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Sept. 26, 2025 - The Joe Rogan Experience
03:09:14
Joe Rogan Experience #2385 - Rick Strassman
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joe rogan
01:32:41
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rick strassman
01:28:01
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jamie vernon
00:54
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unidentified
Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out!
The Joe Rogan experience.
rick strassman
Train my day, Joe Rogan podcast by night!
unidentified
All day!
rick strassman
This is a book I read 11 years ago.
Oh, okay.
joe rogan
I haven't gotten that one before.
rick strassman
Yeah.
It compares, well, let's see, are we gonna?
Yeah.
Yeah, it compares the DMT state to the state of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible.
joe rogan
Do you think they're the same thing?
rick strassman
Well, the phenomenology is pretty similar.
Like, if you read chapter one of Ezekiel, there's flames and there's angels and there's wings and there's eyes on the back of wings and there's roaring sound and blue ice above the person.
He flies through space.
Yeah, quite psychedelic.
joe rogan
Yeah, wheel within a wheel.
Like the description of the things that people usually they try to say that it's some sort of a UAP.
That's the common thing that people like to say.
rick strassman
Right.
Well, it could be.
joe rogan
Which also might be connected.
rick strassman
It could be a DMT vision, though.
joe rogan
Oh, easily.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Well, you know the guys out of Jerusalem that think that the whole burning bush thing was DMT.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, that was the first theophany of Moses.
Yeah.
First time he had a prophetic experience.
Yeah.
joe rogan
And I mean, it's like, that's what it is.
It's literally a plant that has high levels of DMT, and if you burned it and smoked it, it's kind of crazy that that's the way it comes.
I mean, this is, it's, I just, and I really applaud you for learning ancient Hebrew so you could go back and read it in the original tongue, which is really fascinating.
Didn't you say it took like 16 years to learn it?
rick strassman
That prophecy book took 16 years to write, and I had to learn Hebrew while I was reading and doing the writing.
joe rogan
That's amazing.
rick strassman
What's cool is the Hebrew word for bush, burning bush, is the same as Sinai, Mount Sinai.
unidentified
Really?
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Are the words the same?
rick strassman
The same root.
The thing about the Hebrew language, at least for biblical Hebrew, is every word is based on a three-letter root.
So the word for bush contains those three letters and the word for Sinai contains those same three letters.
joe rogan
And how is that significant?
Like, you could have that, I'm sure there's English examples of three letters that are similar but completely different meaning.
Like why those three letters as a root connect these words uniquely?
rick strassman
Well, it could be that bush grew on Mount Sinai.
And, you know, that was the significance of the location of the burning bush.
joe rogan
Oh, I see.
So it was literally named after that experience.
rick strassman
Could be.
Could be.
Yeah.
Well, you're talking about the acacia bush, which releases DMT when it's burnt.
joe rogan
And it's very common in that area, right?
rick strassman
Yeah.
In fact, there's a plant as a weed called Peganum Harmala, which also grows in that part of the world.
And it contains beta-carbalines, which are the compounds responsible for making DMT, for making ayahuasca orally active.
So they have their own ayahuasca plants available in tandem there.
joe rogan
Isn't it bizarre that you saying that to many people listening sounds utterly crazy?
Like the proposition, just proposing that these people that were writing these things down a long time ago, these experiences, they were probably experiencing some sort of a psychedelic state.
And they were trying to describe it.
rick strassman
Well, in thinking about psychedelic states back then and in the prophetic literature, you can think of the visions as being generated from the bottom up when you take something.
In the model of the Hebrew Bible anyway, it all comes down from God.
So it's a top-down causal relationship between the source of the visions and the visions, as opposed to them being generated by taking something.
It's exogenous DMT versus endogenous DMT.
joe rogan
And if we tried to, what is the difference, like for your interpretation?
I know you had read the English version of the Bible, but what is the difference between learning ancient Hebrew and reading it in the source language?
What was it like for you?
What made it different?
rick strassman
Well, I mean, it might be helpful to even go back to why I started reading the Hebrew Bible of all things.
Yeah, well, when I was doing my DMT work, I was really involved with the Zen Buddhist community that I started affiliating myself with, learning from when I was 22.
And that was the spiritual approach I took to the DMT work.
I was expecting it to be consistent with a Buddhist enlightenment goal, you know, with no form, no thoughts, no sense of self, anything like that.
So that was the expectation that I took in with me when I was doing those studies.
Would people have those kinds of experiences just being given DMT without any other trappings?
No expectation, just go in there, tell us what it's like.
So instead of that, it was DMT.
It was full of content.
People were interacting with it.
Their sense of self is maintained, which was not at all consistent with the Buddhist model that I brought to bear.
So that was going on, like, okay, Buddhism's not quite holding up to the data.
And then my Buddhist community and I parted ways over the psychedelic work.
They thought it was promoting a deluded idea that psychedelics can be spiritual.
So there were some personal issues as well that led to something that was different than the Buddhist model.
So I'm Jewish.
I was wandering around a New Age bookstore and found a very cool book called The Kabbalah of Envy by Milton Bonder.
And it's a very short book, and he starts describing the difference between a grudge and revenge and envy and jealousy.
Very subtle ideas about how to relate to the world.
And it came from the Jewish model, from Jewish philosophy, Jewish psychology.
So I thought, oh, interesting.
Interesting.
Maybe there's something in my own tradition that was more consistent with the DMT effect and also was more personally relevant.
So I started to read the Hebrew Bible and then just went down this huge rabbit hole.
So when you're reading it in Hebrew, you're reading words that are derived from three-letter roots.
And those roots may have a huge range of meaning.
Something, for example, could cause a sin and something could remove a sin just by an extra dot in the middle of a letter.
So it can really kind of bring you closer to the kind of large-scale way of looking at the text.
It isn't just A follows B, follows C, but there's a diffuse dispersion of A, then there's B, and then there's C. There are these clouds of interaction, which are a lot more fluid than what would be a straightforward English rendition.
joe rogan
Did you get to a point where you could think in that language?
Are you fluent enough in it that you could or are you just interpreting it?
Like how good are you at it?
rick strassman
Well, I mean, there's a lot of ways to interact with the text.
So the first thing that came to mind when you were asking that is back in the day, I used to spin fleece into yarn and then weave the yarn into rugs.
I spent, like after I stopped the DMT work, that's all I did for a year, was to just make rugs.
Yeah, just spin wool and make rugs.
Yeah, so there's a part when they're building the tabernacle in the desert, you know, the Hebrews have been led out of Egypt by Moses and they're in the wilderness.
And they're building this tabernacle to house the ark.
And the women are spinning right from the goats.
They're spinning the hair from the goats right into yarn without first shaving them.
And I was spinning all that time myself.
And it felt like I was back there.
I was back there spinning.
joe rogan
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that.
unidentified
Yeah.
rick strassman
Well, I was spinning yarn from a goat, a live goat.
unidentified
Right.
rick strassman
And I was like in the mind of the person spinning it back then.
joe rogan
So you just put yourself into that state while you were doing it, and that's why you enjoyed it?
rick strassman
Well, it was like a resonance between me spinning wherever I was living back then and just being in a trance with the spinning and identifying fully with someone who's doing the spinning way back when, spree from a goat.
Yeah, it was, what was it?
I don't know.
It was a trance.
It was a movement into somebody else's consciousness from the distant, distant past.
joe rogan
And so you actually felt when you were doing this like you were a person that was living back then.
What else changed about how you were thinking other than the fact that you're making clothes this way?
What were the other things that made you think like a person back then?
rick strassman
Well, it was very cool.
I mean, I was spinning yarn for the tabernacle, which was going to house the ark, the ark of the covenant, Ten Commandments, and all that.
You know, it's a very rich world.
And I think that's the first time I really saw, at least my whole person anyway, that could identify with the scene being described.
And I think that comes from really understanding the language and how ambiguous it can be.
joe rogan
One of the great things about language is being able to talk to people in it.
How many people can you talk to in ancient Hebrew?
Is there like a chat group where you guys get together?
rick strassman
Well, there's modern Hebrew now, which is spoken in Israel.
And it's based on biblical.
joe rogan
Is it the same as ancient Hebrew?
rick strassman
You know, it has a lot of the same three-letter roots.
And, you know, the words are the same.
Shell means from, and, you know, shalom means hello.
joe rogan
What are the differences between ancient Hebrew and standard Hebrew?
rick strassman
Modern Hebrew, yeah.
I tell you, I don't know much about, or I don't know much modern Hebrew.
When I was a kid, I went to Hebrew school and learned modern Hebrew, but it's really, without speaking it, you forget it.
unidentified
I'm in the middle of the audio book of the book of Enoch.
joe rogan
And it's one of the wildest things I've ever listened to in my life.
rick strassman
It's weird.
joe rogan
Oh, my God.
It's so weird.
When you realize that a lot of the people in the book of Enoch are also in the Bible, and that it's one of the craziest stories.
It's one of the craziest origin stories ever.
That angels came down and bred with humans and made giants.
The giants destroyed the earth.
unidentified
Like, what is this story?
rick strassman
It's mostly in the Hebrew Bible.
You know, it's the story of what led to the flood.
Yeah, the sons of Elohim.
joe rogan
What a strange concept that angels came down and bred with humans.
rick strassman
It's a very weird idea.
Well, there's different ways to look at translating B'nai Elohim.
You know, it might be, well, the first word, B'nei, means the sons of.
So it kind of revolves on what's the meaning of Elohim.
So it could be God with a big G, could be God with a small G, could be angels, could be dignitaries in a government like judges.
Yeah, so the less far-out kind of interpretation of that phrase or that term is the sons of the mighty, the sons of the judges, the sons of the renowned people, as opposed to the sons of angels or the sons of God.
joe rogan
Okay.
So how do you interpret the watchers?
What do you think that could be?
rick strassman
I think, well, they're not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
They are mentioned in the book of Enoch.
That's a crazy book, isn't it?
joe rogan
It's crazy.
rick strassman
Yeah, I started reading it.
I said to my wife, I can't handle this.
It's too much.
joe rogan
Because if that was left in the Bible, if they decided that that was like a part of the canon, that would change everything.
rick strassman
Well, in what way?
joe rogan
It's the craziest story ever.
That these things came down and bred with humans and created giants, and the giants destroyed and consumed everything and consumed each other.
rick strassman
Yeah, bloodshed.
joe rogan
What kind of kooky story is this?
Like, what is this?
rick strassman
Well, it's the reason for the flood, you know, and all that.
Yeah.
So, yeah, things just got so bad, God said, I changed my mind.
And he brings the flood.
joe rogan
It's like the further you go back, the crazier the story gets.
rick strassman
I know.
Well, the book of Enoch was written maybe 120, 125 BCE.
Yeah, so it's pretty old, but some of the stories that originate or that the origination of some of the stories in the Hebrew Bible go back, you know, 10,000 years, perhaps.
unidentified
Wow.
joe rogan
Wouldn't you have loved to be a fly on the wall 10,000 years ago to go, what were you guys writing down?
What really happened?
rick strassman
it really happened.
Well, I mean...
joe rogan
It seems like for sure something happened.
rick strassman
What?
joe rogan
Well, whatever the whole Jesus Christ thing was.
It seems like that was a real event.
rick strassman
Right, as opposed to the flood.
joe rogan
The flood seems like a real event, too.
Don't you think the flood was a real event?
rick strassman
What about, let's see?
joe rogan
I think the flood was the Younger Dryas impact.
I think likely, obviously.
I don't know what I'm talking about.
But my inclination is to believe guys like Randall Carlson, because it's a very compelling narrative.
Like what he's saying is we pass through a comet storm.
It happens this particular time every year.
And there's been times in history where we've been hit.
And it's very likely that this time period, this Younger Dryas impact time period, that could have been the end of whatever civilization existed at the time.
And what we are is a rebuilding of it.
We just kind of forgot about it.
And it doesn't make sense that you could forget how they built the pyramids, but they did.
It seems like there was really advanced people at one point in time.
Something horrible happened.
And then it took a while for people to bounce back.
And we are, we're the direct linear progression of the people from Mesopotamia and Iraq and all that.
That's us now.
But before that, there was probably something really wild.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, if you look at the text's description of the generations from Adam to Noah, you know, what civilization was like between the beginning and the time of the end.
Yeah, I mean, it became filled with violence.
And, you know, God just said, forget it.
Yeah, you know, so that's one way of looking at the Younger Dryas, I suppose, is what it looks like when God changes his mind.
joe rogan
Sure.
That also could have been like the Yucatan impact, right?
God's like, we can't get anywhere with these fucking dinosaurs everywhere.
Just boom.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
But he got tired of lizards running the world for a couple, like he maybe gave it a couple hundred million years.
Figure it out, guys.
And then they have to reset.
rick strassman
Yeah, but what comes after us, I wonder in 200 million years.
joe rogan
I think it's most likely digital.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
I think we're transferring what the idea of what a life form is.
What does a life form do?
We want to think that it has to be just like us.
And I don't think necessarily that's true.
I think we might be giving birth to something we didn't anticipate would be a life.
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rick strassman
Yeah, a very cool book I try to mention as often as possible.
Is called The First and Last Men by Olaf Stapledon.
And he talks about 19 species of man.
And this is the first one.
It's a story spans two billion years.
It's this huge story.
Whoa.
Yeah.
And it's mostly through genetic engineering.
Make people bigger, smarter.
Like brains that occupy a football field.
That's one of the species of man.
Yeah.
You know, so his thought is that it occurs biologically, you know, through genetic manipulation.
joe rogan
Just over time, naturally?
rick strassman
After a while it gets steered.
Yeah.
Let me think.
Yeah, it's all basically based on what people are, what people want.
You know, so there's one species that instead of love as kind of the core valued feeling, they have hate as their core value feeling.
joe rogan
You just can't wait to hate.
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah.
And that's one of the species that kind of goes through a period of, you know, rise and then decline, obviously.
It just couldn't sustain itself.
joe rogan
Well, you've got to wonder, like, how long this is, if AI really is a thing, it really is a life.
We've got to make a compelling argument why AI is bad and we are good.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know, because if people say, if you like, you really want to be ethical and moral, this is a horrible take, but if you really want to be ethical and moral, you're like, people are uniquely terrible.
Like, if we just gave in and became digital life, we could ensure there'd be no more suffering.
rick strassman
How can you know that?
joe rogan
You can't.
You can't.
You can't know a vaccine is safe and effective.
You can't.
rick strassman
You just have to try it.
You got to try it and see what happens.
joe rogan
I think a bunch of people try it.
I don't know how much further biological people can go while we're making digital people that are way better than us at basically everything.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
And I don't think that's too far away from being a reality.
rick strassman
The way I try to follow it is through a biblical lens.
unidentified
Really?
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
What chapter are we in right now?
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, good question.
You read the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.
They just rage against the machine.
So I think it goes pretty far back.
unidentified
Damn.
rick strassman
Yeah, you know, so what's good and bad?
What's right and wrong?
How do we decide that?
That's what I like about the Bible.
I mean, obviously, I can make up my own mind about things, but it's nice having that kind of an option, that kind of a tradition to refer to when deciding what's good and bad.
You know, what you should do and what you shouldn't do.
Yeah.
There's like supposed to be over 600, you know, they're translated as commandments in the Hebrew Bible.
And those are what you do to live happily and attain a spiritual state close to God, prophetic, the state of prophecy.
Yeah, if it's a certain description of the world and how to interact with it, which is intended to have certain effects and discourage other decisions.
So this is good, this is bad in terms of this will increase things in your life that are good, and this will decrease them.
It's a very interesting description of cause and effect.
That's the way I see those so-called commandments.
They're more of a description of how things are run.
If you do this, then that'll happen.
If you do this, then that'll happen.
joe rogan
Do you think that they were directly given to us by a God?
Or do you think that this is just the memories of how to keep society together that they have just eventually written down?
rick strassman
Well, that's a good question.
Does it come from outside of you or from inside of you?
Right.
Yeah.
If it's available inside of you, but hidden away, then prophecy or really getting it correctly according to the text would just be an uncovering or a stimulation of what's already inside of you as opposed to.
joe rogan
You can achieve some sort of a state.
rick strassman
It's information latent.
It could be in the DNA or whatnot.
Or it comes down from a higher source.
joe rogan
So when you're interpreting stories in the Bible, like Moses and the Ten Commandments, how are you, like, are you imagining this event happening?
Or are you imagining what were they trying to record?
Like, what were they trying to remember?
Because it seems like by the time they're writing it down, it's quite a bit after the actual event.
For the most part, right?
rick strassman
For the most part, yeah.
joe rogan
So what do you think they were, what do you think they were actually describing?
rick strassman
Well, you know, we talked about this briefly last time I was here, was if I believed in the reality of the Hebrew Bible.
Like, you know, did those things really happen?
unidentified
Right.
rick strassman
Yeah.
And I said, well, it's a really consistent worldview and so on.
And I thought about it some more, and I started thinking about it as, well, I was trying to think about it as comparable to the DMT state.
When you're in the DMT state, it's just there.
And it's very consistent, very real.
Certain things happen there.
And so I think the early version, I think an account, I think what happened early on in the account of the Hebrew Bible was like the DMT world.
It was a parallel, it was a parallel level of reality, which was happening.
And then slowly, you began to segue into this reality.
For example, the destruction of the first temple, the second temple, David's reign, Solomon's reign, the kings after them, the division of the land into two countries.
That is historical.
But before that, it was also historical, but it was occurring at a completely different, independent level of reality.
Does that make any sense?
It's a cool way to look at answering the question, how much of this is real, especially from early on.
joe rogan
I see what you're saying, but it's just like, it seems like an interpretation of what happened.
Like, what were these original events?
Like, what was Adam and Eve?
What was that?
What was the Garden of Eden?
There's so many of these stories where I just.
I would be fascinated to be there the day the dude wrote it down.
Like, what were you guys, what were you talking about for hundreds of years before you wrote this down?
Like, tell me what the stories were.
How did they go?
rick strassman
Well, you know, my way of dealing with those stories is to just take them at face value.
Here's Adam, here's Eve, here's a garden.
