I'm Brandon. And I'm Jesse.
We're. Cannabis school having cannabis
infused conversations. With everyday.
People, Cannabis companies. Celebrities.
And your mom. Welcome to the sash.
Hey, welcome to the Sash. Hey, so we kind of wanted to
give these sessions where Brandon and I are getting
together and and we discussed a topic and one topic that we were
talking about that really resonated with both of us.
And it was good, 'cause we could have a really open conversation
and you can learn a little bit more about us.
So this one's really personal. You you've already read the
title over there, why he left and why he stayed.
And what we're talking about is faith, or organized.
Religion, not a gay relationship.
Brandon likes to go into that. That's totally fine.
If that's who you are, great. Me, yeah, I'm a breeder.
I went through. What?
Bro, I'm a breeder. What do you in your former life?
But it is just kidding. No, but talking about religion
and faith and things like that and we don't wanna go to, like,
you're not gonna get preachy here by any means.
We've learned that over time. We're all the same, but there's
certain things that dynamics that society create, including
religion, that helps to kind of create this rift even though.
Was same, same but the different.
Yeah, but the the the whole thing is that they're trying to
be able to bridge a gap and being able to say look, no,
really like, I'm like you just follow me.
I have the right path. I have the right answers.
When as humans like I, I look at religion the same way as my kids
eating food. Like sometimes my kids like all
I want is cereal or one of them's like I want chicken
Nuggets or hey, I want something real healthy like it, it
changes. It varies from child to child.
So for me to say that oranges are the only fruit that you
should eat and that's it. Well, 'cause, I mean, we talk
all the time, of course, and we've had endless discussions
over the years. The more we've studied other
cultures, other religions, other dogmas, it's really just
realizing that every single one is just based on stories and
that there's many similarities across all of these stories.
Well and and The thing is though also it's gonna be what one
experiences because to break it down in a such a a very linear
fashion as as you're stating right now, I I would push back
on because there are certain things that I've experienced in
my life and I came from a very atheistic background like.
I not originally. No, no, no.
I was born into something, but I didn't believe.
It, yeah. I didn't I so to say that.
But The thing is, and this is kind of what I wonder, is I was
also born into it, yeah, But I don't feel like I ever believed
it. Now, I don't understand, but you
grew up in a family that was quite different from mine.
Mine. My dad was a convert.
My mom was a convert to the LDS faith.
Yours is five generations deep. It's no longer a religion, it's
a cult. Yeah, it is.
It is part of who you are. It is part of who the family is.
Yeah. There are things that you have
to follow and say in order for you to be a part of, said it.
I mean, if if you would have done what you've done now with
your family and let's rewind it back to the 90s, say you're now
30 and you come out to your family going, hey man, pot's the
way. Oh, it would have been you would
have been ostracized. Well, 'cause even then I hadn't.
I would never came out that way, no.
No, but I'm just saying like, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm fast
forwarding it because if you would have come to your family,
one, it was incredibly illegal at that time.
Oh, highly. Two, you would have been seen as
your life is over and you're gonna do heroin soon which
sometimes when I watch you do dab and then hit a bong and then
hit another machine. I I contemplate.
But if you think about it when and and and and I'm not.
I'm not trying to take anything away.
It's just observation from the outside.
I I feel for you on the sense of what faith typically means to
people from the outside looking in what is what is faith and the
basic sense of it. It is a group of people that
have a belief structure that they feel creates a a world of
of love, a hope and connect. Not even necessarily that.
I think a faith is just a similar belief structure in
something it. But I mean, it's tied more to
the emotional part. Hope religion is not a but I
look at just a theoretical side where it's just ABCD.
But there are some who are. And this is not every religion
or every person, but there are the fanatical extremists out
there who aren't about love and that, but they still have faith.
So that's what I'm saying is I don't think faith necessarily
has. Narcissists.
Some people in religions are narcissists.
Some people outside of religions are narcissists.
Mother 100%. No, I just think like there are.
We look at the extremists in certain religions.
You look at like holy wars that have been, and I don't think
that those are necessarily over love, but it's this idea of
faith is still based around it. And we can have religious
things, but I think the faith and belief is it's everyone has
these ideas and it's really based on feelings.
Well, you had brought up before we got on about a close friend
of ours and he's like, I don't believe that there are so many
different religions. I believe there's like over 8
billion religions because each individual.
Follows even every that religion to their own belief within.
That and and to take anything right from Catholicism to to
Mormonism to Judaism, you pick whatever ISM, what's associated
with it. There's an original concept and
then the concept is slowly changed based off of those
individual religions and then when they get to a certain
period. Inside it you even with like
biblical times you go to like the Alexandria back when they
had counseled Nicaea and they voted on what was biblically
believed on or true at that time.
And then you get team Henry who alternates and alters the Bible
and you know how many other religions history is written by
the victor or the person in power.
So how many time have these stories that our religions are
based upon been retold or changed or you know, but if you
look it's most religions have those similarities in their
stories that we discuss of like absolutely.
But it's like, I don't think one religion is wrong.
I don't think one religion is right.
Absolutely. But for why I left was like.
No, I get. Where you?
Yeah, we've had well. Yeah, well, everybody will learn
this and it and it's over time. I mean, of course we don't want
to take like that would take like 6 hours to really like peel
that onion. We could have a Reader's Digest
version. Yeah, there you go.
The Reader's Digest, I mean, from outside looking in.
And I'd like you to fill in these gaps.
You grew up in a fifth generation Mormon.
Now, for those of us who don't know what a Mormon is, I'm sure
you've visited those nice gentlemen or girls that come by
with the white shirts and the smiley faces and yeah, and and
some of them are really cool. Some of them creep the shit out
of you. I've had lots of those too.
And yeah, of course, interesting.
Like, because I don't, I don't consider everybody inside the
faith that I'm involved with to be the same as me.
Not even close. Well then.
But a lot of them do. A lot of them feel like I do
these things. Now we're connected because of
that. Well it's it's and this is what
I don't like about that culture because we grew up in the same
area is a lot of it is in this area is did you meet your
checklist. Yeah.
Like and that's what I didn't like about it because.
Because you don't. You grew up in it.
Yeah, you don't like that, but I know lots of people that I have
met. That is how they grew up.
I I think the reason why I I have a a happier disposition now
to be completely transparent. My family, my my extended
family, my brothers and sisters, like, no, I don't think any of
them are a part of the religion at all anymore.
My mom isn't. She's more of just agnostic.
She doesn't really follow anything.
She doesn't practice anything. My dad, he's the one that
brought our whole family into the LDS faith by my parents
marrying all that thing. He's really not a part of the
church anymore. My brother definitely isn't a
part of the church. My sisters, they have left.
I'm the only one that's a part of that faith.
And The funny thing I I I find with a lot of people who leave
the faith is they act like they were still in the faith.
Hence I can't believe you still believe in that.
