745: The Krishnas Got Us

Summary

Duncan Trussell Family Hour #745: “The Krishnas Got Us”

Date: March 29, 2026
Guest: Dakota Wint (Dakota of Earth)

---

Episode Overview

This episode features an expansive conversation between host Duncan Trussell and world traveler/adventurer Dakota Wint (Dakota of Earth). They dive deeply into Dakota’s transformative journeys across the globe—particularly his spiritual explorations in India, his investigations of psychedelics with ascetics, and his evolving relationship with faith and religious symbolism. Central themes include the intersection of drug-induced revelations and spiritual practice, the paradoxes of organized religion, and the strange, often paradoxical, nature of seeking truth in a chaotic world.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Returning Home After Spiritual Pilgrimage

• (03:39) Dakota discusses the challenges of readjusting to American life after long periods abroad, especially the superficiality and anxiety permeating Western society.
  • “You come home and you see everybody's neuroses here... it takes me about a month or two months. Well, this is actually longest period I've been home in probably 10 years.”
• (04:23) Duncan compares Western consumerist culture to propaganda in North Korea, questioning the meaning of “normalcy” in America.

2. Spiritual Adventures in the Holy Lands

• Dakota recounts his pilgrimage with spiritual teachers (Raghu, Krishna Das) in India and subsequently in Israel, where he was detained by the Israeli military at the tomb of Abraham for filming and wearing a “Palestine” shirt.
  • “I end up getting detained by the Israeli military at the tomb of Abraham... I had a shirt that said Palestine.” (05:28)

3. India, Psychedelics & The Mystics

• Dakota describes his viral YouTube video: taking 5-MeO-DMT with sadhus (holy men) in Varanasi (16:15, 17:11), detailing both the spiritual intensity and the cross-cultural oddities of bringing Western psychedelics to Indian ascetics.
  • “It's said that the yogis of India are able to achieve these states naturally. So I was curious to see what would happen.”

Notable Moments:

• Mataji’s Experience: In the cremation grounds, a revered female sadhu smokes DMT and experiences a profound moment, clearing her throat and yelling “Success” (19:12).
• Bhavani’s Reaction: Bhavani, a longtime sadhu friend, after smoking, simply says to Dakota, “Are you happy now?” (21:20), leading to a subtle critique of the “shortcut” of psychedelics vs. years of disciplined practice.

4. The Limits of Psychedelic Experience

• The pair riff on the parallels with Ram Dass and Neem Karoli Baba: that while psychedelics can open doors to mystical states, they can’t “keep you there” (27:53).
  • “This will bring you into the presence of Christ. But you can't stay there.” — Reflecting on the teachings Ram Dass received.

Quotable Insight:

• Bhavani to Dakota:
  “You do this [DMT] sadhana for 10 years... at the end I want you to use your voice, use your eyes, and nothing will work. Because for this 10 years, you've been sleeping. Sadhu means something different.” (22:53)

5. Spiritual Hierarchies & Existential Absurdity

• Duncan observes the inherent “dick contest” between Western seekers (armed with psychedelics) and Eastern renunciates (“Daddy-as-Guru” dynamics) (30:44).
• Dakota recounts a 15-hour hike to Kedarnath temple versus a friend who took a helicopter, using it as metaphor: the journey changes the arrival (33:22).

6. Authenticity Within Spiritual Practice

• Dakota shares a raw account of witnessing an Aghori buffalo sacrifice in India, being disturbed by the lack of reverence, and finding camaraderie with Bhavani—who shares his skepticism (44:44).
  • “I'm praying.” “This is not how you pray.” (45:04)
• Duncan relates this to the global “costume” of religion and power, lamenting that even the sacred can devolve into empty spectacle (47:06).

7. Symbolism, Idols, and Codes

• Dakota and Duncan discuss the deeper logic of religious icons (murtis), comparing Hindu statues to the Christian crucifix, and how both function as multidimensional “codes” or mystical technologies (58:34, 60:05).
  • “These are secret codes—each aspect of Ma Kali has a message hidden in it... eventually the code unlocks. It’s not just a statue.” (58:34)

8. Trauma, Faith, and Returning to Jesus

• Dakota speaks candidly about confronting the Christianity of his upbringing, reading the Bible for the first time, and recognizing both its cultural impact and spiritual relevance (83:36).
  • Reflects on how many experience Christianity more as trauma than inspiration, but still finds pearls of truth in revisiting the Gospels.

9. Universal Paradoxes and the ‘Bardo’

• Both contemplate whether modern life after the pandemic is, in some strange sense, the Tibetan Bardo—a liminal state defined by confusion, grief, and karma (69:49).
• “It might just be a flash that seems long.” — Dakota (71:55)

10. Winds of Karma, Non-Dualism, and Acceptance

• The conversation cycles back to acceptance, the Leela (divine play), karma, and paradoxes at the center of spiritual inquiry (73:13, 75:00).
  • “If it’s paradoxes, you’re getting close, because it’s never going to make logical sense… at some point you just have to say, yeah, God’s a blue kid playing with cows.” (75:00)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I want to see God. Let me see God. And immediately after seeing God, [Arjuna's] like, can you go back to not being God? I don't want to see God anymore. That's fucked up. Why'd you do that? I'm sorry.” — Duncan (09:08)
• “You got to do the whole thing to realize it, which is such a paradox.” — Dakota (48:32)
• “Krishna's got us.” — Dakota & Duncan (75:14, 58:04)
• “You don’t have to go to the temple, but you got to go through that to realize it.” — Dakota (48:40)
• “Your life... none of it makes much sense at all. But it’s dream logic. You wake up from that dream and you’re like, dude, I was living in Detroit, but before that I was hanging out with the aghoris... this is dream stuff.” — Duncan (71:55)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:52 – Adjusting to Detroit after years on the road
• 05:05 – First trip to India, then Israel; detained by Israeli military
• 14:33 – Getting stranded at an Amazonian ayahuasca center during covid
• 16:09 – 18:51 – Giving DMT to Indian sadhus, description of Varanasi cremation grounds
• 21:20 – Bhavani smokes DMT: “Are you happy now?”
• 27:53 – Psychedelics as glimpses, not permanent states; parallels to Ram Dass
• 33:22 – The Kedarnath trek—spiritual merit in struggle vs. shortcut
• 44:44 – Buffalo sacrifice, disillusionment, and meeting Bhavani
• 58:34 – Murtis as secret codes; statues as spiritual “technology”
• 69:49 – Are we living in the Bardo? The pandemic as a collective liminal state
• 75:00 – Embracing paradox: “God’s a blue kid playing with cows”
• 83:36 – Rediscovering the Bible, confronting Christian upbringing’s trauma
• 94:48 – “If you want to follow me, you must hate your family” (Luke 14:26), grappling with radical lines in Jesus’s teachings

---

Tone and Takeaways

• Playful yet probing: Both speakers blend humor, candor, irreverence, and awe.
• Reflexivity: They regularly question their own assumptions/experiences and the motivations behind seeking (or ridiculing) the transcendent.
• Inclusiveness: The episode serves as an inviting window for outsiders—acknowledging the appeal (and absurdity) of various spiritual “teams,” but always circling back to the universality of human searching.
• Vulnerability: Both Dakota and Duncan share personal moments of alienation, loss, and confusion alongside their mystical insights.

---

Where to Find Dakota Wint

• YouTube: Dakota of Earth
• Podcast: The Flowerhead Show (Be Here Now Network)
• Social media: @dakotawint

---

Final Reflection

The episode’s thesis, as summed up by the title: “The Krishnas Got Us.” Whether by design or accident, the sacred finds a way to penetrate the defenses—by ecstasy or trauma, in deities or dreams, psychedelics or parables. It is a wild ride between the profane and the numinous, “dream logic” included.

---

For more:

• Dakota Wint’s Flowerhead Show [Be Here Now Network]
• Duncan Trussell Family Hour [duncantrussell.com]

---

Transcript

[Duncan Trussell]

Welcome, friends. Today we have a very special episode for you. With us here today is one of the great psychedelic adventures of our time. Dakota Went, AKA Dakota of Earth, has been sharing his adventures with us on his YouTube channel, Dakota of Earth. Links are down below. This kid has traveled everywhere. He has taken frog poison with shamans in Peru. He has hung out with saints and witches all over the world. And they welcome him like a. Like a longtime friend because he is a super cool person and that's how you feel when you're hanging out with him. His most recent clip on YouTube, which you should watch, probably already has, it went super viral. Is of him heading out to the holy city of Varanasi where he smoked 5 Meo DMT with various sadhus, ascetics and holy people. Link down below. You should definitely check it out. And we're all lucky because Dakota has started a new podcast called the Flowerhead show, which you can find on the Be Here now network. It's wonderful. He's wonderful. So subscribe to the podcast, tune in to the Dakota Wind Stream. It's infinite, man. He blew my mind. Today. We're going to jump right into it. But first, quickly. I'm sorry, we got some dates coming up. Denver. I'm coming to you. I'm going to be at the Denver Comedy Works this weekend. That's March 26th through the 28th. After that, come see me in Rosemont at Zany's. That's going to be April 9th through the 11th. And then after that, April 16th through the 18th, I'm going to be at the Bricktown Comedy Club in Tulsa. You can find all my [e-mail] tour and also, I'd love it if you would come join me on one of my night streams. It's my newest project. I guess that makes it sound a little more serious than it is, but it is an incredible experience that is now being called by the Pulitzer Prize foundation the most powerful live stream on the planet. Something that really could save us all. I said something that really could save us all. Pulitzer people said the other thing. Not Pulitzer, Pulitzer. It's a different Pulitzer group, but they're still respected. And now, everyone please welcome to the dtfh Dakota Wint. Dakota, how you doing, man?

[Dakota Went]

I'm doing very good. How are you?

[Duncan Trussell]

I'm great. I've been looking forward to this conversation for a while. Me too, man. It's gotta be weird, right? So you are. You're in Detroit right now, but it's. How do you. You are, I think the most traveled person I know personally. You're always in some strange situation in the world. You're a traveler and I'm not a traveler. But the one time I went to India, when I came back to the United States, dude, I was freaked out for a few weeks. Reintegrating into the west from being in the East. So how does it feel to be in Detroit right now when the world seems to be your home?

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, it is always an adjustment coming home. And especially like just you come home and you see everybody's neuroses here. Like all it's all fully politics and there's no conversation that has any depth or meaning. And when you're gone for a long time and you come back, it's so obvious. Yeah, like people mad the drive thru's taken too long or this TV is just blaring some, you know, some message that just got you in the loop. And I noticed that a lot coming home and it takes me about a month or two months. Well, this is actually longest period I've been home in probably 10 years. I've been home for like three months now and just hanging out with my mom and just relaxing. But yeah, it's an adjustment for sure. Even being around my mom, I can see like my, you know.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, you're in a. It's like we see people will sneak a camera into North Korea and we're like those brainwashed fools, you know what I mean? But when you say you get used to it, it just means you become what? Toxified enough that any of this shit makes sense. You get to a certain place where you're back into the resonance of the United States, which right now is as fucked up is it's probably been in most people's lifetimes.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I don't know, I'm in my own world most of the time.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. What is that world?

[Dakota Went]

I don't know. You know, just hang out. I don't really pay attention too much to like the news or all the political stuff unless I have to. Well, you know, right now I'm kind of in it because I went to one of my first times leaving the us I went to India with Raghu and Krishna Das and those guys. They took me up pretty much on my first trip. And after that I went to Israel to go see all the Jesus sites.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yes.

