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DR. GENESIS YOUNG joins host Jason Schwartz 11-25-2020. Conversation from his profession as a surgeon to Non violent communication, shadow work, restorative justice, the mankind project, shamanism, and youth shelter on the horizon, legislation … and more. A good conversation… NVCnextgen.org
Summary & Timestamped Transcript Below…
The video features an in-depth conversation between host Jason Schwartz and guest Genesis Young on the show “The Neutral Zone.” Genesis Young, a retired hand surgeon turned healer and community activist, shares his journey from conventional medicine to integrating holistic healing practices such as shadow work, non-violent communication (NVC), and shamanism. He discusses his involvement with the Mankind Project, a global organization dedicated to helping men improve their lives, and how these healing approaches foster inner peace, empathy, and social transformation. The dialogue explores the deep psychological concept of the Jungian shadow, the importance of universal human needs in communication, and the practice of non-violent communication as a vital tool for conflict resolution, even when only one party is willing to engage. Genesis also highlights his work in restorative justice and community-building efforts in Maui, including the development of a youth shelter and mediation center, addressing systemic issues like homelessness and the prison system. The discussion emphasizes the need for kindness, compassion, and connection in both personal and political arenas to create sustainable peace and social justice. The conversation closes with a call for collective action where each person contributes to healing and understanding in the world.
Highlights
- [02:03] Introduction to the Mankind Project: A global initiative helping men improve their lives and the world.
- [05:58] Explanation of Shadow Work: Understanding and integrating the unconscious parts of ourselves to reduce emotional triggers.
- [09:30] Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and Universal Needs: A framework for empathetic dialogue focusing on observation, feelings, needs, and requests.
- [14:43] ✨ One Person Can Practice NVC: Even if only one participant uses nonviolent communication, conflict escalation can be prevented.
- [34:52] ⚖️ Restorative Justice Explained: A collaborative approach to justice focusing on healing harm rather than punishment.
- [43:12] Maui Youth Shelter Project: Efforts to create a local shelter to support homeless youth and prevent them from falling into harmful situations.
- [47:02] Integration of Healing Modalities: Combining medical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual healing for comprehensive care.
Key Insights
- [06:32] Shadow Work’s Role in Self-Awareness and Peace: Shadow work helps individuals identify suppressed or unconscious parts of themselves, often responsible for emotional reactions and conflicts. By bringing these shadow aspects into consciousness, people can reduce reactivity, foster internal peace, and create more harmonious relationships. This process is vital for both personal healing and contributing to a more peaceful society.
- [09:30] Nonviolent Communication as a Bridge to Understanding: NVC’s emphasis on universal needs such as respect, being heard, and the need to matter creates a common ground for dialogue. By focusing on feelings and needs rather than judgments or blame, NVC slows down conversations, allowing for empathy and connection even in conflict. This technique can transform adversarial exchanges into cooperative problem-solving.
- [14:43] Impact of Practicing NVC Alone: Remarkably, the practice of nonviolent communication does not require mutual participation to have an effect. One person’s commitment to NVC can de-escalate conflict, as it invites empathy and reflection rather than defensiveness and escalation. This insight provides hope for improving communication in polarized environments where reciprocal openness may be lacking.
- [34:52] ⚖️ Restorative Justice as a Holistic Alternative: Restorative justice shifts the focus from punishment to healing by involving offenders, victims, and the community in dialogue. This approach addresses underlying causes of harm, promotes accountability, and reduces recidivism. It is a powerful tool for transforming the criminal justice system and repairing social fabric, especially when implemented alongside NVC principles.
- [24:22] Integration of Shamanism with Western Medicine: Genesis’ approach to healing transcends traditional boundaries by incorporating spiritual and energetic dimensions through shamanism. This holistic view acknowledges the interconnectedness of physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health, offering a more comprehensive model of care that can respond to complex human needs.
- [43:12] Community-Driven Solutions to Homelessness: The youth shelter initiative in Maui exemplifies how community collaboration, restorative practices, and nonviolent communication can address urgent social issues. Despite bureaucratic hurdles, the project aims to provide a safe transitional space, preventing youth from falling into cycles of homelessness, addiction, or exploitation.
- [32:24] ❤️ The Power of Compassion and Kindness in Social Change: The conversation repeatedly underscores that peace and sustainability begin with individual attitudes of love, compassion, and kindness. When people share their truths from this place, the collective capacity for understanding and cooperation increases, offering a path to healing divisions in society and politics.
Expanded Summary
Jason Schwartz introduces Genesis Young, a retired hand surgeon who has devoted his post-medical career to healing beyond the physical, encompassing emotional, psychological, and spiritual health. Genesis describes his involvement with the Mankind Project, which promotes male personal growth and social responsibility through community support and initiatory experiences. This sets the stage for a broader conversation about healing methodologies.
Genesis explains shadow work, a concept rooted in Jungian psychology, as the practice of uncovering and integrating parts of ourselves that we deny or suppress. These shadow aspects often drive unconscious behaviors and emotional reactions, which can lead to conflict and regret. Shadow work fosters self-awareness and reduces reactivity, enabling individuals to respond rather than react to triggers. This internal peace is foundational to creating peace externally.