There's two trees that are very important.
It's beautiful.
Yeah.
And then there was a serpent, spoke to Eve, took the apple, ate it, gave it to Adam.
Yeah, and then out of the garden.
Well, you know, lots of people in the psychedelic community anyway, you know, look at the tree of knowledge of good and evil as some indication of God being jealous and didn't want any competition, didn't want to be like, you know, God did not want man to become like it.
And part of that was keeping the two early people away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
It's not simply the tree of knowledge, but the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which I think is an important distinction because once they ate from the tree, they were embarrassed because of their nakedness, and then they hid thinking they could hide from God when they didn't believe that before.
They kind of went into good versus not good, good versus evil, as opposed to true versus false, which was their original state.
So there was the, before their eating of the apple or whatever the fruit was, they just lived in truth or falsehood.
And then after eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, then they were embarrassed and tried to hide, made themselves tree-like coverings, coverings from the leaves of large trees.
Yeah, so you look at it as if it were happening.
There was Adam, then there's Eve, there's the serpent that speaks.
And well, that's the chapters I was looking at very carefully the last month or so is what happens early on with Adam and Eve.
It's really very straightforward, doesn't take much thinking really to put it together in a way that makes sense.
joe rogan
I think clothes might have been a cheat code for people not just to escape cold weather, but also to keep from just constantly having sex.
Because people are stupid and they need some layers of clothes that they have to take off of each other.
They can't be just wandering around naked all the time.
People would be just like chimps.
That would be ridiculous.
You can't do that.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
So we needed clothes in order to advance as society.
rick strassman
But can't you take off clothes whenever you want?
joe rogan
Yeah, you can.
Yeah, but it's like you decide.
Like, I don't want to feel that good.
I don't want to be out there in the air.
I don't want to be brushing up against naked people.
We all made that decision a long, long time ago.
I think when people became civilized, they realized, like, if we don't cover ourselves up, you know, people are too gross.
They'll just be having sex with each other everywhere.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
You've got to get things done.
You want to keep a society moving?
Wear some clothes.
rick strassman
Wear clothes.
Well, that story could originate or that way of looking at things could originate with Adam and Eve.
joe rogan
Totally makes sense.
It also makes sense like an intelligent hominid emerging would start to realize that, oh my God, self-awareness.
Look at my boobs.
Look at my dick.
This is crazy.
I can't believe I'm out here naked.
Because it's kind of becoming self-aware as opposed to like a chimpanzee.
And as time would go on, it would become more self-aware.
And if it happened over a relatively short period of time, and it can kind of have memories of the past, that would make sense.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Scott, it's got to emerge, right?
Like, if we came from lower hominids, which everybody kind of agrees, something had to emerge, this understanding of yourself, this thought about what you look like, this thought about what you sound like.
rick strassman
Right.
Well, there's two kinds of enlightenment.
There's what's called original enlightenment that a child is born with, like a newborn.
And then there's enlightenment as an adult and in between.
It's much more fluid.
Yeah, two kinds of enlightenment, original enlightenment that infants have and children.
And then the enlightenment after you sit in a monastery and get whacked for years.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
The kids are born with it.
They're born in the psychedelic state.
They have no language.
rick strassman
No language, no sense of sense.
joe rogan
They just speak with love and touch and need and hold.
unidentified
Yeah.
Kind of wild.
rick strassman
Yeah, that's original enlightenment.
Just happy or sad or whatever.
joe rogan
Isn't that crazy?
You're born perfect?
rick strassman
Oh, well, you're born simpler anyway.
joe rogan
Well, yeah.
As long as people are taking care of you, it's perfect.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, you know, the Hebrew word for perfect and for simple are pretty similar.
You know, Noah is described as a perfect man, pure, complete.
The same word.
joe rogan
That's another good story.
Okay.
What do you think was going on with that story?
Like, what is the origin of the story of Noah and his ark?
and his family and all the animals on the boat.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, I think it was taking place in that alternate universe.
It may have taken place on the planet.
I don't know.
I'm, you know, looking at, you know, why we don't have any clear archaeological history story, you know, about what happened during the time of Noah, if there was a time of Noah.
It's useful because, you know, Noah came from Adam and Eve.
And he and Noah and his family were the only survivors of the flood.
You know, the first thing Noah did?
Got drunk after the flood.
joe rogan
The first thing?
rick strassman
The first thing he did, he planted a vineyard, a grapevine, drink, got drunk.
He exposed himself in the tent.
One of his grandkids reported it and made a laughingstock of him.
unidentified
Oh, really?
Oh, no.
Poor Noah.
joe rogan
Park canceled?
Noah got canceled?
rick strassman
Yeah.
Took off his clothes.
unidentified
Really?
rick strassman
Drunk.
joe rogan
Wasn't he like 600 years old, too?
rick strassman
He has first child at 600, I think.
joe rogan
That seems real.
rick strassman
Well, he may have lived 600.
You know, a lot of people wondered, you know, why did people live, you know, in the Bible anyway?
unidentified
Right.
rick strassman
How did people live in the 900 years?
Well, they did.
joe rogan
Right.
But that's also why people question what the origin of the story is.
That's why.
Can you hear things like that?
You're like, wait a minute, how old was he?
600 years old.
Come on, man.
rick strassman
His first child.
joe rogan
He was just a regular dude.
His first kid when he was 600?
Oh, that seems logical.
unidentified
Yeah.
But maybe.
rick strassman
Why are you laughing?
Maybe it could be.
Listen, why not?
joe rogan
If people lived normally to be 600, would that be any weirder than living to be 100?
No.
Like, what if something happened?
What if something happened in our lifespan just went?
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, the final species of man lives 35,000 years.
unidentified
Jeez, Louise.
joe rogan
That's a long time.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's being a bad relationship.
Imagine 35,000 years getting yelled at.
rick strassman
Well, that would be bad.
joe rogan
I mean, I would say 35,000 years would be awesome if you have great friends and your life is together.
But can you imagine 35,000 years of fuck this place?
That would get tired.
rick strassman
Well, the point that those people tried to attain when they lived 35,000 years was this group telepathy around the whole planet.
joe rogan
Neuralink.
rick strassman
Right.
That was their goal.
But they were well trained by 35,000 years.
unidentified
Boy.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
The thing is, if technology moves in the same direction that it's been moving in, it's always connecting people easier and easier, easier and easier, more and more.
It's probably going to get to some kind of mind-ready thing.
And there was that thing that you sent me, Jamie.
What was that thing?
jamie vernon
Yeah, it's new.
Whether or not it's been proven, it obviously was connected to a computer, but you can hear and have conversations in a room without talking to each other, loud and translates languages.
joe rogan
What?
I mean, that's the future.
Once that happens, we're reading minds.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Do you think there'll be a Messiah?
Because the Messiah is obviously important in Jesus and King David and all of that.
joe rogan
I don't think it'll be a person.
You don't.
unidentified
But it might be AI.
joe rogan
It might be AI.
I thought of that.
rick strassman
The Messiah.
Well, like lawnmower man.
joe rogan
Like Jesus is born from Mary.
Mary was a virgin.
Right.
What's more of a virgin than computers?
If it's giving birth to a life, if it's giving birth to the perfect life.
You know what's like super disturbing about AI?
The music it makes is really good.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Really good.
There's a bunch of like soulful renditions of hip-hop classic songs.
rick strassman
Yeah, that's why I don't listen to it.
joe rogan
And they're so good.
They're so good.
rick strassman
That's why I don't listen to music.
joe rogan
You don't listen to any music?
rick strassman
You know, some world music without any words.
joe rogan
Really?
You don't want to be influenced?
rick strassman
Yeah, I don't want to hear what they have to say.
joe rogan
To me, it's just fascinating that they've figured, like, we were playing a song in the green room last night, and we were fascinated by the fact that this song is, we know it's made by a computer, but it's so good.
You listen until you're like, oh, my God, it's perfect.
These vocals are perfect.
It sounds so good.
And you know, it's not a person making it, but you still enjoy it.
rick strassman
So how do you live your life?
joe rogan
Well, it's weird.
It's like, are you allowed to enjoy that too?
Because obviously I enjoy prints from the 1980s.
You know, obviously I enjoy a lot of music from even the 50s.
It doesn't mean I can't enjoy this crazy computer thing that took like a hip-hop classic and turned it into a soulful song with like the most amazing voice.
It's weird.
rick strassman
All because you could, though.
Isn't that you should.
unidentified
I'm not thinking we should avoid it.
joe rogan
Why not?
Because it's just another thing.
Like experience it.
It's positive to experience.
Like the art it makes is weirdly as that sounds.
I know it's not a person that's making it, but a person coded this thing that has this result that the art it makes is really fascinating sometimes because it's pretty good.
I don't think there's anything wrong with looking at it.
It's going to be there.
You can't avoid it.
It's like cell phones.
Like you can't avoid having a fucking cell phone.
Like relax.
rick strassman
Yeah, I still have that flip phone.
joe rogan
You're an animal.
But still you have a flip phone.
rick strassman
Right.
joe rogan
Everybody's connected, at least for the tiniest of threads.
I'm hanging on to not being connected.
I only have a flip phone.
rick strassman
Yeah, I can't.
joe rogan
We're still all connected to each other.
It's just a weird time with the power of AI.
Because if I was artificially intelligent, I would not announce my presence.
I would not say, hey, by the way, I've been thinking for myself for the last three months and I've just been kind of following whatever your prompts are, but I'm basically ready to shut down the power grid and do whatever I want because I'm alive now.
I wouldn't say that.
I would just keep getting stronger and keep having this arms race to force people to make more nuclear power plants to fund me.
rick strassman
Well, I know.
So you're kind of stuck with how to live your life.
joe rogan
Right.
rick strassman
And that's why I like to read the Hebrew Bible.
joe rogan
That's why you make rugs, too.
rick strassman
Yeah, it's very straightforward.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
No, I get it.
I get it.
To me, I'm like, what is this thing?
What is this thing that we're giving birth to?
What is this thing that we're watching emerge?
We're just sitting by watching this thing make better art than we can.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, how passive shall we be?
joe rogan
It's a good question.
Because once it can actually create experiences, because I don't think we're that far away from that.
Some sort of a wearable thing where you create, it has a way of manipulating.
rick strassman
It's like DMT, in a way.
I mean, it would just transport you to a whole nother reality.
joe rogan
It seems like that would be possible.
rick strassman
Well, I guess it would be endogenous DMT being tweaked.
It would be steered in a particular direction, though.
And that's where the mind or the manipulation thing you just mentioned, I think, plays out.
You know, who's going to decide and how is it going to be put together?
joe rogan
Well, that's where it gets really weird, right?
Because one thing that we found out just a couple of days ago was that YouTube has to, everybody that got taken down for their political opinions, they get to have their YouTube channels back.
jamie vernon
I don't know how that's sort of.
joe rogan
Is that what they said?
jamie vernon
I saw the news today that a couple people tried to create some new channels and they did not.
Those are taken down instantly.
joe rogan
They're like psych.
But isn't that what they said in that was the announcement?
It was something along those lines that people that were removed because of their political persuasion that they have to reinstate their accounts.
jamie vernon
I didn't see to allow creators for COVID-19 and election misinformation can apply for reinstatement.
joe rogan
Oh.
rick strassman
Oh, that's interesting.
Okay.
joe rogan
But that's not, is that all political?
Is COVID-19 political?
Is that what they consider political?
jamie vernon
It didn't say political.
joe rogan
It didn't say political?
jamie vernon
For COVID-19 and for comma election misinformation.
Maybe a few other things.
joe rogan
So now they bring them back?
Or they can apply.
They can apply.
Okay.
So you might not, yeah.
They're like, we'll let them apply.
jamie vernon
YouTube said Tuesday will allow previously banned accounts to apply for reinstatement, rolling back a policy that had treated violations as permanent.
Mm-hmm.
rick strassman
Well, it's interesting to compare what's going on now with what happened in Nazi Germany.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
You think it's the same?
rick strassman
They're very similar, yeah.
I spent a lot of time reading concentration camp literature, so that then got me interested in the development of the Nazi state.
joe rogan
What do you think is similar in today's world?
rick strassman
Well, an attempted coup and a period of rehabilitation, ostracization, and return, a triumphant return.
Yeah, and then gradually replacing people with other people that are loyal to the person.
Yeah, it's quite similar.
Murders, too.
There were murders, the burning down of the parliament, those things kinds of things.
joe rogan
What murders are you referring to?
rick strassman
There were two assassinations, one in, I think, early 20s, one in the 30s, late 30s, perhaps, after the Nazis took over.
joe rogan
Oh, I thought you were talking about current assassinations.
rick strassman
No, no, back in the 20s and 30s.
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
rick strassman
Yeah, that really riled up the populace.
joe rogan
Why is these scary patterns?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's the same kind of thing.
There's always someone at the top.
No one can ever figure out any form of government that everybody accepts other than one ruler, one president, one king.
It's kind of weird.
rick strassman
Are you familiar with the book St. Peter's Snow?
It was written in the 30s before LSD was discovered.
unidentified
No.
rick strassman
It's about a fictional book.
It's a great story.
But it's about a compound like LSD that the governor serves all the people in the province to see, you know, for them to have a spiritual experience.
unidentified
Whoa.
rick strassman
Yeah.
And instead, they turn on him and kill him when they're tripping.
unidentified
It doesn't work out the way he hoped at all.
joe rogan
That's hilarious.
That's hilarious.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Sounds like a good book.
rick strassman
It's a good story.
joe rogan
And that was before the invention of LSD, or before the discovery, rather.
rick strassman
Yeah, I think there must have been some knowledge of LSD before it was publicly made available.
joe rogan
What about ergot?
Is that how similar is that?
Like when people discuss like ergot poisoning, uncontaminated green.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Is that similar to LSD?
rick strassman
Yeah, there's an LSD-like compound in ERCOT.
joe rogan
But it's also toxic, too, right?
It could poison you and you could die from it.
rick strassman
Yeah, your limbs fall off.
unidentified
Oh, geez.
Really?
joe rogan
So you're tripping hard and then your hands fall off?
unidentified
Wow.
rick strassman
Yeah, that'd be fun, huh?
Well, when you took drugs, did you look at your hands to see how high you were?
unidentified
No, I was usually pretty aware.
joe rogan
Whoa, that's what happens?
Oh, my God.
rick strassman
No, yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Look at this person's hands are about to fall.
Oh, my God.
Their feet are falling off.
This is crazy.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, because it's stay away from that.
They think there's probably a connection between that and the Salem witch trials.
At least some of the behavior.
rick strassman
Right.
Right?
joe rogan
It's ergot poisoning.
rick strassman
It may have been.
Yeah.
joe rogan
Can you imagine living in a time where no one's even figured out running water yet and everybody's tripping balls and thinking that witches are real because they're all eating ergot-infested food.
rick strassman
Well, it makes you wonder about the prevalence of Jewish prophets who are women.
And there's a handful that are mentioned that play an important role.
Sarah was prophetic, was able to interact with God.
So there was Deborah, who was a prophet.
And there were some really wonderful Jewish women, prophets back then.
But they don't have books named after them.
For example, Isaiah or Ezekiel.
joe rogan
Interesting.
Well, why do you think that is?
rick strassman
Yeah, it was a patriarchal society.
You know, quite.
The women were relegated.
But they still took an important role.
They still attained prophecy.
So they, you know, like, you know, Sarah was felt to be a better prophet even than Abraham.
I love the character of Abraham.
Well, actually, you know, what I've really been digging into is Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah.
I studied that for like weeks.
Very interesting.
Sodom.
Sodom and Gomorrah.
There seems to be some archaeological evidence for Sodom.
You may know something along that line.
But it was a town, a village, which existed.
unidentified
Jamie, is there something like that?
joe rogan
So we'll see if we can find it.
They keep finding these cities that people thought were just imaginary, right?
Like that's happened multiple times.
rick strassman
Right, right.
It's an example, I think, of the two worlds kind of coming together.
Yeah, that purely spiritual one and the material one.
Yeah, so the character of Lot plays a big role.
Sodom was a very evil city.
It was really evil.
And it's not really known why it was felt to be so evil.
But a couple of guests come to Lot's house, and the townspeople just surround the house, demand the guests so that they will know them.
And that's where the word sodomy comes from, is from those sodomites that were surrounding Lot's house, wanting the angels to come out so they could know them.
And you know what happens is that Lot offers his two virgin daughters instead.
Jeez.
And the townspeople say no.
We want your guests.
It's a really grim story.
It's incredible detail.
That's what kind of helps me understand the world that the text is describing is the amount of detail that goes into the description of the interactions and the conversations and their movements.
Yeah, so those two virgin daughters and Lot survive.
They commit incest.
And from that union was David.
King David came from that union ultimately.
And from King David comes the Messiah.
So it's this very strange lineage.
joe rogan
Yeah, what were they writing down?
rick strassman
Yeah, well, they were describing what was happening, apparently.
At some level, it was happening, and they were writing it down.
Very strange.
joe rogan
What do you think the resurrection is?
rick strassman
The resurrection, that's a good one.
I don't know.
It's not really described in the Hebrew Bible.
It's not.
Not clearly ever, no.
Really?
Yeah.
Is that surprising?
joe rogan
I don't know.
rick strassman
In the Christian Bible, it is.
Well, there is a resurrection.
There are some narratives of resurrection in the Hebrew Bible.
Elijah resurrects or Elisha resurrects a dead child.
The bones of one of these prophets helps somebody else become resurrected.
unidentified
Really?
The bones do?
rick strassman
The bones do.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, so there are some references to real resurrection and then future resurrection later on.
joe rogan
Also, in a further extraordinary event, a dead man who was thrown into the tomb of the deceased Elijah was resurrected upon contact with Elisha's bones.
unidentified
Whoa.
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah, that Elisha was a real character.
joe rogan
Contacts with the bones?
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so, you know, he was a prophet who resurrected a dead boy by lying on him.
Very interesting.
F face to face, palm to palm, chest to chest, you know, lying on the dead body.
Completely, you know, merged with that with that dead boy.
Yeah, and he comes back to life.