[Dakota Went]

And I never really did so much with this footage I filmed from there. But I'm going through all of it now and just kind of reliving it and I'M visiting, you know, the tombs where Jesus is supposed to have been and this and that, the Abraham. But in the end of all this pilgrimage I'm on, I end up getting detained by the Israeli military at the tomb of Abraham. Just what. I still don't fully understand why. I guess it's because I had a camera and my shirt, and they didn't. Like, I had a shirt that said Palestine. And so, like, you know, what the fuck?

[Duncan Trussell]

That's how your trip. That's how your trip to Israel ends, is getting busted at a fucking tomb for wearing the wrong shirt. That's where we're at right now, this holy site there you are completely benevolent, just exploring this beautiful place. And they fucking. How do.

[Dakota Went]

With a gun.

[Duncan Trussell]

With a gun? They held a gun on you?

[Dakota Went]

Well, I don't fully understand. They didn't explain it to me much. It was just because I had a camera out and I was walking around and I was filming, and it's impossible. This is a place where the settlers are a lot. So you see a lot of that. You know, that one video of the guy that's like. I'm just. If I don't take it, someone else is gonna take it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dakota Went]

This is like that. This is that area. And so you get to experience that a lot. And they don't want people with cameras, I guess. Even though it's not Israel, you're in a. I'm in a different country in Palestine, but I'm being detained by a foreign military. And I don't want to get all to the politics stuff, but, yeah, that's. You know, I'm working on a video of that right now.

[Duncan Trussell]

I don't know if there's any way to talk about Israel without becoming political to some degree. But you got. I mean, to me, one of the things that blows my mind about Israel and it's one of the things that will keep you up at night is that here you have this insane nexus of these world religions that are landing in this one zone that right now seems like it actually could be the place that World War three kicks off from. And, you know, people always talk about, you know, like, Sedona, man. It's got vortexes and stuff. And it's like, dude, the Middle East, Israel is the ultimate planetary vortex, right? Like, the energy that's swirling around there is so powerful that, you know, it's seems to just be, like, always emanating history, always. Like, what is going on there? Like, what's your take on that?

[Dakota Went]

Well, it feels like we Want God to present itself in a nice way.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yes.

[Dakota Went]

But I think this is, you know, in the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna reveals his true form.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yes.

[Dakota Went]

That's what I kind of see happening.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

You know, the whole Gita takes place on a battlefield.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And then Krishna. Arjun says, krishna, you know, you came to me as a friend. You came to me as a charioteer, but, you know, who are you, actually? Show me who you are for yourself. And then all of a sudden, it's like that shriek of a minor chord on a piano.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

The air gets sucked out of the room, and Arjun's just on the ground like, okay, take me back to the battlefield, please. Because Krishna's true form is like a cosmic mouth killing everything.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

The whole battlefield's happening in his mouth. And, you know, Arjun is just begging for that to stop. I want to go back to the illusion of the battlefield. And I think God is presenting itself in a way that we're not. We don't have the eyes to see. But I think that's what I see in the world right now.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. You see somebody who needs to floss dead bodies out of its teeth. I mean, this is the description mixed in with, like, you know. My favorite part in that verse is when Arjuna has asked a classic human question. I want to see God. Let me see God. And immediately after seeing God, he's like, can you go back to not being God? I don't want to see God anymore. That's fucked up. Why'd you do that? I'm sorry. He actually apologizes his immediate. The first. I think he just says, I am so sorry. Cause they were friends, so he was.

[Dakota Went]

For eating in front of you.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, I'm sorry for eating in front of you. I'm sorry for any way I offended you. I'm sorry for what? You know, because he, like, realized who he's hanging out with, and then he's like, can you just go back? The funniest parts of me is, I think he says, can you go back to your normal forearmed form or something? I like you with forearms, not an infinite number of arms. Destroying everything. Yeah. And you're right. I think that's a good take, my friend. I think that's a good take. And I don't think that. I think that, you know. Yeah. Humanity. Maybe there's something exciting about being part of history. But then when history starts happening, you're like, maybe, is there a way to go back to the 90s? Can we have no history for a little Bit because it's scary as fuck.

[Dakota Went]

Well, it's the face of Kali, you know?

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, the face of Kali. And the. You know. But wouldn't you also say that, like, somewhere embedded in the impulse to take psychedelics is that very same thing that made Arjuna ask Krishna to show him who he really was?

[Dakota Went]

For some people. Yeah, I think. I think some people have that can, you know, use psychedelics that way.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. Because you get this sense of being sort of neurologically blindfolded. You have some general intuition. There's more. Right. And then you hear about psychedelics and you're interested, like, what could this show me? I want to see more than just this. And then it shows itself to you. And sometimes you can have a similar experience to.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, that is like a psychedelic trip in that moment.

[Duncan Trussell]

It is. Wouldn't you say? It is a psychedelic trip. And this shows up. I was just listening to some AM radio tent revival. I love tuning to those, especially when the static's getting in there. It just sounds so crazy. But this old southern preacher was citing some part of the Bible I was unfamiliar with, basically, and I don't remember which patriarch this was, wanted to see God. And God was like, you can't. It would kill you to see me. And then, so in the story, God, like, says, but I'll walk behind you. And just that, like, exploded his brain. And so. But it seems like you are just like Arjun in your own way. You are going.

[Dakota Went]

We all are.

[Duncan Trussell]

That's true. But not all of us are going to India with DMT and giving it to saints, gurus, shaivites. But why did you decide?

[Dakota Went]

My situation particularly is because I had a hold on.

[Duncan Trussell]

You know what? Why don't we show the clip in case people aren't familiar with your work. I think most people are by now, but we'll. We'll just show this clip.

[Dakota Went]

It worked a little bit, didn't it? Didn't you? You got to see the power of it a little bit, right?

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

See, you are not your personal man. Yeah. Why I am deciding to your thoughts.

[Duncan Trussell]

I am right on you asking to

[Dakota Went]

myself, what is the reality?

[Duncan Trussell]

Shiva is a reality. That reality, not your inside. You're not selecting one way. Baba.

[Dakota Went]

My root means what

[Duncan Trussell]

I am asking till you.

[Dakota Went]

One root means what?

[Duncan Trussell]

One reality. This is the truth.

[Dakota Went]

And he smoked probably three or four times. It's said that the yogis of India are able to achieve these states naturally. So I was curious to see what would happen.

[Duncan Trussell]

So. Whoa, man.

[Dakota Went]

Why so? Long story short is I met this I got invited to an ayahuasca center called Arcana that's in the jungle in the Amazon. And I go there, and I end up making friends with the owner and the shamans. And the pandemic hits, and I get trapped there. I think, okay, you know, the airport's closed. Everything closes.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

All the guests are gone. I'm just with the shamans and a couple of facilitators, and I'm there. I'm like, I'll wait a week. You know, how bad can it be? Two weeks. Okay. We're going to open in a week. Okay, three weeks. It gets close for three months, and I have to take a rescue flight back to Miami.

[Duncan Trussell]

Wow.

[Dakota Went]

But so I build a relationship with the people at this center, and that includes the owner, who he is kind of a shaman in his own way. And he uses that toad from Sonora that.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And he gives. I've watched him give it to, I don't know, 200 people. And he wanted to go to India, and this was his goal, you know? So I said, okay, I have some Sadu friends. I'll connect you, and we'll see what happens. And we found ourselves in India, and we were in. First we went to Mog Mela. I think it was in Pragraj, if you know what Prayagarage was, where they do the big kum mela and stuff. So it's a sacred place.

[Duncan Trussell]

Okay.

[Dakota Went]

And we're just hanging out with the Sadus there, making friends and explaining it to them. We give it to the first guy, and he. You kind of see his reaction where he freaks out a little bit. He has a normal reaction to someone that, you know is experiencing something like that. Yeah, People freak out sometimes.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

He does it again, and this time he kind of gets it. And he starts crying.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And he says he sees a fully generated Maha Vishnu and the place where all the rishis are doing tapas. They're meditating and praying for everybody.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And at one point, that's weird, too, that people skip over. He goes, God, Jesus came into my body and was blessing all people.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dakota Went]

It's a weird thing that people skim over when they watch the video.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, it's weird, you mean, because it's like suddenly he's no longer using sort of like Eastern representations about a mahu fish new.

[Dakota Went]

And then all of a sudden you

[Duncan Trussell]

say, I. Yeah, yeah.

[Dakota Went]

Which makes sense, you know, why wouldn't he be there?

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Dakota Went]

And then we give it to this Mataji and Bhavani, which are like the sadhus that I spend the most time with for, like, the past five years. These are the guys I've been hanging out with, this Mataji and Bhavani, and we give it to the Mataji. We're in, actually Varanasi, on the other side of the river, on the spooky side.

[Duncan Trussell]

And wait, just. Again, I think most people who watch or listen to this podcast or know about the other side of the Ganges, but for those who might not know about it, can you just describe it?

[Dakota Went]

Yeah. So sometimes they do these cremations in Varanasi, and these cremations have been unbroken for, I don't know, thousands of years, they say. And in this exact spot, people want to die there. They want to be burned there. It helps you liberate many karmas and, you know, reach some kind of spiritual liberation. So people die there. Sometimes people are too afraid, too poor to even afford the wood. And I don't know how much it is, maybe a couple hundred bucks. But sometimes people can't even afford this, so they just throw the body in the water body just ends up on the other side or getting pulled in. Wherever it gets pulled, the dogs come and fight it. They're pulling it out of the shore. So you see the bodies with just a head or one arm, no hands. So we're on this side of the river, and the mataji is just sitting there, and you can see the smoke behind her from the bodies burning, and you can see the Ganga. And it's just the whole life of Varanasi, all the chaos and everything there.

[Duncan Trussell]

Monkeys.

[Dakota Went]

Monkeys, yeah, monkeys.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. I mean, just to add, just like.

[Dakota Went]

Just sort of the monkeys.

[Duncan Trussell]

Just sort of the cherry on. Yeah, you got. You got monkeys running around on top. Everything else, I mean, we're talking like, this is just like another planet. This is another dimension. It's very hard to. Dead bodies, cows. Dead cows floating down the river with, like, birds riding them. Like edible rafts.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, it's so true. Yeah, it's good. And we're sitting there, and she smokes it, and she just sits there. And then at some point, she starts, like, clearing her throat, but in, like, an intense way, like. And she goes hard, hard. Maha Dave. And she opens her eyes and goes. Success.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. Yeah, that was success. It was very.

[Dakota Went]

I have the audio of it. It's so funny.

[Duncan Trussell]

Fascinating.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, Let me film it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, that also is interesting. I think that's really smart. I mean, just. I don't want it. I don't want someone filming me on 5 and me o dmt.

[Dakota Went]

I get it too. I get it too.

[Duncan Trussell]

It's such a powerful substance, man. I, I, I mean, we were treating

[Dakota Went]

them kind of like, you know, like, I don't want to say we're treating them like guinea pigs. I didn't look at it that way in the moment, but in retrospect I can see that, you know, like we were curious to see what would happen. Well, yeah, Bhavani. I was talking to Bhavani. Years I'd known him at years at this point. And I'm telling him, you know, I'm. Because I talked to him about ayahuasca and all this stuff and I said, okay, we're going to show you, you know. Yeah, prepare yourself because this is not hanging out in the cremation grounds. This is chemistry. You can't, you're going to experience something. He don't care. Okay, give it to me. I'll do whatever, you know, he goes after Mataji. He's sitting there, and my friend Jose, the shaman, he lights up this pipe. It's a clear pipe. It's like a big kind of, I don't know, something you see like in a chemistry set or something, like a big clear bulb. And you can see the smoke just clear it. A completely white cloud inside of it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

It would send anybody to, you know, outer space.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

Most people in this moment immediately collapse. You just become. I collapse. When I tried it, I just turned into a corpse. You lift my arm, it would have just fell right back down to the ground. I had no connection to the body, no nothing. Just dead, basically.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

Bhavani hits it and he just sits there and there's a picture in the video I got, I snuck a picture. And he's just sitting there and I'm kind of waiting to see what happens. And maybe only five minutes, pretty short. He, like, clears his throat and he opens his eyes and he leans into me and he goes, are you happy now? And I was just like, oh, my God. Because I knew what he meant, but I didn't want to. Like, I was still. Even though I knew in the moment, my brain was still processing it. You know what I mean?

