Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller explores the challenges faced by older Americans, particularly retirees and those with disabilities, when it comes to long-term care in the United States. He highlights the financial burden of nursing homes, the limited availability of private facilities, and the often deplorable conditions of government-approved facilities. Johnny uses the story of his 82-year-old grandfather, who is currently in a nursing home in Texas, to illustrate the difficulties of aging in the U.S. system. He contrasts this with the more affordable and comfortable options available in Latin America, where he suggests that expats can enjoy a better quality of life with a significantly lower cost. Johnny also touches on the emotional and psychological impact of aging, noting that many nursing home residents regret not having lived more adventurous lives.
In a separate segment, Johnny discusses the attitudes of expats toward adventure and experimentation in Latin America. He notes that while expats are generally adventurous, they tend to avoid extreme risks like eating monkey brains or swallowing swords. Instead, they are more open to mild experimentation with substances that are considered 'out there' but not life-threatening. Johnny also touches on the topic of recreational drugs, noting that while substances like cocaine, marijuana, and peyote are available, few expats indulge in them. He highlights that alcohol is the drug of choice for most expats, often leading to excessive consumption, especially among those living on the beach. The segment also explores the interest of expats in shamanic rituals and hallucinogens like ayahuasca, which are not easily accessible in the West but are sometimes sought after by expats in Latin America. Johnny expresses skepticism about the authenticity of these experiences and shares his own reluctance to engage in them, citing his reading of Terence McKenna and conversations with an expat who had a similar experience.
In another segment, Johnny discusses the effects and legality of Hiawasca, a psychoactive substance used in spiritual practices, particularly in South America. He reads about the reported spiritual revelations, personal growth, and physical purging associated with Hiawasca use. He also mentions the legal status of Hiawasca in various countries and shares his personal experience of attending a seminar led by shamans and a university professor. Johnny acknowledges the potential benefits of Hiawasca for personal enlightenment and stress reduction, while also noting the physical discomforts and the cultural context of its use.
In a later segment, Johnny shares his experience with a seminar on a substance, likely Ayahuasca, led by a shaman in a remote location. He describes the physical and psychological effects of the experience, the setting, and his reflections on the event. He also touches on the cultural and social aspects of expat life, such as freeloading expats and the perception of the substance as a hallucinogen versus its therapeutic potential.
Finally, Johnny recounts his experience during a shamanic ceremony in Mexico, where he and a group of expats were given a herbal mixture to rub on their bodies and then sprayed with it. The shaman also spit on them, which startled Johnny. Johnny had a hallucinatory experience, but the shaman insisted it was a spiritual vision, not a hallucination. Johnny was skeptical but acknowledged the experience as a form of stress relief. Later, he shared the experience with others, and they all had similar encounters, including hearing their cell phones ring despite having them turned off. Johnny concluded that the experience was worth it, as it helped him feel calmer and more relaxed. The segment ends with Johnny reflecting on the importance of not regretting what one didn't do, and a humorous note about the shamans accepting credit cards.
Topics
Long-term care in the U.S., Cost of nursing homes, Quality of life for retirees, Expatriation to Latin America, Regrets of aging, Financial planning for retirement, Expats and their attitudes toward risk and experimentation, Recreational drug use among expats in Latin America, Interest in shamanic rituals and hallucinogens like ayahuasca, Johnny's personal views on these topics, Spiritual and personal growth through Hiawasca, Physical and emotional effects of Hiawasca use
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:56 The Financial Burden of Long-Term Care in the U.S. 00:01:56 The Reality of Nursing Homes in the First World 00:03:53 The Emotional and Psychological Impact of Aging 00:06:10 Expats and Their Attitude Toward Risk and Experimentation 00:07:18 Recreational Drug Use Among Expats in Latin America 00:10:47 Interest in Shamanic Rituals and Hallucinogens Like Ayahuasca 00:11:56 Spiritual Revelations and Personal Growth from Hiawasca Use 00:13:03 Physical Discomforts and Purging Process of Hiawasca 00:16:03 Legal Status of Hiawasca in South and Central America 00:16:57 Johnny's Experience at a University-Authored Hiawasca Seminar 00:17:44 Eddie's Spending Habits and Expat Freeloaders 00:18:05 The Seminar and the Psychologist's Perspective 00:19:05 The Setting and the Shaman's Ritual 00:21:51 Johnny's Vision and the Experience 00:23:10 The Conclusion and Reflection 00:23:41 The Shaman's Strange Ritual and Johnny's Skepticism 00:24:25 Johnny's Skepticism and the Shaman's Spiritual Interpretation 00:26:08 Johnny's Reflection on the Experience and Its Impact
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.
