How One Man Reversed Cancer And Built A Global Movement

Introduction and Mutual Appreciation 0:00

Well, I have the absolute pleasure to have my dear friend Nathan Crane with me today. Nathan, it's always such a joy to get to chat with you and hang with you. Doctor Michael Karl out. One of my favorite people in the world. You know, I was just thinking before we, connected here. One of the things I love about you and I just love spending time with you is that you always have a smile on your face. Every time we talk, and it's, And I know you love the work that you do and how much you love taking care of cancer patients and seeing them get better and do everything you can to find the best solution for them.

I love your heart centeredness and I always enjoy our time together. Well, thank you so much. It is very hard not to have a smile around you. Yeah, I've just gotta say. Yeah, it makes it challenging. Well, you, have been on a an amazing journey. I mean, you've throughout your life, I mean, you've done so much to help people and to kind of help them to connect with who they are. One of the aspects that that is so important for cancer patients, but for anyone, I mean, anyone in any shape or form, is that connection with with who you are, with true identity, with true purpose.

And one of the amazing tools to be able to kind of move in that direction is meditation. So, so tell me a little bit. Tell me a little bit about your your journey in regards to, you know, how you kind of saw that this is something that was really important in your life. You know, I struggled as a teenager. I, I had a really challenging early life, as you know, went to drug addiction, homelessness and was nearly dead by 17, 18 years old, was very sick. Grew up on fast food, wasn't eating well, was very stressed.

I had all kinds of different ailments starting to pop up in the body. Digestive issues. I was very skinny, very pale. I mean, I was sick, I was headed for death and smoked two packs of cigarets a day, drank tremendous amount of alcohol. I got into heavy drugs and I was homeless at 15, kind of couch

Nathan Crane's Early Struggles and Spiritual Awakening 2:25

surfing, living out of my car under park benches from about 15 to 18 years old and 18 years old, actually, 1718. I moved in with this beautiful family and, Dennis Davis and Martina Davis, and he started talking to me about meditation and about spirituality, about Jesus and Buddha, and how our thoughts are like frequencies, like a radio. We can tune in to the thoughts that we want to have. And I was in this lifestyle that was so painful and full of suffering and anguish and stress and resentment and anger and fear.

And yet there was a deeper part of me, my soul, that was yearning for this knowledge, the spiritual knowledge. And so every time he would talk to me, I'd just sit there and soak it up, loved it, and wanted to know more. And I had this vision when I was sitting with him of myself in the future. And then less than a year later, I was actually that person in the future. It was such an amazing, mystical experience. And over the next 20 years, until now, meditation and spiritual seeking different spiritual practices, spending a tremendous amount of time with Native Americans and Buddhists and Zen masters and yogic masters, and studying and learning from all these different eastern traditions and spiritual living and personal development and self-growth and positive psychology and hypnotherapy.

All these things continued to help me along the way. And I look back and I saw what was that one commonality through every the kind of got me through every challenge. You know, that was one challenge, overcoming all those addictions. And that took took me quite a while. But then there are multiple challenges we all face challenges in our life. A lot of people here are dealing with cancer or dealing with a loved one with cancer, and life gives us these challenges for us to grow. Every cancer patient I've worked with over the years, the ones who we call cancer conquerors, ones who say, you know, this cancer is not a part of my life anymore.

They looked at that cancer as a blessing, right? They realized that, wow, this was here to teach me something. This is not an enemy trying to kill me and invade me and tear me down. This is a spiritual awakening. This is an opportunity for me to learn something about myself, to connect deeper to myself, to have a deeper spiritual experience. And I used to produce cancer conferences in San Diego back in 2013, 2014, and most of our volunteers were cancer patients or cancer Thrivers cancer conquerors.

And that's what I noticed in talking to people was this difference in mindset. When I would talk to somebody who's a cancer is the worst thing that ever happened to me, and I say, why? Oh, it brought me down. It's painful. Chemotherapy, radiation loss, friends, family, they're very down about themselves and the diagnosis. And then I would meet people who go, cancer, the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Same age, same kind of person, same background. And yet this person's going and they still have cancer.

By the way, the cancer wasn't gone. It was a shift in perspective. The cancer is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I say, why? Because it helped me care more deeply about myself. It helped me take more responsibility for my own health. I got out of that relationship that was killing me. I quit that job that I hated. I got more spiritually connected. I started meditating and praying. I started eating healthier. So they took what most people consider one of life's greatest challenges. And most people's greatest fear is that those words do have cancer.

