Ryan shares his experiences as a paranormal investigator and comedian. We explore concepts of love and hate as well as ways we can move forward through a time of Division.

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Website: ryansingercomedy.com
Instagram: @rysing
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Full Show Transcript

Abby (00:00:00) Hello, and welcome to the mindbodyfree podcast. I’m your host, Abigail Moss. And today I got to talk with a friend of mine. Ryan singer. Ryan is a comic’s comic who electrifies mainstream audiences with material that is both uncompromising and unpretentious. A hundred percent. What I know from Ryan is he’s been seen on IFC, ScFy and has released full-length comedy albums, free love immortal for now comedy wonder town, and how to get high without drugs.

Three of which were chosen as the top comedy album of the year. Ryan is the creator and host of the popular meet impair normal you podcast, which I got to speak on, as I think over a year ago. And it was so much fun. The twice-weekly mind cast podcast in which he has in-depth interviews with paranormal investigators, experiencers, and members of secret societies selected by LA weekly as well.

10 LA comics to watch, mentioned in New York magazine as a comic to watch, was one of four finalists in the original CMTS. The next big comic contest is a frequent guest on the WTF podcast with Mark Maron and the Bob and Tom show. And his joke United snacks of America has nearly 11 million listens on Pandora. Ryan, thank you for being here. 

Ryan (00:01:21) Oh, well, thank you. I’ve never heard my bio read out loud while I, so that was, that was an interesting exercise. I was like, wow, I’ve been doing all of these things. 

Abby (00:01:33) It’s pretty cool.

Ryan 00:01:35)  Yeah, that was pretty cool. Yeah, thanks for having me. 

Abby  (00:01:39) Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything else you want to add to that from what I mentioned?

Ryan (00:01:43) Oh, well, I mean, we might talk about it later, but I just filmed my first, Hour’s comedy special. Like proper filming of a set that will be coming out sometime next year. We filmed it at an old haunted school called Poast Town Elementary School in Poast Town, Ohio, which is halfway between Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Southern Ohio.

If people are familiar with the area and it was fun, we did a couple of nights of paranormal investigation,  on Thursday and Friday that I filmed, with some friends of mine. And then on Saturday we did a show and we filmed the show and it, you know, Steven Fine Arts was a guy who directed and he’s done a bunch of comedy specials.

So I’m very, very excited about that. So that’ll be coming out next year sometime I believe it’s going to just be called the supernatural. So I’m not sure if we’re self-releasing or if it’ll release on a platform at this point, like a streaming service, but. But yeah, that’ll be sometime early next year. Hopefully. 

Abby (00:02:46) Awesome. Yeah, as you went to, that comes out and it’s an interesting blend of comedy and paranormal together. How did you come into that unique mix of paranormal life and comedy? 

Ryan (00:02:59) Well, it’s, you know, I got into comedy first. I was always interested in the paranormal. I think like most people, even if people don’t think they’re interested in the paranormal.

I think after a few questions, they realize quickly that, oh yeah, I guess I am interested in the paranormal. But comedy through comedy is where I met someone with whom I had my first shared paranormal experience. That was like a major shared experience. Something that they experienced physically.

 I call it shape-shifting more. There are different names for it. Especially because we don’t know exactly what it was. And so to be able to experience that as an observer and stand-up comedy is so much about observation. And, and then just reporting back what you observe and things you think, and, or your stories from your own life or whatever it can be for different comedians.

There are no real rules. But, it was actually through stand-up comedy that I had the experiences that blasted me open until like, okay, well, what else is possible if this is possible, which I thought was always fiction. It makes me wonder and, you know, very, very curious about what other things are also nonfiction that we’ve, we’ve been led to believe are just, you know, the stories of fairy tales.

It turns out, I believe a lot of it is nonfiction. After, after all these years of researching and, you know, part of the impetus of, or even starting the podcast or the mind cast as I’ve been calling, it is trying to find answers for what I experienced personally, because, you know, you can feel crazy sometimes when you experience something that very few people believe is real or is possible.

So finding answers, finding validation, you know, kind of on a quest for, for the ultimate truth and to be able to explain our past experiences and, and try to understand like our place in the universe, I guess, is kind of like the macro view of it. 

Abby (00:05:19)Yeah. I love that. And I, I’ve been there and I’ve talked with so many people who experienced paranormal things and are open to, you know, the world beyond what society tells us is real.

And isn’t real. And I liked that for you. It was an experience that kind of got you questioning at all. And it’s funny, I feel like we can live in the society and pretend that we’re not these spiritual beings and we don’t live in this world with, you know, multi-dimensions, but eventually, we’re going to run into something that, that does not compute with that system and it’s going to get confusing.

Ryan (00:05:58)So yeah, I think. You know, there’s, there’s a clear fork in the road, in those situations for people and depending on what someone has chosen to, you know, frame their belief systems by like what standards, you know, for me, it’s, you know, mystical and paranormal supernatural kind of stuff. Just someone on the other side of the coin will have, you know, scientific method, you know, explanation, you know, mathematical formulas, et cetera.

You know these other scientific paradigms that are in place to try to frame an experience or to explain what they, what they saw and may shut out the other options. Right. Which I’m guilty of. I’m certain I’m guilty of like a hundred occasions shutting out the scientific explanation for something when I’m convinced because I was, you know, purposefully seeking the explanation on the other.

(00:06:56)Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s part of human nature. We want to find a place like a belief and an understanding of a framework of how to interpret the world. And then it’s comforting to have that. And I think it just depends on what resonates with you and it’s, I think it’s cool when the science and metaphysical crossover, like in quantum physics where woo stuff happens, that they can’t explain and the deeper they go, the more creepy it is 

Ryan (00:07:23) cool.

Abby (00:07:24)Yeah. Yeah. It seems like, you know, science and spirituality kind of try to explain the same thing from different angles, but eventually we crossover and I think it’s kind of what flavor resonates with you, which way, which entry point do you want? And so for you, when you were doing, when you had these paranormal experiences and you started questioning and looking for more.

Did that questioning take you to more and more experiences that you couldn’t explain or what happened after 

Ryan (00:07:55)That? Yeah, it is the branching. You know, every answer you think you find leads to five more questions and it’s led me to more experiences. I mean, exponentially more questions and a lot more experiences that I never would’ve had, on the paranormal side.

Some of them are not so great. You know, there’s at least one that I can think of that was, you know, pretty terrifying and I don’t necessarily wish I ever had it. I mean, now I’m to a point where. It’s been, you know, two and a half years since I was in Florida doing a documentary and had a very outside creature kind of terrifying experience, and ended up going to therapy.

I’ve been in therapy for over two years because of it. And I, you know, specifically I sought out a PTSD therapist because I couldn’t sleep with my lights off anymore. I couldn’t, I was a blackout curtains kind of guy, you know, like, you know, you want total darkness for, you know, the melatonin to restore, while you sleep.

And I was like, you know, full-on lights for a while. And then eventually I could go to like, just Christmas lights hanging in my room. And then to like just a, like a globe kind of moon. Someone had given me a moon that lights up, and then I was just using that. And then eventually I’ve been able to get back to, you know, to darkness, you know, but looking back.