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, yeah. The Guru Burn. That's the Guru Burn. Ouch. Ouch. But, you know, I think, you know, people who saw that probably came away with their own conclusion about what he meant. But to you, what did that mean?

[Dakota Went]

Well, I've talked to him about it, so, you know, he's explained to me what he meant and I don't know, I actually uploaded some Audio clips. Because I record all our audio talks. We talk for hours on the phone sometimes, and I just can't hit record. And sometimes, you know, it's casual, sometimes it's real deep. And I put some audios in a video also on that channel. But he was just like, what? He told me after he said, are you happy? I say, okay, explain it to me. What did you experience? You know, tell me. I know it did something. So what happened? And he goes, you get to see some 10 minute light. It comes and it shows you, okay, spiritual power exists. But then it goes and it goes, it's gone. Where is the power? He says, he looked at me and he goes, where is that? Where is your power from that? You can do it. He told me, you can do it. I'll give you 10 years, you do this. You do this, Sadhana for 10 years, you smoke your DMT. And at the end of the 10 years, I'm gonna give you a patient and I want you to use your voice, use your eyes, and nothing will work. Because for this 10 years, you've been sleeping. And he goes, sadhu means something different.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

Sapo. That's what we call it. Sapo means toad in Spanish. Sapo and sadhana. Sadhu means light forever.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And I had to, I had, I tried every single little way to fight with him about this.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

But it's the white light. This is Brahma loka, you know, this is taking you to the immersive white light.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And he goes, man, that's just your thoughts. You're just. You're dreaming.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. Yeah. This episode of the DTFH has been supported by Squarespace. We're all inspired by Dakota Went. I don't know what part of the episode this commercial is going to land in, but holy shit, look at what Dakota went did. He blasted the whole planet with his adventures. He threw it out there into time space. And what better way to amplify whatever it is you're doing than with an incredible website? This is where Squarespace comes in. It is a kind of hyperdimensional Swiss army knife for actualizing and extantiating your work, your life's work, whatever it is, onto the world Wide web. This isn't some ancient, musty HTML designing editor bullshit. This is some hardcore dropped out of an UFO style website. Social media, all things Internet service, they blow my mind. You want to use AI to help you build a website and you can do that. You want to buy a website, of course you could do that with Squarespace and It's easy. That's the main thing. It's easy. These aren't the old days when you had to suffer and suffer and suffer. If you wanted to make a website, with Squarespace's incredible suite, technological design tools, you can create a beautiful, powerful website like the one you'll find at Duncan Trussell. It's there for you. I use it all the time. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I'll wake up and want to build a website. Check out Sheraton's Flight, a website I made about my child, not to make it dark during a commercial, who unfortunately drifted away because I tied too many balloons to him. It's an activist site and I made it with Squarespace. And it was easy because anytime I think of Sheraton, I. Can you just stop it for a second, Josh? The point is. Sorry about that. The point is, Squarespace is amazing and it's got everything you need. You should try it out. You can take it for a ride around the block by going to squarespace.com duncan. Use offer code Duncan. When you're ready to launch, you're going to get 10% off your first order of a website or a domain. Again, it's squarespace.com duncan. Use offer code duncan to get 10% off your first order of a website or a domain. Thank you, Squarespace. Yeah. Yeah, you got it. I was just reading. I can't remember which Lama was saying this, but it's essentially the idea that, like, Nirvana and Samsara are. It's the same thing, that as long as you're encapsulated within the mind realm, it doesn't matter. The highest of high states is no different from the lowest of low states because you're still trapped, so to speak, within your mind state, whatever it may be. And, like, do you think that's what he was talking about? It's like it. What you've done here is you've basically gotten somebody to come in and paint an incredible mural on your prison cell. You're still in prison. Yeah, it's a great painting, but you're. Yeah, you're still here.

[Dakota Went]

In the audio talks, he's saying, like, there is only one reality. And as long as you're constantly chasing some temporary vision or something, you'll never realize what that reality is because you're not looking in the proper place. Yeah, you're getting hypnotized by the flashes. And, yeah, the flashes are hypnotizing, but, like, you're just being hypnotized. You have to be. You have to have the strength to examine the thing that is beyond that flash. What is the thing that's holding all the flashes? Basically what I think he was trying to point me towards.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And what the psychedelic is trying to point you towards, ultimately.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is like. So what you experience there obviously runs parallel to Ram Dass. Like at that moment you were doing what Ram Dass did with a different psychedelic. You're going through India, giving it to various people, see how they react. And weirdly, it led you to a very similar experience, which is that in the way that Neem Karoli Baba told Ram Dass regarding lsd, this will bring you into the presence of Christ. But you can't stay there. Like you come down. It seems like this is the general message coming from some of these people, which is, yeah, it's real. I mean, yeah, this is a place and it's something. But you don't stay there. You're just, what are you going to do? You can't smoke, put a gas mask on that blows 5 Meo DMT into your face for the rest of your life. At some point you've got to find a way to get here minus the substance or understand where you already are. But this is so though I do love those stories. And I get it, man, I get it. I don't know how many fucking moments of psychedelic induced enlightenment I've had followed by a few weeks later just being a complete person. Prick, you know, I don't know. Every time, every time, every time. But there is a level to this thing which is really interesting and it reminds me of like people racing sports cars or something. It's like the Westerner goes to India with science in the form of psychedelics. Look at science, behold science. And then the Easterner is like, your science is nothing compared to my science, you know what I mean? And so then you get a weird kind of dick swinging contest between science and the enlightened mind. And there's something to me in there. If you brush aside all the like spiritual teaching in there, which is real, you probably shouldn't do that, but just for the sake of it, brush it aside, you have one of the most hilariously absurd things happening, which is like just two people, you know what I mean? Arguing over the ephemeral reality in a sort of sophisticated way. Do you know what I mean? Like at some existential level, it's pure absurdity, you know, it's like, you know, different. It's, it's just the same fucking experience. You're human. I don't know, maybe you're wandering around in some clear translucent light all the goddamn time, but I smoke fucking toad secretions to do it. And don't judge me, bro. You know what I mean?

[Dakota Went]

Yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

Like, seriously, that to me is what's really. That's what I sort of wanted to ask you about, which is your thoughts on spiritual hierarchy. Because built into all these stories, built into the story of Ram Dass, built into the story of any Westerner encountering the great enlightened being from the east, is an inevitable daddy thing. Daddy is home now and Daddy's going to give you a little spank and then set you on your right course and do you know what I mean?

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

[Duncan Trussell]

What. What are you. What are your thoughts on that?

[Dakota Went]

Well, it reminds me of, like, you. I don't know if you remember Terence McKenna saying. He's like, you can. You can go sweep the ashram for, I don't know, however long you want, but your knees will never shake the way they do when you're packing the bowl for the dmt. Yeah, like, what are you going to do? You know? You're going to donate your life to achieving some kind of awareness or you're going to smoke this? Yeah, maybe I used to agree with that.

[Duncan Trussell]

How about neither?

[Dakota Went]

Or neither?

[Duncan Trussell]

You know, I'm talking about that.

[Dakota Went]

There is. Yeah, there is a.

[Duncan Trussell]

There is other options that that thing McKenna was doing. It's just the same fucking dick swinging. It's a. It's the dick swinging. It's like, yeah, go ahead and sweep the ashram. I'm going to Niagara's Vivian as beauty every day. Yeah. It's like, dude, relax. Like you. You know what I mean? But I love it and I sound like I'm judging it. I have done it and do it. But we're talking about the Western sort of emergent, I don't know, psychedelic religion that in a thousand years will probably be more pronounced and definable, meeting this ancient religion that more than likely has as its roots some kind of psychedelic from which a lot of.

[Dakota Went]

I think. I think there is a hierarchy. I don't know if hierarchy is the right word to use because. Because it kind of is a conflict. Conflict, conflicting word. Hierarchy is like king and peasants or whatever. But I think there are methods that I don't want to say better because again, that implies something. But, you know, there are methods that are. For example, I went to Kedarnath, which is like this temple in India. It's like, I think they Say Adi Shankaracharya built it or something. Yeah, it's very like 2000 years old. People pilgrimage there to get there. I went with Bhavani and a couple other people and it's a 15 hour hike to get to the top.

[Duncan Trussell]

Wow.

[Dakota Went]

My friend took the helicopter up there. So we met him at the top and me and bhavani took the 15 hour walk up. And the whole time I'm like, what is raining, by the way?

[Duncan Trussell]

Should have taken the helicopter.

[Dakota Went]

Should have taken the helicopter. The whole time I'm like, jesus, dude, what am I doing? I don't, I don't even care about this temple. Why am I. Yeah, you know, I don't. And the whole time I'm like, my legs. I don't know if I can make it. This is horrible. Oh God, what am I doing? I should just go home. All the things come up and then by the time I get to the temple, I'm like. I'm like, okay, I kind of understand a little bit.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

My friend has. Didn't have that experience. Even though we're going to the same place, it's like again, it's not a hierarchy because we're both at the same place, but you just, you get something different if you take steroids first.

[Duncan Trussell]

If you go, take the stairs. Stairs versus steroids. And. Yeah, you know the. Yeah, I know what you mean. And like, this is, you know, sort of like the AI trap. Weirdly, I started using this generative AI and that drove me into wanting to learn how to do actual art. Like it was generating shit that was sort of like what I wanted to see but a million miles away. And I realized, my God, somehow my garbage sketches that don't look glossy and good at all by any standard are so much better than the best thing this thing is spitting out because it somehow got me wound up in it. And also the struggle of learning how to draw and the bursts of joy you get when you sort of get to another level when you understand something you haven't been understanding. This is being taken from you. If you fly the helicopter up, you're missing out on this unknown series of thoughts or experiences that happen on the journey. But you both end up at the top of the fucking thing at the temple. You're both there and this is. Okay, this is what I'm trying to get at. And I'm not doing a good job, I don't think. But let me try again. You, you're just such a cool person. And when I saw this encounter, I thought, man, accidentally this. This person that. This actualized being that, you know, I think it's. I could just tell from looking at him you just want to hang out with that dude. He's cool as fuck.

[Dakota Went]

He's crazy, too.

[Duncan Trussell]

And, sure, but also, I got a real sense of, like, some spiritual version of alpha male dominating. You know what I mean? Like, an alpha male. Yes. And right at that point, unfortunately for me, that's the crack in the windshield, and the whole fucking thing falls apart because it's like, dude, Dakota's cool as fuck, and you know what I mean? Like, he could. As far as I could tell, he's as enlightened as you are. Like, you know what I mean? Like, in that. That's where I run.

[Dakota Went]

That's where I understand that perspective.

