Through the profound healing potential of psilocybin, we can discover a world of infinite possibilities and reclaim our true purpose. In this episode of Life Masters, we delve into the remarkable story of Mark Kohl, a highly successful Hollywood cinematographer and director who found himself in the grips of an overwhelming alcohol addiction. Mark shares his journey of self-discovery and spiritual awakening. He shares how he hit rock bottom, only to rise above his struggles through the transformative power of psilocybin and plant medicine. He explores the mysteries surrounding psilocybin, mushrooms, and the profound impact they can have on one’s life. Whether you’re curious about plant medicine, seeking inspiration, or simply intrigued by extraordinary personal stories, this episode is for you. Tune in now and witness the incredible metamorphosis of a Hollywood insider through psilocybin.

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From Hollywood Shadows To Psychedelic Light: Mark Kohl’s Rise From Rock Bottom With The Help Of Psilocybin

Mark Kohl, A Very Successful Cinematographer/Director Hit Rock Bottom Because Of An Alcohol Addiction. Plant Medicine Changes His Life Into Something You Just Can’t Imagine!

There’s a lot of mystery around psilocybin, mushrooms, and plant medicine. I have the perfect guest, Mark Kohl, on the show, who I’ve been friends with for a couple of years now. He’s a cinematographer and a director. He’s the Founder of Frequency. He is a plant medicine advocate. Your story is pretty phenomenal. We know the show is all about people who have hit rock bottom and got out of it. At one point in your life, you had a massive spiritual awakening, and now you’re very involved with plant medicine. I’m excited to have you on the show to explain some of the mystery behind it.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks for coming on the show. First of all, we’re going to talk about Hollywood a little bit because you’ve directed so many shows in Hollywood. What were some of your favorite shows that you have ever directed?

I’ve done more cinematography on television. I’ve directed probably over 3,500 commercials in my career and then lots of other things. I was the director of photography on a show on Disney+ called The Quest. That was a massive project done by the creators of Lord of the Rings and The Amazing Race. It was quite a challenge. We mixed a fantasy movie with a reality competition. We had real kids come into a Game of Thrones scenario. They had to solve puzzles and challenges to save the kingdom. It was a big scripted movie that mixed with live television competition.

That was a huge budget show.

We could have used a little more.

We could only use a little more money for all kinds of things. That is awesome. Do you have any fun Hollywood stories you could share?

I’m a filmmaker by heart. I like telling stories. It could be the Gemini in me, but I find that I don’t mix well with some of the Hollywood protocols, standards, and stuff. I do my thing up in Topanga and then come in as needed to do whatever project is on the plate. One of my goals is to create conscious content and use my skills not to shoot a furniture commercial or something, but use it to create a documentary or a narrative film that means something and changes the way we think that are intelligent.

I love that. That came out of a rollercoaster of events. You’re devoting your life to this as conscious content and living very consciously.

They call it a television program for a reason. It does the mind or the brain of the program. We get most of our opinions, information, and intelligence from social media or flickering images. We have known for years what is presented in television shows, how many cars we should have, and what is happiness, “Mom should be wearing this when she makes breakfast. Dad should be going to work in a Ford. You should be a good kid in school.”

It’s what it should be or what it should look like.

It’s a type of programming of how we’re supposed to live and then what happiness looks like. When we watch these things, it creates a desire in us too. A commercial is a medium or an illusion for you to want something. Therefore, you have to create a sense of lack in you like, “You need this thing.”

A commercial is basically a medium or an illusion for you to want something. Click To Tweet

There’s a lot of science behind it and a lot of creativity but you’re bringing consciousness to it now, which is what I love about what you do. You’re one of the most creative director-cinematographers I’ve ever met. The stuff that I’ve seen you do is incredible. We have to check out your website. I want to learn about how the spiritual awakening happened in your life, what you were like before that moment, and where you are now. Tell me a little bit about your life, working in Hollywood, and how that was going for you. You’ve told me the whole story. I don’t want to spoil it. Tell me about your life and how you’ve gotten to where you are now.

