Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
Breaking Barriers: Matthew 'Wiz' Buckley on Psychedelic Therapy for Veterans
In this captivating episode, we follow the incredible journey of Matthew "Wiz" Buckley, a real-life Top Gun who transitioned from the cockpit of fighter jets to the fast-paced world of Wall Street. Wiz shares his story of resilience, determination, and personal growth, starting with his South Jersey upbringing and the dream of becoming a naval aviator inspired by classic war movies and the original Top Gun.
Wiz dives into the highs and challenges of his military career, recounting his time as a fighter pilot and the camaraderie of a squadron. The conversation takes a deeper turn as he discusses the pivotal events of 9/11, how they reshaped his career path, and the challenges he faced transitioning to civilian life. From joining FedEx to founding his own financial company on Wall Street, Wiz opens up about prioritizing happiness over wealth and using his experiences to fuel his passion for helping others.
The episode delves into the profound mental health challenges faced by veterans and first responders, shining a spotlight on Wiz’s advocacy through the No Fallen Heroes Foundation. He shares how alternative therapies, including psychedelic treatments, are making a significant impact in trauma recovery and personal healing. Wiz offers powerful insights on mental health, the importance of community support, and how language and mindset shifts—like replacing "surrender" with "allow"—can lead to liberation and healing.
Don’t miss this transformative conversation that highlights resilience, the enduring spirit of service, and the life-changing potential of alternative therapies.
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Whiz's Journey
06:10 Becoming a Fighter Pilot
12:11 Transitioning to Civilian Life and 9/11
17:52 The Foundation and Veteran Suicide Awareness
23:56 The Impact of Trauma and Helping Others
35:09 Breaking the Myths of Military Trauma
46:45 Surrendering to the Healing Process
52:52 Understanding the Journey of Healing
58:42 The Future of Healing and Psychedelics
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Produced by Security Halt Media
Security Odd Podcast. Let's go. The only podcast that's purpose-built from the ground up to support you Not just you, but the wider audience, everybody. Authentic, impactful and insightful conversations that serve a purpose to help you. And the quality has gone up. It's decent and it's hosted by me, danny Caballero. It's decent, it's hosted by me, denny Caballero, matthew Wiz Buckley. Welcome to Security Hall Podcast.
Speaker 1:Man, how you doing? I'm fired up, bro. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it Abso-fucking-lutely. Man, you're living, breathing, real Tom fucking Cruz. Man, top gun, I had to have you on the fucking show. Every kid growing up either wants to to be a cowboy, a firefighter or an aviator and eventually, you know, you get sorted in the sorting hat and you fall off by the wayside and some of us become green berets. But we always look to the skies, man. We always look and wonder like, what if? Because that's a, you know, that's the, the parallel, that's the, the opposite side of the spectrum for us, the guys up there flying high doing the tom cruise, real deal, top gun thing. So, dude, decided to have you on to talk about your life, your experiences and where you're at these days, because man like you're still crushing life and that's something that our veterans need to understand that their next phase in life can be just as impactful, just as exciting as what they did in service man. So thank you for being here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're never out of the fight, man. The last breath I take is probably going to be the best day of my life, so I ain't giving up until that that happens.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, man, that's exactly what I like to hear. Man Starting off. Man, that's exactly what I like to hear man Starting off dude.
Speaker 2:So tell us, man, like before you became an aviator, before you were a top gun, where did you get this idea of serving? I grew up in South Jersey, south Philadelphia, south Jersey. My brother and three sisters were born in South Philadelphia and then my parents moved down to South Jersey where my little sister and I were born in a typical middle, lower middle-class Irish Catholic family. Uh, taught service above self, uh, and you know my my parents weren't rolling in it by any stretch. So they're like, hmm, maybe you know the military helped kind of pay for college and all that stuff. But, uh, you know my my parents were kind of John F Kennedy, uh, democrats and, you know, believed in the goodness of this country.
Speaker 2:I grew up I'm going to date myself I grew up in the eighties and you know Ronald Reagan, house on the hill type of thing, and evil Soviet union. There was clear definitions of good and bad, uh. And then, uh, growing up, uh, growing up outside of Atlantic City my neighbor who lived across the street I was best friends with the kid across the street His dad was a fighter pilot for the New Jersey Air National Guard. He flew in Vietnam and then he flew fighters on the weekends, and he was an airline pilot too, and this guy was just larger than life. So I was like man, just what a cool thing. I used to, you know, sit there and watch, you know, war movies with my dad, like the battle of Midway or flying nether leathernecks or the bridges of Toko re or stuff like that. So I was always interested in, uh, naval aviation. I grew up on the beach on the Jersey shore the real one, not the MTV one.
Speaker 2:And you know cause any anybody can land on a 10,000 foot runway. But, you know, whenever there's something going on around the world, the first question that the president always asks is where's the nearest aircraft carrier? You know, as three quarters of the world being water, we can put sovereign couple acres of sovereign US territory off your country or pretty damn close. So I was always interested in naval aviation as well. So I went to college down here in Florida, down at Jacksonville University, and knew I wanted to fly. But it's funny you brought that up that everybody wanted to do that. Because, you know, when I was growing up, nobody really you know fighter pilot, you know what's that type of thing.
Speaker 2:And then, uh, as luck would have it, my junior year in high school the original Top Gun came out. So after that movie came out, man, I was. I was furious, because then everyone wanted to be a fighter pilot, literally right, yeah. So I actually had to apply myself even harder, because when I went to college, of course everybody in the late 80s, early 90s wanted to be Tom Cruise, be a fighter pilot, and I'm like, well, that's just thanks, god, I appreciate that. So I just had to try that much harder. You know, because when you get commissioned I was an ROTC and you get commissioned out of ROTC, it's mainly based on your grade point average what you select. So there was a great, I got the gouge right. A buddy of mine who went before me he's like dude poli sci skate on by, get to fly.
Speaker 1:So I was a political science major.
Speaker 2:I partied my ass off in college but I got good grades and I remember some of my buddies who listened to the Navy's lies, right. When we were in ROTC the instructors were like, oh, if you want to be Tom Cruise and be a fighter pilot, you know you got to be an engineer. You know aerospace, mechanical physics. I'm like, oh man, I'm in trouble. My buddies were like, nah, like no, no, dude, I was a forestry major. They're full of it, just get good grades. And they turned out to be right, because I remember some of my buddies spent four years in hell, like going through engineering, you know, studying all week, getting 2.0s, and they ended up being boat drivers, um. So I snuck into. I listened, man, you listen to the gout. The gout will save your life.