[Duncan Trussell]

Krishnamurti used to do this, and I hated him for it. He would be just. He would just be like, what are you doing with this meditation bullshit? Like, why are you complicating your foot life with this nonsense? Like, what are you doing? What are you trying to fix? Where are you trying to go? Because both you and him, what are you guys. You both like the light thing that you like the thing. You're interested in the thing. Oh, we all are. But Krishnamurti seems to be saying, who cares about that? You're in the light right now, whether you want to be or not. And you know what I mean? You're tricking yourself into. Into having these heightened experiences and imagining a destination, the top of the dimple when you're already on the top of the dimple. And maybe that is not satisfying. We want to climb the stairs.

[Dakota Went]

You got to climb the stairs to realize it in a way. You know, like, you got to take the hard. You got to do the whole trip to realize. Okay, I didn't have to do that to begin with. Well, I think that's just the breaking of the structures that we have. That's just biology and stuff.

[Duncan Trussell]

Stuff. Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And also, just to go back to, like, these sort of things, like Krishnamurti saying this or Bhavani having his kind of way of saying it, I think also they're just saying how they see. Even though there is ego, it's kind of. It's. It's. It's impossible to escape having some kind of, you know, authority into what you. Your beliefs and what you're saying. And you can look at it that way as being like, yeah, there's this alpha male kind of presentation to it, but also, it's like, it's true.

[Duncan Trussell]

Let me just really Emphasize this. I'm sorry if it seems like. If I seem a little flippant about someone who I think means a lot to you, and I just. Oh, no, no, no.

[Dakota Went]

I'm not offended even a little bit.

[Duncan Trussell]

Okay, great. Because I feel like in the.

[Dakota Went]

No, he is a psychopath. I've seen him in many different ways. You know, I don't look at him as being like this radiant, actualized being. Like, you're saying you've seen him.

[Duncan Trussell]

What do you mean, psychopath?

[Dakota Went]

I've seen them all go through all types of situations. Like, I've seen him in his. In his process of becoming, you know, in the battle of this. I do life, you know, it's not like it's a.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right.

[Dakota Went]

It's a struggle too, you know?

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And sure. Like, okay, we were talking about cows and stuff, wrangling cows, and I told you the first time I ever seen anything like that was when a guy. I saw someone chop a cow's head off in India. This is where I met Bhavani. So I'll just paint this picture quickly.

[Duncan Trussell]

Okay. Please. You don't have to make it quick. This sounds like a cool story.

[Dakota Went]

I'm in Hyderabad, which is a very random place towards the south of India. Not like a tantric place or an Aghori place, but I was following this Aghori guy called Manikundin, and he wears these big necklace of human heads. Skulls.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And really? The Aghori, you know, Theater.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And I'm basically joined this circus of agoris, and we're just traveling around, and they're opening this temple in a village, a makali. Agor temple.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

The way they initiate the temple is to sacrifice a baby buffalo and pour the blood all over the place.

[Duncan Trussell]

Okay.

[Dakota Went]

So I'm. I'm like, okay, I'm here for this. I'm curious to see. And I don't look at these guys again as being like some Buddhas or something. I'm seeing them on their phones and taking stuff, selfies and the whole thing, you know, They're. They're. It's a circus.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And they have me joining it. You know, they got me in the human ash. I'm all white and wearing, like, a little red thong. And they're Got me, look, the. The baba has American followers.

[Duncan Trussell]

Look. Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

American. They got me presented like the token. A gory foreigner.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

Everyone's hypnotized by the ceremony. They got the. You know, all the whole thing going on. The skulls, the fire.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And I'm there maybe a week at this exact temple. And the day comes to kill the buffalo. And they bring the buffalo in and it's like mid ceremony. We've been playing the drum. The smoke is, you know, rubbing your eyes and all the smoke in the room. And it's a serious part now. And I was taking it serious because you're about to kill this animal. You know, I'm about to watch you kill this animal and they bring it in and they're holding it by its leg and they were just like giggling like schoolboys and they were taking selfies and they were taking pictures of me and I was just like, I don't know. I just felt so disrespected that you're about to offer this life and you're not. You have zero focus to what's happening right now. This is, you know, a theater for the. For us watch, for the people watching and for the Facebook people watching and stuff. Yeah, but it's real. You're about to kill this animal.

[Duncan Trussell]

Just got a super chat. Hold on. Yeah, don't. Let me just do the super chats. Then we'll cut this buffalo's head off.

[Dakota Went]

He was live just now before we got on the. On the thing. The so gory was live on YouTube. And, you know, no, no problem against him. He was interesting to hang out with. He meditated on his mom when she died. There's videos of him sitting on top of his dead mom. So, you know, he's doing something. I can't judge that, I guess.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, definitely something.

[Dakota Went]

They take an axe.

[Duncan Trussell]

This episode of the DTFH has been supported by my friends at Amantara. And actually, they are my friends. These are some super cool human beings who are giving access to one of the most amazing psychedelics around to anybody who wants it. Amanita muscaria. It's hiding in plain sight, friends. This is an incredible psychoactive substance, works on the GABA receptors and I absolutely love it. And it's legal. That's what's amazing about it. Legal to the point that you've probably seen it in gas stations. They sell it there.

[Dakota Went]

Don't.

[Duncan Trussell]

Don't do gas station amanita muscaria. Please don't. You have no idea what you're getting. That's the problem. If you're at a Chevron buying psychedelics, probably something is amiss. And I only say that because I've done it. I've done it. I've bought gas station Amanita. And the reason I did that is because I Had so many great experiences with Amantara's Amanita muscaria, and I assumed it was all the same. It is not all the same. I went into a sweaty Lynchian hell realm thanks to the Chevron. Amanita, whatever the fuck it was. I don't even know if it was the Chevron. It was some gas station. The point is, the Amantara specializes in amanita done properly, clean, sourcing, clear education, no sketchy Mini mart mushrooms, gummy nonsense. They are the largest importers and exporters of amanita in the United States. States for a reason. And they've helped over 50,000 plus people find this mushroom. They also carry other plant medicines, but amanita is really their thing and it shows. If you're curious, you can check them out at www.amantara.com, go forward slash Duncan. That's www.amantara.com. go Duncan and use code Duncan22 for 22% off. You can find that link wherever you're getting this podcast in the description or down below. If you're watching this on YouTube, I recommend starting low, seeing how it feels for you, and just treating it like you'd recommend something to a friend with curiosity and respect. Remember, kids, you can always take more. You can never take less. Thank you, Amantara.

[Dakota Went]

And they're about to kill the buffalo. And I'm so offended that I just stop participating. And I sit in the middle of the temple and I just close my eyes and in my head I'm, you know, like, fuck, I'm. If they're not gonna be here with you as you leave your little baby buffalo body, I'm here.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

You know, I know I look stupid. I can hear them taking pictures of me and laughing.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And one of the little weasel, Gogori guys, I can still see his face. He comes up and he, like, taps me real hard and he goes, what are you doing? And I said, I'm praying. And he goes, this is not how you pray. And everyone in the temple laughed. And then they cut the buffalo's head off. They take the head and they pour the blood all over the Kali statue. And they're all screaming and playing their drums. And I just sat there and took it. I walked outside and I. At this moment, I was like, I hate India. You know, this is. I can't. I. I've given. I've been in India like 5 years at this point, and I was like, I've given it such a genuine attempt. And no matter which direction I go this is kind of what I'm met with. I've tried, you know, and, like, this is my last attempt. I'm. I'm. You know, maybe before. I don't know, maybe they're myths or maybe before, I don't know. Kyle. Yuke.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

I go outside and there's like, a tent and stuff, and it's dark, and I just go sit down. And there's one person outside just sitting there. And I walk over, and that's Bhavani. Ah. And that's how I meet him. He's just sitting there, and I end up just talking to him.

[Duncan Trussell]

Cool.

[Dakota Went]

And he's telling me, too. He's being very honest because, you know, this is not real agor. You know, this is just. I go, yeah, I know. You know? I know. You know. Obvious.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And he was there the same as me. Just because he heard about the temple opening. He wanted to come experience it.

[Duncan Trussell]

That's cool. Yeah. Because what you described just sounds to me like a fraternity initiation. It just sounds like a bunch of dudes jerking off on crackers and eating the cheese.

[Dakota Went]

They tried to initiate me.

[Duncan Trussell]

I was like, of course they did. That's gonna get you. That's the idea. But it's not. Yeah, it's like. It's. This is like. You know, Kali Yuga is for those of you who might not be familiar with what that means. We are in the final age. This is the age of disintegration. Everything's falling apart. People are just dumb. Dumb. It's just dumb and confused and lost. And so you see the manifestation of confusion wearing the sort of costume of non confusion, but which makes it even that much more confusing because it's like these. Surely here they figured it out. Then you realize, no, there is zero difference between this and any other group of bros hanging out. Except generally in the west, they barbecue. You see it after the head has been cut off. You don't see the literal head getting cut off. And they reacted to you like the way some bros would react to, like, a vegan at a barbecue. Like, what are you fucking doing? Why? You don't like fucking barbecue? Hey, we got a vegan over here. Come on, have a hot dog. Yeah. And that's it. And so then you see this everywhere. Now. It doesn't matter. It's literally. You see it in the presidency. You know, you see the fucking presidents of Psycho Loon. Just the whole regime is fucking nuts. You see it in regimes around the world. You just see that people are wearing a costume. Now that used to not be a costume or. It was like it was real. And now everything is being revealed as illusion. And where does that leave us?

[Dakota Went]

Well, it leaves us with what we were looking for to begin with in some weird way.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dakota Went]

Except like you said, like, you don't have to go to the temple, but you got to go through that to realize it. So it's bringing us. You got to do the whole thing to realize it, which is such a

[Duncan Trussell]

paradox, you know, like my meditation teacher. God help him. God help him. David Nickturn. We were just eating sandwiches. And you know how these like Vajrayana people are like, they just, they slip the heavy shit under the door, man. You don't even. You have no. You don't even. It's easy to miss. Or just sitting there eating sandwiches in like, just this mundane sandwich shop. And he looks at me and just kind of like in a half handed way, he's like, you know, everything's a temple, right, Duncan? Like, everything's a temple. And then just went back to eating his sandwich. And I've thought about that for fucking years after that, you know. But you don't want, like this is, isn't this the whole like game we're playing with ourselves, which is you don't want it? No, I don't want this to be a temple. I want this to be profane. Because if this is profane, I can escape it into the temple. But it's like, no, there isn't. You know, there really isn't a better side of the Ganges. It's all fucked up on either side of that river. I mean, like, on one side you got washed up corpses of people who couldn't afford to get cremated. On the other side you got people fucking making money off of wood to burn bodies.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

You know what I mean? You know what I mean? You keep going further out, you got people making bombs to blow up kids, you know, so both sides of the river. This is another stupid Buddhist joke I've heard, which is, you've heard this? I'm going to do it. I'm sorry. A guru teacher is on one side of the river, his student is on the other. The student yells across the river to the teacher, I want to go. I want to get to the other side. And the teacher says, you are on the other side. That's good, man. But all that bullshit aside, man, you. You really are like one of the coolest people I know.

[Dakota Went]

Like, you're one of the coolest people I know too.

[Duncan Trussell]

Get the fuck out of here.

[Dakota Went]

It's true.

