Unburdened by Belief: Religion, Open Inquiry & Spiritual Experience

Unburdened by Belief: Religion, Open Inquiry & Spiritual Experience

🔬 What if you could schedule a religious experience the way you schedule a workout? 🧘 In this episode of Spirit Rx Podcast: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Healing, Dr. Hummel and Dr. Luke sit down with Joshua Nathaniel Pritikin, a talk therapist trained in Internal Family Systems with a PhD in quantitative psychology and author of the newly released book Religion, Unburdened by Belief: The Way of Open Inquiry, for a fascinating conversation about rethinking religion and belief: reliable, predictable access to awe, without being asked to believe anything at all. Whether you grew up inside a faith you no longer quite hold, or you've landed in that "spiritual but not religious" space and wondered "okay, but now what do I believe?", this episode will completely change how you think about belief itself. 🧭 THE WAY OF OPEN INQUIRY This is the heart of the book, and it does something unusual. It asks nothing of your metaphysical beliefs. Instead it invites you to lower your conviction in both your beliefs and your disbeliefs. Joshua notes this can challenge atheists just as much as believers, because gripping a disbelief too tightly is the same act as gripping a belief. 📊 THE CONVICTION SCALE Joshua walks us through his numbered system for how tightly we hold our beliefs. A zero is a casual "maybe" you feel no need to defend. A one is an inclination, a two is an opinion you'll share but not fight over, then commitment, and finally core identity, the belief you'd defend to the death. 🧩 INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS Developed by Richard Schwartz, IFS treats the mind as a family of parts. Picture driving to work late: one part wants to arrive on time, one part fears getting pulled over, another is frustrated you left too late. Joshua uses parts dialogue in the book to stage the old science-versus-religion conflict as a conversation between a "prayer team" and a "science team" inside one person. 🏋️ MAKING RELIGION MORE LIKE WEIGHTLIFTING The overall aim of the book is to make spiritual life scientific in the way weightlifting is scientific. A measurable challenge, honest feedback, predictable results if you show up. Joshua wants religious experience to be reliable rather than haphazard and accidental. ✨ REAL STORIES / MOMENTS The lunch with Dr. Michael Greger in Roseburg in 2024, where a pigeon served as their unofficial waiter and watched the two of them with open disdain. Greger, whose own path into medicine traces back to Joshua's grandfather Nathan Pritikin's Longevity Center, kept nudging Joshua to carry on the family nutrition legacy, while Joshua was busy talking psychedelics and religion. As Joshua put it, they were talking past each other, and the pigeon seemed to be thinking, "what are you guys doing?" Then there's his cannabis self-experimentation journal from the playful final chapter, testing combinations of lesser-known cannabinoids like CBN and CBG, finding that an equal mix of CBN and CBD balanced out in a precisely relaxing way without the usual hunger. Some of those evenings, he admits, did not turn out very comfortably. Worth it for the science. 🌿 CLOSING WISDOM If your most meaningful moments, that sense of connection to something larger, of beauty and awe, feel accidental and out of reach, Joshua's invitation is simple: you can make them reliable. You can put a religious experience on your calendar the way you'd block off a Saturday for anything else, and approach it as straightforwardly and scientifically as you'd approach the gym. 🔗 CONNECT WITH JOSHUA PRITIKIN: Unburdened (the book): https://unburdened.biz/ 🔗 CONNECT WITH SPIRIT RX: https://spiritrxpodcast.com