The dialogue then shifts to nonviolent communication (NVC), a structured approach developed by Marshall Rosenberg that emphasizes connecting through universal human needs rather than judgments or demands. NVC involves four components: observation without evaluation, expressing feelings, identifying needs, and making requests. Genesis highlights how NVC helps people feel heard and respected, which addresses deeper needs such as the need to matter. This understanding can defuse conflicts and open channels for honest dialogue.
A critical insight shared is that NVC can be effective even if only one person practices it. By reflecting observations and feelings back to the other party without judgment, one can de-escalate tension and invite empathy. This is particularly relevant in polarized environments, including political discourse, where willingness to engage is uneven.
Genesis also discusses the practical application of NVC and restorative justice in community settings. Restorative justice involves facilitated dialogues between offenders, victims, and community members to acknowledge harm, take responsibility, and collaboratively determine reparations. This contrasts with punitive criminal justice approaches that often fail to heal or prevent recidivism. Restorative justice programs, supported by NVC principles, are being introduced in schools and courts to promote healing and reduce incarceration.
The conversation includes Genesis’ work in Maui to establish a youth shelter combined with a restorative justice center. This initiative responds to the urgent needs of homeless youth, providing safe temporary housing and support services to prevent further harm. Despite bureaucratic delays in permitting and renovations, the project represents a community-based solution that integrates healing and justice.
Genesis also shares how his practice integrates shamanism, a spiritual healing tradition that views all elements of life as imbued with spirit or energy. He trained with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and employs shamanic techniques such as soul retrieval to help people recover fragmented parts of themselves, which complements his medical and psychological healing work. This holistic approach addresses the whole person—body, mind, and spirit.
Throughout the discussion, the themes of compassion, kindness, and connection emerge as essential for individual and societal transformation. Genesis and Jason both express a shared passion for peace and sustainability, emphasizing that systemic change begins with each person’s commitment to empathy and understanding.
In closing, Genesis encourages everyone to “show up” and share their truth with kindness, releasing attachment to outcomes, which cultivates a more peaceful and cooperative world. The video ends with a hopeful message for collective healing through integrated approaches including NVC, shadow work, restorative justice, and spiritual healing.
Key Insights Detailed Analysis
- [06:32] Shadow Work as a Pathway to Emotional Mastery: Shadow work uncovers the unconscious drivers behind emotional reactions, which often stem from unmet needs and past wounds. Bringing these shadows into awareness through reflection and integration diminishes their power to provoke conflict. This process facilitates emotional regulation and self-compassion, which are prerequisites for peaceful interpersonal and societal relationships.
- [09:30] Universal Needs as the Foundation of Constructive Dialogue: NVC’s framework rests on the concept that all humans share core needs such as safety, respect, and belonging. Recognizing these universal needs beneath surface conflicts allows communicators to shift from adversarial positions to collaborative problem-solving, fostering empathy and mutual respect even amidst disagreement.
- [14:43] Practicing NVC as an Individual Strategy: The insight that one person’s practice of NVC can reduce conflict escalation is powerful because it empowers individuals to be agents of peace regardless of others’ receptiveness. This approach can transform heated interactions by modeling empathy and slowing communication, which often breaks cycles of misunderstanding and defensiveness.
- [34:52] ⚖️ Restorative Justice’s Role in Healing Communities: By centering the voices of both victims and offenders, restorative justice addresses the root causes of harm and promotes accountability and healing. This contrasts sharply with punitive justice systems that may perpetuate harm through incarceration and social marginalization. Its integration with NVC principles enhances dialogue and community reintegration.
- [24:22] Holistic Healing Incorporating Shamanism: Genesis’ blend of Western medicine with shamanic practices reflects an integrative model of health that honors the spiritual and energetic dimensions of human beings. This expanded perspective allows for addressing psychological and spiritual wounds that conventional medicine often overlooks, offering more comprehensive healing.
- [43:12] Community Engagement in Addressing Homelessness: The Maui youth shelter project exemplifies how grassroots initiatives can address systemic social issues through collaboration, restorative practices, and nonviolent communication. This model not only provides immediate relief but also seeks to prevent recidivism into homelessness and associated risks, highlighting the importance of integrated social services.
- [32:24] ❤️ Compassion as the Catalyst for Social Transformation: The overarching message is that peace and sustainability arise from individual commitment to compassion, kindness, and empathy. These qualities enable people to listen deeply, overcome divisions, and co-create solutions. This aligns with universal human needs and reflects the ethical core of all healing and justice efforts discussed.
The video offers a comprehensive, hopeful vision of personal and societal healing through integrated practices that combine psychological insight, empathetic communication, spiritual connection, and community justice. It encourages viewers to engage actively with these tools to contribute to a more peaceful and sustainable world.
