I kind of started slipping a little bit.
And then I went, I was looking for a change and I kind of got
recruited to go to this consultancy that was doing
private equity portfolio company restructurings, which is like
really challenging work. You know, I mean, it's just,
it's, it's kind of like the, the toughest thing in capitalism.
It's like it, it and it, it, it was, and I was there for a few
years. Then at the period, like at the
at the end of that time, I noticed that I was having some
of my symptoms come back, like my sleep was getting worse.
I was a bit more irritable, you know, I wasn't being as present
in my relationships because I was super stressed.
I was like back in this fight or flight state and I'm like, what
the hell, you know, like I know better, you know, I wasn't
meditating much at all anymore. And so I just got to this point
where I was like, I'm, I'm just, I'm going to leave.
Like I'm, I, I want to go do something else that like will
allow me to live, you know, more in tune because I have done that
before. And so I left and I, I didn't
know really what I was going to do next, but I got back to
teaching meditation. And then I was teaching
meditation in Mexico just locally.
And there's a local indigenous people in this part of Mexico
called the Wechol. And they've been using plants
and psychedelics for quite some time.
And they were super accessible and hilarious, frankly.
And, and, and they, they thought it was really funny to have this
former veteran kind of hanging around a bit.
And, and then friends of mine were coming down and I was
connecting them with the Wechol. And then we were doing
meditations on the beach. And it just kind of started
happening. You know, where I was like, OK,
that the world is opening up. More people are interested in
this. Like people from my professional
background who never would have considered this a few years ago
are now like coming down. So I was like, well, maybe I can
do something in this world. Like, I really believe in it.
And I'm fascinated by it. And yeah, I think it's helpful.
And then I met Amanda Fielding and her family.
And then that was kind of like the that was that was when I
would knew it was it was something very real.
And I just have such respect for Amanda.
You know, she passed recently, but she's just the coolest, you
know, I mean, she's just such a a true, like a legend, amazing
heart, brilliant, hilarious, and just wanted more people to have
safe access. And so they were looking for,
you know, an entrepreneur and, and so it was very serendipitous
and timely and. Isn't that wild?
So you. Met her in Mexico.
No, well, the, the, the crazy thing is, is I'll try and keep
it short, but it is, it is wild. I, I was like, OK, I'm I want to
go start doing these long form programs with psychedelics and
take them to kind of white collar professionals.
It was kind of like my high level idea.
And so I went and tried to investigate raising some money
and I talked to, you know, some healthcare VCs and I was just
like, I don't know, like that's, that's kind of like what I left.
Like I don't want to do that again.
You know, I could just tell that it was just a, you know, a
money, a money thing. And it's just like, well, I want
to have some balance. And so I, you know, did that for
like a couple months and I reached out to this woman that
was a bit of a mentor for me at Columbia University, for me and
my brother's first business. And I was like, is there
basically I was like, is there any good money out there that,
you know, isn't that, you know, is trying to do this, trying to
do things with heart? And she's like, well, one of
your classmates is doing, I have no idea what you're doing.
You know, it sounds like really strange, but one of your
classmates is doing something I think really strange too.
And you guys should talk. I don't know, I don't have no
idea what you're talking about, but I think you guys should
connect. And I had gone to school with
this guy by the name of Dan Love.
And Dan Love was one of the founding members of Beckley
Waves, which is essentially the family office for Amanda's
family. And so they were, you know, had
stood it up to make investments in companies that were going to
go build the infrastructure. And when Dan and I connected and
then I met Amanda and met, you know, met Rock and the whole
family. And but the, the crazy thing is,
is that whole period where I was looking for a partner, they had
interviewed a bunch of retreat center owner operators looking
for a team that they could kind of like put their brand on top
of and then expand from there. And they interviewed something
like a dozen and 1/2 or two dozen all over the world.
And they said they didn't find anybody that really wanted to do
it. Everybody was like super happy
with their kind of like what they were doing and didn't want
to do something bigger. And then, you know, and they
said, if you know, the ones that did want to do it, the few that
didn't want to do it, they, they didn't think, you know, had the
right kind of background or skill set to do it.
So they in one of the meetings they had Amanda's son, Rock said
we're going to put the kind of retreats business to the side.
We have all a bunch of other things to look at.
It'll come to us when the time's right.
And he said something to the effect of if we had our pick
because they, you know, obviously following the news and
seeing what's happening in the US, but they said, you know, we
would, we would love to find an entrepreneur that's a veteran
because the veterans are leaving the public policy fight.
