Dorian Yates built one of the greatest physiques in bodybuilding history on discipline and, by his own account, a fierce ego. So it is striking to hear him say that his psychedelic experiences told him the ego is the biggest problem on the planet.
This clip is a teaser for Inside The Shadow, London Real’s 2017 feature-length documentary about Dorian’s life. In it, he tells Brian Rose what he took away from DMT, why he compares psychedelics to a phone call you only need to answer once, and the blunt message ayahuasca gave him.
▶ Watch the full film: Dorian Yates – Inside The Shadow
From muscles to the mind
The clip opens with Brian’s narration. Psychedelics are controversial, he says, but his own experience with ayahuasca changed his life. Dorian had once told him that the ego gets in the way and sometimes needs to be destroyed. Where drugs once expanded his muscles, Brian says, they now expanded his mind, and typically for Dorian, he went to the extreme with DMT.
“The higher me talking to me”
Asked what he took away from his DMT experiences, Dorian describes receiving a huge amount of information. It felt, he says, “like the higher me talking to me”, and the message was that the ego gets in the way of everything. In his view it is just a construct we have formed.
Brian asks the obvious question: wasn’t ego what built his whole career? Dorian does not dodge it. Probably, he says. Why else would you want to be the best in the world at something?
A door opener, not a habit
Brian teases him for trying DMT without him, after the two had talked about it on their first episode. Dorian calls it a door opener: an experience that showed him there is another world out there, and that ordinary life is “just a narrow piece of light”.
But he is not sure he would take psychedelics again. He might return to ayahuasca if he had a real reason, something he needed to understand or work on. His image for it is a phone call. Once you have picked up the receiver and taken the call, you can put it down. You do not need to take that call again.
“Stop poisoning yourself”
Dorian then admits he is about to contradict what he said in his first interview. The ayahuasca ceremony he describes was so unpleasant that he thought he would never do it again. He had just met his future wife and warned her he was likely to be very sick. The brew, he says, was like drinking paint stripper.
At the time he felt disappointed: no visions, no great revelations. Looking back, though, he realises he did get a message, repeated over and over: stop poisoning yourself. He was drinking and sometimes taking party drugs, and that, he says, was what he needed to hear. Forget spirit animals and the meaning of life, he tells Brian: “Stop poisoning yourself. That’s my advice to you right now.”
This is Dorian Yates describing his own experiences, not medical advice or a recommendation. DMT and ayahuasca are controlled drugs in the UK and many other countries, and they carry real physical and psychological risks.
Who is Dorian Yates?
Dorian Yates won the Mr. Olympia title six years in a row, from 1992 to 1997, and is one of the most successful British bodybuilders of all time. Known as “The Shadow”, he trained at his Temple Gym in Birmingham and became famous for short, very intense HIT workouts. Since retiring he has turned to yoga, meditation and plant medicine, and is one of London Real’s most popular guests.
Inside The Shadow tells his story, and you can watch it free on London Real. He also spoke to Brian about steroids and testosterone in this earlier clip, from his second interview, Return Of The Shadow.
See everything Dorian Yates has done with London Real on his guest page: Dorian Yates on London Real.
More on London Real
Transcript
Transcript: Dorian Yates – What DMT And Ayahuasca Taught Him About Ego
0:00 Brian Rose: Psychedelics: they are controversial, but effective. My history with the plant teacher ayahuasca had reinvented my life, enough to make me a father at 45 years old. Dorian once told me the ego gets in the way, and sometimes it needs to be destroyed. Where drugs once expanded his muscles, now they expanded his mind. Typical of Dorian, he went to the extreme, with the most powerful psychedelic: DMT.
0:37 Brian Rose: What do you take away from those DMT experiences?
0:46 Dorian Yates: A tremendous amount of information that you get, and it was like the higher me talking to me, and telling me the biggest problem we have here on this planet, on this plane, is the ego. The ego gets in the way of everything, and the ego is just a construct we’ve formed.
1:05 Brian Rose: Was ego what built your whole career?
1:08 Dorian Yates: Probably. I mean, initially, why would you want to be the best in the world at something? I guess it must be your ego.
1:16 Brian Rose: On our first episode we spoke about DMT. You had even said that we were going to smoke DMT together. I went on to do a before-and-after episode, but I know you’ve had an experience with DMT. You did it without me, man. What’s up with that? You kind of [unclear]. You went into the shadows again.
1:37 Dorian Yates: Shadow, you know. I call it a door opener for me, like: wow, you realise there’s another world out there, and where we live is just a narrow piece of light. And taking psychedelics takes you out of that, and you see that there’s more out there.
1:51 Dorian Yates: I don’t know if I would take psychedelics again. Maybe I would take ayahuasca again if I felt there was a reason, if I had something I really wanted to know or work on, something like that. But it comes to a point where once you’ve picked up the receiver and took the call, you put it back down, and you don’t need to take that call again.
2:13 Brian Rose: And you much prefer ayahuasca over DMT, because it’s a longer message.
2:18 Dorian Yates: Well, now I’m going to contradict my first interview, aren’t I? I’ve got to be honest. It was like something I would never do again. So I’d just met my future wife, and I said: look, I’m going to take this stuff now. And she said: oh, I’ll look after you. I said: I’m probably going to puke and sh*t myself, so if you still fancy me after this… It made me as sick as can be. This stuff was just like drinking paint stripper. Just to get it down was a chore.
2:42 Dorian Yates: But as far as revelations and hearing things and seeing things, I didn’t get too much. I was quite disappointed, to be honest. Now I look back, I did hear something, now I recall. Not what I wanted to hear, not what I wanted to see, because I didn’t really see anything much, but I got a repetitive message in my brain: stop poisoning yourself. Because I was drinking, doing the party drugs sometimes, all this kind of stuff. So I was poisoning myself.
3:14 Dorian Yates: And the ayahuasca gives you what you need. And at that point, that’s all I needed to know and hear. Forget about seeing your spirit animals, mate, and all that stuff, and great revelations of what life’s all about. Stop poisoning yourself. That’s my advice to you right now.