And they turned it into something very positive. They said, no, this is a lesson. This is here to teach me something. What can I learn from it? And even then, the cancer never goes away. But you improve the quality of your life. You have a deeper spiritual connection. You maybe you do get healthier, have more energy along the way, or at the very least, you improve your relationships. You improve your connection with God, with the divine. Then it's not wasted. And that's the important thing that people need to realize is there's no challenge.

And like all those challenges I went through in my life, none of them were for no mean. They weren't meaningless. Every challenge we go through has a meaning. And you and I were just talking about Gurudev offline. You know, Gurudev says this so beautiful. He says life where he says, nature never gives you a challenge that you can't handle. And it's so true. I look at my life and no matter what challenge, no matter how big it seem, insurmountable, you know, I mean, I can share story after story of just the biggest challenges you could ever imagine.

And yet life, God the divine, gives you everything you need to deal with that challenge, to overcome it, to transcend it. But we have to implement what I teach called some or some solution oriented mindset. So I'm Psalms, making our minds start to see solutions instead of problems. So anytime that there's a problem or challenge that we face, we can even start chanting internally som som som solution oriented mindset. And instead of the mind going problem, problem problem, I can't do this. I don't know how. I don't have the resources.

I'm not young enough. I'm too old. I'm to this and too that. We have to get control of the mind and say, what are the solutions? I know there's a solution. Principle number one of Psalm is I know there's a solution. Life does not give me a challenge that there's not a solution for it. And then we start focusing our mind on solutions and it may show up instantly. It may take time. You know, the bigger the challenge, often the bigger the solution, often the longer the time. But the more we focus on and the more that we believe that there is a solution and we can find those solutions.

I ended up homeless again in my early 20s and that time I was already on a spiritual path for a few years, and, I was I had started a business with seven partners and seven different partners and seven different ideas, and I didn't know anything about business. I was in my first company I was a part of. I was just so excited to be a part of it and try and make it work. And after about a year, you know, we were just spinning our wheels. And my spiritual mentor,

Cancer as a Teacher and Solution-Oriented Mindset 9:20

Arturo Gaitan, who came into my life at that time for a few years, who was taking me deeper into these spiritual concepts that I had got first introduced to from Dennis in Montana. Now Arturo is taking me deeper every day into meditation, into self-reflection, into connecting to my higher self and to manifestation all these things. So now, in my early 20s, I'm going through all this. And then he says, I'm leaving this partnership. It's going nowhere. I said, I'm going with you. I'm not staying with these guys.

I'm going with you. I said, okay, so we left. Well, because of that, and I had no money, no income, no place to stay, nothing. I ended up homeless again, out of my car, sleeping on living room floors. Actually, an ex-girlfriend's, house. She took me in for a little while, and her cat would pee on my bed because it was territorial. So he's like, I'm the man of the house. You know? It's like pee on my bed. So I'm sleeping on this bed. It's like full of pee. There's, like, gangsters outside at night. 2 a.m.

talking about shooting people. And, you know, here I am not enough money to drive my to get gas, to drive my car down, to sell t shirts in Embarcadero for a nonprofit. I need to make enough money, barely for the train ticket back. And I'm going, why? Why, God? Why am I going through this again? What is this? What's this here to teach me? What is this challenge here to teach me? And you know the answer I got and said, you first have to learn how to be happy with nothing. So you can learn to be happy when you have everything.

And I took that to heart and I thought, you know what? Let me really figure this out. Let me find peace and contentment, maybe even happiness in the midst of all this chaos and homelessness and challenge and all these things that I'm going through and I did. I was able to find a lot more peace in my heart and a lot more contentment. And I still haven't had and still have, you know, things that I needed to heal and subconscious beliefs and patterns and different challenges overcome. But that was a big awakening moment for me.

And I realized really on early on in my early 20s was, you don't need money, you don't need things, you don't need people, you don't need anything to be happy. And in fact, as I'm sure many people have heard, happiness is an inside job. And none of these things that these material things will actually ever bring you happiness. Even if you overcome cancer, you'll be happy. For how long? A week, a month? A few months until what? Until the next stress. Until the next challenge. Until the next thing that comes and triggers you, right?

You can get the mansion that you wanted, or the million dollars, or the trip to the Bahamas after that vacation in the Bahamas. You've been looking forward to for an entire year, and then you finally save all the money? Yes. Finally, I get my vacation at the Bahamas, and you're there and you get home, and then you're like, I need a vacation from the vacation, right? Because you're so worn out from all this stuff you do in the Bahamas, and then you get back in your day to day life and you're just thinking, you know, there's nothing fulfilling there.

