Welcome to Mind Escape. Are you ready?
Are you ready to escape your mind?
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Thank you. Tonight we have an amazing
episode. I am joined by Edward Crowe.
He is the manager for the rapper Yelawolf, A visionary
photographer, and the founder of Murder Cigars.
But beyond the music in the business, Edward has carved a
unique path that blends artistry, ritual, and
consciousness. If you would like to support
him, please click the link down below.
We're going to dive into the world where hip hop meets
ceremony, exploring how sacred mushroom use, creative
discipline and authenticity shapes not just the art we make,
but the lives that we live. This one's about the alchemy of
creation, the courage to evolve and finding meaning in the
modern ritual. Let's dive in.
All right, welcome to mind escape, new telos.
Edward, how are you? I'm doing wonderful.
How are you, Mike? Great, great.
I love having new people on the show trying to diversify a
little bit in terms of topics and guests and things like that.
Why don't you give us a little bit of your back story on how
you got into the psychedelic stuff and the the the path that
led you there? So growing up, I was a magician
like a like a performing magician.
I did close up and stage magic. I was some bigger magician's
assistants. So I've always had this, this
love for magic and like the mystical, my grandmother used to
read me HP Blavatsky and Edgar Cayce and a lot of esoteric
occult leaning literature that sparked my interest very, very
young. So all through my life I kind of
had this love for, for mystery. And as I got older, I stopped
doing magic shows and started becoming more interested in
mystery schools and, you know, the occult, you know, esoteric
teachings and, and things like that.
And then that led to one time I thought I bought a couple pounds
of mushroom from somebody in my full intention was to was to
make money and that's it. I didn't know anything about
them, had no context of the background.
I bought them and realized real quick, people buy mushrooms one
time and then that's about it. You know, I mean, for a while.
So I got stuck with like a pound of them.
So I just started eating them. No, no real knowledge of what's
going to happen or, or what they stand for.
And I figured out, I'd say we took me and a friend of mine
split an ounce one night and we took that in some tea.
And I had an experience in the bathroom.
I got sick. And then when I went to wash my
hands, I turn around to look in this, this like translucent hole
in reality opens up. And it was this Indian goddess.
We've all seen her. She had her hands like this.
I don't know which one she was. She had all these hands behind
her. And I was fascinated.
And it was very, very seductive, not sexually seductive, but
like, you know, trance like seductive.
And it was pulling me in. And the more that I I wanted to
go in, something told me, if you come here, you die there.
And I felt this fear come over me and then it vanished and
didn't come back for the rest of the trip.
I've had a couple other crazy experiences where things
actually happen like that. But that's the very first time
that it made sense to me that this thing is more, you know, I
didn't realize at the point that it was like a sacrament, you
know what I mean? I had no knowledge of the tribes
and, you know, people that did this in other countries, and I
didn't really understand any of that yet.
But I kept doing it, kept doing it, kept upping the dose,
started taking it out in nature. And all of a sudden it was like
the mushroom. Just let me know, you know what
I mean? Like this is before this whole
psychedelic renaissance, you know, whatever's going on right
now, I've been doing this a long, long time and I still
don't do it. Like these days, I won't do it
with more than two people. You know what I mean?
It's we don't do a bunch of people.
I don't advertise. I don't, it's not a retreat.
It's just one of those things when somebody needs it and they,
they want to come, then I'll, I'll facilitate, Right.
But it's all, there's no cost involved.
There's nothing like that. But this all, that's how it led
to my, my interest in psychedelics.
Interesting. So when you do these ceremonies,
or is that what you call them ceremonies?
Yeah, I call them ceremonies or journeys.
Yeah. Journeys where do you, do you
have a a special place? Is it out in the woods?
Is it, you know, like where do you do it?
I do. I used to do it inside and, and
this is pride 6-7 years ago now and I had like a, a, a strange
long bathroom. It was like kind of kind of thin
and long. And I would do it in there for,
I mean, a couple years man, I would just lay next to the
toilet with a small air mattress.
And I mean, cause the doses that I was taking are high doses, 9g
and up. And back then it was, it was
more around 12 to 14. Now I stay about 9.
I found a good mushroom I like it's potent enough.
But and now I've moved outside, I haven't done it inside in over
2 years, but I have a a piece of property, 11 acres and it's
mostly forest and I have an abandoned building that a friend
of mine came to town a a really well known visual artist and he
painted his beautiful mural after we had an experience and
it's called we are the hands of our ancestors.
But we we have one spot on my land and I purposely go there
and meditate and bless the lamb. We built a fire pit.
I know this is deep, but my mother passed away a couple
years. It was a big supporter of, of my
journey and my my love for mushrooms.
She she definitely would partake and understood the benefits.
So on Christmas morning at sunrise, I put some ashes of
hers at this sacred spot and covered it with crystal she gave
me. And that crystal is forever
there. We form a triangle out of the
crystals and it's like a place of protection.
So I mean, we take it really, really serious.
It's, you know, there's a prayer that said in advance, it's more
of an intention setting thing. It's definitely not in relation
to any religious activity or anything like that, but it's,
it's like an intention setting, man.
And I find it that really preparing and being conscious,
having respect for the mushroom and going in the right way
really, really determines the success of AI.
Haven't had a bad trip in a long time, Very, very long time.
Maybe a couple years, and I don't anticipate ever having one
again, but I have no problem navigating through darkness, you
know what I mean? Or uncomfortable places.
But yeah, to answer your question, only in nature and
specifically in one spot, unless I have the opportunity to go to
another country or Hawaii or something like that.
I've been to Jamaica and did a outside sunrise ceremony on the
coast on top of a fossilized coral reef.
So yeah, I prefer nature. Interesting.
Yeah. I've been camping my whole life
and obviously did a lot of experimenting in the woods.
I did just read an article not that long ago, I think like last
week where like 3 guys were hiking on a mountain and they
all, yeah. And then they had to be like
brought back by the DNR or the Rangers or whatever.
So, yeah, I mean, knowing you're set and setting, yeah, I mean,
you can if you're, if you're an experienced psycho now you can
probably push the boundaries a little bit, you know.
But if you're not, you know, to your point though, too, with the
high dose, I mean, sometimes you get out there and you're just
completely disconnected from, you know, that whole realm too.
So yeah, knowing your, your zones and everything super
important. Yeah, I've had some pretty weird
experiences and I, I personally don't love doing, you know,
anything like that anymore with anybody else.
I've just seen people like get weird and yeah, I don't know,
I've had some weird experiences where people get like
territorial or I don't even know how to explain it.
Just like they turn on you. Yeah, yeah.
I've just. And even growing up, like in
high school, when we would do it in the days of not having the
reverence for the compounds and everything like that, you look
at people as like opposition or that guy's not really my friend
or I see right through this shit, you know, or whatever the
case may be. So I absolutely, I'm, I'm a solo
guy. If I do it at this point, which
I've, you know, done it enough to know like similar to what
you're saying, like, you know, what to expect.
There's probably not going to be any negative fallout or anything
like that. But yeah, I mean, has anything
crazy ever happened out there with anybody or.
Yeah, man, actually it has on a couple occasions.
I mean, I always figure out a way to keep it under control
because I know what I signed up for, you know what I mean?
And I understand that these things take people into places
they might not even know existed in their mind.
A couple people have have shit their parents, you know what I
mean? It's it's not uncommon.
You know, they're usually embarrassed, but I told them, I
told them, you earned that, you know what I mean?
Like that's like a black belt psychedelics, you know what I
mean? Like if you get to that point,
you know, you want to clean up quick.
But yeah, it's like the purge is a part of it, man.
When you put your nervous system through that heavy of a push,
you know what I mean? It's like I've actually looked
up the similarities between when a person dies and they, you
know, use the bathroom in their pants or, you know, they throw
up the minute their, their, their body dies, right?
And I've looked up the similarities and they're
similar, but it's more like your nervous system on high dose
psilocybin. It's like your nervous system
can't handle it. When you die, your nervous
system shuts down, you know? We had been a lot of people on
ayahuasca purge, they barf, shit, everything.
So yeah, that's not super uncommon for getting, you know,
into those higher states of consciousness.
Right. And it's, I mean it's a, you
know, it's an electric field, man.
It's like it's it's I'm sure you can relate to this, but there's
times when like someone who's not really familiar with these,
these places might say, oh man, I don't really feel it anymore.
And then it's almost like automation, you know what I
mean? It's like it'll crank back up on
you and play with you. And you know, so it's definitely
not something to play with, man. But I lock up all phones in a,
in a safe, right? I mean, of course, no weapons,
no weapons of any kind. We put all the keys in the safe
to the cars. You know, by the time you get on
9 grams, you can't figure out how to open the safe.
So you're fine. There's no cars to drive the
gates locks. Like I take it really, really
serious and I'm very, very careful and think of safety for
the people involved as the highest priority and 2nd respect
for the mushroom, you know, and knowing how to go about that
because that that's my thing. I don't really micro dose.