You know, with, you know, some of that hindsight it’s, you know, it was a very valuable experience for me to understand that this isn’t all, I mean, I do have a lot of fun when I go out and do paranormal investigations and I go seek this stuff. I think that’s, that’s part of like, I think my Mo in everything I do, I want to be no matter what I’m doing, I, I want to be enjoying, I want to be having fun while I do it.

And I actively try to avoid things that I know won’t be fun for me, I guess, kind of in a selfish way, but also in, you know, just trying to enjoy life kind of way, you know? So I guess, you know, too much on that side of the spectrum, was not that there was a lack of respect for the phenomena or the power that lies within it.

And its ability to terrify and scare. Cause there’s definitely, I do have that, but every once in a while you need to be reminded that, or at least every once in a while, I need to be reminded that, Hey, you know, don’t spin off the globe too far, you know, remain grounded in some way. And you know, talk about getting brought back down to earth in an, in an immediate fashion, that experience is real to me.

But you know, about a month ago, I think it was about a month ago. Now I revisited the property, I knew I had to like it, that’s the one thing I love and hate about myself. I don’t know if you have this, but I know, cause I, it was this way with DMT. When I, when I learn of something or I know something that terrifies me, I immediately know that I have to be.

Or I have to face it at some point and I can push, I can push it off. I can push it off and I can delay the inevitable. But I do know that there’s something in my personality that will make me eventually, no matter how long I put it off, confront that. And so I knew I had to go back to the property, even though it terrified me.

And for a long time, I thought there was no way I’d ever go back. And my therapist was pushing me towards that as well. And you know, I’m happy to report. I went back, stayed the night, and nothing crazy happened. And you don’t feel pretty good about it and I will go back again, and you know, be even more comfortable there, but it’s a wild ride when you crack open the lid and he just kind of jumps down and.

I don’t think there’s any way to explain to another person, whether it’s like a spiritual, mystical, a paranormal or, or any kind of, you know, other like a leap of faith people take, or when they go into, when they venture into any kind of the unknown on a journey, there’s no way to fully explain to someone what’s going to happen or what they’re going to experience to the point where they can, you know, really have things to grab onto on the way down as they’re flying down.

They just have to, I think we all just have to kind of find our grip on whatever it is. Right. And I mean, we can, we can have a general idea of what those things might be, but, or maybe it’s just, I do, I just don’t have enough of the clarity to, to be able to understand how to explain to someone.

I mean, that could be it as well, but it just feels like it’s such a unique journey for everyone. That it’s impossible to fully explain it, but with that comes some like, that sounds kind of scary, but at the same time, it’s, it’s thrilling and exciting, I think is the, it is the baseline. And I think sometimes we forget about that when it comes to trying to like, become something bigger and better than we were in the past, that it’s that there is some scare there, but it’s also really difficult at times.

And I think 2020 was a good example of that. And even 2021, it hasn’t led up that much for a lot of people, but, you know, it’s. It can be like a really painful, really painful experience to try to grow and, and to like, admit that we’re not perfect or, you know, that there is a lot of improvement that we can, we could use in certain areas where maybe before we didn’t think we needed any improvement and, you know, it’s been, it’s been a process for sure.

And I think when it comes to, you know, just some people might be like, well, is this going a little too deep for like paranormal stuff? And sure. Maybe it is for some people, but I don’t think so. I think this applies to, you know, almost everything we do. You know, for me, especially in the paranormal, because you know, that’s all, I think all of this stuff is connected.

Abby (00:14:55)Yeah, a hundred percent. There are so many things you said that I want to touch on. 

Ryan (00:15:01)The long-winded 

Abby (00:15:03) No, I think there are so many good juicy nuggets in there. I love that. And I think that your story is relatable to a lot of people. I think there is a lot of fear around the concept of parents. Because it can feel like there’s so much unknown and there’s so much history of it being forbidden and wrong or not real, or if it is real, it’s evil.

The stuff that, you know, that gets shared throughout the media and throughout, you know, religious doctrine and stuff throughout history. And you know, my background is Chemonics. So my job has been to navigate those kinds of terrains. And when I’m trained in that, and even with the training, sometimes I was like, whoa, this is, this is some powerful stuff.

But I feel like because it’s so powerful as part of why it got shut down intentionally, why it was not allowed, why it was illegal. And you could be, you know, if you were confused as a witch, you could be burned alive for practicing magic and going into paranormal realms. And I feel like there’s some residual collective trauma and fear understandable around this part of the world, that’s beyond the obvious and the physical, but, you know, it’s interesting.

I kind of see it as this is already an extension of ourselves. Like we have these, these, this consciousness, this energy, this physical body, but we’re not just this body we’re existing in multiple dimensions in multiple ways. And connecting with the paranormal is kind of connecting differently.  I’m curious if you could explain kind of what paranormal investigation is?

What does that entail? 

Ryan (00:16:45) That’s a good question. You know, there’s the modern understanding of it through television and, you know, maybe even movie or documentary, but I mean, at the heart, a paranormal investigation to me is. You know, seeking answers from the other side of the unknown, trying to establish contact or provide evidence of something that is seemingly not able to be contacted by our modern understanding of what’s real.

And what’s possible outside of the scope of religion. Right. And I and some paranormal investigations are, you know, that have religious nature. I mean, an exorcism is not a paranormal investigation, but it is a paranormal ritual, or it’s a religious ritual, but I’d consider it paranormal.

And being raised Catholic, you know, and going to Catholic school for 12 years and having a grandmother who was really into all that stuff and, you know, would, would lend me books about, you know, Prophecies and visions and, and all these other, you know, visitations from saints, the Virgin Mary from Jesus, himself who would come to people in dreams or envisions, like all of this stuff was kind of just real to me or I, you know, I was, so I was raised knowing that ghosts were real essentially.

I mean, because to me, Christianity is based on, you know, one of the greatest ghost stories ever told. And so like an investigation I think is just trying to provide some kind of evidence that death isn’t a real, I mean, if I had to boil it down to a, to a simple answer and it’s not even death, isn’t real because paranormal investigations, they go beyond the scope of just trying to contact ghosts.

They could be even, you know, they, the melts into cryptozoology and some other things or, you know, extraterrestrial contact. I think it’s the greatest instrument, I was just thinking about this yesterday. The greatest instrument we have at our disposal as investigators are the human body and, and our consciousness, you know, more so than the physical body.

Although I do think that’s part of it, you know, we’ve got all these great gadgets nowadays and there are lasers and cameras and infrared and, you know, spirit boxes, there’s even dowsing rods, tarot cards, you know, dice, random number generators, which I like to try to sometimes use. But at the end of the day, I think our consciousness is what connects us to, you know, whether it’s the ghosts, whether it’s the Bigfoot, whether it’s the aliens, whether everything else in the universe.

I think consciousness is probably the fabric that connects all of us, regardless of whether we’re earthbound or not. A hundred percent. Yeah. So I think, you know, the paranormal investigation is just trying to figure out, you know, and at the end of the day, it’s like, you know, it’s all fine and dandy to believe in stuff.

But, we do love being reassured, of those beliefs from time to time, because if you go too long, believing something alone, and I think anybody who’s had a mystical experience or a paranormal experience if you go too long without some kind of outside validation, it is, it’s not impossible, but it is difficult to maintain, you know,  the integrity of that belief on some level.

And our memories change over years, you know, our visual memories, you know, they, they, they morph and they, you know, ‘cause it’s not like we’re telling you. And I know the story that I’ve told about the, you know, knowing someone who could shapeshift and those experiences I had with them. I know those stories are told differently now than they were, you know, you know, 14 years ago or whenever.