I’ll condense it. I grew up in Chicago in a very Lutheran type of world. It’s very strict and boring. There are lots of rules and things you have to do in school and everything. My family bounced around a little bit, and we ended up in Jacksonville, Florida, when I was a teenager. We got there on my sixteenth birthday or something. I was a guitar player and I fell into the music scene pretty heavily. I played from age 16 to 17 in bars, events, and stuff until I got married at 22. I had a little bit of a rockstar life in that but I didn’t like music that much as far as engaging with musicians. I didn’t feel like they were businesspeople. I felt like it wasn’t a way of life for me.

You were like, “It was fun but how am I going to make a living at doing this?”

Along the way inside that, one of our roadies worked also at a film company. I’ve always been interested in photography. I had taken pictures. This was in the ‘70s. I developed film and messed around with it a little bit. I had said to him, “If they’re ever looking for somebody at the place, I would be interested.” One day, he came to the set. We were playing. He said, “They’re looking for a video guy.” The home video had just come out. I went in, and the guy liked me and hired me with no experience, but I jumped in. This was when home video cameras were big.

I remember that with the VHS tapes. You click them in.

We even had Betamax. VHS or Betamax was the big thing. We also had broadcast cameras and whatnot. I remember the first time I touched a camera of that nature. It felt like me playing my guitar. It felt natural. It was right then that I knew what my next passion was. You always have to have a passion because if you don’t have a passion, then it sucks. It’s work. You have to push through the whole thing or the Olympic friction. As neuroscience says, “Get up and push through that, but when you’re doing something that is passionate and that is your calling, you can’t wait to do it.”

 

I find when people don’t have a passion, they can easily spiral out of control as well because they don’t know what to focus on in life. There’s nothing that makes you truly happy.

You’re miserable.

That’s extremely important. You start playing around with this camera and you’re like, “This is home to me. This is amazing. I love this.” You must have just dove in right after that.

I was 19 years old or maybe 20. I never stopped. I left at 22 and started my company. I’m still in my company. I’m self-taught. I made it a point to work with people that knew more than me. I learned and advanced to starting to work in Los Angeles. Once I started doing that, I saw how the real deal was done. I shut my mouth and got on as many sets as I could. People embraced me. I learned a lot and then went back to Florida. I did that for fifteen years. I became very successful because I had the tricks, work ethic, and discipline that the masters had here. I was taking it back to a smaller market. I advanced fast.

You didn’t even go to school. That’s amazing.

I have a high school education.

You always think, “I have to go to film school. I have to do this and that,” but you found a way to Hollywood, all the skills of Hollywood, and a very successful career you’ve had without having to go to school. That’s pretty amazing. Did you have a lot of mentors along the way? You must have had certain people open up the doors to help this all happen.

It’s interesting. I found this as I’ve grown older and wiser. If something is meant for you, it finds you. When I was looking back, that’s what that was because it found me. I have so many people that want to get into the movie business. They push. I never had that. It found me, and then I got in flow, as Buddhists say. I didn’t realize all that but it wasn’t easy building up the business. There was a lot but I never thought I would quit.

If something's meant for you, it finds you. Click To Tweet

It wasn’t an option.

It didn’t even enter my head. I would go, “Is this worth it?” A lot, but there was no going, “I’m done.” To this day, it still excites me.

You became very successful. You’re going back and forth from Hollywood to Florida. You’re filming and building your successful company. When did things start to turn for you?

What started to happen was I dove in too hard because it became an obsession. Looking back, I realize that in life, we have to find not only our purpose but we have to find our identity. Who are we? That’s a big question. I also think that your identity shifts as life goes on. It changes. Living where I was living and working all the time, I was spiritual inside but I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know all the modalities but I knew there was something out there. What I realized is my identity was attached to my job.

I’ve been there. I know what that’s like.

This is a mistake a lot of people in capitalist countries do because that’s what we’re told. I went through my life going, “I’m a director-cinematographer. That’s what I am.” When work was good, my identity was good. I was good but when things started sliding, they slide. Recessions were going on. If business was bad, I was bad.

You felt you were bad or a failure. You were hard on yourself.

All the doubt and everything starts flying in.

I went through that too. I know what that’s like. It’s hell, to be honest with you.

Not knowing what I know about how the mind works and all this stuff, alcohol became a component of killing that misery or that doubt. I also realized that I had a lot of anxiety. I didn’t realize it, but I came from a fairly drinking culture in Chicago. Nobody drank Coca-Cola or anything. They drank beer. I’m of German descent.

Even growing up in this country, we drink a lot. It’s a drinking culture.