And that is the the sides that go there, because they go, well,
you're really intelligent or you're very well read or you
know these things. But at the same time, one's
trying to be right. And I don't believe in truth.
I don't believe in any truth. I believe there's just a
furtherment of knowledge. So I learned new things, meaning
that my mind can change, and it always does.
And because I'm outspoken and I'm a bit gregarious, it's
easier for me to get a pass. But if you get somebody who's
really passive and all the sudden they start to say the
same things with me, I guarantee they'd be ostracized 100%.
Their families would disown them.
They would, I mean. I was very worried about because
in the Mormon culture, when I started looking and studying,
because I had never really questioned that, I believed that
I grew up in A and it was like. This is what you do.
But me and my younger brother,
we started sneaking out of class when I was maybe 12.
We would sneak out and go home from then on.
And then when I was 16, I asked to work Sundays when I got a job
because I didn't want to be at church.
I didn't want to go. I had to go.
How did that conversation go with your parents, 'cause I know
that they were very about the aesthetics of it, how people
sell them. Yeah, but at the time I had, I
didn't. I worked with my dad all the
time. During weekends during the
summers, I would help him build homes and do all he's.
One of the hardest working motherfuckers you've ever met in
your life. I mean, his dad is just like,
nuts. He just hurt his shoulder,
shoveling snow. Well, but that's after he just
had nine discs replaced a year ago and he's remodeled 3
apartments in that, like since then.
Like there's so much crap and he's still finishing his home.
Like there's so much stuff that he's doing constantly.
He's just. Constantly.
Working, yeah, but that's brilliant.
But it's just, yeah, but you were always going with that.
No, no, I'm sorry. I I I went off and gave your dad
props. So anyways, Greg, you're
awesome. But yeah, you were going into it
like your your. Family was just so I had to get
a job because I totaled the car that my parents got me to drive.
Oh sweet. So you got out of.
Sunday school, three weeks after I drove, my three weeks after I
got my license, I totaled the car and they're like, well, you
can't get your license back until you pay ticket deductible
and towing. And I didn't have enough in
savings from working with my dad from that.
So I had to go get my first actual job working for a
company. And so it was a hey, I need to
be working these hours. And finally it was Hey, they
told me I have to work one Sunday every every month.
But you asked for it. I did and then when I became a
manager after like 6 months they were like.
Hey, you gotta be here almost every Sunday.
No, I told my parents that, hey, mom, dad, I have to be there
almost every Sunday, 'cause I have to open because I'm the
newest manager and it's the crappiest day.
So I from then on, even if I didn't work, it became because
it was such a chill job. It was at this restaurant.
It was. It's Utah.
Nothing's open on Sunday. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So we would bring in like an Xbox and ATV and we would play
Halo behind in the kitchen and just like because.
There's no there coming in there, yeah.
Yeah. Or we'd get there hours early
and we would prep and we'd bring in these airsoft guns and we
were running and jumping over the tables having airsoft wars,
and then we'd just hurry and sweep it all up before we
opened. Yeah, the store's no longer open
anyhow. They've been, they closed years
and years trying. To bring them back.
I did and I'm so excited. I love their cheese fries.
Yeah, I remember the cheese fries.
Shout out to training table, Love your shit.
But anyway, so that was that was how I got out of it.
And from then on I never went back.
I moved out at 18, right at 18 and my buddy we moved to this
BYU approved ward, which for those who don't know is a Mormon
school basically for university. Yeah, it's like joining a
convent or. Or like Duke.
It's like going to Duke or any of these other ones that are
religious. Or something like that.
Carver's a religious. One, isn't it?
Yeah, very much so. Do you have to take religious
studies? OK.
Yeah, it's more like biblical because it's a very Catholic
school. OK, Yeah.
So at BYU, you have to take Mormon studies, you have to go
through these things in order to attend their university, and
there's a lot of restrictions that they put in place.
Yeah, they have like a code of ethics or some.
Flip flops. Your hair couldn't be below your
ears and you could have a beard. Yeah, all of this stuff.
You can have a mustache, couldn't you?
No, you didn't even do a mustache.
You. Have to get a beard card like
you have to get an approval from your doctor.
Sounds like the fucking Navy. Yeah, it's ridiculous.
But so I moved out and I went to the singles ward with my buddy
Cause it was like, oh, there's going to be some women there.
And I was like, cool, I'm 18, like let's go see if there's any
cool women. It was like, I don't, I don't
like church. Why am I here?
Why am I going? I went like twice and I never
went back until I met my ex-wife and her family would go
sometimes. And so we started going And then
my youngest brother. So I come from a family of four,
four boys and one girl. And in EU, the Mormon culture,
it's pretty common for boys to go on missions.
Yeah, and an and an LDS Mission is a kid now.
It's it used to be 19 and above. Now it's 18 and above and you go
for two years. You have to pay for it.
I never went. I wasn't a part of the church at
the time, at that age. Oh, I kind of was.
I was involved. In you were inactive.
I was super inactive. The the Bishop always tried to
get me, come along to go visit families and stuff like that.
The Bishop is the religious leader of that small church
right there, and there's several different wards and that
individual. There's one individual per Ward
I. Think bishops are also in the
Catholic Church? That's.
Yeah, but they serve a different purpose.
They they it's more of like a priest or or a father that.
Would be there over the 1A. Bishop would be more like a
stake president in the Catholic religion.
That's what it would be. So it's just higher up on the
chain and they see over more of those individuals, those priests
and those fathers, right. So but it.
Yeah, absolutely it's it, it it sound like a nightmare.
And I mean I could imagine real quickly to go into it because
we're going right down that path.
Did your parents try to, like, coerce you, or talk to you or
get you to go on a mission? Everyone wanted me too, 'cause
it was just what all of our family did.
I have on my dad's side. On the elder side, there is a /
160 of us counting cousins, their siblings.
Like, there's kids. Like all of them.
There's just so many elders because they all have so many
kids. My dad comes from a family of
eight children, and then all of them had at least five kids.
And then, like, all of them. Yeah, And it's like, all right,
well, we don't have a lot of hobbies, but we know what we're
good at. So it was just interesting
because that whole side, every single one of them were Mormon,
except for I have one uncle. But he left back when I was 8.
He was almost ostracized, like treated way differently from the
family, sad. And now like people still see
him differently. It's been years, but like, I
feel closer to him than I do any of my out there uncles.
And that's because he is the most open, honest, loving,
caring person in the family. And it sucks because I see even
on like my mom's side, you know them very well.
They are all very staunch religious Mormon like LDS.
This mindset of perfectionism. Like the Not even necessarily
perfectionism, but the appearance of perfectionism.
Yeah. No, No blemishes.
No problem. Always happy.
Always willing to serve. Always.
And I I think that's great. That's one of the things that I
really enjoy about it. But yeah, no, I get it.