When I, you know, maybe first started telling them it just because, you know, time changes everything. So it doesn’t change the reality and the truth of what happened. But, you know, as they say, the devil’s in the details and that’s where people do like to try to, you know, you know, dispute certain things.

Well, the story is different now than it was then, you know, you hear that a lot in all kinds of different things. And, but at the end of the day, I think the communication of the events and the experience is what’s most important. And Regardless of the details of, you know, specifically when it happened or exactly like how it happened outside of the details of what did happen.

That’s the important part. And gosh, I can’t believe I’m forgetting the guy’s name, but there’s, on the trail of UFO’s, it’s a series that’s on Amazon prime and, I think I’m saying her name correctly it’ll grow Shannon Legrow is the, like the host of the show. There’s a guy that’s brought in on the show at one point.

And he’s saying, I think we’re focusing too much on, you know, who’s flying the UFOs or what the UFOs are made of, and as opposed to what’s the effect it had on the person who saw that UFO. So, what is the effect on the person on the experiencer? I think that’s probably the most important thing. Although we’d love to know who’s flying the UFOs, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.

What matters is like, what does it mean? It means that we’re not alone in the universe, that death isn’t real, all these things that the paranormal world tries to prove through evidence of ghosts or aliens.

Abby 00:23:07)And that’s a big undertaking to, to, to aim, to prove something so intangible. I can relate, you know, 

Ryan (00:23:21) It oftentimes feels like a fool’s game and yeah. I, as you’re saying that it makes me, I kind of had this timeline zoom out, right. When looking into the future, where you see right now, it’s like, you know, you have shows that, you know, some people make fun of, some people love, you know, on TV about trying to find ghosts.

You know, depending on what a person’s taste is, that’s fine. Their opinion is their opinion, but. And we’re trying to establish the idea that, you know, physical form is not the end all be all of someone’s life. And then on the other side, you have the UFO situation and I don’t think there are any bigger things in the universe.

When it comes to knowing that physical death does not end our existence. And we are not the only ones existing. I mean, what, you know, so if you look a couple of thousand years into the future, what I mean by zooming out on the timeline is you see how this, this field that has always been considered, you know, pretty ridiculous and silly by, by most people.

It feels like it’s changing recently because so many more people seem to be interested in the paranormal in the last couple of years, which is a good thing. But you look into the future and it’s the main thing, right? Its main point of focus is understanding the truth that now everyone kind of has grooved into knowing that physical form isn’t the end of life and that there are many other entities.

Abby (00:25:02) Conscious beings have some kind of some form existing in this universe outside of the very limited scope of the planet, earth being, everything that ever was and will be, which seems kind of silly if you, it’s kind of funny when you think about it when you say it that way. Absolutely. It’s like, whoa, what, what do we posture is ideal.

Ryan (00:25:26)Yeah. What a, what a limited worldview, right?

Abby (00:25:30) Like a hundred percent. And, it’s, it feels like doubt is such a commonplace thing to slip in. As we challenge these belief systems of what’s real and what isn’t, you know, and I feel like even when you do have these vivid experiences and, you know, I’ve when the work that I’ve done and with other people.

I had had my days of doubt. Like we have, like in my training, we had our classroom environment where we work with entities and all kinds of energies and, you know, just clearing when appropriate. And it felt so vivid and real and intense where like you know it’s unmistakable, you know, like when you have a profound moment and you can feel that, that depth of it, that alive in your body, that connection to it.

And, you know, without a doubt, it’s like, love for someone who’s been in love, you know, the feeling of love, but you can’t just tell someone else who hasn’t been in love, what that’s like, they have to experience. And even if you have maybe things change in the relationship, but then you start questioning.

Was that even ever love? I don’t know. And so we were just this continuous, well, not forever, but it’s this initial kind of back and forth between pushing past the way I see it. Anyway, those layers of doubt. And as you clear each kind of, each one, it kind of opens up more and more possibilities of our ability to perceive and sense the world beyond those judgments and those beliefs of what’s real. And what’s not real. 

Ryan (00:27:08)Yeah. I mean, when you say it like that, it’s like, how can you expect the majority of the world to, to see the universe for what it potentially truly is when they can’t see past their mortgage or they can’t see past their credit card bill that’s on the desk in front of. Or, you know, some of this other stuff that we get caught up in.

And when you, when you speak about doubt, it, it feels like doubt not only is but is also just this necessary thing too, you know, we talked about, you know, trying to every once in a while get, you know, the universe will regrind us, whether we’re expecting it or not. But I think doubt is I’ve never really considered it, but doubt might be getting a bad rap.

And, you know, I feel like doubt is such a valuable tool, That can be used. And I’m not exactly sure what I even think about all those. Cause it’s, you know, I’m just kind of hearing all of this for the first time as I say it. Like to me, like I’m for whatever reason, I’m feeling like doubt has just this beautiful thing right now.

Like when we’re talking about it and it is profoundly, you know, beautiful. I feel beautiful thinking about it right now. 

Abby (00:28:32) I heard someone say that before, but I find that so fascinating. What do you feel is the gift that Delt brings? 

Ryan (00:28:41) Well I think, you know, first and foremost, the first thing that pops into my mind is, you know, like self-examination and, you know, you know, reassurance, I mean, cause if you work through doubt on something, then you’re, you’re in on that thing.

Like if there’s, I mean, we love the phrase like, oh, this was, there was never any doubt in my mind that I, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, fill in the black. But are those things as valuable, or are they as deep? Are they as rich as, you know, the things that we move through the doubt on, I mean, you know, not to make it too, like, you know, timestamp, but you think about like the cryptocurrency markets or, you know, the stock market, obviously there’s always like the crypto, I think today was like, they were calling it a dip, like it, was going down, like, do you doubt that cryptocurrency is going to be, you know, the thing of the future, right?

Like I believe that by next, by the holiday season in 2022, all the major retailers like Amazon and eBay and, you know, plus some stores will be accepting cryptocurrency because they’re just, they’re just losing out on the opportunity to make more money. Right. So everybody’s kind of freaking out on this particular day like there’s a big dip in the crypto market and it makes everyone.

Right. So now you get to see the physical representation of what it looks like when a collective of people express their doubt and act upon it. And they flee from a thing and the thing goes down, right. And it loses its power. Right. And then, but once. That doubt is moved through by the people who truly believe in it.

They do, have the power, to make it stronger and bigger than ever before. So, you know, I think, you know, that’s just like the first example I could think of when it comes to like working through doubt and showing how coming through on the other side of doubt makes something even bigger and stronger, which, you know, it’s not a great example, but for the sake of this right now, it’s I think the crypto market is an example of that.

And again, I’m not a financial expert or I’m not a crypto expert or in any way, but if you don’t believe in yourself the same way, you know, we’ve all had moments of self-doubt where we didn’t think we could do something. And then when we finally did it, you know, we came out the other side, you know, remarkably stronger and there have been moments where I, I, you know, There’s been things in my life where I never had any doubt I could do something.

And those have served me to a, to a certain point. Like, I never doubted that I could be a performer. In the sense of the G in the very general sense, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t had self-doubt along the way before individual performances, or, oh, can I keep this up? Could I continue to do it? And then it’s those moments where it’s like, okay, well, what do you want to do with your life?