Heal the Emotion, Heal the Root: Inside the World of a Medical Intuitive

🔬 What if the root of a "disease" wasn't in your cells, but in an emotion you never let yourself feel? 💔   In this episode of Spirit Rx Podcast: Ancient Wisdom, ModernHealing, Dr. Hummel and Dr. Luke sit down with DeAnna Larkins, Spiritual Teacher, Healer & Medical Intuitive based in Ashland, Oregon, and author of the channeled Emerge trilogy, for a fascinating conversation about medical intuition and emotional healing: how the body holds what the heart won't say.   👁️ THE MAN IN THE PARKING LOT At eight or nine, DeAnna froze near a van outside a grocerystore as her nervous system dropped into a trauma response. She tracked the man inside, memorized his license plate, and begged her mom to call the police.Days later, the same plate appeared on the news. It was the moment she realized this gift was real, serious, and hers to carry for life.   🌱 THE EMERGE TRILOGY: REMOVING THE MASK, GETTING TOTHE ROOT, THE COURSEWORK The books were channeled, written in single nights, thenfilled in with her own lived stories. Volume One helps you remove the mask. Volume Two gets to the root. Volume Three is the coursework where you actually heal the inner child. As DeAnna puts it, the first two books lead you to the deep dive, and the third is where you dive deep enough to heal it.   🎭 THE FOUR MASKS AND WHO YOU ARE WITHOUT THEM Victim, perpetrator, martyr, rescuer. DeAnna explains howtrauma creates "predictive survival automatic algorithms" in thebrain and nervous system, and how a buried emotion like blame or shame quietly runs your life for decades. When you finally pluck out the root instead of just shaving it off, the nervous system recalibrates, and you get to ask the freeing question: who am I now without this mask?   🩺 THE LANGUAGE OF THE BODY DeAnna shares how she speaks directly to the pain, not theperson. Anger lodged in a liver. Betrayal sharp as a knife behind the heart. An esophagus closing because words were never said. She and Dr. Luke trade a powerful reflection on anger as a valid human emotion, "energy in motion," and what happens when it gets turned inward instead of expressed.   🔥 FEEL IT TO HEAL IT This isn't think-positive advice. DeAnna walks through theactual practice: a focused 20 minute release, cussing it out, writing the unsendable letter, screaming into a pillow, then offering it to the earth in prayer. She's candid that she did this work on herself just a week before the episode, releasing a root she carried through ten years of marriage so her own kids wouldn't inherit it.   ✨ REAL STORIES / EXPERIENCES DeAnna recounts healing her own seven years of debilitatingspine pain after a chance restaurant meeting with author Richard Gordon, who named the betrayal she felt over her mother's death and guided her to release it. She also tells the story of Carlene, a woman given two weeks to live withstage four esophageal cancer, who did the inner work at home, called at 6 AM transformed, and returned to doctors who could find no cancer and no longer needed her stent.   🌿 CLOSING WISDOM DeAnna's parting thought: there is no escape from ourselves.We either run in the opposite direction of our wounds or unconsciously repeat them, and both end at a wall. The work is inevitable, and underneath every block, barrier, and "issue in the tissue" is a life-changing gift waiting. The healer, she reminds us, is within each of us. — 🔗 CONNECT WITH DEANNA LARKINS: Emerge Teachings & the Emerge Trilogy:https://emergeteachings.com   🔗 CONNECT WITH SPIRIT RX: https://spiritrxpodcast.com

Beyond the Trip: How Legal Psilocybin Therapy Heals Trauma, Grief & Addiction

🍄 What if the medicine that helps you heal growswhere things go to die?   In this episode of Spirit Rx Podcast: Ancient Wisdom, ModernHealing, Dr. Hummel and Dr. Luke sit down with Myles Katz, a licensed psilocybin facilitator and co-founder of the nonprofit Confluence Retreats in Oregon's Cascade-Siskiyou region, for a fascinating conversation about legal psilocybin therapy: how guided mushroom journeys are helping people move through stuckness, grief, and addiction into real and lasting change.   Whether you're psilocybin-curious, healing from loss, orsimply tired of skiing down the same worn-out grooves in your life, this episode will completely change how you think about psychedelic medicine and what it really means to transform.   🌿 WHAT OREGON ACTUALLY LEGALIZED Oregon legalized what the state calls psilocybin services,supervised sessions inside licensed service centers with tested, grown product and a licensed facilitator. Myles walks us through this single-session model: assessment for safety, the consent paperwork (his lawyers joke there's more of it than for open heart surgery), and the tightly regulated boundaries that keep the experience safe.   🧠 WHAT'S HAPPENING IN YOUR BRAIN Myles breaks down the two big actions science points to. Thedefault mode network, the busy analyzing and problem-solving part of the brain, goes quiet, and the brain creates new connections and flexibility that most adults haven't had since their teenage years. Regions that don't normally talk start talking, and that neuroplasticity is where the real opportunity lives.   🪶 WHO IS THIS FOR? One of Myles' favorite things about the Oregon model is thatit isn't limited to a medical diagnosis. Beyond a few hard no's for safety, the door is open to people seeking relief from depression and anxiety, spiritual seekers, and anyone looking to move through a season of feeling stuck.   🎿 THE SKI SLOPE AND THE FRESH POWDER Drawing on Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind, Mylesshares the metaphor of the brain as a ski slope worn into deep ruts. A high-dose journey is like a fresh snowfall that makes it far easier to carve new paths, which is exactly why the work you do afterward matters so much.   🌱 INTEGRATION: PRACTICES, PROJECTS, AND ONE-STEPACTIONS Myles explains that the trip is only the beginning. He helpspeople build a framework of recurring practices like journaling and time in nature, bigger projects like changing jobs or finding healthier community, and small one-step actions like calling a parent to say I love you. The goal is turning awe into a life actually lived differently.   ✨ REAL STORIES / EXPERIENCES Myles shares the story, featured in a recent CNN article, ofa woman who found her ex-husband and best friend after he took his own life following a Florida hurricane. After years of grief and medication, herpsilocybin journey let her connect with him, say goodbye, and have the conversation she never got to have. She has since come off her antidepressants and now travels the world with a new awareness for life. The whole room admitsto getting chills. Myles also reflects on his own decade-long journey, which began in his late twenties in Kenya and quietly lifted what he later understood as high-functioning depression and alcohol dependence.   🌿 CLOSING WISDOM Myles leaves us with one steady, hopeful truth: it ispossible to change. Change patterns, change beliefs, change perspectives.Psychedelics are just one of many powerful tools that exist, and the invitation is simply to follow your instincts on what that change can be. 🔗 CONNECT WITH MYLES KATZ: Confluence Retreats: https://www.confluenceretreats.org/   🔗 CONNECT WITH SPIRIT RX: https://spiritrxpodcast.com

