Batman & James Bond Stuntman Exposes What Hollywood Hides | Mike Smith Ep. 011

WEBVTT
00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:09.839
I did not know that my entire life was about to get reset.
00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:16.480
I went over the rail and the girl that I was doing the scene with and I turned sideways which didn't feel natural.
00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:20.000
And it was such a small fall, I didn't have time to react.
00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:26.239
And I landed on a pipe and I burst fractured my L2 vertebrae and I was paralyzed from the waist down.
00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:28.160
However, you want to get to that.
00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:33.600
Or that's the devil, a demon, or a dark entity, a principality, a spirit.
00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:34.799
That was real.
00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:36.479
Jesus is real.
00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:38.240
And these movies point that out.
00:00:38.399 --> 00:00:43.439
Unless you know how you're being manipulated or the tools they use, you're not ever gonna be able to fight it.
00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:44.079
You can't.
00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:47.200
How do you fight a fight when you don't even know you're gonna fight?
00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:48.560
You've gotta understand.
00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:51.759
If they control your story, they control your behavior.
00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:58.320
So if you want that power, you want to be famous, or you want to get into the high levels of it, you're gonna give something up.
00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:09.120
Had I not broken my back and had God not reset my life and gave me one more chance to redeem my soul, I would not be who I am today, and I would not be doing what I am today.
00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:16.640
And I am way more happy being this guy than I was the guy in Hollywood chasing a bunch of reality to begin with.
00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:18.959
And all I know is I needed to get right with this.
00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:27.760
Alright, well, my my guest today, I'm super excited to have uh my buddy here with me.
00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:30.480
Uh this guy was living the Hollywood dream, man.
00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:33.280
He was crashing cars, jumping off buildings.
00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:42.719
I mean, he was one of the who's who's in the industry, and uh, but then an accident changed the trajectory of his entire life.
00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:47.760
And I'm it's incredible when you get to hear his story and what he's gonna share today.
00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:58.480
And uh man, he he he left LA, uh started chasing after the things of God, and made two powerful documentaries.
00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:05.040
And uh, we're gonna share all that information with you, but we're gonna get into that on this episode of the Defending Freedom Show.
00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:07.840
And so today I want to welcome my guest, Mike Smith.
00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:08.879
Hey, brother, welcome.
00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:10.000
Thank you for having me.
00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:10.879
I'm honored to be here.
00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:15.599
Hey man, thank you for traveling all the way down to Houston, Texas to join me today, man.
00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:16.879
It's an honor to have you.
00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:19.039
Well, Houston is my home city.
00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:31.039
I was born and raised in Houston, and before I started my life, this is where I grew up, and I have a special uh affinity for Houston, and I love uh I love coming back to Houston.
00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:32.080
That's awesome, man.
00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:33.039
So you're a Texas boy.
00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:34.319
I grew in born and raised.
00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:42.319
So how does a tell me how a a Texas boy ends up in Hollywood and having a career like you had?
00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:44.800
What what is the how does that happen?
00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:51.199
Well, I'll tell you right now, it's all God had a lot to do with it.
00:02:51.520 --> 00:03:07.120
But a lot of it came through uh just probably my failures in certain ways, and then some of it came through like uh I went to I went to Cypress Creek High School, which is here in Houston, uh graduated.
00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:08.319
I was an athlete.
00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:11.439
I I did, I was on the track team, I was a pole vaulter.
00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:20.240
Um I played football every year, quit my senior year, and I took up the sport of springboard and platform diving.
00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:24.879
And it was something that I was just naturally, God gave me a gift for it.
00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:25.840
I could just do it.
00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:32.080
I had great um kinesthetic awareness, like spatially and knowing where your body is in the air.
00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:46.719
Um and I uh ended up going I because I didn't dive long in high school, so I I didn't really get recruited, or I didn't really have any uh you know offers to go to a major college, but I knew I wanted to dive in college.
00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:48.719
I knew that was something I wanted to do.
00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:54.319
So I um went to a junior college in Florida that was uh called Indian River at the time.
00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:58.159
It was called Indian River Community College, now it's called Indian River State College.
00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:00.319
It's in Fort Pierce, Florida.
00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:04.000
Um and they have an excellent swimming and diving program.
00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:12.960
And I mean, they've won uh in the in that space, they've won the national championship like more than any school in any other sport.
00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:24.399
Like I think it I think I don't want to quote this number, but I know it was over 30 times, or might even be closer to 40 times they've won the national championship uh swimming and diving.
00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:27.120
So you gotta be good to get into a school like that.
00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:29.120
Well, I walked on into that.
00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:42.639
So my first year I I walked on and then I earned a scholarship this second semester, and then uh I went to junior college nationals, and to be quite honest, I learned a lot about myself.
00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:46.480
Um it was like kind of throwing gasoline on a fire.
00:04:46.639 --> 00:05:01.199
I uh I was seated third, but the pressure and the expectations and the the will to win overwhelmed me so much that by the end of the meet I was I ended up 16th.
00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:06.240
I remember it was it was a horrible I and I just felt so defeated.
00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:10.240
And um I I I've been writing a book and I'll I'll tell you more about that.
00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:25.279
But one part in the book I I write about this part right here, I don't know what did this, but when I saw the guy that won, he was a friend of mine, and I said to him, Hey, could uh could I borrow your medal for a minute?
00:05:25.759 --> 00:05:26.800
And he said, What?
00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:29.040
I said, Can can I borrow your medal?
00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:30.959
And he's like, What do you mean borrow my medal?
00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:33.839
And I go, can I take a can I just take a picture?
00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:36.160
Can I can I use your medal for a second?
00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:56.959
And I took his medal and I put it around my neck and I took a picture and um I took that picture and I put it on my dashboard in my truck, and every morning and every day I drove around campus and practice and wherever, and I said, Did you do everything today to earn that medal next year?
00:05:57.839 --> 00:06:09.279
And I literally, I mean, like when we were doing runs or we were doing um exercise or training, I made sure if if we were to do a hundred, I did a hundred and ten.
00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:14.079
If we were to do a swim, I was I I swam extra, if I ran extra.
00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:24.480
And so I knew that if I got back in that situation, I would have confidence that I did everything and I deserve to be there.
00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:28.319
And it was and and then the next year it was the greatest feeling.
00:06:29.199 --> 00:06:37.279
I get kind of choked up when I think about it, but I had that medal on my dashboard, and I drove back from Florida to Texas to show my mom.
00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:47.360
And um it was it was one of the greatest periods of my life, and then from that I got recruited by pretty much every major school in the country.
00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:55.279
I had Miami, Florida State, Arizona State, TCU, and then ultimately I ended up at Auburn.
00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:57.519
Auburn in Alabama.
00:06:57.839 --> 00:07:18.879
Uh had a fantastic swimming and diving program, and at that time, uh the best diver and the uh male the m best male diver in the nation was a guy named Jose Luis Rocha, and he was he won NCAAs, and I wanted to, I wanted to, frankly, I wanted to beat him, so I wanted to go to Auburn and train with him.
00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:20.399
Um I never did.
00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:26.560
He was always he was fantastic diver and uh went to the Olympics multiple times.
00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:30.160
And uh, but I learned a lot and I I learned a lot about myself.
00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:36.480
I learned about competition at a very high level and um and what it takes to train.
00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:55.040
You know, most people that have not trained at like a division one level or a high level don't understand the commitment, not only from an academic side, but from a athletic side of how much you have to commit to to get to that level.
00:07:55.199 --> 00:08:00.000
Like you, you know, you most people go to college and they party and they have a good time, it's great.
00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:20.000
But but when you're when you're an athlete, I mean every morning it was up at five, you know, 5 30 at practice, 5 30 to 7, you know, you're you're training every morning, and then around um 8 you go to class, 12 you go to weights, do weights or training to dry land, whatever.
00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:33.200
And then uh and then you got your afternoon kind of off or your your you're after your classes, do your homework or whatever, and then go back to the pool five to seven at night, and that's six days a week.
00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:37.519
Um well Saturdays were different schedule, but it's every day except for Sunday.
00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:43.039
And it gave it it taught me discipline, it taught me if you want something, no one's gonna help you.
00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:44.559
You have to earn it.
00:08:44.879 --> 00:09:02.720
And um, and so anyway, I made that probably longer than I should have, but that's but that was the base for I when I graduated from college, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, and at the time I was dealing with uh a lot of emotional instability.
00:09:02.879 --> 00:09:17.360
My my mother, I'm adopted, so I'm my adopted mother was uh diagnosed terminally with with breast cancer, and she was dying, and um I didn't know what I wanted to do professionally.
00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:24.559
I just knew I needed to be with my mom because I she only had like you know six, seven months, eight months to live.
00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:45.039
And uh so I went back home to Texas, I went back home to Houston, and I didn't I I it's funny, I I I substitute school taught for a little bit, and then I started, I was mowing yards, and I started making more money mowing yards, so I started a landscaping maintenance company, and then I got a call.
00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:48.879
Uh, hey, would you want to do the high diving show at Asterworld?
00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:54.639
And so you know, I don't know if you guys have ever remember that, but there used to be a high diving show.
00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:55.519
I don't know if I don't even know.
00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:57.919
Is Asterworld even still around?
00:09:58.159 --> 00:09:59.120
I don't know.
00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:11.120
Anyway, I took a job at Asterworld, I was doing the high diving show, and I it's weird how God works, you know, now looking back, but I get a call out of nowhere.
00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:16.720
Um there's a uh there's Six Flags Magic Mountain, which is still around.
00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:22.159
It's in California, it's north of LA, and they had a high diving show and they had a dolphin show.
00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:23.519
So it was really cool.
00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:25.120
I got I it was a fun job.
00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:39.039
So I went from Astro World to Six Flags Magic Mountain, and while I was there diving, and you know, it was just it was a it didn't pay a lot of money, but it was a lot of fun, and I didn't I didn't want to get a real job because I I still like to train and whatever.
00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:47.360
But I got to swim with dolphins, do the high diving show, and that was the first time I met a stunt man, like a real stunt man.
00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:52.399
And I this guy came in, um, he was practicing for a high fall.
00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:55.279
Um the the do you remember the movie Predator?
00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:57.679
Predator two Predator 2.
00:10:57.919 --> 00:10:59.039
Yeah, I watched all of them.
00:10:59.200 --> 00:11:04.720
Yeah, he he was the guy, he was the predator when he falls off the building, like like 100 and something feet.
00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:09.279
Well, this guy's an amazing, he was a high diver, but he's also an amazing stunt guy.
00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:22.639
And uh so he's coming in practicing uh his what he was gonna do off the high diving tower because there's not many places that you can practice falling 96 feet or or you know however high it was.
00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:27.840
And um and so he came in and I was like, stunts.
00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:30.960
Wow, that's a you know, that's a cool thing, you know.
00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:36.159
Like so I grew up on horses, I grew up in the country, and I grew up riding motocross.
00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:45.519
I wasn't a racer, but I rode motocross my whole life, and then grew up doing martial arts and grew up you know doing all the sports and diving.
00:11:45.679 --> 00:11:50.399
I was like, man, that stunts seems like something I would maybe want to do.
00:11:51.200 --> 00:12:11.759
And um to make a long story longer, I I I um I was screwing around one day on that show and I and I slipped on the mini tramp, and those are at 40 feet, so it's still high, but not like it's still 10, it's 10 feet higher than a platform tower.
00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:18.159
So it's so it's it's high enough to hurt you, and but it's not really low, it's still not that high.
00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:39.679
But anyway, I slipped off the mini tramp and I landed flat on my back in front of the crowd, and I burst my lung, and that was the first time, and I came up and I was spitting like pink aortic, like I just I never I couldn't breathe, you could hear my lungs like blood in my lungs.
00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:43.200
And um anyway, I ended up in intensive care.
00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:53.360
That was the first time I was 22 years old, and it was the first time I knew I wasn't immortal, because until that point I've never really had anything bad like that happen.
00:12:53.919 --> 00:12:57.120
And so I ended up going back to Texas.
00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:14.080
Uh my mom was getting worse, and I went back to Texas, and I uh wanted to be with her, and so I honored my mother, and I stayed with her until she passed and she died, and I didn't know what to do.
00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:22.559
I had uh I had a girlfriend at the time, and we were in turmoil, and you know, you know, just life.
00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:37.440
And um, and then you know, I got this random phone call out in the blue, and it was, hey, would you like to come to LA and audition for this show at the MGM Grand Hotel?
00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:56.240
And the MGM Grand Hotel was opening that was when Vegas was trying to still do the family-friendly thing, and they had a theme park they were opening up, and it was called the Dueling Pirate Stunt Spectacular, and they were auditioning, and they made it sound like when I was on the phone if, hey, if you come to this audition, you're gonna get a job.
00:13:56.399 --> 00:14:19.679
Well, I showed up there, and there's like 400 guys auditioning for 17 parts, and I'm standing in this line, and they're you know, they're testing us in everything martial arts, rope climbing, trampoline, mini tramp, gymnastics, um balance, I mean, just sword fighting, anything you could come up with, they were testing and cutting everyone.
00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:27.919
Well, and long story short, I ended up being I got cast to be the lead, or I was one of the guys chosen to be the lead.
00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:45.440
I knew nothing about Hollywood, I knew nothing about acting or singing or dancing, and to be quite frankly, I Frank, I I'm horrible at singing and dancing, so uh, you know, I I was wasn't I didn't get hired because of that.
00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:48.159
I got hired because of the athletics stuff.
00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:54.960
And um anyway, long, long story longer, uh I ended up doing the show.
00:14:55.120 --> 00:14:59.200
I was I got cast to do the show, and we went to another 11-week training camp.
00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:03.679
I had I had just met my now wife, I've been married to my wife.
00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:08.240
We've been together, we've been together 33 years, and we've been married for 30 years.
00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:13.600
And I have, I do have a, you know, one of the things God blessed me with is my family.
00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:20.799
I have a great, great family, I got great kids, I got a great wife, and to make it through Hollywood, it's it's not easy.
00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:35.840
So you have to have a lot of you know commitment and a lot of um a lot of work, you know, to communicate, because communication in a marriage is the key, because if you don't communicate, you're not gonna stay centered with each other.
00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.240
So anyway, I give my wife a lot of credit.
00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:49.120
Um but uh so we were getting ready to open that show, and again, God works in funny ways, and this is I've I've learned this.
00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:52.480
I had just sold my landscaping company.
00:15:52.559 --> 00:16:00.080
My wife was an architect drafter, she she just quit her job, and we moved to Las Vegas to do the show, New Life, New Adventure.
00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:03.840
Night two the two nights before the opening show.