I play with it. Occasionally I'll, I'll take a
little piece or something, but I can't get it right for some
reason. You know, it'll, it'll, it's
either I don't feel anything at all, which is kind of where you
want to be. I want to be in an elevated
mood. But then sometimes I'll take it.
I'll mess up my whole day. And I'm a music executive, so I
have to communicate all day long.
So if I have a day where I get knocked sideways, it's going to
ruin everything, you know what I mean?
So. Yeah, let's.
I don't think we mentioned that you are the manager for Yelawolf
and you also have a cigar company called Murder Cigars and
you are also a professional photographer.
So kind of like a a polymath here.
That's right. That's right.
Yeah, I'm doing a little bit, I'm doing some real estate right
now. We're, we just launched my
website, cleaned up the website to be more on brand with what's
going on now. Yeah, we got a lot of cool stuff
going on, man. I got a great team and I work
with a couple of really good artists, really incredible
artists. Yelawolf being the main 1, you
know, and he's, he's extremely supportive of everything I got
going on. That's awesome.
And so when you do these excursions and things like that,
do you ever use that to help kind of fuel your creativity?
Or is it more of like a spiritual seeking adventure kind
of a thing or what's going on there?
Great question great question So I've been business for the last
decade and my mother, before she passed, she always used to
remind me to be creative because I originally came up I went to
magnet school for theater arts. I went to another magnet school
for visual arts was in a Memphis College of Art.
I'm, I'm an artist at heart, visual, but so yeah, I mean, as
far as mushrooms and psychedelics in general, but
most mostly psilocybin. It brought me back to who I was
as a child and I'm very, very thankful.
They've inspired me to be more creative and creativity as
therapy, you know what I mean? So in turn, in effect, they've
allowed me to be less stressed. I used to drink a lot.
I didn't think I had a drinking problem at the time, but I was
partying with all the artists I work with and I also wasn't
running anything. I was the merch guy.
I was the lowest guy on the totem pole, took 1/2 an ounce
one time. And my intention was to figure
out how to get the drinking and check because I wouldn't drink
every day. But I was the guy that would get
in trouble every time he did drink, right?
So the mushrooms. I swear after that trip I didn't
even like to taste anymore. But I'm also not a sober person.
I'll, I'll gladly have a glass of wine with you, a Margarita if
we need to, you know what I mean?
But it's interesting how it shifted everything.
And then after that, I was able to rise through, you know, the
different things in the business because I wasn't drunk all the
time, you know what I mean? But.
Oh yeah, you don't have to convince me, man.
I, I, I'm not a fan of alcohol at all.
And not just because obviously, you know, I've known a lot of
people and people, my family and stuff that I've had either
issues or pass away, but just the fact that doesn't do
anything for me. I think psychedelics, cannabis,
things like that, or for me have always, you know, I like to
learn when I, when I get in those zones, I like to learn
something or figure out a problem or, you know, get, get
out there. You know, philosophically, I
don't love the idea of like, numbing myself, if that makes
sense. I'm the same way brother.
I'm the same way and I feel like the longer I've stayed away from
it, not to get too far out there, but like things where you
start to realize you can drive your reality and you focus and
you study, you know, and, and then things start to fall into
place. You know, life's going good.
I've noticed it. The, the more I hone in on that
superpower when I drink, I drink so, so rarely that when I do
drink, it takes me a couple days to get back to my mojo.
You know what I mean? Like it's not, it's not as as
relevant until I get that out of my system.
So I, I do everything I can to stay away from, if there's
something celebratory, I'll toast or, you know, enjoy a
drink or whatever. But yeah, mushrooms have done
that. But also like you said, I mean,
creativity for sure. But also, man, mushrooms keep me
sane. And I know that sounds crazy
that you do something that makes people crazy or think they're
crazy to stay sane. But I do several different
businesses. As we mentioned, I deal with a
lot of different personalities. And I have to turn from, you
know, the guy that's straightening this guy out to
the guy that's lifting this dude up or helping this lady out.
And you know, we're talking about merch one minute, the next
minute we're talking about mushrooms or photography.
We're switching lanes constantly all day long.
And that's, and that's tough, right?
But when we go on tour, you're dealing with a bunch of
different personalities. Lot of them are really good, but
they're different. Some of them are bad, you know
what I mean? Like life, but a lot more of it,
more frequently. And I always take a big dose
ceremony before I go on the road, no matter what I have to
do. I'd rather go with one pair of
clothes and make sure I get that ceremony in, you know what I
mean? And then when I get home, same
thing to wash it all off. It's like a soul shower, you
know? And everybody around me will
tell me, I mean, they've gotten used to it and say, like, dude,
you need to trip mushrooms. You need to go take that, take
care of that, you know? So it's become such a part of my
life. And people around me are aware
of that as well. Yeah, and I was going to ask you
too. So being involved in like hip
hop hop and having artists and stuff like that, You know, I,
I'm a musician myself. I'm more into like jam bands,
jazz rock, that kind of, you know, fusion stuff, you know,
the the psychedelic stuff has always been kind of tied to like
hippies, like Grateful Dead Fish, that kind of stuff.
Is hip hop culture starting to embrace psychedelics or is that,
you know, is there there always been an underbelly?
I feel like it's, you know, if if there's a connection there,
it's probably somewhat more recent based on.
Just observation, Yeah, I think, I mean, you're right.
You're definitely right. A lot of a lot of the hip hop
community from my experience, seems to be, you know,
suspicious of it or, or nervous about it.
You know what I mean? And I tell him I'm nervous every
time. You know what I mean?
I'm usually I'm nervous right now about the next time, right?
That's that's not a reason not to.
There's other reasons, but I would say Andre 3000, in my in
my opinion, I think he he might have dabbled, you know what I
mean, just just based on pry the same reasons you would think so.
And there was an obvious shift that I can relate to in his
career. And I think it was incredible
and beautiful. A$AP Rocky I think is 1, you
know, and there's a, there's a handful of man, I think it, I
think it has its place. I've heard Kevin Gates talk
about using psilocybin. But no, it's definitely not as
relevant as like a hippie community or, or rock'n'roll or
something like that. But even the world in general, I
hear a lot about micro dosing and chocolates, you know, and I
don't hear as much about the fruits and the and the sacred
aspect of these. These things right, but.
Yeah, it's the the, the reverence thing.
I mean, look, I mean, when I was in high school and stuff and
look, I've always had this like subconscious wanting to explore
more. So I've never just been like,
oh, let me just take this or whatever.
Like it's never been like, oh, I'm just going to take these
compounds and, you know, trip out, man, or anything like that.
You know, there's always been some reason or intention or I've
done it at concerts. I've done it at a lot of
concerts. But yeah, in terms of that, I
think the the idea of it is people like, oh, I just want to
see colors and patterns or I just want to, you know, get out
of this mind space that I'm in or whatever the case may be,
party whatever. Anyhow, especially like, you
know, MDMA and stuff, I mean, those are pretty heavy in the
party scene. But when you look at like
psilocybin, I mean, I I think that there's some there is
something magical to it that even the first few times when I
was younger and didn't really know a lot kind of set me on
that path. But you have to be receptive to
it too, if that makes sense. Like if again, if you're just, I
know people that same did at the same time, same way as whatever
in their life went way off the rails, you know, So it's not
like it's a cure all or a, a panacea that's going to fix your
mind or your problems or anything like that.
But I do think having, like you said, that you were always
interested in mysteries and things like that, I think
knowing that there's more to life and using it as a tool to
kind of investigate that, I think that's kind of where I've
landed on in my later years where I don't need to do it
hardly at all. If you know, right now.
I got a lot of stuff going on in my life.
There's been times where I did it a lot.
There's been times where I've done it a little, you know, so
it's there if you need it and you don't always need to do it,
if that makes sense. The 100% and I'm, I'm big on
again, safety, you know, I don't like to promote high dose and
all this stuff without making it crystal clear that I know and
understand that that can be very dangerous.
And there's a certain protocol that you have to take to do
that, you know, as safe as possible.
Can't even say safely, as safe as possible, right?
But I tend to use mushrooms. And again, this is not something
for someone who's new to this, but I mean, when I'm at my
worst, when the world is all over me and I'm stressed out,
you know, what happens to all of us.
I don't mean it's, you know, too crucial.
But when I'm in a place where I can't stop complaining, you
know, there's certain things going on and I'm angry I have to
go out to that circle and eat 9 grams.
And the reason I eat 9 grams, I've taken an eighth before.
And man, I have all these thoughts, all these ideas, all
these things go through my mind and I, it doesn't make me sick.
I know that sounds crazy to people who don't know.
I know you get what I'm saying. But you know, some people don't
understand that if I don't get that out of me, sometimes I've
been worse off after the trip then I was before.
And I was searching peace, you know, I was looking to be
chilled out a little bit. So I stick to my 9 grams because
it gets the job done. I get sick every time.
Again, I know that's not, doesn't sound pleasant, but I
feel so much lighter, you know what I mean?
And I feel incredible and I spread that incredible, the best
of my ability to everyone that I come in contact with.