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[Music] hello everyone uh welcome to the neutral zone mauineutralzone.com i’m your host jason schwartz whether you’re on tv or whether you’re on radio hearing us at kaku or akaku you can find us on youtube and you can find this show and other shows at mauineutralzone.com we’re getting very close to thanksgiving in the end of 2020 which i thought was going to be clear vision but meanwhile it’s been clouded because of we all know this covet thing but um i have a guest here that um
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i thought you guys would appreciate he’s uh someone i see every week i uh joined in a couple of years ago with something called the mankind project which we’re talking about and i met a man that um when i first met him i thought oh he’s a doctor but then i got to see just how much there was in them this is genesis young genesis welcome to our show and welcome to our audience hopefully around the world thanks so much uh great to spend some time with you today jason we generally spend time uh
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what they call an eye group in a group called mankind project do you want to give them a quick idea what mankind project is uh yeah that’s a group i’ve been involved with since i guess about 2012. and it’s a group that is dedicated to helping men improve their lives and have support and improve the world one man at a time is their their mission in philosophy it’s been around for many years now 30 or 40 years and bill couth who’s one of the founders is a good friend of mine as well
02:03
he lives in ashland oregon where i used to live and it’s it’s a great organization um growing all over the world and men that are young and old can all get together and that we have a i guess it’s called a an opening weekend but it’s really not an opening it’s getting introduced yeah it’s a new it’s called new warrior training adventure and it’s sort of like an initiatory weekend um to enter the organization well you can sit with other men uh some groups like our group is open
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twice a month to people who aren’t right we have what they call these eye groups which are integration groups which you can go to weekly and uh we have a circle of men i probably got a 20 or 30 of us now in the zoom world maybe we have 10 or 12 people that are die-hards with us and we get together every week and i’ve had a couple of other men that you’ve seen here on this show on the show but i thought you know genesis is a guy that you used to be a hand surgeon i i know that uh my lady friend arielle came to you and
03:11
you’ve been doing this obviously many years you’re from ashland oregon where you work yeah i was actually originally i’m born in canada in calgary in alberta and uh then went to medical school in mcgill in montreal and did my hand surgery and microsurgery and plastic surgery training in toronto in ontario and then moved back west to practice in alberta initially in madison had and then in calgary until i uh got divorced and moved to united states with my current wife and we’ve been we’re living in oregon
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initially i worked there for uh for you for 20 years and now i’ve been here for like eight years i guess going on eight years yeah retired about a year and a half ago so and so i remember your transition from working to non-working you’re a very productive guy and you like to see results i can imagine it’s you’ve referenced it’s kind of satisfying to be able to see tangible results each and every time you’re helping someone so um how has retirement been you call it retirement i guess you’re
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now out of well it’s called retirement but it’s really to me just a change in focus in our lives and uh i retired from well when i actually retired this is the second time the first time i retired with when we first moved to maui i retired from a full plastic surgery cosmetic surgery and hand surgery practice without outpatient operating room and the whole nine yards in in ashland that was working very well but we wanted to get away uh to a simpler place and it was getting awfully hot and smoky and action from
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the fires and the heat and you know really we’re so thankful to be here in maui the you know the climate and the environment and the places is really a paradise and so much safer than so many other places in the world right now i think so i’m very grateful that we did move here and when i first was uh moved here i was too it’s too quiet for me i wasn’t you know i went from working more than 60 hours a week to nothing so i found myself feeling a little lost and not knowing what to do
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so that’s actually when i joined mankind project which helped me refocus my my new direction and went back to work but just doing hand surgery not the plastic surgery part just the hand surgery part plastic surgery is actually part of hand surgery plastic surgery is a bigger field and so but i was just did the hand part and i did that just part time while i was doing other things which is you know part of that was working in mankind project and learning about that’s i think where i was first introduced to shadow work
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which is an interesting field of study shadow work you does it you want to start there with it or is this where do you start is that a whole subject or you know when i think about you and we’re talking we’re going to be talking about non-violent communication but i guess shadow work is right in there as what is shadow shadow shadow works very interesting it’s um as described by and todd and and name is is from cliff barry’s shadow word processes and those shadow work processes were
06:32
were gifted to the mankind project so that’s where i first learned about shadow work and because what we help people with is their jungian shadow and their jungian shadow is that part of us that we deny that we suppress that part of us that may be coming out of a wound that may be actually motivating us to do things that we’re not really aware that we’re doing um so when we are triggered by some event in our life we may find ourselves saying or doing things that we then later regret but when we come to
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understand some of the deeper motivation underneath that which you can discover and work on with shadow work then you become more conscious uh less triggered and hopefully more peaceful as having peace in the world and in my life is is really an important important thing and something i’m very very passionate about i just really want peace in the world before i die and so i have a lot of work ahead of me i got to stay busy you do but i know you’re doing your part you’re always uh you know you add a great
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peaceful presence in fact uh i’m also a peace kind of a guy i come at it differently i seem to have a lot of steam that’s what interested me when you were talking about non-violent communication somehow i keep thinking i’m waiting you know that expression about there’s a pile of and there’s someone that just keeps going back and diving in looking for the pony looking for the good but you gotta wade through the bad and i find myself um speaking about a lot of negativity but i don’t think of myself
08:20
as negative so uh when you talk about how to communicate in a way that isn’t assaulting yeah that is somehow going to actually maybe make some progress in communication is shadow work directly related to non-violent communication or you just pair them up uh well i delved quite deeply into shadow work and actually i’m a certified shadow work coach through cliff barry’s organization and um and shadow work is and and discovering working on our shadows is related to non-violent communication
08:57