Like, I I know that your family's your mom's side.
I know very well. And you can see that stark
contrast between all of them. And then The funny thing is the
break from your mom and her brother, my father-in-law that I
have no contact with at all. My family has no contact with
but and and and part of it was the religion and and what he had
claimed over there. And that's something that I have
always been not fighting against, but trying to be able
to help. Like not all of us are cut from
the same cloth. It's very easy to be able to
from what you saw growing up. Well, in that same thing, the
mindset that my dad had is that same mindset that like my ex
wife's ex-husband had, where it's this very patriarchal, like
you do what I say because I'm the authority figure in here.
I'm the like. I'm the priesthood, the man.
I'm the priesthood holder of this home, yeah.
And there's been many conversations that we were sat
down and it was like, you will obey because this is what God
says. And God says that the kids
listen to the dad, the wife listens to the dad, that the
father is this like. Authoritarian figure.
He's an extension of God and you have to listen to him.
Yeah, it's this third party maven that makes all the
decisions. Yeah.
And it's really interesting. And it was like the concept of
free will that they teach you. Like, the whole basis of Mormon
religion is that you have free will.
But and but then it's taught within the people.
And I say the people, not necessarily the faith.
Always the faith at the top of the people.
And then it becomes a part of the doctrine.
That's the weird thing. It becomes part of the dogma
because it becomes so indoctrinated.
Because when you meet LDS people outside of this state, they
don't act like. That much better.
But again, it's based on the community, based on who's.
There, there's great people here.
I've had people that I grew up with who are Mormon, who I loved
this day because I know the people who they are are
incredible people. Oh, thanks, man.
And then, but you know that. And then there's other ones who
you see who are two faced and they like.
Oh yeah, Sunday faces is what I used to.
Call. Yeah.
And it's like, you know, I don't like that because it's fake.
And I hate, I hate fake. It's not worth the time.
It's not worth the energy. And I don't want to like deal
with that. Well and and we've seen a lot of
there's been a mass exodus of of a lot of faiths around the world
not just LDS but but for the LDS faith it's it's very
disheartening for them because it's you know what Brandon just
said it it's taught on well the the main principles are taught
on your freedom of choice right. You have freedom you have agency
to be able to do that. But I I like what you said there
because it's this you have agency as long as you follow
these rules and understandable right way the way they're
thinking about it. But again, that negates.
It even goes to like you've had this discussion with your wife
because your wife really wanted to make your kids go to church
and you were like, no, they have agency.
She really wanted it, but it's go because of the.
Mindset of how we grew up. Oh, totally.
And it's hard. It's still hard for her.
Yeah, but it's just something of like, OK, but if you truly want
your kids to have the agency, don't like, yes, they're kids.
You obviously have boundaries and limits to keep your kids
safe. Correct.
But is necessarily making sure that they are at church every
single Sunday in that guideline or is it sometimes like hey, no.
Yeah, I can understand. It's fine that you're at home
today. You actually brought up a
memory. My wife and I were dating at the
time, and her mom is like, she's a theologian.
I love the stories that have come.
They're awesome, but you know, and again, this is this was
taught to her now. Since then, she has opened up.
A lot. It's been taught to a lot.
Right. And it's it's not necessarily
breaking it. It's just getting a different
perspective. And that's why, again, I always
lean on I don't believe in truth because truth is final for many
people, right? It's saying that there's only
one way that Brandon can hit that bong.
There's only one way. How many different bongs are out
there, right? They had to put it in the
cannabis context in here because it is cannabis school.
But at the same time though, like when when she would go
into, like her hardcore theology, it would go into her
every day. And my wife and I I mean, I'd
pick her up at her mom's house. And when I would pick her up,
her mom be like, are you gonna come to church with us today?
I said no, that's not happening. And her her daughter, my wife
now she was like, no, I'm going with Jesse.
And she goes, well, I guess I'll be the only one up in heaven
then, you know or LDS people believe in three tiers of
heaven. There's other faiths that
believe in even more tiers of heaven.
Whatever it is, it's the top tier.
She believed that if because we didn't come to church, we
wouldn't be able to gain access to there.
And all I said is, well, if you're the only one being able
to go up there then it's gonna be pretty fucking lonely because
I don't. I don't believe in that type of
wherever is gonna happen we don't know.
That's that's the the concept of ideology like, but that's the
thing like there's no truth. There's only the furtherment of
knowledge. Like the more I understand, the
more I can apply and it's what I believe.
It's not what somebody can prove.
Like the best argument on there is you take up individual like
Neil deGrasse Tyson, right. Very intelligent scientist.
He is a theorist. He does not build, he does not
create. He only thinks and theoretical
physicist like him like even Cuku Taco or whatever his name
is he these guys. Like, I heard a really great
argument from another scientist who's a scientist like he
applies his learnings to actual shit.
We either make, create, or think where we can go.
These guys are like, oh, and it's the quasar and all this
other stuff, which is great and we have some information, but
they talk about it as dogmatic truth.
And how I can prove this is go watch Neil deGrasse Tyson on any
podcast and have him find an argument where he doesn't agree
with somebody else. It is the exact same way that
you will meet a very fanatical religious person talking about
the way to pray, the way to exercise your faith, the way to
encourage others to be a part of your faith.
They're so fucking on point that you are wrong no matter what you
say, and it's not a narcissistic idea.
It is truly a parasite. At that point, you are
brainwashed to do. You're an automaton.
You move the way we say, you do what we say, or else there is a
consequence. You don't get to go into the top
tier heaven. You don't get to VIP heaven if
you don't meet these. Where hot chocolate's always is
always hot, but just at the right temperature in your
porridge. It's never cold, It's never too
hot. It's just right.
And that's weird, this concept of knowing that we're gonna go
somewhere without a doubt. And then you're saying, cool, do
you have pictures? Yeah.
No. Do you have a journal where you
were writing? It's.
All based on ideas. And it's like, that's why it's
it's always funny when it's like this is true and it's like, no,
you might feel it's true and that's OK That's OK to feel like
it's true because all religion is based on feelings, and
feelings are only within you. Those feelings don't come from
another person, so no one can tell you that that feeling that
you had was like incorrect for you.
So let me ask you then, today we we Fast forward you.
You haven't been in the faith for many, many, many years.
Probably a decade. Yeah.
Now, how is the relationship with, say, your mom, who is
very, she's very religious. How is that relationship?
Do you feel like it's stunted in any way, that it's not fully
there or your mom loves you? My family loves me.
I feel like over the years, actually in the last 10 years,
that for my mom, I've always been closer with my mom.
So no matter what you've done, she's never shunned you.
Never pushed you away, so in. Truly acting as Christ, it
would. But you know.
As the faith of belief, yeah. You know my mom.
Totally. Like, I have nothing bad ever to
say. I can't even do your mom jokes
and feel OK with it. We know.