Teaching Tolerance: How LDI Resets Autoimmune Disease & Allergies

🔬 Your immune system might not be broken, it might just be confused. In this episode of Spirit Rx Podcast: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Healing, Dr. Hummel and Dr. Luke sit down with Dr. Pamela Plank, naturopath and acupuncturist at Sunny Day Health in Ashland, Oregon, for a fascinating conversation about low-dose immunotherapy (LDI): one of the most promising yet underused tools in modern integrative medicine. Whether you've tried everything for allergies, autoimmune disease, or chronic infection and nothing has worked, this episode will completely change how you think about the immune system. 🧠 WHAT IS LOW-DOSE IMMUNOTHERAPY (LDI)? LDI isn't about killing pathogens, it's about restoring tolerance. Dr. Plank explains how the immune system can get confused and mount huge responses to harmless things (like pollen) or attack its own tissue (autoimmune), and how tiny, precise doses of antigens can "remind" the immune system what it doesn't need to fight. 📜 THE HISTORY: FROM EPD TO LDI Trace the lineage from Dr. Leonard McEwen's enzyme potentiated desensitization (EPD) in 1950s UK, through Dr. Schrader's LDA in the US, to Dr. Ty Vincent's brilliant insight that led to today's oral, at-home LDI: now with nearly 100 available antigens. 💊 LDI VS. VACCINES VS. ALLERGY SHOTS What's the difference? Dr. Plank clearly breaks down how vaccines train the immune system to attack, while LDI teaches it to stand down and why doing it under the tongue mirrors how the body naturally learns tolerance. 🔍 THE DOSE-FINDING PROCESS (THE NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH ANALOGY) Finding the right dose is a detective process. Dr. Plank's brilliant neighborhood watch analogy makes the science of T regulatory cells, potency levels, flares, and symptom-free windows completely understandable — even for skeptics. 🦴 AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE: A FINER DIAL Why does conventional medicine turn down the entire immune system with biologics and prednisone and what are the real risks? Dr. Plank explains how LDI can target a single immune response (say, the attack on the myelin sheath in MS, or on the thyroid in Hashimoto's) while leaving the rest of the immune system intact. ✨ REAL PATIENT STORIES A woman in her mid-60s with rheumatoid arthritis since her teens is now off prednisone, off her biologic, labs normalized, and playing piano again. A little boy with chronic ear infections and repeated tubes responds with zero ear infections and zero missed school days for over a year. ⚡ THE BEMER DEVICE & PEMF THERAPY How NASA-developed pulsed electromagnetic field therapy opens the smallest blood vessels, improves cellular circulation, and supports everything else you're doing, from nutrition to LDI. 🌿 CLOSING WISDOM Sleep when you're tired. Eat whole foods. Feed your soul. And when the world feels overwhelming, remember: the sky is still blue, and the dogwoods are blooming. — 🔗 CONNECT WITH DR. PAMELA PLANK: Sunny Day Health: https://sunnydayhealth.com 🔗 CONNECT WITH SPIRIT RX: https://spiritrxpodcast.com 📌 CHAPTERS: – Introduction – What Is Low-Dose Immunotherapy (LDI)? – The Armed Forces Analogy: Tolerance vs. Attack – History: EPD, LDA & Dr. Ty Vincent's Oral Breakthrough – LDI vs. Vaccines vs. Allergy Shots – The Neighborhood Watch: How Dose-Finding Works – Flares Explained: Too High a Dose – Autoimmune Disease: What's Actually Happening – Biologics, Prednisone & Why Turning Everything Down Has Risks – Naturopathic Philosophy: Optimal Physiology Over Symptom Suppression – Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis with LDI + Herbs + Nutrition – Case Study: RA Patient Off Biologics, Playing Piano Again – Case Study: Child with Chronic Ear Infections — Zero in 18 Months – The BEMER Device & PEMF Explained – What's Next in Immunology: Microglial Cells & Andrographis – Final Advice: The Sky Is Still Blue