and a lot of training and work and non-violent communication now as well so we have an organization that i’m on the board of uh which is a network for non-violent communication which is a 501c3 and more recently our terran james young foundation which has just become an accredited 501c3 as a new leg of this whole desire for peace and sustainability in the world we’re working on these foundations so that hopefully things will last beyond our lifetime we can fund those as po as needed but
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coming back to your question about nvc or shadow work um so in non-violent communication one of the cores is about having universal needs so we all have have universal needs as the theory which means that what are things that all of us agree on things that aren’t related to a specific person or a specific thing but just something that we all all uh independent of race or religion things that that we need to survive and to sustain us and grow and thrive things like we all need food and we all
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need love and we all need to con to contribute in the world all of these sorts of things are universal needs and when we when i look at universal needs and work with nvc and work with shadow work i recognize that some of the things that people really need and want that are kind of hidden and denied their shadows are really just like shadow needs because of things people need like often people will get triggered and then they’ll just feel like they’re not being heard and seen in an argument and they’re just trying to
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you know get louder and louder speaking trying to be heard or seen one of the needs we all have is to be heard and seen and so the non-violent communication allows us to slow that down by asking the person who is speaking to be reflected to look at the look at the data if you like the observation so when someone’s you know going off to the you know have a problem with you or something you just reflect so i’m hearing you have this you know this problem such and such happened is that right and that’s just
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like the basic beginning of reflecting which slows things down because people need to be heard and seen and then you could reflect to them something like oh i see your your feelings or your emotion which is like i see you’re angry is that because you want to be heard and that’s sort of a request using you want to be heard is the need so we’ve got an observation what’s happening you’ve got the feeling that you’re angry and then we come to guessing the need so is that because you
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want to be heard and that’s a request so it’s observation feeling need request o f n r is our little mnemonic for ofnr observation feeling need request how is that related to shadow work so once you’ve got to that point where you’ve reflected the person just wants to be heard and they kind of stop they say oh yeah i would really like to be heard and you just and then they realized you just reflected to them what they were trying to say you reflect that as they calm down then they feel heard
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then you can ask well this is what’s up for me are you willing to listen to what i have to say or my point of view with another request and usually if you’ve reflected and they’ve heard that they’re being heard they’ll say yes and then you can tell them your observation and feeling and need from your point of view in the in those terms and it just slows things down and allows people to focus on what’s really important and often i’ve seen when someone has a feeling or a need
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that and they want to be heard that once what’s underneath that is often this feeling they just feel like they’re so disrespected they want to be respect and it’s elected so you could reflect that next so you’re just wanting respect is that it and they’ll say yes and you’ll feel that connection growing and then we come to what i call the shadow need and this is how they’re related this is sort of the punch line of this long story here so you’ve got being heard you’ve gone
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underneath that same being or feeling respected both of which are universal needs and then under that what people really want is to feel like they’re of value that they matter which is the need to matter and that’s often a shadow need i think because that’s something that we don’t realize we may be working from what we may be reacting from that we may be triggered from but when you’re triggered from feeling like you don’t matter you feel like you don’t have value you’re not being heard seen respected or
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you know honored then then you know you’re fighting for your life you’re fighting for your survival you’re fighting for your person because you want to be that person and want to matter and so then you can’t hear anybody else at that point but when you realize that that’s where you’re fighting from then you can let that go by self-connection and self-reflection and then be more open to hearing another person’s point of view letting the trigger go and allowing the communication
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to be more connected at a heart level and come to a solution because once you’re connected then solutions just magically arise because people want to give and receive from the place of of connection through understanding universal needs does that make sense it does you know when i think about it i always think that i want to say it’s sort of a textbook definition but i wonder in the real world how do you get there you have to have two willing at least two willing participants you’re right
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if you have one and the other person is not there uh coming from this kind of position is uh i would think it’s been difficult like i look at our politics these days and i think boy it would be nice to see them communicating in a way that each one was actually trying to communicate with the other with the goal of resolution but so there has to be two to tango i guess as well yeah so so the interesting thing and the theory and the practice in my experience is that it only takes one person to practice nonviolent communication how
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does that work if someone’s going off and you don’t become defensive and you just reflect to them what you hear the observations not reflecting of course any negative points but just the observations and then reflecting what they might be feeling by guessing that and then guessing a need and asking them something like is that right you know just to try to get feedback that the person will relax and they’ll feel like they’re heard and then they’ll be willing to talk more and at some point once you’ve got that
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connection it’s all about getting connection whoever they are whether they’re coming from the right or the left the middle or some other point of view completely you can connect and it only takes one person to practice nvc but you have to be with you know the first the zero step the first step is really self-connection where you figure out what’s going on for me what do i need and what’s what’s going on for me because it’s really hard to come from a place of calm and and
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trying to empathize with the other person if you haven’t connected and empathize with yourself if you don’t know what’s going on and so that takes practice it’s not a natural thing to do after we’ve been through an education system that’s not empathizing not not emphasizing empathy so it could have been learned out of it i think we’re naturally empathetic if we can naturally do these things but it takes some re-learning using our brain neuroplasticity that ability the brain to change the