Yeah. And that self-examination comes in there. 

Abby (00:31:56) I love that. And I find that too, and it’s, I work a lot in that way as well of, you know, with the self-doubts and. It’s if you leave it as a question of what do you want to do with your life, and then let that be the thing that just melts everything.

Cause you can do that. It can be like, yeah, you’re right. Nevermind. It’s like, no, no answer to the question I’ve been through. I’ve been through a phase in Canadian winter where I’d have to let my dog out to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night when it’s extra cold. And it’s like minus Celsius.

It’s like minus 20. She was very cool and Fahrenheit. And I’ve just had the thought, what am I doing here? Like, what am I doing here on planet earth right now? Oh my God. And I told my husband that and he’s like, well, what are you doing here? I was like, that’s a really good question when you phrase it that way, I should answer that question.

And I think that’s where, when you answer it, you get even stronger than you were before. Like he was saying. And that’s kind of the gift that the doubt can bring or that those challenging voices can be. 

Ryan (00:33:02)Yeah, I think doubt brings doubt, bears, many gifts. It turns out and I’m feeling afraid and to run from doubt is to run from truth because if nothing else doubt allows us to, or it forces us to, okay.

Be honest with yourself. Can you do this? Do you want to do this more importantly? And do you need to do it? You know, so I don’t know how I’d rank those three other than, you know, do you want to, it would be number one, do you need to number two and number three is, can you even do it is, you know, further down the list.

That’s not even important because I don’t think that’s really what I have doubts about. So the gift, the real gift that doubt is bringing us is the opportunity, to be honest with ourselves and to find an answer, I guess. Right. So, in that way, doubt is just kind of like, Hey, I’m here to help you, man.

Like, don’t be, you know, but in that way, I, I feel like doubt is been, get, has been given like a really bad rap. When in fact it’s here just to build us up. 

Abby (00:34:20) Yeah. I love that. I love that perspective on it. I think it’s, it’s a perspective that opens a door to let it build you back up instead of just feeling defeated by it.

So if I were to choose one of those two, I would choose the former. 

Ryan (00:34:36)Yeah. Now the other side of that though is, you know, you hear a lot of people will be like, oh, you know, I got a lot of haters out there who don’t think I can, you know, and some people find the fuel that way, to achieve their accomplishments and to, you know, to give them the fuel they need to get to, to, to keep going.

To innovate or to do whatever I’ve never really found, you know, drive or, or my passions never been fueled by, by the doubters, all the doubters out there, you know, that’s, you know, all the haters, but so that’s the other side where it can kind of be manipulated. And,  I don’t know. I don’t want to say a bad way, but in a, I guess a less light-filled way, you know, the darker side of Dao.

Ryan (00:35:29)The shadow side. Yeah. And you being a comedian, being a performer, I imagine that you’ve experienced all kinds of, of external doubts like that are all kind of, you know, I don’t know if it’d be haters or not, but this is the profession that you kind of learn as you’re up there on the stage. And you’re kind of figuring it out in front of everybody.

It’s not a matter of perfection, whatever that means, but how did you step out there knowing that people are going to have all kinds of thoughts and you can’t control that, but you knew that you could 

Ryan (00:36:04) Do this. You know, I’ve never really considered it until now. Wow. I never really considered, I mean, all of us know that whenever we walk somewhere and or if someone is purposely looking at us that they’re going to have some kind of preconceived notion of who we are and I’ve had friends tell me some preconceived notions that they had when they first met me, Not knowing me at all.

And I’ve been shocked by them. Quite frankly, sometimes I’ve been, I’ve been shocked like, oh wow, you thought I was going to be like that. So like we never know, we never know what everyone is going to be thinking about us. And why do they have to even think that way? So, but walking onto a stage at a comedy club, especially when no one knows you, there’s, doubt in some people’s mind if they’re like, he doesn’t look like he’s going to be funny.

I’m sure that’s there. And those are the people that when you make them laugh, it’s almost, it’s almost more gratifying, I suppose, even though you never really know that that’s happened, I guess unless someone tells you after a show, which would be, I guess, They think it would be complementary, but it’d be very strange to say that to someone like, you know, when you first walked to, I didn’t think he’d be funny at all, but you were really fun, you know, that’s just like, that’s such a weird thing to say to someone.

Stranger things have been said to people out to comedians after shows that’s for sure. So it’s not the, it’s not, it wouldn’t be the craziest thing to hear in a long shot, but, but yeah, I guess I never think about it. I never have so many other things I’m thinking about before I go on stage.

It’s never even occurred to me to think like, what are they going to think about when they see me? I mean, you want people to like you, you want in the way that you, that they laugh, you want to bring people laughter. And with that comes, you know, some spark of joy and you know, you want to do a good job because I think most comedians start doing stand-up comedy because they love to make people laugh.

I mean, some comedians assuredly get into comedy because they want to be famous. And it’s a very low centric, singularly focused kind of performance where you don’t have to share the stage with people. You know, you’re not part of an ensemble. So all the attention is on you. So it’s probably the most selfish of all the performances.

The thing you could do is stand-up comedy. You know, I don’t know maybe that or slam poetry. I, you know, so those, those two are probably the, you know, cause comedians want to make people laugh, you know, poets want to make people think and feel, you know, so I don’t know. What’s more, what’s more, but, yeah, so, I mean, I guess with that comes a certain understanding that all comedians think they’re special to a certain degree.

And, and, and with that comes just not even really thinking maybe too much about, you know, what the audience is going to be. If the audience is going to be doubting us, just by appearance or anything else, 

Abby (00:39:34) It sounds really healthy and probably a part of how you did so well. And you knew that you could do this is my guess.

Ryan (00:39:42) Well, it’s I, well, that’s interesting that you say it sounds healthy thee. I like to hear that. but at the end of the day, it is like, what is better than making someone, someone laughs? I mean, making someone think is also very fun, I guess, and intriguing. I mean, you know, I’m not going to act like it’s not, but, but when you can like, make someone laugh, you don’t have to worry about making them think because it’s built into it.

You know, if, you know, if I don’t know, there seems to be a weird thing in comedy and I don’t know, it used to be, it used to be pretty fascinating or it used to be considered one of the highest skill sets and stand up comedy. If you could be edited. And because with that, it means that you’re making people laugh, but you’re also saying controversial things potentially, or you’re saying things that people aren’t necessarily wanting to hear, but you’re making them funny.

And it seems that over the years, some comedians have decided to focus on just the edgy part, as opposed to the comedy part that goes along with it. So where is the joke, you know, where is making this controversial or this thing that most people won’t speak about? What is it, where is it making it funny? And because if you make it funny, It doesn’t matter what you say, if something’s funny, it’s funny if everyone laughs at it, I mean, that’s just basic, I guess, comedy math, but then, the idea that you don’t have to be funny and you can just be edgy is that’s probably the most shocking part,  is that, oh, you, you don’t think you have to be funny anymore, but because if someone laughs at a joke, like for example, I have a, I’ve been doing a joke recently about gun control and gun bans.

And if I can make someone who’s very anti-gun control, laugh at this joke, they’re kind of thinking about it from a different perspective. They’re thinking about it from a pro-gun control perspective, even though their anti-gun control, like, oh, I never thought of it that way, but that was funny, you know?