Speaker 2:So I listened and went to Pensacola and you know, naval aviation is a pyramid, right. You always got to. You know you're trying to get to the top of the pyramid because the Navy's got a lot of airplanes and helicopters, planes and helicopters, right. So you know, I remember going to milton, florida, through flight school and, uh, I was the unabomber. I got a. I got a one bedroom house, like right outside the gate, literally a one bedroom house, you know, little kitchen, and me and my golden retriever and I locked myself in that unabomber house and I I just studied my ass off because again, my, my buddy, some of my buddies, didn't listen to the gals. They got like condos in downtown Pensacola and drank and played volleyball and they ended up flying helicopters. So, uh, you know, busted my ass and uh, selected jets and then I went down to South side of Corpus Christiville, texas, uh, where I got to go through jets. But again, it's a pyramid because at the time the navy had a lot of jets. Right, they have anti-submarine jets. Still had the tomcat.
Speaker 2:That was the yeah, you know they had the brand new hornet. They have jammer air jets. So even in jet you had to bust your ass to get to the top. So luckily, I ended up being at the top of my winging class and I selected a F-18 Hornets. Um and yeah, went out to the West coast of California and the rest is history.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, what was your career like? Cause I have to imagine like it, it never slows down it it I've been fortunate enough to know a few air force aviators and it's like no, I'm sorry to hear that they're barely on our side they always. They always bemoan anytime they have to take command and they're not flying. And it's the life's really like hey, I did this, I suffered for so long, I just want to fly. I don't care about anything else, let me fly. Was that very much the same culture?
Speaker 2:It was man, I'll tell you what I remember. You know, because in the Navy and the Marine Corps you know, we're not the Air Force we don't have a lot of room on a ship, right. So you know, flying was like number seven on my list of things to do as an officer. Right, you know, in the air force they have like a voting officer or, uh, you know, you have an officer for everything. Right, on a boat, you got 90 jobs and I remember being the command managed equal opportunity officer and I remember these two ladies, two of our sailors, you know, giving each other a massage and birthing, and one thought it went too far.
Speaker 2:And I'm sitting here at xo, xo's master, whatever it was called, and with the xo of the ship listening to this. I remember looking at my watch and I, and I told him I'm like you know, sir, I, I got a, I got a brief to fly a mission over iraq in an hour. He's whiz beat it. I used to look forward to getting airborne off the boat to relax. You know, flying in combat sortie over Iraq was my form of relaxation. So it definitely, you know, it was fun, but they got their pound of flesh, yeah. But yeah, I did too. You're right, it was nonstop. I, unfortunately was in the Navy during a pretty brutal time, and I was in the Navy in a pretty brutal time during or in the most brutal air wing squadron, when I heard the news that the first female fighter pilot, kara Holtgren, had crashed landing aboard the Abraham Lincoln and that was my brand new air wing.
Speaker 2:So I showed up to this brand new air wing to do workups, now workups, in order to be ready to go on deployment. You got to do a bunch of workups. You got to go up to Fallon Nevada, drop bombs and make big rocks into little rocks and you got to hurry back out to the ship for a month because you forgot how to land aboard the boat and you're, you're, you're gone, more getting ready to be gone than when you're gone. Yeah, so during workups we lost eight, eight aviators in mishaps. Uh, I've never seen anything like it. We lost a prowler where three guys got killed. We lost a Tomcat which was national news Buddy of mine, stacy Bates, and his backseater.
Speaker 2:One of the good deals of being an aviator hey, I need some extra flight time or whatever. Okay, here's my cross-country request. I'm taking a jet to go see my folks. So he took a Tomcat to Nashville, hung out with his family for the weekend and they came out Sunday afternoon to watch him take off and he did a shit-hot low transition right into the clouds, got disoriented and came right out of the clouds, pulled about 10, 11 Gs right into a condo. So those two died. People in the condo died.
Speaker 2:We had a midair over Fallon where a guy died. We had a catapult a guy go off the catapult on the Lincoln off San Diego at night, right into the ocean. So we lost eight aviators before we even turned west to go towards Iraq. So it was brutal. We were the first air wing in like Navy history to be ordered to pull into port and do a safety stand down Because they were just like you guys, we've never seen anything like this. And of course it's counterintuitive, right, because we all had to. We didn't fly for a week and we're talking to, like you know, navy psychologists or whatever, and I'm like you know what's wrong or stuff. I'm like, well, I'm not flying right now, right, you're taking us away from doing the things that makes us happy and keeps us proficient. No-transcript. And then I went from the Cadillac, right, the Lincoln, where you got air conditioning and hot and cold water, to the Kitty Hawk, which you know I. I think we took turns rowing the Kitty Hawk. The thing was just old and beat down.
Speaker 2:But, it was, you know, and I tell I go out of my way to tell people, you know, my, my combat sorties over Iraq were, without a doubt, the most boring flying of my career. We were patrolling the no fly zone over Southern Iraq. I mean, the most exciting part of my combat sorties was landing aboard the boat, you know, at night, low on fuel. It wasn't, wasn't anything to write home about. Um, and then, uh, yeah, I, you know, I tell people the toughest flying I ever did as an F-18 pilot was getting to go to Top Gun. That was, that was the, without a doubt, the toughest flying in my career. And you know, you should think about it like it should be right, because if we go anywhere in the world and we're surprised or we're outgunned or we don't know what we're doing, then we fail right.
Speaker 2:The toughest training should absolutely be at Top Gun. We call it going to the mountain, right. You go to the mountain, you get your ass kicked and you come home in flowing robes to your fleet squadron. You know to uh to train others. So that was uh, you know that, that was my experience. And then you know life uh is, you know God takes care of fools, drunks and sailors. So base is loaded for me in. In 2000, you know I dropped my letter. I said I'm going to go be a rich airline pilot. All these other guys are getting out. It was like a conga line of aviators going to the airlines to be a rich airline pilot. But the I won the lottery in 2000 and the lottery was getting an airline job and then getting a reserve job flying.
Speaker 1:Oh, I've heard about this. I've heard about this.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's a rod and gun club man. So I got out, uh, I got off active duty, got picked up by a fighter squadron at a Naval air station, fort Worth in Texas, called the hunters, and man, that was just. You know, our motto was we quit once we could quit again. So we just got away with so much shit, man. You know NASCAR, flybys, football, I mean we were, we had a blast and we're all high time Hornet guys that you know graduated from Top Gun. So it was. It was like the elite, it was the best of the best in this reserve squad but I flew for FedEx. I got hired by FedEx and I was miserable man.