00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:12.799
I'm rehearsing and I do a backflip off of this table, and the carpet wasn't set, and my knee, I pop, I blew out my ACL.
00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:18.240
And so now I I'm in the hospital, I'm I have to have surgery.
00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:38.559
There's a lot more to that, but anyway, it ended up I I I never actually did the live show, and I and I had met these stunt people I was telling you about earlier, and I I I I get this call, like, hey, they're auditioning people for uh Batman Forever.
00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:41.600
And I'm like, can you go to the audition?
00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:42.639
I you know, I didn't want it.
00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:53.279
It had been about five months since my my surgery, so I I was getting around pretty good, but after an ACL surgery, it takes about eight months, nine months, ten months to really be.
00:16:54.159 --> 00:16:54.480
Yeah.
00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:57.200
So I was like, yeah, well, uh oh yeah, I can go.
00:16:57.360 --> 00:17:09.039
Well, anyway, long story, I keep making these long stories, but it what what happened was I go to this audition, there's all these people there, um, really talented people.
00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:12.400
I mean, like super talented people, and these are real stunt guys.
00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:18.240
And um I meet the stunt coordinator, his name was Conrad Palmasano.
00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:21.599
I was really young, and he was watching me move around.
00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:30.640
He goes, Well, you're a lot smaller than what we're looking for, but but you're you move really well, and so he goes, I'm gonna hire you.
00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:37.200
And I thought, okay, I mean, I didn't believe because I you know, hear stuff like all the time, but you don't believe it.
00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:37.599
Right.
00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:47.200
Well, I I I got hired as one of Harvey Two Face's thugs, like Tommy Lee Jones in that movie had some henchmen, so I got hired as one of his henchmen.
00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:52.240
He goes, You're a little smaller, but you move good, so we'll we'll we'll we'll hire you.
00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:54.480
Well, I end up doing that.
00:17:54.880 --> 00:18:16.319
My first big job was Batman Forever, and so I go there, and now I'm working with all the real stunt coordinators and real stuntmen, and they can see, you know, they could they recognize people that are talented, they can see, you know, and I God bless me with being six feet, and I look like a lot of actors, and and I could double a lot of different people.
00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:23.519
And so one day I'm standing there on set and the stunt coordinator walks over and he goes, Hey Mike, go over there and stand next to Val.
00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:25.519
And I go, Okay.
00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:34.400
So I go over there, and then he and then if you ever see my movie, which I know we'll get into out of shadows, there's another stunt man in that movie named Brad Martin.
00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:43.920
Well, Brad and I were like competitors because we were like the same size and we had the same skill set, and we know of course we're young and we want to be the best.
00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:47.200
So we're like, he goes, You two go stand next to Val.
00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:48.400
And so we did that.
00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:51.200
We went over there and he goes, All right, tomorrow go get fitted for the bat suit.
00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:52.559
I need something, I need you to do a little stunt.
00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:54.640
Val Kilmer, yeah.
00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:55.039
Yeah.
00:18:55.440 --> 00:19:00.720
And so I I stand there next to Val and and he goes, just go get fit.
00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:15.200
So we the next day I got went down to wardrobe, put the bat and got the bat suit on, and took a bunch of pictures, and the the director, everybody looked at it, and they're like, Yeah, my my and I happened to literally be Val's exact measurements at that time.
00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:15.759
Wow.
00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:18.559
And uh and so I got the job.
00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:30.799
Well, it's I mean, I don't know how long you and me keep telling these stories, but but anyway, I I got the job, and and one of the I don't even know if it's important, but I remember I'll never forget this.
00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:33.039
I can't believe I'm gonna be Batman.
00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:37.920
Like, I mean, you know, I mean that's did not a lot of people get to put on the legit batsuit.
00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:45.200
Yeah, well, it was like and there were no now to to be fair, there were a lot of bat doubles.
00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:51.359
There one, there's not just one guy that gets just to be Batman because there's there was like different multiple movies over the years.
00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:57.599
Well, and and on most movies, there's more than one double because of different skill sets.
00:19:57.759 --> 00:19:58.319
Oh, okay.
00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:02.319
So mine being a diver, this particular stunt was diving off.
00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:06.319
It's in the movie, it's actually in that seal video, Kiss from a rose.
00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:13.519
But when Batman, there's Nicole Kidman and Drew Barrymore, and they drop him down, and he has to make a choice and he dives down the tube.
00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:15.920
Well, that was me in the Batsuit.
00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:23.519
And so, anyway, the the funny thing about that is I don't know, you know, like I'll never forget this.
00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:39.279
I was standing up there and I'm like, I'm nervous, I'm nervous because you know, in the batsuit, you can't you it it's it these when Batman turns, it's like this, it's because you can't, like maybe now in the newer batsuits you can, but in that batsuit, you know, when you turn, it's like you had to turn your whole body.
00:20:39.519 --> 00:21:01.599
And so what I was asked to do was dive head first into uh a like a uh an airbag or a port of pit, I don't remember which one it was, is I think it was an airbag, but it was like 30 something feet down, and and you had to be like looking at it at the last second, collapse your neck and and fall on your back to save yourself.
00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:08.400
Well, I didn't know if I was gonna be able to do that because I hadn't done it.
00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:10.079
I hadn't, you know, I didn't test it.
00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:15.119
So now there's like all the people there, the big studio exec, everybody.
00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:27.279
They got the lights, they got the wind, it's like I can't hear, it's like right, and you got these old backed in the old cameras, they're like you can hear the frame, the film flying through the cameras, high speed.
00:21:27.519 --> 00:21:35.519
And I'm I'm sitting there like, I'm sitting there like, I'm you know, I'm I'm I'm I mean, I'm scared.
00:21:35.599 --> 00:21:41.119
I'm gonna be honest, I was a little scared because I'm like, am I gonna break my neck in front of all these people and kill myself right here?
00:21:41.359 --> 00:21:46.000
Well, anyway, right as we're getting ready to go, they go, cut, cut, cut.
00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:48.319
All right, everybody strike all this.
00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:49.440
We'll come back and do this tomorrow.
00:21:49.519 --> 00:21:50.559
We don't have time.
00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:56.400
And I'm standing there, I'm like, oh my god, I had to go home and think about this all night.
00:21:56.720 --> 00:21:59.680
And I had to go home and my my heart, and I remember looking.
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.599
Over this guy, go, man, they they're shining the lights in my eyes, they're blowing smoke on me.
00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:12.160
I got stuff hit me in the face, and the guy looked over at me and he goes, If this was easy, someone else would have your job.
00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:12.640
Yeah.
00:22:13.039 --> 00:22:14.559
He goes, do your job.
00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:18.480
I'll never forget that because that was I that stuck with me my whole career.
00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:20.960
If this was easy, someone else would be doing this.
00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:26.079
So anyway, I came back the next day and I was put I was even praying going into the studio.
00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:27.680
I'm like, please don't let me have a car wreck.
00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:29.279
I just want to be Batman one day.
00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:30.400
Just one time.
00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:33.039
I don't I go, don't let me wreck the car.
00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:36.640
So uh anyway, I went back, the stunt went fine.
00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:40.559
After the first take, I I realized I could duck my head, and I was like, okay, I can do this.
00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:43.279
And so I did it a few times and it went great.
00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:50.640
And that was, you know, and then I did some other stuff underwater, doing some underwater stuff as you know, Batman.
00:22:50.799 --> 00:23:04.880
But there was uh I mean we did a lot of different different things, but um, but it was it was a great experience, and and it got me a great introduction to a lot of the stunt the real stunt people, and then I ended up on Dr.
00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:16.079
Quinn Medicine Woman and X-Files, and I mean, I mean, I have a my career, I I mean I doubled so many different people, and I I know I made that really long, and I apologize.
00:23:16.160 --> 00:23:17.759
But no, no, that's awesome, man.
00:23:17.839 --> 00:23:25.680
And you were and just real quick, how many movies and stuff like where you were put like if you had to put a number to it?
00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:35.200
Well, a lot of my credits uh, you know, like I did a lot of TV shows that I never you know put down as crack I didn't I didn't keep track of it.
00:23:35.279 --> 00:23:37.200
I mean it's hundreds, I don't know.
00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:40.640
I mean, maybe, maybe, I mean, I mean you got 30 years.
00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:44.480
I did every I did a lot, and sometimes I'm working two jobs a day.
00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:48.559
And the funniest thing is I worked on X Files for like four or five, six seasons.
00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:51.920
I didn't even know what the show was about, never watched it.
00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:53.920
And I was David's double, you know.
00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:58.240
I never even like now I look back and go, oh my god, that was kind of a cool show, you know.
00:23:58.319 --> 00:24:06.559
So and then the but the last coolest job I got, and was because not many people know this, very few Americans have ever been James Bond.
00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:09.920
And there's only been two or three that I know of, and I'm I'm one of them.
00:24:10.079 --> 00:24:15.839
And I got to be uh James Bond uh on the Tomorrow Never Dies with with Pierce Bronson.
00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:19.759
Um yeah, that was a that was a that was a pretty cool experience.
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:22.160
That's that's that's pretty sick, dude.
00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:22.720
That's awesome.
00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:26.720
Yeah, so but man, so so I want to transition.
00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:28.480
So yeah, that was the early days.
00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:36.000
Yeah, so okay, so now during your career, there was a pivotal moment.
00:24:36.160 --> 00:24:39.200
You you had a life-altering injury.
00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:45.920
Well, okay, so just to to so everybody's watching that knows, so I started as a stunt man.
00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:52.079
I did that for a long time, but I knew young as a young man, I watched what happened as stunt men began to age.
00:24:52.319 --> 00:24:56.960
And it's just like football or baseball or fighting or you know, boxing, whatever.
00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:12.400
No matter how good you are, at some point Father Time is gonna catch up with you, and you're not gonna be what you once were, but you still in your head, you know, kind of think you are, and until something reminds you that you're not.
00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:20.960
So I knew early on that I needed to transition from being a performer into like a coordinator, like a fight coordinator, a stunt coordinator.
00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:27.279
So I really started focusing on learning those skills, and thank God, God bless me, and I and I was doing that.
00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:34.240
But um, I mainly became what's called a second unit director um or an action director.
00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:42.160
So when you see big movies or you see you know action movies, there's usually a second unit which doesn't involve the main director.
00:25:42.480 --> 00:25:51.920
I mean, you might get the actor for a day or two or whatever for scenes, but mainly it's done with just stunt performers and um a completely different team.
00:25:52.400 --> 00:26:00.640
Car chases, explosions, high falls, inserts, you know, different things that don't need to take up main units time.
00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:03.680
So that that's a great job, and it's a lot of fun.
00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:17.200
Um but so I was doing that, and I had been doing that for almost, I mean, I started directing early, so maybe let's see, 2014, probably probably 15, maybe 20 years.
00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:22.640
Like I was I was directing and coordinating, doing those things, but I was still performing because I still could.
00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:29.599
Like one of the biggest movies I did uh that people that watch I did Need for Speed.
00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:35.680
I was one of the stunt corniers on that, and I did a lot of the car stunts in that or tested a lot of those stunts.
00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:41.519
So, anyway, in 2014, I was I had a great job.
00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:43.519
I used to work on this TV show called Grim.
00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:45.519
I don't know if it's like the Brothers Grimm.
00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:46.240
Remember that?
00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:49.519
It was on NBC, and I had a cool job.
00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:51.599
I was the uh fight choreographer.
00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:59.599
So I would get paid, I'd go up, I'd choreograph the fights, train the actors, train the stunt guys, just choreograph the fight, and I'd fly back to LA.
00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:05.359
Well, one day my buddy, who's the stunt coordinator on that, he said, Hey man, why don't you make some extra money and play this part?
00:27:05.759 --> 00:27:07.359
And I'm like, I don't really want it.
00:27:07.599 --> 00:27:09.359
I actually turned it down three times.
00:27:09.519 --> 00:27:13.759
I don't know why, but I did.
00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:19.599
And I was on Valentine's Day, I'll never forget.
00:27:20.160 --> 00:27:22.640
I was all made up in one of those.
00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:25.359
I hated this, I hated wearing the rubber heads, man.
00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:26.480
Like the Buffy map.
00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:29.119
We used to call them because I worked on Buffy and Angel and all that.
00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:32.799
You wear the rubber mask and the like monster heads.
00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:34.160
I hated that.
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:38.000
But anyway, I was he said, just play this part.
00:27:38.079 --> 00:27:39.039
It's just nothing thing.
00:27:39.119 --> 00:27:42.559
It's you're just falling down from the 16th floor, the 15th floor, and a stairwell.
00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:43.279
It's no big deal.
00:27:43.359 --> 00:27:46.240
And it was the stuff I've done, it was nothing.
00:27:46.319 --> 00:27:49.839
It was like I've done that stunt, like, or something like that.
00:27:50.799 --> 00:27:56.799
Uh not would say hundreds of times, but at least 20 times, or maybe more, something like it.
00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:05.920
And so anyway, I was doing the stunt, did the first take, went over the rail, was fighting with this girl, went over the rail.
00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:19.680
When I go over the rail the first time, I went over and then I felt myself and I flipped over and landed on my feet on the mat, and I was like, okay, all right, I need to lay out more to make it look like I'm falling, because it looked like I just did a flip over the rail.
00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:21.039
And I was like, I'll do that better.
00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:22.160
Let me go back up.
00:28:22.319 --> 00:28:33.119
So I went back up there, and then somehow, this was God at the time I didn't know what it was, but this was I did not know that my entire life was about to get reset.
00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:51.599
My hand, I went over the rail, and the girl that I was doing the scene with, I don't know what happened, but I felt her foot, I felt my foot, I felt something push my foot, and I turned sideways, which didn't feel natural, and it was such a small fall, I didn't have time to react.
00:28:51.839 --> 00:28:57.920
And I landed on a pipe and I burst fractured my L2 vertebrae, and I was paralyzed from the waist down.
00:28:58.559 --> 00:29:07.759
And when that happened, I I cannot tell you the amount of pain.
00:29:09.119 --> 00:29:13.039
I I can I I I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.
00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:22.160
I can't even begin to tell you how bad I just screamed, and I gotta tell you something, I'm lying there, and I could, I mean, it burned it.
00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:25.200
I mean, I it makes me jump even thinking about it.
00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:38.000
But I was it was just I was just I was I was screaming because I I was just like I knew it was uh you know I was bad.
00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:39.039
It was bad.
00:29:39.680 --> 00:29:49.920
And I don't remember how much time it was, but I knew it took quite a bit of time to get the medical rescue crew up there because it was on the 15th floor of a high rise.