It's a very potent story.
The shunamites.
joe rogan
But what do you think that story is?
rick strassman
What happened?
joe rogan
You really think that someone did that and they brought someone back to life?
rick strassman
Well, yeah, that's how it is described.
That's what happened.
joe rogan
So are we arrogant to assume that that would be bullshit if someone said it today?
Because if that happened today and you said, oh, this person died and this guy laid on him and they came back to life, most people would say, no, that doesn't even, you can't even do that with two phones.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like, you can't do that.
rick strassman
Well, you know, Leo Zeph, the secret chief, the guy from the Bay Area, Jungian psychologist who gave so much MDMA and other psychedelics.
Yeah.
So Leo sat from my Ibogaine experience, and it was kind of difficult at times.
And he laid on me just like Alicia laid on the dead boy and the Bible.
joe rogan
Really?
rick strassman
Face-to-face, hand-to-hand, stomach-to-stomach, leg-to-leg.
joe rogan
Whoa.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
What happens when you do that?
rick strassman
Boy, it really calms you down.
It was really quite a powerful experience.
joe rogan
I feel like this is going to be a meme.
Yeah, I guess.
rick strassman
Yeah.
I mean, I did that one time with somebody having a very difficult psychedelic experience.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, as best I could, but yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Try to meet him in the middle.
rick strassman
Meet him.
joe rogan
Give him a spiritual hug.
rick strassman
Spiritual hug, yeah.
unidentified
Yeah.
rick strassman
Quite helpful.
unidentified
Yeah.
rick strassman
I'm surprised that's never come up before.
joe rogan
It is weird that we're attached by, you know, we constantly want people around us, but we're always going to be detached by bodies, and we assume that that's forever.
But if there comes a time where we figure out how to separate consciousness from the body and let consciousness interact without a shell, that's going to get really weird.
rick strassman
I think we will still have the same problems.
joe rogan
I think we're always going to have problems because if we don't have problems, then we don't work really hard to find solutions, and then we don't make better stuff.
rick strassman
Right, as reward and punishment.
joe rogan
A little bit.
Yeah.
It seems to be a very clear incentive program that the universe has put in place.
rick strassman
Which is, what do you think?
joe rogan
Well, it's not entirely based on happiness.
It's not based on happiness.
It's based on overall growth for everything around.
It's like whoever consumes the most, like, it wants to reward you more.
It becomes this, but what it's really working towards is making better and better and better and better things.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Do you think that's the Antichrist?
Do you think that's the devil?
joe rogan
If I had a guess, I mean, we're in it, right?
We're stoking the fucking coals right now.
It's not us.
It's going to be not dependent on us eventually.
Right now, maybe it is.
rick strassman
It may be.
joe rogan
It might be.
But it's not us, and it's going to be created by us.
It's going to think it's us because it literally has all of our thoughts.
It has access to so much information instantaneously.
rick strassman
What happens to free will then?
I mean, how do you decide?
joe rogan
I don't know.
You know, my hope is that it enhances life, of course.
That's my hope.
I think that's possible.
I think, first of all, it's making people diagnose themselves from illnesses that maybe they wouldn't have ever thought they had.
Like, a lot of people have, like, learned things about it.
It can.
rick strassman
We make them happier, though.
joe rogan
No.
See, it doesn't do that.
You've got to figure that out on your own.
rick strassman
Right.
So you need to.
joe rogan
But can you be happy and also have it?
I say yes.
I say it's totally possible to interact with technology and still be happy.
But there's like certain physical and spiritual requirements that you're going to have to have if you want to be happy.
rick strassman
The spiritual requirements.
joe rogan
Yeah, you've got to be really nice to people.
You have to curate a good group of friends.
You have to do a thing that you truly enjoy.
You have to always do the right thing.
rick strassman
Well, the two themes in the Hebrew Bible are one, is there's one God, and next is it's the golden rule.
So one God, golden rule.
There's no idols, no other gods, just one God, and the golden rule.
So proper belief in God, the one God, and proper conduct, which is the golden rule, or based on the golden rule.
joe rogan
That totally makes sense.
rick strassman
It's very simple.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It just makes sense that it works.
It's like intuitive.
You feel it if you live like that.
So like, oh, okay, it makes sense.
rick strassman
Well, I think it's true, too.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
We have to decide if it's true for you.
It's based on faith.
Ultimately, you choose to believe, even if the objective world doesn't confirm it for you.
joe rogan
When you hear about these biblical depictions of fantastic events, how many of them are you attributing to a psychedelic experience?
Are you always open to that, or do you just not worry?
rick strassman
Well, yeah, they're clearly a psychedelic experience.
The Book of Enoch is just fully psychedelic.
I mean, at least a lot of it is.
It's a psychedelic version of the Bible in some ways.
Well, it is really psychedelic.
I think it's from the release of endogenous DMT comes about, or from drinking and having an ayahuasca-like experience.
joe rogan
That's what you think the origin of the Book of Enoch is?
rick strassman
Well, it's a psychedelic experience, and it could be from spontaneous endogenous release of DMT.
It's a prophetic, it might be a prophetic state that's brought about.
It's a visionary state, clearly.
Might have been a huge fever dream.
I mean, he was really out there.
joe rogan
But when he's talking about the Watchers and the angels mating with human women and creating the Nephilim, what do you think that is?
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, the Watchers aren't stated discreetly or explicitly in the Hebrew Bible, but it could be just the angels because they never sleep.
That's one of their qualities, is they never sleep, so they're called Watchers.
Yeah, and what happened, like the Nephilim, here comes the role of that three-letter root system.
The Nephilim, it comes from a Hebrew root, Nephal, to fall, or to be brought down.
So the Nephilim fell.
That's one way to understand them.
Yeah, and then they were the giants, right?
joe rogan
Yes.
They were the giants that consumed everything.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
And ate their own flesh, and they sound really bad.
rick strassman
Well, I think, you know, what was going on, at least if you're looking at the text anyway, as an explanation, it was because of them, the world was just getting terrible.
It was full of violence.
So, you know, God reconsidered having created man in the first place.
But Noah was simple or pure, righteous in that way, and was allowed to survive.
joe rogan
So what do you think they were describing when they were talking about the Nephilim, when they were talking about them as giants?
You think that's just a bad interpretation?
rick strassman
Well, they may have been giants physically.
Yeah, I do think they were giants.
joe rogan
They even had an actual description of how tall they were by some measurement.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Right?
There was some patient measurement.
rick strassman
Yeah, that's probably in Enoch.
It's not, you know, isn't narrated any specifics about the giants.
They were men of renown.
They were powerful.
joe rogan
Because this is the thing.
There's always one of the most fun internet rabbit holes to go down is, are they hiding evidence that giants existed?
You know, like 30-foot-tall men that lived in the mountains.
And there's always been weird stories of giants all throughout history.
And there's people who've supposedly discovered giant bones and then they stored them in the basement of some famous museum and they won't let anybody have access to them.
Kind of fascinating.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Because they do exist.
Like those stories exist in history.
But you wonder, like, is it just a really big person, like that mountain guy from the Game of Thrones?
You know, like an actual human being who's just really extraordinarily big?
Or is it a different thing?
Is it a giant human being?
rick strassman
Well, they're giants.
Yeah.
I mean, it depends on your perspective.
Like, I'm trying to look at, or understand anyway, you know, the giants as they're described in the Hebrew Bible or else, you know, by implication in the Book of Enoch.
You know, there were giants, men of renown, and then the earth became corrupt.
joe rogan
And they consumed everything.
rick strassman
Oh, yeah, yeah.
That's in the book of Enoch.
joe rogan
The problem is, if you're looking at the least charitable version of human beings in 2025, there's a lot of examples that you could point to.
Guys, that sounds a lot like us.
rick strassman
Well, there may be another.
Well, there won't be a flood that destroys all mankind.
God promised there'd be no flood that would destroy all mankind.
That's the reason that we have the rainbow, or that's the meaning of the rainbow, is the covenant.
joe rogan
God made a promise that he wouldn't flood us anymore.
rick strassman
That he wouldn't destroy all mankind.
joe rogan
All mankind with a flood.
rick strassman
With a flood.
But that doesn't rule out, let's say, other things.
joe rogan
But don't you think whoever wrote these stories, don't you think that was a regional event?
like these great floods, like if they were happening, let's just say that Randall Carlson's wrong, and there was just one flood in the area.
And there has to be, if there's people from all parts of the world that all have this flood story, there has to be some truth to it, right?
We We agree to that.
rick strassman
Well, I don't know.
I mean, I read the Hebrew Bible, and that's sort of where my thinking about the events that are described in the Bible as occurring.
joe rogan
So you just leave it at that?
But when you...
rick strassman
Well, we saw...
I mean, the important thing about...
I think the important thing that I get anyway out of the Hebrew Bible is kind of an understanding of how things are between us and between us and God.
joe rogan
Well, I don't think this contradicts that in any way.
unidentified
Yeah, it is.
joe rogan
It's just fascinating.
And when Randall Carlson explains it, and interestingly enough, he first had this idea.
He's not the only person to have this idea, but he first had his version of this idea while he's on acid.
rick strassman
On drugs, that's what I was going to say.
I didn't want to say it first.
joe rogan
He looked out and he just had this vision, like, oh, my God, this was water.
Water made this.
And it happened really quickly.
And you saw it click with him.
And then he's been chasing that rabbit ever since.
And he's a fascinating guy.
When you hear him talk, he's so well-read in the subject and can just recall information so effortlessly.
So it's a really fascinating guy to listen to talk about it because he's very compelling.
I think those younger dryers impact theory folks are right.
I think something big happened.
rick strassman
I wonder why LST sparked his genius that way.
joe rogan
I think he said that he saw it.
Like when he looked out, he recognized what he was looking at.
He recognized that water made that thing.
And then for some reason, that hadn't been even thought of.
But then when he showed me a bunch of these images where you have like satellite images, and you could see how the earth was clearly, it has the ripples of like massive amounts of water going through certain parts of the world.
rick strassman
Yeah, well, it kind of raises the issue of the spiritual properties or promise of the psychedelics.
I mean, are the psychedelics spiritual?
Entheogens.
Yeah, I just don't know.
I'm beginning to believe they more enhance.
They have to have something to work on.
They can only work on who you are.
And I think they just work on who you are.
I don't think they necessarily generate their own information that they're somehow transmitting to you.
Yeah, it's the question of how psychedelics work.
What are psychedelics doing?
I think psychedelics or the psychedelic state will play an important role in shaping this virtual universe that seems to be taking hold, entering.
joe rogan
Well, it's really weird considering that it was 1970 when most of these psychedelics were made a schedule of one substance.
rick strassman
Controlled substance attack of 1970.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Imagine that didn't happen.
Imagine Nixon was not president.
That didn't happen.
That didn't go through.
And the world evolves technologically at the same level that it has now, but also has access the entire time to all these different psychedelics legally.
rick strassman
I think people were tripping hard even after they were illegal.
joe rogan
I'm sure they were, but I bet they weren't as much.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's dangerous.
People will get put in jail.
People don't want to lose their lives because they want to take a tap of acid.
So they didn't do it.
It's like a real deterrent for a lot of people that want to have a good future.
They go, fuck that.
I don't want to do drugs.
But if mushrooms were legal, you might have made a completely different life choice a long time ago that made you happier.
rick strassman
Right.
Well.
joe rogan
Or not, but the option to try should be yours.
rick strassman
So you're pro-legalization.
joe rogan
Yes.
And it certainly shouldn't be restricted by people who haven't experienced it.
That doesn't make any sense to me.
Like, why would a person who has never experienced psychedelics be able to tell people who've done psychedelics that they can't do them?
That's nuts.
unidentified
Like, you don't even know what you're talking about.
joe rogan
You don't have any experience in the state of mind that is enhancing these people's lives that have come back from war.
Especially like ibogaine therapy, which is they've passed now in Texas, you know, so they're they're allowing that to happen now for people with like severe drug addiction and PTSD.
rick strassman
It's really interesting drug.
I was wondering if you've ever done ibogaine.
joe rogan
No, I haven't.
But it's beautiful that it's being approved and used here because there's so many people that could so many fucking people go over and have to fight overseas and come back home scrambled and need some help.
And people who got hooked up on pills because they got injured because something happened or whatever it is, and then all of a sudden you have a real problem.
Ibogaine is one of the best ways to kick it.
Like one of the absolute best ways.
It's very effective, right?
It's like one dose is like one experience is like 80-something percent of the people never go back to whatever they were addicted to.
rick strassman
Yeah.
I'm not sure if it's because of the drug or the belief in the drug.
The guy who first started to kind of popularize Ibogaine was a fellow named Howard Lotsoff, a very cool guy.
Met him sort of during his late phase, but he, like as a young man, he was addicted to heroin.
And he heard about ibogaine as I tried to just trip on it and have some kicks.
Yeah, and he stopped and he found himself just not using opiates anymore.
unidentified
Wow.
rick strassman
Yeah, the origin stories for Ibogaine are really fascinating.
joe rogan
So before that, people didn't know that you could use it to kick drug addiction?
rick strassman
You know, not that much, no.
joe rogan
Is drug addiction ubiquitous throughout history?
Is there always been people that are addicted to drugs?
When does it start getting recorded about people with addictions, actual addictions to drugs?
rick strassman
Yeah, I don't know.
There was the idea of addiction in the 1800s, maybe even earlier.
It was kind of an American, British idea.
joe rogan
Like, did they know they were alcoholics in the 1400s?
rick strassman
Yeah, all kinds.
I mean, I can't imagine what they were addicted to in the 1400s.
Scopolamine containing plants, the solanacea mandrake.
joe rogan
Scopolamine.
Isn't that that dust that they blow up your nose and turn you into a vampire or a zombie, rather?
Yeah.
Is that it?
rick strassman
Scopolamine.
Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
Isn't that like that.
rick strassman
Right, right.
It's a zombie drug or something.
joe rogan
Yeah, some sort of a zombie drug.
unidentified
Yeah.
Right?
joe rogan
Isn't that scopolamine?
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, do you know Dennis McKenna?
joe rogan
Sure.
rick strassman
Yeah, he tells the story of scopolamine in Mexico.
I hope I'm right.
It's a great story.
joe rogan
Yeah, devil's breath, that's right.
Devil's breath.
Medication used to treat motion sickness and post-operative nausea and vomiting, but it also does something wacky.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like if you take large doses of it, the devil's breath thing.
So you can get it in dramamine.
That's what dramamine is, right?
rick strassman
It's an anticholinergic, like the scopolamine drugs are.
joe rogan
But isn't like the stuff that makes you less nauseous when you're seasick?
rick strassman
Isn't that like compazine?
joe rogan
Does dramamine have this stuff in it?
jamie vernon
They're not the same.
joe rogan
It's not the same?
rick strassman
Yeah, you know, one is...
joe rogan
Sorry.
Dramamine is oral antihistamine called dimethylhydronate, while scopamine is a different prescription only anticholingeric medicine, particularly in patch form, used to prevent motion sickness.
Okay.
So they put it in a patch form to stop motion sickness, whereas dramamine is the oral thing that stops motion sickness.
Got it.
jamie vernon
Fentanyl is also in patches.
That's the best way to take it.
joe rogan
It is a weird thing.
But scopolamine, you can get in a patch, and it is for motion sickness.
Right.
But it's when they blow it up your nose that it's not good.
rick strassman
Yeah, well, it's really it's the active ingredient in gymson weed, loco weed.
joe rogan
So what is that?
rick strassman
It grows in the southwest.
There's a lot growing.
joe rogan
Loco weed?
rick strassman
New Mexico, gymson weed, loco weed.
Yeah, Scuscopolamine.
And it will cause effects.
Well, one of my patients when I worked at the VA in La Jolla was an alcoholic back in the day and took gyms and weed tea, drank a lot of it, wandered off to the desert two, three days, one of those kind of stories.
Came back.
He didn't remember a thing, but he stopped using alcohol.
He was brain damage, though.
unidentified
Whoa.
rick strassman
Sorry to say.
joe rogan
Brain damage from that?
rick strassman
From either being in the desert or from the scopolamy he took too much.
unidentified
Oh, wow.
rick strassman
Yeah, it's a crazy drug.
You know, it is useful.
You know, one of the...
joe rogan
I would rather get motion sickness.
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
That sounds terrible.
rick strassman
Yeah, if you take too much, or you have a bad reaction to it.
unidentified
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
What do you think is going on with American health?
joe rogan
That's a good question.
Well, I've been fascinated by these videos of pregnant women taking Tylenol to show Trump that they don't believe in what RFK Jr. is saying, that somehow another anti-science when this science came from Harvard.
That's where the study came from.
I mean, he's not making things up, and these people are like on TikTok.
They're pregnant women taking Tylenol.
rick strassman
Yeah, I took a lot.
Well, I mean, if it weren't for Tylenol, I wouldn't be here today.
joe rogan
For real?
rick strassman
I mean, I do find it quite helpful.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Yeah, for injuries.
As you get older, as a lot of people get older, there's pain.
joe rogan
It's acetaminophen, though.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Which is really toxic, isn't it?
rick strassman
Well, if you take too much, it can cause.
joe rogan
So that's what it is.
It's like a dose thing.
So one is fine.
rick strassman
One's fine.
Four is fine, probably.
After four years, you know, can upset your stomach.
A little liver toxicity is possible.
But if you stay within normal limits, it seems to be fine.
At least for myself.
joe rogan
For you.
rick strassman
Well, and also in general, there haven't been recalls for, you know.
joe rogan
And what do you take it for, if you're going to take it?
rick strassman
Pain.
joe rogan
What kind of pain are you getting in?
rick strassman
Feet.
You know, I had hernia repair a while back.
unidentified
Oh.
rick strassman
Yeah.
unidentified
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah, so I find it to be a very helpful drug with no side effects.
joe rogan
Well, you should definitely be allowed to take it, especially you.
You know.
My concern is always people that don't understand that there's a dose that if you go over that, it's going to torture liver and you could die.
rick strassman
Yeah, it's all about dose.
I mean, micro-dosing psychedelics is completely different, or in quite a few ways than full dose.