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ability of the brain to grow and change its mindset that can be used to our advantage and so it only takes one person actually to to practice nbc non-violence and can have great results um if only one person is practicing and the other person’s still not listening at least one person it’s not going to escalate right it’s not going to be violence you’re trying to hear somebody point of view they usually are happy to be heard well i know i’m trying to bring this down to um i don’t know let’s see how you analyze
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it last night there was a meeting about homelessness questions and answers and there were people in the audience that were trying to deliver a message of what they thought were ideas that might help to be able to bring ideas so that these other people would and so the questions were like well why don’t you think about doing this so take the money for do this and do that and do this and the other side doesn’t answer they don’t acknowledge that they hear what the person said and it was causing the i could feel the
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flames coming through one side as they’re not being heard and uh the feedback i got after the meeting from other people was that it was a waste of time was that so it was i don’t know if that’s non-violent communication but it’s that thing that i you were talking about about someone wants to be heard and needed does this kind of training quote i know it’s not a prerequisite for being in a political office but um do you find that there are trainings like this or do you do trainings like this for big
18:35
well yeah our organization does trainings in nonviolent communication and center for nonviolent communication is a national organization that’s been around a while the founder of nonviolent communication marshall rosenberg died a few years back so but the organization persists and our organization teaches and we have a have a number of free sort of groups that teach it experientially um one on monday night that jim and joy manske teach and then i do a friday afternoon 3 30 one on zoom just like this both of these
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are on zoom to teach nonviolent communication as it’s related to mediation using it in a real frame so we bring conflicts there and and use normal and communication style mediation to explore the conflicts and create that connection i find that’s a really fun way to to learn nonviolent communication because it’s more practical just like you said those people at that meeting weren’t being seen and heard the problem with most meetings is that people are all arguing at the level of
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strategy this is right or this is right this is wrong you know all of those different strategies they have to try and people aren’t are never going to connect with strategies conflict lives in the in the field of strategies you have to help people drop below strategies to what’s important what needs need to be satisfied and once they all agree oh we need to do something to create safety for the homeless for example then then they can move forward to look at various strategies but no one wants to hear and see each
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other because everyone wants to be heard so that’s where you need a facilitator or moderator who reflects what everybody says records what everybody says and and you know even if if two people are talking then have the one person who just said something repeat what the other person said could you please reflect to make sure that they heard and then the other person hears that the other person has said it even if it didn’t sink in they at least know it’s been received then they’re more likely to stop and
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listen and allow the other person to be heard and then you ask that second per the first person to reflect what the second person says and then the second person reflects what the first person said slows everything down people are heard they don’t have to say the same thing over and over again thinking they weren’t heard so that’s one technique a facilitator can use to use nonviolent communication is that slow you know i agree with you i mean when i think about that i remember years
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ago and i was studying scientology and they had a course called communication and it was like that basic thing you put out a communication you’d like to know what you said has heard have that person acknowledge it and deliver it back when these meetings happen there seems to be no format or there’s none of that is being practiced you know it seems to be the core of lots of different kinds of trainings but um i wondered um again i’m just pulling from the air have you ever offered this kind of training
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free or other people that are offering to some of these political people who really need to better communicate yeah we actually have a petition uh saying that all politicians and and government officials should be trained in non-violent communication that that’s out there on moveon.org has about a thousand signatures on it not too many um because i think that that would be uh be wonderful and our monday and friday classes are free so we offer those um what’s the best communication what’s the best way to people send you
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an email is that best yeah well they can look up our our website the current one is nvc next gen nbc nex t gen gen for generation dot org nbcnextgen.org okay our uh our our office phone number is 808 866. non-violent communication shadow work um you do this all the time it seems that whenever i think of your your whole manner maybe i just don’t i haven’t spent time around doctors but you seem very precise in what you’re doing like you’re you’re trying to keep decorum in an area
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it’s like trying to herd cats sometimes where you know you just sort of keep it all together and kind of give it some structure it’s very much appreciated when we get together thank you i i like that you see that i like to be peaceful and i peace and inner and outer peace are really important to me and um you know as a former physician i’m still a doctor i just don’t you know practice surgery anymore i’ll be a doctor all my life i guess yeah and i love doing surgery but i went into it because i really like to
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do healing and i went into plastic surgery because i love love the psychology and the variety of of personalities that would come to my practice you know from workers comp patients injured patients to cosmetic patients and different people wanting different things and reconstruction you know people with cancer who need reconstruction of their face or their breast so on so i had had a lot of variety because i like variety but that was also one of the reasons why i also learned and have been practicing
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shamanism for well i guess more than 30 years now because i i just want to be able to healing is one of the things i like to do i feel like i’m a healer as opposed to a doctor and in many ways rather call myself a healer and so the shadow work and mvc are part of of healing the world and and bringing us to peace but also the shamanic work is part of that because it’s not enough to for me as a physician was never enough to just do surgery or prescribe medications i wanted to look at you know not just
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the physical but also the intellectual emotional which is the nvc and the shadow work and also the spiritual part of life which is the uh the shamanic part and uh i mean shamanism can you kind of put a definition for me i’m sure our audience some people hear it and immediately know it but there are a lot of people that spooks them a little bit and i want to take that away yeah some people definitely feel spooky like i’m going to be doing devil worship or or sacrificing animals or something like that
25:30
