 empowering in a way and disconcerting in a way too, because you have to let go of some of that self-identity of which you've attached yourself to for so much of all of your life, right? Who am I? I am Garth Sam. This is the person that I know myself to be and everybody else knows myself to be as well. And now here I am dissolving that into what? Then what am I? I'm not. I am not. I am not Garth Sam. So what is not Garth Sam? Right, it's very interesting sort of curious loop that goes on when you engage in this practice deeply. What do you say you had hallucinogenic experiences while meditating? Hallucinogenic sounds a little too exotic and sort of shmex of, you know, Timothy Leary style more so than anything. I wouldn't call them hallucinogenic. I've had experiences that I would call are more hallucinogenic when I've done float tanks, you know, sensory deprivation chambers, which is, you know, inevitably what happens when you restrict the amount of information coming into your reticular activating system back in your mind. So I wouldn't describe them as such. They're more transcendental, you know, to use the better word. I think transcendental is more the word that I would describe of these things. What a transcending conventional consciousness. How long did it take to get used to it? It's get used to monastic life, period, or a meditative life. Meditation general, because that's one of the biggest jokes about that because I mean here's this kind of funny. So these are the stories of Westerner who has this experience and one of the things I used to think about myself is that, wow, you know, it's all Buddhist premises kind of is about, you know, ameliorating suffering and escaping from suffering. Why am I suffering so much as a monk? Why is it so tough? I mean, it's like, you know, I remember this the head monk at the first monastery that I ordained at, I used to call him Sergeant Monk. I mean, he was like a drill sergeant, like, kicked my door open the first day, like three o'clock in the morning yelling at me. And I knew a kid. Yes, no, just the same dude. I was like, yes, sir. I don't know how to put my robes on properly. And he's like, you know, roughly putting me together and, you know, get me all sorted and then we got to go out there. And, you know, I am not super flexible. And if you're not used to sitting in a meditative position for a long time, you're sitting there. And it's like, oh, man, I went to one just for four hours. My ass is already four hours. Oh, man, you're in pain. Like I'm in pain. I'm in pain. I'm like, this is not about this is suffering. This is OK. So you learn through your suffering to let go of your suffering. That's the key, right? It's like, OK, you you talk to yourself. And it's the same thing with the eating and the not eating, right? It's like, OK, you learn to observe the sensations, the somatic sensations, the physiological sensations of your body, responding to either, you know, some position that's uncomfortable and you're expected to maintain or the hunger that you're experiencing and you have to go beyond. Right. So what you learn about that, which is some of the beauty, I think of Buddhist paradigm is about being able to understand that that experience, that sensation that you're having is a sensation that your body is having. It's not a sensation that you, the essence of you, that is non physical is having. Yeah, it's my it's not you. It's my physical body having your body is having this thing. Yes, the machine is complaining. Yeah. The machine is upset because something is happening that is unfamiliar to it and feels unpleasant to it. But I, the I thing, whatever that is, the consciousness out of consciousness, feel pain. I have no but it's it's not a it's not a physical entity. So part of the training that I felt you gain from this type of experience is learning how to separate those two kind of partition. I mean, it's the classic example of self-immolation by monks during protests and whatnot. Right. I mean, how does that happen? How does a monk, you know, this is a horrible story. But, you know, monks have lit themselves on fire or protesting. Yeah. And they're not screaming while they're burning to death. They're sitting there in their meditative pose and they're burning to death, which is considered to be the worst death a person could experience in terms of physical pain and whatnot. So what is happening there? Right. I mean, they have trained themselves to the degree that they're able to make that separation of selfness and body such that the body is burning, but the mind is over here watching the body burn without actually feel that pain. By no means do I have any experience with anything so extreme, but just in my own humble experiences of having to face hunger, discomfort, physical discomfort, you know, as simple as sleeping, as not being familiar with sleeping on hard surfaces. Right. I sleep in a bed. I've slept in a bed my entire life. My body is softened because I'm used to sleeping in a bed. And now I come to the monastery and a you're not supposed to sleep on elevated surfaces so you don't have beds. And B, you have a little sort of read math that you sleep on the floor with. And I mean, it's funny to see how you have to learn even to adapt to something as simple as that because your body's not used to it. My body's falling asleep like my arm circulation is cut off. I'm like, how do I sleep on hard, which I've not done before, right? And learning how to sort of go and transcend that and become comfortable in those spaces and whatnot. It's very valuable as a learning of self. I always say people should incorporate some forms of weekly or even monthly stoic practices. There's much to be gained. You know, you learn, you learn about yourself. I mean, that's the thing. When we challenge ourselves, we learn about ourselves. When we push ourselves to some bases and uncomfortable places, right? I mean, the classic adages that you learn best when your your growth curve is is highest when you're in a space is uncomfortable and when you're pushed to do something that is not familiar to you. And it's true. And it's true because you're able to experience something that is outside of the realm of knowledge or understanding or comfort. And when you do, you've opened up a new door of contemplation of what is possible, you know, what is possible for you or what is possible for others, right? So I agree.