And that's my goal is to just wash off any sharpness, any
acidic vibe that I might have and get myself back on the
frequency that I'm proud of. Absolutely, yeah.
And you know, do you the, the, I prefer the macro obviously, too.
I know microdosing is kind of like a big trend, but I've
always been a macro guy in the sense that when you do one of
those large doses, you don't want to do it for a while.
You want to marinate on the things that you learned about
yourself and the insights and things like that.
When you do the the 9 grams, like how, how often would you
say time? How many times a year do you
think that you even do it? Probably not that many.
Man, when I have it, when I have it my way and I'm not gone next
week, I got to go to New Zealand and I'm back on tour in
November. So it's like it's hard for me
right now and it's about to be cold.
But if I have it my way every two weeks, every 14 days, and,
and again, it's, it's very regulated, it's under super
control. There's a couple people who
aren't present who know that I'm here and know what I'm doing.
You know what I mean? I take every single precaution,
but I also need that two weeks for one, for any kind of
tolerance. You know, you don't want to get
into some tolerance thing. You don't want to overwhelm your
system, right? And you also need time to
integrate. You know, I personally take a
lot of lessons from the mushroom.
It's definitely not just colors and waves and things like that.
It's lessons and it's not easy. You know what I I know you're me
and you were on the same page. You, I know you're understand
what I'm saying, but it's like, it's not easy, you know what I
mean? But it's worth it, you know,
It's like you got to have the courage to walk through that,
understand that, get those lessons.
I don't want to come back to the mushroom unless I properly
integrated and practiced what I promised I would practice, you
know what I mean? There's things in that moment
that are so you can feel them in your bones, you know what I
mean? It's like the most serious thing
ever in your entire life. And I take those things very
seriously. And integration is maybe the
most important part of the process, you know, proving to
this, whatever it is, whether it's within me, I don't claim to
know. I don't know if it's within me
or if it's something without me. Definitely feels like it's
something without me. But again, I can't claim to
know, you know what I mean? But I do know that I get those
lessons and it's important to implement them in real life.
Oh, for sure, yeah. And you know, it's.
I was talking about this, I forget who with who, maybe I
think Matthew Paddle Mary a couple of episodes ago, but we
were talking about it's almost like a dream sometimes when you
come out of it. I started writing things down
while I'm in those zones because it's like I said, I, I don't do
it often anymore, but when I do silent darkness meditation, it's
almost like a fact or I say fact finding mission, not a fact
finding mission, but just like a mission to explore my creativity
and, and, and really kind of explore my mind and things that
I've been thinking about philosophically and things like
that. So if I come up with an idea or
an insight or whatever, I write it down.
Sometimes you come out of it and you're like, even though you
just wrote it down, you're like, I don't, that doesn't make
sense. It's not, that doesn't make
sense, but it does. It's not like, Oh, that's not as
big of a breakthrough as it was when I was in there because I
think that when you're in those states, there's other things
happening. Your mind is operating on a
different plane. So things that are clear to you
in that moment are not clear when you come out.
Like I said, almost like a dream.
So I think it's important, you know, that, you know, maybe,
maybe there is a disadvantage to me writing things down too, but
I've also gained some stuff out of it too.
So I think it's. It could be, could go either
way. I think that's incredible, man.
It's all it's something I've I've done through the years.
I'm working on a book with my fiance called Hello from another
lifetime psychedelic archaeology or psycho spiritual
understanding. And it's it's exactly what
you're saying. But she'll know when to wait to
the right point where you know, you can be in a spot in your, in
your trip where it's not OK to talk, you know what I mean?
So we kind of figured out a way to get where she knew when to
talk to me. We would come up with topics,
ideas to explore, almost like she was asking a Ouija board or
something, you know what I mean? Would ask me in that space.
And then she would write it down and we would record it.
And then the next couple days, part of my integration, I would
journal and just riff on those topics and see what came out
right. A buddy of my Danny Newman, told
me that we don't really come down from this frequency the
next day. You know what I mean?
I found it really interesting. It's like is any Newman.
Like PD Newman. Absolutely, yeah.
PD. Newman.
I've had him on the show probably 8 times.
That's my boy, man, that's crazy.
I don't. Know I love, I love PD, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. No, that's my brother right
there. In fact, I've been trying to get
him back on the show to discuss his books Ghosts.
But yeah, we'll get we'll we'll figure that out soon.
But yeah, he's a he's a good dude.
He's actually in the documentary we made too, as within So
without from UFOs to DMT. Yeah, he's a really good dude.
Oh yeah. No, he is a great dude.
But actually it's it's small world because that's not even
who connected us. Actually, Dennis Walker Micro
AKA Micropreneur is the one that connected us.
Then it's another solid dude. Man.
That's my boy too. Good guy.
Hell yeah, Hell yeah. So when you're you're so you
said you, you mentioned you're making, you're writing a book
with your fiance. Do you have like a release date
of mine or are you still just in the midst of the creating of it?
We're in the midst of creating it and we've been working on it.
And obviously it only happens when I'm on the trip.
Only when I'm on the trip. Like I said, I'll riff on it a
day or two after. But the the main archaeology
comes from the trip, right? And we don't have a release date
right now because we're so concerned with it being
absolutely incredible. You know what I mean?
I don't want to make content. I don't want to use AI.
It's all coming from the mushroom.
I'm listening to mushroom as the third author, you know what I
mean? Because I, I got tripped out one
night and I said I don't feel right.
I wasn't even going to put the book together because I didn't
feel right. I felt like it wasn't my work.
You know what I mean? It's I've looked back over it in
the last couple of years and was really pretty blown away.
But it's just stuff coming from the mushroom coming from the
trip, you know, and I'm, and I'm honored that that we're able to
get it. For sure.
That's awesome. So have you done is have you
only done psilocybin or have you tried other compounds and this
is psilocybin is just your favorite one or?
I've tried other compounds. I've done ayahuasca 2 separate
occasions. Both times.
One time was two nights in a row, one time was just one
night. It was cool It I don't I think
that the shaman might have went a little light on me.
I asked him not to, but there was a lot of people in there who
had never done any hallucinogens.
So I get it. I understand.
I mean, people were going crazy, losing their mind, getting sick.
I felt a little different, but it didn't affect me the same.
And maybe because, you know, just something I do, but I tried
that. I've definitely smoked DMTI.
Enjoy it. I don't take as many lessons
from it, you know what I mean? It's, it's, it's more like a, a
roller coaster ride than, than class.
You know what I mean? Psilocybin mushrooms are just
like, and I mean, it's metaphorically, not literally,
but like church, you know, I mean, it's more like it's
mystical, it's spiritual, it's nature, you know what I mean?
It's you still. Kind of there too.
Even at a high dose, you're still, yeah, you might be out
there a little bit, but you're still there too, you know, like
you're not so far gone or so far in a different realm where like,
you still have a foot in this reality.
Right. Absolutely.
No, you're right. And it's yeah, man.
Yeah, no, I, I, I, I it's a it's weird, right?
I mean, just to think about, there's this ancient thing and
most people don't even realize we're actually closer in the the
lineage of evolution to mushrooms than we are, like
plants and trees and things like that.
That's incredible. And, and I feel like I've always
said the, you know how there's a mycelial network below ground.
I feel like there's this like psychic invisible mycelial
network above ground. You know what I mean?
It we're, we're all on this frequency, as you mentioned,
like a couple people we've got in common.
You know, it's like, I just keep bumping into these people and
finding these people through this.
It's like web of mycelium above ground.
It's invisible, you know, I know it's sounds crazy, but I don't
know what seems to keep happening.
But as far as other psychedelics like I, I, I bounced it around.
Of course, I've tried a ton of LSD growing up.
I'm just, I don't want to be, I've seen people get burned out
on it. You know, I don't want to be
really careful of that because I don't feel that psilocybin will
do you that way. And I still, I would use it once
a year or something like that. I don't, I don't, I don't visit
LSD very often. But other than that, man,
psilocybin just speaks to my soul, you know what I mean?
And not everything does, you know, there, there's enjoyment
in all those things, but but I can't take it as serious.
It's not a sacrament in my world, you know.
Oh, for sure. I mean, psilocybin is by far my
favorite compound too. And it was one of the four.
Other than like cannabis, it was like one of the first
psychoactive compounds I really got into.
And I mean, oddly enough, later on in my life, I mean, I have
really bad OCD and anxiety. And that was the one thing that
helped me kind of get out of this like mind loop that I was
in that kind of. And I had already had obviously
a relationship with it and understood and then started
seeing literature, you know, anxiety and mental health stuff
and, you know, starting to do things like that.
So, you know, I was like, why not, you know, revisit this old
friend and yeah, it's been super beneficial and helping me
understand myself in my mind a lot more.
And yeah, I mean, there's a lot of data and research to to fall
back on now with all that. But at the time it was, I mean,
I'm 41, you know, we're talking over like, you know, like 25
years ago or something crazy, you know, So but yeah, I know
it's fun to see where it's all kind of going.