00:29:50.160 --> 00:30:02.720
And um and I remember trying to, I can it just burned so bad I couldn't, like it was just burning, and I and I remember the firefighter reaching under me, and everybody's telling me, Don't move, don't move, don't move.
00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:12.160
And I and I could feel, and I I caught this guy like this, and I and I pulled myself up and I could feel this relief kind of in my back.
00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:25.839
And then I was like lying there, and this was the first time, and I didn't know what it was because I'd never really experienced it, but this was the first time I felt the Holy Spirit, like for real.
00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:34.240
This warmth went over my body and went all the way down me, and I could feel one toe on my left foot move.
00:30:34.480 --> 00:30:39.200
I could I could move one toe, and I was like, oh my god.
00:30:39.359 --> 00:30:41.519
And I knew right then I was gonna be okay.
00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:42.079
Oh wow.
00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:52.400
Like I knew, I don't know what I'm gonna go through, but I'm gonna be, God, I'm gonna, I'm gonna it's really gonna be bad, but I'm gonna be okay.
00:30:53.119 --> 00:31:00.640
And then from from that moment, you know, my wife gets the call, and I mean my whole life changed.
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:12.160
I mean, I went from being this guy that could do anything in the world, my whole identity, my whole purpose, everything I'd worked for, everything I trained for was gone.
00:31:12.720 --> 00:31:19.200
I couldn't even, I couldn't move my legs, I couldn't, I couldn't get up, I couldn't do anything.
00:31:19.920 --> 00:31:24.880
And it so then I went into emergency surgery for seven and a half hours.
00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:35.680
I came out of the surgery, and I had I shouldn't tell the story because this is a Christian show, but I did something really bad.
00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:42.720
I'm not good on I'm not good when I get uh anesthesia, like I get very combative.
00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:46.480
Like, because like I like fighting the nurses for the case.
00:31:46.559 --> 00:31:49.519
Uh yeah, I was I did a lot of bad things.
00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:59.759
But um like one time I got hurt in Germany, I won't go into it, but I got hurt in Germany and I found myself I woke up and I was tied to the table like like like ropes.
00:31:59.920 --> 00:32:03.599
They had me tied to the gurney, and I walk blood all over me.
00:32:03.759 --> 00:32:08.880
And they're like, they're like, you you've been beating up the nurses.
00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:11.599
We you we got you're gonna have to do this awake.
00:32:11.680 --> 00:32:12.960
We're not gonna put you under.
00:32:13.119 --> 00:32:13.359
Wow.
00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:16.559
So I that was a whole nother Jerry Springer we could go into.
00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:26.720
But anyway, so I I I get to the hospital and come out of surgery, and the doctor had a great doctor, everybody at NBC and Universal took good care of me.
00:32:26.880 --> 00:32:33.119
Like I have, you know, have nothing but respect for you know the team that kind of helped get me back together.
00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:39.440
But that that day, I look back now, was God resetting my life.
00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:47.839
Because I was heading down a path that I know, you know, I would if you, you know, just just for the record, if you asked me, are you a Christian?
00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:49.680
I would say, yeah, I'm a Christian.
00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:57.680
But the real reality is I wasn't a I wasn't a Holy Spirit-filled believer.
00:32:57.839 --> 00:33:01.279
I was I was a Christian in label only.
00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:08.000
Like I was I was just uh C and E Christmas and Easter and pray when you get in trouble.
00:33:08.160 --> 00:33:10.480
You know, it's like it doesn't work like that.
00:33:10.799 --> 00:33:17.039
So um that's you know, I've said that before, and I it's but that was reality.
00:33:17.200 --> 00:33:22.480
And then God started working on me, and it and it took, you know, I'd never done drugs.
00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:32.799
Like that, like I didn't, I never I was never one of those guys that, you know, like a lot of stunt guys do painkillers or you know, whatever, because you're you you know, being a stunt man, you you're gonna get hurt when you go to work.
00:33:32.880 --> 00:33:33.759
That's just part of it.
00:33:33.839 --> 00:33:36.000
You know, getting hit by a car, it hurts.
00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:37.839
Getting thrown down the stairs, it hurts.
00:33:38.160 --> 00:33:38.640
I would imagine.
00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:40.799
Smashing through a window, you get cut.
00:33:41.039 --> 00:33:42.960
You know, you know, different stunts.
00:33:43.039 --> 00:33:45.359
You're you go home and you learn how to heal.
00:33:45.519 --> 00:33:47.519
You just don't want to get injured.
00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:57.440
Because an injury is like a you know, uh, you know, like separating your shoulder or tearing your ligaments out or you know, breaking paralyzed from the waist down.
00:33:57.839 --> 00:33:58.640
Well, that's a good one.
00:33:58.799 --> 00:33:59.119
Yeah.
00:33:59.519 --> 00:34:14.159
So yeah, so I I didn't I I didn't realize the road to recovery, how long it was really gonna take, and I did not realize at the time, because I didn't realize what happened really had happened to me.
00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:19.199
And it took almost two and a half years, and I did not ever think I wouldn't live without pain.
00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:25.599
I mean, I can't even begin to tell you the pain that you you can't you I couldn't sleep at at night.
00:34:25.760 --> 00:34:32.320
I mean, I could tell I was on these painkiller regimes, dilatid, oxycottin, norco, vicanin, percocet, perco.
00:34:32.639 --> 00:34:33.840
I was on all of it.
00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:34.159
Wow.
00:34:34.400 --> 00:34:41.039
And I would and I'd never because I've never done Coke, I've never done X, I've never done you know, all the fun drugs that everybody does or whatever.
00:34:41.119 --> 00:34:42.639
It's supposed to be a good time.
00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:46.400
And I never um I never did that.
00:34:46.559 --> 00:34:50.079
The only thing I've ever done is I've I've said this openly on many podcasts.
00:34:50.239 --> 00:34:55.679
I I'd smoked pot a couple times, but I was not a user, you know, it wasn't like something I did.
00:34:56.079 --> 00:35:06.800
And then when I I I was realizing as I was recovering, I'm not I'm not healing, I'm just masking the symptom of the pain.
00:35:06.960 --> 00:35:11.920
Like I I could take the the painkillers, but I'm not getting any better.
00:35:12.239 --> 00:35:21.440
So like for months this was going on, and finally I was like, all right, I gotta get off of this stuff.
00:35:21.599 --> 00:35:25.199
Because you know, when you're not a drug person, you don't want to take drugs.
00:35:25.280 --> 00:35:27.599
Like I didn't want, I didn't want to be taking these pills.
00:35:27.920 --> 00:35:29.599
That's how a lot of people get addicted to that stuff.
00:35:29.840 --> 00:35:33.599
Because your mom tells you only take the drugs that the doctor gives you.
00:35:33.679 --> 00:35:36.639
And well, okay, well, the doctor's not gonna do anything to hurt me.
00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:45.280
But they don't, I mean, when you're I mean, like they had me on Dilatted like like six weeks longer than you're supposed to be on it.
00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:45.840
Wow.
00:35:46.079 --> 00:35:55.599
And I did not know that I was now addicted to painkillers, and so I decided with me being Mike, I can do anything, and I go, I'm just gonna quit.
00:35:55.920 --> 00:36:04.800
And so I just one day I just threw all the painkillers away, and I'm laying there in bed, and next thing you know, I think I have the flu.
00:36:05.440 --> 00:36:12.719
And I mean, I'm getting sicker and sicker and sicker, and it's like eat the third day into the fourth day.
00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:16.880
I told my wife, I said, if I live through tonight, you have to take me to the hospital.
00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:18.159
I got the flu.
00:36:18.639 --> 00:36:23.360
And what it was was I was having the withdrawals from drugs.
00:36:23.519 --> 00:36:23.679
Wow.
00:36:23.920 --> 00:36:26.559
Because I'd never done drugs, I didn't know what it was.
00:36:26.639 --> 00:36:26.800
Wow.
00:36:26.960 --> 00:36:29.599
And it felt to me like I was having the flu.
00:36:29.920 --> 00:36:35.280
And um, and so I'll never forget that night when it broke.
00:36:35.599 --> 00:36:39.440
I was laying there and I was shaking, couldn't regulate my body temperature.
00:36:39.519 --> 00:36:41.519
I was hot, cold, hot, cold, and I was sweating.
00:36:41.599 --> 00:36:46.079
I mean, I'm talking when when you have go through it's not like, oh, you have sweats at night.
00:36:46.239 --> 00:36:50.159
This is like somebody took a five-gallon bucket of water and poured it in your bed.
00:36:50.480 --> 00:36:57.199
And my wife is like, you know, God bless her, but she's going through all this with me.
00:36:57.360 --> 00:37:05.199
And well, anyway, I'll never forget when I felt that come off of me, it felt like I felt awesome.
00:37:05.440 --> 00:37:22.159
And then I had a friend who was a really well-respected stunt man, he got his pelvis crushed in a stunt, and he had gotten addicted to painkillers, and he had a big problem with them, but he got off and he went through rehab and had to go through a whole system.
00:37:22.480 --> 00:37:27.519
He comes over and he says, Mike, man, you gotta you gotta quit doing this.
00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:29.519
And uh he goes, You gotta start.
00:37:29.679 --> 00:37:36.559
And so he made these uh he made me some pot brownies that he that he had made.
00:37:36.800 --> 00:37:41.199
Well, I had never taken, I've never eaten pot brownie before.
00:37:41.440 --> 00:37:49.039
So he gives it to me and I'm like, and I'm and I'm not for the record, I'm not telling people to I suggest you do this.
00:37:49.199 --> 00:37:50.159
This is just my story.
00:37:50.320 --> 00:37:52.159
So yeah, of course.
00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:52.559
Yeah.
00:37:52.719 --> 00:37:58.639
So he brings it over, and he and I go, he goes, just eat, just eat a half of one.
00:37:59.199 --> 00:38:03.519
Of course, you know, I like okay, so I eat it, nothing.
00:38:03.920 --> 00:38:06.000
So of course I eat the rest of it.
00:38:06.880 --> 00:38:11.760
Two hours, three hours goes by, all of a sudden, it kicks in.
00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:16.480
And there's some funny videos if you've watched people that have eaten pot brownies or eaten that.
00:38:16.559 --> 00:38:17.360
I I call him up.
00:38:17.599 --> 00:38:19.280
I I'm literally thinking I'm gonna die.
00:38:19.440 --> 00:38:21.039
Like I think I am dying.
00:38:21.199 --> 00:38:22.159
I can't go to sleep.
00:38:22.320 --> 00:38:24.639
I can't, I am freaking out.
00:38:24.880 --> 00:38:28.000
And I called him up, I go, You should be in prison.
00:38:28.239 --> 00:38:30.079
You should not be allowed to give people this.
00:38:30.159 --> 00:38:31.440
He goes, Would you eat the whole thing?
00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:34.239
I go, Well, nothing happened.
00:38:34.320 --> 00:38:38.079
And he goes, eat a little piece of it.
00:38:38.239 --> 00:38:40.800
And so anyway, I total delay reaction.
00:38:41.199 --> 00:38:41.760
Oh God.
00:38:41.840 --> 00:38:44.159
And now it was the most horrifying.
00:38:44.320 --> 00:38:45.840
Like, I never did that ever again.
00:38:45.920 --> 00:38:50.480
I now I did I did take like a third of it, you know, and just eat it, and that was it.
00:38:50.639 --> 00:38:54.960
Because it didn't take the pain away, but what it did was make the pain manageable.
00:38:55.199 --> 00:38:59.599
And so I did that for I don't know, probably six, seven months.
00:38:59.760 --> 00:39:03.119
I don't, I don't like, I don't like the way it makes me feel, so I don't do it anymore.
00:39:03.280 --> 00:39:13.519
You know, I mean, every now and then they're like but but see, I've you know, I've learned to I learned through stretching and exercise, your body wants to heal itself.
00:39:13.679 --> 00:39:19.679
And if you just have and you have to eat right, and I quit out, and just for the record, I knocked off all the alcohol for a year.
00:39:19.840 --> 00:39:28.880
I just like okay, if I'm gonna heal, I can't drink alcohol at all, and I can't, you know, do now I still have a drink, but you know, alcohol's never been a problem for me.
00:39:28.960 --> 00:39:32.559
It's just been something I've done, you know, randomly all throughout my life.
00:39:32.719 --> 00:39:39.199
But but k getting off the painkillers was an experience in and of itself.
00:39:39.519 --> 00:39:41.519
It was it would because you don't know.
00:39:41.679 --> 00:39:41.920
Right.
00:39:42.159 --> 00:39:46.639
And and and you and you know, my mom always said, Don't take any drugs unless the doctor gives them to you.
00:39:46.719 --> 00:39:49.360
Well, this guy's you know, that's synthetic heroin.
00:39:49.599 --> 00:39:56.800
I mean, if you look at what it really is, yeah, and then you know, there's other kinds of drugs and that that are even worse.
00:39:57.119 --> 00:40:13.119
So that that got me to where God really so having been in bed for two years and dealing with this, you have a lot of time to think about a lot of things.
00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:23.119
And I said to myself, and believe me, I I was self-pity, anger, embarrassment.
00:40:25.760 --> 00:40:34.880
The struggle that I was having internally, because I you can lie to other people about you yourself, but you can't lie to yourself about yourself.
00:40:35.119 --> 00:40:47.199
And I knew my whole life had just changed, and and and God was doing something with me at that time, and I was like, okay, well, if I'm not gonna be who I've been my whole life, who am I gonna be now?
00:40:47.760 --> 00:40:51.440
And here was the greatest thing, because now I get to choose.
00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:52.960
I so I did this.
00:40:53.039 --> 00:41:06.719
I wrote down ten things that I loved about myself, spiritually, mentally, and physically, and then I wrote down ten things I did not like about myself spiritually, mentally, and physically, and I burned them, and I kept the ten that I liked.
00:41:07.280 --> 00:41:14.559
And I started to focus my recovery on doing stuff for other people.
00:41:14.960 --> 00:41:19.119
I started focusing on if I can't help myself, well, I can help others.
00:41:19.280 --> 00:41:25.920
So I started volunteering my time for people, I started giving my heart to other people.
00:41:26.079 --> 00:41:31.920
I had never been, I've been so selfish, I'd never done anything for any other organization.
00:41:32.079 --> 00:41:41.360
So I decided, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna do something every day for someone else randomly.
00:41:41.840 --> 00:41:53.920
And it doesn't, I mean it might just be holding up in the door, it might be helping someone, you know, with advice, it might be listening just to because sometimes people need a friend, they need to hear, you know.
00:41:54.159 --> 00:42:03.039
And so I I focused my healing on because the only thing that made me feel good at that time was doing stuff for other people because I didn't feel good about myself.