uh none of that it’s not not like that at all um shamanism is just it’s really ever almost every religion if you look back has a more tribal or shamanic base to it if you go back far enough there’s many different shamanic traditions throughout the world but most of them that are persisting are ones in the like the in the amazon where they haven’t had as much contact with western civilization or uh other other places where they preserve those like in the andes the wichita mountains
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um those are regional indians rather is a shaman sort of like a a medicine man or is it when you say it would be the shamans would be the medicine man of the of the of the tribe and the belief is that everything has energy or spirit uh there’s a spirit in the rocks there’s spirit in in the house there’s spirit in the grass and the wind and the beach all of those have a spirit you could say i have an energy so it’s metaphysical and shamanic if you like but they’re to me the same and you can
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work i’ve trained with the foundation for shamanic studies out of california michael horner around that he’s passed now for a number of years that organization persists and did a three year training with them and many many other trainings over my lifetime with various different forms of shamanism from celtic to viking shamanism to to which old shamanism and so on it’s um but the main thing is that we we can use shamanic techniques which are all the shamanic religions have a lot of culture around a
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lot of traditions but if you try and find the core shamanism which is what the foundation for shamanic studies teaches what do they all have in common there’s certain techniques you can teach to access the information from from the other world from the non-ordinary reality it would be called so there’s this reality the physical and concrete and then there’s there’s spiritual reality or non-ordinary reality they don’t they keep it non-religious by not using the word spiritual
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but using the word non-ordinary reality and you access those realms either up down or in the middle world and upper world middle world lower world wherever you go back in time forward in time sort of all dimensions that way and you go on these journeys with with the guide that you have we all have i know we all have guides from my point of view and and you go there and you can go on these journeys for information if a person has a question you can go and find information for them you can teach them
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how to journey so they can go and find information for themselves and then you can do all kinds of fun things for healing people requesting the help of your guides in power animals or spirits whatever you want to call them really to heal one way of healing is like sore retrieval so like when someone has a traumatic thing happen to them in their life they may split off part of them but it’s still connected energetically that but they don’t have full access maybe to the part that trusts the world
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the part that helps them feel safe and so you can go shamanically and find that part negotiate with it and bring it back to the person with messages and homework as to how to integrate it and how to use that part in your in your world and bring it into yourself so you can feel more whole it can be very life changing to have soul retrieval for example and there’s just many ways of healing um through shamanic as well so i was really very interested in healing and did not want to limit myself to medicine that’s why i have all these
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other interests in shadow work and in shamanic healing and nonviolent communication as well did you find that uh some of your i don’t know if you want to call them medical associates because when you’re in surgery you’re probably there you’re the guy but have you found that some of your associates in western medicine were open to those kind of things you ever you ever used there was a time when i was doing this at first that it was i kept it extremely separate from medicine um because there was a time when the
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american medical association would have challenged your license for talking like this but now they they their rule is if more than two doctors can support a belief in something then they won’t take your license away they won’t necessarily encourage it either but there was a time when this was not allowed if you like and then more recently i really i don’t bring this to patients i don’t say oh i think you need a shamanic healing or anything like that that’s separate so i have shamanic
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circles and i have had my medical practice but i was always embodying you know as deeply as i could trying to understand the person physically intellectually emotionally and spiritually and and provide for what they needed and some people knew i did shamanic work and so would ask for that help and i would always call for the highest and best and for spiritual help for every surgery you know so that the people would be embraced and helped in every way possible never know you know people don’t believe
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it’s not going to hurt them for me to just ask for help you know i’m not forcing it never forced it on anyone and i always want to honor and respect all people’s beliefs and not to you know push my beliefs onto somebody somebody else but to just be i just want to be the best version of myself the best healer and work for for peace and sustainability in the world he’s been reading my mail that’s how i feel differently you know i want to make sure our audience knows you on the radio
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can’t see i’m here with genesis young and i’m jason schwartz this is the neutral zone um we when i hear you say that stuff peace and sustainability in fact i have the non-profit mission is about peace and sustainability so we all put different labels on it i’m glad to hear we’re thinking the same what do you think how do we turn the key you have any idea how to take this dividing this and the political nature and reframe it to come together here like in the transition we have with
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president hopefully transition here coming soon how do we get this message out we have to do it one by one or is there what do you think i think we all just need to to do our part um show up you know give voice to your truth and and then there’s nothing you can do but just let go of of where that’s going to go or what’s going to happen if you’re too attached to the results then you become violent in your belief but you just have to show up and give voice to your own truth and i think share from a place
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of love and compassion and kindness there hasn’t been enough love and compassion and particularly kindness in the world lately and i think we could go a long way to having more more kindness with each other and hearing each other and really being open to uh to that so that we can share and work together peace we all have universal needs right we all have universal needs they’re all we all want love and compassion and kindness in our lives there’s no one that would think doesn’t well um i’ve seen you involved
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in so many different things here now in different arenas when i think sustainability i think about environment i know we have we’ve talked about different environmental things in fact uh we have a gentleman coming we we had seen a movie the need to grow movie and one of the guys in there is now coming to maui and we’ve been able to hook them into our local system and the grants happening to be able to do a pilot project here on on a sustainable environmental and technology you’ve been working in sustainability i
