GATEKEEPERS w/ John Patrick Morgan

#006: Ari DeLashmutt – Identity, Wholeness & the Flight Beyond Fear

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Ari DeLashmutt, who, beyond being a world-class paraglider, is a philosopher with wings and a provocateur of the soul. We drop deep into the recursive relationship between speech and identity, between desire and belief, between being and becoming. Ari brings fire—grounded in his body, lived in the air, and wrestled into language. This one’s about performance and poetry, self-talk and coaching, the myth of objectivity, and the secret utility of declaring things you don’t yet believe. We speak of flight, but we’re really circling in the thermal of our shared commitment to freedom. 🔍 Episode Contents (In Deeper) * Pro Pilot as Self-Creation * Ari’s decision to call himself a professional paraglider before it was “true” * Why declaring identity before evidence can be a spiritual act * The Roger Bannister effect and creating possibility for others * Dual Motives, Whole Selves * Intrinsic vs extrinsic: why neither is “pure” or superior * Ari’s lens on high performance as both personal and relational * Aspiration, recognition, and the myth of hyper-individualism * Language is the Leverage Point * JP on the origin of internal dialogue: speech before thought * Ari on communication as our most conditioned—and most potent—pattern * Rewriting the internal script as high-leverage transformation * Coaching from the Inside Out * The best coaching mirrors the voice you speak to yourself with * Why speech creates both the coach and the client * Self-declaration and “creating being” as the foundation for impact * Recursive Loops: Downward & Upward Spirals * How thoughts echo speech, and speech reconfigures thought * The same recursive dynamic behind suicidality and transcendence * Why we resist claiming our greatness but easily spiral into darkness * Glass Ceilings, No Floors * Ari’s powerful metaphor: there’s a ceiling to our self-belief, but no floor * Why it’s easier to spiral down than up * Using cringe and resistance to locate limiting beliefs * Truth vs Utility in Identity Work * Declaring what’s useful over what’s provable * Steve Hardison [https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Coach-Amy-Hardison/dp/B09M55W669/]’s radical reframe: “I’m not saying it because it’s true—I’m saying it because I’m creating it” * The Western sickness of demanding objectivity in all utterances * Oscillating Attention: Safety as Wholeness * JP’s metaphor of landing a paraglider through cycling awareness * Ari applies the oscillation to motive: aspiration and belonging are one * All parts of the self—fear, desire, love—are part of the same aircraft * From Being Good to Being Whole * The Carl Jung quote that shattered Ari: “I’d rather be whole than good” * Shadow work, contradiction, and spiritual maturity * Freedom not from the dark, but with it Recorded 20th October 2025 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jpmorganjr.substack.com [https://jpmorganjr.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