00:42:03.199 --> 00:42:04.960
I didn't feel good about where I was at.
00:42:05.119 --> 00:42:10.639
I was I was crushed physically, I was I was atrophied, my body was atrophied.
00:42:10.719 --> 00:42:12.719
I couldn't I couldn't even do two pull-ups.
00:42:13.039 --> 00:42:17.920
I mean, I go from doing tons of them to to I couldn't even do pull-ups.
00:42:18.079 --> 00:42:19.760
So I started a routine.
00:42:19.920 --> 00:42:24.320
I just would wake up and my goal was to get downstairs and stretch.
00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:30.719
Not stretch like like stretch like you know, like trying to become like super flexible.
00:42:30.880 --> 00:42:32.719
I'm talking just moving.
00:42:33.039 --> 00:42:41.360
And then through that, through this healing period, I had a I met my therapist that's that's in the movie.
00:42:41.599 --> 00:42:43.119
I was gonna ask you about that, yeah.
00:42:43.280 --> 00:42:50.880
And that's when I was going to therapy, and one day she said to me, She goes, Hey, can I pray over you?
00:42:51.280 --> 00:42:53.360
And I'm like, pray over me.
00:42:53.679 --> 00:42:54.960
Like I say this in the movie.
00:42:55.039 --> 00:42:59.280
I'm like, what do you mean why would you pray over me?
00:42:59.360 --> 00:43:01.360
I don't I don't really believe in any of that anymore.
00:43:01.440 --> 00:43:05.199
Because you know, at this point, I had pretty much lost all my faith.
00:43:05.360 --> 00:43:08.559
I mean, I you know, I believe, okay, there's a God, but how do I know the Bible?
00:43:08.719 --> 00:43:10.400
How do I know who wrote the Bible?
00:43:10.559 --> 00:43:13.039
How do I know that it hasn't been altered?
00:43:13.119 --> 00:43:13.599
How do I know?
00:43:13.760 --> 00:43:16.000
I mean, we only know what we know, so how do we know?
00:43:16.159 --> 00:43:17.760
You know, and I'd always go to that.
00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:18.880
Is that okay?
00:43:19.039 --> 00:43:21.840
So you I feel like you maybe you had.
00:43:23.039 --> 00:43:25.119
Did you have faith when before you got into holiday?
00:43:25.360 --> 00:43:27.599
Did over the course of your career did you lose that faith?
00:43:27.920 --> 00:43:28.719
That's what happened.
00:43:28.880 --> 00:43:37.679
I had faith at one time, and I forgotten my faith because I had just gotten, you know, like I pray every night.
00:43:37.840 --> 00:43:39.360
I would literally pray every night.
00:43:39.440 --> 00:43:42.159
And I'm not kidding, I literally would pray every night.
00:43:42.320 --> 00:43:44.719
And it never seemed I never heard God talk to me.
00:43:44.800 --> 00:43:46.159
I never felt the Holy Spirit.
00:43:46.320 --> 00:43:49.440
I never I'd always ask, let me know you're real.
00:43:49.840 --> 00:43:52.800
And I never felt anything.
00:43:53.039 --> 00:43:55.199
And I was like, okay, he's not real.
00:43:55.360 --> 00:43:59.599
Or if he is real, he's not talking to me, and you know, and I don't know what to do to get him.
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:02.159
To talk to you me because I feel like I'm going to church.
00:44:02.239 --> 00:44:03.280
I took my kids to church.
00:44:03.440 --> 00:44:10.239
I and this is during your time when your career when I was when I was doing all the cool stuff.
00:44:10.400 --> 00:44:10.960
Yeah.
00:44:11.280 --> 00:44:16.400
I would I would sometimes, I would sometimes, I was raised, I was adopted you know through Catholic charity.
00:44:16.559 --> 00:44:19.039
So I was I was raised Catholic.
00:44:19.280 --> 00:44:22.239
And I would there was a Catholic church by the house.
00:44:22.480 --> 00:44:27.039
Sometimes I would just go in by myself into the prayer room and go in there and pray.
00:44:27.119 --> 00:44:29.920
I didn't tell anyone I was doing it, but I would do that.
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:37.920
And even when I was in China, when I was working in Hong Kong, I would sneak off on Sundays and go to the Catholic Church in Hong Kong and go pray.
00:44:38.079 --> 00:44:46.719
You know, and that was the first time I'd ever seen people that actually had faith because those people that were in that church had nothing in China.
00:44:46.880 --> 00:44:47.119
In China.
00:44:47.199 --> 00:44:48.000
Well, it was in Hong Kong.
00:44:48.159 --> 00:44:48.639
In Hong Kong.
00:44:48.800 --> 00:44:51.519
Yeah, but and most of those people were Filipino.
00:44:51.679 --> 00:44:52.159
Oh wow.
00:44:52.320 --> 00:44:52.719
Yeah.
00:44:52.960 --> 00:44:56.800
And so they they they had their faith.
00:44:57.360 --> 00:44:59.679
And I was like, that's what it's like to have faith.
00:44:59.840 --> 00:45:01.599
And see, I didn't feel that ever.
00:45:02.079 --> 00:45:04.960
And then, you know, it's fine.
00:45:05.280 --> 00:45:07.360
Again, be careful what you ask for.
00:45:07.599 --> 00:45:09.199
Because let me tell you something.
00:45:09.519 --> 00:45:13.840
Had I not hurt my knee, I would have never been Batman.
00:45:14.480 --> 00:45:20.000
Had I never broke my back and crushed my life, I'd never be a man I am today.
00:45:20.079 --> 00:45:20.239
Wow.
00:45:20.480 --> 00:45:39.360
And I like this guy a lot better than the guy that I was because I may not have all the cool stuff that I did have, but I got a great wife, I got a great family, I got a great relationship with God, I've got a great mission, and I have I have a lot of really solid friends and family.
00:45:39.440 --> 00:45:41.360
I met you through through this journey.
00:45:41.519 --> 00:45:45.920
I met everybody here because of what God's doing.
00:45:46.079 --> 00:45:58.239
And so jumping back to coming out of the moments where like so you're th and you're saying you're therapist now.
00:45:58.400 --> 00:46:01.519
She's getting she wants to pray for you, and you're like, Yeah, what the heck?
00:46:01.760 --> 00:46:09.840
Well, and but you guys, when you're not, when you don't know, have I'd never heard anyone pray in tongues before.
00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:13.119
I'd never, or the spirit, whatever you guys, well, however you want to say it.
00:46:13.920 --> 00:46:18.239
She started praying over me, and I thought she was throwing a voodoo curse on me.
00:46:18.480 --> 00:46:22.960
Like, like I was sitting there, I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
00:46:23.039 --> 00:46:25.360
Like, how do you how do I know?
00:46:25.679 --> 00:46:29.119
Like, I don't know you, and I'm letting you do this.
00:46:30.079 --> 00:46:34.000
And she, and the funniest thing was, you know, it's kind of awkward.
00:46:34.079 --> 00:46:44.239
I mean, to be quite blunt, physical pelvic floor therapy is not something that you you you don't want to have it.
00:46:44.480 --> 00:47:00.239
It's the most painful, humiliating, embarrassing, embarrassing, because you have someone doing things to you, pushing on areas and pulling on areas and moving areas around that are very personal and very private, and you don't just do that.
00:47:00.400 --> 00:47:00.559
Right.
00:47:00.719 --> 00:47:04.719
And so here's this woman who's you know very personal with me.
00:47:04.800 --> 00:47:10.800
But what she said to me next, and it this went on for like, I don't know, two or three months.
00:47:10.960 --> 00:47:12.960
And she goes, Can I pray for you?
00:47:13.280 --> 00:47:15.760
And I'd always go, Yeah, sure, pray for me.
00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:19.760
Well, one day I finally just stopped her, and you go, You know, I don't believe any of this stuff.
00:47:19.920 --> 00:47:23.760
Like, I don't, you know, you believe in the spirit world, you believe in all this, you think it works?
00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:28.079
And she said to me, This is this, I swear this changed my entire life.
00:47:28.239 --> 00:47:29.440
This one thing she said.
00:47:29.599 --> 00:47:34.079
She goes, You don't believe in the have you heard of the occult?
00:47:34.400 --> 00:47:38.320
Have you heard in Satan worship or SRA?
00:47:38.400 --> 00:47:39.760
Have you heard of any of this stuff?
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:41.440
I'm like, no.
00:47:42.079 --> 00:47:44.400
And she's like, Oh, I don't invite that into my life.
00:47:44.480 --> 00:47:49.679
I'm not gonna she goes, I highly suggest you look into it.
00:47:49.760 --> 00:47:52.079
It's completely real and you need to look into it.
00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:55.360
And I was like, and that stuck with me.
00:47:55.440 --> 00:47:57.119
I'm like, what is she talking about?
00:47:57.280 --> 00:47:58.480
Like the occult.
00:47:58.800 --> 00:48:01.199
And that was the start of my journey.
00:48:01.360 --> 00:48:05.760
That was like because I didn't know what she meant.
00:48:06.960 --> 00:48:14.800
And I'm like, okay, so then you know, me, I'm like, well, I'll go on YouTube and I start looking up, you know, I'm like, well, I'm watching videos.
00:48:15.119 --> 00:48:24.320
And next thing I know, I'm seeing things, and this is when I I've I say a lot of this in out of shadows, but uh, you know, I'll uh it's been a few years, so I'll repeat it.
00:48:24.559 --> 00:48:40.559
But it's been like I remember as I'm looking at these occult uh symbols and artwork and just different things from the occult world, I'm like, man, I've seen that in my friend's house.
00:48:40.639 --> 00:48:42.079
I've seen that at my other friend's house.
00:48:42.159 --> 00:48:42.880
I've seen that.
00:48:43.039 --> 00:48:43.760
Like what?
00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:56.880
I'm like, and so just it just started, it planted a seed, and the seed started to grow, and I started to go, and then now all of a sudden I'm going I don't know, and then I'm like, I've started now.
00:48:56.960 --> 00:48:59.119
I'm now I'm just wanting to know.
00:48:59.280 --> 00:49:12.079
Because, you know, I'm you know, I know about archangels, Gabriel and Michael and uh Uriel, and I mean all the different excuse me, archangels.
00:49:12.320 --> 00:49:16.719
I mean, I've heard about them, but I don't know anything about them.
00:49:17.360 --> 00:49:24.639
So during this period, and this is weird, but I felt like God was telling me, I want you to read the book of Enoch.
00:49:24.800 --> 00:49:27.679
And I'm like, I don't, the book of Enoch, I've never read the Bible.
00:49:27.840 --> 00:49:29.119
I don't want to confuse myself.
00:49:29.280 --> 00:49:30.639
I'm trying to get through the Bible.
00:49:30.719 --> 00:49:32.960
Like, like, why are you doing this?
00:49:33.360 --> 00:49:40.000
What God was showing me, in my opinion, was how spiritual warfare works.
00:49:40.239 --> 00:49:48.320
Because being a martial artist, being a fighter, if you don't know your enemy, like Sun Tzu's art of war, if you don't know your enemy, you're never going to defeat him.
00:49:48.480 --> 00:49:52.320
You know, if you know yourself and not your enemy, you're not gonna be successful.
00:49:52.480 --> 00:49:54.719
If you know your enemy and not yourself, you're not gonna be successful.
00:49:54.800 --> 00:49:57.920
You need to know your enemy, you need to know yourself and know your enemy.
00:49:58.159 --> 00:50:10.719
So I started studying this stuff, and I went down that rabbit hole for like, I don't know, as I was starting to go down it, I went down it for probably a couple weeks, right?
00:50:10.800 --> 00:50:14.159
Where I was just really trying to figure it out.
00:50:14.639 --> 00:50:26.159
And I've I'm I'm not gonna do it here because it'll take too long, but this is when I had I had my first experience with the Holy Spirit.
00:50:26.320 --> 00:50:42.800
And I had, I mean, God ripped back the veil on me, and when he did this, it it it literally, if you could feel the love and the light of Christ that I felt that day, I'd never even have to do a podcast.
00:50:43.039 --> 00:50:44.639
You you it no one would.
00:50:44.800 --> 00:50:47.199
No one would have to, I wouldn't have to say a word.
00:50:47.519 --> 00:50:49.760
But God doesn't do that for everyone.
00:50:50.079 --> 00:50:54.320
He did it for me because I think he chose me to do what I did.
00:50:54.559 --> 00:51:00.400
And what he did was I all right, well, I'll tell you a little bit.
00:51:00.480 --> 00:51:04.719
And if if anybody wants to watch it, I'm sure you can look it up online, you can go see my testimony.
00:51:04.800 --> 00:51:37.119
But my what happened was I had I had to do I was doing everything right, you know, I was doing everything, you know, I was trying to pray more, I was trying to be a better man, I was rebuilding who I was, and then all of a sudden, one night, I got pinned to the bed by this dark force, like this demonic, like yeah, and I can't, and I and this is the part, like I don't care if people believe me.
00:51:37.280 --> 00:51:41.280
Like, I don't care what people think, and and people can say I'm crazy.
00:51:41.360 --> 00:51:42.639
I don't, I don't care.
00:51:43.119 --> 00:51:47.679
I know what happened to me, and I believe me, so that's all that really matters.
00:51:48.320 --> 00:52:02.639
And this thing pinned me to the bed, and it was the first time it's it was like it put its something over my face, and it shoved me down the bed, and it I couldn't breathe, and it was trying to suffocate me.
00:52:02.880 --> 00:52:09.280
And I I couldn't wake up, I couldn't get it off of me, and I was I could feel myself starting to die.
00:52:09.519 --> 00:52:13.599
And then all of a sudden, I don't know how I did, but I broke awake.
00:52:13.840 --> 00:52:16.800
I actually, when I did that, I hit my wife, she's like, What?
00:52:16.960 --> 00:52:19.280
I'm like, something's trying to kill me.
00:52:19.760 --> 00:52:26.079
And I I've I've I have never been that scared in my life.
00:52:26.159 --> 00:52:31.920
I've I mean I've done a lot of things that would scare most people, but this was something I didn't know how to fight.
00:52:32.079 --> 00:52:34.000
This was something that was different.
00:52:34.239 --> 00:52:36.159
This was, I couldn't explain it.
00:52:36.239 --> 00:52:42.960
And you know, of course, I know the Lord's prayer, our Father Heart in Heaven, Albion, but I did not know how to fight this attack.
00:52:43.199 --> 00:52:48.480
So that's when I got super serious about spiritual warfare because that was real.
00:52:48.880 --> 00:52:50.159
That actually happened.
00:52:50.320 --> 00:52:50.639
Wow.