Speaker 2:I could not I hated commuting to Memphis and then having a trip that launches out of Memphis at midnight and lands in Scottsdale at eight in the morning and you got to get to the hotel and try and sleep during the day and then do it again the next night. I was miserable and most of the guys I think out of the 17 pilots in my reserve squadron, most of them flew for American because you're living in Fort Worth and American's right there. So I remember getting back from a FedEx trip one time and I'm sitting in the ready room like falling asleep I don't even know what time zone I'm in and one of my buddies he's like hey, wiz, here's my cell phone. He's like hey, if crew scheduling calls from American. If it says you know phone, he's like hey, if crew scheduling calls from American. If it says you know crew scheduling, pretend you're me, tell him you'll be there in two hours. I'm going flying. I'm like son of a bitch man. So these guys were sitting reserve for American and flying and getting paid by the Navy reserve. So I quit FedEx.
Speaker 2:I'm like done and I went to American and man, I went through all my training and all sorts of stuff and then, no shit man the morning of September 11th 2001,. I'm packing, uh in my master bedroom for my first flight at American and, uh, my bride came in hold my son who's uh was eight months old. She's like you, better come look at the tv. Somebody hit the world trade center with an airplane and I said I'm busy woman, you know, small airplane, bad weather. And she just had that look on her face. I'm like okay. So I went out there and I, you know, I saw what everybody else saw beautiful day in new york city and the massive smoking hole. And I'm standing there going through my mental aviation checklist of how that could have happened and boom, saw the next plane hit. I immediately knew we were under attack. I ran into the bedroom it's still in my closet, man I pushed my American Airlines uniform in the plastic from the cleaners out of the way and I threw on my flight suit. I threw on my boots, didn't even tie them. I had an old 89 Porsche and I broke the land speed record getting out to Naval Air Station, fort Worth and I got out there just as they closed it and went to a combat. You know, threat gun, delta, combat posture and one other Hornet. One of my squadron mates made it out there.
Speaker 2:So it was me and Gruff and I called down to maintenance. I said, chief, what do you got? He said, well, we got four, four hornets that are, you know, up and ready. And I said, get them fueled, chief. And all we had were, you know, poor reserve squad, navy, reserve squadron, texas. All we had was bullets. I said, arm them up.
Speaker 2:And then the other phone rang and it was the uh, right next door to us was an air force reserve squadron that flew f-16s and it was the general in charge of that wing and he said whiz, what do you got? And I said it's me and gruff. Sir, we got two hornets. He said we'll get over here. I got four f-16 guys that made it out here and let's brief and let's figure out what we're gonna do.
Speaker 2:So it was like it's like lexington and concord man, gruff and I ran next door to the command post and, uh, we're, we're hunched over a table, you know briefing, with the four viper guys, two hornet guys, the general, you know there's the reports that a plane's missing on the tv in pennsylvania, the pentagon's getting hit. I mean, it was just, it was surreal. We're like we need to get fucking airborne now. Uh, and obviously the Air Force is rich and they're used to doing stuff like that. Plus, the general was obviously in his command post, tied into NORAD, yeah, so they got armed and up and ready first. So Gruff and I two of their guys got airborne. Gruff and I went to the end of the runway and the plan was, when they ran out of fuel and landed we'd go ahead and launch. But by the time they ran out of fuel, everything in the country had been forced to land. So that was my airline career. It was 10 months at FedEx and one day at American.
Speaker 2:Airlines. So that was it. So I reserved, bummed as much as I could because a week after the attacks I got a photocopied letter from American Airlines HR that said dear crew member, you're furloughed which is a polite airline term for you're laid off.
Speaker 2:So my wife was waiting tables at an Italian restaurant. I, you know I was scrambling because you know I'd won the lottery right, Rich airline pilot. Well, now that career is gone. So, you know, in the background, when I was on active duty and in the reserves, I taught myself how to trade. You know you don't join as you know you don't join the military to get rich. You join the military to serve your country and see the world and, you know, take out bad guys. And so I was always interested in finance and you know, making a little money here, and you know I ain't going to get a military retirement, Let me, let me take matters into my own hands. So I know.
Speaker 2:But you know, and I applied everything I was learning as a fighter pilot to my trading Because, when you think about it, trading is a form of combat, right, Somebody's going to win, Somebody's going to get their ass handed to them. Why wouldn't you use the same methodologies and procedures, from flying a fighter jet to trading, Having a strategy, implementing tactics, contingency planning, managing risk, all that stuff. So that ended up working out pretty well, because I popped up on the radar of a very large options trading firm headquartered in the Chicago Board of Trade, and they called me up and said what do you do? Went up there for a visit, kind of showed them, and they said, man, you know, they went mafia on me. I've never seen that many zeros. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse.
Speaker 2:And you know, I'm not a Chicago guy man, I'm a Navy guy and a beach guy with sun and sand. And around that time it's interesting, because I got hired by JetBlue after I got fired by American. I'm like, well, I can only be a pilot. Right, I'm an aviator, I have to fly. So I got hired by JetBlue and I was like Wall Street or airline pilot. I'm like, well, this would be the third airline in as many years, let's go to Wall Street. So yeah, so went up to Chicago and rest is history.
Speaker 1:And you had no prior finance experience.
Speaker 2:You just zero man, just kind of self-taught. But it's funny man because you know I watch cnbc or you know fox business news or read the wall street journal and you know, legendary investor or you know. They use all these terms about people. I've met or seen all those people. I've been in rooms with these people. They ain't that fucking smart man.
Speaker 2:They these people trust me, uh, or they put their pants on one leg at a time, like I do, and I I've been. We are the smart money. There's no such thing as a smart money. Yeah, I've seen some absolute idiots on wall street, uh, who can make money in spite of themselves.
Speaker 1:Um, but it was, you know, it was fun do you think the adrenaline and the the-taking came as a factor that made you want to like? I really like this. Yeah Well, the thrill of the kill right?
Speaker 2:I mean, if you get a good kill, you make money, If not, you lose money, and that ain't nice. So yeah, there was definitely some adrenaline to that.
Speaker 1:So it seems that you chose the right gamble and going into finance. Uh, did it finally? Did you? Do you think you finally diminish its return as far as the reward and the feeling of like I'm engaging into something I really enjoy? Or was it still like? Do you still feel like it still gives the same high?
Speaker 2:no, well, I'd be one of their senior, most captains, but I'm glad I didn't. Um, so wall street sucked, right, because I was still in my reserve squadron. Yeah, when I went to chicago and I actually became somebody I used to make fun of when I lived in fort worth, you know, there were, you know, buddies in my squadron who lived in denver, right, they were united pilots. They'd commute in and they weren't current, you know, and they, they'd be like idiots in the airplane and I lived there and I flew my ass off. So I'm like, don't kill me, man. You're, you know you commuters are, you know, slack jawed. And so I had to start commuting from Chicago back to Fort Worth to stay current and I became the same guy I used to make fun of. So going from a fighter squadron, where you trust the men and women of that organization with your life or they're not in it, to Wall Street, where I couldn't trust somebody to watch my wallet for five minutes when I hit the head sucked.