That’s starting to shift, but I realized deep down, even when I played guitar, that I had to have a couple of beers in me before I could get on stage because I was so nervous. I had this social anxiety but with a couple of beers, I was a different person. I wasn’t drunk but it had relieved the anxiety. I’m sure you’ve had a real anxiety attack. It is debilitating. You know you’re going to die. You don’t think you’re going to die, and you can’t get out of it. I can but I didn’t know how then. This was in the ‘80s. There was no spiritual programming or internet. Nobody was going, “Meditate.” There was nothing. We drank a lot. It was also the ‘80s and ‘90s people, especially filmmakers. We would wrap a show or a job, and the craft service people would turn the table around. It would be a bar. That was every night. We had a beer cooler on the camera truck. Imagine that now, but that was our way of life.

It’s so different now. It’s wild.

Alcohol became a crutch, a way of life, and then eventually a problem. I remember when I went from a heavy drinker to an alcoholic. I could feel the shift. I went from, “I’m wanting it,” to, “I’m needing it.”

 

What’s happening with your career at this time? Are you hiding it? Are you still doing great?

I went through the program AA. First, it was fun. It was fun with problems, and then it was problems. That’s how it goes. It’s fun. You’re waking up late or coming home late. You don’t remember what you said, “I’m not going to drink for a while.” You then do it again. It starts happening. You realize there’s a problem, so you stop a little bit. When you pick it back up, you’re right in it like that.

You’re doing this and this is happening. Was this the spiraling time?

It became more problematic. I was hiding it and then waking up shaking. I was always in my head trying to time my drinking with jobs, “I got a job. I can’t drink for a few days and stuff.”

There are people that can relate to this too.

It was crazy, but I remember I was a camera operator too. I would be the director of photography but then every now and then, I would run a camera. I was doing a big show and would stop drinking four days before. I didn’t realize this but detoxing happens when you come off of alcohol. It’s not the day after. It’s day 3 and day 5. I didn’t know that at that time. I got behind the camera one time and started shaking. They’re going, “Why are you shaking? What’s happening?” I couldn’t stop shaking. I had the assistant take over. I didn’t know what was happening. I took a drink and the shaking stopped. I went, “This is a bad thing.”

Was that the moment where you’re like, “I’ve got to stop?”

No. I’ll fast forward. I had quit for six months or something and then got a job out of town. I flew in and went to the hotel. There was a producer there. She was like, “Let’s get a drink.” I was like, “I’m not drinking.” She kept going. I took a drink, and then it went on. I went back to the room and drank the mini bar. I couldn’t stop. I woke up drunk and went to a shoot. I was drunk. I got fired for the first time in my life.

I went back to my room and continued to drink. My phone was blowing up. Thirty years of a career were all of a sudden gone. The word spread like wildfire. They cut me off so I had to get home. I had to book a ticket. I had a PA drive me. I had to pay this guy to drive me to the airport. I got on a plane. I got wasted. It took a couple of days for me to get home. I don’t even remember it. My bag showed up. It was a mess.

Everybody is like, “What’s happening?” I had a place in Venice, a little room I was renting. It was a 300-square-foot room. I went on a two-month binger. I didn’t start drinking so I could not shake so much. One day, I remember I was lying in bed. I started hallucinating badly and hearing things. I had read that’s the severity of going into severe detox.

I’ll never forget this. I don’t know if you’ve ever had sleep paralysis. I felt the life of my soul or my consciousness leaving my body. I went, “This is it. I’m dying.” I didn’t leave, but I picked up the phone right after that, called an old girlfriend, and said, “Will you find a rehab for me?” She said, “I will.” She took me to Cliffside in Malibu. It was years ago, and I’m still here.

You have a whole other chapter. Thank you for sharing because there are people out there probably that might be in that state. Now that we’re talking about it, what would you say to anybody who’s at that point in their life?

In the addiction component, there are a lot of things. I’ve learned so many things afterwards, but when we’re in the midst of our addictions, we’re in a fog. We don’t make good decisions. We’re not aware enough to see what’s happening. The fog is so thick. The body has the desire for the chemical. Everything is chemicals so it needs that chemical. We don’t know what’s going on. We have to lift the fog so we can start to analyze what’s going on. There was a saying in AA, “It’s not a drinking program. It’s a thinking program.” It’s the way we think. Any addiction is us wanting to get out of our thoughts.