There's nothing fulfilling in the material world. There's nothing in this material world that actually fulfills our hearts with happiness. Happiness has to come from inside. It's a, all the great ancient riches and teachers and wisdom keepers teach us that our nature, our true nature, is happiness. Our true nature is love. And look at a child. Look at a one year old baby, a two year old. There. Nature is love is creativity is spontaneity is happiness. They're laughing and giggling at everything.

And when they do cry because something hurts in seconds, in minutes they're done with the crying and they're back to being happy again. We were born that way. We were born with this loving, natural, happy state within us over our lives that got covered and layered with traumas and negative beliefs and subconscious beliefs and all these different things that layered on top. And so the spiritual journey is unraveling these layers that are preventing us from realizing who we truly are at our core. And that's what I've been doing for the last 20 years, and studying with all these different traditions and the one one of the core things that I look at that has been so instrumental to helping me along the way has been meditation, whether it's been practicing meditation with Buddhists every weekend in Escondido for years, or learning from Zen masters or doing sweat lodges with Native Americans were then after this, you go into these intense prayers and then basically forms of meditation and then intense prayers and forms of meditation is like one big meditation or the yogic meditations or the meditations, Sahaj meditation, from art of living all the day, all the different guided meditations.

I've listened to. The one thing that is continuously helped improve my life year over year over year is a meditation practice, and I notice some years where I was meditating multiple times a day, even hours a day, and other years where it was ten minutes at a time. And I noticed the more frequently and the more often and the deeper I meditate, the better my life is. But at the very least, just doing some form of meditation every single day because our mind needs a break, right? This monkey mind is jumping from the future and the past constantly worrying and afraid and concerned the way we get control of this mind so that we can direct it into finding those solutions into solution oriented mindset.

It's very difficult to have a solution oriented mindset if we can't control our own mind, because the moment you're faced with the problem or challenge, you get triggered and the mind goes straight to just focusing on what you can't do, can't do, can't do. So we start creating that yes, mind. We start creating a solution focused mind. How do we do that in meditation? Meditation is not about stopping all our thinking, but observing our thoughts and being the observer, being the seer and watching the scene and not getting caught up in the scenery.

As Patanjali talks about so famously in the Yoga Sutras, is we begin to tap into the seer, the soul, the self, instead of caught up in this racing, this rat race of a monkey mind. And the more we do that, the easier it is to control our mind, the easier it is to control our emotions, the easier it is to live the life we want to live, overcome the disease, find the right solutions, live more happily. And then when you do have very nice things and a nice house and nice cars and money to give away and donate and time to share and all of those things, you're already at a state of contentment and peace and happiness, so you just expand that.

So one of the things Arturo told me, he said is the money only all money does. It's just energy. And all it does is make things bigger. And, you know, if you're an asshole, it just makes you a bigger asshole, right? If you're a happy, loving, generous person, just makes you more generous. You can do more and give more. I've been able to raise and donate hundreds of thousands of dollars because generosity became a part of my life, my philosophy, I realized taking, taking, taking does not contribute towards happiness at all.

If you look at your own life, are you happy by getting, getting, getting, getting taken, taking, taking? Of course not. You're happy for a second, then it's gone. These are false. Happiness is when you have true happiness, deeper fulfillment, a sense of real contentment. It's when you're constantly giving selfless service and yoga. It's called savings. It's called savings, selfless service. And the more that we can get out of this mini I mentality, what about me? What about me? What about me? And into what about you?

What about them? What about we? How can I help? How can I serve? Especially when you're dealing with a chronic challenge like cancer actually getting out of the. What about me? It's everybody's against me. Cancer is against me. God's against me. And go, you know, let me step outside of that for a moment. Let me see who else I can help and serve. And what happens is natural, beautiful things starts to happen is the more you give. Actually, I have it on. I if you can see, on this wall back here, see if I can move my camera.

Yeah. You can't see it. But on that wall there's a frame of, of a saying and that saying was from John Yantra Amro. Who was a Buddhist master that I studied with for a few years in San Diego. And he wrote on that one day for me and, and signed it and gave it to me. It's in Thai. He wrote it in Thai and then in English. He said, the more we give, the more we get. The more we share, the more we grow, the more we let go, the more we are free. Freedom is power. And there's so I mean, you can write a whole book on those four lines and on that single verse, because it is so profound when you really

Meditation, Breathwork, and Healing the Body 18:45

go deep into it, the first one, the more we give, the more we get. And if we do it from that place of selfless service I'm giving out of my heart. I'm giving to serve. I'm giving because I know this is what the divine wants me to do. I'm giving because I know it's the right thing to do. Donating. I'm giving my time. I'm serving. I'm helping in whatever way possible. What you find is the universe shows up to start supporting you more and what you need. If what you want, especially the more we can do it.