I mean, that was funny. I never thought of it that way. But you know, I guess the goal, the goal can’t be trying to change someone’s mind. Right. And I think that goes, that goes with everything else. I mean, no one wants to be told what to do. I don’t care who they are. I don’t, I, I don’t think, you know, the Dalai Lama doesn’t want to be told what to do.

I mean, I don’t know the Dalai Lama obviously, but if I were to guess that if someone tried to tell the Dalai Lama what to do, their initial reaction wouldn’t be, oh, I love that. When people tell me what to do, you know, so that’s, you know, that’s the thing that I think we, you know, that I try to focus on in comedy is no one wants to be told what to do.

No one wants to be told what to believe or what to think. And when it turns into that, that’s when you know, it just starts becoming like an argument as opposed to a performance. 

Abby (00:43:23) And it’s. It feels like, you know, what to believe, what to think. It’s such a personal thing and what to do is very personal too.

And we’ve got our general rules. Like you’re not allowed to hurt anybody else. If you hurt somebody else, you’d go to jail. Unless you’re good at it and have a lot of money. But in general, how to do that, beyond that, it’s up to you. And, you know, I think that you know, with, with the metaphysical stuff, what’s kind of spirituality, it’s kind of like, what is ours, what was my relationship with existence?

My relationship with consciousness and energy and the universe. Nature and ghosts and entities and all of those things. How do I engage with that? And for someone else to say, this is what it is. It doesn’t feel good. Cause it’s, you’re thinking about, well, that’s your framework.

And I don’t know if that’s going to fit into the scope of how I want to engage with reality. That might sound a little rigid. And it’s interesting doing this kind of work. I feel like. And with the evidence too, that you mentioned earlier, it’s kind of like, you can kind of put little signposts of like, Hey, check out this direction.

You might find some cool stuff there through your personal experience of what that feels and looks like to you, but you can’t ever tell somebody, this is enlightening. This is what you gotta do. It’s like, no, no, you get there on your own. You 

Ryan (00:44:52)Can you imagine, this is what enlightenment is and if you don’t agree, you’re wrong.

Abby (00:44:58) I think there were some wars about that. 

Ryan (00:45:00)Yeah. And it’s like, well, that doesn’t sound like that. Person’s very enlightened. Then, it’s so fascinating when it comes to this stuff because in a certain way I understand the appeal of science. I believe that the paranormal and the metaphysical world and that we need to stop relying on scientific validation, although I do love science and what it’s done, and the appeal of science to me is there’s not a lot of wiggle room for debate about what something is or what something does, or what happens when.

Plus this happens. It’s like we can show it over and over and over and over again that this is what this is. And we can do tests to find out what this is and what’s inside this thing. So now we can make a list of ingredients. Right. And so there’s still debate about that stuff, even though it seems very clear cut, oftentimes, but yet there’s still debate on, on those things.

And then the paranormal world, the metaphysical world, these are the things that we have not yet been able to, even within the inside of the world of the paranormal and metaphysical and spiritual agree upon, you know, and. Yeah, I can just think off the top of my head in the paranormal world, there are, you know, there are people who believe the bigfoot is, you know, flesh and bone, a missing link, evolutionary chart, kind of animal.

And then there are others in the paranormal world. Like, no, I have contact with extraterrestrials that tell me that they are from a different planet. And then you have others that are like, oh no, they’re inter you know, they traveled through interdimensional portals. And so even within the world of Bigfoot, there are these different camps of beliefs on what a bigfoot even is, right.

Or where they come from. And it’s because we haven’t been able to pin it down in that scientific way. Okay. We have the body of a bigfoot. We’ve examined a bigfoot and their DNA, none of their DNA is of earth. That’s why we know that there, you know, or, you know, all of their DNA is, you know, we’re 97% share the same DNA as a Sasquatch, you know, so.

And then when you get into like aliens or you get into, you know, spirits, ghosts, entities, you know, ascended, masters, you know, spirit guides, like all these things, archangels and you know, all these things. So it’s like, you know, who do you believe and why is it even really that important to try to set up what is distinctly the absolute truth regarding the Archangel?

Michael is like this. And they are like this for every single person that they interact with or who can contact them. When in fact, I think it goes back to what we’re saying. Like, this is all such a unique experience for each individual. And we all interface with the universe around us in such a unique way, even though we’re all the same and connected, I think.

So the idea is that. Every person has a different reality or a different experience of what reality is, which is valid. And doesn’t necessarily have to make me feel like I’m going crazy, even though that can kind of make me feel like I’m going crazy. If no one else is experiencing the same thing as me, what the F you know, w what, you know, like how, how can we have any common ground, right. I think it’s so 

Abby (00:49:01)Important to have communities like the one that you cultivate with me and paranormal you on that podcast. It gives people a place to feel,  acknowledged to feel like that part of themselves, and their experiences are acknowledged to feel not crazy about that. Cause yeah, I’ve been there.

A lot of people I talk with have been there too, and it’s just when there’s that it’s just bringing in the understanding of. Insight and perspective and, you know, even to speak to what even is crazy. I like the definition that Eckhart has where he says, it’s complete identification with a thought-form.

So if I believe anything, the Hemi mentally, like they need to believe this, as I do, that’s kind of crazy. Or they did this to me. Like, do I know that? And so we go into these like crazy spirals and all kinds of stuff within the human race and collectively, you know, we’re kind of in a bit of an insane world, but opening up to these other dimensions within us and around us, I feel like that’s stepping closer and to sanity that stepping more into the experience, what is the experience telling me?

That’s all that matters. Does the way that I make that mean, do I make that mean something that’s freeing to me or limiting? So if I have a paranormal experience and I see it as bad, wrong, or unsafe, then if that doesn’t feel good to me, I can change the way that that means to me because it’s, I think it’s all just the meaning that we assign it through, which we’re seeing this interface with reality and kind of collectively deciding on what that is and all over different versions of it.

And, each one is not necessarily more or less valid than the next, it’s just, is it serving you? Is it harming you? Is it serving others? Is it harming others? Yeah, there’s a saying, and it’s kind of a little bit tangential, but you know, everyone believes their dog is the best and they’re all right.

It’s like, yeah, what you just said is opposite from what I just said, but you’re right to go enjoy that. 

Ryan (00:51:20)Yeah. And, and even, and they’re allowed to be, they’re allowed to be right about that as I, I do think that we have, you know, this, this illusion of competition is necessary and I know it’s that way within the stand-up comedy world, where some people are under the illusion, that there’s not enough room for everyone to be successful.

And there’s, you know, I have to be successful at the expense of others. Not having the opportunity to just, just to succeed, which is, which is incorrect in my opinion. And I think it’s that way in general, with a lot of us at least raised in the Western world, to kind of believe this, you know, you have to like to succeed in the market of life.

Right. And it’s like to the point where now everyone believes that they have to be their brand just as people. Right. And, and you know, that, you know, that sickness used to be reserved for those of us in entertainment, but now it’s, it’s, you know, it’s split into everyone and it is interesting because we can get caught up in things.

And, you know, people like to say that we have never been more divided as, you know, at least down here in the United States, And it’s like, well, is that true? Or is that just what you believe? Because that’s what you’re told through your device, you know, and it’s almost like it’s divisive, you know,  you know, everyone has become divisive in the way that they’re living inside of their device that tells them more divided and maybe people have always had vastly differing opinions on the way the world should be.