And it's fun to see the path that even like cannabis, you
know, it's, I live outside of Detroit.
And before that I lived in Chicago.
I grew up in outside of Detroit, moved to Chicago, you know,
after college and then moved back here just recently.
And yeah, I think that it's just seeing how cannabis has kind of
evolved in both places, the Detroit area and Chicago.
And yeah, it's, it's, it's, I would have never thought if you
would have told me that when I was younger, 'cause like you
said, these things used to be super legal, super regulated,
super, you know, hush, hush, you know, if you even talked about
this kind of stuff, it was like, Oh my God, you know, But at the
same time, like I said, I grew up on Grateful Dead Fish, that
kind of stuff. Was going to see those shows
when I was 15/16/17. And there's a whole underbelly
culture with that, with all the, the compounds and everything and
that and literature and like electric kool-aid acid test and
on the road. And yeah, man, I mean, it's,
it's good times. It's, it's, it's fun to see
where it's all going now when you do these, you know,
ceremonies and things like that. Do you have a specific ritual or
is it just kind of get up in the woods and get out?
I know you mentioned the crystals and things like that,
but. Yeah, So it's yeah, that my bad.
I didn't even interrupt you. But yeah, there's there's
definitely, there's a I'd actually, I'll share it with
you. I'll send it to you.
I don't, I don't share it publicly because I I feel it's
very private and it's very meaningful.
But I have a the only thing I can come up with is like a
passage or a prayer. Like I said, it's not, there's
nothing religious about it, it's just that's kind of the
reverence involved, you know, and it's, it's thanking the
mushroom and giving respect and intention to the mushroom.
I have that. I meditate with whoever I'm
going in with. If it's someone who's never done
it or never went big, I usually just sit for them and I, I've
faced the other direction. I'll smoke a little bit and I'll
meditate. I'll keep the fire going.
I don't even look at them, you know, I tell them I'm not going
to talk to you unless you desire my conversation.
If you don't initiate the conversation and keep it going,
I'm just going to say yes, you know, are you OK?
OK, You know what I mean? I keep it very brief.
And you know why, you know, But it's a, it's a ancient, as you
mentioned earlier. It's very ancient and I believe
very futuristic at the same time, you know, and the ritual,
as far as the ritual, it's the meditation, the practice.
Man, I'm always nervous when I'm making the tea.
Like if another person's over here, I've noticed I don't look
them in the eye when I'm in the kitchen.
I'm real, like I'm real spastic and kind of all over.
And for a while I was like, man, why am I like that?
And I was like, well, hell, I guess because I'm about to eat 9
grams of mushrooms and my body knows it, you know?
But I'm literally in the kitchen when I'm making the tea.
I'm very nervous because I. Get that way after after I
ingested I'm like what the hell? Did I just.
Oh, yeah, yeah. When it's this, Wait, listen,
you had the baby. But yeah, it's all.
And then we do the meditation. The meditation is super, super
important to me. You know what I mean to clear
your mind, kind of get your get your thoughts situated.
I take air mattresses like camping air mattresses, you
know, the one person gets there as I get mine.
I have my same spot every time we take toilet paper, water, you
know that type of thing. Like I mentioned, lock up the
phones, no weapons, everything is locked.
The how you can't even get in the house.
You're so far from the house in the woods.
All you could do is get lost in the woods and you don't want to
do that, so you just stay on your float, right?
And then were you in Tennessee? Yeah, I'm in Tennessee.
Yeah, you got. Bears, you got.
Mountain lions you got. What's one of my only fears out
there? I went out there alone one
night. It took me till 2:30 in the
morning to get the courage to go out by myself.
Mainly because of the wild animals, not the mushrooms, you
know, but it's, and then like I said, the crystals, you know,
that's a, that's a part I've just kind of integrated into it.
They're mentioned in the passage in the prayer, and then zero
music, you know what I mean? It's just just the forest, just
the sounds of the animals, the birds, the bugs and the fire,
you know, And I've had a couple people come out there and say,
is there any music or is it, what are we going to do?
I said, just give it a minute, you'll figure it out.
You know what I mean? Once, once those nine hit,
you're not thinking about music. The nature provides the music.
That's right. That's right.
And actually, you know, the, if you've got it, you said you, you
did, you say you have like a campfire and stuff going.
One of my most transformative experiences was camping and in
front of a campfire and seeing these crazy.
And I, I still won't go into it because it's private.
As you mentioned, you got to, you know, there's some things
you keep close to the, the vest here.
But that being said, yeah, one of my most crazy experiences was
seeing visions in a in a big fire while I was camping.
So, yeah, I mean, I think that you're you're on the right track
in terms of like the setup for, you know, having these
experiences for sure. Well, and thank you for saying
it. And I've also, and, you know,
again, a lot of these things you can't really back by science.
So you have to kind of take it with a grain of salt.
If it's within me, if it's without me, cool.
I come out happier, a better person.
I want to be nicer to people. And I'm doing better in my
regular life. So whatever the hell is going
on, it's working. But I feel like sometimes, man,
you know, you'll make a good point once you're to the point
where you are talking and it's like there's certain animals out
there, certain birds, it'll like kind of say, yeah, yeah, what he
said. You know, I mean, like a bird
will chirp and he'll only chirp when you made a good point and
then we crack up about that. But being in that same place all
the time and caring for that place.
I left after one trip and, and when I left, I locked the gate
and I was leaving and then I went to come back from locking
the gate and I just dropped to my knees and was like, thank
you, You know, and I, I mean, I'm not a necessarily a
religious person or anything like that.
Just something about the forest made me feel like I had to thank
you, you know what I mean? I wasn't going to be back for a
month. I was going on tour.
There's just a lot of a lot of love and respect out here on
this land in this forest, you know what I mean?
And it's all I feel I have. I have some, some native enemies
on my father's side. I don't know him.
So I don't know how much or any details, but I feel a very
Native American approach, you know what I mean?
I feel like I have a relationship with the land, a
relationship with the mushroom. And that sounds outlandish to
some people, but it's, it's been a thing longer than it wasn't,
you know what I mean? So I mean, all these cultures
from other sides of the world are right here in our own
country and you know, South America, everywhere.
It's like this has been kind of what they did.
It was just now that is not. So to tap back into it.
I mean, I don't, I don't know what got me to that point.
Probably interest and things like that and the mushrooms.
But I'm very thankful, extremely thankful.
Yeah, that's awesome, man. Yeah, we've done this thing.
I go on this camping trip. Well, I haven't the last few
years. Actually.
I haven't since before COVID. But before that I had been every
single year. I mean, because during COVID we
had our son and, you know, there's just a lot of stuff
going on. But before that I got every
single year since I was like 5 years old.
And then when you become of age, you go off, you do, you know,
you go in the woods, you have fun, you know, whatever
experiment. And then when we became, you
know, high school, college, you know, obviously you're doing
different things. And yeah, I mean, the the woods
of northern Michigan have been very kind to to me and my
insights. And are you in the near the
Smoky Mountains or just? I'm I'm in route to the Smokies.
OK, keep going. You if you left Nashville, I'm
on the way to the Smokies. Oddly enough, I've oh, go ahead,
sorry. No, no, you go ahead.
You go ahead. I was to say, oddly enough, one
year we went to Bonnaroo after we graduated high school.
That was when it was still all jam bands playing there.
And I think it's Manchester, TN, but we stopped off in the
Smokies and had a couple experiences there and yeah,
super amazing woods there. And I know my former Co host of
my cousin, he's spent a lot of time hiking those mountains too.
And was it Klingman's Dome or something like that?
He always talked about the. Hiking my language bro.
How about in the Mount Lecant? Probably.
Yeah, something like that. But yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm all
about that. I love all that stuff so.
Mount Lacan is one that I probably went to 15 years in a
row and I probably tripped seven of those.
And we would go up there and I've taken a lot of good
friends. There's some crazy stuff
happened up on that trail, but it's 5 miles up, five miles.
Stuff happens in that area in general.
I know like two people that have been permanently banned from
Gatlinburg, which is weird that like neither of these two people
are even from Tennessee so. Damn.
Yeah. That's crazy.
Yeah. No, I love it up there, man.
Smoky Mountains are really beautiful.
Oh, for sure, man. I I love, I love nature in
general. But yeah, the Smoky Mountains
are specifically very beautiful range.
So when you when you come back from tour, do you feel like it's
almost like a, a, a necessity to do one of these ceremonies?
Is that kind of like a like decompress process?
It's the first thing I do, it's the first thing I do.
Like, you know, I'll get home, rest, but I mean, the next day
everybody knows I'm going to the woods and I'm going to reset.
And I think it's in everybody's best interest.
You know, it's inspired me to, I've told this a couple times,
but we've had a wolf, had a friend, Yellow Wolf had a friend
named Pooh Bear, who he introduced me to at some point.
And Pooh Bear had this thing where he was just really good
positive guy. And instead of saying hello, he
would just always say happy birthday.