Without that in mind. Yeah, it's fine to start with that in mind. Like, okay, I'm going to give, give, give because I know karma, love reciprocity is going to bring back to me and often bring back more than what I give. But when we can even go beyond that to a higher level of service, I just give from my heart with non-attachment and not expectation. You will be so amazed and so surprised to see what life starts bringing you. And so, you know, with cancer. Meditation is so essential for a couple reasons.

One is connects us to that deeper sense of who we truly are and what we're here to do on the planet. Number two is it definitely helps us experience more peace and happiness in our lives. But number three, on a physiological level, it enhances our immune system. It up regulates our immune system by down regulating our sympathetic nervous system. It turns on anti-cancer genes. It turns on natural killer cells. Meditation turns on B cells and T cells and lymphocytes. It turns on all these natural cancer killing mechanisms and immune enhancing mechanisms.

Every single time we meditate and you and I were talking about breast Cancer Conquer and Doctor V, you know, when I've interviewed her over the years, I know you have as well. One thing she told me when cancer came back a second time and she realized her biggest thing she was missing in her own life from her own protocols, was stress reduction, was meditation. And so she started meditating twice a day, an hour each time, hour in the morning, hour and evening. And that, combined with her other natural protocols, her cancer went away.

And that was a that was a pretty advanced cancer, I can't remember, I think was stage three when it came back, stage three of stage four. Right. And so, you know, that was such an essential part of her. And it's essential part of every cancer journey, no matter what you're doing, if you add meditation and ideally some breathwork is breathwork cleanses the entire energy system of the body and then takes you into a deeper state of meditation. My favorite breathwork is called Sky breath and Sky breath, sky breath.

You learn that technique in a few days, then you do it on your own and then it takes you to deep state of relaxation. Nervous system, relaxation, healing of the nervous system. And then you can learn something like Sahaj Meditation, which is a mantra based and that can take you even much deeper. Whatever you do daily practice is going to help in so many ways. I love it. Yeah, and just kind of like you're saying, just from a selfish point of view. Yeah. If you're just wanting to reduce inflammation, activate your immune system, you know, calm, support, regeneration, you know, just from that point of view, you know, meditation is powerful.

But as you're saying, when you're facing something like cancer and I agree with you, you know, don't waste the gift of cancer. I mean, it is one of the greatest gift because you're you're put in a place where you're having to shift your focus, you're having to shift your life. And it is a message from, from above saying that you need to do something different and you are not connected with who you are. You're not connected with your purpose, with your identity and and you need to kind of realign your thinking, your your purpose with, with your true identity.

And, yeah. So meditation is is such a powerful, powerful tool. And, what you're talking about, like the monkey mind, you know, we a lot of us, we identify with our thoughts, we identify with our feelings, with our emotions. But in meditation, then we are recognizing that these are things that are just kind of flowing by, you know, it's like, you know, birds flying over your head. I mean, it's only so much you can control them, but you can then observe them and then recognize that I am not that. And by by doing that, you can then find that peace and not exist in that turmoil that exists within your thoughts.

Exactly, exactly. And your meditation is accessible to everybody. It doesn't matter. Religion, spiritual background, atheism, doesn't matter. Christian, Catholic, Buddhist, Mormon meditation is nature's gift to us, the divine gift to us. It is actually our way of communing with the mystical world. In a way, it's also our way of just understanding who we truly are and what we're here to do. It's a way to just, on a purely physiological level, forget the spiritual side of meditation for a second. Spiritual side is incredible, but forget about it.

Just people who aren't even into spirituality or religion or whatever, like the physiological benefits are an absolute no brainer. Thousands of studies have been done on mindfulness and meditation and breathwork, showing dozens and dozens and dozens of physiological benefits from massive increase in deeper sleep and better quality of sleep, which is essential when you're dealing with a chronic disease like cancer. Massive enhancement of immune system, which is essential with cancer, relaxing, activating the vagus nerve, which then puts you into a parasympathetic state which allows the organs to work better, allows the body to create anti-inflammatory properties and molecules, and allows your body to go into an anti-inflammatory, state, which is also essential for cancer.

Because we know cancer through cancer is inflammatory, cancer thrives in an inflammatory, acidic, anaerobic state. And when you combine breathwork, which brings in a tremendous amount of oxygen, so it brings in aerobic, which is what we want. We want Arabic, we want, we want, alkaline and breathwork combined. Meditation actually helps alkalis. Our bodies brings in more oxygen and and we want rest and digest and relaxation and rejuvenation. Those things combined allow the body to go into its natural healing state.

