From Refugee to Wellness Expert: Take Inspiration from Udo Erasmus’ Quest for Personal Growth

Transcript

Wow. You are gonna experience quite a treat today. Udo Arasmus joins us. This episode is unique. To say the least. We certainly dive into tips for entrepreneurs later in the episode. But the majority of the conversation revolves around three different types of adversity. Really, we check all the boxes on this one financial relationship and health adversity that Udo has faced. He was born into war, and we we dive into that, specifically his memories of of being, you know, two years old and having bombs go off around him. And, he's experienced homelessness, divorce, poverty, major health challenges, and, man, all all kinds of adversity, but he has an absolute stillness about him and perspective that's extremely impressive, and that I think people are are yearning for these days. And we all get so busy and wrapped up in doing and not being. This is a very philosophical episode. We talk about Chris humanity. We talk about other religions. We other faiths. We talk about, a lot about science, a lot about peace and war. And, but it's very practical. It truly is if you if you pay attention and listen, it's not all this woo woo stuff. It's it's actually very practical about going inward and how getting your health right. And, can really have a major impact on your business, your family, and the rest of your life. Udo has, is heavily focused on oils and the health benefits of oils But the conversation really is much bigger and and I'd say wider and deeper than that. You're just gonna have to listen for yourself. Welcome to the from adversity to abundance podcast. Are you an entrepreneur or a Spire entrepreneur, then this show is for you. Each week, we bring you impactful stories of real people who have overcome painful human adversity to create a life of abundance. A life of abundance. You are not alone in your struggle. Join us and you will experience the power of true stories and gain practical knowledge from founder who have turned poverty into prosperity and weakness into wealth. This podcast will encourage you through your health, relationship, and financial challenges So you can become the hero in your quest for freedom. Take ownership of the life you are destined to live. Turn your adversity into abundance. Alright. Here's the deal. You work hard for your money. Isn't it about time you put your money to work for you? If you are an accredited investor, check out labrador lending dot com. Our integrity income fund provides monthly cash flow from an investment backed by hard physical real estate. Our income fund, which is uncorrelated to publicly traded stocks and bonds, invests in first lien mortgage notes diversified by geography, property value, and borrower type. So you're not investing in one project. You're investing in a diversified portfolio of first lien mortgage notes. Our integrity income fund aims to pay its investors monthly distributions at a preferred rate of return of eight percent annually. Possibly the best part, though, The fund showcases a short twelve month commitment, so you can invest your capital today and have access to that capital in one year. Check it out today. Labrador lending dot com. Welcome everybody to another episode of the from adversity to abundance podcast. I am your host, Jamie bateman, and I'm really pumped today to have with us Udo Orasmas. Udo, is is this is gonna be a special episode. Tell it's gonna be different than all the other episodes we've had. Udo, how are you doing today?

Speaker 1

I'm doing great. Almost as good as you are, and I'm fabulous. Right?

Speaker 0

Love it. I love it. So I have no excuse then to be doing Fantabulous. Fantastic plus, and then some. So tell us, who are you? What are you up to today? What's what's really you know, why do you get up in the morning, you know, as far as, what's what are you passionate about today?

Speaker 1

Well, I'm I'm working these days, I'm working on turning health, total health into a teachable field based in nature and human nature. Because health was invented by life in nature. And in two two hundred thousand years or however long we've been on this planet. We have never formally put together the most important thing there is, which is what are we? What is this? You know, and what is it and what's the what's its context. Right? So we're human beings living on a planet. But what exactly does that mean and how how does that tell us what is the most effective way to have a good life? And, the other one is to to turn human nature into a teachable field because we know more about our gadgets than we know about ourselves. Yeah. And it's like and that's like insane. That's why we have wars. That's why we people cheat each other. That's why people kill each other. Because we don't know that we we have built into us something that is so incredibly magnificent that if we were in touch with it, we would chill. We would chill and we would begin to enjoy each other ourselves, each other and the planet. Okay. And we got a ways to go as you you know, if you listen to the news, we gotta ways to go.

Speaker 0

For sure. Okay. So this is gonna be fascinating. It's gonna be philosophical and practical is is my guess here. Got it. Which is which is which is not easy to do. So this is this is I'm excited to dive into this briefly before we jump back into your personal backstory, Yeah. What does this look like? You know, practically speaking professionally for you? How are you implementing this? We're gonna get into it more later, but just short snapshot of how are you actually addressing those two things you just mentioned?

Speaker 1

Well, one is one is it has to be experiential. I can't write it if I ain't living it. Okay? So that's the first. So it's experiential. And then if I'm gonna I always start by writing And I don't necessarily use the writing when I give talks because I like to give them spontaneously. But the writing is good for making in myself clear.