What’s right versus what’s wrong. And now you just have access to hearing more people shout about it, or post about it online. And the takeaway from that for me is. Even when we didn’t have social media and all these things, broadcasting, all these different opinions that are supposedly making us so divided the world still was moving forward.

And I believe, I honestly believe we are making progress, whether it’s, you know, gender, race, religion, all these things, scientific progress, obviously, with vaccines, you know, polio, all these other things that have been cured. We’ve been making progress as a species while maintaining vastly differing opinions on things. 

But now that remains the same and people, people in this country, even have the goal to talk about civil war as if it’s a reality and. And none of those people have ever had to stand in the street, holding a gun, looking at another person, holding a gun in the street.  For the most part, right.

People who have served in the military have had to do that.  But I’m referring to those people. But at the end of the day, what you have here is you have, you know, all of these different realities that we’re talking about, right. That we’re all living inside of. And that we’re all experiencing reality through our perspective.

And there are certain ways to try to corral people into others, into a group of like, well, you believe this too, then don’t you. Right. And then, and, you know, just to try to believe what you’re knowing who to believe and what to believe is, you know, I get, you know, potentially more challenging than it has been in a while for a lot of people, because they’re always looking to the outside, right.

As opposed to. Looking inward. Exactly. And everybody wants a savior from the outside world and Donald Trump was a savior for so many people. It was like a comic book hero to some people. It’s into those of us who were not in any way interested in anything he had to say or what he believed in. It was laughable.

Like, how do you think this guy is going to take down a cabal or of, you know, pedophile cannibals? Like it’s to the point where it’s like, are you re, is this a comic book? Right. But, you know, it’s, you know, he’s a reality TV star. He was born into a rich family. And now you think he’s Batman. So like in many ways, you know, and then on the other side, you have, you know, differing points of view.

It all just stems from this need to not want to have to do it ourselves. Right. We want someone else to do the work for us. We want someone and even Bernie Sanders for someone like me was like that to a certain degree where I was like, Bernie is the guy who’s going to do it. You know, Bernie is going to be the one who does it.

Right. And it’s like, well, no, Bernie shouldn’t be doing it all. You know, like I should be doing my part. Right. And you know, it doesn’t, it can’t be Bernie just the same way. It couldn’t be Trump. And just the same way he can’t be Biden and it can’t be Trump again, or whoever else people want. It’s like, we all want to be saved by somebody.

And it’s just, it’s exhausting. I think a lot of people are exhausted by searching for the savior that never will be because it’s always from the outside. Right? Yeah. 

Abby (:57:05)So, what do you feel? And I know you mentioned that comes from inside. If someone was out there looking for the savior outside, what would you want them to know?

What would you say to them?

Ryan (00:57:19) Oh, wow. I mean, I wish I was smart enough to solve all this. What I’d want them to know is, and it’s, you know, it’s that adage about, you know, you, you want to, you have to be the change you want to see in the world. I mean, it’s, I think it really is that simple and, and it’s not always easy.

It’s quite often very, very difficult to make that change. And this is something else I wrestle with because I used to think that it’s like, oh man, I don’t know why human beings are built this way. Why is it so easy to hate somebody and so difficult to love somebody? I wish we were built differently and then.

I just recently came to the realization. Well, maybe, it isn’t more difficult. Maybe we’re just taught that it is. And it’s actually easier to love somebody. Cause if you look at the behavior of children and you see what children do, children love everybody until they’re taught not to. And that is maybe our truest self.

 Right? So if someone was looking from the outside, now, granted a child still needs to be kept alive by an adult. So, but I don’t think that’s the same as having a savior. So I would say, you know, just try to be the change you want to see and you know, like if you were in charge, what would you do? And, by, in charge, I mean, just like in charge of your life, not anybody else’s and if you were nine years old, what would you want to do right now?

And, you know, what would you, what would you think if you are a nine-year-old about the way that our world leaders are talking to each other on the internet or behaving, or, you know, saying on the floor of Congress or, you know, what a nine-year-old you like to see this commercial that this politician has made, or, you know, behave in this way that these other people in this, in this industry, the entertainment industry, or whoever else, like, what would, you know, would you want your kid to be a part of that?

Would you want to be a part of it as a kid? And I think our answers are probably there, intuitively, I mean, I wish it was really easy. I mean, maybe it is really easy to find the answer. Maybe the answer is so simple that it’s difficult to find for so many of us. 

Abby (01:00:05)I love the answer that you said earlier.

It’s like maybe it is easier to love and to hate, and that’s kind of how we come into the world. I know for me anyway, one feels all hell of a lot better about my body. 

Ryan (01:00:16)Yeah. Right. And I mean, I used to call it to hate hitting the hate pipe. You know, it’s almost like a crack pipe, you know, like, yeah, I can be addicted.

And we were talking about haters and doubters earlier. Many people fueled themselves that way. Right. And yeah. And their success is fueled. I mean, one of the most famous examples is Tom Brady. Who’s considered to be like the greatest NFL quarterback, football quarterback of all time. He is notoriously fueled by all the doubters that passed over him and didn’t think he would be any good.

And here he is the greatest of all time. Right. And people hear stories like that. Like, Aaron Rogers is a quarterback in the NFL in the same way you hear it a lot in athletics. And, you know, that people hear stories like that and they’ll be like, okay, I need to find someone who is wrong. So I can have fuel, you know 

Abby (01:01:11)What do I mean?

These kinds of it’s like, you don’t have to go look for sufferings, many teachers with my teachers. So that one time, you don’t have to look for suffering. Suffering will find you, that’s not a problem in this world.

Ryan( 01:01:24) Exactly. So, you know, it’s like, it’s like deficient, what was that? There was like some big flash. I don’t know if you saw that on my camera. It’s like the fish in the ocean, wondering when it might rain again, you know, it’s like, no, you’re surrounded by it. You don’t have to go looking for it. The I, yeah, I think, it is interesting to think about like, you know, all of this like kind of wrapped together.

It’s like, you know, if we can figure out a way to sustain ourselves with, you know, the fuel of love and kindness, as opposed to Hey, instead of using hate to motivate, which is so primal and is used so effectively through social media and advertising when it comes to politics, it’s just like, you know, the human creature has figured out how to hack the human creature and such an effective way that we all become frenzied,  at times, and, you know, part of me wishes, we didn’t become so damn good at understanding just what makes us tick on a physical primal level because it’s just been hacked so well, By the people who want to try to motivate people in large numbers to do things vote certain ways or behave in certain ways.

That’s it, but on the other side of that, it’s like, isn’t that great that we’ve been able to develop such a deep level of insight and understanding about who we are. And at some point in the, in hopefully the near future, but the distant future human beings will look back on these periods, especially the last, you know, maybe a couple of hundred years.

And they’ll be like, oh wow, how silly, how silly we all were? How unevolved it’s so funny, how smart they thought they were like, they were so stupid. They didn’t realize how stupid they were. And so, and I don’t mean stupid as in like you’re so stupid. You’re willfully ignorant. I just mean we’re just not there yet.

Ryan (01:03:47)Yeah. Like we’re incredibly powerful, big kids, you know, we’re still working on the wisdom and integrity piece collectively, but we have the power to, you know, blow up the planet if we want to, but let’s see if we, where do we want to point that power? And I think we’re still cultivating the wisdom piece.