We've talked about that. It's.
It's just different. But I've always been closer with
her, Even so growing up where there's all these things that
are sins and frowned upon and you shouldn't do because you'll
go to hell. Like when I had sex with a woman
for the first time. Well, I'm so glad that you
classified that. Oh.
My God. With a woman, not my hand or
something. That goes up.
So when I had sex and I went and like I told my mom, not right
after, but like months later when I was having a real
conversation about stuff and I like I was talking to her and I
was like, this happened and she didn't judge me.
She didn't get mad at me. She was like, I was able to have
a conversation. That's cool.
And so my dad, I can't do that. I haven't been able to because
he's very much so. This is how it is.
Which is funny. I mean, I'm not going to go into
that, but that's funny. It is funny.
And so I just, I've never had that same conversation, like the
same relationship that I've been able to open up and do that
until more recently. It's taken time.
So with my mom, when I had decided that I was having my
records removed from the church, that was hard to decide because
it wasn't because I didn't want to be there.
You just. Didn't want to hurt her.
It was because I truly couldn't believe it anymore and it was
like I sat down and my brother was getting married, my youngest
brother around the same time and he was getting married in the
temple and to go to his wedding in the temple.
You have to have records. You have to have a temple
recommend. I had an active temple recommend
when I had my records removed. Yeah.
And I and you know what? I I applaud you on that because.
But I I sat down with him and I was like.
Was that hard for him? It was.
It was, but it wasn't. It was hard because he had no
answers and the thing that I said because.
He wanted to have answers. Yeah, because I said, Thomas,
the reason why I I can't be at your wedding is not because I
can't like, because not because I don't want to be there, but
because truly I can't be there. Because this paper says that I
believe that this church is true.
Then I don't, and I don't believe that these things are
there because. And I said, and it's hard
because I've looked for these answers.
And where I looked was in what I was taught, all of Mormon
history, Mormon literature, Mormon documents.
Because I was like, it was hard to go.
Everything I believed might not be true.
Everything I thought was true might not be true.
And yeah, I can go find, like you said, there's always biased
info everywhere 100%. That's why growing up they say
don't go read stuff because it's anti Mormon literature And I'm
like I don't want to read stuff that is biased against it
because I know that's there. That's not the perception that
I'm trying to understand. I'm trying to learn about this.
Well, and and coming from a point where you're just like,
'cause it, and I get it, where you were grown up in this thing,
where it's like, this is the truth, this is the truth, this
is the truth. And that's why I saw a lot of
people during the pandemic leaving the church, in my
neighborhoods, in my wards, in my, in my religious faction,
people were leaving like crazy because, and this is the way I
describe it, their faith was built on a sheet of glass, very
thin glass. It was built by others.
They never built their own foundation.
Well, it's just like mine. I had never really spent the
time to question or study and go, is this true?
Do I feel Because that's what it's all based on?
Do I feel that this is true? And then when I went through it
and I had like, all of these questions that I found and I
researched and all the answers that I found from the church
were not answers. It was circling around the
thing. And I'm like, you didn't answer
my question, You didn't address it.
And so my mom was like, so when I sat down and I was like, This
is why I can't believe it anymore.
And she's like, I don't, I don't have those answers.
And I was like, I know you don't mind.
Because I've spent. I've spent months and months
trying to find these answers, and I can't.
She was like, well, will you talk to Brother Branchley?
I grew up with him. He was a seminary teacher for 25
years. I was like, I would love to.
And so I sent him all of my questions and all he sent back
was the pre things that I had already read from the church
that skirted around it. And he basically was like, I'm
sorry I don't have answers, but this is all I can find.
And I was like, I appreciate you taking that time.
These are the answers that I had already found.
And This is why I can't believe it anymore.
And so I had to have that removed.
And Thomas, he had just gotten off a mission like a year
before. So he was out preaching to
people going, hey, come join our church.
Like this is our church, whatever, like baptizing people
into it. And so for him being a teacher
and then me coming to him and going, I love you.
I. So I over those two years, I had
a closer relationship with him than anyone else in my family.
I wrote him every week, No one else in my family, not my mom,
not my dad. No one wrote him every week but
me. And over those two years we
became incredibly close. So when he was getting married
and he's like. I want you there.
Yeah, and I would love to be there, but I was like, I can't
be there because I don't believe this.
And this card is supposed to be for these people who are like
highest believers back like in my eyes, someone if you hold a
temple recommend you should be like a true believer.
Like actually. Yeah.
And I mean, I, I I get that. That's why I like, you know,
hearing what I've said, it's contradictory to what a lot of
people would think about it. So you know, and that's and
that's awesome though if you're able to admit that to.
Yourself. I also have looked at now what
like even Book of Mormon wise like you can drink your own
beer. You can drink your own wine
according to the Doctrine and Covenants.
Like there are so many things that are taught.
Or like the original Book of Mormon.
That is what I read. Well, and and you.
Have the original print. Yeah, And that's the thing.
It's sort of like it. It changes.
That's why people change it. You just said it there.
You know, the history goes to the victors and that's exactly
what happens. Whoever is inducted to that
higher point of the Church which is the prophet of the LDS
Church, it would be the Pope of the Catholic Church as the
leader of that. Book of Mormon was rewritten and
they changed. A lot of things.
And that entire structure changed because before the
Mormon church structure was a trinitarian view of the Godhead,
a very Christian based Godhead, yeah, 100%.
And now in the rewriting, it changed Jesus from being God to
the Son of God and like it's created a whole different
structure. Which is fine, like every
religion has that, like every church.
It's not saying that their stories are incorrect.
It's just, I mean you could even go from Jaden and Thor.
So it's just it's a continuation of that and I think that's where
humans are always trying to be able to find that and you know,
to hear what you've gone through like absolutely.
Like I think that most people who are in a faith crisis, and I
call it a faith crisis because it's you're not in a place where
you feel comfortable anymore. You have so many questions.
And that's why like even with my own kids, I I teach them that
the truth is what you believe. But be open to change because
it's a constant. And if you believe that
something is 100% true in one way and then somebody shows you
something like the other side of the mirror and they go, it's
like a two way mirror, right? Imagine this.
You've got a two way mirror to use every day, whether you're
doing your makeup, getting ready, you know, pleasuring
yourself, whatever it is, whatever you're into, you're
doing it in front of this mirror.
And then one day somebody comes over and says hey let me show
you this little room. And you go into a room and
there's nothing but chairs and a recording, and it's your mirror.
From the other side. From the other side, To reveal
that would be terrifying, infuriating.
Could you imagine? But then your whole identity has
been out there, and it's been a. It's been a.
But that's what it feels like. Right.
You're being shown something, yeah, but it's not OK to you.
That's why I've always So now I don't.
I don't think there is a truth. I don't think there's something
that's like this. I mean, maybe it is, maybe there
is. But we have no clue.