Calmer state of mind, less stress, less anxiety, more clarity. When we have more clarity, isn't it true that we find better solutions in our life? When you're angry, right? When you're angry, when you're upset, when you're anxious or you're nervous, you're even too excited. And then we try and decide to make a decision and take an action. Haven't you seen that very often? Like we make mistakes when we do that, things don't work out as great as they could. But have you also noticed that when you are in a calm state and anything can be going on around you?

Your solution is always so much better. It's just happened the other day you and I were talking and we this because of meditation and solution oriented mindset and these practices in my life. I was making for, famous spiritual leaders who came here to to Jacksonvilles. I was hosting an event. Seeing the event on stage, we had 700 people sold out theater. And, you know, when he's he travels all over the world. He's his whole focus is bringing peace and happiness to as many people as possible through the art of living.

They've reached over 500 million people around the world. He's helped stop 40 year wars. He has brought this tremendous love and peace and and hope and happiness to so many people. And he's constantly going all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time, from one place to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next. So came to Jacksonville. And you know, when he comes, it's like he needs we need to have everything time. So he comes in, he walks in, he does his thing. He works his magic.

And then and then he leaves and goes. The next thing he's constantly meeting with people and politicians and just, you know, prisoners and you name it, spreading peace and happiness everywhere. And so we had to time it perfectly to where, you know, he came in. Well, the timing's never perfect. And events, there's always things that happen. And we first heard, oh, he's going to be he's going to be there at 715. We need to be ready by 715. And then we heard, no, it's going to be 730. And then it was 725.

Well, all the while we have a program with an audience of 700 people that need to just be having an amazing experience until he gets it right, because we started at seven. So as the emcee, it's my job to make sure that they're all happy and having a good time. So the a combination of me on stage talking, you know, trying to make him laugh a little bit, then music and then me again. And then guys came and I actually let's play this video. Surprise video, you know, two minutes and then they're like, oh, Gurudev

Letting Go, Service, and Flowing with Life 28:35

isn't going to be here for, ten more minutes. Now go. They go. They tell me, Natha, go entertain them for three. For 3 or 4 minute. No, they go, go entertain them for a while as I go. Entertain them. It's like. Okay, you know, my mindset goes, all right, what do I do? I don't know, there's a solution. Show me what to do. And I said, how long they got? A little while. We'll wave at you, you know. Can you imagine? I'm backstage and I'm just like, I could have got nervous, anxious, upset, tense and then what?

And then I go out on stage and then spread that to everybody else. But no, just because of meditation, because of solution oriented mindset, there is a solution. I know there is. All right. I walk out and everything just float out when you can become actually, as Gurudev talks about, hollow and empty as a Buddhist is emptiness is really at the core of our nature. And we get to that state of emptiness, then the whole universe can flow through us. And I took everyone through a deep breath experience, and then told a short, short story and made them laugh.

And it was just this whole perfect thing. It was like the divine flowing through me. It wasn't my mind or ego trying to do anything. Often it's just get out of our own way, right? And allow what is meant to come through us, to come through us. And we can't do that if we're in this stressed out, anxious, fearful state all the time, and we will be in that state unless we're practicing things like meditation and breathwork and diving deeper into spiritual knowledge and spiritual practices and so, you know, everything worked out perfect.

And then we got the timing right. And, you know, it came a little bit later and we were able to some people were stressed. I just said I said, guys don't worry about it. It's fine. It's like it's going to work out. Don't worry about it. It's totally fine. That last statement that project wrote was the more we let go, the more we are free. So letting go of expectations, letting go of expecting the outcome has to be the way I want it to be. This cancer has to be gone in three months. This cancer has to.

I only do everything natural for it to go away. I can't do anything else. This cancer, you know, has to do surgery and chemo has to get rid of it. Now, all these aspects that we set on ourselves, on our lives, on our bodies, on our mind, they cause our own suffering, right? Because when we expect things and then that thing doesn't happen. Well, guess what? We're sad, we're angry, we're upset. And guess what? Sympathetic nervous system. Immune system. Downregulated cancer has this opportunity to thrive.

So it's constantly bringing ourself back to this meditative state, this knowledge, this realization that every thought we think, every emotion we have, everything that we do affects our physiology. And if you want to be healthy, the healthiest that you can be. And we have to get control of this mind first. And the way to do that is through these different practices. And the more we do it, and the more we can let go of those expectations and just, you know what? I give it to you, God, I give it to the divine and give it to the universe.