Speaker 0

Sure. Clarity.

Speaker 1

So I I have, like, ten thousand pages of notes that I've written since two thousand and six. You know, just about things that come to mind, inspirations, insights, you know, and and so I so writing is my is my foundation.

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 1

But then in practice, of course, it's always something else. I might be giving lectures, and I might be doing panels, and I might be traveling. And, you know, I might develop products, So so out of the writing also comes a a more practical follow through.

Speaker 0

You know? That that's really interesting. Alright. So before we before we get into more detail there and how you're how you're, addressing, you know, implementing those, really, the the trying to address those, the problems you're trying to solve, which are huge, huge issues as you said. Before we get there, Let's jump back. I know you've you've experienced a ton of adversity in your life. You know, we've we we really will only have time to scratch the surface. But let's jump back into your backstory and and what what particular, time period in your life would you like to start with?

Speaker 1

Okay. Well, I'll just start from the beginning. I was, I was born during the second World War. I'm eighty one. So I was born in nineteen forty two in Poland, which was then part of Germany. And at the end of the war, we were refugees fleeing out of Poland with the communists chasing us in tanks and trucks on dirt roads on horse drawn hay wagons mothers with young children, no military presence, and the allies to good guys were actually using us as target practice shooting at us from plane. So Wow. It was pretty intense.

Speaker 0

I don't we I was I

Speaker 1

was too I was too I just remember never feeling safe. You know? So, like, I was, like, you know, I was very shy as a kid. Never felt safe. Wasn't sure what I could trust. Got into the world of books because books are safe. So you can read about a war, but there are no bullet flying. Absolutely. And I preferred I prefer the book to the bullets. Right? Absolutely. And and when I was six years old is when my my mission began, which is I heard people argue about really trivial things, and it goes so intense. They get so into it. And it would really make me scary. It was scary for me. You know, it was made me so uneasy. And I said, man, there must be a way that people can live in harmony. Sure. And this little cocky voice had said, hey, I'm gonna find out how because, you know, I'm six years old. I don't know how complicated everything is. Right? And so that's been my driver all my life. Then when I came to studying, I went into science to figure out how things work, you know, because when you know how things work, you get predictability, and that gives you security. So I went into science to how how things work. Then I got into biosciences, how creatures work, Then I got into psychology, how thinking works, then I got into medicine, how health works, but we only learned about disease. So I went back into biosciences. Because you learn more about health and biology than in any other topic because you're studying normal creatures in normal situations functioning normally. That would be a close to a destination of health. And, and then I got into biochemistry and genetics. And that's where I ended up. And then I left university because I was still looking for something else. Mhmm. And I wasn't sure what it was, and I wasn't finding it at university. And, eventually got a master's degree in counseling psychology, did some psychedelic experiences, they kinda blew the door off my that my childhood, my my warped, child personality, because they just opened it, oh my god. There are so many options. And then it it took me a while to figure out how I wanted to live. But before that, I didn't even know I had any options. So that was a big thing.

Speaker 0

Yeah. I'm just curious because I know there's you know, there's you've already covered a ton that we could dive into for sure. Now with the psychedelic experiences, I'm just curious because now you're hearing more and more maybe you're not because you're already exposed into this. But a lot of us are hearing more and more of of these, you know, this micro dosing and psilocybin being used on these guided tours and different things. I I'm hearing different, you know. Yeah.

Speaker 1

I had PTSD and depression

Speaker 0

and anxiety

Speaker 1

and and dying, you know, when you're close to dying. Mhmm.

Speaker 0

You

Speaker 1

know, dealing with the fear of death and, yes, stuff like that.

Speaker 0

So is getting, you know, I'm not saying it's mainstream. I think it's still not not mainstream, but you're hearing more and more about it. So, obviously, you were sounds like you were kinda cutting edge. When was this when you were you were doing that?

Speaker 1

Nineteen sixty four.

Speaker 0

Wow. And so, approximately, how old were you at that point?

Speaker 1

Nineteen sixty four, I was twenty two.

Speaker 0

I'll make you do the math instead of me doing it.

Speaker 1

Yeah. Yeah. No. It's it's okay. It's good. I was good at math. So so Yeah.

Speaker 0

And by the way, you do not look eighty one. That's for sure. So you must have discovered something that's healthy. So

Speaker 1

Quite a few things. Yeah.