00:52:50.800 --> 00:52:53.840
So that's when I'm like, okay, I don't know how this works.
00:52:54.000 --> 00:53:00.719
I don't know, you know, you got the Catholics, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, you got you got every kind of denomination.
00:53:00.800 --> 00:53:03.440
And every one of them thinks that the other ones aren't doing it right.
00:53:03.599 --> 00:53:08.239
But I know one thing spiritual world's we're real and the word of God is real.
00:53:08.559 --> 00:53:10.559
So I'm gonna start there.
00:53:11.840 --> 00:53:13.599
And I'm gonna walk with that.
00:53:13.840 --> 00:53:21.119
Now, how you how you get to it and where you go get it from, that's your relationship with the with the man upstairs.
00:53:21.360 --> 00:53:25.519
So I was like, so I went, I didn't go to sleep that night.
00:53:25.599 --> 00:53:30.320
I went, I went, I stayed, I was freaked out.
00:53:30.639 --> 00:53:33.360
Next morning at 6 o'clock, I get up, I go to the gym.
00:53:33.519 --> 00:53:35.280
I'm gonna end up telling the story.
00:53:35.440 --> 00:53:45.039
I end up going to the gym, and I I called an old friend because most of my friends in LA are not up at 6 o'clock in the morning, usually 9 or 10 if you're not working.
00:53:45.519 --> 00:53:48.559
And we go work out, and you know, we're usually like, man, what's wrong with you?
00:53:48.639 --> 00:53:53.679
And I'm like, I I can't tell him, hey, dude, I just got pinned in my bed by demonic spirit.
00:53:53.760 --> 00:53:56.239
Like he's gonna look at me like I've lost my mind.
00:53:56.639 --> 00:54:04.159
Well, we end up in this, we work out and we go to the sauna, and we're sitting in there, and it's again, it's funny how God works.
00:54:04.400 --> 00:54:12.239
There's this older gentleman who comes in, and I know him from the gym, you know, just from the gym, and he looks at me, he goes, Mike, man, you don't look like you're doing good.
00:54:12.320 --> 00:54:13.519
And I go, No, man, I don't.
00:54:13.679 --> 00:54:15.519
He goes, I he goes, Well, what's what's wrong?
00:54:15.679 --> 00:54:18.400
I go, I feel like I need a blessing.
00:54:18.960 --> 00:54:20.559
And he goes, Well, what are you doing tonight?
00:54:20.800 --> 00:54:22.239
I said, Well, nothing.
00:54:22.400 --> 00:54:34.400
He goes, Well, we have this holy sacrament that we break out once a year for healing and blessings.
00:54:34.800 --> 00:54:41.119
And tonight at our church is that night, he goes, Why don't you come to our church?
00:54:41.679 --> 00:54:54.719
Well, what he didn't know was I knew who he was because he was uh an usher at the Catholic church that I used to go to that I hadn't been in in five years.
00:54:55.039 --> 00:54:55.599
Oh wow.
00:54:55.840 --> 00:54:57.840
And I knew exactly who he was.
00:54:58.400 --> 00:55:05.840
And so, and by the way, I was one of the original people that started that church before it would became what it is today.
00:55:05.920 --> 00:55:11.119
It was like small and it was in like in a different uh building, and then it became a big church.
00:55:11.280 --> 00:55:20.000
And I used to go religiously, like I said, I was I would, I would, I was in practice a cat a Christian, but I was in spirit empty and void.
00:55:21.360 --> 00:55:24.239
I wasn't that was that was what was missing.
00:55:24.400 --> 00:55:39.119
So anyway, I go to that church, and actually, if you watch the movie Out of Shadows, there's a shot of me holding up my phone to the to the cross, and that was the day I'll never free.
00:55:39.360 --> 00:55:43.360
I've never been more scared to walk into church in my life.
00:55:43.679 --> 00:55:46.480
I was mortified to walk into that church.
00:55:46.719 --> 00:55:48.000
And he said, What are you doing tonight?
00:55:48.159 --> 00:55:51.440
I said, Well, he said, we're having this thing at 7 o'clock.
00:55:51.519 --> 00:55:52.559
I set my alarm.
00:55:52.639 --> 00:55:54.880
I was I was not gonna miss this thing.
00:55:55.039 --> 00:56:07.039
So I, as I'm walking in, I pulled out my phone and I videoed me walking into that church because however you want to say this, however you want to get to it, this is what I knew.
00:56:07.280 --> 00:56:13.760
I don't care what that priest said or that pastor was gonna say, I know that the word of God is real.
00:56:14.159 --> 00:56:23.599
Because if that demonic spirit that pinned me to that bed is real, then Jesus Christ is real because you can't have the devil without Jesus.
00:56:24.239 --> 00:56:33.119
So however you want to get to that, or not the devil, a demon, or dark entity, a principality, the spirit, that was real.
00:56:33.840 --> 00:56:35.119
Jesus is real.
00:56:36.480 --> 00:56:39.519
And all I know is I needed to get right with Jesus.
00:56:39.760 --> 00:56:40.000
Wow.
00:56:40.159 --> 00:56:43.039
So I walk in that church, I'm ashamed of myself.
00:56:43.280 --> 00:56:46.559
I'm sitting in the very back of the church, got my head down.
00:56:47.440 --> 00:56:50.800
I I don't want anybody to see me because people know me.
00:56:51.840 --> 00:56:55.440
I actually I found out later one of my daughter's friends was in there and saw me in there.
00:56:55.519 --> 00:56:59.679
But I walked in that church and this light started hitting me.
00:56:59.840 --> 00:57:08.159
And it wasn't coming from the skylight, it was coming from over here where there was it was just coming, this light, and I it started pushing down on me.
00:57:08.639 --> 00:57:16.000
And I just I could feel the Holy Spirit coming over me, and I just started crying.
00:57:16.159 --> 00:57:16.320
Wow.
00:57:16.480 --> 00:57:23.039
And all I kept saying was, I am so sorry, God, I did not believe in you.
00:57:23.360 --> 00:57:24.480
I am so sorry.
00:57:24.639 --> 00:57:26.159
Please, please forgive me.
00:57:26.320 --> 00:57:26.800
Please.
00:57:27.039 --> 00:57:27.440
Wow.
00:57:27.760 --> 00:57:29.440
And it just got me on my knees.
00:57:29.599 --> 00:57:31.599
I couldn't tell you how long that mass went on.
00:57:31.760 --> 00:57:35.039
But the mass, he said, yeah, I forgot to tell you this part.
00:57:35.199 --> 00:57:44.800
He goes, This mass has been very, he goes, just understand it's there's been very profound healing effects and blessings, but you have to be ready to take it.
00:57:45.360 --> 00:57:51.519
And so when I got there, there was only like 80 people, and this place holds like seven, eight hundred people, maybe more.
00:57:51.920 --> 00:57:56.719
And in the front, there's like a prayer team, and then there's the sick people in their wheelchairs, cancer.
00:57:58.159 --> 00:58:00.960
I mean, I might as well tell the whole story because I'm halfway through it.
00:58:01.440 --> 00:58:07.360
So I end up back in the back of the church, and I'm all just I'm just I'm devastated.
00:58:07.440 --> 00:58:12.880
I I couldn't tell you how long the mass was, I couldn't tell you what all I know is the music for the first time sounded good.
00:58:12.960 --> 00:58:14.000
It didn't annoy me.
00:58:14.239 --> 00:58:17.920
Most of the time when I go to church, the music drives me crazy.
00:58:18.000 --> 00:58:20.480
You know, same song over and over and over.
00:58:20.559 --> 00:58:21.679
I'm like, oh my God.
00:58:21.840 --> 00:58:23.519
You know, it just drive me nuts.
00:58:23.760 --> 00:58:24.800
I'm just being honest.
00:58:25.280 --> 00:58:33.119
So then the priest says, if you'd like to see this anointer, this blessing, would you please come forward?
00:58:34.159 --> 00:58:43.039
Well, I saw people in the audiences kind of moving to where the prayer team was, and they're going up there, and I could not get out of my chair.
00:58:43.280 --> 00:58:48.239
I literally could not, I literally could not get up out of the chair.
00:58:48.480 --> 00:58:50.480
And I was just there and I was still crying.
00:58:50.559 --> 00:58:55.440
I was just, I was just hiding my face in shame and bawling.
00:58:56.559 --> 00:59:03.679
And and then I heard him say, okay, would anybody else like to receive this blessing?
00:59:03.920 --> 00:59:06.960
And I I still couldn't get out of my chair.
00:59:07.519 --> 00:59:12.800
And so he they they do the the blessing over those people, and then there's no one left in the church.
00:59:12.880 --> 00:59:18.480
I mean, literally, there was like the prayer team, but everybody else is kind of filtering out.
00:59:18.639 --> 00:59:20.320
And he says, Last call.
00:59:20.880 --> 00:59:25.360
And I said, I don't know how I'm gonna do this, but I gotta get out of this chair, I gotta make it up there.
00:59:26.559 --> 00:59:47.519
And somehow I got up there, and I sat I sat down in the chair, and I was sitting like this, and I was I was trying to hide, but but this light, it just kept hitting me, and it just kept pounding me, and I couldn't even, I couldn't even look, I couldn't look at it.
00:59:47.679 --> 00:59:49.920
If I look at it, I felt like I would die.
00:59:50.400 --> 01:00:16.320
So I'm sitting there, and this kid, so there's the prayer people behind the prayer team, prayer warriors behind us, and then there's some around us, and there's only like two or three people left, and then this one kid, he's you know, he's probably in his early 20s, comes up and he, I'm like this, and he puts his pelvis right here in my face, and I'm like, you know, I want to back him up, you know, like I want to back him up.
01:00:16.719 --> 01:00:20.400
And he says to me, Can I pray for you?
01:00:20.800 --> 01:00:33.760
And at that moment, I just surrendered everything, every bit of ego, every bit of everything, and I just humbled myself and I said, Would you please pray for me?
01:00:34.000 --> 01:00:36.400
And he put his hands on me and he started praying.
01:00:36.480 --> 01:00:40.320
I could hear the other people praying, and then I I all I remember is the priest's shoes.
01:00:40.400 --> 01:00:42.079
I don't even remember what he looked like.
01:00:42.320 --> 01:00:59.440
And he came up to me and he put his hand, I could I could feel this energy coming off of him as he was, and he was speaking in Latin and he was praying over me in Latin, and I don't know what he said, it could have been 30 seconds or three minutes, I don't remember.
01:00:59.599 --> 01:01:30.159
But when he went, he touched me, and when he touched me, I felt I felt this washing come over me, and I knew right then I had just been cleansed, and I had just been forgiven, and I had because I was repenting and I was just humbling, and when he touched me, I felt this glory, I mean the best, no sex, no drug, no alcohol, no anything was better than that feeling.
01:01:30.320 --> 01:01:30.559
Wow.
01:01:30.719 --> 01:01:34.000
And I and I had chills all over my body.
01:01:34.719 --> 01:01:37.679
And I just started, I lost it then.
01:01:37.760 --> 01:01:38.960
I just lost it.
01:01:39.199 --> 01:01:46.239
And I remember I I was trying to leave the church to get, and they were like telling me, you gotta go.
01:01:46.400 --> 01:01:48.639
And I couldn't, I couldn't get up.
01:01:48.960 --> 01:01:59.760
So then I get, I I finally remember I got out of there somehow, and then I drove home and I got to the house and I walked in, and my you know, you know when you see someone's been crying, you can't really hide that.
01:02:00.400 --> 01:02:04.320
My wife walks in, she goes, What happened to you?
01:02:04.559 --> 01:02:10.719
And I was like, honey, I think I just got saved.
01:02:10.960 --> 01:02:11.199
Wow.
01:02:11.360 --> 01:02:13.440
And I mean, really saved.
01:02:13.840 --> 01:02:14.159
Wow.
01:02:14.400 --> 01:02:23.599
And she goes, and I go, I I I just need, and I could this tingling was still in my body, it was still all over me.
01:02:24.400 --> 01:02:28.719
And I was like, this is amazing.
01:02:29.199 --> 01:02:34.880
And then, you know, me, being me, I'm like, oh, well, let's make a cocktail and talk about it.
01:02:35.360 --> 01:02:41.920
So I make a cocktail, and literally as soon as I touch that alcohol to my lips, that tingling starts to go away.
01:02:42.000 --> 01:02:44.239
And I put that drink down, and I never finished that drink.
01:02:44.320 --> 01:02:47.599
I was like, uh-uh, there's something here.
01:02:47.840 --> 01:02:53.280
And I'm and so I have strived to feel that feeling again.
01:02:54.400 --> 01:03:28.559
And you don't get it very often, but when you're blessed with it, man, enjoy it because that's God really, and that and that really was the catalyst for me starting the journey that I went on and the movies that I made, and it was and I know I we weren't really gonna talk about all that, but that testimony was you know, look, I I can sit here and tell you all the cool stunt stories in the world and all the cool stories in the world, but that honestly to me is the coolest story of all.
01:03:28.880 --> 01:03:29.440
Amen.
01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:31.599
Because let me tell you something.
01:03:32.000 --> 01:03:39.760
That injury, had I not shattered my spine and became paralyzed, I never would be the man I am today, and I never would be a Christian.
01:03:39.840 --> 01:03:42.079
And I never, I mean, I'm not the way that I am today.
01:03:42.159 --> 01:03:53.599
I'm not I'm still flawed, I'm still you know, still cuss too much, and I still will drink, but I am 100% sold out for Jesus Christ and God, and I will do whatever he's calling me to do.
01:03:53.760 --> 01:04:16.400
And I sometimes think I'm hearing him and I'm not, or maybe I'm trying to and it doesn't always work out, but I'm doing the best that I can, and I know that I just have to stay humble and I just have to stay in the in the word and I have to stay in prayer, and uh I don't know.
01:04:16.480 --> 01:04:24.159
I I I am grateful to him for I call it my reset button.
01:04:24.239 --> 01:04:51.679
Like breaking my back, I reset my life, and I got to redefine it this time with him in it, with him first, not I would always say my this is I call them hypochristians, it's like my thing, because like that's why I was always like uh those guys are crazy, because they'd act like they worship God, and then they you know live like a heathen on Friday and Saturday, and then go to church on Sunday and get forgiven and start over Monday.
01:04:51.920 --> 01:04:55.519
So I would watch that, and that was my example of a Christian.
01:04:55.599 --> 01:05:14.719
So what I'm trying to do is be a better man now and live it in that way people can see it by example, not necessarily they can see your witness, they can see Christ's Yeah, and I'm and I'm and I'll if I'm being honest and God knows, you know, I think we stumble, all of us, and we slip.