Give it to life. That's the third principle of the solution oriented mindset is some solutions are not meant for you to do. Some problems are not meant for you to solve. And you as, you know, integrative naturopathic oncologist, you know, this, that when people come to you, it's because they realize they need help. They need your help. They can't solve this on their own. And that's so true in so many areas of our life. When you've been trying and trying and trying and trying and focusing on solutions and it's not working, then you give it up, you let go and you say, I give this to you, universe.

Give it to you, God the divine. Please do what is best. And the more we let go. And then so what John wrote on there, the more you let go, the more we have free freedom is power, the more freedom we have. Because we let go of expectation, we let go of attachment. We let go off clinging, we let go of assumptions. We let go of demanding life to be the way we want it to. And we start flowing in the river of life. We start swimming upstream and fighting against the current, and we start flowing. And we can kind of, you know, the river's flowing, see you there.

You're fighting against it or you're hitting rocks on the way down. You know, that's what my life was like for so long. And then I realized, oh, man, I don't have to fight against life. Let me just go with the flow. There's a challenge. There's a big rock. Okay, maybe I can just steer around it a little bit. You know, you get caught in a little jetty and circle around a little bit. I'm in a jetty. Let me get out of this jetty. Right. I'm tired of circling and doing the same thing over and over. So let me find a way out of this.

And you start to go with the river instead of fight against it. And it doesn't mean you're not without challenges. It just means that you can handle this challenge is easier and better with more grace. And with something like cancer. Sometimes it is just letting go, let go, let God and and doesn't mean sit back and do nothing just means that if you're so stressed out about it, that's not helping either. And so we still keep that positive, solution oriented mindset. We're still taking action in a positive direction.

We're just letting go of the expectations of the outcome and allow whatever is best, our highest, best, our highest good to happen, to happen. And guess what? When we do that, it does happen. Whatever that is. That is what was supposed to happen because it happened. When we can accept that life becomes so much more enjoyable and more peaceful and more happy. Yeah, well, one of the scenes that I love in a movie is called contact, and you have Jodie Foster. She's supposed to travel to this distant space, you know, distant place in space, and she's all strapped up and this rocket and she's the launch takes place, and and she's just shaking all over, and it's kind of the most scary, uncomfortable thing.

And then, you know, all of a sudden the, the chair that she is kind of strapped into, you know, one of the screws just kind of unscrews itself. And then she sees House just kind of floating peacefully and, you know, in that space within the rocket. So she she just realized, you know, the the importance I well, I have to unstrap myself. I have to kind of let go. And by doing that, she is in that, that, that that space was just calm, peace and and so that's the kind of vision that I always, come back to because it's, it's it's such a powerful illustration and one thing that I was thinking about, you know, talking about connection and being open and kind of moving energy, there's a second law of thermodynamics, dynamics, you know, that kind of talks about entropy.

You know, any closed system is designed to break down, you know, over time it gets older and it breaks down. And the key component there is that any closed system breaks down. So what we're seeing because obviously life happens. Life exists. You know, we're seeing more organization, more structure, you know, that takes place naturally. And these are open systems. And so these are in physics what they called dissipative structures, meaning that you are then essentially letting go of entropy. You're letting go of chaos in a way, you know.

And that way organization becomes. So if you're then holding on to things, you're grasping to life, you're grasping to grasping onto, you know, your possessions or grasping onto a certain relationship, you are then essentially closing that system, which then becomes designed to start to break down. And so that's why I think meditation, just from kind of law of physics as well, teaches us to then become those dissipative structures where we are then connected with everything, instead of them being in a place where entropy can take hold.

Such a beautiful and powerful example, and that's where modern science really shines, is that it helps us to understand these ancient practices that our ancient wisdom keepers and ancestors have discovered for thousands and thousands of years, helps us to understand them from a logical kind of, you know, left brain analytical standpoint. I mean, look at string theory and look at quantum physics and look at, you know, quantum science now, where they're saying the same thing that the yogis said in the Vedas 7000 years ago, that everything is just wave function, everything is one.

Everything is held together by this infinite intelligence, this web of energy that you and I are not separate, but that we are actually connected and that the most basic example is on this phone right here, I can make a phone call and invisibly a signal goes through to some kind of tower and then sends it to you and you're on the phone, and in less than a split second we can have this communication, but we don't even need to do what we're doing on the computer right now as well as we're recording this.