[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wonder My thoughts ever stray Hi everybody I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files Living in Latin America the show that tells you what it's really like to live work play and or retire in Latin America I tell it just like it is so let's get started You know I talk a lot on this program about how Latin America is an ideal place For older retired and even disabled folks to come down here and live without the shame of having to really scale down your lifestyle
[00:45] Because you're on a fixed income and you have a lot of medical expenses Medical expenses that eat away quickly at whatever nest egg you might have had since Medicaid and Medicare never cover everything And that's usually the case because I just read in the New York Times the average nest egg for half of the US retirees is $12,000 and often that's just what happens suddenly your quality and style of life take a big tumble You're living a nice middle-class or even a little higher than middle-class lifestyle and suddenly you're not 25 and indestructible anymore Did you know that a good half of aging adults end up in a wheelchair or one of those? Extended care facilities because you can't live alone at home anymore And you don't want to burden your kids or your relatives and who in the first world can afford to have a nurse or a nurse's aid
[01:35] Come in every day at what 25 to 50 bucks an hour So the sad news is more often than not you're stuck draining all of your resources and probably a lot of your family members Resources too then when that's all gone you end up in a Medicaid approved nursing home You know what I'm talking about the ones that smell of vomit and urine as soon as you take your first breath in the parking lot Man, we all know that's no way to live out your golden years But that's the fate of millions if not tens of millions of Americans who haven't got a few hundred thousand bucks or more stashed away For a private long-term care facility. It's bad enough now But think of all those broke baby boomers who are slipping into their golden years, you know Geriatric medicine and nursing homes are about the only growth industries left in the first world Besides that favorite cancer of ours government and you know expat Eddie's been thinking a lot about this nursing home and extended care
[02:27] Business lately not for him even though he's lost more than his fair share of brain cells But for his 82 year old grandpa up in a nursing home in Texas And yes, it's one of those disgusting Medicare approved nursing homes, too I mean really who's got 50 or 100,000 bucks a year to fork out on one of those nice private country club nursing homes Only about five percent of all first world nursing homes are in that category The rest are those depressing and stinky ones like Eddie's grandpa's in and by the way You know what Eddie's grandpa calls his nursing home the devil's waiting room Anyway, Eddie's prepared to bring his grandpa down here to Latin America set him up in a nice first world apartment with a great View a garden places to walk in a full-time live-in nurses aid
[03:13] Eddie's done the numbers and he figures he could do it for about a thousand to fourteen hundred dollars a month And that's including everything the apartment the living nurse and all the expenses and her room and board of course now Eddie's been Skyping with his grandpa lately, but he just can't convince him to come down now He's not wheelchair bound or anything, but he does walk with a cane which is no problem at all down here Especially when you got someone looking out for you 24-7, but you see Eddie's grandfather's like a lot of old-timers He's set in his ways, and he's just can't see leaving the good old us of a even though. He hates the nursing home He's depressed and he constantly complains about it. He believes becoming an expat is unpatriotic That's because he was a decorated Korean war vet and grew up in that time when people actually admired and approved of their government
[04:01] And politicians, but Eddie says he just hasn't reached his breaking point yet And even though Eddie's tried to explain to him a hundred times how much better his quality and style of life would be down here Still there's no convincing some people especially when they're way up there in age It's that old axiom again. He prefers the devil. He knows to the one he doesn't for him He said move into Latin America as a younger man's game He said if he was 60 again, he'd move in a heartbeat in fact He said for him just walking across the street as a younger man's game But he's still 100% with it upstairs for example his grandpa said that in the nursing home The residents have nothing but time on their hands So they talk and they talk and one of the topics that comes up repeatedly is always regrets
[04:48] You know these are old-timers in the devil's waiting room now and like Eddie's grandpa says all they really have to look forward To is their food their TV programs the occasional visitor and their memories and according to him a lot of the guys and gals in at home have lived really boring lives at least by his Standards because he says when they sit around and talk about things like regrets the things that they regret about their lives It turns out that these nursing home old-timers Rarely regret things that they've done instead It's the things they didn't do that they regret like that trip to Machu Picchu or the Great Wall of China Or to the pyramids in Egypt or even doing inexpensive things that take some nerve like skydiving or hang gliding whitewater rafting or even just going to a firing range and shooting a gun and you know when you hear