01:05:15.119 --> 01:05:17.519
But it's never you're never out of the pocket.
01:05:17.599 --> 01:05:19.679
You never you once you're in, you're in.
01:05:19.840 --> 01:05:28.239
You just have to keep you have to break off any portals or anything that you've opened up to invite Satan or darkness into your life.
01:05:28.320 --> 01:05:29.599
You have to clean that out.
01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:36.880
And you know, there's you know, we always, you know, you know, this there's porn, uh, alcohol, drugs, those are portals.
01:05:37.440 --> 01:05:39.440
You know, the seven deadly sins.
01:05:39.519 --> 01:05:46.639
I mean, those are the portals that we open money, greed, gossip, all those things.
01:05:46.880 --> 01:05:49.519
And I so I just try to be a better man each day.
01:05:49.679 --> 01:05:58.559
And um, you know, it's it's a struggle because this is not this world is not it's not heaven.
01:05:59.280 --> 01:05:59.599
You know.
01:06:00.320 --> 01:06:07.840
Yeah, and it's um you know a lot of Christians today they kind of have this what's called anti-nomianism.
01:06:08.000 --> 01:06:08.239
Yeah.
01:06:08.400 --> 01:06:14.159
And uh it's what Bonhoeffer calls cheap grace, where it's like, okay, I I prayed, I said the prayer, I'm good.
01:06:14.320 --> 01:06:17.760
It's like they think they got this rubber stamp pass into heaven.
01:06:18.000 --> 01:06:23.280
But when you understand the power of grace, grace isn't a license to sin.
01:06:23.679 --> 01:06:32.000
Grace is actually uh the it's it's like God, grace is supposed to actually want to cause you.
01:06:32.079 --> 01:06:46.000
When you understand the price that Jesus paid for your life and the sacrifice and what he did to offer you pardon, grace actually empowers you to live a righteous life under God.
01:06:47.360 --> 01:06:53.519
It's not a rubber stamp cheap thing that a lot of Christians subscribe to.
01:06:53.760 --> 01:06:54.639
It's not.
01:06:56.079 --> 01:07:02.800
It's a posture of I am grateful, God, I am undeserved, your grace covers my life.
01:07:03.119 --> 01:07:03.760
Thank you.
01:07:04.000 --> 01:07:09.760
Like, does it mean, like you said, does it mean that you don't go through life and you don't make a mistake or you don't slip, right?
01:07:09.840 --> 01:07:13.920
But that's why we have an advocate in Jesus with the Father, right?
01:07:14.320 --> 01:07:23.519
And we're under grace, but the idea is that, like, oh, I can, you know, a lot of people ascribe to, oh, I can go out and live my life however I want because I'm under grace.
01:07:23.599 --> 01:07:24.880
No, no, no, no, no.
01:07:25.199 --> 01:07:35.039
Grace actually empowers you to live a righteous life before God, and when you understand that you want, you want to be a better man for God, you want to be a witness for Christ.
01:07:35.360 --> 01:07:42.639
Well, and and think about what you said, like you're not here, I mean, when you're when you're young, you think you're here for a long time.
01:07:43.599 --> 01:07:45.199
You're not here for a long time.
01:07:45.519 --> 01:07:47.679
This is this is very short.
01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:50.639
Don't blink.
01:07:51.199 --> 01:07:51.519
Yeah.
01:07:52.400 --> 01:07:53.039
Exactly.
01:07:53.280 --> 01:08:06.880
And it's it's like, you know, we get caught up in our own self-serving worlds, and we don't understand what what was given to us.
01:08:06.960 --> 01:08:20.239
That's well, here's the other thing, and I want to talk about this too, but um, you know, we were talking about out of shadows, and and when we when I made the movies, and I gave up what I gave up to make those films.
01:08:20.560 --> 01:08:22.000
I gave up millions of dollars.
01:08:22.159 --> 01:08:24.319
I gave up a career most people would never have.
01:08:24.399 --> 01:08:32.000
But the one thing that I gained that no one knows or can really see is my peace in my heart with God.
01:08:32.479 --> 01:08:33.760
And you can't pay for that.
01:08:34.079 --> 01:08:35.199
Can't put a price on that, man.
01:08:35.359 --> 01:08:36.479
And let me tell you one other thing.
01:08:36.640 --> 01:08:50.880
When you're in a wheelchair, when you're paralyzed, I don't care if you have two billion dollars in your bank account cash, you'll give all two billion dollars back to give you what God gave you for free.
01:08:51.199 --> 01:08:51.520
Yeah.
01:08:52.239 --> 01:08:56.880
Like your eyesight, your hearing, your health, your ability to walk.
01:08:57.520 --> 01:09:00.880
We take it all for granted for so long.
01:09:02.479 --> 01:09:07.920
At some point, you have to be grateful for what you've been given.
01:09:08.079 --> 01:09:09.680
And I I walk now.
01:09:10.560 --> 01:09:12.399
Okay, I don't have the money I used to have.
01:09:12.479 --> 01:09:14.000
I don't have a problem saying that.
01:09:14.319 --> 01:09:19.680
But I know that God will restore me, and I know that God will, even if he doesn't, I don't care.
01:09:19.920 --> 01:09:23.520
I know I have peace in my heart when I walk with him, when I talk to him.
01:09:23.760 --> 01:09:27.600
And it's funny now because we were talking about this when we were when we were driving up.
01:09:28.319 --> 01:09:29.760
I bet I pray more.
01:09:29.920 --> 01:09:37.279
I bet I pray more than I'm when I'm alone, like not when I'm in public, but when I'm at my myself, I I'm praying all the time.
01:09:37.439 --> 01:09:39.840
Or at least I'm talking to him in my head all the time.
01:09:40.000 --> 01:09:40.239
Right.
01:09:40.560 --> 01:09:42.800
You know, I'm that's like it's always about him.
01:09:43.359 --> 01:09:52.640
So I I love I don't love what I went through, and I and it was a it was a tragic act.
01:09:52.800 --> 01:09:58.720
I was a victim of a very tragic situation, but I am not a victim to my situation.
01:09:59.039 --> 01:09:59.600
Right.
01:09:59.840 --> 01:10:01.840
You know, I'm yeah, victory in Christ.
01:10:02.000 --> 01:10:02.399
That's right.
01:10:02.560 --> 01:10:03.119
You're a victor.
01:10:03.600 --> 01:10:04.239
Victor, very good.
01:10:04.479 --> 01:10:05.359
It's awesome, man.
01:10:05.520 --> 01:10:08.000
No, uh thank you for sharing your testimony, man.
01:10:08.079 --> 01:10:08.640
It's powerful.
01:10:08.720 --> 01:10:11.359
And I and I do, you you brought up out of the shadows.
01:10:11.520 --> 01:10:11.840
Yeah.
01:10:12.000 --> 01:10:17.840
I want to transition to that because you know, you you left that life behind, gave your life to Christ.
01:10:18.000 --> 01:10:23.760
Now God calls you really not just to make this movie, but two movies.
01:10:24.000 --> 01:10:26.800
And I didn't want to make the second one, trust me.
01:10:27.279 --> 01:10:30.000
But out of the shadows, you out of shadows.
01:10:30.159 --> 01:10:30.800
Out of the shadows.
01:10:30.960 --> 01:10:31.600
Out of shadows.
01:10:31.840 --> 01:10:33.039
You made it independently.
01:10:33.199 --> 01:10:33.359
Yeah.
01:10:33.520 --> 01:10:33.840
Right?
01:10:34.000 --> 01:10:36.079
You put your own I paid for it.
01:10:36.239 --> 01:10:37.359
You paid for it.
01:10:37.840 --> 01:10:38.399
I made it.
01:10:38.640 --> 01:10:43.760
And it went, and it went basically when you finally got done producing it, put it out there, it went viral.
01:10:44.000 --> 01:10:45.520
Oh, it went super viral.
01:10:45.680 --> 01:10:55.920
Like it had over a million views in 24 hours, and then it like by I think three days we had five to seven million views, and then by the end of the week, it was like near 10 million.
01:10:56.079 --> 01:11:06.319
And then it would it was weird because I would watch the numbers in the back end go like way, way up, and then like numbers on the front end, they would turn them down, like they would throttle them.
01:11:06.720 --> 01:11:12.800
But that movie, when because you know what I did was I I made the movie and then I gave it away for free.
01:11:12.960 --> 01:11:25.680
I I I you know, like now it looks like I look like I was a prophet or an oracle because I was trying to tell everybody this stuff seven years ago, but it looked like I was the crazy one in the room, you know.
01:11:25.840 --> 01:11:41.199
But um but but the one thing about that movie that I think God anointed was when you hear the truth, you know, you think about you know your your spiritual weapons, the word of God, the sword of the spirit is the word of God.
01:11:41.359 --> 01:11:42.079
That's the truth.
01:11:42.239 --> 01:11:45.680
It cuts through all the deception, you know what I mean?
01:11:46.000 --> 01:11:47.760
Like Ephesians 6 12, you know.
01:11:47.920 --> 01:11:51.680
Yeah, put on the great Absolutely, yeah.
01:11:51.920 --> 01:11:54.640
So put on the full armor of God.
01:11:55.039 --> 01:12:16.319
Um so uh I I think I think it registered with people because it was thing it connected dots in a way that it allowed people to come to, oh yeah, that makes sense, that makes sense, that makes sense.
01:12:16.479 --> 01:12:25.359
And they and they're and it's coming from someone in Hollywood that you know I was I was at the highest levels of that stuff.
01:12:25.520 --> 01:12:28.720
I mean, meaning not not the call, I'm talking about Hollywood.
01:12:28.800 --> 01:12:36.159
I'm talking about I was at the highest levels of of uh the business.
01:12:36.239 --> 01:12:38.800
Like, you know, I mean I got to do things most people don't get to do.
01:12:38.880 --> 01:12:46.239
I got to hear things and you know, see things, and and when I'm I'm talking about professionally, I'm talking about on set, you know, be a part of.
01:12:46.399 --> 01:12:52.640
And you know, you know, to me, there is a club, and I've talked about this on other podcasts.
01:12:52.800 --> 01:12:54.640
I don't know who they are.
01:12:55.039 --> 01:13:00.239
I have my my personal opinion, but that's I can't prove any of that stuff.
01:13:00.560 --> 01:13:08.079
But it's like a fraternity, you know, once you're in the fraternity, you're in a fraternity, and you your brothers take care of you, your sisters take care of you, you know.
01:13:08.399 --> 01:13:19.760
And um and I think I think what that movie did was it exposed a lot of that stuff, and there was, you know, you have you know, let's think about it.
01:13:19.840 --> 01:13:35.039
There was it would it got translated into 24 different languages, it went global, but when it when when it went super viral, and then it, you know, we we met we tracked the metrics, and I'm pretty sure in 10 months we hit over a hundred million views, and that was six years ago.
01:13:35.199 --> 01:13:35.439
Wow.
01:13:35.840 --> 01:13:38.640
We put that movie out in April 2020.
01:13:38.880 --> 01:13:44.720
And if you go to my X account, I put the movie, I uploaded it a couple years ago.
01:13:44.960 --> 01:13:48.800
It's got 23 million views on X after they kicked me off the first time.
01:13:49.600 --> 01:13:50.560
It got censored, it got censored.
01:13:50.800 --> 01:14:00.159
Oh, I got kicked off of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, all of the major platforms, PayPal, Reddit, YouTube, uh, and uh TikTok.
01:14:00.319 --> 01:14:02.399
Like I got silenced.
01:14:02.720 --> 01:14:08.880
Why and let me ask you, so you why do you, for the audience, why do you think that is?
01:14:09.039 --> 01:14:11.920
Why would they take that movie if it wasn't a threat?
01:14:12.159 --> 01:14:15.359
If everything in that, like, why do you think they took it off?
01:14:15.520 --> 01:14:22.880
Is the those platforms what's in out of the shadows that would take it off, get it taken off?
01:14:23.199 --> 01:14:24.560
That's a great question, actually.
01:14:24.720 --> 01:14:26.960
Um I think it's a number of things.
01:14:27.119 --> 01:14:34.399
I think um I think it I think it hit a I think it hit a little too close to home.
01:14:34.479 --> 01:14:40.239
You know the weirdest thing is like with with Google, so like you know how you have an email list?
01:14:40.560 --> 01:14:43.520
So you here here's it check this out in the audience right now.
01:14:43.600 --> 01:14:48.000
Even if you guys are on X, even to this day, do it right now.
01:14:48.239 --> 01:14:55.359
If you type in outofads.org on your Twitter feed or your sorry X feed, um, and try to share that.
01:14:55.600 --> 01:15:06.079
So if you if you if you if you go on your X account and you just type in outofads.org and try to post it, like to talk about it, you can't post it.
01:15:06.399 --> 01:15:07.199
Oh wow.
01:15:07.359 --> 01:15:09.119
Yeah, it won't even let you post it.
01:15:09.359 --> 01:15:16.640
Not even and then and then when we were sending out links to the movies on our mailing list, Google was blocking it.
01:15:19.119 --> 01:15:20.239
Wow, man.
01:15:20.560 --> 01:15:20.880
Yeah.
01:15:21.119 --> 01:15:30.560
Well, so so I mean, you don't have to give away the whole thing, but you know, and by the way, we're gonna put the links to Out of Shadows and it's a good idea.
01:15:30.720 --> 01:15:35.840
Well, the best the best place people, the best place that people want to see these films, it's still free.
01:15:35.920 --> 01:15:38.239
I've never charged a dime for Out of Shadows.
01:15:38.319 --> 01:15:41.439
I I let everybody upload it, put it on their websites.
01:15:41.520 --> 01:15:45.840
People are like, oh my god, they're putting your website, and I'd see a million views over here, three million over here.
01:15:46.000 --> 01:15:48.880
And they're like, I go, just as long as you don't monetize it.
01:15:49.039 --> 01:15:57.920
Because God told me, I want you to make this movie, you're gonna take no credit, you're gonna put it out for free, and you're not gonna charge for it.
01:15:58.159 --> 01:16:00.720
That was that was my mandate that he gave me.
01:16:00.800 --> 01:16:02.159
And so I've stuck to that mandate.
01:16:02.319 --> 01:16:13.439
Now, out of into the light's a different story because when I did Out of Shadows, that was a God, that was God telling me, you know, and I and I had the money back then to be honest with you.
01:16:13.520 --> 01:16:19.199
I I I could afford to spend three or four hundred thousand dollars on a film, you know, or didn't didn't matter.
01:16:19.279 --> 01:16:22.000
I was serving what I felt like was the greater good.