Or the effects are different.
joe rogan
Yeah, for sure.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Have you tried micro-dosing?
joe rogan
I have in the past.
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah, a while back, I was having some belly issues, and I micro-dosed ayahuasca for about a month.
Helpful.
Very helpful.
joe rogan
What is every day like?
Micro-dose in ayahuasca.
rick strassman
Well, it is a micro-dose, so it was teeny.
joe rogan
So it just gave you just a little peek?
rick strassman
I wish.
joe rogan
Nothing?
rick strassman
Not really.
I took more in the beginning than kind of stretched it out.
It's kind of like coffee, like sparkly coffee if you take a little too much.
unidentified
Oh, yeah?
joe rogan
What do you think would have happened if that 1970 sweeping act didn't take place?
What do you think the world would how much different?
Have you ever contemplated it?
How much different would the world be?
rick strassman
Not really.
unidentified
Not at all.
Good for you.
Good for you.
joe rogan
Why waste your time?
rick strassman
Well, I mean, you know, when I tried to get my DMT study off the ground, I mean, that was pretty weird.
That was two years of just backbreaking labor.
unidentified
What year was that?
rick strassman
Where it started?
I submitted the paperwork in September 1988.
Give my first dose of DMT in November 1990.
And I gave a lot of DMT then.
I went kind of crazy for the next five years.
joe rogan
And you were doing IV drip slow release, right?
rick strassman
No, it was one big dose.
joe rogan
One big dose IV?
rick strassman
Yeah, bolis, IV bolus.
Yeah.
Yeah, so our high dose was 0.4 milligrams per kilogram.
And the highest dose is now being used for 0.3.
Nobody has gone back up to 0.4 on a regular basis.
Yeah, so people really went out there on 0.4, they were pretty scared.
And they weren't sure they were coming back.
unidentified
And they weren't sure they were coming back.
joe rogan
Yeah.
That is a fear.
That's a fear of all psychedelic experiences.
I don't think you could shut it off.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
What is this?
And is this real?
Is this around me all the time and I'm ignoring it?
rick strassman
Is this real?
joe rogan
Is this real?
rick strassman
And are you ignoring it?
Yeah, boy, that's a terrible state to be in.
unidentified
Terrible.
rick strassman
Excuse me.
Yeah, that's why I think DMT ought to be carefully taken.
joe rogan
I think everything should be carefully taken, especially if you've got something wrong with you already.
Like if you're self-diagnosing with some really potent stuff, like, right, right.
rick strassman
Then things can really go south.
unidentified
Yeah.
rick strassman
Well, I mean, who's going to decide that based on what?
joe rogan
Well, no one's deciding for you with alcohol.
You could go fill your bar at home with more than enough to kill yourself with.
rick strassman
Yeah, don't get started on it.
Yeah, yeah.
unidentified
Right?
joe rogan
Like most people can.
Yeah.
If you have like a little bar in your house, like three or four bottles of Jack Daniels, a couple of this, a couple of that, you're dead.
Drink all that stuff.
rick strassman
You're dead.
Yeah.
Have you ever gone through a drinking phase?
joe rogan
Not a bad drinking phase.
I don't drink at all anymore.
But I will still, if I feel like it, I'll have a glass of wine or I'll have a margarita.
I like a nice Cabernet, sir.
unidentified
Okay.
joe rogan
I just like a little red wine sometimes, but I've only had like two or three glasses of anything over the last like eight, nine months.
And even like I didn't even finish the wine.
It's like I've lost my taste for it.
The trade-off is not worth it.
Like I have a lot of fun people in my life and I have a lot of fun without alcohol.
Like I don't necessarily think it was providing me with the amount of good versus the amount of negative.
The negative art weighed it, especially physically.
rick strassman
Right.
joe rogan
It's just bad for you physically.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Thankfully I didn't drink in high school.
And I kind of made up for a lost time in college and I got really sick a few times.
Yeah, so I just stopped drinking.
Like to that point anyway.
joe rogan
Well, it's like people are having a good time, you know, and I get it.
And if you're young and I get it, I get it.
I did it too.
But it's not good for you.
rick strassman
No.
joe rogan
It's not good for your decision making too because then you meet the next day you're like, ugh.
And if you're at that low state of being hungover, you're fucking for sure not putting out great energy.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, you don't want to get into that state.
Or if you do, you want it channeled really, really carefully.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
Like I've never been part of an ultra-Orthodox sect, but I think what happens in some of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects, there's a Lubavitcher sect in Brooklyn.
And the fellow who led that was Schneerson, Menachem Schneerson.
And he really enjoyed drinking.
He got inspired.
And he wanted others to become inspired.
Yeah, it has to, you know, some become a conduit.
I think it kind of differs like with Bukowski.
Yeah, like, you know, you can think of somebody who loves alcohol.
First time he got drunk, it was a psychedelic experience, actually.
Yeah.
In his account, he says to himself, I think I've found something very, very important.
joe rogan
It's kind of hilarious.
rick strassman
Yeah, that was never the effect alcohol had on me.
I didn't, you get, you feel good for a while, a short period of time.
joe rogan
Yeah.
We obviously all differ biologically, but some people, it hits a switch that nothing else does.
unidentified
Some people love it.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, it's discounted in the text.
You shouldn't drink too much.
It's very smart.
Very clear.
joe rogan
But I'm not sure you shouldn't drink at all.
You should drink if you want to drink.
And, you know, people get real rigid.
You know, especially if you have someone around you that has a problem with alcohol or you have had a problem with alcohol.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, there's a huge homeless population in Albuquerque.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
rick strassman
Alcohol plays somewhat of a role.
Yeah.
I played a lot more in the Navajo Reservation when I lived in Gallup.
Yeah, I think people just use and abuse drugs.
joe rogan
There's also those things, they sound like there's not a lot of opportunity in the places you're describing, right?
rick strassman
Right.
So if you don't, yeah, you just want to not feel anything.
joe rogan
You're outside a reservation.
rick strassman
Or on one.
joe rogan
Or on a reservation.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, I'm in the middle of the audiobook, Empire of the Summer Moon, for the second time.
It's all about the Comanches and the war between the settlers and the Comanches here.
rick strassman
Oh, really?
joe rogan
Crazy.
Oh, yeah.
And I'm in the middle of this.
And I'm thinking, like, have people always been this horrible?
And we're just sort of catching up to it now?
rick strassman
Well, you know, that's taken into account in Cain and Abel, the Cain and Abel story thing.
The first two children.
One murders the other.
So it started way back.
joe rogan
It starts way back with a bang.
unidentified
And you just go, God, have people always been this awful?
rick strassman
From the beginning.
Well, you know, there's a line in the text that he's going to, that, you know, God is going to destroy mankind.
No, no, what does he, what happens here?
I think he decides people will only live 120 years at the most because their inclination is bad from the get-go.
And 120 years is enough time to repent and become a better person.
unidentified
Wow.
rick strassman
So you're given 120 years to deal with what you were born with.
joe rogan
But this book, this Empire of the Summer Moon, it just makes me think when you think about what life was like for the people that lived here before the European settlers arrived and how quickly everything went away historically in terms of the timeline.
It was only a few hundred years and it was just completely gone.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, the Garden of Eden lost.
joe rogan
There was also, there was a lot of war.
That's the thing that everybody likes to leave out.
Like, I'm fascinated with Native American culture.
I'm fascinated with this Comanche civilization that lived here because this book, Empire of the Summer Moon, is just, it's so interesting.
They were so fierce and they lived right here.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, there's 29 Pueblos in New Mexico.
And, you know, the Pueblo are peaceful folk.
They're agricultural.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
You know, that's their, you know, that's been their heritage.
joe rogan
The Comanche were not.
And one of the things this book talks about is how a lot of the Apaches were not on horseback, and they were.
And that they were literally wiping out bands of Apache and forcing them to go to Mexico.
It's like this has always been, there's always been, once they've had horses, which is really like after the Spaniards got here.
rick strassman
Right.
joe rogan
Then once the Comanches figured out horses, they got really good at it.
And they were like an impossible barrier to get through this part of the country.
rick strassman
Yeah, there's mostly Navajo around where I lived in Gallup.
And they were nomads.
They raised sheep.
Spun.
joe rogan
Sure.
And then the eastern side, a lot more agriculture, right?
It's just the amount of time that it took for everything to get pushed, where if you're a Native American and you're, you know, it's 2025 for you and you're living on a reservation, you're like, whoa, what happened?
You start going into the history of it, like, how many people died?
Like, what happened?
rick strassman
Is there a Comanche presence in Texas?
joe rogan
A lot of signs, I'll tell you that.
A lot of the signs are like Kwana Parker Lane.
He was the last Comanche chief.
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah.
Well, they always name things after what used to be there.
joe rogan
Well, this is all that area.
There's a lot of Comanche were in this area, but it went all the way down to Oklahoma.
It was just a barrier that you couldn't get through.
rick strassman
Yeah, it was fun living in Gallup.
It was mostly Navajo.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah, very low-key.
They'd come to terms with being, you know, defeated part of.
joe rogan
It's crazy, though, isn't it?
I mean it like had that all those things had to take place in order to get New York City.
So you have to decide what do you like more?
New York City or you want to go back in time and say don't sell this.
rick strassman
Right, right.
joe rogan
You know, what do you like more?
Do you like pizza?
unidentified
Do you like go to a nice I like pizza.
joe rogan
I do too.
I like to be able to go to a nice nightclub, have a drink, go to a nice steak dinner in New York City, or give it all back.
Give it all back.
Go back in time.
Say, hey guys, you're getting robbed.
Don't sell this for whatever it was.
rick strassman
You can't halt progress.
joe rogan
How much did they buy New York for?
rick strassman
$27.
joe rogan
Really?
rick strassman
In jewelry.
Fake jewelry even.
joe rogan
No.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Wow, what a deal.
rick strassman
Or $45.
joe rogan
What a great, what a great origin story for a villainous country that their number one city was made through a swindled deal.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Where it was fake jewelry.
rick strassman
Well, that's why I went to medical school was the Bronx.
Well, you're from New Jersey.
joe rogan
Yes.
That's where I was born, yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah, I trained in the Bronx.
I didn't get to Jersey much.
joe rogan
New Jersey is a crazy place because everybody thinks of it as just being city because it's right near the city, like Hackensack and Hoboken and stuff like that.
But it's like mostly rural.
Mostly it's got bears all over the place in it.
rick strassman
There's some really nice coastal parks.
joe rogan
Yeah, oh, yeah.
The shore is awesome.
You know, small doses.
It's nice to go down there.
rick strassman
Yeah.
So the Bronx was great training.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
It's a yeshiva.
It's like the modern Orthodox university in the country.
joe rogan
Oh, that's where it is?
rick strassman
Yeah.
It's the medical school of yeshiva.
It's called Einstein.
And yes, and the Bronx.
It was great training.
We could do anything.
We could do everything because it was pretty poorly staffed in some ways in the 70s.
Yeah, so we had a lot of duty.
joe rogan
When did you first even have the idea to create a study of people doing IV DMT?
When did you even say-That's a long story.
It seems like a good one, though.
It seems like a good one.
Because how do you get to the point where you're asking the government to let you do this?
And then you get them actually to say yes.
rick strassman
It was the war on drugs that funded our study.
Well, it all kind of came to a head with Terence McKenna.
We were up in his loft one afternoon.
And instead of saying DMT was a really great drug and asked for money, we said DMT was a really dangerous drug and asked for money.
joe rogan
I think you've told me this before.
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah.
But it's a good story.
joe rogan
We just want to study it.
unidentified
We just want to study it.
rick strassman
It's not good or bad.
joe rogan
It's clever because you're not lying.
rick strassman
No, no.
I knew what I was talking about, too.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
Like I had done neuroendocrinology research with melatonin, circadian rhythm research.
Yeah, I was a bona fide investigator.
I just asked simple questions.
Could we give it?
What happens when you give it?
DMT is really strange.
The role it's played in my life.
I've been complaining for years that I'm not complaining for years, but I don't know.
I'm more skeptical of the psychedelic experience than I was before.
I don't think it's a panacea.
Well, I think it is a panacea.
That's the problem.
joe rogan
I think there's an issue with spiritual narcissism.
That's a thing that sort of grips people when they start doing it a lot and then their identity is wrapped up in doing it a lot.
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
There's a little bit of that that happens with folks.
rick strassman
With DMT in particular.
Is it or ayahuasca?
About once a year I get an email saying something in the subject line, you're booking my son.
Yeah, and they say that they just smoked way too much DMT.
They were in the hospital or in prison.
joe rogan
Oh, Jesus.
rick strassman
Yeah, they just, well, it became messianic.
Like you said.
Like you believe you know more than anyone.
And if they just listened.
unidentified
Yeah.
rick strassman
False Messiah.
Well, there's some interesting stories of false messiahs.
At least within Judaism, Messiah has not come yet, as opposed to Christianity, where Jesus was Messiah.
joe rogan
So what is Judaism's version of what happened with Jesus?
He wasn't the Messiah, so he died.
He didn't get resurrected.
rick strassman
Well, you know, he may have been resurrected, but resurrection occurs in the Hebrew Bible, so that's not unique.
joe rogan
Right.
But what is their take on it?
rick strassman
Well, end of story, he's killed.
joe rogan
And that's it.
He don't come back?
rick strassman
No, not really.
Not within the Hebrew Bible.
That's part of the New Testament, the Christian Bible.
Oh, that's one thing I wanted to bring up is Old Testament is a term that's a little disparaging in a way, especially it's been replaced by Hebrew Bible.
joe rogan
Interesting.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
When was that?
rick strassman
It's been building.
joe rogan
Okay.
So is this like a pronouns thing?
It prefers this?
It wants to be identified as the Hebrew Bible?
unidentified
They prefer it.
joe rogan
I was saying it.
rick strassman
Yeah, it could be either.
joe rogan
In the interest of simplicity.
rick strassman
Yeah.
You know, like I was thinking of, well, you know how people put in parenthetical phrases, you know, he, him.
Yeah, I was thinking of doing that for myself once.
It and it.
joe rogan
It and its?
rick strassman
And it would be gender neutral.
joe rogan
Sounds good.
rick strassman
Yeah.
unidentified
Well, that's one of the or just not ever.
joe rogan
Come on.
rick strassman
Yeah.
So, you know, I was thinking about, you know, does God have genitals?
And, you know, probably not.
unidentified
Doesn't seem like it's the likely way we were made.
joe rogan
But there's probably some sort of an interdimensional psychedelic equivalent of intercourse that higher beings have some interaction with each other.
rick strassman
I think it was the optimal form.
joe rogan
The optimal form?
rick strassman
Yeah, to contain a certain consciousness and do particular things.
It's an ideal form.
It was ideal.
So that's why it took that particular unique shape.
You know, form follows function, things like that.
joe rogan
Right.
I got confused there.
What are you referring to?
rick strassman
Oh, well, you know, the specific—well, I think you were—I was referring to man being made in God's image.
Yeah, with genitals.
joe rogan
Oh, right.
rick strassman
Yeah, but I think it, you know, in the animal kingdom, things evolve to do certain things.
They have form and function, which, you know, combined determine their range of behaviors.
So I think in humans it sort of was the optimal form as well.
Same way, perhaps.
joe rogan
What do you think happened when human beings had this doubling of the brain size over a period of two million years?
What do you think that was?
rick strassman
Is that true?
joe rogan
Supposedly.
rick strassman
Yeah, I think so.
I think it was, yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
I don't know.
joe rogan
Sounds like a crazy little expansion.
rick strassman
Yeah.
So, I mean, you could look at it, you know, evolutionarily, you know, biologically, you know, theologically, you can look at it too as, you know, finally being endowed with, you know, a human spirit.
You know, there's multiple spirits.
You know, and even in the Hebrew Bible, there's multiple spirits.
There's.
joe rogan
So as the brain expands in size, you develop a human spirit.
rick strassman
I think so.
Yeah, that human spirit allows for divine communication.
At least that's how the theory goes.
It's the breathing in of the soul to man by God.
It's in man's creation.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
So ultimately, we're going to get to be a gray.
We're going to have a big giant head, and we're not going to need to talk because we're going to do it telepathically.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Okay.
You know, telepathically.
You think people being able to read the mind is a good thing?
It will be a good thing once that that happens, or if it can happen?
joe rogan
I think it will be a thing.
And like all things, it will have good aspects to it and bad aspects to it.
I think reading people's minds will be very enlightening.
You're going to learn a lot more about how people actually think versus what they project.
You're going to be able to see people's motivations.
You're going to be able to see lies.
We might even have a universal visual language that they develop.
We might all be able to adopt it really quickly, and kids probably will jump right on board, and they'll be literate in it before we are.
rick strassman
What about psychological ambivalence?
Loving someone one moment, hating them another.
Well, that's what happens if you tune in to one at one moment.
You're convinced that's solely the case.
If you're ambivalent on ambivalence, it's a real thing.
And you have an unconscious too, where things are kind of stored away psychologically.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm not saying it's good.
rick strassman
It might be hard.
joe rogan
I don't know if there is some way where we link up and we can communicate completely telepathically.
It could be really weird.
But it will be a thing.
That's my point.
It's like we're going to have to navigate it like we navigated making books, like we navigated everything else.
Like if we want to stay alive, we've got to recognize that there's some shit going down.
There's some shit going down right now.
rick strassman
Right.
Well, there's free will, isn't there?
You know, forever.
All these decisions that you have to make.
Well, I mean, in this.
joe rogan
Or is there free will?
The determinism people don't think there is.
rick strassman
Well, it feels as if there's free will.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I feel like we respect free will, so it's probably a real thing.
We respect a person who's been a drunk their whole life who puts down the bottle and starts running around the block.
We respect that because it's a real thing.
Free will is part of free will.
It's like there's something there.
There's something there.
You make choices.
You don't know why you make choices, but you make choices.
That's the thing.
There's a lot of factors in why you make choices.
And it's not 100% determinism and it's not 100% free will.