[Duncan Trussell]

I was at a rodeo last night. You're watching the heads get lopped off of baby buffaloes in agory temples. You know what I mean? And I have the audacity to be like, pthui. It's all just a nothing. It's like, dude, it is something. Like, my stupid neurotic brain tries to break it all down just because that's what it does. But really, man, really, you are inspiring to people because you did it. You broke free. You've untethered yourself from being localized, and you now travel the world, hanging out in the most exotic places, having, like, experiences that are transcendent, that are, in some ways remind me a little bit of, like, HP Lovecraft, you know, that you are in real. You put yourself in dangerous. I worry about you. I see some of your videos. I'm like, what the fuck is he doing? What's he gonna do? They're gonna eat him. Like, you know, literally, like, what's he doing? So tell me. Tell me what? For the localized folks out there, I'm not going anywhere. I got a bunch of kids, but I think a lot of people want to do what you're doing. How'd you get going there? How do you make this work? How did you figure out a way? Let's hear it.

[Dakota Went]

Well, you know, like, started with MySpace. You know, I was like, a MySpace kid.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

So I had, like, the MySpace friends, and then the MySpace generation opened up, like, music. So, like, now all of the heart, you know, the. The evolution of punk happened, and you get emo or hardcore music or screamo. So, like, this was kind of my upbringing in Detroit, going to all the different hardcore and punk rock shows.

[Duncan Trussell]

Okay.

[Dakota Went]

Playing music.

[Duncan Trussell]

Okay.

[Dakota Went]

And then I end up working for a music festival called Vans Warp Tour.

[Duncan Trussell]

Okay.

[Dakota Went]

Five years traveling this tour and

[Duncan Trussell]

the.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, I mean, so, like, I'm on this tour, and I'm kind of in the realm of social media because I'm the generation that it was given to, you know, the first ones pretty much. And so this whole time, I'm maintaining, you know, sort of that social media train. I'm following it, and I'm interested in the followers and all that kind of stuff.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

So I'm doing that, and I'm making skits with my friends, funny stuff. And then I meet a monk. On Warp Tour, there are these Hare Krishnas that are traveling the tour every year. They travel?

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And they distribute the books and they have their VIP passes that say, like, Krishna or something on it. And I just found My. Well, I had a mushroom experience and I didn't have anyone to talk to about it. So I'd like, you know, just bother these guys, explain what happened to me, you know.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And I end up just being friends with them.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

Next couple years, I end up living with them in the van on the tour, and it's just a, you know, funny story. And then that's. So that's when. Actually, I don't even know if you remember, but at some point, I. I see these Ram Dass retreats, and I'm now in the, you know, in the Krishna temples and stuff, and I'm exploring psychedelics of spirituality. Naturally, you get led to Ram Dass.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

I'm watching Rogan podcast and your podcast and all these people that are sort of in this sphere. And I send you a message on Twitter. I said, duncan, can you. How do I go to one of these retreats? And you give me Raghu's email.

[Duncan Trussell]

Ah, cool.

[Dakota Went]

So there's a weird circle here that I end up going to. Raghu responds and says, yeah, come to the retreat.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, cool, That's.

[Dakota Went]

So I go to the retreats, and then I go to Maui. That's where you get married. We're with Ram Dass. You just got married. I think I show up maybe day

[Duncan Trussell]

or two after you're married. Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

We're all at this beautiful resort.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And that's so cool. Then I go to India with Krishna Das and Raghu and all them. Because of your connection, I bet We've

[Duncan Trussell]

been hanging out for so many lifetimes and always are crossing paths in this weird way. It's so cool, man. And the. Okay, well. Because here's another parallel. I don't know if I told you about this, but. And this. So at one point, I went to the west coast and ended up hanging out with the devotees. And this is where I had, like, to this day, I think, was like, the one. I don't know. I don't want to. It was an actual. I don't know, man, like, real contact with the divine at a Hare Krishna temple during Jamastami. And it really, like, broadsided me, man, because it was like, you know, I'm curious about your thoughts regarding this, but the thing itself is not what you expected it to be, because if it was what you expected it to be, it wouldn't have any effect on you. You can't really conceptualize it until you experience it. So then I have this experience of, like, you know, the deities, you know, of course, with my Western Mind and wanting to, in my own way, alpha male. Anything spiritual to control it and all that bullshit. My own ego. Look at these fools and their deities and depictions of this and that. Why not? Why not go to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum and bow to a William Shatner mannequin? You fool. Fools. You know, that kind of bullshit. But then I don't know what happened, but I'm just looking at these deities, and then all of a sudden, they didn't look like deities anymore. Like, in the normal way. They look like something else. Like, I can't explain it. Some kind of hyperdimensional extrusion into time space. And then suddenly my first thought was, oh, this is like, oh, this is the most advanced technology I've ever seen in my fucking life. Like, this is a spaceship. That's just what my dumb brain. That's the closest corollary it had was like Star Trek episodes or something. And then. And that's when I realized that, oh, my God, we're looking at some kind of. Like, this is the way that a transcendent intelligence has decided to push into our reality. And it just looks like these deities that are way, way, way different than what I thought they were. And so that, for me, was probably the beginning of something, you know, that was. Because once you have an experience like that, you're never gonna forget it, and you're always gonna be different. It's gonna be hard to forget that. And so that's really cool that both of us, we're lucky. Krishna.

[Dakota Went]

Krishna's goddess.

[Duncan Trussell]

That's what I'm calling this episode. Josh, would you write that down? The Krishna's goddess. They will get you, by the way. They'll get you. And not. Not in a bad way.

[Dakota Went]

It's funny, because I hated them for so long after spending time in the temples, and I'm now coming back around, which is hilarious.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, organized religion. I mean, give me a fucking break, dude. I mean, no matter what, a bunch of. Like, a bunch of people hanging out together is annoying, inevitably. But. And yeah, all the things that are true and all this stuff, like, back

[Dakota Went]

to your point about these mortis, because Bhavani, you just triggered a memory. One time, I was with Bhavani in a temple where he stayed mostly in the middle. He starts staying in a temple for a prolonged period called Bindiya Chilparvat. And there's a Gori temple there, Makali Temple. And I'm there one day and he starts explaining to me the mortis, because, yeah, they're just statues. You know, why not go to a wax statue or something? What's the difference? Because, you know, as a Westerner, I see. I don't look at that and difference. Ultimately, I mean, yeah, totally, because I see everybody doing this to it, you know, but if I just saw it in a wax statue, I wouldn't know any difference, you know, between. But he tells me, he goes, you don't understand. These are secret codes that if you begin not only in the temple and each individual morti, but let's focus on one morti, Maakali. Okay? You have makali here. Now, each aspect of Ma Kali has a message hidden in it. So you meditate on each message and then you zoom out and you have the understanding. So it's like a mandala. You focus, okay? The head means this. The weapon means this. She looks like this because of this. And you could spend an entire lifetime meditating on this. You don't even need to explain it to you. You come to your own conclusions. Yeah, but eventually. So you look at all these individual pieces, you step back, and then the code unlocks. You say, okay, now I see that it's not just a statue. This is a transcendental object that is presenting itself as an as. As this silly form, you know?

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, yeah, Jesus the same way, you

[Dakota Went]

know, Jesus on the cross is the exact same method.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, well, I mean that. Well, that's the writing on the walls, man. That's like this. Some kind of like ancient graffiti, like written on the walls of time that, you know, that functions in so many different levels. That's another awe inspiring thing about it, is that if you want it to just be some kind of sentimental thing, if you want it to be, it's always teaching you. It might be teaching you in a kind of like nihilistic way, which is like, look how foolish humans are. They bow down to statues. Oh, idolatry. It might be teaching you in a kind of bhakti way, which I don't give a fuck what this symbol means. I love it. I don't really care. I'm fully in love with this thing. Or it might be teaching you on philosophical level too, but that's that, you know, that's these things, like, they just have that quality to them. Is they? Yeah, they. They. You can. They are. You can translate them into lots of different teachings.

[Dakota Went]

It's so the Buddha would give like a million prescriptions depending on who came to him. You know, you come to him and he'll give you this prescription, and then you'd be like, Wait, you said this. But, you know, you go to the doctor you don't have. Not everyone gets the same medicine. There's one time where Buddha's talking to a bunch of sages and he tells them this truth, and the truth is just the letter A. Ah. And they all get enlightened in this moment. So it's like, yeah, whatever, you know, wherever your level is at is how you're going to experience it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Gotta be fucking kidding me, dude. Okay, hold on. I'm gonna really try to compress this story. And I've told it a lot of. So I'm sorry, but, dude. Okay, so after my mom died, I sat on her body. After my mom died, I sat on her body for five weeks. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. It's just the most fucked up thing I've ever heard in my life. Sat on your mom's body? What are you doing? Hey, Speaking of loving your mother. This episode has been supported by Better Help. You know, when we listen to the story that Dakota Wynn is telling about some Indian saint saying we should love our mother, a lot of us are like, and this is why therapy is great. You know, being a mom ain't easy, you know, and. And at least it doesn't look easy from a dad's perspective. You gotta swell up with a baby. And then you're constantly, you know, dealing with, like, a lot of anxiety regarding this being that used to live inside of your body. And look, no mom is perfect. And if you feel a little hung up about some stuff with you and your mom, I mean, look at Norman Bates. If only BetterHelp had existed, there might not be a psycho, even though I know it's a fictional character. I'm sorry. Better Help therapy's helped me a lot. I guess that's the main thing. I didn't think it would. And I've got a bachelor's degree in psychology. But then when I actually went to therapy, I was astounded by how there are a lot of things barely hidden under the surface of my conscious mind that once they were acknowledged, I loosened up a little bit. Something you might be interested in trying out. And regardless of whether or not you are Norman Bates level freaked out about your mom or you love your mommy more than anybody, which I think Norman Bates arguably loved his mommy maybe a little too much. Look, it doesn't have to be about your mom. BetterHelp wanted me to talk about International Women's Day. The point is, BetterHelp is where you should go if you're interested in giving therapy a shot. They've got incredible therapists that work according to strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the US BetterHelp does the initial matching for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences and their 12 plus years of experience. An industry leading match fulfillment rate means they typically get it right for the first time. And if you aren't happy with your match, switch to a different therapist at any time from their tailored RECS. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform having served over 6 million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 55 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. Your emotional well being matters. Find support and feel lighter in therapy. Sign up and get 10% [e-mail] Duncan that's betterhelp.com Duncan thank you BetterHelp. After my mom died, I was like, you know, I was fucked up man, and just so depressed and you know Raghu, this is like the first Ram Dass retreat I went to and thank God I was friends with him and he like knew what I was going through and just called me. I was like, just come to this thing, Duncan. Like and I, you know, I was so depressed, I was like, really think. I don't, I didn't want to get out of bed. And he's like, just buy the plane ticket. Just, that's all you gotta do. Just don't. That's your only job right now. Just get the ticket and come out here. So I go out there long and short of it is he ends up taking me to Ram Dass's house. And then all of a sudden like my like grief stricken depressed ass is in Ram Dass swimming pool with Roshi. Joan Halifax. Ram Dass, Raghu. They're just, it's Leela, you know, they're just laughing, throwing this tennis ball, just, you know, this, this kind of like you. It's very hard to encapsulate what. That's what you've got a Zen Roshi carrying Ram Dass around in her arms like a kid. He's laughing. These are old friends. But it's just so the energy there, it's Hawaii too. It's just fucking beautiful. And I'm just, I felt like a vampire. I felt like, you know, just some like wraith floating in their pool. And but for like the first time since my mom died, I suddenly felt okay. Like I can't even explain it. It was just like this weight lifted off of me. And right when that happened, Ram Dass turns and looks at me and he goes, ah, it was so weird, man, and so cool. Like he knew or something, you know, or he felt it or. I don't know. So to hear you say that was like a whole. That was a whole teaching is really curious to me. Really curious. Wow.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, it speaks, you know, like it's the guru keeping its promises. You know, like they say the Bardos, when you're in the Bardos, that they're all meditating over your body.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

Hoping that the prayers crack through.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dakota Went]

I think these little moments like that, that's how I interpret them. Is that this. It's cracking through?