01:16:22.159 --> 01:16:24.880
And I was and I don't I don't mind sacrifice, and whatever.
01:16:25.039 --> 01:16:26.239
I mean, what am I gonna do with it?
01:16:26.319 --> 01:16:27.119
And take it with me?
01:16:27.439 --> 01:16:31.920
I mean, okay, I've eaten at great restaurants and five first class, I've stayed at good hotels.
01:16:32.079 --> 01:16:33.920
Nothing new is gonna happen.
01:16:34.239 --> 01:16:36.319
So I don't really care about that.
01:16:36.399 --> 01:16:47.600
I mean, yes, you need resources to to do things, and I'm not, and I do like nice things, I'm not stupid, but sometimes you gotta step up, you know, and and and do what you gotta do.
01:16:47.840 --> 01:17:14.960
And so I did, and it's interesting because um the blessing I got was how many people came back to Christ and how many people I mean, I had millions of people tell me that movie changed my life, and it changed my kids' lives, and it brought awareness to things that I never saw.
01:17:15.119 --> 01:17:20.640
And the reason I think it was so effective is because I didn't tell you, it's not political.
01:17:20.800 --> 01:17:22.960
There's no it's not one side or the other side.
01:17:23.119 --> 01:17:29.119
It's just look, these things are real, whether you're aware of them or not, these are real things, and you can go look into them.
01:17:29.279 --> 01:17:36.479
Operation Mockingbird was a real thing, Operation Paperclip was a real thing, MK Ultra is a real thing.
01:17:36.960 --> 01:17:42.079
Satanic ritual abuse is a real thing, child trafficking is a real thing.
01:17:42.319 --> 01:17:51.039
And I didn't take a stance of I'm trying to paint a picture for you, I'm trying to show you that this is real.
01:17:51.359 --> 01:18:11.520
Because I know it's real, because I worked in that world, I've seen those documents like when you wanted to do a certain film, you got to get approval from I'm you know, I'm not attacking the CIA because there are some good people that work in the CIA, just like in everything, there's good and bad, and that's the one thing that people always want to black and white everything.
01:18:11.600 --> 01:18:13.840
Okay, these are bad guys, these are good guys.
01:18:14.079 --> 01:18:16.399
And the world is very gray.
01:18:16.880 --> 01:18:29.279
There's, you know, depending on what personality you are, or what kind of hang-ups you might have.
01:18:29.439 --> 01:18:31.039
Some people are motivated by money.
01:18:31.199 --> 01:18:36.640
Some people just want to make money, some people want power, some people just want their ego.
01:18:36.800 --> 01:18:42.399
You know, everybody's got a thing that they want to get, you know, that they want.
01:18:42.800 --> 01:18:55.279
And so you you they want they want to control that so that if they can control those things in you, then they can control your messaging.
01:18:55.439 --> 01:18:58.239
They can control what your behavior will be.
01:18:58.479 --> 01:19:00.880
And these and these movies point that out.
01:19:01.039 --> 01:19:05.760
And the second one actually makes you aware of of how you get manipulated.
01:19:06.000 --> 01:19:11.680
Because unless you know how you're being manipulated or the tools they use, you're not ever gonna be able to fight it.
01:19:11.760 --> 01:19:15.520
You can't, how do you fight a fight when you don't even know you're in a fight?
01:19:16.319 --> 01:19:18.399
Because you think, oh, everybody's telling me the truth.
01:19:18.479 --> 01:19:19.520
Why would they lie?
01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:27.920
You gotta understand if they control your story and what you're hearing, what you're told, and what you believe, they control your behavior.
01:19:28.399 --> 01:19:31.760
And they don't just let anybody have that power.
01:19:32.079 --> 01:19:39.119
So if you want that power, you want to be famous, or you want to get into the high levels of it, you're gonna give something up.
01:19:39.840 --> 01:19:44.319
You're gonna give up either your control, your you're gonna give something up.
01:19:44.640 --> 01:19:46.399
Because they don't just give you that.
01:19:46.560 --> 01:19:47.920
That's not how they think.
01:19:48.159 --> 01:19:50.960
God gives you that, God gives you freedom.
01:19:51.359 --> 01:19:52.880
Jesus gives you freedom.
01:19:53.119 --> 01:19:53.760
They don't.
01:19:53.840 --> 01:19:57.439
You're not playing on that is not Jesus playing on that team.
01:19:57.600 --> 01:20:03.439
That's a whole different group of enemies, and you're dealing with some very high-level ones.
01:20:03.680 --> 01:20:04.319
Wow.
01:20:04.640 --> 01:20:09.840
Yeah, and you to and you in so that was out of shadows, and then you used to be.
01:20:10.000 --> 01:20:11.680
Yeah, and then can I say one thing right here?
01:20:11.760 --> 01:20:11.920
Yeah.
01:20:12.079 --> 01:20:17.199
One of the things that they they tried to pin on that movie was this is Q QAnon stuff.
01:20:17.600 --> 01:20:19.600
Q's not mentioned in that movie anywhere.
01:20:19.840 --> 01:20:22.560
Because why am why am I why they put that in there?
01:20:22.800 --> 01:20:27.680
Why are they saying that because because I was reading the Q drops when I put the movie out?
01:20:27.760 --> 01:20:29.199
Well, yeah, I was reading them.
01:20:29.359 --> 01:20:31.359
I was I wanted to figure out what it is.
01:20:31.520 --> 01:20:37.439
The one thing I've learned in this life is you don't know what you don't know if you don't look into it for yourself.
01:20:37.600 --> 01:20:38.159
Right.
01:20:38.399 --> 01:20:41.279
Don't believe everything you hear and see.
01:20:41.680 --> 01:20:48.239
Have have what's you know, most people just hear hear something, here's oh, that's what that's what happened.
01:20:48.560 --> 01:20:53.199
No, look into it, do a little research, discern, pray over it.
01:20:53.439 --> 01:20:54.000
Right.
01:20:54.399 --> 01:20:55.439
Pray over it.
01:20:55.600 --> 01:20:58.720
And that's what I I learned over this journey.
01:20:58.880 --> 01:21:10.319
It's like, I mean, so many times I have to go back and go, all right, I'm I'm upset about something, and I go out in my field or I go out and I pray.
01:21:10.560 --> 01:21:12.239
And I ask for God to tell me something.
01:21:12.319 --> 01:21:15.199
Sometimes He tells me something, sometimes he doesn't say anything.
01:21:15.439 --> 01:21:17.520
Sometimes I'm not supposed to know.
01:21:17.920 --> 01:21:21.119
Maybe I'm supposed to be patient, maybe I'm supposed to just wait.
01:21:21.359 --> 01:21:26.800
You know, I mean, my timing and God's timing, I've learned real quick, He doesn't work on my clock.
01:21:26.960 --> 01:21:28.800
It's like not gonna happen.
01:21:29.119 --> 01:21:29.840
Right, yeah.
01:21:30.159 --> 01:21:31.840
It's totally two different timings.
01:21:32.079 --> 01:21:32.399
Oh, yeah.
01:21:32.640 --> 01:21:48.800
And then the weirdest thing, like I'm I've I've really found peace with this, like with my back and everything, was had I not broken my back and had God not reset my life and gave me one more chance to redeem my soul, I would not be who I am today, and I would not be doing what I am today.
01:21:48.880 --> 01:22:00.000
And I am way more happy being this guy than I was the guy in Hollywood chasing a bunch of dreams that were really false reality to begin with.
01:22:01.600 --> 01:22:02.640
Right, yeah.
01:22:02.880 --> 01:22:09.680
No, man, it's it's powerful, and I and I've actually watched both documentaries, and they're they're powerful.
01:22:10.000 --> 01:22:23.279
And so out of the shadows or out of shadows touches on that, and then into the light kind of goes into the psychological warfare, fifth generation warfare, the psyop of it all, right?
01:22:23.359 --> 01:22:29.039
And how it's more like the government, the media, the broader societal kind of control.
01:22:29.840 --> 01:22:38.239
And uh man, I remember when uh I watched it, I was just like, it was like the veil was ripped off my eyes, man.
01:22:38.399 --> 01:22:40.319
I was just like, oh my goodness, what are they doing?
01:22:40.479 --> 01:22:59.760
It made me really restructure the way like what I let my kids watch, what I let them have access to, what even me and my wife watch, like, because now it's like you can't once you know the truth, you can't unsee or unhear the truth, like you're responsible for it.
01:22:59.920 --> 01:23:00.399
Oh, yeah.
01:23:00.560 --> 01:23:04.399
And so powerful, powerful documentaries.
01:23:04.640 --> 01:23:10.399
And uh so what like what would you say is the through line connection of it all?
01:23:10.800 --> 01:23:13.039
Messaging, narrative control.
01:23:13.760 --> 01:23:15.760
And what does the Bible teach?
01:23:16.079 --> 01:23:17.359
Messaging, narrative control.
01:23:17.680 --> 01:23:18.880
You gotta control your own narrative.
01:23:19.119 --> 01:23:23.520
You have to be in the word of God, you have to be in his message, not Satan's.
01:23:23.840 --> 01:23:25.359
And I'm gonna say one more thing.
01:23:25.600 --> 01:23:29.520
Into the light.movie is where you can find both of those films.
01:23:29.600 --> 01:23:30.640
Just just so you know.
01:23:30.800 --> 01:23:38.079
If you if you want to watch that those films, that's on our own website, that's on our own, um, on our own code.
01:23:38.239 --> 01:23:40.800
It's not on Microsoft, Google, or Amazon.
01:23:41.039 --> 01:23:47.760
It's it's what we built so that we wouldn't we wouldn't be throttled when we place the movies out there.
01:23:47.840 --> 01:23:51.439
So now, I mean, yes, X has 23 million views.
01:23:51.600 --> 01:23:52.880
I uploaded it to X.
01:23:53.119 --> 01:23:56.960
It's I mean, it's five years later, the movie still's got 23 million views on it.
01:23:57.199 --> 01:24:04.000
I'm just saying, these movies made a difference, and that credit goes straight to Jesus Christ and God.
01:24:04.079 --> 01:24:04.640
It is not me.
01:24:04.720 --> 01:24:11.520
I'd love to sit here and tell you I'm the greatest filmmaker in the world and I'm so great and all that.
01:24:11.680 --> 01:24:16.319
But the truth is, if it wasn't for Jesus or God, I would never would have done it.
01:24:16.479 --> 01:24:18.479
And I have to give that glory back to him.
01:24:18.640 --> 01:24:26.000
Now, there was a lot of people that worked and sacrificed along with me with those things, but that comes from him, it does not come from me.
01:24:26.239 --> 01:24:31.920
And uh, and I think what what they are are tools.
01:24:32.079 --> 01:24:46.239
They're tools in a toolbox because depending on where you're like, say you have a loved one, say you have your family, like your sister or your mom or your cousins or whoever, and you're having a dinner discussion or you're having a dang, you those are great tools.
01:24:46.399 --> 01:24:49.520
Hey, watch this and then see what how they react.
01:24:49.760 --> 01:24:59.600
You know, some people, oh, it's all they don't, because you do the one if someone says that they're all that's all not true, the biggest bump that Alice Shadows got was the Epstein stuff.
01:25:00.560 --> 01:25:04.479
And I didn't really touch on Epstein that much, but he but we did mention it.
01:25:04.800 --> 01:25:06.640
But it's all the child stuff.
01:25:06.720 --> 01:25:09.039
It's all the it's all what's come out.
01:25:09.279 --> 01:25:10.239
All that's real.
01:25:10.399 --> 01:25:13.680
People don't want to admit that this is real, but it is real.
01:25:14.000 --> 01:25:19.359
And the only way that you can address it is to know about it.
01:25:19.439 --> 01:25:22.239
If you don't know about it, then how are you gonna address it?
01:25:22.479 --> 01:25:29.680
It's like we were talking about on the way here, the the the porn books in the high school libraries or the pornographic, whatever.
01:25:30.000 --> 01:25:31.600
I mean in the elementary and middle schools.
01:25:31.840 --> 01:25:32.079
Right.
01:25:32.239 --> 01:25:37.920
People don't know about it, or they would go down there and raise holy hell with those schools.
01:25:38.560 --> 01:25:44.479
You don't think, I mean, like I I know as a parent, I never went to my kids' library and picked up any books.
01:25:44.640 --> 01:25:47.279
I did, I'm guilty, I'll say it up front.
01:25:47.520 --> 01:25:49.119
I trusted the system.
01:25:52.159 --> 01:25:53.119
And I was wrong.
01:25:53.279 --> 01:25:58.880
I mean, thank God my kids turned out great, but and they went to great schools.
01:25:59.199 --> 01:26:01.039
But not everybody has that.
01:26:01.439 --> 01:26:01.680
Right.
01:26:01.920 --> 01:26:02.800
And so what do you do?
01:26:02.880 --> 01:26:05.039
You want to control the world, control the narrative.
01:26:05.199 --> 01:26:07.199
Well, you got to control the kids first.
01:26:07.760 --> 01:26:10.640
Because that's who's gonna control the world and control the narrative.
01:26:10.720 --> 01:26:15.840
You want to shift the Overton window, you gotta change, look at how they change the history books.
01:26:16.000 --> 01:26:22.399
Go pick up a Texas history book today and then go find the one that I had in seventh grade.
01:26:22.640 --> 01:26:23.279
Oh, yeah?
01:26:23.600 --> 01:26:24.640
Whole different story.
01:26:24.800 --> 01:26:25.279
Oh, yeah.
01:26:25.359 --> 01:26:33.520
Well, you can go in a history book right now in any high school and you can look at how they they teach how the Mayflower Compact was written.
01:26:34.159 --> 01:26:44.159
And they took all the references to God and advancing the Christian faith, all that, like that's not in that's not what they're teaching.
01:26:44.239 --> 01:26:48.800
Like they they slowly rewrite history, which is part of the agenda, right?
01:26:48.960 --> 01:26:56.720
So that you don't rem you don't remember your true history, so you can rewrite the future, you can shape the future.
01:26:57.600 --> 01:27:01.439
Why do you I mean there's so many reasons why they do it.
01:27:01.840 --> 01:27:04.319
It's just we didn't think they were doing it here.
01:27:04.960 --> 01:27:05.520
Right.
01:27:06.399 --> 01:27:06.800
Yeah.
01:27:07.039 --> 01:27:08.159
And that's really it.
01:27:08.319 --> 01:27:20.560
And you know, we I mean, look, man, we can we can go deep into some of this stuff, but the reality is this, like with um you we're under attack.
01:27:20.720 --> 01:27:32.000
I mean, like the the war between the Marxist-Leninist communist, basically satanic world and God's world has not ever stopped.