You want to run from the problems.

We shop too much. We are on Instagram too much. We drink, eat, do other drugs, travel, and work. We are escaping our thoughts.

There are so many different ways addictions can show up. It’s not just drinking.

The brain gets wired for that. That becomes who we are. When you go to break an addiction, especially at the level I was, it’s hard because that was my identity. In my head, I was a washed-up old director drunk. That was my story.

That was your story. That was not the truth.

We all have a story. The story that runs in us is what runs us.

It’s strong.

It’s our original programming. Usually, it comes from childhood. Your parents, your teachers, the church, or people are telling you, “You’re pretty. You’re cute. You’re fat. You’re smart.” In the base program of a little kid, all of a sudden, that’s who they are.

It happens before the age of seven.

The people telling you this don’t know who they are, yet they’re telling you who you are so you live your life with that story.

It’s so important for people not to put those thoughts into a kid’s mind because what they think isn’t that important, for some reason, is speaking to them that way. It can affect them their entire lives.

It does affect them entirely. Any mental unwinding usually has some childhood trauma in it. It comes from abandonment.

We all have it in one way or another. I didn’t think I had it. In the past couple of years, I’ve learned I have had it.

People say, “How did you change?” I said, “I changed my story.” I had to reframe that but I didn’t know any of that. All I knew is I stayed in that one room for four and a half years.

You went to the detox center in Malibu.

I went to rehab. I was there for 30 days. I went into sober living for another 30 days.

That’s not at your home. That’s at a different place.

They watch you. I went to my one-room studio apartment and stayed there for four years. That was hanging on and white-knuckling it because I was alone. I didn’t have any money. I was alone in here in my head, which can be scary.

What got you through that?

I went to a lot of AA meetings. That saved me. I recommend that. I don’t go anymore because I’ve found other modalities and things that helped me, but it served its purpose. They were friends. I was in two meetings a day. That kept me out of my head. I started to see that a lot of people are struggling. At this time, there were 3,000 AA meetings in Los Angeles a day or something like that.

I’m sure it’s still the same or more.

There are a lot of people struggling. The idea is that I didn’t feel like I was alone. I started hanging out with sober people, doing things, and meeting friends. I was changing my whole environment slowly and being accepted. I was sober for the first time in my life. I was not drunk all the 30 years but I would disconnect. Anytime something felt stressful or if I was happy, I drink. I was always drinking. I didn’t know me. You become very sensitive. All of a sudden, things offend you easily because you’re not numb. My sponsor would say, “Sit in it. Know that’s what depression feels like.”

The more you do that, it strengthens your character. You need to do that practice because then the brain starts to rewire for a better thing, “You can handle it.” It’s like working out. It’s painful at first but the more you do it, the more you go, “It will pass.” You don’t get attached to it. I did a lot of Buddhism practices and then found Kundalini yoga, which I can’t even recommend enough. That is the mind, body, and spirit on steroids. It took me through it. To this day, it still gets me out of the noise.

 

I love that you’re teaching me the path that you got on your way out. You started studying these different ways of religions per se, consciousness, and ways of practicing.

Subliminally, years ago, when I came to Los Angeles, I realized that there was something here I needed. I thought it was the movie business but I realized now it was the spirituality because we have it all in Southern California.

We have access to everything.

There’s a lot of static. There isn’t anything but you start to find your path and whatnot.

How did you get introduced to plant medicine? You’re studying Kundalini yoga and loving it. What happened after that?

In Kundalini, they talk a lot, as Joe Dispenza does, about the science of the mind, the energy of the chakras, DMT, the pineal gland, and how to release it naturally. By incorporating and starting to be in these circles, I kept hearing about ayahuasca and mushrooms. I heard about it years ago. I started doing little documentaries here and there. I met somebody that got me into ayahuasca. I went to a ceremony years ago.

It’s your first time.

I didn’t know what to expect. We all lay around in sleeping bags. I had no idea what to expect. I was like, “This is a big sleepover. What is this?”

You didn’t do much research on it or anything. My experience was similar. I had no idea.

That’s what I do. I jump out of the plane.

We’re Geminis. That’s why.

“Take that.” “Sure.”

“Why not? If it’s going to help, I’ll try it.”