Speaker 0

Yeah. So okay. Twenty two years old. Just I'm just I'm just a little more curious about this. The the psychedelic experiences. I mean, is it literally take some mushrooms and just see what happens or or was it was a little bit more structured than that?

Speaker 1

For me, The first one I I was with two friends, one of them in my hallucinations on LSD. One turned into an angel. The other one turned into a devil. Wow. And I was rolling on the floor laughing, and the tears were running down my face. And I was laughing to mute to to Mozart music. And then the music would change, and the laughter would change. And the reason why I was laughing is it struck me as so incredibly funny. That everything that I was so studiously and seriously looking for in the world was actually within me. That's a big that was a big insight. That's like and that changed. I I kind of knew it because when I was a kid, I didn't feel well cared for. And I didn't feel like I had places to turn to on the outside. So when a kid doesn't have a place that that they that has support, either they die or they find support insight. And I found the support insight. So I was always a little bit, inward, but not, but not like this psychedelic journey blew open for me.

Speaker 0

I see.

Speaker 1

So you didn't It goes because inside goes so much deeper than we even have any idea of.

Speaker 0

Yeah. So even in the first twenty two years of your life, you were introspect active and leaned on yourself or a reader as you said

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 0

Within this the psychedelic experience is kind of

Speaker 1

And I had a good sense of humor, but I was quite serious, actually, too.

Speaker 0

I see. Yeah. Okay. So as you got a lot more introspective and and and I guess, was that how did that change the way you approach life at that point? Was it,

Speaker 1

Well, then it was like, well, there's a thousand ways to live. How do I wanna live? And then it took me about fifteen years to figure it out. How do I wanna live? Right?

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 1

So and then I got into after that, I got, I I was I was looking for a model. Like, what kind of a human being do I wanna be? And I came to the conclusion that the in of all of everything I knew, the most, the most enviable model Would it be the model of the master?

Speaker 0

K. Sure. So

Speaker 1

I got the red letter edition. You know what? You know what that is?

Speaker 0

No. I'll be honest

Speaker 1

with you. Okay. So it's a Bible where everything Jesus says is printed in red ink.

Speaker 0

Yes.

Speaker 1

Everything else is in black ink.

Speaker 0

Yes.

Speaker 1

Because I thought you know what? If I'm gonna model myself after this guy,

Speaker 0

you

Speaker 1

know, there's still talking about two thousand years later. Nobody talks about my grandfather. He hasn't been dead for fifty years. Right? So there must have been something there. Right? And my question was, what did he experience that made him live like he did, see what he did, do what he did.

Speaker 0

Mhmm.

Speaker 1

I wanna have that experience. Now I don't know. It's like nobody ever said you couldn't. And it just seemed like how do you model after somebody? Well, how do you crawl into somebody else's experience? Of course, there's there wasn't a road map for that. So I thought red letter edition, focus on what the master talked about, think about what that meant means, and think about what he must have been feeling. For that to be an expression of himself. So And then I got in with the Christian group. K. That I thought they're all trying to figure it out like I am, and we would all get together, and we'd all share our stories because I was putting things to the test. And I was learning stuff. It was really an interesting exploration.

Speaker 0

Mhmm.

Speaker 1

And and I thought we would all tell our stories. And at the end of the me at the end of the evening, we would all leave enriched. Sure. Right? Because stories enrich us.

Speaker 0

Absolutely.

Speaker 1

So I walked in, sat down at a table. The sky swooped down beside me. And I didn't introduce myself. I just looked him in the eye and I said, it must be possible to see god and live. Because when I was a kid, we were told if you see god, you die. Mhmm. And then it's like, well, wait a minute. You know? He he loves me unconditionally. He takes care of me while I'm sleeping. Then if I look at him, he kills me. And I was like, there's something wrong with that picture.

Speaker 0

Make sense. Sure.

Speaker 1

Yeah. And so I was trying to figure that. So, well, hit the guy who sat beside me. They call it the Jesus people's army. That should have already been a warning to me because I had more apt army was not a good word in my in my vocabulary.

Speaker 0

Sure. Absolutely.

Speaker 1

But so, and I said this and he jumped out of the out of his chair and he arms were flailing while being this, you know, and screamed at the top of us. You're from the devil. You're from the antichrist. Get out. So now so now so now I'm out I I slink out. I'm on the sidewalk in the dark in the in the summer night. I say, well, let's see. I haven't seen god. So maybe I didn't shouldn't be asking this kind of a question. I don't anyway, I got really confused and really desperate. And and desperation brings sincerity sometimes.

Speaker 0

Mhmm. Yeah. Like, I

Speaker 1

really wanna know. I really wanna know. I really wanna know.

