 I had an experience that changed my life forever, and I watched a man disappear. I watched a man disappear and turn into pure white light. I had what is called a Kundalini experience, which is an awakening of the base chakra. We're being mad at my idea, sir. What brought you to see black? Two weeks ago, sir, I was not in politics. Interesting. Interesting. Oh, let me turn these on. By the way, would you mind if we record the conversation? Absolutely. Are we live-streaming right now? So just to let you know we're live-streaming, we've got go-pros going on. Fantastic. And we're also recording broadly. Fantastic. Yeah? This is just to demonstrate that what we're doing here is possible. I do this for like everybody. Fantastic. Nice. So two weeks ago, you weren't even in politics. No, sir. Mind if we introduce ourselves again also? Of course. My name is... Hi, my name's Ty. Hi, Ty. My name is Bradley Berlingame. I'm the event director for Walk Away Foundation with Brandon Strough. Did you? Okay. No. Nice. Okay. And two weeks ago, you weren't even in politics. No, sir. I was not. What's going on? Yeah. How that happened? Yeah. This is quite the transition. Yeah, it is. I have an interesting life story. I started in radio, FM radio back in the early 90s. I'm in FM radio right now. You're kidding. Yeah. I got a show broadcasting out at W.O.Z.O. Knoxville. Oh, fantastic. We have a Collins show, and we just have anyone talk about whatever they want to talk about, just like this, but on the radio. That's amazing. Good for you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. It's a fantastic medium, and sadly, it's kind of been sold short over the last decade or so, right? Yeah. Radio playlists are tired and beat. Yes. You know, I listen to... I'm based out of Los Angeles, right? Nice. He's really... Yeah. Nice for you because you don't live there. Yes. Very nice for me that I... Correct. But I'll never go to W.O.O. again. You know, I listen to conservative radio, and I am sort of disappointed because I think there are a lot of conversations that could be had and are not being had, and I think those conversations have moved to alternative platforms like Periscope, YouTube. That's where those conversations are being had. Okay. Yeah. And when I listen to conservative radio, it is... I love this. Vanilla ice cream is wonderful. Yes? It's the best ice cream. It's fantastic. It's the best ice cream. I do not wish to eat vanilla ice cream three times a day for the rest of my life. I was about to say it's the same episode of stuff over and over and over and over again, which is great if you first discover it and you're like, these guys are saying what I'm thinking. But they keep saying the same thing, and you're like, I don't want to keep thinking the same thing. There's a fine art to speaking and not saying anything. Does that make sense? Yes. I like to call it deepities. Sports figures are fantastic at that. Politicians are wonderful at that, and that is what I'm getting out of a lot of conservative radio now. QVC salesmen. Correct. It's a lot of words. Doesn't mean a thing. Doesn't mean anything. Doesn't mean a thing. Equally applicable to the opposite. Correct. So to go back to it, I was in FM Radio, ended up working for some record labels, big record labels, met a lot of rock stars, right? And ended up doing marketing and consulting, special event work, which is what I do now. You've had a really accomplished career. It's been a long, strange trip, as the Grateful Dead once said. And my most recent position was in blockchain technology and financial technology, working for a project called Litecoin, which is the second oldest cryptocurrency in existence. I know about Litecoin. Yes. I know about Litecoin. Very, very pleased to have that experience. But the majority of my money was being made off of doing independent contractor work for large tech companies. I am a rather hardcore social and fiscal conservative. Okay, yeah. And at a certain point, Ty, I got... We probably see eye to eye on a lot of stuff, just letting you know. Yeah, no, I would think so, right? And it got to a point where I was having an ethical crisis with how I was making my money. Interesting. I... Wait, you had an ethical crisis. Could you elaborate on just that a little bit? Yes, absolutely. These big tech companies pay very well. Yes, they do. It is quite clear that they do not have our best interests in mind. Oh, right? Oh, okay. One of my favorite examples was Sundar Pachai, who's the CEO of Google. He was in front of Congress about a year and a half ago and was being asked some pretty hard questions. The next morning, sir, Google's office in China caught fire. Not two weeks later. Not two months later, the next day. And that woke me up. And that woke me up. And I consider myself to be the most authentic version of me that I've ever been. Just so I can keep up the implication is Google was hiding something in China, so they burned the evidence? Maybe. Oh. That woke you up, so it has to be some certainty to it, right? Let's just be honest. Well, yes. My mother didn't raise a dummy. Okay. Right? So you don't want to hit it on the hell, but you love your euphemisms. Yes, sir. All right, fair enough. My mother did not raise a dummy. Fair enough. And I know the difference between horsecraft and shoe polish. Okay. And that's horsecraft. Okay, okay, okay. Something fishy was there. Correct, sir. So I decided that it was time for me to live fully in alignment with who I am as a person. Did that take time to discover or did you already know who you were as a person? You know, it's a rather long conversation, but I have been on a journey of self-discovery and self-awareness since 2006. And it was the last step in my evolution as a person. I mean, we're never done. Yeah. Right? We're never done. Why 2006 to start with? I was fortunate enough... Like 14 years ago. Yeah. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to a swami. Oh, look at that. To a swami who has a dual lineage in both Hinduism and Buddhism. Was that 14 years ago? Yes, sir. Okay, so you started that path then. Okay, okay. He's still around, still practicing. Arguably the most powerful human being I've ever met in my life. It's a great story, but it's a long story. But what I will tell you is that in June of 2016, I had an experience that changed my life forever and I watched a man disappear. I watched a man disappear and turn into pure white light. I had what is called a Kundalini experience, which is an awakening of the base chakra. And it is like an ecclesiastic seizure. You are filled with spirit. But because the awakening process is different for everyone, it manifested itself in chaos. It manifested itself in sadness. It manifested... It brought up everything. You didn't have... It brought up everything. It sounds like I didn't have a toolkit of emotions to deal with the experience that I had. I am reaching for something that's applicable. Someone gave you a screw that had a weird design. There's nothing in my toolkit of emotions to fit to this. Correct, sir. So for the last 14 years or so, up to now you're struggling to figure out how to make things fit from the experience that you had. I'll refer back to a Buddhist quote that I love. There are two things to consider when one is attempting to walk a path. And in the Buddhist sense that is the path to enlightenment. There are two mistakes one can make. One is not beginning. Two is not going all the way. So I went through a period of time that could have been looked at as recovery. It could have been looked at as self-examination on such a level that's almost insurmountable. At a certain point I felt like... I'll be honest, around 2010, I wish someone would have put me somewhere for a little while. Oh. It got weird. It got dark. But I understand now what it was. It was me coming to terms and reconciling with my entire life. My entire life was being shown to me. And I had to process and work through all of that. And so that began the journey. I've always been a seeker. I was reading Chariots of the Gods from Eric Von Donikin at 10 years old. Just so that we stay on track. Two weeks ago you weren't political. Correct. This is quite the journey that you've gone up to here. But now you're here. I am here, sir. What got you here? I decided... And thank you for keeping me on track, by the way. You're fine. I could no longer live an inauthentic life. And the work portion was the last part. Okay. And so I began to look for jobs... I was looking for jobs with conservative companies. I wasn't really even thinking about getting into politics. But strangely enough I've been studying geopolitics and geofinance for 15 years. Yeah. And I feel like I know more about both of those things and the intersectionality of it than almost anything else. It also sounds like you have a bunch of principles with regard to fiscal responsibility that resonates well with the party. Have you found the religious outlook is very much more flat note in the conservative side? Did you find a space for your religious beliefs to fit and coalesce within this as well? Yeah. I went to a private Baptist high school when I was 14 years old. So you know the stories? Yes, I do. You know the stories? Yes, I know the stories. And I have found for simplicity's sake, Ty, that God simply is and I simply am. And I don't... I've had, like I said, ecclesiastic seizures before. I've stared into the face of the unknown. And I'm quite comfortable with my version of God. You're comfortable with your version of God? Yes, sir. Yes. And it's somewhere, you know, I tell people that I am a Christian with a mild case of Tourette's syndrome. Oh, is it... You mind if we... Can I talk about that God? Oh, please. It's one of my favorite topics. Really? Oh, I could talk about God all day. What else is there, sir? I won't take your time. No, not at all. I'm generally trying to understand more about this. Please know that I'm not challenging on whether or not that God is true or not. That is not the point of this conversation. Not at all. I want to know more about, like, the method that you're using to build a relationship or know that God is true. Do you understand what I'm saying? I think so. Will you expand a little more, please? Yeah, so I like to think of it as, like, if I flip a coin and I caught it and I put it on the back of my hand, yeah? It's like, this coin might be heads up, right? But I want a good way to know that. And if someone said, hey, I know it's heads up because I read it in a fortune cookie, I'm like, okay, you might be still right, but that method that you're using isn't really reliable. Isn't there a better method that we can use to figure out if that coin heads up? Right? So it's not even a question of, like, if the coin is heads up or not. It's more of, like, do we have a reliable way to get to that conclusion? Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. You know, I tend to... Can we play with this thing? I tend to avoid getting down into a particular dogma. Yeah. I tend to avoid that. You seem to be beyond that. So I think this is actually going to be a fun conversation. Yeah. And if we want to eject any time, that's all good with me. Yeah? Nah, but it's on all go as deep as you want. Man, I think I'm going to like you a lot. So actually, you're already cool. Yes, sir. If we said this was like, I'm absolutely sure God doesn't exist, or that God doesn't exist, and I'm absolutely sure this God does exist. Mmm. And we said this is the limit. Yes, sir. And it's not necessarily a virtue statement, because I know you do believe in it. Of course. I'm just saying, like, is there room for you to continue to grow, or is there room for questions? That would be, like, less than 100%. Where would you be on this? And you can use that. I would say... Hey, that's not bad. That's not bad. You're not closed on the position. I'm just making sure, like, this is... I'm closed-minded. There's no way I can be wrong. This is... There are still things that I need to figure out, but I'm very sure that it's the case. The only thing I know, Tyrone, is that I don't know anything. Okay. Then I would say that's more like this. Well, it's interesting. I'm like this on so many different things. You can throw this on a wall. I'm bad on that. Let's put it to you this way. You know, Jesse Lee Peterson, I saw... Yeah. You did a sit-down with him. Yeah, it was a really good talk. I was in a position about a year and a half ago where I had run into a wall on several things. I had been done with living in Southern California. I felt like... Yeah, Southern California is kind of bad. The food's not bad. Dude, I can get good food in Phoenix. You can get good food in Phoenix. That's true. I got good Mexican food in Tennessee, where I'm at, where it's like half-hour down from Nashville. Like, you'll have fun to amazing places. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not hard. And the other out is... But the weather's so good. There's good weather anywhere. Yes, there is. Right? So I... No, not at all. So I mentioned that I attend Jesse Lee's Bond Men's Group, which meets in Mid-City, Los Angeles, the first Thursday of every month. It is a group of about 30 to 40 conservative men from age 17 to 70. Okay. And it was such a breath of fresh air. And it was such a... To be in a different environment where you can, like, express yourself differently without having to worry about its toes being stepped on? And I know that Jesse can be very controversial. Oh, hey. And it's one of the things that he does best is stir the pot, yes? He asks hard questions. Provocator. I don't necessarily... I haven't bought the t-shirt, right? I didn't join the fan club. I didn't sign up for the email list. But I felt, after being such a stranger in Los Angeles, that a group of conservative men coming together and talking about masculine issues, talking about having a relationship with a living God, I found that... You had a... It's an experience being part of a community. Is that what made you... Is that the method that you're using to become more than 50 to more certain? I find... Yeah. That the more I get out of my own way and let God drive, the better my life becomes. Yes? Because my will is based on the ego and the tape recordings of my life experiences. Oh, whoa. This is like a catch-22. It's like, if you choose... I don't know. I don't want to get too much in the weeds here. But I'm wondering, like, would you mind telling me, because I'm still looking for this answer? Like, what's the most reliable way that you are using to know that you're... that the God that you live with and have a relationship with exists and is actually the case? Silence. Silence. I've never heard silence before. Let me start this. I've never heard silence as an answer before. This is great. What do you mean by silence? Prayer is you asking God for things. Sitting in silence is demonstrating the patience to listen for the answers. Okay. Okay. Okay. Keep going. That makes a lot of sense. No, I'm listening to this. Again, I'm not a Buddhist. I'm not anything. I hear what you're saying. I'm just me. Silence and accept it. You're opening up yourself. What happens then? I find clarity there. I find clarity there. I find that at the end of the day a sort of self-reliance that silence is the closest I can come to connection. Is it possible to be silent and still get that same clarity without a God belief? Oh, yeah. That's the wonderful part about having a meditative practice or being involved in Buddhism. I get a lot out of meditation. You don't... God doesn't enter into it, sir. The only thing that Buddhism is is a set of rules or suggestions for you to deal with being in this 3-D reality. So as for you, God is sort of like a label that you're putting onto this self-fulfillment that you get when you just step out of your own way. God's the reason I'm here. As in like, would I say make any sense? Or is what you're saying the version of God? Like, is God like a standard of emotions that you feel and clarity that you receive when you stop letting your ego inhibit your own progress? Or is God more of an agent like a person, you know, building blocks? I think that... What is this God that we're talking about? Hope that's a fair question. It is. I often use the analogy that God, if you look at it from, let's say, a filmmaking standpoint, God is the executive producer. Okay. You are the director. Okay. Right? He gives you the funds. He gets you the crew. He gets you the story. So your God made the universe. To the best of my knowledge, sir. Ah, okay, okay. So he's the best of my... Again, regardless of the gender name or whatever, is the creator of the universe. Yes. The older I get, the more I believe that you are given a life purpose. Right? And you can choose to embrace it or reject it. But at the end of the day, Ty, all roads lead to God. God is the destination. You just don't know that you're on the journey to it. Maybe I do. Well, let me ask you a question. I want to say you, not you specifically, but in general. We're having fun. What is the way that you're... What's the thing that you're doing that you know that what you're looking at is a work of creation? What am I doing? Yeah, like what's the process