[05:39] Old-timers talk like that. It's pretty sad But plenty of members of my family and I'm sure in your family too will end up old and in nursing homes Regretting the same things these people regret now me and a lot of expats are of the opinion that you try everything once Well almost everything Although I do try a lot of new things I personally try to avoid the things that might kill me or too many of my brain cells or Things that would make me cringe if I reflected on them later I won't go into any detail here But you know what I mean that is I'm not about to eat monkey brains or pet a cobra or swallow a sword You know what I mean? But I'm willing to experiment at least a touch with things that people might think are a bit out there and Practically every other expat I know feels the same way. Why not expats by nature are adventurous
[06:27] We wouldn't be down here if we weren't Now here at the expat files we talk about everything and anything that has to do with expats in Latin America nothing gets censored even the far-out stuff and How we live work play and or do business down here is just part of what we talk about Now I would be remiss if I didn't at one time or another touch on a special subject a very delicate Subject I might add that I've never touched on yet though I get email inquiries about from time to time and it's often a hot topic when expats get together, too Specifically those Latin American shamans and those mind-expanding rituals. We all heard about you know those secret ceremonial Drugs and potions that the Incas and the Aztecs and Amazonians and the Mayans have taken to put them in their altered states
[07:18] now I'm not talking about those common street drugs like Cocaine and marijuana and heroin and peyote and all that sure that stuff's available down here It originates down here, and it's dirt cheap, but to tell you the truth very very few expats I know ever indulge in that stuff It's just not our style you know and it's true great numbers of expats come from the hippie and post hippie era in fact I'd say about 10% of the expats that you meet down here look like they're on their way to a Grateful Dead concert They've still got some of that hippie look, but they're much more clean and manicured these days They're new-age tree-hugging soft-core capitalists You know the gringo advantage works for them too, but they're not free love drugged out hippies anymore most of them are respectable small business owners, so what about recreational drugs a
[08:06] lot of these guys do engage in the occasional spliff and Why not they figure at ten bucks an ounce an equal amount is cheaper than a pack of cigarettes in the states And it's decriminalized and virtually legal and there's no enforcement So there is a certain amount of it going on but not much From what I see the drug of choice with 80 or 90 percent of the expats I know is alcohol and sometimes it really does get out of hand with expats living on the beach in fact one of my very Own partners a really nice guy from Canada came down to Costa Rica Bought a house on the beach and within six months became a case of beer a day drinker So it can happen especially if you live in that heat And you don't have any hobbies except sitting in a hammock and watching sports on a big-screen TV
[08:53] But let's get back to those mystical shamans and what they're doing in their spare time now expats and gringos once They've been down here for a while become very curious about that shaman drug Hiyahuasca now you're not gonna find that stuff up in the states or Europe though Supposedly you're supposed to be able to get it mail order and mix it up yourself Which is something I don't trust and would never want to do myself besides that up where you come from It's illegal like everything else these days Anyway, occasionally down here in Latin America You'll run into the odd expat and he'll ask you confidentially where he could pick up some Hiyahuasca And I usually say what are you asking me for do? I look like a four-foot eight shaman with a bone nose ring and peacock feathers on my head you got the wrong guy pal
[09:39] Anyway, people will ask you that if you're down here long enough, and you don't look like a state trooper It's all about that supposed mystical experience that the shamans have been tapping into for thousands of years And until now I had my doubts about the whole experience and never went looking for it myself Though of course, I was always curious like most expats are I just didn't trust what I was hearing I know for a fact that if you go to any ink in Mayan or Aztec ruin throughout Latin America and ask the local Indigenous people or the cab drivers sooner or later, they'll hook you up with an official shaman Usually the taxi driver's brother-in-law who sells shoes at Payless on his day job Anyway, gullible gringo is looking for that Hiyahuasca experience can always find someone that'll take their money and give them what they think they're looking for