And I, I loved it, but he was so eclectic and like, I just didn't
have it in me to, to do that. I got it and I wanted to do it.
And then just like last year, year and a half ago, we were on
tour with me and Wolf and it was a late night and he was like,
man, we should start doing the happy birthday.
You know, I mean, just, let's just do it.
So we started doing the happy birthday and then we took it a
step up and I would get, you know, they have riders in the
green room where you get whatever the artist wants.
And on the rider, I will put a birthday cake every single show.
And at the end of the show, I get everybody involved from
everybody on the crew, the people in the hallway, the
security guards, everybody bring them in, sing happy birthday.
When it's time to say who it is, you let everybody say their
names and it is good luck to take a bite.
So, you know, we're just taking this stuff, man, and trying to
be positive, like even as adults, remembering to step
outside of any hypnosis that may have a hold of you and remember
where you come from. You know what I mean?
That's important for me at this point in my life.
Remember the child within, They say the creative adult is a
child who survived. I love that quote.
I don't know who it belongs to, but it's so important for me to
use that as like a mantra and understand creativity is therapy
and don't get caught up in, you know, the things that everyone
wants you to get caught up in, you know what I mean?
It's important to clean that off and kind of calibrate.
For sure. Oh, yeah.
I mean, there's been plenty of times where I've had heavy
things happen where it's nice to just kind of, you know, doe sit
down and kind of navigate from there.
So I can, I can totally understand your need to to go
through that process. What about like creativity?
So like, you know, you're a photographer, you know, you,
you're involved with music and, and artists and things like
that. Do you think that these
experiences are essential to those processes or do you how do
you, like implement things that you learn in those realms into
your creative processes? So that's something I'll say
about DMTDMT is really inspired my creativity.
I don't really take too many life lessons away from DMT, but
it inspires me to be creative. I was doing DMT on the coast of
Hawaii at a place called 7 Sacred Pools off the road to
Hana. I can't remember the name of the
town but it's off the road to Hana and it's outside of Maui.
Anyway, after I did that trip, I mean, as I was in the trip of a
wave machine, I sleep to and I was in this DMT zone and I
thought as I was coming to, I thought I was at my house in my
bed and I thought the waves crashing on the shore where my
wave machine. Then I came to and all of a
sudden I was taking pictures. I was just shooting random
landscapes and nature and stuff like that.
It's only reason I had the camera.
And then all of a sudden I had this idea.
It is, it's easy to say like take a picture, flip it, mirror
it, and then you get this entity in the middle, right?
But getting creative with that and using that in nature, like
you could go take a picture of a path on the woods, just a
straight up picture and then split it down the middle, flip
it and mirror it, you know, symmetrical and you get like
this weird entity. We, you know, we know what that
is. But I started getting really
creative with that idea and doing it with fire and doing it
with different kinds of stones and rocks and imagining how it's
going to look ahead of time. I'm working on another
photography book. These things all can take a
couple years. It's not any rush.
It's called Entities Patterns based on what I'm telling you
right now. And it all started from that DMT
trip on the coast of Seven Sacred Pools.
So there's that. Psilocybin just inspires me to
to, to spend my moments wisely and remember that this time is
passing currently and to live in the moment and living in the
moment, you know, I need something to inspire me to do
that. And creativity is that
inspiration. That's that tool.
That's that therapy, you know. And as I mentioned Rhyme earlier
when he came to town, this is a crazy story, but my mother used
to always tell me be creative, be creative.
And I was like, yeah, I got you. But I'm good at this business
and that's what pays the bills. So I'm doing it.
I'm doing it. Rhyme is a really well known guy
was introduced by my buddy Dax and he called one day and he
said Ryan told me he wants to come see you.
Now about two years before that they were doing like a
psychedelic road trip and then we're going to stop by my place.
But they never made it to Tennessee and I just never
talked to him since then. And they called me randomly like
Ryan wants to come see you. It was a weird call.
I don't really know what's going on.
I was like, alright, cool. So so he comes to the land, he
takes me on some DMT ceremonies. We were we were in his own all
day. We played music, we played
drums, we played singing bowls. He's throwing notebooks at me
and markers and like, draw, right?
Let me hear you. You know what I mean?
Like, he doesn't even understand at this point.
I don't think what it is he's taking a part in and didn't even
have the knowledge of. And he said at one point we're
just both sitting on the porch, like, you know, tripped out
smoking DMT. And we're like, I don't even
know why I came. And then he told me about an
hour later, he said I figured it out.
I said, what's that? He said I know why I'm here.
I said why? He said to remind you to be
creative. And by the time he left, I mean,
like I said, we had been playing instruments and drawing and
writing poetry and it wasn't all the the best shit ever, you know
what I mean? But it was, it was the act, you
know what I mean? The act of doing it, remembering
to do it and making yourself do it, not worrying about if it's
good or bad. Some of the stuff we made,
played and created was incredible.
But that's not the point. The point is the act of it, the
therapy of it. And he said to me, I know why I
came now. I said why?
He said to remind you to be creative.
And I told him that my mom used to tell me that all the time.
What are the chances of you just showing up?
And then the next day I took him on a psilocybin trip and I have
my little rules and regulations. I rolled up two joints
beforehand and I said you smoke, you want a joint.
He said, how many did you roll? I said two.
He said I'm on the same program as you.
He said everything you do to the T, I'm following your lead.
And then that night I got lost in the woods and he said I was
there for about 3 hours. He searched the whole house.
We ended up having a great. It was kind of like, he's a real
psychonaut and I'm a real psychonaut.
So it was like playing ball with somebody who could play, you
know what I mean? And we had an incredible
journey, man. I can't wait till he comes back
because it's always fun to let you know.
You got to be careful when you're doing this with someone
who's not really that season because things can go let, they
can go left when you're not, but they can really go left, you
know what I mean? Like when you don't know what
you're doing, you haven't had enough experiences.
I have one. It's been about a month ago now.
Last journey I did was with a friend of mine and and she
started feeling like she was dying.
She was like I'm it was about 5 hours in she was like I'm dying
I keep coming back I'm dying I keep coming back.
And something allowed me I ate just as much as she did.
Something allowed me to come back long enough to go over
there and be calm and I wasn't bothered by it.
I wasn't freaked out. I had everything in me to tell
her my my advice was definitely tripped out because she was
like, I'm dying and coming back. Am I OK?
Help me talk to me. Breathe.
And I just got to breathe right. And I said, I said just keep
dying, just continue to die. And then she's I'm dying, I'm
coming back, I'm dying to come. Just talk.
I said, die again, please die again.
And then the moon, it was a full moon that night.
The moon was shining on her. And I said intuitively, I said,
now bask in the light of the full moon and please be reborn.
And you know, I'm again, this is metaphorical, right?
Like you can. Sounds like something that's
like inscribed on an Egyptian temple or something.
It felt like something that would be inscribed on Egyptian
Temple Man. It was it was the craziest.
What felt like an initiation, you know what I mean?
It was like, but I was able to step outside of that zone.
And I'll tell you something else that I think is really
interesting about that mushroom specifically.
So my fiance knew about a buddy of mine gave me a a bag a while
ago and I ate on those for a couple months and I loved them.
They were really healing. They just, they were just the
most incredible mushroom I've ever experienced.
I ran out. The guy who gave them to me
couldn't get a hold of them. I was like, man, I had other
mushrooms coming in and they were great.
They did what mushrooms do, but it just wasn't mystical.
It didn't, it didn't hit like sacred, you know what I mean?
And, and I was at this festival, walking through the festival in
the, in the population with the, with the people.
My artist Yelawolf was performing and someone walks up
to me. And I mean, they, it wasn't
super random. I mean, a lot of times he'll put
the people he works with on a social media.
They knew who I was via him, right?
But I'm walking through the crowd and I'm teaching my nephew
how to shoot. I'm teaching him how to shoot
photography and how to use the camera and giving him things to
shoot, trying to help. And right about that moment
we're working on the camera, someone says, hey, are you
Edward Crowe? I said I am.
I said, how are you? What's your name?
I went to introduce myself and they said, man, I was giving his
bag of mushrooms and told it was very important to get it to you.
I said, well, that's incredible. I was like, you know what, I owe
you. He said, you don't owe me
nothing. It was just important.
I give it to you. I take these back and they are
the exact mushroom that I've been telling my fiance I have to
have this mushroom. If I don't, I don't know what
I'm going to do. They were the exact mushroom.
I took them home and guess what told you I do 9 grams usually
with one person. There was 18.5g enough to try to
clone right and enough for two doses.
And at the end of that trip, it was almost like the mushroom
found me after hearing me talk about it so much, you know,
again, I'm speculating. I'm, I'm, you know, whatever it
is, what it is. But at the end of the trip, I
was cleaning up the mess and we had brought firewood that was
wrapped in like cellophane or Saran wrap.
And I was cleaning that up to I was going to come back and clean
everything else up in the morning.
But just out of respect for the land, I was picking up whatever
trash I could. I picked up one with my left
hand. I went to pick up another with
my right and I felt something slimy in my right hand and I was
like, oh, did I pick up a slug or something?