Speaker 2:It was a very shitty transition. There was people who would push their own mother in front of a bus for a dollar. I mean, it just was a not a good group of people, to be honest, with. People wear golf cleats to work so they could just step on each other climbing up the ladder. You know, in the military you get a good deal, you make it, you get promoter. Whatever you put the ladder down, you help your bros out, sisters out, it's it's.
Speaker 2:So I, you know, I was definitely disconnected from my mission, my purpose and, at the end of the day. And I remember my dad, uh, who literally passed away during the time I was making the decision whether or not to go to chicago or not. And and I said, dad, you know, look at all this money. And he said, matthew, it's not not even close to. I said, dad, you know, look at all this money. And he said, matthew, it's not not even close to what it's all about. You know, he's like be happy doing this. Uh, dad, didn't you not hear me? Look at all this money. And he ended up being right. God bless him. So, uh, it, it. It definitely was not a fun experience, uh up, being disconnected from my wife, my kids. It's definitely a culture of drinking. It's definitely a culture of drugs. A lot of those traders man, holy shit, they're having a couple of tin sandwiches for lunch. It's definitely a high environment, you know yeah, nothing.
Speaker 1:It doesn't uh scream of, you know, positivity and wellness. Uh, it definitely screams of uh high stress and, of course, like the addictive behavior and uh the you know, when you're around individuals to make that much money, a lot of uh horrible, poor habits can be developed some of the most miserable people I met in my life are the richest People that own this firm billionaires and they were.
Speaker 2:It's so funny because I've seen memes that say I wish I could have all the money so I could know that that's not the answer.
Speaker 1:People are like literally every problem I have right now could be served by money.
Speaker 2:But it's the truth. Once you get on the other side of that and you see how disconnected from any sort of purpose it is, it's pretty humbling. So I got humbled in Chicago, but it all happens for a reason, right? I mean, after a couple, you know, three years up there, I think it was, like I said, my wife's from Boca Raton, god's waiting room, it's a beach, it's warm I said you know what? These people ain't that smart. You know I can do this on my own. So we moved down here to South Florida and I started my own financial company. Right, you're never going to get rich working for somebody else.
Speaker 2:So I started my own firm and we've just I teach people you know how to trade options. I do live trade briefs throughout the week and I show people I manage my own portfolio and stuff like that. And that was that was fun, you know I enjoyed. You know I was a flight instructor in the F-18. I was an adversary instructor after Top Gun. So I like teaching, I like seeing you know folks do well. It just makes me feel good helping others.
Speaker 2:Uh, and then right around 2020, you know, in in 15 years of flying fighters, I lost 16, 16 people. Uh, and also along the way, I lost three F-18 brothers to suicide, one of them, eric Swenson, swede. You can picture it right over there man, he was a groomsman at my wedding, a Marine F-18 pilot and a bride and five kids just decided to check out on his own. So around 2020, I said, and back in 2020, the number was 17. Uncle Sam was using the number 17. We believe that 17 veterans are taking their own lives every year and that's a horror, right? I don't even like putting this out to the universe, but God forbid 17 children were being killed, not once a year, god forbid, every day. This country would freak the fuck out. It would be a national emergency. We would do something. 17 veterans, eh. So in 2020, I wrote a book called COVID Crash, because I timed the market implosion due to COVID literally to the day, and I think we made like two and a half million bucks worth of trades in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:It was obscene.
Speaker 2:That goes back to the. There's no such thing as the smart money. I remember all those idiots, all the legendary investors on CBC crying literally like we need to close markets and we need to shut down the New York. So I'm like no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm on the other side of your bullish trades. You moron Hell. I remember Donald Trump. He deleted the tweet. I have a screenshot of it and it's in my book. Donald Trump, as the market was imploding stocks are looking good here, I'd be a buyer of stocks. Stocks are fantastic. Buy them. Best stocks, yeah, stocks.
Speaker 2:The next day the market was open, the Dow went down like 3,000 points. I think we made 75 grand in minutes. It was obscene. So there is no such thing as a smart money. I bring that up because, after making a shitload of money, I remember looking at my wife Susie. Because after making a shitload of money, I remember looking at my wife Susie and like we got to do something. I said let's start a foundation, let's try and do something about this veteran suicide thing. And then around that time the numbers had creeped up a little bit. I think it was 22 a day were taken, and that's a conservative estimate.
Speaker 2:Well it's funny you say that or not funny. Two years ago Two years ago I think it was literally November of 22, or October of 22, two small community colleges, alabama and Duke, did a study with America Warrior Partnership and they said the number is closer to 44. The most recent government data on veteran suicide is three going on four years old. Yeah, so California wasn't reporting right. All sorts of. There was all sorts of flaws, like Uncle Sam was only counting violent suicides. When Alabama and Duke went and interviewed families and stuff, they're like no, no, she drank herself to death or he overdosed on opiates yeah.
Speaker 2:So they killed themselves other ways, not maybe violently. So when I heard 44 I'm like, oh my god, for the love of god and all things we're gonna run out of veterans. Man. I think the most current status since 9-11 150,000 veterans have taken it. It's obscene. So I started a foundation called the Top Gun Fighter Foundation. Why my firm's called Top Gun Options big marketing department. Right Me, I'm like Top Gun Fighter Foundation. So I had no idea what I was going to do to help a veteran from killing themselves. What do you do? I'm like pay the rent, help them write a resume, buy a suit clueless, but as I told you earlier, god takes care of fools, drunk sailors. And around that time a buddy of mine said hey, there's a bunch of team guys, you know, seals, special Forces, green beret dudes that go to Mexico and they do psychedelic assisted therapy to heal their trauma. And there's a really cool group going. You know, in a couple of weeks would you want to go? And I said man, go to Mexico and do drugs with Navy seals.
Speaker 1:It sounds like a great weekend, sign me up.
Speaker 2:I had no idea what I was getting into.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I had a little bit of idea. You know they give you a brief and stuff. I'm like okay, and it ended up. It was one of the don't tell my wife or kids. It was one of the best things that ever happened in my life. Oh yeah, it's tied for first with marriage and having them, because it weaves all of them together. So I ended up going. It ended up being Marcus Luttrell. Everybody knows who Marcus Luttrell is the lone survivor. Jared Taylor, jt from Black Rifle Coffee, another team guy who was with Marcus, and then Robert Gallery. This guy was an All-American at Iowa linebacker and played for the Raiders for eight years.