And I think that what you do is the paranormal work and, you know, in connecting it with this other part of our consciousness, it opens more doorways to those parts of ourselves. And I feel like those doorways are kind of needed at this time in life right now. 

Ryan (01:04:22)Yeah, for sure. And those doorways are needed.

And it reminds me, we’re talking about being these big kids. I remember I was a kid. I got into my mom’s makeup when she was away and like I ruined her whole makeup kit. ’cause. I was like, I just think I was spilling like the nail polish remover onto the, like, it was like one of those cases that opens up and it’s got a bunch of stuff.

So I’m just putting all this makeup on and I’m ruined, I melted the case and it’s like, just because I was, but that’s the image to me. Like, were these kids who got into our mom’s makeup and we think we’re grown up now, but we’re walking, we’re walking around the house, you know, with our mom, you know, makeup, just all over our face, thinking I’m ready for work.

Now I’m a grownup and I’m in charge. And it’s like if you could see yourself, right, ridiculous. You’re wearing your dad’s pie around your waist.

Abby (01:05:18) I love that. All right. So, before we wrap up, I want you to tell me you have an app that’s coming out. 

Ryan (01:05:26) That’s right. We didn’t even talk about this. No. Well crystallizes the name of the app. It’s crystal, E Y E S all one word. It’s a crystal identification app. It also has a personal collection option, a crystal database that was curated by, we had the psychic teachers work with us on, creating a crystal database for us.

So people can research and look up information on it, it’s right around 300 crystals, just over 300 crystals and it’ll get bigger over time. And then we also have a metaphysical directory. So I kind of like yellow pages if people are of a certain age, like a woo, like woo yellow pages. So crystal shops, metaphysical services, practitioners, and things like that, that was, that will be constantly expanding.

And he even has a, you know, it’s linked to like Google maps, apple maps. So you can just find a store in your area, in your city, and then boom, click the map. If you want to go there. We also have resources and some information on ethical sourcing, the ethical sourcing movement, which is still kind of in its infant stages in the crystal world.

Our thoughts are: how can you buy a stone that will help you heal if it’s sourced from harm? So we are putting resources toward trying to research, investigate and promote ethical sourcing. We’ve had conversations with groups like Irma, which has large-scale mining. And then also fair mind, which is a smaller artisanal scale mining.

But mostly they focus on gold. They do plan on moving into the crystal world, I think at some point soon, according to some conversations I’ve had with them in the last year and a half. They’re just not ready to do that at this point. But both groups understand that the crystal market became a billion-dollar industry worldwide.

So, it is very important to start trying to get some kind of industry standards like gold and other precious gemstones, because there’s no, there’s no regulation. Industry-wide in the crystal market and there are regulations in each country for mining standards and things like that.

But some of them are awful. Some of them are bad. So I think lapis lazuli is one of the biggest, one of the biggest sources of LABAs comes from Afghanistan and all of those mines are controlled by the Taliban as of now. So you, you have to be careful where you’re, where you’re buying your stones, your crystals, and it’s not easy.

To find any kind of answers about where they’re coming from. There’s no supply chain transparency by most people. There are some people out there who are providing supply chain transparency. That’s what we’re trying to promote. Our idea is to be able to promote and showcase and feature people who are selling crystals, who are providing that information at this time. We do not have any featured partners when it comes to crystal shops.

In that way, we’ve had some conversations with some, and they, you know, all, we want to see all the apps work before we agree to do it and things like that. So in the future, I think we’ll probably have some, some partners pretty soon. And then some people claim to be, they give you the old line.

We get our crystals from trusted sources. And that’s all the information they’ll provide trusted sources. Yeah. Now not everybody who says that is lying, but, you know, but some people when pressed on that issue will not want to carry on the conversation with you at all. So, and I get it, they’re just trying to run a business and they didn’t, they, I mean, you know, and maybe when they first started selling crystals, they had no idea that some of these crystals were coming from mines where children are being forced to work.

You know that’s, they’re not the ones making kids work in a mine, you know, and they never wanted a kid to work in a mine. So this is all, it’s all kind of a new thing that’s been happening the last couple of years where people are trying to be aware of this. And cause you to know sustainability, you know, the native groups, some of them sometimes they’ll, you know, a mining company will come in and decimate their natural resources and they’ll just cut it.

And it is heartbreaking and there are people out there working towards stopping that and trying to make it not happen. You know, we don’t want to be only broadcasting the bad here, but there are groups of people working hard to do it. I mean, cause I don’t know-how and more I’ve gotten into this.

I mean, the idea first came out. Like I had this idea like four or five years ago where I was just, I wish I had a Shazam for my crystals. And then, you know, a couple of years ago I talked to three cousins of mine who are kind of, you know, software engineer kind of guys. And we decided to make an app. Now there are a couple of apps, unfortunately, that I’ve hit the market before us.

But when we first started working on this idea, there were no apps, no ID apps on the market, but they’re, they’re pretty much just, you know, rock ID apps that don’t have any kind of sense of community that they’re building. So this is an app. Yeah. So this is an app for crystal lovers, built by crystal lovers and.

So we’re excited about the value we’re going to bring to the community and trying to push the community forward. We will be at some point in the future, having ethical sourcing rankings within the app, where we can showcase and promote those who are prioritizing the ethical sourcing when it comes to the products that they’re selling.

So we want to shine a light on the people who are doing that, not to mention practitioners as well in the metaphysical world. You know, we’ve got to get you in the directory so more people can find you, And, you know, so, so we’re excited, and it should be live in the store. I know for a fact it’s available on Android, as we’re talking about right now, we’re having some issues with the apple version, that I’m not smart enough to fully understand when it comes to coding and things like that.

So that should be on the market by the time I think this goes up, cause I think it’s going to go up and it will probably hopefully in the next 48 hours. So we’re rocking and rolling. It’s out there. So, and you know, there’s a free version that has a limited personal collection size and also has limited snaps per.

So you don’t get, unlimited free photo identification photos if you have the free version, but you do get a few, you do get some, each month, it’ll reset, but then there’s also a monthly subscription and a yearly subscription price where you get unlimited access to snaps,  personal collection size, all that kind of stuff.

So, but everything else in the app is free and there will be no ads, either. No ads, no free trials, none of that stuff. 

Abby (01:12:39)Nice. I love that. Thank you for doing that to you and everyone and building that. I know it reminds me of a saying, I remember who said it, but it says you do the best you can until you know better.

And when you know, better do better, 

Ryan (01:12:54) I think it enables us to do that’s a great saying because many people are like, well, what should I do with all my crystals I already bought? And I have no idea where they came from and it speaks exactly to what you just said. Well, Don’t throw them away, you know, like, I mean, you didn’t know better.

Yeah. Love them. And now, but now that we know better, we have to do better. And so, and it’s not easy just to walk into a place and be like, where do you get your crystals from? You know, it’s kind of a delicate conversation right now. I, at some point in the future, hope that supply chain transparency will be so prevalent within crystal shops that it will be clearly displayed in stores.

Abby (01:13:39) Fantastic. You know, to have that be standing. 

Ryan (01:13:42) Wouldn’t that be great. And there’s, you know, and I get it. I don’t sell crystals. So revealing all of my sources, you know, some people are skeptical and things like, are you going to try to swoop in on my mind, on my source? And you’re going to try to undercut my price and all this kind of stuff.