I open my hand and there's a fresh white mushroom that I just
grabbed out of the grass. We took a flashlight and I told
my friend Pam, I said, if you can find one more of these, I'll
give you 2 hours and $200. You know what I mean?
When I tell you, Mike, there was zero.
They were nowhere. It was the craziest thing ever,
man. It was almost like the mushroom
was like, you know, like winking at me or something.
That was crazy. Did you ever find out what
strain it was? The one that I found, yeah.
Or you know, you mean the one that.
The one that you that said it was important that you.
I was told that it was originally, I was told that it
was true albino teachers, but I've had some other true albino
teachers and they just weren't the same.
You know what I mean? It could have a lot to do with
genetics and things like that. They weren't built the same.
They look like two different mushrooms.
One was short and stout, the other was like airy and fluffy.
The good one. And yeah, I was told they were
true albino teachers. I don't know for sure, but I
know I definitely want to keep them around.
Yeah, I don't know that's for sure.
And actually, they've been decriminalized here in Ann
Arbor, Are you? Serious.
What? Are you still the side of
mushrooms? Yeah, where the University of
Michigan is, and actually there's one I was completely
thrown. They're called Enigma.
I was completely thrown off and yeah, these things really, you
know, very, very potent. So yeah, there's a lot of, like,
cross breeding, you know? You know, you got your penis
envy, you got your golden teachers, you got your.
Actually, to be honest with you, one of the better podcasts I've
heard. I don't know.
Do you know who Hamilton Morris is?
Yeah. Hamilton Morris did a podcast
with the guy that created basically the penis envy strain.
It was like an abort from the the Amazonian Terrence and
Dennis McKenna batch. And yeah, it's kind of a crazy
story. I recommend people go check that
out if you haven't. Listened to it.
Yeah, really for sure story behind it.
I've noticed. Like I said, man, I stick I
stick to the golden teachers and the true albino teachers.
Golden teachers, I'd have to take a bigger dose just because,
you know, they're not as potent. But yeah, the true albino
teachers are are my my thing for sure.
Yeah, I mean, the the only thing that's ever like below, like
visually, like I remember my buddy and I, so this was, I
think I was 17. We went to the Group C that it
was called the other ones. It was the Grateful Dead minus
Jerry Garcia, obviously. It passed away and we were at
the Palace of Auburn Hills, which no longer exists, where
the Pistons used to play. And this, this hippies like you
guys looking for anything. It was like, it was, I'm not
joking. It was an acorn cap.
It was like this big. It was like we split.
It was 1/4. We like split it in half.
It was crackle dry, you know, But yeah, no, you know, I'm not
like huge into like, oh, what strain is it, man?
Because I think that, you know, they all kind of do similar
things. But I do think that there are,
there are certain times where it's like, Oh my gosh, like this
thing's double or triple the amount of potency that a normal
cubensis or whatever. And that could be what it is
too. It could be a potency thing.
I mean, you know, I hate to. I know, like I said, the
uninitiated probably think I'm crazy for continuing to talk
about a purge. But like, there's a difference
in the true albino teachers when you hear someone really purge on
those, I mean, it almost sounds like they're speaking another
language. You know what I mean?
Like it's, it sounds like another language and a lot of
the other mushrooms that I've seen, it just sounds like
they're throwing up. You know what I mean?
And there's, I don't know, man, it feels like there's something
to that. You know, again, all this stuff
is speculative. We can't really prove anything.
My whole mantra and, and, and take away is just as long as I'm
doing what I can to be a better version of myself, you know what
I mean? And and I'm being happier to
people and I'm finding a better meaning in life, whether it's
within my own mind or it's something without, it's all just
as good. Oh, for sure, man, there's no
doubt to me that can't like, you know, previous, you know, my
late 20s and early 30s, cannabis and psychedelics have definitely
made me more introspective, better person, you know, and,
and you know, I think that there's something like that
comes with those, like they make you not just evaluate, but it's
like if you have a high dose psilicide and it's like, I got
to get my shit together. I'm going to do this, this,
this, this. And it's, it's important that I
really do all of these things, you know, as opposed to just
like making a list and like, Oh, I'm going to knock this out this
week or whatever. It's there's almost like a pact
that you have with like the mushroom where you're like, Oh,
I've got to fulfill these things, you know, that I learned
kind of a thing. Do you ever feel that?
100% I love how you set a pact. Like I agree completely.
And I don't like to go back to the mushroom until I feel like
I've lived up to the pact, you know what I mean?
Like until I've done my best at at doing what I was, you know,
inspired to do, you know what I mean?
And last time, this last trip I told you about with my friend,
we both like one of the takeaways.
I take away a lot is like ideas of death.
Not not in a way that's like, and I know that's a common
thing, not in a way that's like like a metaphorical rebirth.
Like we're all aware we're not speaking, you know, your
physical body becoming reborn, but a metaphorical,
psychological, spiritual rebirth in adopting some of the ideas
that we can learn from death, right?
Death, when death comes, there's no explanation.
You could have breakfast planned in the morning, dinner tomorrow,
stuff to do for work. It doesn't matter.
When death comes, it's time to go, right?
There's no explanation. So something that you know, when
you're, when you're busy and handling business and, and a lot
of people want to explain things.
I've taken the backseat to allowing people to explain me
things. You know how I'll very kindly
explain to them that I can't really.
If I sat through every explanation throughout the day,
that's all I would do. So that's one of the things I
took away is OK, cool. When death happens, there is no
explaining. So I'm going to, I'm going to
abide by that. Another thing is I've got all
these things. I don't, not even, I don't mean
expensive things, just things. We've all got junk drawers,
batteries and sunglasses and, you know, all kinds of random
stuff. And I made it a point to this
last time was like, when you die, what happens?
They get rid of all your things, They give it away, they sell it,
they keep a couple sentimental items.
That's what I'm going to go home and do.
So that's what I went home and did.
I put every piece of furniture in my house except for my bed
and my end tables on Facebook Marketplace for free.
Had people come pick it all up. I don't want it.
I don't want the energy attached to it.
I don't think it'll be bad energy for someone else.
But the me that wasn't the me today.
Sat on that couch and thought like I thought before I was me,
right? And that's a lesson that I take
from death. Get rid of all that old stuff
and it's OK if I got to go without for a little while.
I don't have it where I'm just going to go buy all new stuff.
It'll just make his way back into my life like it originally
did, except for it will be attached to new energy.
You know, my whole new outlook on life.
That's what I need the objects in my room and in my home to
reflect. That makes sense.
And I think that we live in a weird time to where, you know,
you can have a lot of things, right?
We're not living in the 1800s or whatever.
You know, there's Amazon and online shopping and you see
something and you like something and you know, and you've again,
we're attached to things like you said, couches, beds, TV's,
whatever it is desk, you know, And if you felt like that was
important to transition into a new, you know, mode of yourself,
then you know, you got to do what you got to do.
I completely understand that. So let's pivot a little bit
here. And then I don't know if you
know this, but we do a segment called Mike's Mind Melters where
I ask you 5 philosophical questions.
We'll get to that in a little bit, but why don't you tell me a
little bit about your cigar company?
I'm not a big cigar guy, but my dad is a huge cigar guy.
Like I bought him some nice cigars for his 60th birthday.
So what? What's?
The you out of box of them murder cigars.
So the reason we called it murder is because my name is
Edward Crow and A and a group of crows is considered a murder,
right? I also found out later that
detectives back in the day would go in and because the crime
scene wouldn't smell so pleasant, they would smoke
cigars. That's kind of why you see the
whole detective smoking cigars in the in the TV shows.
But anyway, murder cigars. It all started when I got a
phone call. Someone was offering me a cigar
brand for Yelawolf. And I called Wolf and I told him
and he said, I guess the wolf has always got my back and he's
always true to himself. Like if there's something he
won't do, he's not going to act like he will.
So he said, he said, I don't smoke cigars, you do.
And I was like, all right, cool. So tell him no.
He was like, no, tell him we want to do one for you.
And I said, well, that's cool and all, but, you know, you're
the celebrity. You're the one that they want to
do this. He basically let me know that
he's got my back. He was like, Nah, let's do a
cigar for you. I like the idea.
So then my other partner, Kyra Wolf, designed the the band and
the logo. It's evolved.
And, you know, the box took a while and things like that.
It took a 2 1/2 years to get the tobacco narrowed down and the
cigar just right. And I'm really, really proud of
it. It's not just a white labeled
situation, you know what I mean? It's our cigar and it's a it's a
really enjoyable cigar. It's a mild like cigar you could
smoke all day long if you wanted to.
We launched it at Smokin O Cigar Festival and I think it's Wilkes
Barre, PA with best cigar prices Laura and Jonas from Blackbird.
And it was, it was incredible, man, everything that I thought
that they wouldn't like about us.
You know, you think about the cigar business kind of like like
a good old boys network, right? Like there's gatekeepers, you
know what I mean? There's people who are going to
regulate whether or not you're allowed in, you know what I
mean? And I got there and every single
thing that I thought the packaging was different.