Speaker 2:So he's an NFL veteran with just some pretty. This dude was in a bad place and, uh, man, we met in San Diego. You know we call it. We ended up you know the Incredibles right, we ended up calling ourselves the unusuals by the end of the weekend. So the five, five strangers, we shook hands in San Diego because if you do this in San Diego you're a felon. If you drive an hour south, it'll save and change your life. Go for it.
Speaker 2:So we went down to a place called the Mission Within and we sat Friday night with a medicine called Ibogaine, Now Iboga, I-B-O-G-A. Iboga is the most powerful psychedelic on the planet. It's root bark from Gabon, Africa, central West Africa and it's got like 13 alkaloids in it and in the West we can pull out one of those alkaloids. It's called Ibogaine, Incredible for PTSD, traumatic brain injury and addiction. I'm proud to say I was a drinker and I don't know if you can be a good drinker, bad drinker I up to a year, eight months to a year, after getting back from this retreat, I couldn't even smell alcohol. It made me physically wretch. I would dry heat even if I looked at a bottle. It made me like I couldn't even it completely destroyed it. So we sat with ibogaine friday night and man it was, you know, I think, morgan. So quick story, you know. It saved to change our lives.
Speaker 2:Marcus got home, uh, and his brother, morgan, also an av seal combat vet. It looks like their mom hiccup, like they had. She had two of them, uh, morgan and marcus. He's like saw holy shit man, what the hell happened to you? So Morgan went down there and now he's a cop, got home and ran for Congress. He's one of our biggest proponents on the Hill. He's like man. It was fucking best ass kicking and worst ass kicking I've ever had in my life. It's like you get hit by a bus driven by God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, it's like you get hit by a, a bus driven by god. Yeah it'll, you can do everything and I've done everything. Now I can say I've done everything, uh, and everything has helped. Everything I've used and done talk therapy, md, emdr, celia, ganglion block it's all part of my journey. It's helped me greatly. But 5-MeO-DMT, that experience, that experience and to think that I had to do an underground railroad situation to experience that journey, five hours of that journey dealt and cured and healed things that I have dealt with my entire life, that all these other modalities helped a little bit. But going through this journey, man, it's, it's hard to explain to those out there that still view it as this illegal drug that should not be allowed. I'm like dude, experience it yourself, hey man.
Speaker 2:Denny, these are defined as a Schedule I drug right no therapeutic use and a high risk of addiction, Just like the Inflation Reduction Act or the Affordable.
Speaker 1:Care.
Speaker 2:Act or anything the government names something the exact opposite of what it is. This was the most therapeutic thing I've done in my entire life and it's anti-addicted. Yes, 85% of heroin addicts after sitting with Ibogaine once zero withdrawal symptoms and they never look at heroin again. I mean that's insanity. But to your point, man, yeah, this whole it would make me furious that I'm getting on. You know, because from about so I got home and I'm like I need to help because the organization I went with at the time was only helping Navy SEALs and I'm like, well, I'm an aviator man. And then there's another veteran nonprofit who was only helping combat veterans and I'm like I ain't no combat veteran man, my combat was a joke, it wasn't combat. But I got a shitload of trauma. I was sexually abused as a child. My sister was killed by a drunk driver. I lost 16 buddies on, you know, yeah, and we as veterans do an awful job of trauma grading or trauma, shaming.
Speaker 1:Yes, we have to kill that myth. We have to kill that myth. We have to kill that myth. Man, everybody I talk to, they immediately see oh green beret, you're, you deserve this, I don't. It's like I don't exactly. Well, you just same thing. Sexual abuse, being raped, being traumatized as a child, that is the most fucking horrible thing.
Speaker 2:So I'm glad you brought that up because I got home and I said you know what I'm ditching the term Top Gun Fighter Foundation, it's two aviators. I said I want a big tent, I want to help all veterans and so I called it no Fallen Heroes Foundation. Also because of this. Because I got home and I called some F-18 sisters and I told them and they're like, yeah, you know, we'd love to heal our trauma with. And I'm like, okay, here's what we do. And they're like, yeah, yeah, it ain't from combat, it's from rape and sexual assault. And I was like, oh man.
Speaker 2:So in the past couple of years I've lost count of how many female and unfortunately male MST victims military sexual trauma we've helped heal. Some of these ladies were never even near a front line. But in combat you expect your enemy to shoot at you and to try and hurt you. You don't expect your squadron mate to hurt you. So sometimes and again I don't want to trauma, shame or grade, but that might suck even more you know you expect the enemy to kill you, not your buddy. So you know, no Fallen Heroes Foundation, big Tent. We help all veterans man and we also give healing grants to first responders and also family members. So first responders, a lot of guys and gals get off active duty. They take off that uniform.
Speaker 1:They don't take off the trauma.
Speaker 2:They go home, they put on a new uniform and it probably adds to their trauma. I have a buddy 20-year Marine who came home. He went to Miami Fire Rescue or something. He's like dude. My Marine trauma is a joke compared to what I saw as a first responder in South Florida. What people can do to a child? So veterans, first responders and their families, gold Star spouses, moms, children they serve and they deserve to heal too. So we're kind of a big tent.
Speaker 1:We help veterans, first responders and their families, and that is so crucial, man, so crucial Our first responders?
Speaker 2:I didn't, and that is so crucial, man, so crucial Our first responders.
Speaker 1:I didn't know it until I got into this space and started advocating for resources. I was fortunate enough, when I still live in Northwest Florida, to meet a lot of these sheriff deputies and have true vulnerable conversations where they share like hey, if I even divulge that, I'm having a hard time, I'm a liability for the department, I'm gone right, it's like fuck right, yeah it's, and it's sad right well same thing on the aviation side of the house.
Speaker 2:I'm I'm getting close. You know I might be suing the faa here because you know if, if I and I'm kind of out of the closet, I'm completely like I came home. I've never been a better aviator, husband, father and been father and human. You're going to have a problem with me doing ibogaine to make that happen and I can't fly anymore. You can kiss my ass, yeah, um, and I will tell everybody. The number of veteran captain and first officers that are doing these medicines under the radar to heal their trauma is awesome. I have active leos man. I have state troopers.
Speaker 2:I have people that are doing this under the radar to heal talk about, you know, when they defund the police and all that bullshit. You want to make policing better. How about you heal these guys and gals? How about you? Would you rather have somebody showing up to a call who's full of empathy and compassion, or fucking somebody loaded up or drunk or who's? You know who's thinking? Everybody hates them. You can reinvent policing man with healing those people. But it's interesting because I give the flying public a choice. Would you rather your captain and first officer flying you from New York to LA continue to drink, self-medicate, hide their depression and hide everything? Or would you rather American Airlines give them a week off to go to go heal their shit? And I obviously know what the answer is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up, because that's another question. Like how many of your brothers and sisters on the airline side that is one of the most? I have to imagine is one of the most stressful friggin jobs you could have. We see you guys as happy-go-lucky, but you said it earlier flying back and forth, back and forth and, and and, having the weight and responsibility of taking that fucking machine that's not supposed to be in the air for that long and then transfer all these lives and bring them back down safely, like how about some of the man, I've been on some flights and horrific weather or winds, I stop at the cockpit and go.