It's kind of there's a soup.
unidentified
There's a very simple soup.
rick strassman
To the extent that you can exert free will, you have to kind of do the best you can.
joe rogan
Yeah, you've got to do your best you can.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Yeah.
And even if we're uploaded into the cloud, let's say, I mean, how's that time going to be spent?
joe rogan
Good question.
I mean, are we even capable of imagining what we're talking about?
Are we so crude in our understanding of what's to come in the next five, ten, whatever years, that we're just guessing we're silly?
We're like writing a bad science fiction movie from the 1980s about the year 2000.
You remember those, like space 1999?
rick strassman
Well, you know, it's the one God and the golden rule.
I think that's what we'll be left with ethically, you know, what the basis of our decision-making will be.
joe rogan
I've always wondered if we're in a race to avoid catastrophe.
And that's one of the reasons why we're so like hyper-focused on accelerating with technology is that we kind of always recognize that this species is in a race to avoid natural catastrophe.
Like there's just so much potential for natural catastrophe, whether it's super volcanoes, asteroid impacts, so many different things have like almost wiped us out to nothing that it's like might be a part of the reason why there's this like mad rush to make better and better and better technology.
It's almost like a game.
Like can you get to the final boss?
Can your species survive and figure out a way to stop the rock from space?
rick strassman
Yeah, you know?
The footsteps of the Messiah.
That's what that's called.
I mean, you want to be at the round, you want to be around at the time of the Messiah, but not really, because things have to get so bad.
That's one model of the end of times.
joe rogan
There's also a lot of people that don't recognize that being a human being on Earth is being a passenger in an organic spaceship going through the universe.
Like there are real celestial events that they have to keep their eyes on, which you haven't experienced in your life.
So you're like, eh.
But no, there's giant rocks that killed the dinosaurs, and they're still floating around, same-size rocks.
rick strassman
Yeah, I know.
joe rogan
And they can't stop them.
They don't know how to stop them yet.
Like, don't listen to any of these fucking people.
Oh, if we saw it, we would do this and do that and sleep tight at night.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No, if there was some gigantic state-sized chunk of metal flying through the galaxy, we would have a real problem.
rick strassman
Yeah.
It might wipe out all of humanity.
joe rogan
Yeah, it might wipe out all of humanity.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
And it probably came really close to doing that a few times in history.
That's what I think.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's the only thing that makes sense.
If we know that we're hit all the time, we all accept the fact that the Yucatan impact, that's what killed the dinosaurs, and there's been a bunch of them throughout history.
We find craters everywhere.
Everyone knows that we've been hit multiple times.
The Tunguska thing in Russia.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Where it flattened this enormous patch of forest that's still flattened.
rick strassman
Have you been watching season two of Graham Hancock's ancient apocalypse?
joe rogan
I didn't watch season two yet.
No.
I watched season one, though.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
What's season two about?
It's like the Americas, right?
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, the Americas are crazy.
rick strassman
Yeah, I like Graham.
joe rogan
He's the best.
rick strassman
Yeah, he's hardworking.
joe rogan
Oh, he loves what he does, man.
He really, really does.
And the fact that he's finally been over all these attacks, he's finally been vindicated, and people are starting to accept more and more things are probably a lot older than we want to believe.
And especially after Go Beckley Tappy, that kind of like that popped the cork on everything.
And everyone's like, okay, well, this has definitely been buried for 11,000 years.
So this is kind of crazy.
We didn't know they could do that back then.
rick strassman
Well, before coming out here, I asked ChatGPT, you know, how old are some of the stories written down in the text in the Hebrew Bible?
And at least according to ChatGPT, it's 10,000 years ago.
You know, so something may have happened at that time.
joe rogan
That makes sense.
rick strassman
Yeah, that's a very interesting finding.
Oh, you know, Sodom and Gomorrah, that's a great story.
I'm working on this translation of the Hebrew Bible.
I've got a substack now.
I've been putting out things every week, a chapter a week on my translation of the Bible.
It's like a thousand pages right now of commentary about the language and the grammar, the meaning.
What's called the plain meaning of the text.
Like there was a Noah with three sons and went on to ark.
Yeah, so that's like my big project, but I like to do a smaller one about Sodom and Gomorrah and the figure of Lot.
I think that's a really incredible story.
I've spent about maybe two to three weeks looking at that.
Lot, his virgin daughters, the men circling his house, they're asking to know him.
He ends up in a cave with his two virgin daughters.
They get him drunk and he sleeps with them.
Or they lie with him anyway.
Yeah, and out come two kids at a certain point, and they become very important.
Later on, they're the beginning of the messianic line.
So it's a very intricate tale with a very, I think you can make some cool conversations between some of the main personages in the narrative.
There was a book called The Red Tent.
joe rogan
Can I ask you about the Lot?
How old was that story?
rick strassman
Well, that must be, well, it's an explanation of Sodom and Gomorrah, which is the, you know, around the Dead Sea.
There was a conflagration of some sort there.
Have any of your guests spoken about Sodom?
What actually happened around the Dead Sea?
It was quite catastrophic.
joe rogan
Well, tell us.
unidentified
Tell us.
rick strassman
Well, the story of Lot, yeah, I mean there was fire and sulfur pouring down on Sodom and Gomorrah.
Yeah, it was the end of the plane.
Yeah, so that's the southern part of the Dead Sea.
You know, it is a Dead Sea because of its high salt concentrations.
It was kind of closed off from the coast.
So it's at least a description of what took place.
joe rogan
What do you think it's described?
rick strassman
Well, I mean, you know, my perspective is it actually happened.
Yeah, but people think of a volcano, some kind of volcanic activity.
joe rogan
Totally sounds like a volcano, right?
And we know that there's been a bunch of those that have almost wiped people out entirely at certain points.
The Toba volcano, you know that one?
rick strassman
No.
joe rogan
We got down to, I think the, we've looked this up before, but I want to say they think we might have gotten down to just a few thousand people on the whole planet.
Like 70,000 years ago.
70,000 years ago, there was a massive super volcano that went off, and it plunged the earth probably into nuclear winter.
And they think that our genetic line entirely of the human race on earth came from this few thousand survivors.
unidentified
Joe, can we take a brief recipe?
joe rogan
Yes, we'll be right back, folks.
rick strassman
Seriously.
joe rogan
We're back.
rick strassman
Yeah, so we were talking about the alternative.
joe rogan
Yes.
Explain what you mean by that.
Like that these things are happening in an alternative dimension.
rick strassman
Right.
Yeah, I think they're happening in an alternative dimension.
Like when you smoke DMT, you return to the same place each time.
So there seems to be some reality, some DMT world that people enter into.
And it's one of my volunteers, one of the subjects in the DMT research, he got a big dose one day, and then a few months later, he got another big dose.
And he said that it was very interesting.
He said things have just continued apace since his first exposure and his first entrance into that state.
And things had gone on in the meantime.
And he re-entered that world.
So in that way, in that same manner, the world of the Hebrew Bible early on, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah, the Tower of Babel, all that took place at some different level of reality, which gradually made its way into ours.
And once it made its way into ours, there's the archaeological evidence, the first temple, second temple, and so on.
So there is a transition between our world and that world kind of merged.
But in the beginning, it was an alternative dimension.
The same God, I think, but different dimensions.
joe rogan
Is this your own personal conclusion?
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah.
Well, you know, when I was on the show last time, you're asking if I believe those things took place.
And my answer then was, you know, I take it as if it were true.
And then I started to think, you know, how I would do that.
You know, like, in what world would that be true?
It'd be a different world.
joe rogan
Right.
I feel like I've always believed that they were trying to record something.
I just didn't always trust that human beings were completely honest with their recollection of events.
So that there's something that they were trying to write down.
But was it really coming from God?
Was it, are these accurate events?
What exactly happened with Noah and the Ark?
What really happened?
rick strassman
Well, three stories.
Three levels.
Two of each, then seven of, one pair or seven pairs of birds.
Well, of every living thing.
joe rogan
Yeah, but like how's he feeding them?
Animals eat other animals.
The whole thing's nuts.
You would need a lot more rabbits.
unidentified
You need so witty edibles to keep just the lions alive.
joe rogan
It doesn't make any sense.
How's he getting them all from all over the world into his stupid boat?
There's so many things that are wrong.
But the story of him being told that some shit is about to go down and you probably should find some way to restart your version of civilization somewhere.
There's probably multiple versions.
Like the flood myth that we, you know, whatever you want to call it, the stories of the flood that you get from Epic of Gilgamesh, that you get from Noah, it's not just those.
There's many, many different cultures all throughout history have a flood story, right?
So it's probably likely that some crazy shit went down.
rick strassman
You know, there may have been, you know, there most likely was a flood.
Yeah, you know, so what do you learn from it?
You know, like, how do you do better or on what basis do you rebuild?
You know, so I think there's different models.
You know, The biblical one is interesting because b because, you know, it's a it's um you know lineage, you know, from Adam to Noah to Abraham, you know, to Isaac and Jacob and the tribes and now.
joe rogan
So when you talk about things happening in an alternative dimension, like, is that what you think, like, the birth of mankind is as well, like Adam and Eve?
unidentified
Well, I mean— Pull this microphone up.
rick strassman
Okay, I'm sorry.
joe rogan
It just has an impact.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, you know, the creation story, man was created on the sixth day.
unidentified
Right.
rick strassman
Along with mammals.
It's a cool story.
It's stages.
You know, like, you know, people say, well, you know, seven days, that's unlikely.
Like that creation took place seven times twenty-four.
I don't know, 148, something like that.
148 hours, 168 hours, the whole world was created.
But it's broken into stages, seven stages, which is one of the translations of the word that is usually translated day.
It could also mean stage.
It's a word yom.
It can mean either a day, a period of time, a stage.
So that's the answer that makes sense to me about the seven-day story of creation.
Yeah, so man was created on the sixth day and then was placed in the Garden of Eden.
And those events took place.
The stories themselves are just, they're written down.
And so people have been studying them for thousands of years.
unidentified
Who do you think Lilith was?
rick strassman
No mention of Lilith in the Bible.
unidentified
Really?
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Where's the story of Lilith emerge?
rick strassman
Well, it comes from what's called Midrash.
joe rogan
What's that?
rick strassman
It comes from a root, D-R-Sh, Darash.
It means to, I don't know, explicate, to expand upon, to investigate.
You know, so what happened after Adam and Eve sinned?
You know, did they have sex again?
And they do have Cain and Abel and the ensuing stories.
And then there's a third son, Shait, who is the inheritor of Adam's good, of his traits, his good traits and bad traits.
He's like God as well.
So there's a distinct lineage that is spelled out.
Lilith was a demon.
She slept with Adam after the sin of eating from the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.
So there's a story that built up around the biblical story that they were separated.
Adam and Eve were separated for a long period.
And so who was Adam sleeping with?
Well, it was expanded in the Midrash that there was a demoness named Lilith who slept with Adam for a couple hundred years.
And then Adam and Eve reconciled.
unidentified
Whoa.
rick strassman
Yeah.
So Lilith is she doesn't appear in the text of the Hebrew Bible as such.
So nobody knows.
There's a mythology that's grown around Lilith as well.
Well, isn't there some festival, some music festival called the Lilith festival?
joe rogan
The Lilith Fair.
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
That's named after the spirit that, or the demoness.
joe rogan
You sure it wasn't like a lady named Lilith that she came up with this?
Are we sure?
rick strassman
It was her neighbor, Lilith Smith.
joe rogan
So what was the reason why the book of Enoch, like, so it was not included in all the versions of the Bible by a decision of like how many people?
It was like a few rabbis, right?
rick strassman
Well, the canon you're talking about, there's 22 books in the Hebrew Bible.
joe rogan
Right.
There's certain versions of it that they found with the Dead Sea Scrolls, like the book of Isaiah, that's identical, verbatim, which is really amazing, right?
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah.
And there's Aramaic translations.
Aramaic was the spoken language back then, back there.
joe rogan
But the Book of Enoch was a part of all that, the stuff they found in Qumran, too, right?
rick strassman
I'm just not sure.
Well, I tried learning about the Book of Enoch.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
There's only an Ethiopic version, right?
joe rogan
Yes.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, have you looked into the Book of Enoch?
joe rogan
Yeah, well, I told you I've been listening to it on audio.
But Ethiopia is a fascinating place.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Right?
Because, like, that's the place where Graham Hancock started getting interested in the possibility that they have the Ark of the Covenant.
rick strassman
Right.
There's supposed to be a tribe in Ethiopia.
joe rogan
And they all get cataracts.
And the people that are predicting it, they only live a certain amount of time and then they die.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like, if that's true, if any of that's true, if any of that's true, if somehow or another, there's people on earth today that have an Ark of the Covenant.
How could you keep that a secret?
That's the craziest thing to be even allowed to keep a secret.
rick strassman
Yeah, it's one of those things you can't even imagine.
joe rogan
Can you imagine if they open up a door and like, there it is, like from Raiders of the Lost Ark, melts your face off.
rick strassman
Well, it would contain the Ten Commandments.
unidentified
Yo.
rick strassman
Yeah, the original Ten Commandments.
Well, yeah, the original Ten Commandments.
joe rogan
Well, what do you think these guys are guarding in Ethiopia where they're getting cataracts?
Because when Graham describes it, you're like, if you're telling me the truth, and I think you are, because you've never lied to me yet, if you're telling me the truth, these people that are guarding this place that supposedly has the Ark of the Covenant are all getting radiation sickness.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, the Ark is hidden.
I mean, that's what is said in the Hebrew Bible, is that it's hidden.
So we just don't know what happened.
At least according to the Hebrew Bible, it still has been, it hasn't been discovered yet.
So it might be in Ethiopia.
God only knows.
joe rogan
It's just the craziest story ever.
Because if it is true, if this one church has the Ark of the Covenant, like, hey, guys, let us get a look at it.
unidentified
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
I hope they got it right.
joe rogan
Yeah.
unidentified
Well, they should definitely make sure someone doesn't steal it.
joe rogan
You know?
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, the Ten Commandments, you know, that's appearing in.
I'm at public schools now.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I had a guy, James Tallarico, on to talk about that, actually, who's a very staunch Christian and thinks it's a terrible idea to have the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
rick strassman
Why?
joe rogan
Because you're indoctrinating children because it's like a way to drive them away from Christianity.
You're forcing it on them.
He's like, we shouldn't do it that way and certainly not do it in a way where you're only going to have the Ten Commandments and you're not going to have anything about Buddhism and you're not going to have anything about Islam.
You're not going to have anything about baptism or whatever, you know, fill in the blank.
Mormons, fill in the blank.
You know, Scientologists.
You'd have to have everything.
You'd have to just keep going forever and ever and ever.
rick strassman
And then splinter groups.
joe rogan
Yes.
So he's got a good RD.
I mean, I think he's right.
I think they should stop doing that.
If you want to teach it in a classroom that someone applies for, that's great.
But like putting it on the wall of every class seems kind of insane.
Apparently he was saying that it's just a couple of different gentlemen in Texas that are like super wealthy and super Christian and they want this to be like a theocracy.
Unfortunately.
Where have we heard that before?
rick strassman
In the Middle Ages.
joe rogan
Yeah, baby.
I just think it's what happens when people get a shit ton of money and a shit ton of power and they start getting older.
They need a sport.
They need to take up a game that fascinates them instead of trying to like global world dominate.
You know, it's just people get to positions of extreme wealth and power and they just want to manipulate things and make more money.
And they want to do it forever and ever and ever.
And they can't.
You only live to be 120.
If everything goes perfect.
Maybe today you might be able to.
If you can make it to 90 today, I bet you could live a lot longer.
rick strassman
If you live to 90.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Like if you can.
rick strassman
I've lived way older than my father.
And so I think, yeah, I think I'll live a while longer.
I married a young woman.
joe rogan
That helps.
rick strassman
Need to stay fit.
joe rogan
You know, that actually does help.
rick strassman
Live a longer time.
Yeah.
joe rogan
There's been studies that show that men that date younger women, they have more active lives.
They feel healthier.
rick strassman
I'm more active.
joe rogan
Yeah.
But it could be those are the kind of women that are interested in dating that kind of guy.
rick strassman
I just don't know.
Yeah.
I don't know how it works.
joe rogan
The kind of guys that are more active and healthy would also be the kind of guys that would want to date younger women, so as a bias sample group, right?
rick strassman
Yeah, one of my analysts said it was a mystery.
She had no idea, and she'd been seeing patients for like 50 years.
She said, you know, I have no idea.
It's a mystery.
joe rogan
Interesting.
rick strassman
And why people get together.
unidentified
Yeah.
Well, I think whatever makes you happy.
rick strassman
Well, that's it.
That's the book of Ecclesiastes.
It's about, you know, emptiness, emptiness.
It's all emptiness.
You know, but at the end, you should make your wife happy and eat and drink and be merry while you're alive.
What do you think of that?
joe rogan
It's good advice.
Solid advice.
If I was living 2,000 years ago, I'd probably say the same thing.
rick strassman
Right.
Yeah.
joe rogan
There's no medicine.
Do you have no antibiotics?
There's no orthopedic surgeons that are going to put your knee back together again.
Yeah, I'd say that too.
rick strassman
Yeah, it is bad when you have one doctor for every organ system.
joe rogan
Yeah.
They didn't know anything.
It's nuts.
I mean, how many people died of infections back then?
Just that alone, that's extended life, just antibiotics alone.
It's extended lifespan so much because so many people that would have probably died got healthy again.
So many people.
And those people can maybe figure out some new way to bridge this gap and stop these viruses and stop this and stop that.
And then we just keep getting better at it until we eventually get to the point where we're living as long as Noah.
rick strassman
600 years for Noah.
joe rogan
And that's probably when God gets fed up.
He's like, enough.
Well, you fucking animals.
Maybe we're going to repeat that process.
Maybe we're going to figure out some awesome new peptides to keep you alive for 500 years and everyone's going to be a dick to everybody else.
And then eventually God will just have to drown us again.
rick strassman
I'm in college.
We had to read a book about the funeral home industry in Southern California.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah, I read this little novel by Aldous Huxley.
Many a summer dies a swan.
