Notes on Daniel's Interview with David Wolfe

Some Notes on Daniel's Interview with David Wolfe

I just want to make some brief notes about some of the main points that were made during the interview last night, and throw in a few things that seem relevant to the discussion.

One interesting point to bring up first: When I got on the phone last night, I was sitting in the computer room here with my beloved partner, who was writing on Facebook. Being in the raw food and alternative health for many years, she knows about David, or has heard a lot about him, and has decided she doesn't particularly care for him. When she heard David's voice come over my cell phone, she was like, "Ooh, I don't like that guy's energy, please go out of the room!"

So needless to say, I spent the conversation in the kitchen, chomping away at some raw salad while listening to what I felt to a very inspiring interview (think the call was on "mute," hope no one heard me!). I personally have been aware of David for years, but never really "met" the man behind the myth, so to speak -- until last night. Not that I really met the man either last night, but I at least impartially heard and was inspired by what he's saying and doing.

My comments on what was said will hew most closely toward D & D's discussion of yoga and plant medicine (David suggested Castaneda's word "allies"), because that's what I'm most interested in right now, and know best because I've been writing about it.

First, David noted that just being on the pure, raw superfood diet that he's on definitely puts him into entheogenic spaces in and of itself. As far as superfoods, his particular emphasis seems to be goji and cacao, but it's really about taking the #1 superfood from all the major cultures. For example, in the Indian/Yoga/Ayurvedic tradition, the #1 superfood is Shilajit. And not only that, but he's also all about taking the very best practices from each of these cultures and incorporating those streamlined practices into his daily life. He mentioned that he takes the very best practices from yoga, but he didn't elaborate (I'm sure he does on his website, and particularly his "Best Day Ever" Longevity program:
http://www.thebestdayever.com/BDE-promo.html ). Being a yogi, of course, I would love to hear what he does, but upon further research, it looks like he probably uses the Yoga Swing (which he has Dr. Robert Hugh Cassar demonstrate on in a video posted on his website: http://www.thebestdayever.com/blog/longevity-1/ ).

David highly touts the benefits of cacao, both for its entheogenic properties, and its scientifically proven
longevity benefits, and he made a point to say that people who
eat cacao statistically live longer even when they are doing other things that would otherwise shorten their lives.
(I'd like to note here that when prompted, David admitted to not having personally met anyone who is currently more than a vibrant 80 going on 120).

I find the whole cacao thing interesting, not only because
I have definitely experienced its entheogenic qualities firsthand -- it was my original "drug of choice" before I had explored any of the "psychedelic" entheogens -- but because others in the Raw Food field, like Paul Nisson, seem to think it's actually harmful for most people.

[Funny anecdote about this: Joshua Ellsworth, who is friends with David and another raw food teacher, was recently living in Naples for a couple of months, and he related to me how at one of Paul's lectures when he was putting down cacao, someone in the audience piped up, "So why are you still selling cacao on your website, Paul?" Apparently he didn't have a good answer besides something like "give the people what they want."]

I personally have mixed feelings about cacao, but then I have mixed feelings about "harder" entheogens, too. I feel that they can all be over-used, misused, and abused, and "it's in the way that you use it." People seem to get addicted to cacao (the "Cracao" phenomenon) and overdoing it, and my sense is that Paul's right, that it can actually weaken one's system.

David noted that the Mayan currency was cacao (something which Daniel noted in "2012"), and that it's a little known fact that when Maria Sabina gave Gordon Wasson his first psilocybin mushrooms in the mid-50s, it was in a cacao drink. I have yet to find a source for that on the internet, except this quote from "The Sacred Mushroom Seeker": "Cacao and sweet pastry were served on the veranda. I was reminded of the report from an ancient chronicle which described how chocolatl was drunk before the ingestion of teonanacatl." Not that I doubt what David said. The question that remained unanswered was the purpose of why cacao would be served along with (or prior to) the mushrooms. My sense is that it was just to loosen one up and maybe insure a smoother, more profound experience. I've been reading James Oroc's new book out on 5-MeO-DMT in which he talks about how taking LSD after 5-MeO made for a much more sourceful LSD experience, the likes of which he had never had before.

Obviously David's done quite a bit of entheogenic explorations himself, particularly into Amazonian shamanism and plant medicines (he noted he's not too much of a mycophile). I would love to hear more about his personal experiences with the plant "allies" (he noted how this term from Castaneda is so apt, even if the source was dubious!), but he probably didn't feel at liberty to say too much about it over the phone.

One last thing I'd like to bring up, partly because it gets into this "love/hate" thing people seem to have with David...David made a rather astounding claim last night, noting that he does get flak for saying it, and it's basically that he could never get sick, given his diet and lifestyle, but particularly his superfood-enhanced diet. Now, I don't know if that's the salesman in him coming out or what, but I really don't know how anyone could really make such a claim. After all, David did say that part of the fun of 2012 is that no one really knows what's going to happen on that date, and he's just as in the dark/light as the rest of us. So how can he really say for sure that he absolutely couldn't get sick?

The reason I bring this up is that last week, for the first time in a good 18 months, I got sick. I wasn't very sick, it was just a throat and head thing, really, but the body did become noticeably unwell. And I really don't get sick, and usually I also feel invincible and indefatigable. My students and friends seemed a little let down, like, "I thought you weren't supposed to get sick?" I thought so, too, but I do tend to take things to the limit, and I guess this time I just couldn't turn it around.

Interestingly enough, just this morning I got an email from Roger Haeske who styles himself as the "41 Year-Old Teenager," with videos and email classes on how to become a "superbeing" and look like 20 when you're 40 and beyond. In the email Roger apologizes for being away because, get this, he was very sick for a whole month due to pushing things to the limit, particularly lack of sleep.

So anyway, my question for David is how he can really make such a claim. I guess he can because he does, but it seems a little outrageous, actually.

That said, I really appreciated all that David shared last night, and am now inspired to read his books and follow what he's up to, because he really seems to be on the cutting edge of things. Maybe partly the reason why he has his detractors is just because of the "sour grapes" phenomenon with any public figure, people (the ego) always have to say, "Oh, he's not so great..." One Facebook comment this morning from a friend here in Naples was "Fuck David Wolfe..." So whatever. I hope we don't shoot the messenger, because he certainly has so much to offer. Thank you, David, and thank you, Daniel.