in your head that you're going through to look at something that like a rock versus like a water bottle and being like, these are two created things? What's the method that you're doing to come to the conclusion that something's a creation? My method? And applying that to the God? My method is to... My state is to think about God more than anything else. Is that a reliable way to know if something's a creation or not? That's a good question. All I know is that when, again, when I stay out of my own way and I stay connected, I stay in a place of gratitude, life works. Life works. The further I stray from that, the more I center on the ego, the more I center on material things, pop culture, whatever it is, the further I am from the source that will allow me to live my dreams. Here's my question. Is the fact that something makes you comfortable proof that it's true? No. Is the fact that something works for you proof that it's true? Oh, no, no, absolutely, no, absolutely. It is true for me. It is true for me. True for you. Can I fill something out? Absolutely, please. I got a car that I can drive up here. It's a Chevy Sonic. And I love my... This guy drives a Tesla. An aristocrat. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good luck when that sucker catches a fire, sir. Good luck when the brakes go off-line and he's on the highway. Sorry, we can't reconnect to our brake system right now. Would you please restart the car? I'm driving on the highway right now. Just on a quick side now. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. Anyone who's seen a James Bond film should know that a self-driving car is a terrible idea. Oh, my gosh, we can go down roads here. Let the windows go up, the doors lock. Good morning, Mr. Bond. Oh, yeah. Gas comes out of the rain. China's checking in on you. Oh, we can go on some of the different tanges here. But I drive a Chevy Sonic. It's a great car. It's very fuel-efficient. Yes, sir. But it's a small car. I could... It could be true for me that water and gasoline are the same thing. If it was true for me that water and gasoline are the same thing, how far would I be able to drive on a gas tank full of aquafina? Is there any merit to something being true to me versus actually true? Well, what we're talking about, Tyrone, is attempting to know the unknowable. And when we face with something we don't know, why not just say we don't know? I find solace in God. It makes you comfortable. Does that make that true, though? For me. And are things that are true for me, can they also not be true for anybody else? Or true in actual reality? That is the wonderful and unfortunate part about this time and space that we're in, is that we do have free will. And so I encourage you to believe whatever it is that you believe as long as you are not doing harm to anyone else or yourself. Cool. This is the most intense time ever to be alive. I can see a lot of light in that sentiment, though I wonder, do you care if your belief search is actually true or not? No. Oh. Well, all right. Don't say herself a lot of time. No. I appreciate talking with you. Absolutely. No, it's one of those things where I think that right now, like you're seeing addiction through the roof. Sure. You're seeing depression by polar through the roof. You found something that worked for you and it's keeping you sane. If you didn't have this, you may not be in as good of a state right now. And I don't want you to think about that. No, no. You are absolutely not. I'm not in a place to cause anyone harm in these kinds of conversations. So like if you found something that keeps you stable, I'm fine with that. I generally try to just ask questions that make people consider if there's value in believing in true things and if not, what's good means of getting to that position? Because it's not so much an idea of like, I want you to be uncomfortable. It's more of like, I want you to have a really deep appreciation for a standard of evidence. Okay. And that's totally fine. Cool? Brad, I really appreciate this talk. Thank you so much. I would love to come back and talk about Walk-A-Long. Are you going to be here tomorrow? I'm going to be here tomorrow. I think we're going to be shutting down. We're already dismantling right now. But will you be here tomorrow? I'll be happy to talk with you. I will. Yeah, I could do this all day. I could too. And can I tell you what thoughtful questions, Ty, you're extremely adept at this because there's, look, everybody needs to be called on their own BS, right? Like everybody needs a mirror held up to their face. It's an uncomfortable thing. No one likes to do self-examination. But I have found through my travels that self-examination is the key to a salvation in this 3D reality because when you know yourself and you have ownership of yourself, it is something, sir, that can never be taken from you. I can see something. Never be taken from you. Know thyself. Yeah. Know thyself. And I'm on the path to help people figure that out too. Yeah? Thank you, sir. Let's do it. I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you. Yeah? Cool. I think we're dismantling now. I think we're dismantling. Yeah, it's 7 o'clock, dude. Thank you. Yeah? I'm gonna see you tomorrow, boys. Yeah? No, absolutely not. Okay, would you like my cards? Oh, yeah? Oh, it's fantastic. I'm a recovered narcissist, so I have to watch. I have to watch myself. No, I think those are really good talks. It's amazing what you can do with a full stomach and a night full of sleep. Yeah. Good stuff. Really good. Super smooth. Yeah? And you got down to the core of comfort versus truth. Yeah, thanks. I appreciate that. Sorry for making fun of you. No, that's fine. Okay, okay. What time is it? We have to pack up now.