We have no fucking clue. Well, the the way that I look at
a lot of of of religions is like cultures.
So you have cultures and then you have subcultures.
Within those cultures all around the world we have different
cultures especially like that great book I told you about
called the The The Culture Code. Great book written by a
Frenchman. Does he really had it nailed
down? Because if you take Americans
for example, and and the Mormon faith was born here in the
United States, nowhere else. So the Mormon faith here, and
and I call it Mormon or LDS or whatever.
Mormon has just been like the most because it's the book it
was rebranded in the last 10 years.
Yeah, they wanted to go more towards Latter Day Saints
because they are Latter Day Saints.
It's just Mormons is when their brand for the last 200.
Years. What is the book called?
The Book of Mormon, right. And so it was always so for
everyone listening who's not LDS like Mormons is what you've
heard for the longest time. Right.
And it, and I mean, if you're hearing me and you get offended
because I'm calling it Mormon or I have to call it LDS, eat a
Dick, 'cause I don't care. It doesn't.
Branding. You know what we're talking
about. Right the way I own it, like
what Derek said, I got a billion religion.
Religions, because no one in that same religion has the exact
same belief. Like their thoughts are going to
be different than the person next to them, and their
experiences are going to craft them different than the person
next to them. So they're going to believe it
down to the granular level, totally different because
they're different people and it's like everyone has that.
You know, it's so interesting to hear the contrast, the compare
and contrast from where you came from to where I am at.
You know, the way that I got into it was my wife had.
She was very much a part of the faith and it very much helped
her feel good and comfortable with what she had.
But she never really owned her faith.
It's also been a security blanket in a lot of ways, 'cause
there's been people who have helped you go through things in
there. But on top of it, though, you
have to look at it from the sense of what you grew up in.
She grew up in the same family structure, 5 generations, yeah,
all involved in the church. Both sides like really strong
and for me to come in being an atheist.
Well, that's why I don't ever. I can't imagine her leaving.
No, but well, I mean, I I told her and I was like, look, you
know, she says if you, you know, I'll get married to you as long
as you can get sealed to me in the temple later on, which is an
act that LDS Mormons do, you know, and it's part of their
faith and that that's fine. It's a rites of passage.
I got sealed later, yeah. Totally fine, right?
I mean, it doesn't it? It's just a choice.
And it's sad to see a lot of parents pressuring their kids to
make sure that they do that. Look, if it's their choice, let
them do that. We were definitely pressured
into it. When I went through, my family
was in shock. They're like, what?
Even going through it, which I won't discuss here, but even
during those things, you know, it was kind of funny, like
realizations to my wife, and it kind of made me laugh.
And I'm like, that's cool. Like, I don't, I don't.
It's not going to bother me that much.
Like I enjoy. It's, it's a place of worship.
It's a place of meditation if you choose.
To do something to from religion like my I look at it and I I see
my parents, they're 60, like they are 60 years into this
religion with the mindset and the family like everything that
they've got. Their identity?
No. Way that I could ever see them
considering anything different. But if they did, it would be so.
I think it world. Shattering.
That's what I would worry about, is it would truly shatter
everything. And that would 'cause that's
what I experienced. But I didn't believe it like
they did, and I didn't have 60 years of believing it like they
did. My dad went on a mission like
and he's been preaching all the time, like constantly and like
even to the point that now it's been over the years we've had
way more discussions and arguments on theologies and
ideas and stuff because. The illusion of truth.
And now it's like, he's very much so like, oh, this is right
or oh this and I'm like no. And like now I'm to the point
that I will argue it and just go, no, that's not it.
Like we were, I was helping him remodel an apartment and he was
like, well, we can both agree that Joseph Smith was a good
person, was like, no, see, that's why we're wrong.
You might assume that, but that's because I don't vocalize
all of my thoughts and perspectives on it.
Well, I mean, even that though I I look at it going, it's easy to
be able to find any fault in a human.
But to go, well, we both can say this and I'm like, now you're
putting words in my mouth and now you're going that you know
everything I know about this person and you know how I feel
about this person. And that is 100% incorrect on
this. I've told you how I feel about
this person. 8 billion that. And I'm like 8,000,000
religions. And so that like moments like
that where I'm like, no, and I stop him and I and that was hard
because I was like, I actually don't because of this.
And I said, I don't tell you these things because my intent
is never to shatter your beliefs.
Well and and and let me give the contrast on this and so to
explain a little bit more about my story.
So we go through it. We have our kid.
My wife says, hey, I want to do that and I used to drink pretty
frequently, infrequently meaning every week.
But it wasn't like I was getting.
Shit faced drunk. Yeah, I never did that.
Never. Just having a couple drinks.
Yeah, just having a few drinks. Like I I used to get shit faced
drunk when I was in the Navy. Why?
Because I was in the Navy like and I'm sorry if that's a
stereotype in the Navy like 99 point something percent of Navy
people to actually drink and the other small percent used to
drink but now they have a problem and you know but anyway
the. Problem is, don't drink and
they're surrounded by people who do but.
We had all these circumstances happened in our life, right?
And we did the, the temple thing, 'cause it appeased her
side of the family. It really did.
And and some of my family were like, yeah, I'll support you on
that. They're like, that's cool.
You know, my sister who was involved in the church at the
time who's no longer in it, like, she was super supportive
of it. My dad was supportive of it.
My mom was supportive, but she lived in Massachusetts.
It didn't really matter. It's not a big thing, and it
wasn't a big thing to me. It was just another step.
And that's not even where my faith came from, because I was
just. I was annoyed.
We had this circumstance where I've I've been in generational
poverty for most of my life, but it hasn't been like generations.
I'm like the first generation of poverty, but it came from my
parents. And my parents did well later
on. But I've gone up and down
throughout that whole time, right even now, like kind of
creeping out of poverty. But it's it's always been a
constant. And I wanted to break that, and
I'm doing things now to break that.
But we had this constant thing. But faith wasn't really a part
of my family's upbringing. It was just something we did.
And then when? We were treated with a lot of
hostility. My dad is first generation
Mexican here in the state of Utah.
Out of his whole family, he's the only one that came up here.
But he did it right. You know, he came up here
through a visa, applied for citizenship, took the test, went
through everything. He didn't just marry my mom for
a green card. And he got.
In they were they were married for a long time.
Yeah, they were married for quite a bit, married for over 2
decades. And you know, my dad came up
here, the faith bringer. He is like, he lives this.
He served an LDS mission and has some amazing, crazy stories,
right. He, he served his mission in
Sinaloa. You know what Sinaloa is?
Sinaloa cartel. One of the most brutal cartels
in Mexico out of time. Now they've got something in
there. It's way worse, but it's one of
the worst places. It also has one of the largest
lithium mines in the world. Wow.
Yeah, that's where the Chinese are down there.
But anyways, like, my dad served as He comes here, meets my mom.