Right. So. The old, the idea of cutthroat business practices and things like that, you know, because so many crystals come from so many different places, you can’t go to a store, a crystal shop and be like, where do you get your crystals? And they say we get all of our crystals from here. That’s, you know like I said, I mean, different countries have crystals that come from different countries and different countries have different governments and have different standards.

So there are distributors, but it’s like, where are these distributors just overlooking where they’re getting some of their crystals, you know, before they sell them to the shops or the Phoenix, Tucson gem show or whatever, you know, you never know. 

Abby (01:14:46) And I can definitely speak to having clean energy with what you use, especially when it comes to crystals, like their part of what they do is to help clean the energy.

They’re very pure. And I’ve, I purchased a crystal, a piece of Jade online, not feeling into the energy of it before I bought it. And then when it arrived, I held it in my hands like, oh man, this is not a happy stone. I was angry. It was upsetting. And I was like connecting with it. I’m like, Hey, what’s up?

What do you want? Like, I want to go back, take me back to China. I want to go back now. I’m like, oh my God, I’m so sorry. I don’t think I can do that, but let me do my best to work with you. But You know, if I were to have known more about it before purchasing it, to realize the energy of how that, where that stone was out.

I wouldn’t have got it because I’m not going to wear that stone because it’s really unhappy. And so I’m going to work with it to try to make it happier as best I can. But if I’m working with something in my spiritual practice or energetic practice, I want the energy of it all to feel aligned, to contribute more into that alignment.

feel that in a practical sense to the ethical and that does carry over into the actual practical energy of it. 

Ryan (01:15:58)Yeah. And we know we only hope to, you know, get bigger and better and, and do a better job of trying to provide information and resources to people to make informed decisions.

And, the reality is we’re not going to be able to have every crystal we want if we go by. We’re not going to be, I mean, cause as it stands now we can walk into certain crystal shops or go online, especially, and you can have any crystal you’ve ever heard of delivered to your door and you can have it as a raw polished in a necklace on a ring, earrings, whatever you want.

And the reality is you’re going to have to pay more maybe for, at the beat, at least at the beginning of all of this, when it really starts to take hold, you’re gonna have to pay more to ensure that it’s ethically sourced and you’re not going to be able to have every crystal you want when it comes to.

Abby (01:16:58) So everything we buy is a vote for the kind of world we want to live in. 

Ryan (01:17:02)Exactly. And you know, and it’s such an ever-changing landscape that it’s really difficult to be on top of it. Constantly people don’t have the time in their days to stay on top of the mining practices and the sources of every different crystal.

Cause there’s, you know, hundreds of crystals out there and gemstones and minerals that people use for energy work or just to love to have around the house or for whatever reason you can’t, it’s impossible for the average person to stay on top of all this. I’m barely on top of even any of it. And this is after doing research for the last two years, and building this app.

So, and having conversations with people, I never thought I’d have conversations with like Irma is really cool. It’s the initiative for responsible mining assurance and they’ve created protocols for mines across the world so they’ve done all of the hard work. That is what I’m telling people. Irma has done all of the hard work and there’s such an amazing coalition because they’ve brought in the supply chain.

They’ve brought in mining companies, they brought in indigenous people in the area and they brought in retail. I mean, so, and there’s like, I think there are four or five different groups. All of them have to agree on the protocol, for them to, for the protocols to be advanced. And w so they’ve used this coalition with everybody involved in the whole mining process, from the people who live there to the people who sell them, and they have created the protocols and, and, you know, to, to be implemented.

And it is up to the mining companies to volunteer. To initiate them and be a part of them and they do, and they keep you up to date with everybody. Who’s taking part? And that’s a large scale now they’re not really interested in dealing with the crystal market because there’s such large scale mining.

There, there focuses on that. Until,  in one of our conversations, they realized that courts are, you know, the most abundant mineral on the planet. If I’m not mistaken. And it’s used in every cell phone, I think every computer. But it’s also the most prevalent crystal and the crystal world.

Because there are so many different types of it. And so then that, you know, once they realize that, that kind of made them start thinking, you know what, this actually is something that in the future we might want to be more involved with. But as it stands now, they’ve done all the legwork. As far as making the protocols, you know, for what mining people should be or what mines should be doing on supply chain and et cetera, et cetera, and fair mind has done it on much smaller, like the artisanal family-owned, private owned mines.

And so the work has been done. It’s just now up to the crystal and industry, to implement all of this stuff and to try to have some kind of transparency, but there’s a lot of work involved in trying to make this happen. So, we’re just hoping to be a part of that and push the conversation forward.

Abby (01:20:28)Well, thank you. Thanks for doing that, you know, and I see it kind of as being a bridge between what all of this work Irma has done and bringing that into the industry and enabling access to the consumer, making it accessible for us to choose so much more easily. So I’m excited about it. I can’t wait till it comes out.

I’ll be checking it out for sure. Yeah. 

Ryan (01:20:50)Well, and just one last point on that is this whole thing made me realize something incredible. And then, you know, living in a time of climate change, you know, and, and, and just how pressing all of that is there is no bigger industry on the planet earth that is more closely tied to the health of this planet when it comes to us being able to survive on it than mining.

Mining’s the number one thing that’s where everything comes from. Outside of like, would, you know, I mean, which is, you know, to kind of like above-ground mining, but outside of like, you know, the lumber industry and things like that, mining is where everything that we have around us and that we see and that we use everything comes from the earth.

And how does it come from the earth? It is, most of it is mined. And so Irma in my opinion is doing like the biggest work of all when it comes to trying to make sustainability. Because that’s another big part of theirs, their program is sustainability, you know, leaving the earth, you know, not depleted in a way that is harmful.

So, um, there’s no bigger, there’s no bigger, no bigger thing than mining and when it comes to industry, in my opinion. And yeah, I mean, fossil fuels come from mining as well. So yeah, it’s. And crystals are a part of that. And crystals really have the opportunity to take what it is they’re supposedly all about and, and show it and, you know, put your, you know, the proof’s in the pudding, so to speak.

So it’s time for the new age or the spiritual, metaphysical community to take the lead on this when it comes to demanding accountability. 

Abby (01:22:57) I love that. And it’s, you know, demanding accountability, taking accountability, being accountable, and demanding it and our industry. Yeah. That’s how we change it for sure.

I love it. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you so much for being here for sharing, for creating this app and you know, doing your part to support all that’s going on in the world right now. It’s so good 

Ryan (01:23:21) To connect again. Yeah, great to connect, and look forward to having you on, me and paranormal you here very soon as well.

Abby (01:23:30) Yeah. Look forward to it. And so can you just tell me kind of where all the places people can find you? 

Ryan (01:23:36) Oh, people can go to ryansingercomedy.com. I am also on Instagram @rysing, R Y S I N G I think there’s a link tree link on my Instagram, that kind of links to everything that we’ve got going on or that I’ve got going on.

So the podcast website, the comedy, the app, everything else. So they can find me on Instagram @rysing or ryansingercomedy.com and paranormal U are available everywhere that podcasts can be found. 

Abby (01:24:08)Awesome. I’ll co. I’ll include all in the show notes as well. All right. Thank you, my friend. 

Ryan (01:24:13) Thank you. This was fun. Yeah.