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think about bringing up i i don’t exactly even know how to frame it when i went through wailuku i was going and getting my mail and i was looking for the visitors bureau and i that’s the visitor’s bureau was moved and uh looked like there were signs on there and i and then i heard talking and i thought that must be what genesis is doing is that you somewhere in wailuku doing something in um i guess it’s willy paw loop is that you yeah yeah we um we’re involved through the um nonviolent communication
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one of the things we work on is restorative justice so restorative justice is dominique barter in the barrios in rio worked with nonviolent communication and developed a system of restorative justice that allowed people to talk to each other and begin to come together to resolve the harm so when there’s actually you know it’s too late someone got violent and there’s harm then you can punish the person take them to you know arrest them take them to court and punish them by putting in prison or finding them or whatever
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but that doesn’t really change things and as i think we all know our prison system isn’t working very well we have more people incarcerated per capita in this country than anywhere in the world and more than ever in our whole nation’s history or in prison and it’s actually pretty ridiculous and it comes from a criminal justice system that i think is a little out of control and not really doing what it needs to do long before we have this kind of criminal justice system people solve problems by getting
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together in circle and and having facilitators work with the offender and the victim to discuss what happened what harm has been done you know what’s actually gone on with a group it doesn’t have to be just two people if it’s if it’s two people they call it a victim offender conference a bigger circle called a restorative circle but you get together with the people after preparatory discussions to make sure that the offender is willing to admit that they did this if they’re not then
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they’re going to go through the regular system if they’re just going to refuse to take any responsibility have any accountability and then you do this process of accountability where they talk about what happened and what are the obligations that result of what happened and work together to try to figure out um exactly what needs to happen to make things as right as possible to make things pono and so that’s the that’s kind of the description of restorative justice and it’s a non-violent communication
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um uses restorative justice and nonviolent communication is restorative so the two are very related nonviolent communication is kind of used when you’re doing restorative justice sort of justice is a bigger term and restorative practices is an even bigger term but it’s part of what we do in our organization to bring restorative practices to schools try to help schools become more restorative so they can go away from punishments and suspensions which lead to prison the prison the school-to-prison pipeline
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and try to move towards a more restorative approach where you come and you ask the kids who did something wrong you know what happened and and figure out what’s really going on and then figure out what should be done from their point of view collaboratively not power over but power with collaboratively with the kid what needs to be done to make this this right looking at those who have been harmed and those who are harming and bringing them together in that way and it’s a it’s a beautiful thing it allows people
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to come to connection makes them come from a hard place and it’s much harder actually to face your your victim for the victim offender to meet than it is for them to just go to court and be sentenced where they can just you know refuse to acknowledge they ever did anything wrong just ignore it go go to prison get out do it again go back to prison you know whereas this way there’s actually a community supporting them doing well and so the levels when restorative justice used the levels of recidivism
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are returning to prison drop quite a lot and the victims get satisfaction whereas in the usual court system they tend to be not satisfied because victims aren’t heard from whereas in the restorative system which can be an add-on to our current system when the offender is willing to admit there’s a problem they could be referred to a restorative solution and then that solution could be brought back to court for use in sentencing for example we actually have a bill that we put into the legislature a couple years ago but
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it wasn’t well written because it was my first attempt to ever write a bill and tina wildberger was sponsoring it with me and and she was new and so that we actually didn’t get it and then there’s some kind of writing organization that writes the bills and then we thought they knew what they were doing i guess because but they didn’t so that bill didn’t go through it was looked at but it didn’t go through and then cover delayed another year so it’ll be going back into the new and revised
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restorative justice be allowed and provided in every county in hawaii so that if you go to court that’ll be something that’s offered to you would you like to try a restorative solution solution and then it’s still people have to be vetted as to whether or not that’s something that if they’re not admitting if the offender isn’t being harmed they’re not eligible for example but that that’s part of the whole sort of system all this bill would be doing is just to say let’s please have
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this as an option available so well it’s great that you’re doing all this i mean that the thing that i’m talking about in wailuku is that is that where this is housed or is well that’s a restorative justice center so when we need to do a restorative justice conference sometimes there can be 10 or 20 people there so we have a conference room there where we can do that a physical location and place for our offices as well and for our nominees this is a new building for our offices
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and additionally when we were going to the the court doc judge healy is one of the judges who her and um there’s another judge who just retired as well dr pullman dr doctor but judge pullman i think yes started and are working this organization called the kuliki meeting uh where all of the different organizations from around the uh the county meet uh and they’re all service organizations everyone who’s involved with the youth in particular just i’m gonna have water here for a second yeah
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so it sounds like you’re you’re you’re doing what you should do which is integrate lots of positive things and themes and work them together and introduce them to a system that’s like this and see if you can kind of straighten out their neck a little bit right and that i think that’s why the kulikki meeting was it was called because the people from the police from the prosecutor’s office defendant lawyers um and the judges meet and the judiciary from the state the ones that run the courthouse and run
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probation and then like maui youth and family services as the department of education parents and children together teens on call all these wonderful organizations that are around the uh the maui that help youth all come to this meeting and talk about you know what are what are our problems what are solutions and present on different issues and one time where we didn’t have a presenter so the judge went around the room and just asked everybody uh what do we need and then and 80 of people say we need a