My mom converts like he has died in the wall.
He is. He never understood racism or
discrimination by any means. And that's when he experienced
it was inside the church, from the members, from bishops, from
state presidents, from random people.
If they didn't serve a mission in Mexico, they would treat him
like an underling. And the reason why is because
Utah was predominantly white at the time.
Like there wasn't very many Hispanics or anything.
It was just white people. Terrible.
But again, it it was the time. Because the time was still
coming out of the the Jim Crow and all that other stuff.
It wasn't just people of color with black.
It was everybody who was not white.
It was terrible. Very white to my grandparents.
I've heard massively racist, racist comments.
Yeah, that's. Funny to me, what the fuck?
But I grew up in that. I grew up in Utah during that
racism time, so I had every reason to not be a part of this
faith. We left when I was young and I
never looked back. Yeah, I only did things with
like a Bishop when he would ask me to go visit these families
called home teaching. Back then, I would only do it
out of respect for my elders, 'cause that's what I was taught.
I respect my elders, so I would go with them.
Is that why you hang out with me?
No, no, no, no. I hang out with you, 'cause you,
you know, you got me into pot. But no, there's not many
different things. But.
You know he's giving shit. Oh.
Yeah, yeah. But I had we we left it.
I never went back to it, never did any of it.
My dad still believed, and even up to when my brother served in
the Army and I'd served in the Navy.
My dad like asked me if I would put all my dog tads and I'm LDS
and I'm like, yeah, fine, whatever.
Like I didn't give a shit. I got like the the the chaplain
which is the religious leader on the ship or a religious officer,
I should say, there to help with services for all faiths.
And he found a Book of Mormon that was like this tiny little
red one that they used to give the missionaries back in the
day. And he gave one to me, goes,
hey, I found this in the ship library.
I saw that your LDS, I'm kind of in.
I have to give it to you so. It's funny.
Cool. Threw it in my rack.
I didn't. I didn't fucking use it.
Makes sense I. Read it later on multiple times
while I was on in the service, but just read it.
To read it. I also read this time I looked
at King James Bible, I read a bunch of religious texts 'cause
I had nothing but fucking time. But all that said, we get to the
time, even past the time where I got in the temple, 'cause I did
that to keep my relationship with my wife.
Yeah, that's what I did. And a lot of people do that
tell. Me about when it changed.
So we had to move in with her dad and.
Yeah, we know how fun that is. Well, it wasn't even that.
It was My wife just told me, 'cause you can't drink beer
anymore. She still let me drink beer.
And my my whole routine was like, we'd rent a place when
we're moving out. It was like one or two years.
I would clean the carpets and get shit faced on Heineken.
Like I would just drink. I would start upstairs.
By the time I got done, I was at the front door.
I had to call my wife to come pick me up.
That's funny. That's right.
That was my routine. She's like, you can't do that
anymore. You can't go to bars or stuff
like that to hang out with your friends, which I never really
did. But I can't do any of that
anymore and we have to go to church.
That pissed me off. I was like, fuck that.
I'm not being a part of this one Sunday.
I'm in church and I'm sitting there in one of, like, the front
pews and I still get emotional. I'll talk about and I just, I
said, you know what? This is bullshit.
I don't want to sit here and listen to these sanctimonious
pieces of shit. Just go on about how cool they
look in front of people, 'cause that's what I had learned.
So I said, you know what? If you're real, any part of this
is real. And I'm not just saying the
church, I'm just saying, God, if this is real, you're going to
sit me down and just say these are good people, 'cause I'm
leaving. And I went to stand up and I
felt a presence. And I am not a religious person
at this point, ever. I would laugh at you.
There's God, fucking show me. That's what I would say.
Fucking show me. Well there's Christ.
I don't give a shit. Sounds like a cool dude.
Sounds like a really cool hippie.
And I was sat down and it felt like somebody hugging me and I
was overwhelmed. I was fucking over 10 years ago
and it changed my life. It changed my life in the sense
that I was just like, you know what?
I'm not going to follow everything that these guys go
over. I'm not going to believe all the
dogmatic things that you guys go through, but it just made me
feel like there's something more.
And ever since then, I'm like, I don't claim to know everything.
And I don't claim to say that what my faith is, is the real
faith or the true faith. Cause again, that would negate
what I just said. I don't believe in truth, but
this is where I feel comfortable.
These are good people. They've taken care of me and my
family. They're all about service.
Those are them around. And and a lot of it has to do
with my personality. Like I'll show up to church in a
kilt. Yeah, right, 'cause I'm, I'm a
part of this kind of Scottish thing and and I like it.
And I'm inducted from my actual wife's side.
My, my mother in law's side has Scottish heritage and so they're
part of Clan Campbell. So I was just like, yeah, I'll
wear this kilt and I'll be at church going, hey, how you
doing? Got a kill?
What's wrong with you? You know, I'm not saying I'm on
and a kill and they laugh, but I tell you, like, I come with that
feeling of what I believe Christ was.
And Christ was a a lover, a server.
He didn't want to be right. He just wanted you to love him
and love others around him and that's it.
Like, I don't need all the other special fucking trinket to go on
a Christmas tree, right? Which I think is funny.
We can get into that later on, where Christians believe in a
bunch of Pagan religions. Yeah, and a bunch of Pagan like
symbols and stuff like fucking. Halloween.
That's hilarious. Like, oh, it's a great day.
Like. You don't know what your Pagan
stuff. It's just like everything is
Easter, everything is around Pagan holidays, and it's like,
all right, but that's the. Cool part.
That's what I like about it because even the LES faith is a
lot like any other faith. We took a little bit of break.
Brandon was gonna piss himself and so I'm glad he took a break.
So I won't go too far into where I was at before.
So ultimately what it is for me and and you can see visibly like
you know this still very emotional for me and and the
reason why it's just it spoke to me and that's what I want to
really emphasize here is that because of how emotional I am
about this it's because I in something either inside me or
outside me which I do believe wholeheartedly in a a God.
I believe in Christ because they've they've helped make me a
happier person and that's for me like I don't care what it is.
There are so many different types of faiths out there, and
there's always organizations. And I think the reason why I
like when I meet people who have left the church, which to be
totally upfront about it, like the best thing is you've been
the most accepting and loving on that side to support me.
A lot of people on the outside just, oh man, let me tell you
why you're wrong and the reason why.
And I I think this, I had a very true religious experience.
Very true. Yeah.
When I didn't want it, I really didn't want it.
Yeah, Like it was fucking irritating.
Well, it comes just when it happens.
Right and any faith, just like when you left.
It wasn't because I wanted. It no it just because it.
It's what it presented itself and it was like, but yeah, it's
I think it's good, like you get a lot of value out of it and
there's nothing wrong with having a religion or a belief
or, but there's also higher in a community that you connect with
that. But you have the same thing
where where people are just, they're not into organized
religion just because there are things, There's faults, there's
stories that conflict. I get that.