Speaker 2:I know what that took. Fellas or ladies and nice, nice job. So we got, you know, tens of thousands of flights every day in this country. Man, there are some, you know. They don't get paid, you know, for the boring, they get paid for the sheer terror right.
Speaker 2:You know bird strike down the engine. I mean so, yeah, these. And it's interesting because about a year, year and a half ago, and a little birdie told me, the airlines did this. So let me brief you on this the. The department of justice went to the va and the faa all these letters here and said, huh, there's a bunch of senior captains that are veterans getting disability. Did they report it on their faa physical? No, oh well, you just committed a crime. And oh, they did this. The. I heard the airlines because they're all the senior captains and they make the most money. They wanted to clip all these senior people to hire a 200 hour banner tower for 10 bucks a year, awful. So they went after like 5,000 veteran pilots who were, you know, claimed some sort of disability with the VA but didn't report it on their FAA. So that turned into a battle of Britain and that drove all of this underground even more.
Speaker 2:So, instead of being open and honest about any issues you're having now. It was a hand grenade in the water and everybody scattered. So I have no problem, man, I'd love to go testify in front of Congress and be like why, why, what are you doing? Um, the, the, the potential healing power of these medicines is insane and and to your point. You know, let's be clear for all the listeners and viewers here there are so many different healing modalities and you mapped out a bunch of them. You can do hot yoga, you can walk on the beach, you can climb a mountain in Nepal, you can meditate. I like to say radical trauma might need radical healing. So this healing, this modality, is not for everybody. But you know, five years ago, whiz, if I heard me using a sentence like this, I probably kicked my own ass. But, um, the medicine calls you. Yeah, so if you're listening to us talking about this and you're like, huh, the medicine's calling to you, if you're listening to this going, that, that sounds absolutely stupid. It's not.
Speaker 2:And my 5MEO experience, man, that's a whole separate conversation. I think two times prior to this experience I've tried to flip into the pool as a kid and I never could do it. I'd landed on my back twice as a 52-year-old in Mexico. I did a flip. I did a forward flip in the bed doing the 5MU. It was, without a doubt, the most violent experience of I don't remember doing. I mean they debriefed me later after I it was, without a doubt, the most therapeutic thing I've ever done. But I remember going into the medicine, looking out the window at the Pacific and beautiful. And I remember coming out of the medicine facing the wall and I'm like why am I facing this way? And they're like kind of flip there. So trust, this is not. And it's funny because people are like, oh, I hear the five MEOs like a 10, 15 minute experience. I'm like it's forever.
Speaker 2:I felt infinity. And it's awesome because at dinner later we're still debriefing. They're like do you remember the first thing you said when you came out of the medicine? I'm like clearly not. You said I can't wait to tell Susie I love her forever. Because I finally know what forever is, because I felt it. I felt infinity on the 5-MeO DMT and it was only now. It was only that moment. There was no past, there was no future and it was the only present moment and it was for lack of a better word, an orgasmic infinite, and it was now. It's not like it got old right, like wow, this has been going on for a while, this awesomeness. It was only then and I was present. I think that's when the flip happened was because, god, whatever word you choose to use, I choose to use the word God was like get it. There's nothing to worry about, son, but you got it. You got to go back. You can't Got it.
Speaker 2:I'm like yeah, all right, you know this is awesome and I think when I it was the Apollo 13, man, it was the reentry that I remember trying to say that because the way I described it, the it was for me.
Speaker 1:The best way I could describe the initial letting go was the movie interstellar, when matthew mcconaughey chooses and he goes into the black hole. That's what it feels like when you surrender and let go, love it and and just find it because that you go. You want to go in there with intentions but you don't want anybody. And I've been doing this podcast for so long now and talk to interview with people that share their journey and, even though I'm not going into the experience with wanting to experience what they experienced, you're bringing some sort of awareness, expectations, exactly, and when you finally let go, it feels like you're finally going and we had sound bowls, we had everything, and it just feels like every sound is vibrating through you as you're being brought into this experience and then finally, boom, there you are right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's interesting because you know in in my prep work and I've changed all of our manuals, because in our prep work I'm like you know what? Because they kept saying surrender, surrender, surrender. I'm like you're dealing with a bunch of alpha male yeah, meat eaters the word surrender.
Speaker 2:We're like fuck you, I ain't surrendering, I'll fight. Well, guess what man you fight with the medicine first of all, you're ultimately going to lose and it'll be painful. But I'm like how about allow or accept? They're like oh yeah, we'll change our verb. I'm like stop telling veterans to surrender. But to your point, once you know, whatever what resists persists right, and coming in with expectations leads to limitation. So when you go in just clean and you let go and surrender that's the ultimate lesson I learned is like God has this, and it's so funny, whatever word you want to insert at this point source, creator, light, truth, divine.
Speaker 2:I've seen the most atheist, agnostic humans on this planet come to the other side and be like I'm not going to use the word God. I'm like I'm not saying anything. There was something full of love't know in high school was ineffable, because whenever I try and put into words what I experienced, I fail. I actually feel like I'm failing. I'm like there's no way I can, as a human, with cave art right now and chalk on the wall here, I could not explain to you what happened. It's a feel, but being the change you want to see in the world.
Speaker 2:I got home and I've never been a, uh, like I said, a better father, husband or human being, beat the bottle, I ditched it. You know, now if I choose to have a glass of wine with my steak or my pasta, I can do it. Old whiz, a glass of mine meant a bottle or two, maybe even three, and now new whiz is like I can enjoy a glass of wine and that's it. Old me, man, I'd be breaking you know shit an hour later. So destroyed alcohol in my life. Um, like I said, I, you know, I lost a sister to a drunk driver. I got to experience her again and uh, and recognize that she never left. She's right, right here. She's on this podcast.
Speaker 2:Uh, I always thought, landing aboard the boat at night, low on fuel, in the middle of the Pacific, that she was there and I was right. She, she's been. She's been my wing, my wing woman this whole time. Uh, but I've seen, you know, marcus and JT, they were in it, man, I remember laying there going. I got to help these guys. They just sounded like they were. They were having a tough. I remember laying there going. I gotta help these guys. They just sounded like they were. They were having a tough time and god was like matthew, they're getting exactly what they need. Yes, I said no, no, god, I gotta, I gotta roll over and try and help these guys. And god was always gentle, god's always gentle. He just kind of gently again he said listen. He said trust me, son, they're getting exactly what they need, let's worry about you. And it was just fantastic. Next morning breakfast you guys good. And of course they look their eyes. Everybody's completely different. They're like never better.