I did it when I was doing drugs, “What is that?”

This is great. You’ve been through so much before that but you wanted to change inside. Did you want your career back? Did you want your life back? You were at the point of, “I want to feel well again in general.”

I was trying to get through each day. When it was bad, I was at the point where I couldn’t go an hour without a drink. Here I am, and I haven’t even touched it. I was trying to get through the day without killing myself or drinking every single day.

You found spirituality, which helped a lot.

You run to a yoga class or Kundalini. I started realizing, “If I do this breathwork, these poses, and what they say, I’ll feel so different.” I started going, “The world hasn’t changed but my perception of the world has changed.” That’s what happens. The world never changes.

That’s what it’s all about.

It’s your viewpoint of everything. These light bulbs started going off. I started going, “I get it.” I started shifting my thinking.

You’re taking ayahuasca now and lying down with people in sleeping bags.

I had to call my sponsor. They’re like, “Don’t do anything that affects you from the neck up.” I went, “I want to do this. I heard it helps with addictions and addictive thinking.” “Don’t do it.” I said, “I’m doing it.” I remember that was a bold moment. I went up against him but there was something. I felt like I had to do it. I went into this big slumber party of people. I don’t know anybody. They have all done it many times. I drank and it blew my head off. I was like, “What is this?” It was like Etch A Sketch when it’s all scribbled up, and then you shake it. It wiped it out. I saw things. I didn’t know what they were but it was the most beautiful experience I can remember.

Did you have all of those experiences? Some people say their first time was the most amazing experience. It’s filled with beauty. Was your first time that?

My first time was beautiful. It was the strangest thing because my eyes were closed, yet I could see the whole dome. It was like I was in a virtual reality wisdom dome. I couldn’t believe it.

You loved it. You’re like, “What is this?”

I was so happy. It cleaned out everything. All my bad memories and anxieties were gone for a minute. Everything was showing me the beauty of the world and how we are connected. Everybody says that but it showed me. You feel it. We’re connected to plants. You start to realize there’s an internet or a web of consciousness that goes through everything. You see it and feel it. I was so elated. It’s not like doing cocaine, Xanax, or something. This is you.

This is nature that you’re connecting with and that’s healing you. My skin got clear. My eyes were white. I was standing up. I felt happy and confident. I’ll never forget it. I said to the facilitator, “If everybody did this a couple of times, there would be no wars or divorce. How is this illegal?” He looked at me and said, “Happy people don’t buy anything,” and then he walked away. We can’t have happy people. Let’s take that away from you. Let’s create some misery.

Happy people don't buy anything. Click To Tweet

There are so many lessons from what you said. This happened. You had this experience, and then what?

I started getting into it. I started researching. I got into that community and met people in that ceremony. They’re like, “You should try this facility.” I started going down that rabbit hole. A buddy of mine that I met hired me. This is the long version of the story. I’m trying to speed it up. I was still living in this one room in Venice, scraping by, and trying to get little gigs here and there. I had to suck in my pride because I did have some showrunners that liked me and gave me an opportunity. I had to go back to running a handheld camera. I was 50 years old. I had to throw a 30-pound camera on my shoulder and do reality shows handheld for 12 hours a day at 50.

That’s when reality shows were huge.

I had to make a living. Everybody else is 28 or 30. I probably would have fired everybody back in my day but I had to listen because they were my bosses.

Do you believe these were a part of the lessons in where you are now? You’re uber-successful now. You’re doing incredibly well again but you do think that these were all the lessons along the way.

Anything that you think is a failure is not. It is always a lesson. I know people say that. For example, I had to pick up that camera and my back was killing me. I had to push through all that and work for people that didn’t know what they were doing, in my opinion. They would make me shoot for so long. I was sweating and hurting, and they didn’t care. I had to flip that around to me hating them. I realized I didn’t hate them. I was mad at me for being in this position. It’s my fault.

It’s always a reflection.

It’s on me. At that moment, I flipped it around and went, “I need to be grateful.” I can make my rent and eat. These people hired me. They don’t have to hire me, “Who’s this old guy running around the camera?” There are still 100 guys behind me. I had to embrace that, suck in, and be humble. We all have to do these things.

I’ve had to do it many times in my life.

That’s where beauty is too. Who cares?

It doesn’t matter.