So I think and where people are like so blindsided or just
baffled that you're still part of it, I think is.
That so can I smoke pot and I say fuck.
No, no, because you're human. Like honestly, well, yes,
because here in Utah, no one is that way.
They are all too many of them Put the facade up of, hey, I'm
this versus just being who they are.
And so I also think that a lot of people, you didn't grow up
being so indoctrinated into it that it was truth and that
nothing aside from that was truth.
And so when they find out that, hey, maybe it is not truth, that
is a world shattering thing for them.
And so then to see that and go, hey, you know, all for me when
it was like, you know, all of this stuff.
'Cause I knew all that. How you?
Know all of this shit and you're still part of it.
And then it's like, OK, but he's not there because it's what
resonates on the deepest level of like, this is what truth is.
It was the one moment. It was that one moment.
But that moment wasn't Hey, this is the true church, and nothing
else is. I wasn't reading the book and
all of a sudden I said Oh my gosh, this is what it's for.
Me. And so it's like, you know, it's
it's a thing of like, OK, you get what you get from that.
And that's 100% OK Do people feel things?
Yes, I felt things at church before.
That doesn't mean that everything is true or not true.
But I think when so many of the members of any faith who believe
it in such a truth is like, this is a hard line of truth.
And then when you realize no it's not, that becomes an
instant of like, well, what is truth?
Like the conversation we had with that guy the other day, and
it was like, well, there is no free will, OK?
Well, because it's instantly he left the church and he's two
years into that and it's. Mind chatting, A lot of anger.
It is because you think of that is your reality.
That is your world of truth. And if that isn't true, what is?
What other things have you grown up knowing or thinking are true
that no longer are? Then you, you sit back and
you're looking at everything you know or thought you knew and
going well. Is this true?
Did I just follow this because I
was told? Did I just follow this because I
was told? It becomes this unraveling of
like everything and it's it is like it is a world shattering
experience. And I can understand.
It's hard to see so many people sit in anger and frustration
with it because it's like, yes, you can hang on to that, you
can, but that's not going to serve you to hate and have that
because it's like it's this, this us and them.
Yeah, this the way you're bringing it up.
It's funny. Well.
It's like and it's weird because I am known like the person I was
10 years ago, 1215 years ago is not who I am today.
Which is good because we evolve constantly our our
personalities, our our belief structure.
Proud to say that though you should be.
And I know and and it's a thing of like people are like people
can't change. Yes, people do change every day.
100%. And like if you if you're
thinking you don't change, you're either blind or like
you're living in some weird bubble.
Well, the way I look at a lot of people who leave a faith and
they look at those who are still involved in it are like hardcore
brand new vegans. Because they're like, do you
know what that does to you? You know how bad that is for
you? And let me tell you about all
the reasons why meat is horrible for you.
They talked like honestly and just talking to you and
contemplating a lot of this. I think the reason why a lot of
people don't understand why I am involved still is when I tell
them that story, you know why they get mad at me.
And many of them had said it and this is The funny thing.
I never experienced that. So and they they immediately
say, you know what if if there were more people like you in the
church, I would go back and like, well, that's that's really
hollow to say you're mad because of what?
And they go, well because I didn't get the experience you
just told me about. And I'm like, it's not a quid
pro quo. But how could they?
Because they've not lived every experience to put them in that
moment that says I don't believe this shit.
All of these people are assholes.
You either put me here or I'm leaving.
Like, of course they're not going to.
It's the same reason why I haven't joined the Navy and
married like, yeah, there's just like.
You did things. Different humans, we've lived
different lives, thoughts, experiences, like down to every
single one. And it's like, it doesn't matter
if you and I have ever thought one same thing.
We are 100% different people. But here's the the take away I
have now. Like, I'm glad that I'm a more
accepting person now than I was before.
But I'm telling you that the reason why is because I wanted
to be that way. Not because my faith or my
special pajamas or, you know, my cool space temple that I go to
to connect with God, if that's the way I choose to do it,
because I can connect God anywhere.
One of the best movies I saw, which is a not a great movie but
at the very end is called this movie called Stigmata.
Do you know what the stigmata is?
I've heard of that. Stigmata is the belief that you
start to be able to bear the wounds of Christ.
You start to bleed from your palms and over here.
But when you look at the historical thing, that's why I
call it bullshit. Because historically,
crucifixions were done to the. Wrists not in the hand.
'Cause it would have ripped him off.
Oh yeah. He would have fallen and and and
just one right there. Why do they stack him on top of
it? To give the support only enough
to suffocate you. That's why you suffocate.
When you hang there, it was you. You just died from getting
nailed up there. And you slowly suffocate today.
It's a horrible way to die, right?
But it it just thinking about those things like people that
stick them on it, right? But anyways, I dig your ass.
The part of the movie that was the best for me, it was this
entity that was speaking to this woman who's supposed to be like
a medium that can talk to these, you know, spirits and all this
stuff. And the spirit says, again, this
is fictional. I'm not saying this is what
works, but it says God is not in stone, nor in wood, nor in
anything that man creates. Now, plain a little freedom on
that one, but it's not in Booker Stone.
It's not in manic. It's in you.
And that stuck with me for many years because I thought about
that. This is when I became involved
in the church. I was like cool and I've always
sought it. I've always felt it for them.
I go because I enjoy the community, but I enjoy that
everybody's under the belief now.
Not everybody it is, but everybody's under the belief
that we're supposed to be really good to each other.
And I'm so gregarious. Imagine I'm sitting there with a
kilt and a button up shirt with a black tie and I'm being as
loud as I normally AM and I'm just going off and people say
what do you do for a living? And I joke around saying I smoke
pot for a living. That's right.
And they go, OK, And then I go, hey, look, I got this awesome
podcast, it's everywhere, all over the world.
And they go OK And then immediately they start asking
questions, what should I use? Because they were looking for
that gateway. You know, it was funny.
So I yeah. With your cousins.
No, I just had we had to replace our washer like a month ago and
I just sold the dryer that's been sitting here.
And the guy who came and picked it up was this oriental man from
He's a teacher. He teaches chemistry up at
Timbu. There's a Walter White, right?
And it was just funny because the volcano was on here.
I usually there's always a box of something here.
Yeah, there's always cannabis right now.
Trying to, I tried to clean it up so there wasn't a ton of
stuff out. The volcano was the only thing.
And he's like, oh, I saw one of those down in in Vegas.
Really expensive, really nice, though, right?
And I was like, yeah, they are. And so we just started talking
about cannabis and that. And it was interesting because I
never would have assumed that this man who's probably 60 years
old and like Asian man, who's a teacher.
Yeah, and he here we are having a discussion about cannabis.
And I'm like, it's just interesting because go back ten
years ago I would have never thought that that would happen
never in my life. But I'm also way more open about
discussions about cannabis and ketamine and psilocybin and just
these things that I know make massive impacts in my life.