[10:27] Now I know this goes on a lot because gringo is on vacation Especially backpacker gringos on vacation are looking for that experience So all you have to do is hang around a ruin and an ask around and you will get something to drink or smoke and a midnight Dance by a part-time shaman on sacred ground. At least that's what they'll tell you Gringos do expect to show you know, I know this stuff goes on and I never trust these guys and because of that I never took the plunge though I have done a lot of reading on the stuff and I read a book by this guy Terence McKenna Kind of a modern-day first world Hiyahuasca guru who spent his life studying the shamans and their potions and DMT Which is the active drug in that stuff? I've even had some in-depth conversations with an expat who went on his own weekend
[11:15] Hiyahuasca retreat with a part-time shaman who actually was a taxi driver by day. I went to the source Expat Eddie, of course And he said he quickly located a source by just asking one of the tour guides at the Tulum ruins That's Mexico about an hour south of Cancun and Eddie said in the end. It wasn't the real McCoy either So anyway, what's so cool about this Hiyahuasca stuff? And what makes it so different from the other standard hallucinogenics like LSD and peyote and stuff? Well, let me read you this general Explanation and then you tell me if you wouldn't give it a shot if you had nothing to do for a weekend Alright, it says here People who have consumed Hiyahuasca report having massive spiritual revelations regarding their purpose on earth
[12:04] the true nature of the universe As well as deep insight as how to be the best person they can possibly be Now that part sounds like a ripoff of an army recruiting poster, doesn't it? But let me read on this is viewed by many as a spiritual awakening often described as a rebirth in addition It's often reported that individuals can gain access to higher spiritual dimensions and make contact with spiritual or Extra-dimensional beings that can act as spiritual guides or healers Now if you believe just half of that I can see why so many gringos and expats want to get in on some of that action Now I know that sounds awful touchy feely and new-agey, but before you jump to conclusions hear the rest of this
[12:49] This is the part I like It's nearly always said that people experience profound Positive changes in their life and it is often viewed as one of the most effective tools in personal enlightenment However, and this is the part I don't like during a Hiyahuasca experience people often report nausea vomiting and diarrhea Vomiting almost always follows the Hiyahuasca ingestion This purging is considered by many shamans and experienced users to be an essential part of the experience as it Represents the release of negative energy and emotions built up over the course of one's daily life Finally, there are many reports of miraculous physical as well as emotional and spiritual healing and note
[13:37] There are no yet known long-term negative effects Scientists say that's because the active drug DMT is a natural substance Produced in small quantities in every human pineal gland unlike mind-altering Substances like LSD that have no natural human analog so anyway like I said I didn't think I was ever gonna get around to it because I just didn't trust the source and the main reason I Wanted to try it just once myself if the conditions were absolutely right was the fact that some expat gringos that I talked to that went to Machu Picchu and had the experience over a Weekend with some real shamans all of them reported. It was like a reset button They could sense right away that it knocked down their anxiety and stress levels the way one of those guys explained it
[14:26] He said if you're the kind of person who's depressive or manic depressive or a bit neurotic or you get panic attacks Or you have self-esteem issues or you're high-strung or have road rage problems or whatever The Hiawasca experience will take those things down a notch and that's what some Scientific experts claim to and I've talked to a few dozen people who've tried it whether it's the real thing or not Even so none of them ever reported a bad experience everyone I've ever talked to said it was positive and uplifting, but who knows right? Now not to change the subject But every day I try to read one big city latin newspaper And you can imagine my surprise when I saw an ad two weeks ago in multiple newspapers in Guatemala Salvador Honduras and Nicaragua
[15:12] It turns out two genuine shamans from the Colombian Amazon basin We're coming to visit a number of big Latin American cities putting on seminars and offering the Hiawasca experience as traditionally practiced by shamans in the Colombian Amazon basin and believe me these guys were for real and accompanied by a university professor from Colombia And they were coming into various Central American countries as part of a cultural exchange program But they were only going to give one weekend seminar in each country now the question everybody asks Is is that Hiawasca stuff legal well? It's not legal in the United States nor in Europe or anywhere in the first world except Holland of course we know Holland Specifically the city of Amsterdam as the most drug liberal first world place in the world, but what about the rest of the world?