And like, it's the whole thing that it's the one bipartisan
issue where it's like psychedelics or veteran healing.
Like what a great story to pair Beckley with a, you know, an
organization that's going to be, you know, veteran LED.
And that was the the same time I was looking for them.
And then we met and it was just like, oh, wow, OK, let's get to
work. You know, it was really cool,
really cool. And so, yeah, that's how kind of
how how I got got into it. I love that I didn't know that
level of depth and the story, so I'm actually sitting here really
appreciating it, just thinking, Oh my gosh, the power of the
mushrooms. To to.
Just orchestrate this. Like, I really believe that it's
just, it's just. Wild.
I mean, that's I, I, I, I, I'm open to it too.
You know, like how can you prove that you can't?
But there's all kinds of things that are happening on a moment
to moment basis that are beyond the so far beyond our ability to
rationalize. So we should be a little bit
open to maybe like, you know, some phenomena.
Yes, and and. It's real, you know it.
It's everywhere. And I think that's a great segue
to kind of talk about the work that you're doing with Beckley
that makes Beckley so unique, which is the science behind it,
right? Like I'm, I came into this work
very like left brain analytical. Let me do all the research 1st.
And then I quickly learned that for me personally, I meant to
have a much more balance with the, you know, the, the mystery
and the spiritual aspect of the work.
But I do want you to be able to talk a little bit about the
spirit or the science side of things, because what you're
doing is really remarkable. And I think it brings a lot of
safety not only to the work that you're doing and how you
operate, but also for people stepping into it that that might
have a lot of fear or concern around it.
So just talk a little bit about that.
Yeah. I think that that's, that's kind
of what we set out to do. That's what we're doing is kind
of blend tradition and science, and both have their place.
And yeah, And I think our program's doing a good, good job
of that. And most Westerners are very
inclined to use their mind a lot to make sense of things.
A lot of other people and cultures use more intuition, you
know, or use more of a balance of it.
But man, Americans love data, facts, figures, and that's fine.
That's like how we've been brought up.
That's everything we know. You know, some people have I, I
honestly lost the whole other side of the intuition or the
connectedness, you know, and so. I feel like I, I know where some
people are like you, you need and that and that's OK,
Especially, you know, it's, it's good to be have a healthy amount
of skepticism and ask good questions, you know, before you
make the investment in, in something like this.
But you know, we look at these programs more from like an
integrative health or functional health lens.
So the psychedelic or the mystical experience is a part of
that. That is a big part like can do a
lot, but we're also alongside of that trying to leverage best
practices from other disciplines.
So you know, we want behavior change.
So there's science around what it takes for an adult to learn
new habits, implement new habits and like the secret sauce to how
you get someone to actually start meditating on a regular
basis, you know, so we incorporated that.
There's the psychedelic experience effects a lot of
different dimensions of the of of the kind of human being, but
at least part of it's happening at the central nervous system
level, right in the central nervous system, you know, needs
to be kind of tuned. And if you had a lot of
stressors and things in your life, like many of us, you can
get into this kind of sympathetic dominant state that
then you're, you know, you're going more alert.
So then you're, you're kind of tendency for action is biased
towards a certain way of being. And there's techniques that have
been studied clinically that we know will help bring you back
more into a more resonant or balanced state.
You know, So we're trying to teach those things along the way
too, because ultimately, you know, that that state of the
central nervous system is really important in how we act and
feel. You know, so we're kind of
taking more of like a whole human approach and putting
together their different things from different disciplines that
we know work and, and actually look to be quite complimentary.
And yeah, I mean, we went through like a rigorous process
to design our program and, and then we're, we're capturing
data. So we, we track how people are
doing before and we track how people are doing after.
And then we look at that and then we put that back into the
program and say, OK, well, what what can be refined or how can
we, you know, make, make it more tailored for individuals based
on where they are. You know, so taking some of that
kind of scientific method where you're you're, you're, you're
kind of, you know, trying something and then you're
observing outcomes and you're putting that information back in
to make better decisions. So it's like a systematic
approach to this as opposed to a, Yeah, but. 1.
And done right. Yeah, no, I felt that.