Speaker 0

Give us a little So what what what I'm sorry to jump in. What what's a little more context. Where were you? How old were you? Where where was this?

Speaker 1

This was I was it was nineteen seventy. So I was twenty eight.

Speaker 0

Okay.

Speaker 1

Summer of of nineteen seventy. And so I decided to do what it used to do to clear my head whenever I got confused. I'd go out in nature. Because the case is slow. And, you know, it it's there's just something calming about nature.

Speaker 0

Absolutely.

Speaker 1

So I I hitchhiked to West Coast and, on a beach, completely deserted except for me and the logs on the beach. Mhmm. And decided, okay, this is where I'm spending the weekend. And I went to sleep. And in the middle of the night, I will bolt upright from dead asleep, and there was this being made of light. No label. No words. Just a being made of light, but that being embodied a message. And I could put mess I could put words to the message. And the message was I am come. Not to judge but to love. And Right. Okay. I am come not to judge but to love. That's a pretty clear statement.

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 1

And my my confusion and desperation evaporated instantly. I have never had a question Since that day, what was the message of the master to humanity? I am come not to judge but to love. Mhmm. And then later on, I really I've try thinking about, well, what who was that? What was that? And it kind of was, well, it might have been Christ because I was kind of pursuing that.

Speaker 0

Mhmm.

Speaker 1

But then it was well, but maybe it's spirit or maybe it's life. Mhmm. And it turns out those three are all the same.

Speaker 0

Same thing. Okay.

Speaker 1

And so the life's message to the body is also I am come not to judge, but to love. We are loved unconditionally. From inside by life, which is a fraction of solar energy. That's a, you know, we can derive that if you wanna go there. And that that life is Christ, and you can have references to that when you read the the new testament.

Speaker 0

So now just to be clear, this was not another psychedelic experience. You just you just went to sleep and then this

Speaker 1

was not psychedelic. This was a this was a non drug induced experience. And it came honestly, it came out of You know what? When you're desperate enough and sincere enough? Sure. Yeah. Help from help from greater than you might come. Right? I I would I would say it it always comes. Yeah. But not if you're arrogant.

Speaker 0

Not if you're not seeking it and humble enough to Yeah. To receive it.

Speaker 1

There's yeah. You you you have to really wanna know. And it's a good question whenever you have a question to say, I don't know. I wanna know, please show me. So Whatever it is could be in business, could be in relationship, could be in anything. Right?

Speaker 0

Yeah. Go ahead. I'm sorry. So so twenty eight years old just, I guess, practically speaking, it sounds like you didn't have much of a a home? You you'd you were moving around. Did you have employment at this time? What was your kind of more day to day, left? What did it look like?

Speaker 1

I did a I was homeless at one point. I literally for about six months, I slept wherever I ended up at sleep time. I I lived on a beach for a while, but what I did in those days, I did a lot of blue collar jobs. And the reason for it was I wanted to know what it's like to be in the shoes of the people who are doing those jobs. I felt like as a citizen, that would be a very good foundation. So I did logging and mining and geology and and, carpentry and house painting and drywall. And, I I babysat a fish museum at one point. So I did lots of different kinds of jobs just because and then there's always the learning at the beginning, like a big learning curve because you're starting from scratch.

Speaker 0

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1

And then by the time three to six months we're up, I kind of felt comfortable familiar with it, and then I would quit and go and do another job.

Speaker 0

Yeah. But you you seem to take, don't know if, you know, listening and empathy and, you know, to the next to the next level, I mean, you know, just already thus far in this conversation you know, most people, most people, especially today, we're all in such hurries, such a hurry that it's we might listen for a few minutes and you know, not really try to feel or or understand where someone's coming from. You know, you said how did how did Jesus live and feel and think So you it sounds like you devoted quite a bit of time to to reading the new testament and and, to just to understand that. And then And then how did these other blue collar people feel and live? So let me get a job and actually experience it.

Speaker 1

Right. But I didn't but I didn't want someone to interpret it for me. I wanted to have the experience. I wanted to I wanted to think it through myself and come to my own conclusions.

Speaker 0

So Gotcha.

Speaker 1

And and partly, you know, why that? You know, if I look back now, I say, you know, that war I went through? Yeah. As crazy as it was and as frightening as it was. Sure. An incredible gift because, literally, we got everything taken away. Our culture, our home. My parents came from Latvia. So lost the farm, lost the country, lost the culture, lost the the the house, lost the possessions, you know, basically lost everything except our clothes, you know, our clothes and our and our skin. Right? And and what that did is I had to start from scratch. Because everything was broken down, everything didn't work, couldn't know know where to trust. So I lit literally had to build a life from scratch. And part of what makes us not do that is we have it too good.