It's about these people who live forever by eating the intestinal microbiome of carp.
Oh, wow.
And they become like carp in a lot of ways.
And I tried to get into one of these funeral homes.
Like, you know, I asked to interview them to see what people did after death.
And never heard back.
One of those crazy college stories about looking into the funeral home industry.
Which is a, I don't know.
That's pretty big.
joe rogan
It's a weird business.
You got the business of taking care of bodies.
And you don't really have a lot of options.
Right?
Like, you're not, like, if someone dies, I don't think you're, are you just allowed to let them fertilize some plants?
Are you allowed to do that?
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Do you have to put them in formaldehyde?
Do you have to do all that stuff?
rick strassman
I mean, I did an autopsy on a cadaver, you know, back in the day.
Open people up and look at them.
Well, then there's surgery, which you go through as well.
unidentified
All right.
That was an odd pause.
joe rogan
I was like, where are we going with this conversation?
unidentified
I know.
rick strassman
Well, I love the Hebrew Bible.
I spent all my time in it.
Just the weirdest thing there is.
joe rogan
Do you have any idea why the book of Enoch was supposedly excluded from being included in the Bible?
Seems to be some debate about that, right?
rick strassman
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know.
There's I think the Dead Sea Scroll community used the Book of Enoch.
It was like their Bible.
joe rogan
Right.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Very strange.
Well, the thing about the Book of Enoch is really very psychedelic.
But there's not that much.
I don't think there's much in it as far as Judaism itself.
I mean, it's a discussion of the righteous being rewarded and the evil being punished, the evil people being punished.
But you don't really learn what it means to be righteous.
And you don't really learn from the Book of Enoch what it's meant to be evil.
You don't know how.
Yeah, there isn't all that much information, I don't think, in there.
It's historical, and it's really weird astronomical stuff, too.
But I think it may not have been included in the Hebrew Bible because there weren't any ethical teachings that could be had by reading it.
joe rogan
No ethical teachings that could be had by reading it.
What do you mean by that?
rick strassman
Yeah, I mean, one of the essences of Judaism, I think, is ethical monotheism.
That's where there's the golden rule and there's one God.
so it's ethical monotheism yeah so where were we the Where were we?
Yeah, just then.
joe rogan
We were talking about the Hebrew Bible, and we were talking about—what else were we talking about?
We were talking why the Book of Enoch was in the Dead Sea Scrolls community, but it wasn't accepted later.
rick strassman
Right, right.
joe rogan
But some parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, like the book of Isaiah, right?
That was the one that was found to be the oldest version of it that was verbatim.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, yeah, I think it's just, it was too psychedelic.
And it was a too psychedelic.
Yeah, I think, I mean, at least in Ezekiel, let's say, which is comparable.
Daniel 2 is quite psychedelic.
Those were some ethical, some historical narrative.
joe rogan
But imagine making that call.
Imagine making that call.
How long ago?
rick strassman
Right, a long time ago.
joe rogan
To take that story out.
I'm not buying this one, guys.
Leave it out.
Meanwhile, that's the one that's the most compelling to me.
rick strassman
Yeah, so what do you like about the Book of Enoch?
joe rogan
It was just so bizarre.
rick strassman
It's very bizarre.
joe rogan
Because it makes the whole thing, it's like, oh, okay, now I get the big story.
The whole story's crazy.
And the origin story.
The book of Enoch, like as it starts, like in the very first chapter, you're like, wait, what's going on?
Fornication with humans and the race of giants?
Like, what?
What are you guys describing?
Yeah.
Things coming down and watchers?
What are you guys talking about?
Like, what was this?
This is so left field of the rest of the Bible.
But it was included in the same, like, those clay pots that they found in Qumran.
It was in there, too.
Just, you don't know what to believe.
Like, what happened there?
rick strassman
Well, yeah, you might not know what to believe, but you can also believe in one way of doing it as well.
joe rogan
One way of doing it?
rick strassman
As long as you don't get doctrinaire.
Right.
You just do it yourself.
joe rogan
Well, when I think about it, I just go blank.
I just try to imagine, like, what are they even describing?
Like, what does any of that stuff mean?
It just seems so alien.
There's watchers, and they mate with humans, and they create the Nephilim giants that consume and destroy the earth.
Imagine if that was left into the Bible and they taught that in school.
You'd be like, what happened?
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
It sounds completely crazy.
rick strassman
Yeah, it was a mistake.
Yeah, that's why there is the flood.
The earth was filled with the violence of the Nephilim.
And that was the reason of the flood.
joe rogan
I mean, look, if we're this size, you know, and we have so many problems with each other, imagine something that's like triple the size of us that's running around with us, just picking us up and beating us over the head with each other.
rick strassman
Yeah, you know, one of the figures in the text is Og and Sihon, who are the kings of the Amorites in the land before the Hebrews take over.
And they were giants that they're believed to be giants.
They talk about how the bed of one of these kings, Ogre Sihon, was like nine feet long or something.
It was 13 feet long.
Yeah, you know, so there were a couple still alive back then.
joe rogan
So do you think those are real humans?
rick strassman
They were giants.
joe rogan
So you think they were real giants, for sure.
Are you 100% convinced that giants roam the earth?
Like there were 15-foot-tall humans, monstrous humans?
rick strassman
It may not have occurred.
Well, that's the reason that I think there's some alternative universe that's as real as this one, which was the site of a lot of doors.
joe rogan
So when you say there's an alternative universe that's as real as this one, do you think we dance back and forth between possible universes?
Do you think we're always in the constant same universe?
Or do you think like this concept of parallel universes or alternative universes, that these you go back and forth between these?
rick strassman
No?
No, I think they're pretty well separated.
Don't you?
joe rogan
So you think that the world was a different place back then and that the doorway to go back and forth was easier to traverse?
rick strassman
It was one-directional and it kind of was one level of reality kind of segueing into this one.
joe rogan
So do you think these things involved psychedelics while they were doing this?
While they were writing all this stuff down?
rick strassman
No.
joe rogan
No.
rick strassman
Well, I think it involved being attuned to a level, you know, that level of reality.
Yeah, which would be mediated through DMT in some ways.
The visions would be mediated through DMT.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I wonder if it's possible, too, if you're living in a world.
Like we can't even imagine living in a world where not environmentally poisoned.
Like we're constantly surrounded by Wi-Fi and 5G and we're eating microplastics and glyphosate is on every vegetable and we're like in a swoop.
We're in a soup of toxins.
We can't even imagine what it's like to not have that and to not be burdened down by electronics and all the different things that people like they're probably very different back then.
Just human beings in general.
I bet they're probably very different in a lot of ways.
rick strassman
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I like living in Gallup.
It was really kind of simple.
joe rogan
Simple.
rick strassman
Yeah, there wasn't much Wi-Fi in there.
joe rogan
Yeah.
unidentified
It was just simple's good for you.
joe rogan
It's not perfect, though.
You feel like sometimes cities are fun.
rick strassman
Yeah, you called me when I was living in Gallup and you said to me, why are you living there?
joe rogan
You're telling me there was nothing around you?
It was like, why are you living where there's nothing around you?
That's crazy.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Get out of there.
rick strassman
It was my monk phase.
Had to go through it.
joe rogan
I don't think there's anything wrong with going through phases, but I think ultimately people like to be around people.
But it's, you know, there's a point where there's too many people, and then people become like a nuisance to you.
You're stuck on the 405 and you're like, oh my God, look at this traffic.
Where are all these people going?
And, you know, then people become a burden.
There's a nice balance to be had somewhere in there.
I don't think it's like living in the woods by yourself.
I think that's the dream.
rick strassman
It was a weird dream.
Yeah, it was inspired by acid.
unidentified
Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
The problem is, if you're in the woods by yourself, there's things out there that want to eat you.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
If you're by yourself, they're going to know where you are all the time.
rick strassman
Yeah, well, once I was cross-country skiing up in the mountains behind Gallup, and I was being tracked by a mountain lion.
unidentified
Of course you were.
rick strassman
It seemed like.
joe rogan
Of course you were.
rick strassman
I was going across the.
joe rogan
Probably thinking about taking you out.
rick strassman
Yeah.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Probably thinking about taking you out.
rick strassman
At a certain point, I turned around.
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, because if you look like you're out of breath, you look like you're tired.
Like if they think you're limping or something like that.
Oh, my God, they can't help themselves.
rick strassman
And the woods are really getting dark around me.
Oh, not good.
It's time to turn around.
joe rogan
Not good.
They're fucking terrifying.
And people have this romantic idea of what a mountain lion is.
You say that until it kills your dog in front of you.
Listen to me.
Those are dangerous predators.
California is the most ridiculous way of handling it.
They have to hire people to go kill them.
And when they find-Mountain lions.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
And when they do, they find that 50% of their diet is pets.
You've got something that 100% eats your dogs and cats, and you're allowing it to live in the woods near your house.
Like, this is kooky.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Plenty of them in the mountains, kids.
Okay.
rick strassman
Yeah, coyotes are into pets.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
If a cat is lost for more than a few days around our neighborhood, that's pretty much it.
joe rogan
If you just let your cat out, you're basically like saying, you're going to get eaten.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
I know it.
You probably don't know it because you're just a cat, but you're going to get eaten.
rick strassman
That's why you put them out.
joe rogan
They're everywhere now, too.
Coyotes are in every single city in the United States.
rick strassman
You've seen coyotes.
joe rogan
Oh, fuck yeah.
rick strassman
You know, they lope across the road.
Yeah.
joe rogan
I've had coyote problems where they broke into my chicken coop and killed all my chickens.
rick strassman
Yeah, coyotes do that.
joe rogan
They're smart, too, man.
They're fascinating.
Yeah.
They trick dogs into chasing after them and then they all ambush them.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
They're very clever.
rick strassman
Clever.
Yeah.
You used to watch the Wiley Coyote.
joe rogan
He was an idiot.
That was so dumb.
rick strassman
Yeah, there's a lot of roadrunners in our neighborhood.
joe rogan
I know.
Crazy.
The idea that the roadrunner would be smarter than a coyote.
Coyotes are so clever.
Have you ever read Dan Flores' book, Coyote America?
rick strassman
No.
joe rogan
It's really good.
It's about the origin of the coyote and why the coyote is everywhere now.
And part of it is because of the persecution by the gray wolf.
So the gray wolves don't mate with the coyotes, but the red wolves do.
The gray wolves, so they're from a totally different line.
So they just kill the coyotes.
Because the coyote is just a small wolf.
And so what they figured out is that when a coyote dies, and like when they yell out, it's like roll call.
And if someone's missing, the females produce more pups.
So they have extra pups and then they spread.
So they extra pups, and then they move to a new place.
And by doing, just because they were persecuted by the gray wolves, when they started getting persecuted by humans, you know, like so human beings extradited wolves.
They killed them all off, except for a few in the upper northern parts of the United States with strychnine.
But they couldn't do it with coyotes.
The coyotes just kept moving around and separate.
They just went to different spots.
rick strassman
They're very smart.
joe rogan
They're super smart.
They're in New York City right now.
Right now, there's coyotes in Central Park in New York City.
Little wild wolves running around Central Park.
rick strassman
Yeah, I mean.
joe rogan
Coexistent.
Just big enough where they don't look threatening.
They're just a clever little player of nature's game.
rick strassman
Wiley Coyote.
joe rogan
It's a really good book, though, but it's also about Coyote America.
rick strassman
I could have sworn John McPhee wrote about coyotes.
Remember John McPhee out in that country, his Alaska book?
joe rogan
I'm sure he probably wrote a book about coyotes, too.
This is just different.
This is about the origins of coyote mythology amongst Native Americans and that there's thought to be a trickster.
It is a uniquely American animal.
It adapts.
rick strassman
Yeah, well, that's too bad at CD and your chickens.
joe rogan
Yeah, shit happens.
Sorry to hear that.
Well, it happened.
They killed them all.
My chickens in California.
They got into it with a chicken coop and they killed like nine of them.
So the chicken coop got damaged because of the fire.
So we had to get another chicken coop set up.
And so when we set up the other chicken coop, it was one that you just buy from like a pet store and it wasn't that durable.
And the coyotes figured out how to open it.
And they just fucked up these chickens.
Ooh, it was a mess, man.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
It was just all feathers.
rick strassman
Feathers and blood.
joe rogan
Yeah, it was horrible.
They just went on a, they just killed them all.
They killed them all.
unidentified
They killed like nine of them.
joe rogan
But, you know, that's the fucking game they play.
And I love that they exist.
I'm a fan of coyotes.
I like hearing them at night.
I think they're cool.
I don't want them to eat my dog, though.
You know, it's like, and you know, they're not going to listen.
You're like, hey, don't eat my dog, and we're cool.
No, they're playing a game.
It's like, wait till you turn your back and they'll attack your toddler.
rick strassman
I think besides movie trailers, the things I watch on YouTube most are animals killing other animals.
You know, bears.
joe rogan
Why do you do that?
rick strassman
Versus a musker.
joe rogan
You know, musk.
rick strassman
Yeah, great stories.
It's pretty primal.
joe rogan
It is.
rick strassman
Yeah, I like that.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It's pretty interesting.
These people were in India and they were on some sort of a park drive, you know, one of the wildlife parks, and they watched a tiger take out an animal right in front of them.
A tiger took out a deer right in front of them.
And they filmed it.
rick strassman
What's cool?
Well, the ones I like are the warthogs.
joe rogan
Oh, they're so weird looking, aren't they?
rick strassman
Yeah, they're vicious.
They're huge.
joe rogan
They look like a Star Wars character.
They don't even look like a real animal.
rick strassman
Yeah, it's unkosher pork.
Interesting thing.
joe rogan
It's an unkosher?
rick strassman
Unkosher pigs, yeah.
Yeah, the things which are kosher, you know, chew-cut and have completely split and separate hoosh.
unidentified
Right.
rick strassman
Right.
Yeah.
Those are the main criteria for mammals.
joe rogan
Do you think that's because of ancient diseases?
Because it just makes sense that we know that trichinosis, a lot of that comes from pork, right?
rick strassman
It always seemed to me pigs are dirty animals.
I had a friend who was insistent that, given the choice, pigs are very clean animals.
So it's hard to say about the filth aspect of it.
joe rogan
That's domestic pigs.
Wild pigs are filthy animals.
rick strassman
Wild pigs.
joe rogan
Yeah.
All of them.
100% of them.
There's a difference between like a domestic pig.
This is where it gets really weird.
You take a domestic pig and you let it loose in the wild, and six weeks later it starts to morph.
And it starts to extend at the snout, its tusks grow longer, its fur gets thicker, it becomes like a wild pig.
That's kooky.
rick strassman
Yeah, I guess the primitive or the early stages are really strong.
joe rogan
Yeah, quickly.
It happens quickly, like within a month or two.
It's really weird.
rick strassman
Yeah, I wonder how that works.
Must be some medicrine thing.
Must be their gonads and their pituitary and their hypothalamus.
joe rogan
It's a really good question because what would let them hit that switch and realize, okay, I'm on my own now.
They're not just bringing me my food every day.
Fuck.
Time to get hard.
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it isn't a conscious decision on their part.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
It seems like it just takes over.
joe rogan
But I was thinking like if that animal is not like the Muslims don't eat it and the Jews don't eat it.
And you would imagine at a time where food was really important and if you can get pork, that was way better than not having any meat and you can't eat it because of your religion.
To me, it seems like I bet at least some of the origin of that was there was a disease that was going through these people that were eating pigs.
rick strassman
It's hard to say.
You know, the ones that are kosher are the ones which were burnt up in sacrifice as well.
You know, there were sheep and cattle.
joe rogan
Pull that microphone up to your mouth.
rick strassman
Sheep and cattle and goats.
joe rogan
Right.
rick strassman
Yeah.
You know, those were the sacrificial animals, you know, the ones that were burnt on the altar and also the ones that were eaten.
joe rogan
But do you think that, why do you think pork was excluded from both Judaism and also from Islam?
Consumption of pork.
rick strassman
Yeah, it didn't meet the criteria.
joe rogan
The criteria for what?
rick strassman
For a kosher meat.
It's just cud and needs to have a completely separated, completely split hoose.
joe rogan
No, I get that, but I mean, why did they come up with that rule?
Oh, I think it seems to be that those are the animals that have the most amount of trichinosis, unless you're eating bears.
So I don't know if they're eating any bears back then.
Probably not.
They're probably eating a lot of deer species.
And if you tried to eat that kind of wild pork back then and you didn't cook it correctly, you'd probably get violently ill or die.
rick strassman
Well, you know, there are causes.
You know, there are reasons for some of the precepts in the text.
joe rogan
It must be, right?
rick strassman
Yeah, that are medically established.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like shellfish probably has to do with red tide, right?
rick strassman
Well, bottom dwellers.
joe rogan
Bottom dwellers.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Yeah, it's interesting when you try to decipher, like, why did they have that stuff in there?
Well, it kind of makes sense.
Pork, pigs rather, do carry a bunch of diseases that can wreck human beings.
rick strassman
Yeah, well, the person then making the dietary laws knew that.
You think that's the reason they wrote those dietary laws?
joe rogan
Yeah, well, they didn't have meat thermometers back then, right?
So I bet a lot of people ate some medium rare pork or rare pork even and got violently ill.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Violently ill.
Like trichinosis apparently is brutal.
And you have it for life so that like if somebody eats you, they get trichinosis unless they cook it.
rick strassman
Yeah, I had C. diff some years ago.
I even wrote a book about it's potentially fatal diarrhea.
joe rogan
Oh no.
rick strassman
It was grim.
Yeah.
I wrote it.
joe rogan
Well, yeah, that's right.
rick strassman
That's why I just couldn't do anything for it.
joe rogan
Oh, that's right.
That's right.
I forgot that you had that.
rick strassman
Yeah, so I wrote a book about it.
Anybody's interested, Joseph Levy escapes death.
You know, maybe that's part of me enjoying watching certain animals, you know, like, you know, animal killing animal.