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, yeah. Crack, yeah. Cracking through.

[Dakota Went]

I mean, they're praying over your body right now and as you're giving you the messages.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, yeah. Then do you ever. Something that, like during the pandemic really started disturbing me. I think a lot of us went crazy during the pandemic and in kind of low level ways, a kind of mild psychosis swept through the. Everyone was having like the Overlook Hotel experience.

[Dakota Went]

We're still in it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, you're right. So glad you said that. In fact, I would say we're like, yeah, we're with grief. You know, there's a place probably the most dangerous. Probably one of the most dangerous or potentially like dangerous parts of grief is when you don't realize you're grieving and you think you're done and you're not even close to being out of the fucking woods, but you just. Cause it's so unbearable. You. You sort of just decide that this experience is reality and, oh, that's where shit can get really weird. I think that's where we're at with the pandemic. We're at the place where we're like, yeah, what? Fine. What? Everything's fine. And that is such a fucked up place where you really will embarrass. At the least you'll embarrass yourself. But yeah, man, I'm curious what youth. When you say the prayers cracked through under the Bardo during the pandemic, I started having this sense of like, wait, is this the. Is this actually the Bardo thought, are we dead? Is this death? Is this what death looks like? Is this. I'm only talking to people on Zoom? I'm only talking to people remotely? Is this just the Bardo and the way you talk to people who are still in the Earth Realm as you Think you're having a zoom meeting with him or something? Do you know what I mean? Like, how do you.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, I think so.

[Duncan Trussell]

Do you ever wonder if you're in the Bardo right now, that this is actually.

[Dakota Went]

I think this is in the. In the Bardos, it talks about the winds of karma, and I think that's what we're experiencing right now. And actually through these, you know, that's what we're. This is the momentum of that and it's presenting itself in a really curious way. But I think, what else could it be?

[Duncan Trussell]

You know, the winds of karma, it's

[Dakota Went]

just blowing us and we are, you know, building it into a story which is gonna propel us into the next experience.

[Duncan Trussell]

I mean, there's it for, like, I know people, and it's wild, who say they don't believe in fucking karma. And it's always been a. I've always scratched my chin at that. But maybe it's a misunderstanding. Of what?

[Dakota Went]

Karma. It's a misunderstanding, I think.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. Cause and effect. Causality, you know, you don't believe in causality, but when you. When you sort of look at what's happening, which is like, somehow we are all being blown by karmic winds that go all the way back to the destruction of the fucking temple in Israel. We're being buffeted by winds that go so far fucking back right now and are only now coalescing in this global moment. And so this global karma is flowering right now, which is. You know, people say that's actually really good. It's better that your karma manifests and you burn it out than it stays under the surface to ambush you later down the line. Right?

[Dakota Went]

Yeah. Well, as you're talking, I'm remembering the Kedarnath climbing and all the purge of emotions bubbling to the surface. And I think that's what we're experiencing culturally and really, it might. If we're talking on, like, metaphysical levels, it might not even be happening outside of ourselves. This is just the archetype of the winds presenting itself in this. It might. This might only be a moment. You know, it might not even be anything actually happening. When you talk the metaphysics of it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Right, yeah.

[Dakota Went]

Like, this might just be a flash. That is. Seems long.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. Right. That is what it is. I mean, definitely. That's what human life is. Right? It is a flash. It's a very long, weird dream, clearly. Like, I mean, just think of your life. When I think of my life, I look back at all the different chapters of my life. None of it makes Much sense at all. But it's dream logic. Your life. Here we are. You're in Detroit. You were not that long ago watching a cow's head get lopped off. You were hanging out with the gories wearing a thong. You know what I mean? This is dream stuff. You wake up from that dream and you're like, dude, I was living in Detroit, but before that, I was, like, hanging out with the gories, and I was on the warp tour. And, you know, someone who hears that dream is like, oh, weird fucking dream. You want some coffee?

[Dakota Went]

It's the constant surrender to a thought, and then we confuse the thought with reality. We're giving the authority to the thought as it presents itself so there's really only one moment happening. But as it morphs and changes, we say, oh, yes, this is it. This is it. This is it. Same thing with the psychedelics. We're hypnotized by the. By the flash of the mind's presentation. Yeah, but it's just.

[Duncan Trussell]

It.

[Dakota Went]

Nothing. You know, it's just the winds of karma moving, and it's. For some reason, it bubbles up as an archetype, as the temple or something. You know, maybe these things didn't even happen before. Or maybe they did. You know, I don't want to dismiss any reality, but on some level, this is all just archetypes in our conscious mind bubbling up.

[Duncan Trussell]

It's like. Well, okay, so like in the. Okay, the book of Genesis, seven days, the seventh day, God rested, right? Like, that's what. We're in, the seventh day. We're in the seventh day of creation. Meaning this is the dream of God after God sort of, like, unfolds into the stuff. And now it's a dream. And in this dream, we're all having this dream. It's a God. It's. To quote Kanye west, it's a God dream. And we're experiencing this thing that is garish, ridiculous, absurd, easily comedic if it wasn't so disastrous. It's this dark comedy, I guess you could call it. And I see what you're saying. It's like you still are. The consent part, you could argue. I didn't. I didn't ask to be born. But where you're consenting to. This is what you just said. By buying in, you buy in. We're all buying into it in some way. Right. You don't have to buy in.

[Dakota Went]

You could just let them suffer. It's suffering when you don't know you're suffering or.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

Which words you use. But it's like we're in it. We don't know we're in it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, but we're choosing to be in it. We're choosing something.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah. It's such a paradox, I think, the spiritual world. If it's paradoxes, you're getting close because it's never going to make logical sense, you know? At some point you just have to say, yeah, God's a blue kid playing with cows. And that's the truth. And I'm surrendering to that.

[Duncan Trussell]

Krishna's got us. Yeah. God is a blue kid playing with cows. And what do they call it? What is. Gosh, what's the name of that place? What's Hare Krishna heaven called? Goloka Vrindavan or something. What's it called?

[Dakota Went]

Something like that. Yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

And this is all emanating out from that, from the Leela of this mischievous, amazing kid. And that's what this is. It's just the effulgence of this.

[Dakota Went]

If you can accept that, you'll understand everything. Probably.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it's just. But that's the coolest thing about chanting Hare Krishna, isn't it? Is that it? If you don't encounter the Vaishnava mythology and, like, roll your eyes at it, like, give me a fucking break. Shut the fuck up. This is what. This is like some kind of, like, kids cartoon you're talking about. What are you talking about here? The kids cartoon. Colton lives up a mountain. What are you talking about? Get the fuck out of here. But then you start chanting Hare Krishna. You could just do that. And then all of a sudden you're like, tell me that story about that kid holding up the mountain again. You start wanting to hear the stories, you know, and then you start hearing the stories and you realize, like, oh, fuck. Fuck. Who am I to judge? Holding up a fucking mountain. Who am I to judge that shit? When I've been like, you know, when I've been completely engrossed in whatever the ridiculous drama that's being presented to me in popular culture is. I can't believe what they're doing to Britney Spears. You've been worried about what they've been doing to Britney fucking Spears? You're gonna judge people for, like, talking about a kid holding up a mountain? What about you? We all do it, you know, it's just. Which thing do you want to plug into? You know, that is sort of the. Maybe that is the exciting thing about this stuff. Right, ma'? Am?

[Dakota Went]

First, you know, I'm playing with the idea of going back to Jesus.

[Duncan Trussell]

Jesus Christ, the son of God.

[Dakota Went]

Jesus Christ, the son of God. I feel like that's the real tantra, you know, Bhavani. This is a weird moment when Bhavani took me to the cremation grounds and he goes, we're going to have Darshan in the cremation grounds.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And we go there and immediately he ignores the fires and he walks away from me. So I'm trailing behind him just like, okay, you know, the Darshan, you know, which fires the darshan in, you know, don't walk away yet. And he goes and sits down and ignoring me completely. He's just. He's not even looking at the bodies. He's looking at the Ganga and the, and the, the sky and just not paying attention, you know, I thought we were coming here to get a lesson. Yeah, the cremation grounds. And there's a bunch of flowers on the ground that I guess fell off a body. And he picks one up and I'm just watching him and he's like, just holding this marigold flower. And he looks at me and he goes, you don't get it. True spirituality is about loving your mother. I'm just like, what the hell, dude? I'm looking around at all the bodies and the ash floating through the air. And so he always tells me too. He says, your mother is your first guru. And I've just been like, really playing with this idea and I've been visiting this Kali temple here in Detroit, and I'm just really reflecting on what this means. Your mother is the first guru. Yeah. And I'm playing with this idea in the shower I just had yesterday, that if my mother is my first guru, then I need to. This is the way God took form. It presented itself, brought me into the. In the world in the form of a mother. So what is she teaching me? What is the way that my mother and this culture presented God to me, presented it as Jesus. It presented it to me with the word God. So like in this weird way I'm like, okay, maybe there I'm rejecting this part of myself and that's where I need to look is by saying, okay, yeah, God is. Is the kid playing? Is the blue boy playing with the cows? But that's not the version. It presented itself to me in this. The first time when I came to the world, it said, I'm this 33 year old man bloody crying on the cross for you.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And can, can I accept that that is God? And I think if I can, if I learn to do that, I think there's a secret hidden in there.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, I mean, I'm still struggling with it, but. Well, but that's part of the. That is. I mean, this is like, oh my God, you. I had a bishop Baron on this podcast some time ago. He's awesome. The blowback that I got from having a Catholic bishop on the podcast was like infinitely more. I've had like satanic priests, no problem.

[Dakota Went]

I probably would have been in the comments saying the same thing a few years ago.

[Duncan Trussell]

Dude, it was so spectacularly weird to me, which is like, wait, so this thing is intolerable to you now? I did get a good explanation, which is somewhat of a rarity on Reddit, but I did get a good explanation of that, which is. A lot of us have religious trauma, like the reason that we see a priest or someone wearing those clothes. We don't associate it with what your hippie ass associates it with. We associate it with like our parents telling us we're going to hell because we're fucking gay, you piece of shit. Don't act like we're the depraved ones. You don't know what we went through.

[Dakota Went]

That's how the Krishnas get us.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, I mean, I had a come to Jesus moment there just from that Reddit comment, like, oh yeah, I get it. What a dick. I'm being a dick. Of course, a lot of people, their encounter with Jesus is not, not like, I wouldn't even call it an encounter with Jesus. It's an encounter with like a. Somebody putting a Jesus puppet on their clenched fist and beating you in the fucking face with it. So, but all that being said, who said any of this was going to be easy? And of all the people who like, announced that, yeah, people are going to take this and completely misconstrue it and they're going to use it to hurt you and there's going to be false prophets and they're going to, they will come to me and I'll say, I don't know you. I don't know who the fuck you are. This is in there. It's in there. It's encoded in there, which is like, if you think that this is going to be presented in a clear cut way, it's not. This is going to be corrupted, warped, twisted beyond comprehension. And that's what I love about it, is it's right there in it. It's like, yeah, you want to know why some parent made you feel like an infernal piece of shit for your whole childhood? It wasn't Jesus. It wasn't Jesus that was doing that to you. It was somebody who had misconstrued the whole damn thing. So I agree with you, man. It's just we want in the west, we want flashy shit. Dude, I want to. I want to go to a. I want to see some weird shit, man. Not go to a church. Even though you go to a church. It's weird as fuck. You know what I mean? Like, go to any Catholic church. It's like, I'm sorry, what's going on? There is a as weird as weird can be. It's beautiful, but it's just as weird as a gory.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, it is a gory. I mean, what is Jesus drinking blood and eating flesh.