Right. It's we see it every single day, but we kind of take it for granted and don't realize that that is how we are designed. That is our nature. And that's where the solutions come from. The solutions come from the hard drive of the universe. They come from the divine, and real solutions flow through us, and those real solutions come because we get into that

Death, Impermanence, and Living with Purpose 38:45

centered point like you're talking about. We get into that state of oneness. We get into that state where actually you were giving the example of Jodi floating in just pure peace and bliss. That's my meditations. Every single morning I do a series of practices Sky Breath and Sahaj Meditation. And the more you practice, if you're if you're brand new to it, you probably won't feel this right away. But the more you practice with sky breath, you will actually you get into that state of just you feel like you're floating.

You're in this book totally blissed out state. You're in this state of just kind of oneness with everything where you are in that beautiful state that you're that you're talking about, which is allowing these open loop systems within us because we are connected to everything we are connected to the stars, to the moon, to the sun, to the plan is to the entire universe, to each other. And as you're saying, the more we're closed in these closed systems, we close everything down. We close our minds.

We close our bodies. We close our belief systems. Life is like trying to move through mud, right? It's very difficult, but we open ourselves to the vastness of who we truly are. And then life becomes this incredible, miraculous, magical experience every single day. And man, I'll tell you what I am so grateful to be alive right now. All the challenges I went through, all that you know, even the suicidal tendencies, the near-death experiences, the addiction, the traumas, the sickness, there's so many challenging and brutal experiences, painful depressive experiences I went through.

I wouldn't change any of it because it allowed me to become who I am and discover things about life today that I don't think I would have discovered had I not gone to that and everybody tuning in. Whatever challenge you're going through, it's there to awaken you to something greater and deeper within yourself, awaken you to your higher self. Awaken you more to the divine. Awaken you more to that happiness and peace within a deeper connection with your purpose here on the planet. That's what these great challenges are for.

The greater the challenge, the greater your life is meant to be. And that is when you can fully accept and understand that and then you start meditating, breathwork and all these things, you'll be amazed at what the universe does to show up, to support you. And going forward, you know, and what's what's the worst that can happen. We're going to die anyway, right? Okay. That's the end. That's I mean, teaching a new master class and that's the end of the last module. The master is overcoming the fear of death because we don't talk about death enough in this culture.

And death is an absolute part of life. I haven't met anybody yet who has not left their body. Have you? Not then, not. Not yet. But at some point I at some point, maybe right away, maybe there's a very special person. But we I haven't met anybody that's been hanging around for more than, you know, 100. I think there's someone right now, a Yogi in India that's like 128 years old or something like that. That's still pretty active and intelligent. But, you know, you're lucky if you live past 70 or 80.

So recognizing that at the end of the day, we're all going to die anyway, come to terms with that, accept that. Realize that this is a short journey here on this planet. What are you here to do? What is your life meant to be? Who are you truly at your core? When you die, you go into the next dimension of life that is a whole other experience. You'll get there when you get there. But right now, you came to this planet for a reason and discover what that is. Don't lead, as the great poets have written and great authors have written, don't.

Don't let your songs be unsung. Don't let your art not be drawn and painted. Don't leave any stone unturned in this life. Don't leave whatever miracle gift talent that's yet to be uncovered inside of you. Don't let that go to waste. This is a very precious life that we have. Let's make the best use of it while we have it. Yeah, I love that. And yeah, regards to death. And I agree with you. Yeah we it's one and I think it's the same with cancer. Is that you know, these are words that we try to stay away from until all of a sudden the hits us in a, in our face.

And, you know, in regards to death, I mean, it it is a very powerful and holy moment and a person's life. I, I remember it was just a actually a few, a few months ago, you know, I was a patient that I worked with, and she lived, you know, years beyond expectation. But it came to a point where, you know, she was kind of feeling that that now is the time and, and, and she kind of been working hard to kind of stay as stay alive. And you know, without going through, you know, excessive things. And so we had a conversation and I, and I told her that, you know, the you know, if as you're approaching death, you know, this this is this is a very, very powerful time in your life, and you should really, really be present, you know, in this moment.

And don't don't worry more about, you know, during the fasting or coffee animals or taking a bunch of pills or doing this or that. Just just be present, just be kind of I experience this moment, you know, fully because this is this is like birth to your next, next face and whatever existence that is. And, she did pass on and she, and I'm really glad that we were able to have that conversation. So she could, really be in that space, you know, to enjoy, you know, this, this moment, because there's a lot of cultures, a lot of traditions where, you know, this is celebrated and this is something that we, you know, kind of like you're you're almost your last breath, you know, where where is your consciousness at your last breath.