#005: Stewart Pearce – Charlie Kirk, American Shadow & Courage to Use Our Voice

Charlie Kirk was assassinated. And whether you loved him, hated him, or barely knew who he was, something collective cracked open in that moment—especially in America. It wasn’t just about Charlie. It was about the shadow. We live in a country trained to project. Trained to exile what it cannot reconcile. And in that crucible, voice becomes dangerous. Visibility becomes a threat. This episode was born from that crucible. I didn’t want commentary—I wanted clarity. So I turned to Stewart Pearce. He’s not a pundit. He’s a mystic, a voice master, and a man who has coached world leaders at the height of both grace and grief. And what he brings here isn’t comfort. It’s transmission. This conversation is a mirror. It reflects not just the violence that killed a man, but the psychological, spiritual, and mythic distortions that keep a nation in denial of its own shadow. If you’re looking for a moral roadmap in a time of collapse, start here. Stewart Pearce is a legendary Voice & Presence Coach, sound healer, mystic, and former Master of Voice at Shakespeare’s Globe. For over 40 years, he has helped world leaders, household-name actors, and renowned change-makers convey their message with integrity and grace. From Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana, Eddie Redmayne, and Mark Rylance, to many leaders on today’s political and celebrity world stage, Stewart has coached those standing in the spotlight of history. In 1987, he experienced a transmission from the Angels of Atlantis—twelve archangelic beings whose messages continue to shape his spiritual work. His books include The Angels of Atlantis, The Heart’s Note, and Diana: The Voice of Change. 🔍 Episode Contents (In Deeper) * Charlie Kirk & the Silencing of Archetypal Voice * The symbolism of assassination in a time of moral confusion * Why America punishes visionaries from both sides * Stewart on the metaphysics of martyrdom * The American Shadow * What we refuse to see in ourselves becomes violence toward others * Stewart on the cost of unintegrated rage and repressed grief * How projection fuels polarity * Sacred Voice vs. Political Noise * The difference between talking at and speaking from * What Stewart taught Diana about presence under pressure * Voice as an instrument of healing, not persuasion * Truth When It’s Not Safe * JP’s personal fear of public speech after Kirk’s death * How moral courage looks when it’s not performative * Why gentleness may now be the sharpest blade * Masculinity, Risk & Shadow Work * What our culture gets wrong about strong men * Stewart’s framing of sacred masculine leadership * Risk as a rite of passage, not just a hazard * The Breath of the Warrior * How Stewart uses sound and breath to entrain truth * Presence as nervous system mastery, not theatricality * How to stand calm inside chaos * Prophecy, Poetics & Political Myth * Stewart on metaphor as medicine for division * What Kirk’s death reveals about archetypal war * How voice invites the return of meaning * The Coming Reckoning * Stewart’s sense of a spiritual tsunami on the horizon * Collapse as both danger and invitation * The need for real leaders of spirit—not ideology * The Soul’s Invitation Now * Why silence isn’t neutrality * How to live a voice that heals rather than divides * A call to those at the threshold: Speak. And mean it. Recorded September 14, 2025 Join Stewart’s Free Online Masterclass 📆 Sunday, 5th October 2025 👉 The Magnetic Voice Masterclass [https://www.themagneticvoiceacademy.com/offers/5PNSo8c7/checkout] Get more from Stewart 🌐 StewartPearce.com [https://stewartpearce.com]🌐 AngelsOfAtlantis.com [https://theangelsofatlantis.com]📸 Instagram: @theangelsofatlantis [https://www.instagram.com/theangelsofatlantis]👤 Facebook: @stewart.pearce.5 [https://www.facebook.com/stewart.pearce.5]📺 YouTube: @TheAngelsOfAtlantis [https://www.youtube.com/@TheAngelsOfAtlantis] Join JP’s Upcoming Event in Florida 📆 3rd-6th November 2025 👉 AmericanShadow.com [https://AmericanShadow.com] Follow JP on Social 📸 Instagram: @jpmorganjr [https://instagram.com/jpmorganjr]👤 Facebook: @jpmorganjr [https://facebook.com/jpmorganjr]👨‍💼 LinkedIn: @jpmorganjr [https://linkedin.com/in/jpmorganjr] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jpmorganjr.substack.com [https://jpmorganjr.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

#004: Red K Elders – Drawing the Gods, Naked Bodies, and the Authority of “Yes”

In this episode, I’m sitting with Red K Elders, an artist, somatic guide, and seeker who has carved space in the woods—and in our collective psyche—to let the ancient gods walk through her pencil and through our bodies. In this episode, we explore not just what it means to create, but what it means to become a threshold: between shame and celebration, contraction and intimacy, technology and sovereignty. 🔍 Episode Contents (In Deeper): * Leaving the City, Entering the Wild * London for ten years, then deep woods: what happens when you trade the urban for the elemental. * The hardship, the enchantment, and idealism vs practicality of off‑grid methodologies. * How growing food, building raised beds, living with seasons shifted perception of time, resources, and self. * The Emergence of the God‑Drawings * How a casual invitation to draw during a liminal time led to rediscovering a lost practice. * Drawing as trance, as yesness, as discovery rather than pre‑planning. * The role of iconography, mythology, symbols: learning what shows itself in the lines. * Yesness & Inner Authority * What is “yesness” – somatic felt pull, bodily posture, intuition. * Models & muses vs spontaneous god‑presence: choosing who models the gods, following signal. * Training oneself to sense what is true, what feels wrong, what feels profound. * Body, Shame & Nudity * Nudity in nature with children; how innocence frames bodies without shame. * Social & algorithmic censorship: the power of the human form, and why seeing it can feel threatening. * The energy of sexuality as creative, generative, sacred. * Movement as Permission & Healing * Movement not as fitness but embodied release: what bodies want, what they need. * Witnessing, group movement, synchronicity among bodies, what opens when moving with others. * How movement clears creative blocks and connects back to creative source. * Psychedelics, Vision & Nature * Experiences with external psychedelics vs the psychedelic quality of being deeply in nature. * Vision quests, sensory opening, wind, moon, earth: the wild as altar. * Cultivating visionary states through ritual, earth‑places, trance, rather than substances. * AI, Images, and What’s Left of the Soul * How AI‑generated art feels: dead, malevolent, draining. Why this response matters. * Practical uses of AI vs its dangers: when it helps with executive functioning, and when it replaces inner authority. * The experiment of building a tool that reflects the user back to their own voice, their own knowing. * Living Relationally with the Gods * The artworks as living entities in Red’s home: altars, places, prints, relational presence. * How child‑rearing, community, and place factor into art: teaching daughters, holding circle in woods. * How seeing responses from people transforms the work even after the drawing is done. * Freedom, Authority & What’s at Stake * The cost of not knowing one’s body, one’s Yes, one’s full aliveness. * Authority over one’s own movement, one’s own body, one’s own creative impulses. * The larger stakes: disconnection allows easier control, easier flattening of identity; reconnection births resilience and resistance. Recorded June 30, 2025 Get more from Red: 🌐 Website: redkelders.com [https://redkelders.com] 📸 Instagram: @rkelders.art [https://www.instagram.com/rkelders.art] 👤 Facebook: @rkelders.art [https://www.facebook.com/rkelders.art] 📌 Pinterest: @redkelders [https://uk.pinterest.com/redkelders] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jpmorganjr.substack.com [https://jpmorganjr.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