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youth shelter and i said we don’t have a new shelter i was i was shocked we didn’t have a youth shelter he said no we have to send people to oahu and one of the police officers said yeah we send them to oahu sometimes once we get them sort of authorized they’ll fly them over there they’ll come to the um we’ve had times when they arrive at the shelter on oahu and be refused entry and not given a plane ticket home and now they’re homeless in honolulu instead of homeless in kahului where they have
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at least some friends so we really felt it was an urgent need to get a shelter going and so we said well we we’d love to do this why don’t we pull together a task force and work on it and we’ll help finance it and get a building and and help run it with with your help you guys know what you need help us and so we put together a task for us so we’ve been working on on that and then we uh seemed like it was going to be a something everyone wanted and we sort of came up with uh with the plan and went ahead and bought
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this building on willy pal loop which is now being renovated um we’re trying to renovate actually we’re having a little bit of problem because the county has not [Music] given us a permit yet to to do the the renovations and because we’re changing use the building requires a fire sprinkler which means cutting into the roads you also now we just realized and we’re told we need a highway some kind of road disturbance or highway permit which is a whole another six months and we put
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this permit in permanent request in december 18th and so i’m a little little concerned how slow this is going you’d think that they would all clear the decks and you needed to be done fast track it i never understand that stuff i don’t understand yeah it’s a it’s not it’s not even a digital system which makes it extremely slow so you can’t even transfer plans from department to department and many departments have to sign off on it and most have signed off but now they’re
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waiting they won’t let us start building uh unless we have um water ensued unless we have the highway permit first although we could do it we could be moving ahead here and we don’t we don’t get to occupy it obviously until the sewer lines are connected and the sprinkler system is connected but we could be moving ahead if they just say okay we what you’ve got for inside the building is fine which is basically what they’re saying but and then the highway permits a separate permit it’s a separate
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contractor so they’re kind of separate but for some reason they’re kind of linking the two even though we couldn’t ever get occupancy with out both anyway so it’s a little disappointing we want to do something good and we’re just having trouble uh moving forward um because you’re doing it in a non-violent way in your communication with them and that by itself is good because you know you get after a while you start to feel i know i have felt heated up like i’d like to somehow
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i don’t know if it’s good sometimes get it done faster yeah let’s go around yeah we all would but you know they’re there i’m sure they’re doing their best they’re moving through the stages i think there’s some things and i’ve spoken to our council person for this area where i live kelly king and looking at maybe getting the the department to move to digital would be a big saver of time and probably cut the time in half because i think if we’re trying to to
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con to have sustainable development we do that through rules and regulations not through making the permitting process so arduous because by doing making the permitting process arduous most people want to do something in their house just skip the permitting process and do it without a permit which then we don’t have safety we don’t know that things are actually done to code and the codes are meant to help us and to keep us safe in general some of them may not be as aligned with that as they
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should be but that’s a different process to try to improve on that yeah so anyway this building is also going to be a shelter jason that that’s that’s it’s going to be the restorative justice center we also do mount malohia mediation we do mediations there and it’s going to be a shelter once it’s done and we’ll be able to house up to 13 uh youth from you know 12 to 17 years of age and they’ll just be there for 30 days it’s just a transition time for them to like find a way to go
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back home in a good way or they find a foster home whatever they need to keep them from ending up in the on the street homeless doing drugs and being sex trafficked all these different things that can happen to you so quickly when they’re on the street and not and old people too i mean that’s a whole other subject there is a lot needed here yes it’s very close to my heart i’m seeing more and more people i know that are challenged and it’s it’s difficult for me to watch a system
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that just keeps breaking and that keeps working well i’m hoping that shelter will be one more place where things aren’t so broken and there’ll you know just uh everything about you you know you i think every week we’re all praising you for all you do but thank you for all that you’re doing in our community and um i hope all these things happen quickly and efficiently and we can all see more benefit how would someone get in touch with you about this stuff or is it too soon for them to be in touch
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with that other number that you gave me yeah the same number the same organizations all involved with the shelter as well yeah as well as our foundation but that’s the same it’s all the same one number the main website there is it gets people in touch yeah absolutely you know i think we’ve almost we’ve been already talking an hour which amazes me almost an hour another 10 minutes yeah well you know when i submit this to um to the television station they they need their spot for commercials a
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little bit of stuff right so um i hope you’ll come back as things are going on if you want to be sharing things with our community you are most welcome to join me here again and there’s anything that i can ever do i guess i’ve shown you this before but behind me behind this shoulder you see that picture yes it does sort of kind of look like you it looks a bearded guy holding a crystal ball but um i appreciate you and i’ve appreciated you since i met you you’re a beautiful guy i’m so thankful to
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be able to bring someone like you to the public so they know good things that are going on in our community and um they can be helpful if they if they can and if they need to be in touch they know about you you know yes thank you thank you for having me on what was good talking to you is there anything specifically that you’d like to share now that’s important you want to communicate just uh all try to we should all try to come together to have more peace in the world and listen to each other with kindness and
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compassion and empathy like i said when we started you’re reading my mail you talk like me maybe you’re you’re living it more than me i find i uh people can see the steam coming off me sometimes even when i talk gently uh it comes through with um i i call it frustration others might call it anger but sometimes frustration a little bit genesis young thank you for joining me here today on the neutral zone and uh i hope you’ll join us again and to all you out there in radio and tv land i hope that you will
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um reach out to us reach out to genesis if it’s appropriate and uh we will see you all again genesis thank you again for being here with me all right thanks so much aloha aloha hello everyone see you next time you