The packaging doesn't look like they're packaging.
It looks more modern. You know, it's a little more
harsh. It's, it's just different.
All their stuff, like most of the stuff at the festival is
traditional. And I'm a fan.
I love that look, right? But I liked it.
We did something different. Everything that we did different
is what they came and complimented and they absolutely
loved us. So we were welcomed with open
arms and then the product was good on top of that, which is
most important. You can't smoke the band, you
know what I mean? So.
That's awesome, man. I, I love, yeah, I love the idea
of that. And I'm, again, I'm not a huge
cigar guy. I don't really like smoke,
smoke. I even like, if I do, you know,
I vape cannabis, whatever. But like I said, my dad smokes.
I bought him. I think it was like a nice
anniversary box of padrone. Do you know what that is?
Padrone, dude, Absolutely. Yeah.
And I grew up. He's always had like, Cohiba
shirts and Monte Cristo and you. Know he's a real smoker.
Yeah, he's always been into like, we, I remember him taking
me to like the cigar shop where there's like a bunch of old guys
sitting around smoking cigars, cutting cigars, that kind of
thing. So.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now it's something that I
started to do as a pastime. I love cigars, I smoke cigars.
I'm definitely not a connoisseur or anything.
I don't know all the all the terms and all that.
You know, I'm learning on purpose because we started a
cigar brand. We need to be informed.
But I'm really, really thankful that it worked out the way it
did and it turned more from a side hustle like this would be
cool. It'll be nice to have this
little brand to all of a sudden it's selling and people are
buying it and people are enjoying it.
Yesterday we did a fundraiser for the Davidson County Drug
Court and we were the only vendor there and we were giving
away cigars. We weren't, but we were the only
vendor that was allowed to be there.
I mean, the Davidson County DA, all the judges, the criminal
defense attorneys. I'm sitting here thinking, what
are we doing here with a cigar called murder?
You know what I mean? Like, it was incredible, man.
It was so awesome. That's funny that it's more so,
yeah, it was definitely like a a paradox moment.
How do you use like source the Tibet?
Like so like I, you know, where does I know tobacco?
Where does it come from? Like Nicaragua?
Cuba, Cuba, Dominican, Ecuador. We do a Dominican filler and an
Ecuador wrap. OK.
And it's a Maduro, so it's a darker cigar.
It's got like cinnamon, some floral notes.
It's a mild body smoke, you know, it's, it's right in the
middle, you know what I mean? So it's a good one, man.
Do you ever use any any of the wraps for for anything else?
No, no, no, no, no, you can't. Well, it's a real cigar.
Doesn't. No, I know, I know.
Well, yeah, I get what you say. Like did you unwrap it or?
Yeah. I would have tried.
To get into some blunt wraps or something eventually, like we're
going to do because murder cigars are only going to be sold
at like top shelf high end cigar lounges.
But you know, I have the ability to get in many, many, many gas
stations, tobacco stores. I don't want to put murder
cigars in there. They're two top shelf, you know,
but we do want to have a product like a blunt wrap or, or leaf,
you know what I mean, something. Or even if you get something in
the dispensaries, you know. Right, exactly.
For sure. That's awesome man.
Congratulations on that. I appreciate that.
Well, Are you ready to get your mind melted with Mikes mind
melters? Melt my mind, Mike.
Let's go. All right, Edward, Are you ready
to get your mind melted? I'm nervous.
Just so, these are 5 philosophical questions.
Answer them the best you can. There's no right or wrong
answer. Some people probably debate
that, but just do your best and let's have fun with it #1 what
is something you believe in that you know is probably wrong or
illogical but you are just not being honest with yourself?
Something I believe in. That's a tough one, man.
That's a tough one. Is there any kind of phone or
friend or or any kind of? No, I would give, I'll give you
an example. So like somebody that maybe his
religious or believes in God, but deep down they know that
maybe there is no God. Not that I believe that or
anything, but that's just an example.
Right, man, honestly, I don't, I don't know that I do believe in
anything. Like that's one of the things is
we can try another question, edit this out.
But one of my things is is I'm kind of like so open minded.
I believe everything and don't believe anything.
No, we don't have we don't have to edit anything.
That's your answer. That's fine.
There's look, you know, I've got a wide array, you know, array of
people that come on the show scientists.
And I think if you're I'm ominous with myself, but I think
that there are people that are not honest with themselves that
are fooling themselves in some way.
So that question is just to open it up, maybe there's a cognitive
bias or a blind spot you're not aware of or something like that.
But yeah, we don't. I'm reaching to say I was
reaching to see, but I think that is my answer is to be so
open minded that I understand that I will learn forever,
forever be a student. I will never know everything.
You know what I mean? And I think there's a beauty in
that. But no, I don't have anything
that I can think of that I believe in, that I'm not being
honest with myself. Well, that's a great perspective
and actually an ever changing philosophy is a is a great
philosophy #2 Do you think there is an objective purpose for
humanity and if So, what? An objective purpose for
humanity. Objective meaning like it's on
purpose or. Objectivism, like for everybody,
like it's to all live, you know and and love or so like we all
have one not like yourself, purpose or telos, you know, but
just. The purpose of all humanity,
yes. I mean, my answer from my small
perspective in the universe would be, you know, I believe
the highest frequency is love and good energy and spreading,
you know, like doing what you can to create a ripple in
reality that brightens many other people's days, makes many
other people happy and inspires other people.
You know, I mean, that's my, my answer to your question is love,
happiness, smiling, you know what I mean?
Doing things to literally make people happy, happier, and try
to create that ripple. Oh for sure, that's awesome.
It's a great answer #3 do you think humans are special or
separate from the rest of nature?
If the answer is yes, give me your best example or explanation
of why. I guess my answer would be on
the fence because I believe that humans are different.
And I think it's interesting because we're one-of-a-kind, the
only species on the planet that drives cars and goes to school
and does all the things we do as humans.
But are we special? I guess it that has to be
determined by what we mean by special, Like special.
If different is special, then yes, but special, no.
I mean, I think some of nature just sits back and quietly
watches us, and it's probably just as alive or more than we
are. You know, some of these things
are hundreds of thousands of years old.
So I guess that's my. That's a good answer.
Melting my mind, Mike, you're melting my mind is working.
Yeah, the the question is just to, you know, some people think,
Oh well, we make tools or something like that, but
actually there are primates that make proto versions of tools.
You know, the difference would be we make recursive tools,
which means we make tools that make tools that, you know, so
like we're, we're on a rapid pace to keep separating
ourselves from nature. And the reason why I asked that
question is twofold to just to pick people's brains and see
what they think. And also to basically, you know,
some people are religious or do think we have some sort of like
divine thing in us that's separate from the rest of
nature. And I'm just curious what their
thoughts on, you know, people that believe that, what, what
are their thoughts on that? So.
Well, my, I mean, my main thing is we've discussed throughout
this podcast episode is, I mean, I, I like to try to tune into
nature as much as possible. So I guess me personally, I
don't feel special. I feel connected and a part of
you know what I mean. And actually, you know, the idea
of like nature is God. That's a very Spinoza who is a
famous philosopher. That's his idea.
And actually, that's what Albert Einstein embraced is kind of his
spirituality too, so #4. What's here?
What do you think happens when we die?
Very, very broad, Very broad. But I believe in a couple of
different ideas. I mean, obviously reincarnation,
you know, plays a role, but I also think that maybe I don't
believe in any specific religious aspect of of what
happens, you know, that I'm aware of.
But I think that like your mind state throughout your life, you
know how you purposely drive your emotions and what you let
affect you and whether or not you contribute to the ripple.
You know, the ripple's going to happen regardless, whether it's
a bad ripple or a good ripple, but you know, whatever that is,
I feel like whatever state of mind you're in, that might be
your heaven or your hell, you know what I mean?
Not that those things are a place, but if you carry that
mindset into eternity, if it is an eternal thing and we go back
to being one with whatever this whole thing is, right?
I'm a big fan of the time when they refer to God as the
unspoken word. You know what I mean?
Because I believe as humans, it's got to be really hard to
wrap your mind around what the creator must be.
You know what I mean? And, you know, they made the
analogy specifically in the Tao, the Dao physics where it's like,
you know, and we've heard this several times, but the
similarities between our cells in, in the universe or the
planets revolving around the sun, you know, the sun being a
nucleus. And so it's all, it's all very,
there's many different ways to look at it.
I'd say like, what if we're just a cell in some much larger
creature's body? You know what I mean?
Like, and then the only other thing that I would think about
death, what could potentially happen is reincarnation.
I had a journey one time real quick.
If this is OK, can I tell you something?
Take about a minute. Go, go off.
So the my mother bought me a cabinet from a museum in in
Carthage, TN. We had no idea.
We had never heard of this tribe or didn't know what the cabinet
was. She just knew it was a medicine
man's cabinet and felt I should have it hand carved from a
museum. She bought it, brought it to me.