People are like, “That guy is so-and-so.” You meet a movie star or something from another country. They’re up uber-famous. You look at them and go, “It means nothing to me.” You’re not in that frequency of thinking.

You see so much more to it than that.

Everything changes anyway.

You’re introduced to the world of ayahuasca and plant medicine. How did psilocybin come into your life? Wait until you hear this point. Wait until we’re getting to the good stuff.

I continue to do ayahuasca. I want to connect the dots here real quick. I went to the jungles of Hawaii to do a short little documentary piece on the making of ayahuasca. I got in that loop. I had one home in Florida where I had lost a bunch of money but I had a little bit of capital in it. I had sold it. I was looking to move out of this one room because I felt like I would die there and start drinking again.

I’m telling you this for a reason. This is how the universe works. My credit was bad. I had gotten a crappy loan. It was a balloon note I had gotten approval on. I had a little bit of cash in the bank. I started looking around for a home. Coincidentally, at the same time, I went to the jungle to shoot the making of ayahuasca. We were in there with the vines, smashing it with the men and the women. We’re in the jungle and it’s raining.

This was when no one knew about it either in the Western world.

We were doing it in this hut with this well-known facilitator. There was no bathroom in that. There was a hole in the jungle. We would do a ceremony every night. You’re running through the jungle at night with everything.

I can’t even imagine that.

It was wild, but in that circle, I met this guy that was a realtor. He became one of my best friends. We’re still friends. I told him there, “I want to move. I want to get out of this thing.” He goes, “I’ll hook you up.” He started showing me houses around LA. I made an offer on a couple, and they fell through. He said, “What about Topanga? We hike there all the time.” I went, “I’ll go up there. I’ll be by myself. There’s nobody around. I’ll start drinking again.” He goes, “Look at it.” I look at it, and it’s very remote somewhat. I look at the house. I’m like, “It’s okay.” I walk in the front door and it hit me. In that ceremony in Hawaii, I had seen this home.

It showed you this home.

I am getting chills talking about it now. When I walked in, I went, “I’m supposed to be here.” That went, “I can’t afford it. Who’s going to take care of it? How do I maintain it? I’m not working.” I don’t know what happened. I walked back out.

You had all these things going on, “I can’t afford this. How do I even do this? How do I put this all together?” You got a message from the medicine from the time before in Hawaii that said, “This is the place.”

I made an offer and got it. I remember when I moved in. I had one van full of things left. I had 3 or 4 of those mini-warehouses full of stuff in Florida. It was junk. I didn’t have anything left from all the financial problems I had. I had this one van. I come in. I bought some of the furniture that was in the house. I moved in and I was like, “How the hell is this going to work?” It’s two acres of land.

I’ve been there. I’ve seen your house. It’s a big house. It’s multi-level. There are tons of trees. It’s a lot of upkeep because you’re in the forest. It’s a thing.

I kept moving forward. My real estate buddy started doing ceremonies there. Every weekend or every two weeks, we were doing ceremonies. I started building a community around that. It became a place of healing because people started doing sound baths and meditation there. They started having parties, functions, and get-togethers. All of a sudden, I was in this whole thing that I created. It was one of those things. The Mother Ayahuasca would say, “Stop worrying.”

You get those messages whenever you would have a ceremony.

It would say, “Stop.” What I realized in life is when you settle down, things start to pull in. You don’t realize your purpose but you have to be connected. You have to be aware. I have this huge community of spiritual people of all kinds.

I’m happy to say I’m a part of it.

I was worried, “I’m doing the old way of pushing and trying to make things happen.” To answer your question back to psilocybin, we started taking mushrooms on our Topanga hikes. We would go under these trees. It was this free healing session. It was so beautiful because, with ayahuasca, you have to be monitored. You have to do this. It’s heavy duty but if you do a couple of grams of mushrooms and walk in nature, it’s two years of therapy. It’s over, and you feel good.

Tell me a little bit about the science behind ayahuasca or psilocybin. I know they’re two separate things, but what they do for the brain and the body and the benefits of it. I know you are very involved in it now. You know a lot about how it works. You’ve done your research. Through your years of experience with it, what have you learned? For people that are afraid, a lot of people think, “It’s a psychedelic. It’s a drug. It’s going to ruin my brain.” I don’t want to go in that direction but it does help with addictions. It did help you through yours. It helps with many things.