Speaker 2:I'm like sounded like you were killing some demons last night and they they're like, yeah, we were, and they're gone. I was like done so it really it's been incredible. I got home a couple months later after me, my wife's seeing me she's like huh, let me go check this out. So she went down with a couple Navy SEAL wives I think a gold star spouse and she came home, man, and we're like wow, this is the way, this is how we're going to end. Veteran.
Speaker 2:I try to go on every retreat, but the ones I can't make it on. I guarantee you to a retreat that I don't go on. There's a random text that says Wiz, I don't want to kill myself anymore, or I am a healed human. So if this is work, sign me up for the rest of my life to do it, bro.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, brother. It's beautiful to understand that the medicine talks back to you and it gives you what you need. It's important to go in there with intentions, but even in my own journey, I thought I was going in there with a suit of armor and ready to kill something with a suit of armor and ready to kill something, and the medicine showed me a completely different thing that I needed. It's like correct.
Speaker 1:This is not what you need this is what you need, this is what, this is your next mission. This is what you need to understand about you, and when you see, when you finally see that it's like holy shit, yeah, it's so funny man finally see that it's like holy shit.
Speaker 2:It's so funny, man, cause a lot of it's like master of the obvious. But it's not your, it's your ego, man. It blinds you to all that. Once you drop that ego and God's kind of doing some scrubbing, you're like, ah man, I got. Now, I got it.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's so funny you say that because a lot of people do go in a little worried, right I'm, I'm loaded for bear. Yeah, medicine wants to heal. It ain't there to hurt you in any way. Knock on wood, man. I haven't had a single grant recipient have anything like, even anything dark or whatever. If you leaned into it, if you put light on it, it disintegrated yeah, that was.
Speaker 1:That was the other, the beautiful thing, it it showed me something that could have been perceived as this nightmarish, horrible thing, but it was showing a reflection. It's like this is the part of you look at at it, understand this pain, understand this weird ugly thing that you're looking at. It looks very scary, but even in seeing that thing, that depiction of this ugly, horrible, demonic thing, I wasn't scared. It's like this is the part that we're addressing right now. This is the thing. I love it. All the bad, all the things that you know about you that you hold on to. Because you're holding on to this part, let it go, don't be scared of it. And I was just like okay, all right, like this is not, this is not something like I see you now. I see you. You're that part when I want to do this thing, when I want to just not be the 100% best person that I can be. That's who you are. Got it Now I understand, I can let you go and you don't have power over me. I don't have to be scared of you. That's awesome, man, and it was wake coming up out of that one.
Speaker 1:I remember looking at my shaman and he's like and I just share that, because after every little iteration he's like, well, what was this experience like, what was this like? And I shared with him all right, and we sat down and he's like you, ready for the next one, like, and it was just battle after battle, but it's not to the point where it was like fear and anger, like no, like showing you the next thing, showing you the next, your next journey. And all these years waiting and learning and studying and having people from Sunstone Therapies and having people that were highly educated and speaking with them, I am so glad I waited for the right person, for the right time to do that journey. And if you're listening right now, stay on your path. Stay on your journey, be disciplined. Understand that when you're ready, opportunities are there. The opportunities to go are there.
Speaker 2:Right through the bullseye. The universe, god, everything happens exactly when it's supposed to. Yeah, and it's interesting. Another sentence I'd kick my own ass if I heard me saying this five years ago. The second you agree if this resonates with you. And you say you know what I'm going to do. This. The universe heard you. Things start changing, things start aligning. It's incredible the swirling that happens. The second you say you know what I'm going to do. This Shit starts happening and you know, closer to going on the retreat, stuff will bubble up and it's all part of it, man, it's all part of that process.
Speaker 2:Getting back to the scary part, I remember, man, you know, I don't know if I can break it up into halves, but the first half was literally a tour. God said check this shit out. I got home I told Susie, I'm like I never have to travel again. She's like why? I'm like I saw everything, everything. And then the second half was kind of a okay, did you see my cooking? Now let's focus on you. But I remember I don't know if it was towards the end, I couldn't tell time, but I remember like man, man, this wasn't scary, this was the coolest thing I've ever. I, I, I, I'm humble, I'm tears in my eyes, I'm crying, I'm like nothing scary, this wasn't scary.
Speaker 2:A red kind of face came up that you know I would like, oh shit, what is that like at the fucking devil? And then it just went away, yeah, as quick as it came, and I'm like, well, that shit, what is that Like the fucking devil? And then it just went away as quick as it came and I'm like, well, that wasn't scary. And then it came back Like it heard me and I just fucking leaned into it and I said that doesn't exist, that's not scary. And it was gone, yeah, it was kind of like.
Speaker 2:I'm like, ah, he's like, nah, man, that's all bullshit. And you know, the end of the day, my personal opinion is this is hell. What I experienced was absolutely heaven, and you know it was the gospel of Thomas or whatever, or Luke. You know, the kingdom of heaven is inside of you. All of this stuff, all of those answers, everything you and I experienced, it's all in here already. Man, I remember God at one point when I was on my knees crying like dude, I am sorry, I am a piece of shit, I am awful. And god said matthew, I don't make imperfect things he said let me take all this crap, this alcohol, the drugs the shame, the regret, the trauma.
Speaker 2:I got it. Now get up. I don't make imperfect thing. We can work on the shell man, but underneath every one of these things, every one of you, everything that I've created ain't no flaws, and so it was it was the most healing I've ever.
Speaker 2:I got 30 years, 40 years of therapy in 14 hours. But again, one more time. If this doesn't resonate with you, don't do it. We treat every grant recipient at no Fallen Heroes. We treat this like a combat mission man. We brief there's a couple briefs.
Speaker 2:Before you know, you got, like you said, have some intentions. You got a checklist to go in, not for expectations, but something to maybe navigate or to fall back on. Yeah, I wanted you know. I went in with five intentions for the medicine and I went in with five questions for the medicine and man, all of them were knocked out. And then, you know, when I was down at the mission within in you know mexico, the next morning, I I'm like I'm healed, everything's great, and I remember my guides being like all right, throttle back Wiz. 5% is here the medicine, 95% is the integration. But I'm fine, I think they're wrong. I think it's 99 and 1. 1% is the medicine, 99, you got work to do. When you get home, uh, if you go back into the, you're a clean piece of paper man. You go back to the same bullshit habits, whatever the medicine ain't gonna, you're not gonna want to drink, but if you go back and start, you falter.