And then that kind of guides you into whatever that next step is. So, yeah, death. Death is a powerful experience and it's not something to be afraid of. And, and, and and you're absolutely right. It comes to everybody at some point. Yeah. I don't think any of us are staying behind it. I think we're all even so, you know, as I'm sure many people have heard, your life is that time between the birth and the death and the tombstone. You have the birth date and you have the death date. And what do we make of our lives between that and how much time we have left?

I mean, the truth is, I could walk outside and get hit by a bus today and be dead today. And that's a beautiful, powerful Buddhist practice that I do, actually, is every morning, as I say, you know, today I could die. Today it's very possible. People die every single day, right? People die every single day unexpectedly. Most people have no idea that they're going to die on the day that they die. Some people they know because they've been preparing for a while, but most people don't do this. Any one of us could die today, right now.

And what that does is when we realize that go, yes, I could die of course I don't want to. I'm not trying to. I'd like to live. I still have more to give, more to learn, more to share, more to grow. But I could die today. And so what do I want to do with my life? How do I want to be? What do I want to learn? What do I want to give? What kind of experiences do I want to have?

Resources for Meditation and Closing Remarks 46:35

We start thinking differently that way. We start tapping into a deeper essence of who we really are and why we came here, and the things that were seemed important start to become less and less important. You know, I don't even have a TV in my house. TV is not important to me. Movies are not important to me anymore. I don't waste time with things like that, that things that I used to spend a lot of time on have all gone away. And that continues to happen, is things that I find to be more important, more valuable.

Those things show up and whatever that is for you start to discover that as we remind ourselves each day, today could be the day, and am I okay with that? Learning to be at peace with that and realizing, wow, I still there's still so much I don't know and so much I want to know and so much I want to do and so many people I want to help. Okay, let me start now. Let me start today. Yeah. And, one thing when you're battling cancer is that, you know, do I feel like you're saying, what do I choose to do?

You know, between those two dates, you know, do I want to spend my energy, stressing about what's the next image going to show, you know, what's the next lab going to be? You know, what kind of size is it? Is it growing? Is it you know what? Whatever that is with the tumor, is that where you want to spend your life and your energy? And is that what is driving happiness and joy? And so obviously that's something that each individual need to choose. So, Nathan, you have a YouTube channel where people can go because a lot of people may not be aware of, you know, how do I start?

You know, what do I do? And so you have a place where they can go. And can I guide them through this process and talk a little bit about that? Yeah. I'll give to two resources. First I'll share. I'd mentioned Sky breath. It's been a complete game changer in my own life. I'm volunteering now for the Art of Living Foundations. I love what they do and the sky breath. I've been practicing every single day and takes me into such a deep state of meditation, so I recommend go Take a sky breath course. There's been over 100 studies done on sky breath and immune system function on on, better sleep on stress reduction.

So many things. You can take them online. You can find them locally. That's at Art of living Sky breath. You'll find a course locally or online or at, retreats Center. Any any of it's great. I've done online courses, done them in person. They're amazing. So learn the sky breath. That's what I will tell every single cancer patient, every single person. First thing to learn. Second thing, you can go to my YouTube channel, which is meditation with Nathan, go to YouTube meditation with Nathan, subscribe to that channel.

And then I release different guided meditations. The short ones there's media ones. The longest ones right now are somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes, which is to me to, to be honest, if you have cancer, that should be the minimum amount of time you're doing a meditation 20, 30 minutes a day. Realistically, if you're dealing with anything beyond stage one, an hour to two hours a day, twice a day minimum, I mean, you have to get your state into parasympathetic as often as you possibly can, activate that vagus nerve, activate that immune system response.

But start, start wherever you can. Ten minutes a day is great to start, but that YouTube channel, those are free. And then you can also go to Nathan crain.com. You can join my newsletter there for free. I also have some guided meditations there. I have resources, ebooks, different things there to support you on health and healing and awakening. So yeah, those are some good resources and I hope to hear from all of you tuning in. You can follow me on Instagram social media. Just search my name and, let me know that you watch this and reach out if you have questions about anything.

I'm really here for you, here to see people get better. That's my whole life mission is to bring more peace and health and happiness to as many people as I can. Oh, Nathan, it's always such a joy, always such a pleasure. And, you know, you're so full with heart and and I love the mission that that that you are, you know, not just have that you are and, and, and. Yeah, I urge everyone to, to connect with with Nathan and and you know, there's so much, you know, that that, flows through what you do.

So thank you so much for spending this time with me. Thank you Michael. Appreciate it. Appreciate your brother. Thank you.