Beyond the Rub: Fascia, Craniosacral & the Hidden Language of the Body

🧬 Most people think massage is just about relaxing muscles. Morgan Willow, LMT is here to completely change that.In this episode of Spirit Rx Podcast: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Healing, Dr. Hummel and Dr. Luke sit down with Morgan Willow, licensed massage therapist and founder of Wandering Willow Massage in Ashland, Oregon for a fascinating deep dive into the hidden intelligence of the human body.From craniosacral therapy and myofascial release to the nervous system, trauma held in tissue, and the quantum shift of genuine healing, this conversation goes far beyond the massage table.🕸️ WHAT IS FASCIA AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?Fascia is the gel-matrix spiderweb that surrounds every muscle, cell, and organ in your body, all the way from your skin down to the mitochondria. Morgan breaks down how a stitch in the fascia over your heart can show up as a headache, hip pain, or digestive issues years later. Watch the YouTube video "Strolling Under the Skin" after this episode, your mind will be blown.🙌 CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY VS. DEEP TISSUE MASSAGEWhat's the difference? One goes deep with pressure, the other uses feather-light touch that can send you into the ethers of existence. Morgan explains exactly how craniosacral therapy works, why skeptics become believers mid-session, and why standing up taller and straighter after a session that felt like "nothing" is completely normal.🧠 YOUR BODY KEEPS THE SCOREEmotions and memories don't just live in the brain, they live in the fascia. Morgan shares a stunning story of a long-term client who, after one craniosacral session, said: "That was worth seven years of talk therapy." We also discuss The Body Keeps the Score and the growing science behind somatic healing.⚡ THE NERVOUS SYSTEM & VAGUS NERVEHow does massage therapy actually regulate the nervous system? Morgan explains co-regulation, vagus nerve activation, humming, PEMF, and why the goal of true healing is always to give people tools they can take with them, not create dependency on the table.🏥 WHEN TO SEE A MASSAGE THERAPIST (THAT YOU HAVEN'T THOUGHT OF)Post-surgery lymphatic work. Compensation patterns after injury. Chronic pain that's "just normal now." Scar tissue breakdown. End-of-life care. Morgan walks through real clinical scenarios, including a remarkable post-skin-reduction-surgery case referred by Dr. Luke that show how powerful this work truly is.🌿 THE LAW OF TOUCHDr. Hummel shares his ninth natural law of health: the Law of Touch. Human-to-human therapeutic touch is not a luxury, it is a biological necessity. No massage chair. No robot. There is something irreplaceable about one human being truly witnessing another.—🔗 CONNECT WITH MORGAN WILLOW:Wandering Willow Massage: https://wanderingwillowmassage.comCall or text Morgan directly: free consultations available!🔗 CONNECT WITH US:Spirit Rx Podcast: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Healinghttps://spiritrxpodcast.com 📌 CHAPTERS:– Introduction: The Story Behind Wandering Willow– Growing Up with a Nurse for a Mom– Injuries, Yoga & How Morgan Found Her Calling– The "Box" Metaphor: How We Store Pain & Emotion– What Is Fascia? (The Spiderweb Beneath Your Skin)– Anatomy Trains, the IT Band & the Thoracolumbar Fascia– Deep Tissue vs. Craniosacral: What's the Difference?– The Ethers of Healing: Esoteric Experiences on the Table– Quantum Shifting Body Reality Explained– In-Studio vs. Mobile Massage: Pros, Cons & Homebound Patients– Chronic Pain Patterns Nobody Connects (But Should)– The 7-Years-of-Talk-Therapy Story– The Body Keeps the Score & Somatic Memory– The Nervous System, Vagus Nerve & Co-Regulation– Post-Surgery Massage: When & Why It Matters– The Post-Skin-Reduction Surgery Case Study– The Law of Touch: Why Human Touch Is a Health Essential– Piezoelectricity & Our Bioelectric Nature– Final Advice: You Are Allowed to Care for Yourself