I studied psilocybin more than anything. Psychedelics in general get us out of our normal thinking and normal patterns, which is super beneficial. You can’t solve a problem with the same viewpoint as you always have. You need to get into a different perspective. It puts us in perspective. Psychedelics are not addictive. It’s impossible to get addicted to a psychedelic. You might get addicted to how it makes you feel. You might want that but there’s no real addiction component in them. They operate very differently. Paul Stamets likes to say that mushrooms are not only non-addictive. They’re anti-addictive. They break addictive behaviors.

 

Psilocybin especially goes into the serotonin receptor of the brain. The brain thinks it’s serotonin. It’s very easily ingested into the brain. What it does on a microdose level, we will talk about that first, is there’s a part of the brain in the amygdala. Our story is what they call the default mode network. It’s our default program. It’s our story that we run around all day, every day, constantly. Inside that story, or maybe outside, are our worries and anxieties that come from that story.

I like to make the analogy that our worries and anxieties are windows open on our computer desktops. We have 100 worries or windows open on the desktop of our computer. What happens to the computer? It’s very sluggish. It doesn’t think well. The batteries run out. It starts clogging up. There are several problems with that. The body doesn’t know what’s happening at any given time. It only knows what the five senses tell it or what the brain is telling it. If we’re living in worry and anxiety all the time about the mortgage or whatever is happening, the body is always in this state of panic.

I have lived like that. I went through about five years where I lived like that.

It’s very toxic.

I would wake up in the middle of the night with anxiety. It’s awful.

Your body probably suffered tremendously from it because it doesn’t know the difference between you not making your mortgage and a bear chasing you.

It just knows the feeling.

In nature, if a bear is chasing you, it might be a couple of hours, and then you’re relieved. The chemicals of adrenaline, cortisol, and all these other chemicals are somewhat poisonous in us for long periods. They will be in us for decades. You’re living in a state of anxiety. You were in it for five years. The body doesn’t know.

It’s all about the way you think. Your thoughts have so much to do with your health.

Your thinking creates a gland to release a chemical. Love has a chemical, oxytocin. There are all these different thoughts. Emotions are chemicals. They’re all chemicals. What happens when you take a small amount of psilocybin is it starts to close down these windows of worry and anxiety. If you start shutting these windows, everything is okay. Everything is usually okay. This is statistical. Ninety-seven percent of your worries and anxieties never happen but they run us. You can’t remember what you were worried about. It was running you. Your body is like, “Ugh,” but then you fix that problem. It’s safe to say that they’re an illusion.

This is statistical; 97% of your worries and anxieties never happen. They never happen. But they run us. Click To Tweet

What does it do to the brain itself? Does it do with the neurotransmitters and things like that?

There are many studies done on it. I say to somebody, “How would you be if I took away all your anxiety?”

You change somebody’s personality completely.

You start thinking differently. A habit is when the neurotransmitters of the brain develop a connection and they connect. If you go to learn how to ride a bike, at first, it’s difficult because the brain isn’t talking to the body quite well. As you do it over and over again, the neural pathways start to wire heavier, and then it becomes second nature or subconscious. That happens in our worry. If we’re worried all day long, our neural pathways are wired for that program. That’s why we wake up in the morning worried. That’s who we have become because that’s our program.

If we're worried in all day long, our, our neural pathways are wired for that program. So that's why we wake up in the morning worried, because that's who we've, we've become, because that's our program. Click To Tweet

It ages you. It makes you sick. Tons of inflammation are connected to that.

If you stop worrying, the good news is in the brain. Those neurotransmitters disconnect. You start rewiring new ones of calm, serenity, and bliss. That’s how it works. We sell microdoses and other products, but a lot of our customers don’t need them after a few months because they have rewired their brains. That’s an old habit. Drinking was an old habit for me. I couldn’t make it an hour without drinking. Now, it’s like drinking Lysol. That’s how foreign it is to me. I’ve changed my thinking.

Let’s talk about your website and what you’re doing now too. You’re still directing. You’re still an incredible cinematographer. You’re doing conscious projects now. The stuff you’re doing is incredibly beautiful. You have a company called Frequency Caps. Your website is FrequencyCaps.com. That’s where you can order all kinds of different things. You have educational videos there too by our amazing friend, Desi.