Like, I am 100% way more who I am from like, psilocybin and
cannabis that I try way more to be Christ.
Like, I feel like I try to show up as a way different person,
way different than I did ever when I was religious.
And it's interesting because even though I thought, hey, I'm
a good person, I'm this or that. Like I if I look back, I
actually don't think I was present.
I was like. Yeah, like like in a.
What's the best way to describe being in a antidepressant?
Haze. Yeah, just numb.
Yeah, I'm like, I don't think I was a good person.
I was a person and I was living. I was judgmental as fuck because
that was bred into me and conditioned into me, right?
That's what I knew. And it's hard to let go of that.
It's still evident in US every single day.
And I'm like, but now like I don't see.
I see way more of people's struggles and who they are and
not not looking at like there's been some really fucked up stuff
that's happened. Oh shit, yeah.
And then I look at it and I try and I genuinely try and see how
or why, like see that person's perspective.
Because there's been times that I've wanted to kill a person and
like to sit back and actually try and understand how in the
fuck they get to that. Like it's just been very
different than before. Where I might, I would have
never. Spent the time to even consider
that person's perspective because that wasn't important.
Dude that's a that's beautiful. That's a great way to kind of
wrap this up is I, I I tend to tell people within in my faith,
especially when they ask me like why I use cannabis.
And I was like you really want to be that way.
You want you want me to ask you? It's like look I convert more
people to cannabis than I do to Christ, you know why?
And they go, why? And I'm like, because I'll say
this, you wanna act more like Christ in an instantaneous way.
Use this plant. Use this plant.
Because I've never found it And and I'm, I'm just me in my
perspective. But it's pretty broad
perspective. I've never met anybody within
any Piper cannabis. Just like that conversation that
you had with him, you don't know.
But it's like the great, the the great Uniter.
I look at cannabis consumers, cannabis users, cannabis
enthusiasts, just like Marine Corps people.
And the reason why I detail it that way.
When a Marine meets another Marine, they just know him by
the way they walk, the way they dress.
A Marine will keep the same haircut some not all the time
but. A lot of their life and.
Stereotypically they will keep that high and tight, right,
because it is ingrained in them. But there's a lot of proud,
like, you know, like I, I know a lot of guys in the Navy, Like
I'm proud to serve in the Navy. But there's a lot of people who
are like, fuck the Navy. Like, I get that and they're
probably like, fuck the Marine Corps.
But at the same time, like when you meet those dyed in the wool
Marines, they'll ask the guy, what unit did you serve in and
where were you stationed? Do you need anything?
Can I help you? If he's a traveler, you would
offer your home, you would give him food because he is just like
you. I see that with cannabis people,
because you can go anywhere, right?
We're gonna have this guy on the show.
He's the craziest story where he walked through one of the most
dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago because he didn't know,
because Google told him to go through it and a joint saved his
life. No bullshit.
When he's on this, you're gonna be like, that's the most fucking
weird story ever. But I'm telling you, cannabis is
the great uniter like it. It just helps bridge that divide
because of our cannabis sharing cannabis the way that we have
it, it breaks down those barriers with so many people
where you've met religious people through it and they are
like cool. I I respect you because you
don't subscribe to my same space of of faith or whatever else,
but that there is no barriers or or walls with cannabis you.
Just nothing. To them, it's.
No, it's us. It's just us together.
Yeah, let's. And it's having the
conversations and the connections and the community
that circles around that because it is like you share that
experience and it's bonding. Yeah, bonding, definitely
bonding, 'cause, I mean, how many times you meet somebody
going, oh you partake and they go, yeah.
You think about the disc golf. Yeah, that was fucking funny.
How many stories are like that? All the time, all the
everywhere, everywhere. I mean, every time I have some
like a pen and I'm going somewhere and it's like
someone's like, oh, or I see someone, I'm like, hey, look.
And it just initially like, it sparks that conversation and
that connection. And then it's like, oh hey,
lifelong friends. Will you imagine if you came up
on a couple of young gentlemen ready to start fucking fighting
and shit, and they're in the street and everybody's got their
cell phones out going Worldstar, right?
They're trying to pull that bullshit, even if Worldstar is
something that is around. I enjoy those videos.
They're hilarious. But at the same time, dude,
like, what if you came out there, just say, hey, hey, hey,
let's smoke this. Let's just, let's just figure
this shit out. Nobody needs to go to the
hospital. Nobody needs to go to the jail.
I'm honestly so disappointed in how often I see all of those
fucking videos. Nobody's offering.
No one steps in, no one says anything.
Everyone just like videoing. I'm like.
They want to watch. It's the Colosseum.
It's too. It's just violence.
Like, that's why I love video games, because it's it's
synthetic violence. Like, I don't have to feel like
it. And you know what?
I wouldn't do those things in real life.
Oh yeah. You know, I wouldn't do those
things. I wouldn't be hacking up zombies
and all sorts of other bullshit. It was fucking dumb, dude.
It's a game. But I shouldn't.
I I should look for ways to unite and connect with other
people. That's it.
And if, and that's what's great about what we do with this show
is that we're just looking for ways to connect and what's
happened. We have hundreds of thousands of
people out there that listen to this show all over the world and
they're united underneath this plant.
We're connected to people who are listening to this or
watching this right now. Over the world.
All over any time of the day, you guys are smoking the same
type of plant that we are. It's just a different
composition. Yep, and maybe a different
cannabinoid and terpene profile. But like and then?
Look at all the episodes we have.
You can go back going, dude, I want to smoke what they're
smoking. Shit.
Maybe even that's an idea. And as we are opening more
connections and conversations, if you have a really cool story
or want to be part of the cannabis conversation you hear
on the Sash, shoot us an e-mail. Yeah, shoot us an e-mail.
We'd be happy to be able to sit down with you and engage with
you and real quick I want to give a shout out to Jet.
Jet filtration systems. So this is the unofficial
sponsored bong of the show. This has been a amazing product.
We're going to put the the website over there down there.
We'll work something out with them.
I'm sure just the. Smoothest, Smoothest.
You notice none of us were coughing at all.
Like not one show. This is ball shit.
If they got a smaller one, get it this.
They might even have a bigger one.
I think they have a bigger one. I think they do.
They have like four or five different sizes.
It is the best bong you'll ever get.
It's. Indestructible.
Yeah, you could throw this shit. It's built with amazing.
You see how Brandon's taking a poll of it and then he just
pushes this thing down and clears the pipe super smooth.
It's got all these percolators in there.
Percolators just cool to say and then but you see that like all
the water come in there. You could put a lot of water.
You can put less water. There's so many cool things that
that. So for those who are consuming
cannabis, remember that you are here to connect with others and
allow this to be the vehicle to bridge that with others.
Until next time, take care.