[Duncan Trussell]

Flesh. It's a gory. It's some kind of like, yeah, bhakti agory. Like just crazy thing. I just don't think people realize that, like, you know, as an adult you should at least like, if you're gonna be open minded about this stuff, you can't be. You can't close off like an entire lineage just because like you, you had a weird run in with it when you were younger, you know? That being said is. I get it, dude. It is fucking annoying Christianity.

[Dakota Went]

I just started reading the Bible.

[Duncan Trussell]

What?

[Dakota Went]

I never read it my whole life. I never read the Bible my whole life and I just started reading it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Where you, Where'd you start?

[Dakota Went]

I started in Genesis and I couldn't make it through. I was like, okay. Abraham telling Sarah she's gonna have baby at 91 circumcision. I was like, I don't understand any of this. It's too weird for me. And my friend was like, just open to the gospels at any page. So, okay, open whatever. I open to John. And it's a part where John is being like, all these people, he's talking about God and everyone's like, why? Who are you to talk about God? What are you, the. Some prophet? No, I'm not a prophet. What are you, the Messiah? No, I'm not the Messiah. Then who are you to talk about God? And he just goes, I. I'm a voice crying out in the wilderness.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

And that's where I was like, holy. I just closed it. And then for like six more months, I didn't touch the Bible again. And then I just slowly now been making my way through it. I finished Matthew and yeah, it's completely different than what they taught us with the all new Audi Q3.

[Commercial Announcer]

The answer is always yes. Yes to adventure, yes to escape, yes to right now. The all new app Audi Q3 made for the. Yes, life. It's tax season and by now I know we're all a bit tired of numbers, but here's an important one you need to $16 billion. That's how much money in refunds the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud. Here's another one in four honest, hard working, taxpaying Americans has been a victim of identity theft. But it's not all grim news. LifeLock monitors millions of data points, perhaps second for your personal information and alerts you to threats you could easily miss on your own. If your identity is stolen, LifeLock's US based restoration specialist will fix it, backed by another good number, the million dollar protection package. In fact, restoration is guaranteed or your money back. Don't face identity theft and financial losses alone. There's strength in numbers with Lifelock identity theft protection for tax season and Beyond. Visit LifeLock LifeLock.com iHeart and save up to 40% your first year. That's 40% [e-mail] iHeart terms apply.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, Jesus is completely different than what I was told he was.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh my God. Yeah, of course. I mean, you can't incorporate at least the Jesus that I have encountered in the Gospels into like late stage capitalism. Those two do not mix at all. It doesn't fucking mix. That's why you've gotta like, you gotta take it as a scaffolding upon which you can hang all the stuff that makes you somehow feel okay. Blowing up kids.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

Cause that ain't in there. It's. You're not gonna find anywhere in there where Jesus is like, you know, sometimes you gotta blow up kids. It's just part of the part of life. Sometimes you got to blow up kids. Not in there. You're not going to find anything in there like that. And how the fuck do you run society? A truly Christian society would not look like the society we're in right now at all.

[Dakota Went]

And ironically, he's almost the perfect teacher for the experience that we're going through right now. Like the wars, like the capitalism, he's flipping the tables and he's saying, you know, love your enemy. It's like all the messages we need to hear right now as a collective, it's the religion of our people and we don't even have no awareness of it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, you know, also, it's sort of maybe one difference in that cosmology and the Eastern cosmology is it illustrates an opposing force, Satan. And the opposing force is clever. In co ops, it's a co opting intelligence that anything that could work against it instead of directly fighting it. Where it fucked up with the crucifixion, it was like, that was a mistake. The crucifixion, it fucked up. And this is why. The Book of John is really interesting. That's my favorite book of the New Testament, the Book of John. I read about this on Wikipedia. I didn't interpret this from the Book of John. So Matthew, Mark and Luke, these are the synoptic gospels. They're all the same events. The Book of John is interesting. This Methodist pastor I happened to be sitting next to on a fucking plane broke it down for me. The Book of John, when there are descriptions of events happening, they talk about the smells in the room as though this person was there, there. That's one of the differences. Another difference is in the synoptic Gospels, the victory is Jesus rising from the dead on the third day. In the Book of John, the victory was the crucifixion. The crucifixion was the ultimate victory over the forces of darkness. Because if all you can do is execute somebody who's speaking the truth, you have defeated yourself. That you didn't beat them logically, you didn't beat them philosophically, you didn't beat them, you just killed them, which is the most weak response there could be. And then via that execution, you propagated the. You basically just released that energy eternally rippling into time. It's over. You're never going to recover from that. And so the new version of the opposing force is not so much let's crucify Jesus. It's like let's weakened at Bernie's Jesus. That's what we'll do. We'll fucking go around with a Jesus puppet. That's like, you know what I mean? That's saying crazy shit about how it makes sense we're dropping bombs in Iran and you know what I mean? That's pretty brilliant. It's still too late.

[Dakota Went]

Pretty brilliant.

[Duncan Trussell]

It's brilliant. What's. What's more brilliant than that? What's. It's like you don't need to change. Listen, you don't need to change it all. Jesus doesn't want you to be kind in the real way. Jesus doesn't want you to like help actually help the poor. Jesus doesn't want you to really do that, not in that way. And we've got to have laws. We've got to have laws, you know, like that's what it's doing now. And it's fit. So. So people can march around fully being, like, just completely numb and okay with all the violence in the world and also tell themselves, I am a follower of Christ. Oh, it's a good one. It's a good one.

[Dakota Went]

It's a good trick.

[Duncan Trussell]

Hey, look, it's a good trick. You know what I mean? I'm not saying, like.

[Dakota Went]

And both can be true in some weird way, too.

[Duncan Trussell]

What do you mean?

[Dakota Went]

I mean, you can. You can also, like, you can also feel a Christian in your heart and feel the love of Jesus and still be manipulated into accepting these behaviors 100%. Both. Both can be simultaneously true. Like that you can be coerced into supporting killing kids with bombs. And dude, also, I am a Christian a hundred percent.

[Duncan Trussell]

I mean, this is like.

[Dakota Went]

I mean, that's how they get you, I guess, right? That is the manipulation, is that they know that is in your heart.

[Duncan Trussell]

You gotta go back to the people who are directly hanging out with Jesus. So these people, I mean, they're literally hanging out with this figure that would shape culture for thousands of people forever, probably until everything's gone. And so they're in the direct presence, and every single one of them, every single one of them, like, completely fucked up. Like, you know, this is Josh, who's the one that Jesus said, you will be my rock. I'm going to build the church on you, Peter. So this is. So this Methodist pastor I met on a plane, he said to me, this story is really interesting because Jesus says to Peter, you know, do you love me? But the actual translation, there's all these different kinds of loves or, like, erotic love, like a friend, or like, the way you love the divine. And I think Jesus was asking him, do you love me? As though I'm God. And Peter's response was like, no, you're my friend, dude. That was the response. And so this is a person hanging out with Jesus who's like, chill out, man. Like, we're. We're friends. I could be mistranslating this, but Arjuna eating with Krishna and this. Of all the disciples of Jesus, Jesus said, you are the rock upon which I'll build my church. Because he's honest. And he's like, nah, you're not God. And so the response was, yeah, you're the one for the job. You'll be the rock. You're making the church. And then you look at like, who's the one who said, I don't know him? Josh. Josh is our resident Catholic. Denied him three times.

[Dakota Went]

Was it also Peter or.

[Duncan Trussell]

No, Joseph it doesn't matter. Who cares? You just like we did. The name matters. Frank. They're one of his disciples. Frank.

[Dakota Went]

Peter.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, it's fucking Peter yet again. Another, like, complete fuck up. He's like, eating with Jesus. And Jesus, like, shut the fuck up. You're gonna say you don't know me three times by the tomorrow morning. And Peter's like, how could you say that? And then sure as shit, someone's like, you know that guy? He's a criminal. I don't know.

[Dakota Went]

I don't know.

[Duncan Trussell]

That fucking hippie. Some fucking hippie, dirty hippie should go take a shower. I don't know him. And so, yeah, this is like. This is actually encoded within the whole story as the natural response to that thing in your heart, which is, you don't. You're not gonna believe it's. You're going to deny it. You're going to trick yourself into thinking you haven't experienced it. You're going to do everything you can to avoid it. You're going to sell it out. You're not going to. You're going to have to poke your fucking finger and the holes in its hand. And even then you're going to. I don't know. And that sort of, you know, I think illustrates the general human response to the transcendent in all forms is like, nah, that's not real. That didn't happen to me. I didn't feel that. Yeah, I love it.

[Dakota Went]

It's so deep.

[Duncan Trussell]

It's so.

[Dakota Went]

And I never. I never appreciated it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, well, I mean, it's. It's also scary, you know? That's scary. The thing that scared me about bhakti yoga was like, you realize, like, oh, my God, this could consume me completely. Like, you feel the. You know, like when you're going out in the ocean and you realize you've gotten pulled further from shore than you expected. I think there's something in Christianity that also triggers that in people, where it's like, if you go too far, man, you're not coming back. You're not coming back. And if you don't come back, you're gonna get rejected by the world. The world will not like you. The world did not.

[Dakota Went]

Jesus says, if you want to follow me, you have to hate your family. That's a crazy quote. You have to hate your mother, you have to hate your father, you have to hate your kids. He says, you have to hate everything. If you want to come with me. I remember reading that and be like, that's a good statement.

[Duncan Trussell]

Is that What? He said, you gotta hate your kids and your family.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, yeah. Hold on, let me read it directly. That way I. Or maybe you're who you're with. Maybe they know.

[Duncan Trussell]

Josh, did Jesus say you got to hate your kids?

[Dakota Went]

It's a crazy statement, right? Hold on, let me find the exact quote.

[Duncan Trussell]

Sounds like a New York Times article.

[Dakota Went]

In Luke 14:26, Jesus tells the disciples that they must hate their family. Let me start to see if I can find you.

[Duncan Trussell]

Hold on. I watched you.

[Dakota Went]

Can you hear me?

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. Say that again.

[Dakota Went]

Okay, so in Luke 14:26, Jesus says, if any man come to me and hate not his mother, his father, his wife, his children, his brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

[Duncan Trussell]

Josh, pull up one of those things with the direct. Let's get the actual word for hate here.

[Dakota Went]

It's an interesting one. In the ocean. It's the. It's the middle of the ocean is what you're talking.

[Duncan Trussell]

It's called taking your kids to the grocery store. Pull up, take your kids to take your family. To take your family. Have a four hour layover in the Atlanta airport and you'll become a Christian. Signifies a lower brush priority or loving less rather than active malice. Okay.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, it's more, is more dramatic.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, there you go. Whoever translated that was like, it, I hate my family. So. But no, this is like the. This is actually the, you know, another thing Jesus said was like, so what if you love your family? Even the snakes love their family. You can't think that you're special because you love your fucking family. You think you're special. Like that's just evolutionary biology there, baby. There's nothing special about that. This is my translation. Jesus said baby a lot. That's evolutionary biology, baby. He said, love your neighbor the way you love your family. Now something's happened here. And that pull up he's asking humanity to do is obviously the bridge to utopia. The moment that you go to the fucking Atlanta airport and you look around at all the people in various stages of nervous breakdown being dicks getting in front of you to get in the fucking plane, waiting to piss in this packed fucking bathroom. Even worse, you got to take an airport dump and then somebody somehow sneaks in in front of you and gets into one of the stalls, you're gonna shit your pants. You gotta love them in the same way you love your kids, dude. That's not an easy thing to do at all. Again, another hardcore element to Christianity that people don't seem to. To. To croc. It's like, yeah, it's. You think communism is hardcore. This is like. This is like. This makes communism just seem like a fun little day at the park. This thing here. How do you do?