The little piece of paper with it said Yoruba tribe shaman's
cabinet. So I was leaving for Europe.
I put my mushrooms in this cabinet.
When I got in the Uber to go to the airport.
There's a gentleman driving and he was obviously an African man.
And when he was driving, we were having small talk.
He asked me where I was going and this and that, and I said,
where are you from? And he was driving and he turned
around and looked at me like I should know.
He said I'm from a place you may have heard of called Yoruba.
And he looked at me like that. And I just was like, whoa,
because I just got this cabinet right.
And then I go to Europe. He says in my phone, he said it
to me at first, May God watch over you on your journey in your
Reuben language. And I asked him, I said, can I
please record that? He said absolutely.
So he said it into my phone. I still have it.
And then I went to Europe, came back and I was in my bathroom at
the time that I was telling you about doing a big dose trip.
And I laid back and man it when I came up, I asked my my lady.
I said, who is that? And she says just me but I
didn't see her. I was surrounded by African
people in tribal gear and it could have been the future, it
could have been the past. I have no idea if it was the
future of the past and I was either being born or dying.
They loved me and I love them and I'm pretty sure I was one of
them, you know what I mean? And I mean, it felt that strong,
that potent. And it's ever since then, Yoruba
keeps coming to me. I went to Cuba and met a Yoruban
St. and not on purpose. I just bumped into him.
I was in Cuba and then before this cabinet, I never heard of
you, but I didn't know what it was or have any idea.
So anyway that that could be just a psychedelic vision.
Maybe I'm tapping in with something, maybe it's all in my
head, maybe it's a past life. So that's my answer.
Well, I mean the the synchronicity is a real
synchronicity. It sounds like it's, you know,
the, you know the. The.
The weird thing about a synchronicity is I've never
really heard a good explanation for it.
There is. So I think Carl Jung used to
have these back and forths with this physicist, Wolfgang Polly,
who worked on the Manhattan Project, and they would go back
and forth and, you know, give ideas of, you know, what it
could be or whatever. Yeah, I think that when you have
those moments where things happen like that, you have to
pay attention and, and listen cause the universe is trying to
speak to you and connect to you or give you some sort of sign or
symbol or something. And you, you know, if you're
there to witness it or you're, you've got an open mind to it, I
think that there can be benefits to that.
So that's awesome. Absolutely.
I'll see. I'll see the, the thing,
whatever it is, the creator, the God, the universe.
I think it's, it's kind of like a citizen, another buddy of
mine's podcast. But it's like you're playing
with a puppy, right? Like it's like, and the more you
throw the thing to fetch, the more it plays back.
But if you don't throw it, it doesn't play back.
But in this case, I feel like the puppy, you know what I'm
saying, just playing back with the universe.
And the more that I do that, the more I receive, the more signs,
symbols and synchronicities. Yeah, that that's interesting.
And I, and I hope there was a time where I was like so deep.
When I first started the podcast, like 8 years ago, I was
going through like a spiritual awakening.
My mom had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast
cancer. She's luckily fine now.
She's in remission. But at the time it like really
shook me up and kind of sent me on this journey to look into all
these different topics and spirituality.
I was raised Roman Catholic, but by the time I was 12 or 13, I'm
like, these people think they're right and nobody, you know,
nobody else in the world's right.
Like this doesn't make any sense.
So and then I revisited it when I got older and started, you
know, getting into psychoactive compounds and spirituality and
thinking about like aliens and stuff like that and
contemplating the universe. So, yeah, man, I think that I
think when, when you're there to witness these things, you know,
like I said, I think they're the, the universe trying to give
you a message. However, you got to be careful
'cause I think you can start to put too many pieces together or
get too deep in it, where you become, you know, disassociated
with actual reality. I think you have to like walk
that tightrope between, you know, or this liminal path, you
know, if that makes sense. Agree, you can definitely go too
far down a rabbit hole and it might be hard to come back out.
Oh, for sure. And I I know those people too.
So, yeah, that, that, that exists.
All right, last question. Here's the quote leading into
it. 2 possibilities exist. Either we are alone in the
universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.
That is a quote by Arthur C Clarke, one of my favorite
quotes. Do you think there is life
elsewhere in the universe or do you think we are alone?
I do, man. I believe that there is, but
it's hard for me to believe that they're little green guys shaped
just like us flying in on flying saucers.
You know what I mean? Like, I believe it could be so
much deeper, you know what I mean?
It could be multi dimensional. You know, it could be so far
away that we could never ever be able to comprehend the distance.
You know, I, I don't know how to quantify it, but I do believe
that there is intelligent life in some capacity outside of
planet Earth. You know, again, whether it's
another dimension or realm or, you know, but it's hard to
believe in what we are told is an infinite universe, that
nothing else exists. And we happen to be in this
Goldilocks zone, you know, of perfection for life, you know.
And what was the other part when there are second parts of the
question? No, no, I was just saying
either, you know, the quote was either we are alone in the
universe or not. Both are equally.
Both are equally terrifying, meaning that, you know, if we're
not alone, what else is out there?
You know, like, what could it be?
And if if we are alone, that's pretty fucking scary too, right?
Because. Yeah.
But yeah. Man, I mean, I appreciate you
answering all those. I know, you know, the, the goal
of the questions is to get people to talk about and think
about things that we kind of put on the back burner in our own
minds, like death and cognitive biases and, you know,
existential questions and things like that.
So, you know, I just, I want to ask everybody, whether you're a
scientist or a shaman or, you know, a hip hop manager that
does ceremonial, you know, mushroom trips, whatever it is,
I just want to like hear what people have to say, you know?
Love that. Yeah, I think as far as the the
life somewhere else, I mean, or it could be something as crazy
as, you know, you walk by an anthill and never, you would
never think to pay attention or look down and and say hello to
the ants, right. I mean, maybe it's something
like that, you know, maybe it's something so far past us that
we're just an Ant hill. There's so many possibilities,
but I don't think that being alone in the universe is one of
them in my own mind. Yeah, I mean, the other mind
melter, if you will, would be what if we were the first
though, too? So we would be alone.
But we're just, we're the beginning of the story or the
beginning of the journey or something along those lines.
And we're the ones about to seed, you know, the universe.
Although I'm not even convinced that life started here.
I think that it's possible that, you know, we look at asteroids
and comets and things and the idea of panspermia and even
mushrooms can survive the vacuum of space.
So who's not to say that you know we're part mushroom?
Well, I've heard that like I think you said it in the
beginning, right? Like we're closer to.
Well, so like we have a common, yeah, we have a common ancestor
with mushrooms that goes back 1.6 billion years, I think, you
know. So we're closer with mushrooms
and we are with plants and trees and stuff like that.
That's incredible, man. That's really crazy.
Hell yeah. Well, let's wrap it up, bro.
I had a fantastic conversation with you and I'd love to have
you back on sometime in the future.
Absolutely. It's, it's been a great time
chopping it up with you and I, I appreciate you and I enjoyed our
conversation as well. For sure bro.
And yeah, shout out again to Dennis, AKA Micropreneur for
connecting us. And you also know PD Newman,
which was kind of a, a crazy when you mentioned Danny.
I'm like, oh shit. So yeah, man, small world.
And you know, all, all the people that you know, are in
this realm are actually really cool people.
The podcasting author, psychedelics, psychedelia kind
of stuff. I've, I've met very few turds.
So yeah, you know. Same.
Now I've had good experience so and the people that you name, I
mean Dennis has been instrumental.
Big help. Awesome dude.
He's awesome. You want to talk about positive?
I've never met somebody so positive in my life that lives
half his life in a Speedo. Speedo so.
Well, no, no, that comedy tracks me up.
This guy was showing me he's got like flat a bunch of flags on
different ones and stuff. So, but yeah, listen man, I
really appreciate it. If anybody's interested, I will
have Edward's link down below. Check out all of his stuff, his
photography, Yelawolf murder, cigars, anything else you want
to plug. Edwardcrow.com.
Everything is there. Edwardcrow.com.
I will have the link down below. And yeah, I really appreciate
it, man. And we're going to end this
podcast the same way we had all podcasts, which is we love
everybody. Stay safe out there and we'll
catch you next time. Peace if you would like to
support mind escape, there's many ways you can do it, but the
best way to do it is to click the link tree link down below.
I have everything from merch to our Patreon page, our Patreon.
By the way, I archived a lot of the mind escape one point O
episodes on there. There is still some available on
our YouTube channel and our Spotify and Apple podcast.
However, like I said, if you're looking for a specific older
episode, it might be on our Patreon which has been archived
and it's $2.00 a month and there's also exclusive content
on there as well that was never released to any other platform,
so please go check that out. You can also check out our
documentary that Maurice and I made a few years ago called As
Within So without from UFOs to DMT that is available on there
as well. There's also a director's cut
video versions of Mindescae. New telos are available on
YouTube and Spotify, and it's also available on all audio
platforms like Ale and whatever other audio platform you use to
listen to your podcast. O please subscribe, like and
follow us and we'd also appreciate any nice review.
The.