I started doing a few of them myself. Along the way, with the mushrooms helping me with my anxiety and all of this, I started growing mushrooms years ago for my use. I started expanding to friends. I started building it up. It’s not easy. It looks easy online. You might strike gold for a second but to keep it consistent long-term has been a very difficult thing to do.

We grow to help people. We grow in a very conscious environment. Our environment consists of chanting and the frequencies of the chakras and everything. It’s a serene environment. Mushrooms are bio decomposers, meaning they take on the toxins of their environment. We are growing intelligence. If it’s not grown in a high-frequency environment taking that vibration, it can also bring in some anxiety. It’s like if you buy stuff that’s on the street, grown in warehouses or low vibration.

A lot of it is being grown now in these massively huge warehouses because they want money. They want to make a massive profit. It’s affecting the medicine that you’re ingesting. That’s what I love so much about what you do. It’s a small operation. You put so much love and heart into it. You have sound bowl music playing to your mushrooms as the little seedlings are growing. It’s beautiful. I know you’re not in it for the money. You’re genuinely in it to help people. You already have a thriving career. I love what you’re doing for that reason. It can be toxic if you get your psilocybin from the wrong people.

In the experience, you can feel the vibration. We get calls. We know that people can feel it and experience it. Some people play playlists that I’ve given them. When certain notes and music is hit, it launches them. I’ve gotten those calls. They were like, “Do you play this frequency in your operation?” I go, “We do.” It’s very interesting. I’ll tell you a quick story too. When I was starting, I was anxious a couple of times because it was difficult. We were getting contamination wiped out. I was struggling. I gave some of the medicine to a facilitator. He called me after the ceremony. He goes, “We can feel your fear in this medicine.” They started rattling off what I was afraid of. I hadn’t said anything.

Is it something that they feel or something in the medicine when they’re on a journey tells them? Is it things they see and feel?

All of the above. Every psychedelic experience is different. Every person is different. Every time we partake in it, we’re different people. We’re never the same people. It’s never the same medicine, mindset, and setting. That’s the beauty of psychedelics. It’s always different.

That's the beauty of psychedelics. It's always different Click To Tweet

How can people learn more? Let’s say I want to try microdosing or learn more about psilocybin. Where can they reach you? Where can they connect with you? Where can they purchase some of your beautiful products?

We have an Instagram, @FrequencyCaps. We have a website, FrequencyCaps.com. On both of those, there are links to take you to our YouTube channel. In our YouTube channel, we have been creating educational content on all the questions of how it works and what you should take. Is it right for you? I talk to almost every person we have sold to or traded with because this isn’t the magic bullet. There’s a whole lifestyle that comes with it that’s beautiful. I’ve been through addiction, suicidal thinking, and all of that. Mixed with psychedelics, I bring a lot of advice on what has worked for me. I only tell people what I’ve done. Everything on my channel and all that information is not things I’ve read in a book. It is things that I’ve done, lived through, and experienced firsthand.

If someone out there is struggling, can they reach you somehow through your website?

We have our email there. I can get back to them.

I love this so much. It’s amazing. I love everything you’ve done. I love your story. It’s great.

We’re in the Aquarian Age of the turning point of consciousness. We can all feel it shifting. We realize that what we think is real is an illusion. This is my new passion. We all have to find a purpose. One day at a time, I’m shifting my consciousness. I’m wanting others to see what’s out there and what their purpose is. You change the world by changing the thinking of each individual person.

Make up your mind. Look at things in a different light. That’s what psychedelics do. They give you such clarity. They show you the truth. You can’t run from the truth. When you see the truth, there’s such beauty in that. It can be very harsh but it’s beautiful. When people start to see the power that they have, that is so amazing in the world. We’re at that shifting point. It’s in history. It’s written. It’s here. It’s happening. We’re all a part of that. I’m excited about that.

 

Me too. I always say, “Live a life of curiosity.”

We’re Geminis.

That’s what we do. You know exactly why I had Mark Kohl on the show. I love your story. If you need to reach out to him, you know where to reach out to him. He’s amazing. You’ve been through a lot. Reach out to Mark. Thanks a lot for reading this. I’ll be back soon.

 

Important Links

• Frequency
• @FrequencyCaps – Instagram
• YouTube – Frequency Caps
• https://www.KohlPictures.com/

 

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