Therapist Jerry Hyde on Ayahuasca, Psilocybin, creativity and daring to be different in your brand & business [#5] The Ideas Lab Podcast

Therapist Jerry Hyde on Ayahuasca, Psilocybin, creativity and daring to be different in your brand & business

Jerry Hyde is a rather unconventional therapist – transitioning from an earlier life in music and heavy drug-use. He now works with people individually and in men’s groups and takes people on vision quests in Nepal and other locations.

Jerry Hyde is also my therapist and leader of my men’s group so this is a particularly interesting conversation for me. I also love Jerry’s approach to marketing his work which is to make a strong statement that repels many people but powerfully attracts others, ensuring that he always has plenty of new clients and opportunities coming to him.

Episode Highlights:

‘When I quit drugs, that was easy. That was really, I just woke up one day. I thought, “This isn’t fun anymore”. I couldn’t remember when I’d laughed. It was just, it had become maintenance. That was easy. I just woke up and stopped. But what was the hardest thing to kick and took me a long time was leaving that culture, drug culture, was really tough. Because I had to walk away from everything. I had to walk away from my social scene. I didn’t even know what clothes to put on anymore, because it was such an identity. I don’t think people recognize that enough.’
‘my creativity is like the flip side of my addiction.’
‘Who we really are is something that’s evolving and changing constantly. It’s never something you’re going to pin down. But we like certainty. We all get attached to these ideas and our stories, and it’s one of the kind of dangers of therapy is, we can get overly identified with some story that we’ve become attached to.’
‘it’s safe being pessimistic. Because then you can say, “I told you she’d leave me”.’
‘when I first started to get glimmers of happiness, it frightened me. I thought, “Well, I’ve got something to lose now”‘
‘I think we’ve got this real malaise in Britain where we play down success, and we hide it. There’s a certain shame to being too big for your boots.’
‘If you want to throw the rule book out, learn it by heart, then reject it and replace it with something that’s more conscious.’
‘I’m on mushrooms right now… I became so prolific it was kind of unstoppable. I’m more energetic, I think I’m a nicer person. I seem to be more compassionate and less reactionary.’

Topics covered:

Productivity comes before Self-Criticism

Vision Quests, Ayahuasca & Fasting Retreats in Nepal

Truth serums and Aliens

Combining the Masculine and Feminine in a Rite of Passage

Ritalin

Quitting drugs is easy, it’s the Culture that was hard to break away from.

Compulsive Creativity. Or Destruction?

Attachment to who we think we are

The safety of pessimism and the fear of losing happiness

Admitting to your brilliance.

The shame/stigma of success and how it stunts creativity

The value of the American Dream

Incorporating your identity into your brand

How to live by your own rules

Where to find Jerry:

The Book of Sin
Book – Play From Your Fucking Heart – A somewhat twisted escape plan for people who usually hate self-help books
Jerryhyde.co.uk

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Show references:

Music in this episode provided by Argofox: TheDiabolicalWaffle – My Wish