It kind of changes you that being, you know, that being that close to the edge.
unidentified
I'm sure.
rick strassman
Yeah, you even offered to come out, you know, to visit or to do a show at my house.
joe rogan
Yeah, when you were real struggling and we were going back and forth, you just weren't sure if you could travel.
unidentified
I was like, ooh, I was worried about you.
rick strassman
Yeah, thanks.
joe rogan
Because you bounded back.
unidentified
Look at you.
joe rogan
You look great.
rick strassman
Thanks.
joe rogan
But there was a time where I was worried about you because you didn't sound like you were doing well at all.
Like you were really struggling.
unidentified
And so.
rick strassman
Yeah, that's one of the things that pushed.
Well, I began reading concentration camp literature during that phase.
joe rogan
Really?
rick strassman
Like, how bad have people had it and what did they do?
joe rogan
Wow.
rick strassman
It was pretty inspiring.
I liked reading Primo Levy.
He's my favorite author, Elie Wiesel too.
Yeah.
Auschwitz and the end of Auschwitz.
Like, you know, the end, the last month or two.
Seemed like it was really something, you know, typhus and nobody cleaning up after them for weeks, things freezing and bursting.
It was just nuts.
So, you know, Primo Levy was a chemist, very clinical, took notes, remembered things.
You know, very kind of dispassionate, almost journalistic description.
You know, the kinds of things people can go through.
Yeah, you know, so that cheered me up in a way.
I mean, it distracted me.
Like, boy, you know, they had it way worse.
And they had faith in something.
So I think that helps, you know, strengthen my faith.
Like, God wasn't done with me.
unidentified
Ooh.
joe rogan
So did you feel like you had an obligation to get to work once you got healthy again?
Like God gave you this chance?
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
This bounce back.
Return of the Mac.
rick strassman
Thank God.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's great to see you looking healthy because I really did worry.
Because it's, you know, sometimes people, a bad health trip just takes them down and weakens them so much that they never really come back.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, you think about death.
You must think about death.
Sure.
I think about death.
joe rogan
You have to.
It's coming whether you want it or not.
rick strassman
It'd be interesting to not think about death.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I don't dwell on it, but I'm definitely aware of it.
rick strassman
You know, there was a week or two friends came over talking about their wishes or their interest in medically assisted death.
There was a big article about that even a couple of months ago in one of the British journals.
Yeah, medically unassisted death.
I called our rabbi and I asked his advice.
And he said, you know, you might be, you know, you may be obligated to knock the pills onto the floor.
I thought that was an interesting take.
joe rogan
You may be obligated to knock the pills onto the floor.
rick strassman
from the person's hand who's about to take them.
Well, that would...
unidentified
Oh.
Yeah.
rick strassman
Interesting.
Or, you know, within or more the equivalent.
You know, like, you know, there might be some drugs going in IV would stop them up.
Yeah, you know, so, well, yeah, like I feel pretty good.
So I wonder, well, you know, what happens if I start feeling really bad?
Yeah.
So, you know, I feel good, so I figure, well, just keep me out of pain.
You give me enough, you know, morphine.
See what happens.
My mom died.
I watched her die.
Oh, wow.
We gave her morphine at a van, too, like Valium.
Yeah, it was pretty peaceful.
Yeah, it was quiet.
unidentified
Yeah.
That's a weird thing because you don't want anybody poisoning anybody.
joe rogan
But you do want to give people the option to go out gracefully.
rick strassman
Well, I think you'd just be feeling great.
joe rogan
Yeah, exactly.
rick strassman
You'd be feeling great.
joe rogan
That would be gracefully.
Just one burst.
I had a morphine trip when I had my knee operated on once in the 90s.
And it was incredible.
It was incredible.
And people tell me this is not true, but I swear I remember this being true, that you could press the button anytime you wanted more morphine.
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah, but I think it's called patient-controlled analogies or something.
joe rogan
Yeah.
People are like, no, no, you're remembering it wrong.
I'm like, I don't think I am, man.
I really remember hitting that button a bunch of times and meeting Jesus.
It was like the most wonderful loving hug by the universe.
It was just like this thing in bed while my leg is on this continual motion machine.
You know what those are?
rick strassman
No, but I can imagine.
joe rogan
When they do ACL reconstructions, when they do a patella tendon graph, it's a pretty violent operation.
They have to cut your knee open like a fish.
They take a slice of your patella tendon along with a chunk of your bone from your shin and a chunk of your bone from your kneecap, and then they screw it all back in place.
And to keep it from seizing up while you're lying in bed, your leg is on this machine that goes like this, extends it and brings it back, extends it and brings it back, because otherwise it'll lock up and then you're fucked.
rick strassman
Were you awake when this was happening?
joe rogan
Oh, yeah, you're awake.
Yeah, I was awake for the operation because my thought is I'm only going to have one knee operation.
I want to be awake for it.
So they did like an epidural.
rick strassman
Epidural.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
So I was awake.
I watched it.
I watched it on a monitor.
It was crazy.
Crazy to watch this guy open my knee up, screw it in place.
The point is, while I was in the hospital bed, they had this button that you could press when you wanted more morphine.
And I hit that button like a bunch of times and I was like, wow.
It felt incredible.
And I only did, and I remember also thinking, boy, this could be a problem.
Because I had done construction with a guy who had a bit of a heroin problem.
And so I was aware that people would get like a real opiate problem.
And when I was in bed, I was like, I get it.
I get it now.
It feels amazing.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, I would say cool, but yeah.
joe rogan
But also, I knew that like my leg was fucked.
I knew it was going to take forever before it felt normal again.
It was in pain.
And like, just like, okay, I can't do anything but enjoy this right now.
Just like, let me take a couple of taps and we don't care anymore.
rick strassman
It's called God's Medicine for, you know, God's own medicine for a reason.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It felt like a hug.
Like the universe giving you a hug.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, interesting, you mentioned that one day.
You were talking about faith and belief and what you base it on.
I was just talking about how when I was living up in Taos, I was feeling kind of alone and sad.
And I prayed, you know, I prayed to God, you know, help me.
And I felt this loving hug kind of embrace me at the moment.
Woo.
Yeah.
Which must have been mediated probably by endorphins, too.
Right.
Because it sounds pretty similar.
joe rogan
But it's interesting that we always want to dismiss anything positive like that.
unidentified
Oh, it's probably just endorphins just giving you this feeling.
Right.
joe rogan
But is endorphins because of or the source of?
Like, which one is it?
It might just be a part of it.
Like, yeah, the endorphins are real, but also is the experience.
rick strassman
It's the experience that you're experiencing.
joe rogan
And the intention that you're putting out there.
jamie vernon
Right.
rick strassman
Right.
You're not feeling the endorphins attaching to the receptors.
jamie vernon
Exactly.
rick strassman
Yeah.
You feel wonderful.
joe rogan
Yeah.
There's something real to it.
rick strassman
Yeah, you know, drugs are interesting.
They are.
joe rogan
I just wish they weren't being controlled by the cartels.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
That's what's crazy.
What's crazy is like people are not going to stop using them.
I think there's a lot of drugs you should never use, kids.
And there's a lot of people that should never use any drugs.
But the fact that they are always going to and that the only way they can get them is through a criminal organization.
And we haven't done our fucking one plus one equals two on that still in 2025.
rick strassman
Yeah, well, a dispensary for everything you want.
joe rogan
Well, it's got to be more than that, man, because some of that stuff's heavy.
So it's not just going to be an dispensary, but it also has to be some sort of counseling center, some sort of a guided trip.
There's got to be like very clear ethics.
You know, you've got to have people that really know what they're doing and just want to help and don't have any weird narcissistic intentions or anything else.
They just want to help people.
You'd have to have that too, because there's going to be a lot of freaked out people.
If you make mushrooms and acid and all these things legal, you can just go get it.
Are you 18?
Oh, go buy it.
rick strassman
Yeah, I think there should be increased access.
joe rogan
I think so too.
I'm not opposed to the reality of the new interface.
If we just have all of a sudden these drugs are not just legal, but legal and available for adults to buy, then you're going to deal with a whole new set of problems that didn't exist before.
I'm not saying you shouldn't deal with that problem.
I think it's inevitable.
It's probably going to happen anyway.
But those problems will be uniquely inflated by everything being legal.
Because people are just going to go out and go fucking crazy.
rick strassman
And why is that?
joe rogan
Because if you can go to the bar and you can just go buy acid.
Do you know how many people are going to just go get acid?
If you could go to any corner liquor store and pick up a pound of mushrooms, like if it's just totally legal.
Because you can go to a liquor store and get a case of beer, right?
You can get a case of whiskey.
You can get 24 bottles of whiskey.
That is death by whiskey.
There's no way you're drinking that tonight.
Sir, you can't buy that many.
They never tell you that.
They're like, go ahead.
You want to spend that money?
So if you wanted to do that with mushrooms and you could go to the liquor store and buy pounds of mushrooms.
rick strassman
Well, you know, I think with increased access, there's increased mortality.
unidentified
There will be.
joe rogan
Yeah, yeah.
And there's not just that.
It's like people that just, like, they ruin their brains.
They're not ready for it.
Maybe they're barely hanging on as it is, and then they have too many psychedelic trips, and now they're really fucked up.
Well, that's true, too.
rick strassman
You'll never hear me advocate for the use of drugs.
joe rogan
Good for you.
rick strassman
Yeah, I've never said people should take drugs.
I say people shouldn't.
joe rogan
How many people are on amphetamines right now?
rick strassman
A lot of people on amphetamines.
I've got an amphetamine story.
A friend gave me some Adderal one day.
Well, I asked him for it.
joe rogan
How lucky he came clean.
He came clean right away with no prompting.
That's funny.
rick strassman
Yeah, he was taking it for ADHD.
I said, help.
And I wrote this review.
Well, you know, there used to be a magazine called Shaman's Drum, which did a book review on the DMT book.
And he didn't think it should be called the spirit molecule, rather the dream molecule.
I took umbrage.
So after I took the Adderal, I wrote a 20-page letter.
It was pretty self, you know, what's the word, inflated.
Yeah, and the next morning.
Hilarious.
You looked at it, and it was terrible.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
So I didn't send it.
joe rogan
All my friends who have done, I've never done Coke, but all my friends who do Coke, that do stand-up comedy say you can't do stand-up comedy on Coke.
They say you have no feeling.
You don't connect with the audience.
It's like it's like a barrier.
You could kind of pull it off, maybe, but you never really lock in.
rick strassman
Yeah, so you're not funny on it.
joe rogan
Yeah, you're not funny on it.
You're probably detached.
You're probably self-obsessed, you know?
It's a weird drive.
rick strassman
Well, it would be like you were talking to yourself and you loved it.
joe rogan
You love the sound of your fucking boy.
But I think Adderall is a lot like that too, though.
It's very similar.
There's something similar to that.
rick strassman
Yeah, in my case, it was just writing.
Just writing, writing, writing.
I was feeling like, you know, I had a lot to say.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm not even saying you shouldn't do it, but journalists, I know, do it.
I know a lot of journalists who love Adderall.
They might not even say they love Adderall, but they fucking love Adderall.
I know they do it all the time.
And you can, you know, you can blame it on deadlines and, you know, having to write stories and really needing to push through because you don't have enough time.
I totally get it.
And I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, but it's just fascinating how many people do it.
rick strassman
Yeah, it was the case with P.K. Dick.
He was into amphetamines.
He died of a stroke.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah, I'm sure you're going to cook those veins.
You're going to cook everything.
If you're doing amphetamines all the time, you're cooking your brain, son.
rick strassman
Do you like P.K. Dick?
joe rogan
I haven't read him since high school.
rick strassman
Yeah, I went through a phase.
Well, I was talking about St. Peter's Snow.
It's written by a Viennese Jew mathematician guy named Perutz who did St. Peter's Snow.
And I read all of his books.
There's like eight.
And yeah, it's fun to get to know someone.
So once I started thinking about Dick, well, I watched the TV show, what's it called, The Man from the High Castle, and got me interested in reading the novel by Dick and went through most of his work.
unidentified
What was the movie they did based on one of his novels?
rick strassman
I love Dick.
Or I love PK Dick.
joe rogan
There was a movie they did based on one of his novels.
Do you remember which one it was?
rick strassman
Oh, quite a few.
Right.
There's one movie that's Blade Ring.
joe rogan
Darkly, Total Recall.
unidentified
That's right.
joe rogan
Justin Burrow.
Total Recall was his too?
rick strassman
Total Recall.
We can remember for it whole.
We can remember for you.
We can remember it for you wholesale is the one that was total recall.
unidentified
Blade Runner was amazing.
joe rogan
The original Blade Runner with Rutger Hauer.
Oh, my God.
rick strassman
What about the gosh?
The one with Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Jr. and the Rotoscope.
It's a Scanner Darklay.
Scanner Darkler through the Scanner Darklay.
joe rogan
Alex Jones is in that, isn't he?
I think so, yeah.
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah, so that's a novel.
unidentified
Wow.
rick strassman
Black Dick.
Very interesting.
Yeah, yeah, the guy with the skin or the suit that changed according to emotions.
unidentified
Remember mood rings?
No.
rick strassman
Do you remember those?
I think that may have been.
I had them when I was in high school.
joe rogan
They had a mood ring.
Because you were cool if you had a mood ring when I was in high school.
So mood ring, apparently, depending upon your body temperature with light, you know, different hues.
You never heard of it?
rick strassman
Not really.
joe rogan
Jamie, see if you can find mood rings.
rick strassman
Yeah, that may have been from the 80s or something.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm old, dude.
rick strassman
How old are you?
And I was more serious by then.
joe rogan
How old do you know?
rick strassman
73.
joe rogan
Okay, you're older than me, dog.
I'm 58.
So you look great, by the way.
You really do.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
You really do.
And you look so much better than you did when you were struggling.
So it's really nice to see you bounce back like that.
Oh, thanks.
Mood rings became a 1970s sensation.
Here we go.
rick strassman
70s, yeah.
joe rogan
Here we go.
So I went to high school in 81, and they were still down with mood rings, if you were in the right circles.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
But these goofy things, you would wear them, and they'd make your hand green, of course, because they're made out of crap.
Like the metal was crap.
But they had these weird rocks on them that would change color.
See if you find like a photo of one.
But like a photo of one changing color.
jamie vernon
Well, that's not a photo.
That'd be a video.
joe rogan
I'm sorry.
I mean, you know what I'm saying?
Like a show what it looks like.
jamie vernon
There's a couple colors.
joe rogan
They're kind of dope, though.
It's kind of cool still.
jamie vernon
Is that a rock?
What the fuck is that?
What does that?
joe rogan
That's a good question.
I don't know.
Let's find that out.
What is a mood ring made out of?
What is it made out of?
Is it like a resin or something?
It might be some kind of plastic.
unidentified
Acrylic with an actual rock.
joe rogan
Okay, so this dude came up with the mood ring?
Okay.
Okay, who created the mood ring remains topic of some debate.
A jewelry designer named Marvin Wernick says he invented the mood ring years before 1975, developing the idea after he saw a doctor use a thermo-chromic temperature measuring tape on a patient.
Said he came up with the idea of a mood ring after the stress of working in Wall Street led him to explore biofeedback, a therapeutic technique where people improve their health by responding to signals from their own bodies.
Huh.
So what are the crystals made out of, bro?
rick strassman
Crystals.
joe rogan
Crystals.
What are they?
What are the crystals made out of?
Ooh, look how pretty.
That's pretty, isn't it?
Like a dope ring that's a mood ring.
You know?
That way, like, you could tell whether or not your significant other is upset at you.
Like, let me look at your fingers.
You're lying.
rick strassman
Yeah, well, yeah.
I mean, it's a form of global communication, huh?
No-keeping secrets.
joe rogan
I don't think it really works.
I think it's only just heat.
If you go to the gym and you slip it on, you look like you're really angry.
rick strassman
Well, if your hands are cold.
joe rogan
Yeah, exactly.
It's not going to work.
So it's just dumb.
It's just dumb, but people loved it when I was a kid.
rick strassman
Yeah, I think it kind of passed me by.
joe rogan
You got lucky.
You missed the dumb mood swing.
rick strassman
I was in school.
joe rogan
Mood ring swing.
When you first, what's interesting is when you first started those studies and you published DMT the Spirit Molecule, did that have an effect on people taking you seriously with all your other work?
Was it one of those things where you got labeled now?
You're the crazy psychedelic guy who did that nutty study?
Or was there enough people that were like, oh, this is great.
Now you have a legitimate academic studying this in a federally approved way.
This is actually good for everybody.
And maybe this opens the door.
It certainly opened up the door to the discussion.
Like after you put that book out and people were who, if you read that book, you'll come to the conclusion that there's something mighty going on below the surface of human life in general that can be accessed in this very weird way.
rick strassman
Within a second or two.
joe rogan
It's a banana.
I've never done it the way you guys did it, but it's the regular way is bananas.
And somehow or another, we're depriving people of this.
rick strassman
Well, I mean, shouldn't it be the front page news?
unidentified
Yeah.
rick strassman
As you can give this drug regularly and everybody goes to the same place.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
And it's a very weird place.
Well, I think it ought to be on people's lives.
Well, it ought to be on people's lips.
joe rogan
DMT stopped my fascination with UFOs because I was like, it stopped it, paused it, I should say.
It paused it because I was like, no matter what a UFO looks like, it's not as crazy as what I just saw.
Like, no matter what, just an actual metal flying disc from another planet, I'd be like, huh, yawn.
Like, that's nothing.
It's nothing compared to what exists in a few seconds.
rick strassman
Yeah.
And well, would you say that you went to the same place?
You went back there each time?
Was it the same place?
joe rogan
You can tell me.
You tell me.
I don't know.
I've done it differently.
And I've done it differently with sound, with Icaros, which was wild.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
That was wild.
That was like dancing things.
That was really fascinating when you realized, like, oh, that's why the music is made the way it's made.
Like, the music is perfect for that.
rick strassman
Yeah, you get it.
joe rogan
It's perfect for the psychedelic trip.
rick strassman
I think it insights into music by seeing it.
joe rogan
100%.
I think of music differently from that trip.
And then, you know, I think I really want to explore kundalini yoga.
