Full transcript: Brian Rose on London Real
0:01 Hey it’s Brian, and I’m in Peru. Actually right behind me is Machu Picchu. This big mountain is Weima Picchu that overlooks the grounds. You can see some of the housing structures of Machu Picchu behind me. It’s absolutely gorgeous here, but I didn’t come to Peru to see Machu Picchu. I came to Peru to have a series of ayahuasca ceremonies.
0:29 Now if you don’t know what that is, ayahuasca is a plant medicine. It is a psychedelic that’s been used by the people here in Peru for, they say, thousands of years. The Chapibo is an indigenous tribe from the north, and they specialize in the ceremony and the creation of this very, very powerful psychedelic brew, probably the most powerful psychedelic brew. And I came to Peru to have my eighth, ninth, and tenth ceremony. I first drank ayahuasca back in 2011, right after I started London Real.
1:06 And it was very challenging, but it gave me a lot of amazing perspectives. I then went back about five, six years later, and I had three ceremonies in Costa Rica, and I made a movie about it called Reconnect. And it transformed my life. My second ceremony back in 2018 was the single most profound experience of my entire life. And I believe those ceremonies allowed me to create the next five years of my life. I don’t think I ever would have fought back against big tech censorship, or run for mayor of London, or did any of the massive things we’ve done at London Real without those ceremonies.
1:45 I just don’t think that would have happened. And so I knew I needed to come back, although this time I didn’t have anything pushing me. You know, when I first drank the medicine, it was kind of a challenge that the show brought on. When I did it the second time, we were making a film. This time, you know, I could have skipped it, but I knew that I needed to get here and have these ceremonies.
2:11 And so I booked it, and I came alone, and I didn’t really tell anybody that I was coming here. And I went to a place called Soltara, which is where I went before in Costa Rica, but this one is in Peru, and a place called Terra Poto in the north. And it was the most challenging five days of my whole life. Period. I went into a compound with no phone, no internet, no music, with 12 strangers, pretty much locked in a jungle with poisonous snakes and jaguars and spiders and scorpions.
2:47 And for five days, with very limited food, very little social contact, I went through back to back to back ayahuasca ceremonies with a lot of fasting and a lot of mental preparation. And it was really hard. These are always really challenging ceremonies because they make you go face your demons. You know, you’ve got to go face those demons. It’s easy to escape them in the real world, you know.
3:14 You can turn on the internet, you can go watch a movie, maybe buy something, get some porn, have a drink, have some drugs, smoke some weed, and you can avoid maybe some challenging times or conversations. But in that ceremony, baby, you ain’t going nowhere. And you might think it lasts three or four hours, but it can feel like three or four days, three or four weeks, or three or four thousand years, depending on how intense your experience is. And so that’s where I’ve been. They actually run a program for Special Forces veterans.
3:49 And it’s an amazing thing that they do. But, you know, they even told me they had a Navy SEAL literally quit on them a few months ago because he just couldn’t handle what was going on. And the ceremony after ceremony after ceremony, it was just too intense with no contact with the outside world, with no media, no music, no phone. It’s just a lot for those five days. Of course, limited food, no sugar, no salt, no spices, you know, you get it.
4:20 And so I went through these three ceremonies and I feel like I’m back from the dead. I really do. I feel like I was reborn. And, you know, one of the facilitators there alongside of the shamans, which had practiced this medicine for decades, and they sing these beautiful acaros in these ceremonies at night where 12 of us are there. And everyone is going through their own experience. A lot of people are purging and throwing up and, you know, going through very, very hard times.
4:49 But the facilitator said this is an amazing opportunity to die. Think of that. What a beautiful gift to be able to die. And that first ceremony, I definitely died. I saw my funeral. I saw after my death. But when you die, it makes you appreciate all these beautiful things we have in this life.
5:10 And I don’t know about you, but I have a gratitude practice. But it’s one thing to have a practice, but it’s the other thing to actually feel grateful, you know, and I don’t always feel grateful. I try, you know, I do my physical practice. I have been sober. I eat well. I do all these things. But sometimes it’s not I’m not feeling it.
5:30 Sometimes we need a reset and we need to be maybe shown all these beautiful things we have in this life and be reminded of what we have. And so my first ceremony, I was shown my death. I was shown my family. I was shown my mission. I was shown my purpose.
5:46 I was shown the universe. Mother Ayahuasca showed me how powerful she is and how small I am. And I thought to myself about two in the morning when I’m in the bathroom throwing up, there’s no way I’m doing this tomorrow. But we commit to be in ceremony every single night or you have to leave. They literally will throw you off and you can’t come back.
6:09 So I went back the next night and I went back the last night and had like a double dose and it was six, seven hours I was in there on the in the medicine was really intense. And I met some amazing people, a lot of younger people, a lot of Americans. I was very proud of them. It was our first ceremony, a lot of them. They were like champs. I was really impressed.
6:35 And now I have the medicine in me and I’ve been just traveling around Peru and trying to start my process of integration. I’ll be back in London in a day or two. And now I’ll try to take from what was in that ceremony and apply it in my life and make sure that I can handle this. This is actually the hard part, even though the ceremonies are a motherfucker. This is the hard part because you now have to take that knowledge and try to integrate it back into a world that hasn’t changed.
7:05 Your friends don’t know what you’re talking about. They don’t know what you saw, your work and all that. It hasn’t changed. It doesn’t know what you know. It doesn’t care. And so the integration is actually the hardest work. And that’s what I’m about to do.
7:20 And so I just wanted to make this note and talk a little bit about it. I’m so happy I came, but it was really hard. It was just hours and hours and hours of being super bored, super tired, super challenged. I fasted a lot of the time, so no food. And just really, you’re there with your thoughts. And then in ceremony, you’re deep inside your brain and confronting usually really unpleasant truths about yourself, your life, your relationships.
7:49 And so there you go. That’s why I’m here. And I’m really excited to get back. I feel amazing. I feel like the medicine is inside of me. I’ve obviously gone full local here and starting to dress like that.
8:01 I’ve got my snake pants going on. I hope you like that. And I’m really feeling amazing. And I can’t wait to get back and hug my beautiful boys. And I just can’t wait to get back and live my life. It’s such a beautiful gift. We have this life where you have relationships and missions and this beautiful planet surrounding us.
8:34 All of these opportunities and it’s just incredible what we have. And it’s so often I forget that. And so I’m just so grateful to be reminded of this. I hope I’ll be back here next year or at least regularly to check in on the medicine because now I just feel so I feel so privileged to be alive. I feel really excited to do amazing things and just to do so much good in this world and connect with amazing people and build beautiful things and create beautiful arts and just raise beautiful kids.
9:09 That’s really what I want to do and contribute to humanity and do something epic in this very limited time we have on this earth. I don’t know how much longer I have. It could be a day. It could be a decade. It could be 50 years. It could be 100 years.
9:23 But I’m going to make every day count or I’m going to do my damnedest to do it. So there you go. I hope that was helpful for you. I would love to hear any questions or comments below. But I just want to say thank you so much to the folks at Sultara and the beautiful facilitators there and the shamans and everyone else has been amazing.
9:42 Thank you to Peru. What a beautiful country. And thank you to the medicine.