Speaker 0

Mhmm. Yeah.

Speaker 1

And we're in the process of destroying what we have and ending up in the same kind of thing that happened during the second World War

Speaker 0

Mhmm.

Speaker 1

Because if we need to create that to become wise, then we will create that disaster ourselves. For our own learning.

Speaker 0

Interesting. If we need to create the disaster, we will for our own learning, you're saying?

Speaker 1

For our own own learning.

Speaker 0

Yeah. And and and Because, you know,

Speaker 1

they the in Europe, you know, they had a first world war when that ended in nineteen eighteen. Mhmm. They had twenty one years before the second world war started. If they had practiced peace in those twenty one years, there would not have been a second world war.

Speaker 0

Mhmm.

Speaker 1

Right? But what we what they did is they stopped and they then they shook themselves off, then they rebuilt stuff, but they didn't pay attention to how we need to live. In order to be able to live together helping each other instead of messing each other up.

Speaker 0

So Right. And so You said that the the war you were born into for you and your family and correct me if I'm, you know, misinterpreting but that that actually was an incredible gift.

Speaker 1

Okay. I don't know about the rest of the family.

Speaker 0

Got it.

Speaker 1

This is only my experience of it.

Speaker 0

For you. Yeah.

Speaker 1

And, yeah, and there are lots of people who went through the war who just you know, I did too. Like, until I was twenty six twenty seven, I bitched about the war all the time. What do you expect? I was born in a war. Well, what do you expect? I was born in a war. And then one day I sat down and I and and and I was just sitting on a porch in the in the warm in this warm on a warm day.

Speaker 0

Mhmm.

Speaker 1

And it occurred to me that through all my dramas and all my traumas, something took perfect care of me. And I and I had never given that a moment's acknowledgement. And I said, wow, life took perfect care of me through all of that. I've never acknowledged I've never said thank you. I've never felt gratitude for it, and I've never thought that this might be a good friend to get to know. And that day, I said, you know what? I think I I actually wanna get to know life a little better than that. Because it's because it's running the show.

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 1

And it's been so good to me.

Speaker 0

Yeah. So and if you hadn't if you hadn't experienced that hardship, that adversity, the war that were born in into, you never would have been asking those questions. You you

Speaker 1

never would have just taken everything for granted just like we do. Just like we have today. We certainly take for granted that we're rich and we have, you know, you know, and we wanna travel and we wanna do this and we wanna do that. And then if there's a lockdown, then we all freak out. Right? But for me, when we when the lock times happen, I said, okay. Well, if you can't go outside, go inside. Go inside. And I and literally, it didn't affect me at all. You know, because it's like I don't have to be doing something outside. The most beautiful experience that a human being can have is the experience of themselves in stillness.

Speaker 0

Okay.

Speaker 1

And when and when and when you fall in love with that, you're free. Yeah.

Speaker 0

Because what else No. You're free. Sure. Because it can't be taken from you. Right? Yeah. So, you know, we've gotten we got to age twenty eight And then now you're you're now you're eighty one. Let's let's fast forward it through deck a few decades here. I know we're not gonna we're gonna go off over ton of things.

Speaker 1

Yeah. Yeah. Well, well, we might have to do two of these.

Speaker 0

There you go. I have to bring you back. But give us kind of, you know, If you wanna call it highlights, lowlights, walk us through from, say, thirty to to eighty as far as just the rest of your your story.

Speaker 1

Yeah. Okay. So, so then it became a memory. This experience that I had became a memory. And so then it was, like, gee, I'd like to live in that presence on a moment to moment basis. And that question took me to someone who showed me a stillness practice. That I've been now doing for over fifty years. And fundamentally, this goes back to, you know, seek first the kingdom

Speaker 0

Mhmm.

Speaker 1

Which is within you because it's all in in in the in the book. Right? Mhmm. And then everything else will start working better.

Speaker 0

Okay.

Speaker 1

So so that so then I did that. And then I got I got married and we had three kids.

Speaker 0

Mhmm.

Speaker 1

And my marriage broke up.

Speaker 0

Okay.

Speaker 1

And I was really upset, and I had just begun to do this practice of that leads to peace and unconditional love. So I wasn't as Very good at it. And I was, oh, I was so upset. Sure. And then and I took a job as a pesticide sprayer.

Speaker 0

Okay.

Speaker 1

From Refugee to Wellness Expert: Take Inspiration from Udo Erasmus’ Quest for Personal Growth

Udo Erasmus

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