#003: Ryan Hurst – 28 Years in Japan, 5 Black Belts & Evolving From Fighter to Healer

In this deeply personal episode, I'm joined by Ryan Hurst—gymnast turned martial artist, movement teacher, and a man who found his true home 6,000 miles from where he was born. Ryan went to Japan at 19 for a semester and stayed for 28 years, earning five black belts, becoming fluent in Japanese, and co-founding GMB Fitness, which has helped over 119,000 people worldwide reclaim their physical autonomy. But this conversation goes far beyond fitness or fighting. It's about what happens when you let a culture transform you completely—when you trade American individualism for Japanese collectivism, when you learn that silence doesn't need filling, when you discover that taking your shoes off at the door means leaving the outside world outside. Ryan shares raw truths about Japanese family life, the culture of respect that shaped him, and how martial arts became his path from seeing weakness as something to exploit to seeing it as something to heal. 🔍 Episode Contents (In Deeper): 1. The American Who Became Japanese * Ryan's journey from a semester exchange to 28 years, from toilet slippers to fluent integration * Living with his kendo instructor's family and becoming part of Japanese society beyond the expat bubble * Why he felt more at home in Japan than the Midwest—and what coming back to America revealed 2. It's Not Me Against You * The fundamental difference between American individualism and Japanese collectivism * Examples from trains to airports: how Japanese society prioritizes group harmony * Why conflict avoidance creates both peace and the need for alcohol to speak truth 3. The Hidden Culture of Japanese Families * The absent father phenomenon: work, drinking, golf—family comes fourth * Cultural acceptance of infidelity and Ryan's rejection of these norms * How being the only present father made him an outsider among Japanese men 4. Martial Arts as Life Philosophy * Five black belts explained: Aikido, Kendo, Iaido, Judo, Shorinji Kempo (plus Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) * Training with police and Self-Defense Forces in castle dojos and ancient shrines * Why "posture, breath, and mindset" became the foundation for everything 5. The Evolution from Fighter to Healer * The shift from analyzing weakness to exploit it to seeing weakness as opportunity to help * How people-watching transformed from tactical assessment to compassionate observation * GMB Fitness born from this philosophy: building people up instead of breaking them down 6. Love Across Cultures * Meeting Chika: "I'm going to marry that girl" from first sight on stage * Navigating physical touch, love languages, and family dynamics across cultures * The challenge of raising bicultural children who can adapt to both worlds 7. Minimalism and Constraint as Freedom * Japanese minimalism as life practice: keep only what serves you * How constraints in martial arts create creativity and mastery * Applying this to fitness: one exercise, total focus, maximum gains 8. The Art of Verbal Judo * Self-preservation vs self-defense: taking active responsibility for outcomes * Real stories of de-escalation: the woman on the plane, the road rage incident * Why the highest martial artists are the most peaceful people 9. Walking the Knife's Edge * The paradox: you must be willing to fight to truly love * How violence and compassion exist on the same spectrum of engagement * Why "be the nicest guy in the room but have a plan to kill everyone" misses the deeper truth Recorded February 27, 2025 Get more from Ryan: 🌐 Websites: stayonthematforever.com [https://www.stayonthematforever.com] | gmb.io [https://gmb.io] 📸 Instagram: @ryhurst [https://www.instagram.com/ryhurst] | @gmbfitness [https://www.instagram.com/gmbfitness] 📺 YouTube: @GMBFit [https://www.youtube.com/@gmbfit] 📚 Book (Launching Oct 27, 2025): "On the Mat Forever: Your 12 Week Path To Mental Strength And Clarity" 🏔️ Live Workshop (Nov 7-9, 2025): Forge & Flow Experience w/ Chip Conrad [https://www.bodytribe.com/forge-and-flow-experience] at Mt. Mitchell Eco Retreat, NC This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jpmorganjr.substack.com [https://jpmorganjr.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