I feel that for sure. And then you don't want to do
it, but there's like a, a, you don't want to over mechanize it,
you know, because the humans And so like we don't want our
programs to feel like a corporate off site or worse,
like worse, maybe like a, a, a rushed doctor's visit, you know,
so you want to have like some space in between and you want to
have, you know, in our opinion, there's, there's many different
ways to think about this stuff. But kind of like in our way of
thinking that you want to have like really robust standards and
things that ensure the program is safe and structured and you
have some consistency. But then within some of the
modules, you want to allow for some of the flow and the
artistry of these facilitators who are really good at just like
working with the group and nowhere to go.
And like, so you don't want to like script all that or it
doesn't, it doesn't, we don't. Humans don't like that when it
feels like it's a robot, you know, so you don't want to, you
want to. And it's so it's just, it's
trying to find a nice balance of that structure and flow.
Yeah, that's beautiful. Can you recall a piece of wisdom
that you got during one of your own journeys that you've brought
into the work that you're doing with Beckley?
Yeah, and meditation, I mean, that's how I always get that.
It's just like, stop thinking about all this, Neil, You know,
just like, just be and yeah. Well, thank you.
I'm taking that reminder and myself.
That's, that's really beautiful that, that that's brought it
back to you. I have one more question for
you, right, because I think there is a lot of uncovering
that comes up in these journeys that guides us to the next step
in our life. So for anyone out there
listening that feels is kind of like the way that I described it
was just this ache. They might not know, oh, it's
your your soul calling to you. You're off your path, right?
They might not have a name for that.
But for anyone that does identify with, yeah, I'm not on
the right path. Like this isn't much how you
felt in your career transitions, right?
You just kind of had this knowing I'm off track.
What would you say to them? I mean, I've, what's coming up
for me is you're going to say, well, hey, meditate, allow your,
your central nervous system to just get calm and quiet.
But but what else would you share about that tug To find
your purpose, to live your purpose?
Yeah, I listen, you know, listen just like, and I think getting
still and trying to listen is really important.
And then, you know, there's all different types of techniques
around how to try and open that up, where you're getting that
signal from the low down in the body up, you know, as opposed to
stimulus in and down into the body.
And yeah, I think meditation is, is is is foundational.
Sometimes it gets put into all these other, gets put into a
bucket with all these other things.
And I would actually make an argument that it, it's, it's its
own thing and it, it should be talked about as its own thing.
And then there's that many other things that can sit on top of
that. But like meditation, super
foundational. And yeah, go for it.
You know, go like if you feel, if you feel that something's a
mess, like try and make some time to sit and investigate that
or, you know, work with a coach or a therapist or, you know, buy
some tools online to do the journal exercises, the practical
exercises, all kinds of like tools that are out there that'll
help you like get it on paper and just like start moving.
And that because life's really short, you know, you don't want
to spend 10 or 20 years kind of out of, you know, out of out of
sync because it goes by, it goes by fast.
I love that. I think that's a fabulous place
to land This podcast, this show, this episode is just go, get,
still go and find the tools that are going to help you get really
clear about what that next step is, right?
And then I'll just add and act, even if it's one small thing,
take an action and then see how it feels.
And clearly from your own journey, Neil, you've gone from
this deep healing work into taking action.
And then when we do that, when we say to the universe or
whatever you believe out there, I'm, I'm making moves, then
these synchronicities just can't help but show up and offer, OK,
let let me guide you. It's I, I call it like the
airport conveyor belt, like just just get out and it'll take you
where you need to go. Yeah, it's true.
And I, I can't, I don't have a good mechanical explanation for
it. But like as a mathematician,
kind of McKenzie consultant, like very structured thinker,
even through my rational mind, I still get to, there's something
there's there's something you can call it God, you can call it
the universe, you can call it spirit.
I don't think it really matters what you call it.
But there's something that's like very significant and real
that is part of this that you can have a relationship with if
you're open to it. And then that can change
everything. You know, it takes some humility
to kind of like, you know, believe because.
But yeah, it's very real. It's very.
Real, it's very real. Well, I just want to thank you
so much for your time and I also want to thank you for your
generosity because Cricket fixes members get $500 off your
retreat. So I just want to say thank you
for that. And I will be sure for anyone
listening, check out all the links, find me on YouTube, find
it in all the places that you listen to podcast because we
will be able to guide you to this incredibly powerful retreat
program that Neil and his crew have put together.
Thank you so much, Neil. Thank you.
All right, well, let's do this. Are you ready for your own
personal transformation? Tired of the patterns that are
holding you back and you're ready to finally unleash your
authentic self? Head over to cricketfixes.com.
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