[16:03] Because Hiawasca is considered a sacred religious tradition in Peru and Colombia and all the places along the Amazon basin It's completely legal in South America, and it has the seal of approval in all the Central American countries, too That's Costa Rica Panama Nicaragua Honduras Guatemala Belize in Mexico and when I read in the paper that these guys were coming that was an aha moment for me Here's my chance and to tell you the truth being the type a high-strung guy that I always was Coming down to Latin America and living here for 20 years really did knock my motor down a few notches However like Eddie said to me. He said Johnny You're a lot calmer than you ever were but a little Hiawasca wouldn't hurt He said it might even make me normal so even with Eddie's dire threat that I might actually become normal
[16:53] I decided to investigate this university authorized Hiawasca seminar And I was impressed the two and a half hour PowerPoint presentation was quite professionally done And yes the shamans were there all dressed in the regalia and no they didn't give the PowerPoint It was that psychology professor from the university who presented that and although I imagine most shamans today Have a cell phone in a microwave oven. I don't think too many of them know how to put together a PowerPoint I kind of doubt it so anyway I went to this thing and about 15 or 20 people showed up and surprisingly enough they were all people of means Educated college people white-collar business owners no common middle-class Latin folk here and nope I couldn't get Eddie to come because he was off doing his restaurant thing plus his freeloading cousins in town and this little event costs
[17:44] 150 bucks and Eddie didn't feel like forking out any more for the guy than he already had but that's another story freeloaders that come down from the states to hang with their expat relatives Like Eddie said if they had any money they'd take a Caribbean cruise or see the pyramids or check out the Eiffel Tower They wouldn't come to San Salvador or Tagusi Galpa. That's for sure anyway I was sold on this seminar and I signed up at that seminar the presenter of PhD psychologist He really de-emphasized and poo-pooed its use as a hallucinogenic Party drug like so many people in the first world assume that it is what he did emphasize Strongly was its use in hundreds and hundreds of clinical trials at big universities showing very positive evidence that it can correct a number of
[18:31] Psychological and physical problems, for example people suffering from chronic guilt depression low self-esteem Post-traumatic stress self-mutilation Addictions panic attacks and any number of neuroses and as for me since I attended Catholic schools all my young life I have my honorary master's degree in guilt. So I figured pressing the restart button couldn't hurt So anyway about 10 of us met at 8 o'clock in the evening at a far away compound used for religious retreats within spitting distance of a Mayan ruin and As we sat in our chairs in a circle in a big darkened room with only candles for light The shaman started chanting and singing and going through his ritual and I'll admit I don't believe in all that new age mumbo jumbo
[19:18] I wasn't there for the so-called connection to spiritual or universal consciousness or any of that stuff though I was ready for anything But this guy this shaman was able to produce the oddest sounds I ever heard in my life with just his throat and his voice I wish I could have recorded it could be the next new age monster CD move over Yanni Now those weird and wild sounds he was making weren't scary, but they certainly added nice atmosphere So as he mixed his concoctions and brews and torched up about six pounds of incense We all came up one by one and drank a shot of what we were there for and it wasn't really Horrible tasting like you often read about it on the internet, but it was thick like cold, honey So you couldn't drink it all down in one gulp like a shot
[20:06] It took three or four tries before it all slid down and then we all sat back down in our chairs in that circle and waited for things to happen and After about 45 minutes they did all the while Of course the shaman is off in his corner chanting and singing very softly and to tell you the truth That was fine with me because I don't particularly like on melodic discordant wailing like that So anyway I forgot to tell you that vomit bags or puke buckets if you will were strategically placed Because part of the experience for most people is tossing your cookies And I'll tell you about eight out of ten people did and actually I would have much preferred that To get it over with and get down to business as opposed to what happened to me and another guy
[20:51] And I'm talking about world-class diarrhea folks, which I'd rather not go into detail on and I'm sure that's alright with you So anyway about an hour into the experience you start feeling very heavy At least I did thick but very relaxed yet You could get up and walk around with no problem and a lot of people did they just started wandering or they went over to the Little mats that were placed in a circle on the floor in that big room along with blankets and pillows in case you wanted To lay down during your experience or actually sleep and for a while I did lay down and here's what happened with my eyes open everything was just fine though I felt a little thick and very relaxed like I said but when I closed my eyes it was like I was watching a strange world go by a
[21:38] Place that had buildings and skyscrapers and houses and bridges and everything But they were all made out of what looked like brown and grayish colored roots of a big tree In other words, it was like a regular city But everything I mean everything was solidly anchored to the earth and it stretched way below the surface And the roots came up out of the ground and formed the windows and the doors and the towers and skyscrapers and bridges all Very beautiful and smooth not ugly at all like a horror movie or anything so far Nothing negative or bad about the experience at all In fact, I know I had a big smile on my face while this was going on and everyone else I noticed had smiles on their faces and were enjoying their experience whatever it was, too