#002: Juliet Trnka – Feminine Power, Mystical Wealth & The Sacred Path of Business

In this episode, I’m joined by Juliet Trnka—a shamanic business guide, multimillion-dollar entrepreneur, and poetic force of nature who helps visionary women rise into radical sovereignty. Juliet’s journey defies convention: from bankruptcy and underground hustle to ceremony, embodiment, and building empires rooted in truth. We speak about the sacred mechanics of wealth, how trauma becomes a portal to power, and why Juliet doesn’t believe in separating business from mysticism. Her leadership model is fiercely feminine, luxuriously embodied, and deeply ceremonial. If you’re called to build something massive without selling your soul—this conversation is your key. * Juliet’s collapse—and how she rebuilt it all * The shamanic roots of her business model * Feminine leadership vs. feminine performance * Wealth as devotion, not domination * Pleasure as an operational principle * Dismantling internalized gatekeepers * The seductive trap of spiritual bypass * What’s next for the feminine economy 🔍 Episode Contents (In Deeper): * The Altar is Business * Juliet frames business as a spiritual practice, a living altar where power, clarity, and devotion are offered daily. * She reveals how strategic decisions can be made from the body, not the mind, anchoring outcomes in energetic congruence. * Marketing, sales, and scaling aren’t tasks—they’re ceremonies that hold the frequency of the leader’s deepest truth. * From Ashes to Alchemy * Juliet recounts the collapse of her finances, relationships, and identity as the sacred breaking that birthed her real voice. * She explains why losing everything stripped away illusion and forced her into radical clarity about what power actually is. * From that devastation, she began crafting a new form of success—one sourced from embodiment, not performance. * Mysticism + Money * Juliet teaches that money is not a number, but a mirror of energetic integrity and spiritual alignment. * She describes how wealth arrives through attunement to subtle signals, not just strategy or effort. * Her clients experience quantum leaps by repairing the energetic architecture that supports receiving, holding, and multiplying abundance. * Feminine Precision * Juliet defines the feminine not as formless flow, but as disciplined, intuitive action rooted in fierce internal listening. * She rejects the binary of soft vs. sharp, showing how true feminine leadership is precise, unapologetic, and deeply embodied. * Business decisions become sacred cuts—ritual acts of discernment that prune misalignment and expand capacity. * The Internal Gatekeeper * Juliet reveals how women unconsciously inherit the voice of the gatekeeper and internalize patriarchal limits as their own. * She walks through practices for identifying and evicting these voices through awareness, language, and embodiment. * True liberation, she says, begins with noticing where we’ve become the ones policing our own expansion. * Trauma as Temple * Juliet doesn’t bypass trauma; she sanctifies it, turning pain into a threshold for personal power. * She explains how trauma patterns often direct business decisions until they are seen, named, and metabolized. * Healing isn’t about perfection—it’s about choosing not to lead from wounds, but from integrated wisdom. * Business as Ceremony * Every aspect of Juliet’s company—from launches to pricing—is treated as ceremony, held in spiritual and energetic integrity. * She describes how sacred scaling replaces hustle with devotion, allowing businesses to grow without violating the body. * Ritual creates rhythm, and rhythm creates results—this is the foundation of sustainable, soul-aligned success. * Luxury, Power & Truth * Juliet reclaims luxury as sacred—sensual, nourishing, and rooted in spiritual permission to thrive. * Power, to her, is the ability to act in deep truth without apology, distortion, or compromise. * She shows how luxury is not excess, but resonance—a mirror of the inner world’s coherence. * Erotic Leadership * Juliet reveals how erotic energy fuels magnetism in leadership—desire becomes strategy, and seduction becomes structure. * She dismantles shame around feminine desire, reframing it as a compass for truth, creativity, and connection. * Erotic leadership isn’t about sex—it’s about vitality, responsiveness, and staying turned on to your own vision. * The Vision Forward * Juliet imagines a world where women build empires without sacrifice, rooted in sovereignty and sacred ambition. * She’s calling forth a new era of wealth leadership—one driven by depth, integrity, and wild wholeness. * Her work protects the gateway to this future: fierce devotion to truth, beauty, and feminine power. Juliet Trnka's Links 🌐 JulietTrnka.com [https://juliettrnka.com] 📸 Instagram [https://instagram.com/juliet_trnka] 📖 Book: Being Medicine: A Shamanic Guide to Mystical Wealth + Manifestation [https://www.amazon.com/Being-Medicine-Shamanic-Mystical-Manifestation/dp/1960876317] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jpmorganjr.substack.com [https://jpmorganjr.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]