[Dakota Went]

Jesus said, I did not come for peace. I came with a sword.

[Duncan Trussell]

I came with a sword. I came with a.

[Dakota Went]

Not the Jesus they told me about.

[Duncan Trussell]

But what was that sword? I mean, you know, this is. Again, like, it's like, this is a. This, this. This thing. You could see how people like Pete Hegseth are like, hell, yeah, he came with a sword. You Iran. But what was that sword? You know, that's. This is. What is. What is this? Or an ax or whatever he said. But the. This is the. This is the truth that cuts through bullshit is that sword. It's like this in the. In the. You know, I think when he says it's not peace I'm here about. I think, again, this could just be me trying to hypify it, but I think what he was saying is like, we're not. I'm afraid that we have to cut the head off this fucking cow, friends.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah.

[Duncan Trussell]

There's just no way around it. Like, I'm afraid that's just the way it's gonna go down whether you want it to or not. We're not going to get where we need to go without a sword and whatever you want to put it, you know, I don't. I don't. Oh, we got an interpretation coming in.

[Dakota Went]

Let's hear.

[Commercial Announcer]

Message of truth creates an inevitable division

[Duncan Trussell]

between those who follow him and those

[Dakota Went]

who do not act him.

[Duncan Trussell]

Like a sword separates prajna.

[Dakota Went]

Well, there's another weird part too, where Jesus says, don't you say, like, go buy swords? And then he says, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah, yeah. He. Well, I mean, I think the most telling, like, part, if you want to analyze, like, how do we justify or rationalize violence in Christianity, is when they came to arrest him, who was the dude who cut off the fucking ear. In the Garden of Gethsemane?

[Dakota Went]

Simon.

[Duncan Trussell]

Simon. Simon. Simon was like the. And Simon was a. He wanted there to be a revolution against Rome, Israel. This is occupied by Roman forces, and people wanted a revolution. They wanted to, you know, fucking get rid of these, like, colonizing pieces of shit. And so they wanted to use, at least in Jesus Christ Superstar. I believe Simon was the one who wanted. How does it go? Do you ever listen to Jesus Christ Superstar, Dakota?

[Dakota Went]

No. No, I don't know what it is.

[Duncan Trussell]

Will you promise me? I know it's a lot to ask for. A promise that after this podcast, you will find the original Broadway musical Jesus Christ Superstar and listen to it. It's one of my favorite articulations of Christianity that I've ever heard in my life. It's so good. Don't watch the movie. Listen to the music. But Simon the Zealot. Simon the Zealot. Keep them yelling their devotion, but add a touch of hated Rome, we will rise to a. Anyway, he was, like, trying to get Jesus to start a revolution. And so, of course, he was the one who's like, this is it, baby. They're gonna fucking try to arrest you. Let's start it all. Let's do it. Slices off the dude's ear. Jesus, I believe, picks the ear back up and freezes the moment. Yeah. Heals him and is like, nah, this isn't what. We're not doing that. It's not that easy, my friend. That's not the sword I was talking about. Cause, you know, that could have happened. He could have started an uprising. He was like a spiritual leader who had gained a great deal of power in those times, which was a threat to all the. Like, not just the Roman Empire itself, but to the priest class. Because he was going around saying, what are you doing? You don't need this. Fuck you. I'll heal people on a Sunday or Saturday. I'll heal people on the Sabbath. Fuck you. That's my translation. Fuck you. No, do whatever I want. We'll do whatever you want. Whatever I want? Yeah. I'll eat whatever I want. I'm sorry. We don't have to, like, I know your whole business model here is acting like you have the direct line to God, but I'm afraid you're wrong. Everybody has that direct line, so go fuck yourself. And they did. That was not how you stay alive back then. You don't piss off the priest class and the fucking Roman Empire simultaneously. So. Yeah.

[Dakota Went]

Told you. I was just editing these videos. When I was in Israel and I went to Holy Sepulchre. Did you ever get to go there in Jerusalem?

[Duncan Trussell]

I've never been there. I want to go to Israel. My friend Ben Epstein lives out there. I want to go visit him. But, you know, I don't know if you noticed, it's not the best time to visit Israel.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, now is not a good time.

[Duncan Trussell]

Trying to get my wife to bring the family out to Israel right now, but she's like, no, I don't know why.

[Dakota Went]

So they have the tomb of Jesus. This is what they Say, this is the tomb, people, everyone. This is where they come. And directly next to the tomb, they. They have tables selling crosses, crown of thorns, dirt. Crown of thorns, Crown of thorns. I was like, oh, my God. There's no way that they're selling crowns of thorns on a table next to Jesus's tomb. So offensive.

[Duncan Trussell]

But I'm just surprised anybody buys a crown of thorns.

[Dakota Went]

Isn't that insane?

[Duncan Trussell]

How do you travel with that? I don't want a crown of thorns.

[Dakota Went]

I kind of. I would have. I kind of wish I would have bought one. In retrospect, it would be kind of

[Duncan Trussell]

cool, but we could be wearing one right now.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, that would have been nice.

[Duncan Trussell]

Yeah. Well, this is. I think just. What you see there is like. This is like you're. There is just. There is sort of truth, and then there's this thing that reacts to truth. That's the opposite of it. Always almost mocking it, laughing at it, like, just completely. What. What. What better way to. What better way to mundanify something than to sell? I mean, it's no different than. What do they bet on? His clothes? They just crucified this dude. And then I believe they rolled dice for his clothes. I mean, this is the. Oh, yeah, Fun people, fun times, fun times. You know, above his head, like King of the Jews, which was like, you know, a crown of thorns. Oh, here's your fucking stupid king. And yet even then, it's like, yeah, that's what. You're absolutely right. That's like the crown. That means a lot more than your stupid gold crown. You know, you fucking. If you're, like, experiencing reality as it is, it's probably not the most comfortable headwear, you know?

[Dakota Went]

Yeah. I love it.

[Duncan Trussell]

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. I knew you'd come over to us, Dakota. I knew eventually, after hanging out with the blasphemers out there in the gardens of infamy, you'll come back to Jesus Christ.

[Dakota Went]

Saved by the blood.

[Duncan Trussell]

Saved by the blood. Now you can. You can go lolly gagging around all the temples of the world, but it's. The great temple is right there in the good book. And. But all that being said, it is. Christianity is like, I don't know why, you know, all choke it. All the real shit's annoying to me just because I. I don't want to suffer. I don't like it. I want to be happy right now. I don't want to change. I want this to work out, you know, and any most good things are going to just kind of like I don't know if you're really happy right now, which is, I think, what that your friend said to you. So I'm sorry I said he was alpha maling you.

[Dakota Went]

He was. It's okay.

[Duncan Trussell]

But nah, nah, that's just me like being a dick. He was, you know, I think that's a good teacher. I like that he goes crazy in front of you. You know what I mean? He's not bullshitting you. That's how you know you've got a real one.

[Dakota Went]

One time he told me real ogoris never wear ash, so. Sometimes I wear ash, sometimes I don't.

[Duncan Trussell]

Wow.

[Dakota Went]

So just weird. He's weird. He's a weirdo.

[Duncan Trussell]

Well, my friend, this has been just a joy hanging out with you.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah, it has. Thank you so much.

[Duncan Trussell]

Thank you. Thanks for your time. Thanks for your work.

[Dakota Went]

Thank you for your time.

[Duncan Trussell]

I think it's time for you to come. Based on this conversation, it's time for you to come out here to Austin. Time for you to come to Texas.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah. Thank you for the invite.

[Duncan Trussell]

I will, please. Do you have a place to stay here? We'll go to a rodeo if there's one in town. Maybe we can get one of these Catholic priests smoke meo DMT with you, though. I doubt it. That's an interesting thing. People are getting Catholic priests to smoke dmt.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah. They'll probably sit through it too.

[Duncan Trussell]

Dakota, this is it. This is the next chapter in the rodeo. Yeah. God bless you. Thank you so much.

[Dakota Went]

Duncan.

[Duncan Trussell]

Where can people find you, my friend?

[Dakota Went]

Any social media. Dakota Wint also podcast on the Be Here Now.

[Duncan Trussell]

Oh, God. That was all. That was the idea. I will. I'll plug it up front.

[Dakota Went]

So, yes, it's called the Flowerhead show. And yeah, just telling stories like this.

[Duncan Trussell]

The Flower Head show on the Be Here now network. Please subscribe to that so that Dakota didn't have to endure this, this time with me for not. Because that was that. And I'm excited you're doing a podcast, man. And that's such a good podcast network too. I mean, there's so many great podcasts on there. It's really cool that you've become a part of it.

[Dakota Went]

Yeah. Thank you. And, you know, just one last full circle. My very first podcast I ever did was with you in Hawaii.

[Duncan Trussell]

Really?

[Dakota Went]

That was my first podcast ever.

[Duncan Trussell]

No way.

[Dakota Went]

And Raghu forced it to kind of happen.

[Duncan Trussell]

You know Raghu the best.

[Dakota Went]

Anyways, here we go.

[Duncan Trussell]

That's cool. Well, this will not be our last podcast unless it's the end of the world. And yeah, let's keep talking, man. We don't talk enough off podcast, man. We got to stay in touch. Thank you very much, Dakota.

[Dakota Went]

Thank you, Duncan.

[Duncan Trussell]

Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna that was Dakota went holy. What a wild ride. What a cool person. Please subscribe to his awesome new podcast the Flower Head show on the Be Here now network. Links are down below. Subscribe to his YouTube channel. His videos are insane. This is like some combination of Ken Burns, Anthony Bourdain and Terence McKinnon with a little Alan Watson. Ram Dass swirled up in there. It's amazing. His videos are awesome. Do check them out. Thank you for watching. Subscribing Click the Subscribe button on whatever service you're using. Don't forget to support our sponsors and bless you for watching the Duncan Trestle Family Hour. I'll see you next week. Until then, God go with thee. Goodbye.

[Commercial Announcer]

It's tax season and by now we're all a bit tired of numbers. But here's an important one you need to $16 billion. That's how much money in refunds the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud. But it's not all grim news. LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second and alerts you to threats you could easily miss on your own. If you're I identity is stolen. They'll fix it. Guaranteed. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com iheart Terms apply. Here's the truth. You could literally be adored by everyone and then come home and still get completely ignored by your own cat. It's classic cat behavior. But new Shiba Premium Puree is a lickable treat that changes all that. They're protein rich, made with bone broth and have the smooth, creamy texture cats go crazy for, especially when it's hand fed. Yeah, it's more than a treat. It's a fast pass to favorite human status. So feed your cat Sheba and go from totally ignored to truly adored in just 12 days. Guaranteed or your money back. Learn [e-mail] WSECU isn't just one of

[Duncan Trussell]

Washington's best credit unions. We're a Forbes best in state five years running. Why? Because we put you first. Lower fees are early paydays, financial guidance and service second to none. As a member owned cooperative, we love

[Dakota Went]

Washington as much as you do.

[Duncan Trussell]

From the Olympic mountains to the rolling Palouse. Join us and discover how much we care about your financial well being. Because what we really do best is invest in you. Visit wsecu.org today to learn more. Washington let's credit union.