[22:23] Then after looking at that city for a while I suddenly shot off into space and the stars though very very tiny and far away Were moving alongside of me so I know I was going really fast like going through a kind of a tunnel or wormhole Then I started hearing some very pleasant laughing and talking and giggling and I opened my eyes And I was pretty much back to somewhat normal again and in the silhouette of the dark I could see the girl next to me about 10 feet away is sitting on her mattress Talking and giggling and having a great old time Then she'd get up and walk around and clutch a pillow To her stomach and squeeze it and talk again and giggle and this went on for about an hour And you know I thought I want what she's having she's having a terrific time anyway about two hours later
[23:10] And the whole experience lasted maybe three hours the shaman got us all back in our chairs again And he said he was now gonna perform the final step in the experience kind of like the release mechanism so we all sat around in that circle again and he told all the guys to take their shirts off and the ladies to but To leave their bras on and we were all supposed to close our eyes tightly Then he poured some kind of clear liquid alcohol herbal mixture in our hands And he told us to rub it on our own stomachs and our backs and on our faces And then he kind of shocked me he took a big mouthful of that same stuff And I thought he was gonna swallow it But instead he just blew it out like an aerosol spray all over us And then he did it again and again now remember we all had our shirts up
[23:57] And there's this weird little guy spitting on us well that brought me back to reality in a hurry so anyway It's like four in the morning now And we all went back to our little beds and laid down then a little while later The shaman tapped me on my shoulder and said tell me about your experience And I told him and then he said did you see any people or entities or beings in your visions? And I said no I was just hallucinating about the universe and the planets and stuff and he said no no those were visions not Hallucinations to me it sounded like he took the word hallucination as an insult and the word vision as something much more spiritual I didn't actually buy it, but he did anyway He said so you didn't have any visions while your eyes were open I said no only when they were closed and then he said hmm
[24:42] Would you like another shot and I looked at him and I said you know I would but with this diarrhea thing going My brain could handle it, but my intestines won't But he did say if I did take another shot I'd definitely have visions with my eyes open, but my guts had the last word and told me no Later I found out the same thing happened with everyone in the group the shaman came around and asked everyone if they'd like another shot And they all said no they were doing just fine, so anyway around 8 o'clock We had a nice breakfast I was sitting right across from that girl who was having such a good old time And I just had to ask her I said you really were enjoying yourself weren't you what happened? And she said I had a really nice reunion with my son. We went to the park. We had a picnic
[25:27] We talked we laughed. It was a great old time. I said with your son Did he pass away or something she said yes He was an aborto which in Spanish means either abortion or miscarriage And I didn't have the guts to ask but man when she told me that I had to sit back and think about it for a while Whoa, and you know after talking to everyone and sharing their experiences There seemed to be a common thread every one of us would at some time or another Hear our cell phone ringing even though we turned them off before we ever started in fact I remember at least two times. I reached from mine, and it was off So in the end was the experience worth it I have to say yes, and did it lower my stress and hit my reset button I have to say yes, too
[26:14] And how do I know that because when I drove out of there at 9 o'clock? I was on a very narrow road and the first thing that happened is I got behind a chicken bus that was stalled The driver was just sitting there eating tortillas and waiting for passengers to board And it looked like he was gonna sit there until the whole bus was filled and it was not feeling fast now I sat behind him in my car for at least five minutes wondering whether I should try to pass him But it was a blind spot, and I didn't want to take the chance now normally in a situation like this I would have laid on the horn and slipped into a mild to moderate case of road rage But I didn't and I realized in the moment I didn't feel at all like getting pissed off at the guy and even now a week later I feel a bit more calm and relaxed than normal and Eddie good old Eddie advised me not to try it again
[27:03] He says he doesn't want me to be too normal because there's always a chance He said that I'd turn into a deadly bore so bottom line. Do I recommend it? Did I become one with the universe well? I'm just reporting on an incident don't ever forget what Eddie's grandfather says the people in his nursing home Don't regret what they did do they regret what they didn't do oh? And by the way even though those shamans take visa and MasterCard Someone's just gotta turn them on to some first-world deodorant South of the border down Mexico way That's listening to the expat files living in Latin America Coming to you each week from somewhere south of the border and don't forget you can email me on anything at all about Latin America
[27:48] The expat files at gmail.com See you next time