Speaker 2:It's. You're gonna have a tough time. You're getting a not one to use a sentence too lightly. You're born again. I I came home with a not wanting to use a sentence too lightly. You're born again. I came home with a fresh set of eyes and a fresh outlook on life. So, but you got to put in the work, man, and you know we have four brief debriefing calls afterwards and group therapy and stuff like that, because if you don't integrate, like I said, it could be bad. Or if it's not bad, it's. It was just a neat experience, um, and you know I used to think people who journaled were weird. I'm a journaler now.
Speaker 2:So if, if this calls to you start writing shit down, man, just go to staples or office depot, buy a journal man and start writing, because you're going to be able to see, from the time you said I think I'm going to do this to the day the last day you open it and see how far you've come. You're going to see the incredible changes. It's. You know, like I said, radical trauma might need radical healing. If this resonates, let me know. Like I said, we give you know full, impartial grants If you're a self-pay and you can kind of pay to go in or treat on your own man. Obviously we can hook you up pretty clearly. For the past couple of years we've been forced and I'd be furious getting an airliner man We'd be forced to go to Mexico and Costa Rica. But thank you, voters in Oregon and thank you voters in Colorado. We've knocked out. In the past year and a half we've done three retreats. We've done two in Colorado and one in Oregon and we have one coming up in colorado and in two weeks so we're starting to
Speaker 2:one of my biggest mission objectives, day one, was healing our heroes at home. Uh, and we're starting to do that in those two states. I got a buddy down in austin, texas, justin lapree. They operate under the church moniker, so so you can, you could heal in Texas. And uh, I have a buddy who does another church up in uh, it's called rising Ridge in Oklahoma. So there are other opportunities in in other States, oregon and Colorado at least. Or if you care about the 100% legality of it, it's still illegal at a federal level, but at least I I don't think the dea is kicking down the doors of uh I I laughed, man, I'd said it on my instagram our first colorado retreat.
Speaker 1:I'm begging, please come raid please come raid a healing retreat of veterans, first responders and family members.
Speaker 2:I won't have to do another fundraiser in my life, but thankfully the federal government didn't come and do anything. Thank God. I don't care what your political beliefs are, rfk Jr being very pro psychedelics. Jd Vance I don't know if Pete Hegseth is going to be confirmed. He was on the Sean Ryan show talking about psychedelics and Sean Ryan's like I'm an Ibogaine 5 MEO Because I got it wrong man couple years. I'm like democrats, man hippies, drug rugs and they're they're. They're the pro psych. I was all yeah, I've been in dc a couple times. They are in bed with big pharma. That's exactly it covid shit the democrats were the.
Speaker 2:I got it wrong, they were. They were paying lip service to it like fuck yeah man. Yeah, they're the pro big pharma and anti this stuff. Party. Now what?
Speaker 1:they don't understand is they want to try to make it. They want to try to synthesize it, break it down so that they can, they can create something and put a patent on it and then they can say that they have it. Here it is. This is safer for you. No, you're kidding me. This is natural medicine. That has always been a medicine. We vilified it. We turned an entire generation of of you know thinkers and great experimenters into friggin villains. And now we're starting to wake up. Now we're starting to realize that wow, like this is not only changing lives of veterans, but everyday people can live better lives, because everybody has trauma, everybody goes through something. Why not go have an experience that can change you and give you freedom to just be your best self?
Speaker 2:I think God obviously knows what he's doing, because this psychedelic renaissance is being led by guys like you, guys like me, marcus, jt, so maybe mom and pop walking down the street can go. Huh. Well, if these guys and gals are for this, I love my hippies and all that stuff, but Timothy O'Leary hey, let's put it in the water type of shit was probably probably just a hair too far. So I think this time around god said you know what? Let's, let's have these people maybe be the champion, so you know we got a lot of.
Speaker 2:We got a lot of support now in dc. You know I'm again. I'm not holding my breath. I'll believe it when I see it. I tell people my, my number one mission objective, besides lowering veteran suicide at the no Fallen Heroes Foundation, is to be gone. Yeah, I want to be doing this. You know you should not have nonprofits healing our heroes Period, bingo so. But I guarantee you we're not going anywhere for a while because when, not if this stuff gets, the VA starts doing it. Yeah, your appointment for a review for this is three years into the future. And oh, by the way, we just canceled that one, you know, the month before, and maybe we'll do it again. So I know I'm going to have to be around for a while, but I shouldn't be. I'm putting that out there to the universe. My goal in three to five years is to disband the no Fallen Heroes Foundation. I should not be doing this. So hopefully our leaders step up and lead.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, man Wiz. I can't thank you enough for being here today, brother, and being able to share your journey and for doing what you're doing. If people are interested, they want to get involved and they want to get some healing. Where can they find resource information?
Speaker 2:Yeah, nofallenheroescom is still the URL. Go to the top right and it'll say contact us. On a dropdown that says grant request. Even if you can self-pay or partial pay, fill that out and we'll get you going. If you need a full grant, we'll hook you up. We just ask. It sucks, man, because for a while later we were giving everything away, even travel, but guys were kind of getting cold feet. You know. Close, I'm like okay, you're gonna have to pay for at least an airline ticket. Man, if you're truly destitute, I'll hook you up, but you need to have a little bit of a skin in the game.
Speaker 2:Yep yeah no fallen heroescom. Uh, or just check out our instagram no fallen heroes and we got some great stuff. Make sure you check out. Uh, I have a podcast. I got to have you on man, please. Yes, the Max Afterburner Podcast yeah, I'd love to hear. We'll cross. I'd love to hear more into your story, but on the Max Afterburner Podcast we got veterans, first responders and family members debriefing their medicine experience. So if this is calling you a little bit and you're looking for more resources, go start. My Max Afterburner Podcast, episode 7, is my first ibogaine and toad debrief, with the flip in the bed and everything like that. So if you want a deeper dive, go ahead and do that, but thanks for having back with you.
Speaker 1:I'll be on your show and to everybody listening. Thank you for tuning in and please check out any of the resources and all the links in the episode description. Just pause right now, go down there, scroll, or, if you're watching this on YouTube, it's right there in front of you on the screen. Click on these links, go visit and start your healing journey today, Whether it's with psychedelics or just conventional talk therapy. Stop waiting and start getting better today. Thank you all for tuning in. We'll see you all next time. Until then, take care. Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to like, follow, share, subscribe and review us on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to support us, head on over to buymeacoffeecom, forward slash setcoffpodcast and buy us a coffee. Connect with us on Instagram, expert TikTok, and share your thoughts or questions about today's episode. You can also visit security hallcom for exclusive content, resources and updates. And remember we get through this together. If you're still listening, the episode's over. Um, yeah, there's no more tune in tomorrow or next week. Thank you.