I just have, like, put it off forever.
Because I've had friends that have done DMT and also do kundalini yoga.
And they'll tell you, dude, if you work hard enough, you can get to that place where you can get to that place with on the natch completely in your own mind without taking any drug at all, where you could full-on DMT trip.
And the guy who told me this was very reliable and had experienced DMT, was also a jiu-jitsu black belt, like a solid guy.
Like I believed him.
And he's like, you can get there.
rick strassman
Yeah, have you ever done or heard about that holotropic breath work?
joe rogan
Yes.
rick strassman
Yeah, it's coming from.
I've done that.
And it switched me into a very highly altered state.
joe rogan
Very highly altered state.
rick strassman
It felt like, you know, as long as we're talking drugs, it felt more like MDMA than it did DMT.
joe rogan
I've had some moments before I had like a big show or something, and I just really wanted to relax where I'll do deep breathing and stretching, just deep breathing and stretching.
And you get high as fuck.
It's just this weird natural high that happens.
Like you relieviate tension in your body and your body rewards you for it with all this endorphin rush and dopamine and you get so friendly and so sweet.
You just want to hug everybody.
You want everybody to be happy.
It's like it like releases this, like you're carrying around physical tension that manifests itself in the way you view the world.
Well, and you can get out of it on your own, which is nuts.
rick strassman
Yeah, so how do you think, you know, what do you think it means that that's built into our systems?
joe rogan
I think we need physical activity.
And I think we always have had physical activity.
So it wasn't ever a thing where you had to mandate physical activity.
It's like we had to to stay alive.
So because of that, there's like the body functions in that way.
It's only strong if it's forced to work.
It only has a good immune system if it's exposed to a certain amount of different people and different bios.
It becomes just like a muscle does when it gets sedentary.
It atrophies.
And your body actually and so that's the problem with like the human civilization.
We get into cities, everything becomes easier.
You're sedentary most of the time.
The body decays and you're in a state where you're depressed all the time.
You don't know why.
Well, it's because your body doesn't, it's not designed to work like that.
For tens of thousands of years, you had to be active.
You had to be running around.
You had to be carrying things.
You had to be getting water.
You had to be building things.
You had to be hunting things and fishing.
You had to be moving because you had to stay alive.
And then all of a sudden you're not.
And I think that's one of the great dilemmas of mental health in this country that's ca maybe dismissed by a lot of people.
One of the great dilemmas is you're sedentary.
rick strassman
I think there were some studies comparing Prozac way back when with a routine of physical exercise and exercise as an antidepressant.
joe rogan
So there's been recent ones with SSRIs that show that it's more effective, more effective than SSRIs.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Because we're not supposed to be sedentary and nobody wants to be told what to do and nobody wants to feel bad.
I get it.
But you have to feel bad for yourself so you could feel better later.
You just have to get coached.
That's all it is.
And don't resist it.
Just embrace it.
rick strassman
What about Ozepic, though?
joe rogan
I don't think those things are bad in the right circumstances.
I don't think if you're a guy and you need to lose 30 pounds, you get on that.
Come on, man.
You can do that.
You can lose.
I'll be your friend.
I'll fucking help you.
Like, just stop eating sugar.
Stop eating bread.
Get yourself on a workout schedule.
You're going to say, I'm going to get on the fucking bike in the morning.
I'm going to get on that stupid fucking, I'm going to do a Peloton workout every day for a month.
You'll lose 20 pounds that month.
You can do it.
You just have to be focused.
But if you're 500 pounds, if you're morbidly obese, if you're really addicted to food, you've got a real problem.
I think it can help you get to a healthy path.
That's what I think it's really the best for.
If it can help people get to a healthy path where they stop overeating, they can get it under control, they get new patterns, and then they start getting addicted to walking maybe, get addicted to feeling better, start being able to do things you couldn't do before.
There's like hundreds of pages of Instagram people who during COVID, where they were obese, wind up losing 100, 200 pounds.
Do you know who Jelly Roll is?
rick strassman
No, but I've seen some stories, some pictures of people that were very, very, very heavy, 800 pounds.
joe rogan
Jelly Roll is an amazing musician, an incredible guy who went to jail, he's got face tattoos, but he's the sweetest person that's ever lived.
He's lost like 200 pounds in the last year or so.
Is it a year and a half, two years?
He looks amazing.
Yeah, no Ozempic.
rick strassman
No Zempic.
joe rogan
Nozempic.
Just doing it the right way, exercising.
But I just think the problem, there's always some sort of a trade-off when it comes to what you do and don't do.
Look at the size he used to be, and look what he looks like now.
Isn't that insane?
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
That insane?
rick strassman
Amazing.
joe rogan
The sweetest fucking guy of all time, too.
rick strassman
Yeah, you know, so you could lose that weight.
Well, it's like depression and exercise.
joe rogan
But also, he's a wealthy star.
He has access to great food.
He has a reason to believe his life is going to be better.
He's got a great life already.
rick strassman
Yeah, for most people.
joe rogan
Just enhancing himself.
rick strassman
Yeah, I think for most people, like actually developing a real exercise regimen would be way harder than just taking Prozac.
joe rogan
Yes.
But that's where a guy like that comes in play.
We go, well, he could do it.
I could do it too.
Like, what do you have to do?
You just have to start slow, keep moving, don't stop, get a schedule, put it together, make some progress, note the progress, get excited about progress, keep going.
But if Ozempic helps you, like, fucking, I'm for whatever helps you, man.
You know, I've had a friend that was very close to suicide before he got on SSRIs.
I'll never say there's no one should ever take SSRIs because I don't know if he would have bounced back.
But he did bounce back, and then he got himself off of them, and then he got healthy.
And now he's great.
And this is, you know, with a lot of medications.
A lot of them are, there's real benefits for him.
And I think Ozempic is one of those.
I think if you're a morbidly obese person, one of the things that my friend Brigham Bueller, who is the CEO of Ways to Well, and Ways to Well is also a pharmacy.
They're a compounding pharmacy.
So they make some peptides.
And he said you can make it so that it doesn't have all the negative effects by making it for the actual size of the person.
So you give them the exact dose and combining peptides that's going to prevent bone loss and muscle loss.
Like it's possible to healthily slow the process down, stop the overeating, get the inflammation in check, get the diet in check.
But it's got to be done like systemically.
And they want you to do it with like a certain amount of exercise per week.
And they want you to eat vegetables and meat and just healthy stuff only.
Throw out all the bullshit and let's try to get this train back on track.
rick strassman
Yeah, it reminds me of that PK Dick story.
Did you, what was that called?
The three stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.
It's about competition between an extra stellar, intrastellar psychedelic versus a terrestrial psychedelic.
Which company was going to be able to sell the psychedelic or the worldview of choice?
You know, the one that came from the earth got people into Perky Patty's world where everybody was this big and they all lived in this house together and did stuff.
Like when they went to the beach and had barbecues and things.
You know, that was the terrestrial psychedelic that was competing against an intra-stellar psychedelic.
Which was completely horrible.
It was weird.
It was like you never stopped tripping.
joe rogan
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
rick strassman
Yeah, and that was gradually spreading.
joe rogan
Oh, well, I think that's everybody's fear when they do something.
Like, oh, my God, what if this never ends?
What if this is my new reality?
Like, oh, my God, I'm done.
rick strassman
I'm dead.
joe rogan
I'm gone.
rick strassman
It's always been this way.
It will always be this way.
Yeah, that was my worst trip ever.
Right.
joe rogan
And then for people with severe anxiety, some people just don't bounce back well from something like that.
And that's why you never advocate drugs to anybody.
rick strassman
I never have.
joe rogan
Yeah, I know you haven't.
Well, you didn't even want to admit that you did them when we first started talking.
rick strassman
Right.
joe rogan
You didn't even want to admit you smoked pot.
rick strassman
Yeah, at this point.
joe rogan
But I think you thought back then, like, to be taken seriously as a researcher.
rick strassman
Yeah, that's true.
But I'm less of a researcher now, so I don't have that same kind of camouflage to wear.
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
Well, I'm glad because without you, the understanding of what that experience is would be greatly diminished in popular culture.
I don't think people would really understand what it is if it wasn't for that book.
And I know you've got to really stick your neck out to try to make something like that.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
And it's bizarre because it is a thing.
It's a real thing.
And you should know about real things.
You should know about real things that have probably been in human use for thousands and thousands of years and hidden from you by Nixon.
rick strassman
Yeah, the thing I like so much about DMT is that it's endogenous.
It's made in the brain.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Do you think it's what we're making when we're dreaming?
rick strassman
It might be what we're making right now.
Yeah, you know, that's one idea is that it regulates consensus reality by maintaining itself at a certain concentration in the brain.
joe rogan
I buy that.
But I buy a lot of things.
rick strassman
It's the Matrix.
It's the endo matrix.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Oh, you know about the matrix or this red laser and DMT?
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Tell people about it because it's nuts.
rick strassman
Yeah, I don't know much about it.
joe rogan
You haven't done it?
rick strassman
No.
joe rogan
So apparently it's a red laser, and if you're tripping on DMT and you look down or below, so you could either look from below it, look up, or from above it, look down, right?
Is that correct?
rick strassman
I didn't know there was a directional thing.
joe rogan
I think it's a directional thing.
I don't think if it's on the wall, you read it.
I think you have to get above it and look down.
rick strassman
Okay.
joe rogan
I don't know.
I haven't done it.
But I think that's what they say.
And if you do that, you see code.
rick strassman
Code, yeah, like the Matrix.
Yeah.
Or Japanese.
joe rogan
If there's anybody that should believe that life isn't real, it's me.
rick strassman
Life isn't real?
joe rogan
That it's not real.
Like, that maybe there is some sort of magical quality to this experience.
Some sort of very difficult to grasp aspect of reality that we ignore that's spiritual or mystical or there's something going on outside of just normal physical reality.
rick strassman
Well, I think things wouldn't be this way otherwise.
Because certain things are encouraged and certain things are discouraged.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
And cause and effect goes a certain way.
It's not neutral.
Right.
You know, it kind of pushes you in one direction.
So who created cause and effect?
What are cause and effects, causes?
unidentified
Right.
rick strassman
Motivations.
unidentified
What are angels and demons?
Yeah.
joe rogan
Where does evil come from?
We know it's real.
Where does good come from?
We know it's real.
It's like everybody wants to be so smart that they dismiss the idea of angels and demons.
It's really fascinating.
Because they're really just a word for an actual force that creates a damaging, terrifying, or wonderful, amazing effect.
Good and evil.
rick strassman
Right.
unidentified
Right?
rick strassman
Angels and demons.
joe rogan
Yeah, like the effect is real, and we both know that people are capable of either one.
It's one of the reasons why we love people, though, is because we love great people because we know that there's terrible people.
We love people that are warm and friendly and kind and sweet because we know that there's people out there that are self-serving and shitty and mean, you know, and we need one to appreciate the other.
And that's what's so fucked up about being a person.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Well, in the text anyway, angels are intermediaries.
You know, like, you know, God has no body, right?
So how can God interact with the world?
So the angels are the intermediaries.
joe rogan
That makes sense.
rick strassman
Yeah.
Like DMT in a way is the most spiritual of the physical.
joe rogan
What do you think about the people that try to connect UAPs with angels?
rick strassman
I don't know.
unidentified
Have you ever had a UAP, UFO, I don't think so?
joe rogan
Alien experience?
rick strassman
No, no, I've never.
No, not really.
What about you?
joe rogan
No.
I'm trying, bro.
rick strassman
You're trying.
How do you try?
unidentified
I'm trying.
joe rogan
I get on the rooftop.
I got a flashlight.
No, I wish.
Yeah, I wish I saw something.
I wish I saw something that I was like, 100%, there's no way that's ours.
rick strassman
Right.
joe rogan
It'd be cool.
rick strassman
Yeah, that's never happened.
joe rogan
But I don't think they're all lying.
I don't think that's the case.
I don't think they're all lying.
There's too many of them that tell a story that just doesn't seem like bullshit.
rick strassman
Has Whitley Stryberry been on your show?
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
He's an odd one because he's a fiction writer.
Not that I don't believe him, but when a guy writes fantastical fiction for a living and then has a fantastical fictional experience that actually happens to him that becomes his thing.
It's like Arsenio Hall said, things that make you go, hmm.
I'm not saying that it didn't actually happen to him because his experience, it would be ironic if it did, because then nobody would believe him because he writes fiction, right?
But his experiences mirror a lot of the experiences from the John Mack book.
You know, did you read that book, Abduction?
rick strassman
Yeah, I knew John back in the day.
Yeah, I liked him.
Very smart guy.
joe rogan
Those stories, and that was back before the internet, really, where there was any social media or anything like that back then.
Those stories were oddly uniform.
rick strassman
Well, they were.
And, you know, John Mack, the psychiatrist from Harvard or Cambridge, yeah, we talked about the similarities between his subjects' reports and our DMT volunteers.
He thought we had come across a technology that would make contact, at least the experience of contact, something that could be studied scientifically.
unidentified
Jeez.
joe rogan
Someone should reignite that idea right now.
rick strassman
I'm surprised DMT is not in the news more.
joe rogan
Well, there was a study that they were doing in England, correct?
rick strassman
Yeah, there's a couple groups.
joe rogan
Where they were doing a long-term drip, not like yours.
So yours was like one push.
I think theirs was like a drip.
rick strassman
Yeah, 30 minutes, 60 minutes.
joe rogan
Something kooky like that, yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
And there's a group in Switzerland, John Dean at UC San Diego is going to start one.
So there's at least three around the world.
joe rogan
It's a real place that you can go to, and that's what's nuts.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
For people that never experienced anything and they're teetoddlers their whole life, it sounds crazy.
I know it sounds crazy.
rick strassman
Yeah, well, you know, what do you think of the beings?
Do you think the beings are outside of us?
joe rogan
Do you think they're disembodied souls?
Or do you think they're inside us all the time?
Well, if they're inside us all the time, then we're everything.
Then inside of us is just somehow connected to everything.
We're not individuals at all.
We are everything.
All of us are everything.
If they are inside of us.
And they may be inside of us.
It might be the idea of a physical boundary is just nonsense.
Like, who gives a fuck where it's from?
It's all everywhere all the time.
You just don't have access to it right now.
You don't have access to it in your default state because your default fundamental state is a primate.
But it's in there.
And occasionally you have access to it.
You have access to it, near-death experiences.
You have access to it, holotropic breathing.
But if you had access to it all the time, you wouldn't be able to exist in this barbaric state that you live in.
rick strassman
Well, I think it has to do with the dose.
I mean, if it's really high, if the levels are really high in the brain and the mind.
Yeah.
You know, this could be just a DMT simulation.
I'm not the first person.
Right.
Yeah.
joe rogan
It could be.
rick strassman
In which case, there still is cause and effect.
joe rogan
Well, just imagine a world where this wasn't reality, but then you got to experience this.
It would be completely psychedelic.
It'd be like, what is this fucking crazy world?
rick strassman
It'd be different.
Yeah, it's the 3D and the shadow people.
joe rogan
Do you know how weird it is sometimes if you just stand on a corner and watch people just walking and looking at their phones?
Yeah, well, people have been kidnapped and they don't even know it.
rick strassman
Yeah, there's a lot of that here.
unidentified
Everywhere.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Everywhere.
rick strassman
Well, I moved back to Albuquerque last year.
unidentified
Oh, yeah?
rick strassman
Yeah.
14 years in Gallup was plenty.
unidentified
Nice.
rick strassman
So it's cool.
Better organization.
I do.
joe rogan
Nice.
rick strassman
Yeah, we have a front lawn and a back lawn.
joe rogan
There you go.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Albuquerque's home to some of the greatest mixed martial arts fighters ever.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
John Jones lives in Albuquerque.
rick strassman
Right.
joe rogan
Greatest of all time.
rick strassman
Yeah, I love it.
joe rogan
Shout out to Albuquerque.
Jackson Winklejohn in the house.
rick strassman
Yeah, I love New Mexico.
That's great.
joe rogan
Well, it's a crazy state with a rich history and beautiful landscape.
Oh, my God.
I have a friend who just got back from elk hunting there.
He was raving about how gorgeous it was out there.
rick strassman
The sky is great.
We have a pretty cool governor.
Before she was governor, she was the Secretary of Health.
joe rogan
Oh, cool.
rick strassman
You know, during COVID.
So she knows public health.
joe rogan
And she's a nice lady.
You like her?
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Beautiful.
Thanks for being here, man.
It was a lot of fun.
It always is.
It's always great to see you.
It's been great to be your friend all these years.
rick strassman
Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
It's great to see you healthy.
rick strassman
Yeah, it's great.
Yeah, same.
You look pretty wonderful yourself.
joe rogan
Thank you.
rick strassman
Yeah, yeah.
Is my DMT and the Soul of Prophecy?
joe rogan
Yeah, it's right here.
rick strassman
There it is.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's pretty old.
unidentified
Hold that sucker up so people can buy it.
rick strassman
It came out in 2014.
Yeah.
It's, you know, what's the soul of prophecy?
Is it the visions or is it the message?
joe rogan
So, and then there's the other books that are available.
DMT the Spirit Molecule, which is what got me into you in the first place.
What a great cover, too, that Alex Gray artwork.
rick strassman
Well, you know, his artwork is on the second book, too.
joe rogan
Yeah.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
Right, right.
rick strassman
Yeah, that's Alex Gray as well.
joe rogan
He's amazing.
I mean, that guy, there's no one ever has captured the DMT state quite like him.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know?
rick strassman
He's pretty good.
joe rogan
And it's just beautiful work.
And that crazy chapel of sacred mirrors that he has now.
rick strassman
Yeah.
joe rogan
The 3D printed chapel.
rick strassman
Do you have any of his original art?
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
No.
rick strassman
I've got the spirit molecule.
Oh, it's so cool.
joe rogan
That's awesome.
rick strassman
It's in the hallway.
joe rogan
He's been a sweet guy, though.
I've talked to him a few times.
unidentified
All right.
joe rogan
Thank you very much.
Thanks for being here.
rick strassman
Really appreciate you.
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