01:27:32.239 --> 01:27:33.359
It's not stopped.
01:27:33.600 --> 01:27:33.840
Right.
01:27:34.079 --> 01:27:37.680
What do you think the pilgrims were leaving England for?
01:27:38.159 --> 01:27:39.279
Why'd they leave?
01:27:39.520 --> 01:27:40.800
You know, why do they come here?
01:27:41.039 --> 01:27:42.319
They were tired of tyranny.
01:27:42.399 --> 01:27:44.079
They wanted the fur their sovereignty.
01:27:44.399 --> 01:27:46.399
They wanted their own sovereignty.
01:27:46.640 --> 01:27:59.600
And now that's being threatened again at the highest level, you know, and I don't and I don't care, you know, like you people are so confused because I mean I I honestly walk, you know, I fly a lot like you do.
01:28:00.079 --> 01:28:01.840
You travel, I travel.
01:28:02.640 --> 01:28:05.600
I just feel like I'm walking around in the in the matrix.
01:28:06.079 --> 01:28:10.800
Like I feel like I walk into all these airports and like I'm I listen to people's conversations.
01:28:11.039 --> 01:28:13.359
Thank God no one recognizes me anymore.
01:28:13.439 --> 01:28:15.840
I mean like right after those movies, I I hated it.
01:28:15.920 --> 01:28:18.720
Like I would go in the airports, I I'd get mobbed.
01:28:18.960 --> 01:28:22.640
Like people oh, you're the guy that like, oh God, not really.
01:28:22.800 --> 01:28:25.760
You know, but but now I just listen.
01:28:25.840 --> 01:28:30.399
I listen to people in the restaurants, I listen to people on the plane, and I listen.
01:28:30.800 --> 01:28:36.319
It's like they're so consumed with the little things in their lives, they aren't looking at the big things that actually matter.
01:28:36.479 --> 01:28:36.880
Right.
01:28:37.119 --> 01:28:47.119
And no one has time because we're all doing this or doom scrolling or they're you know doing this, and they don't have time to reconnect with nature.
01:28:47.840 --> 01:28:49.920
I mean, I make it a point now.
01:28:50.319 --> 01:28:53.359
I literally got into grounding and sunbathing.
01:28:53.520 --> 01:28:57.680
Like I know it sounds weird, but I ground and I sunbathe.
01:28:57.840 --> 01:29:00.079
And I I it's like meditation.
01:29:00.159 --> 01:29:04.800
I just go out and go for a walk barefooted, you know, in the grass and or in the trails.
01:29:04.960 --> 01:29:10.800
And I can feel myself, you know, getting centered back and put putting down my device.
01:29:11.039 --> 01:29:16.399
I'm on it because I have to be on it, but you know, take a walk.
01:29:16.640 --> 01:29:17.520
Yeah, just put it down.
01:29:17.840 --> 01:29:22.960
Put your devices down, be with your kids, be with your wife, yeah, connect with other people.
01:29:23.279 --> 01:29:24.159
Yeah, remember that?
01:29:24.319 --> 01:29:25.119
Remember those days?
01:29:25.279 --> 01:29:25.439
Yeah.
01:29:25.600 --> 01:29:31.359
How about how about I mean we had a barbecue the other day, and I'm like, hey, why don't we play some games?
01:29:31.520 --> 01:29:34.720
You know, like let's play football, you know, let's throw the ball around.
01:29:34.880 --> 01:29:35.039
Yeah.
01:29:35.199 --> 01:29:38.720
So the problem is I have a Malinois, and that doesn't last very long.
01:29:39.119 --> 01:29:41.920
So you can't throw the football around him.
01:29:42.159 --> 01:29:46.640
But anyway, um, yeah, man, is there anything else you want to talk about?
01:29:46.880 --> 01:29:51.600
So no, I just um I did want to ask one thing and then and then we can wrap up.
01:29:51.760 --> 01:29:52.159
Yeah.
01:29:52.399 --> 01:29:57.840
Uh, you know, uh Operation Paperclip, Operation Bachbird, these things.
01:29:58.880 --> 01:30:01.680
Can you just talk about that briefly?
01:30:01.920 --> 01:30:08.159
In other words, like you said you have like when you write a script, when there's a script, you have to get permission.
01:30:08.479 --> 01:30:28.720
Well, it depends if you're mentioning like say the D like say the Department of Defense, like you're writing about the Army, or you're writing about spy stuff, or you say like the like the if you're writing about the NSA, you gotta get approval from the NSA to mention whatever you're gonna mention, or or the CIA, or or the DOJ, or the DOD, depending on what it just depends on the script.
01:30:28.880 --> 01:30:31.039
Like what what what's the storyline?
01:30:31.199 --> 01:30:36.720
They want to see it, and then like in like uh the army has a media liaison.
01:30:37.119 --> 01:30:42.720
Like, so like I was gonna do a movie based on a real story that took place in Afghanistan.
01:30:42.880 --> 01:30:55.359
I was gonna direct it, and uh, and so I had to um I had to well once we finished the screenplay, we had to submit it for approval.
01:30:55.680 --> 01:30:59.039
And if it was like, oh no, you can't do that, we don't want you saying this or that.
01:30:59.119 --> 01:31:02.720
You can do all but if you want their support, you can do anything you want.
01:31:02.800 --> 01:31:03.840
Let me let me clarify that.
01:31:04.079 --> 01:31:07.279
Okay, yeah, I was wondering because it sounded like they had control over what you put.
01:31:07.600 --> 01:31:08.640
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
01:31:09.199 --> 01:31:10.159
Let me be clear.
01:31:10.319 --> 01:31:29.279
You can make it, you could you can write anything you want to write, but if you want a black hawk in your film, or you want a like you know, cool tank or whatever, if you if the if it's from the army, now if you go, if you have a friend that has a black hawk and you can pay your friend to fly his black hawk, you don't have to do all this.
01:31:29.359 --> 01:31:29.439
Right.
01:31:29.600 --> 01:31:37.279
But if you want military support, which is great production value, you gotta you gotta make sure that they're gonna support what it is you're doing.
01:31:37.520 --> 01:31:37.920
Gotcha.
01:31:38.079 --> 01:31:38.239
Right?
01:31:38.319 --> 01:31:39.920
So to clarify.
01:31:40.079 --> 01:31:42.560
But um but paperclip, mocking.
01:31:42.720 --> 01:31:43.199
Oh, okay.
01:31:43.279 --> 01:31:46.880
So well, so most people know about this or they don't know about it.
01:31:47.119 --> 01:31:57.119
After World War II, Operation Paperclip was a program that the US government set up to bring over a lot of the Nazi sciences.
01:31:57.279 --> 01:31:58.399
Okay, everybody knows.
01:31:58.640 --> 01:32:19.199
I mean, well, a lot of people, um it's funny because I think everybody knows this and has heard this, but they were they weren't just a lot of them went to work for uh NASA, rocket, rocket engineers, rocket scientists, uh JPL, different, different organizations um uh that were you know technologically highly advanced.
01:32:19.439 --> 01:32:31.600
They also brought over a lot of Nazi scientists that did human experiments, like like the MK Ultra stuff, where they they were testing how can you program a child?
01:32:31.760 --> 01:32:33.680
Can you program people?
01:32:34.319 --> 01:32:38.800
Can you uh train them to do certain things?
01:32:38.960 --> 01:32:40.000
What's the best method?
01:32:40.159 --> 01:32:42.000
What are you trying to accomplish?
01:32:42.960 --> 01:32:48.000
The other thing is from paperclip, they developed the mocking bird media.
01:32:48.079 --> 01:32:58.159
Well, the mockingbird media has probably been around a little longer than that, but the mocking bird media is all of your state-run media.
01:32:58.640 --> 01:33:13.199
Like, and if you remember in in into the light, I talk about, and this is you know, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, MPR, what do those sound like?
01:33:13.680 --> 01:33:15.840
Sound like three-letter agencies.
01:33:17.520 --> 01:33:18.159
Yeah.
01:33:19.760 --> 01:33:25.680
Now, they're all competing and they're all have a job to do, but that's how they're set up to run.
01:33:25.760 --> 01:33:27.520
They were they're set up to message.
01:33:27.680 --> 01:33:29.199
I mean, think about PBS.
01:33:29.359 --> 01:33:31.520
Everybody watches public broadcast service.
01:33:31.600 --> 01:33:38.800
You channel eight, when I was a kid, it was like Sesame Street, you know, what was the other one?
01:33:38.960 --> 01:33:40.159
Uh uh Mr.
01:33:40.239 --> 01:33:40.720
Rogers.
01:33:40.960 --> 01:33:41.439
Oh, yeah.
01:33:41.600 --> 01:33:48.079
Uh, all the different uh television shows, like educational shows, you know.
01:33:48.319 --> 01:33:53.760
So that that was all that was that NPR, National Public Radio, you know.
01:33:53.840 --> 01:34:01.840
I mean, and then you got ABC, American Broadcasting Uh Company, uh, NBC, National Broadcasting Company, right?
01:34:02.079 --> 01:34:05.039
CBS, Columbia Broadcasting System.
01:34:05.359 --> 01:34:15.600
I mean, uh if you can't figure that out on your own, then you're not gonna figure anything out because like do the math.
01:34:15.840 --> 01:34:22.079
I mean, it that they're these companies were designed to message for the nation.
01:34:22.319 --> 01:34:28.319
And these men and women that run these companies, depending on who they are, depend on the message that goes out.
01:34:28.560 --> 01:34:30.319
And it can be good or bad.
01:34:30.560 --> 01:34:33.520
It could you can use the tools, they are the same.
01:34:33.600 --> 01:34:35.600
It's the people behind the narratives.
01:34:36.800 --> 01:34:40.399
You need these tools, you need to be able to message your population.
01:34:40.640 --> 01:34:51.039
Nowadays, you got you got X and TikTok and Instagram, and that's how people aren't watching ABC, CBS, or MBC.
01:34:51.359 --> 01:34:52.479
No one cares.
01:34:52.880 --> 01:34:56.399
The kids today, these guys, they don't watch that stuff.
01:34:57.359 --> 01:34:58.800
They they oh sh.
01:34:59.279 --> 01:35:01.760
Oh, it's yeah, I already saw that.
01:35:02.000 --> 01:35:03.760
All right, all right, I got it.
01:35:04.079 --> 01:35:11.199
You know, so it's a whole different, and with AI coming around, I mean, that's a whole nother Jerry Springer.
01:35:11.439 --> 01:35:13.279
We could do a whole show just on AI.
01:35:13.680 --> 01:35:14.640
Exactly.
01:35:15.279 --> 01:35:22.720
But but the reality is um those those those operations are real.
01:35:22.960 --> 01:35:24.399
And they and they're documented real.
01:35:24.560 --> 01:35:25.840
It's not, don't take my word for it.
01:35:25.920 --> 01:35:26.399
Look it up.
01:35:26.479 --> 01:35:28.640
You know, I mean, don't believe me.
01:35:28.960 --> 01:35:31.039
Look it up, go look into it.
01:35:31.119 --> 01:35:32.960
But see, that's where people that's right there.
01:35:33.119 --> 01:35:35.920
They know you're lazy, you're not gonna do it.
01:35:36.239 --> 01:35:45.279
Because you're too too distracted by dopamine and all the other hits you get from sitting there scrolling, or you get a phone call, or your buddy calls you, you know?
01:35:45.520 --> 01:35:45.840
Yeah.
01:35:46.079 --> 01:35:49.199
Well, that's why people need to go watch Out of Shadows.
01:35:49.359 --> 01:35:49.680
Yeah.
01:35:49.920 --> 01:35:52.319
Because you did a lot, you did a you did the homework.
01:35:52.560 --> 01:35:54.800
Oh, it was took me two years to make that film.
01:35:54.960 --> 01:35:55.439
Wow, yeah.
01:35:55.680 --> 01:35:59.600
But I didn't even know it was funny because when we started out, it was something different.
01:35:59.760 --> 01:36:05.600
And and I and I, I mean, for the record, people someone said to me the other day, oh, you do documentaries.
01:36:05.760 --> 01:36:11.199
I go, no, I did major feature films and television shows and commercials.
01:36:11.680 --> 01:36:14.319
The only documentaries I've ever made were those two.
01:36:14.399 --> 01:36:17.119
I never made a documentary before in my life until I made those.
01:36:17.279 --> 01:36:19.039
I didn't even know how to make a documentary.
01:36:19.680 --> 01:36:20.640
That was God.
01:36:21.439 --> 01:36:22.560
I'm telling you, man.
01:36:22.800 --> 01:36:23.439
It was God.
01:36:23.520 --> 01:36:25.199
It was like God told me.
01:36:25.359 --> 01:36:28.800
And the funniest thing was the second film I did not want to make.
01:36:28.960 --> 01:36:33.279
But God said to me, I heard him say it after three years, I went, You gotta make another movie, you gotta make another movie.
01:36:33.359 --> 01:36:34.880
I go, I don't want to make another movie.
01:36:35.039 --> 01:36:35.840
Don't want anymore.
01:36:35.920 --> 01:36:38.159
I'm I did my job, I'm done.
01:36:38.800 --> 01:36:54.560
And woke up one morning and I felt like all I heard God saying was, you need to explain to people how they're manipulated, why they're manipulated, who's manipulated them, and why they cannot see it.
01:36:54.880 --> 01:36:55.359
Wow.
01:36:55.680 --> 01:36:57.279
And that was the whole premise.
01:36:57.359 --> 01:37:00.560
And that's when I got General Flynn, Lara Logan, Dr.
01:37:00.640 --> 01:37:07.920
Keith Rose, um, and Brian Gamble, all experts, and Boone Cutler, the late Boone Cutler, I'd like to honor Boone.
01:37:08.239 --> 01:37:16.640
Um, you know, PSYOP, explaining PsyOps, explaining the Intel world, explaining how messages are manipulated.
01:37:17.119 --> 01:37:18.640
And it's those are just facts.
01:37:18.720 --> 01:37:26.800
There's no politics, there's no left or right, there's nothing in these films that are nothing but just, hey, here's some information.
01:37:27.039 --> 01:37:31.600
You may or may not know about it, and it may help you and your family.
01:37:31.760 --> 01:37:32.640
Take a look.
01:37:32.880 --> 01:37:33.119
Wow.
01:37:33.359 --> 01:37:34.880
And that's that was the message.
01:37:35.119 --> 01:37:35.600
Yeah.
01:37:35.920 --> 01:37:36.880
That's good, man.
01:37:37.039 --> 01:37:49.840
And I so bringing this home, you know, this is uh you know, praying this podcast reaches a lot of people and gets to hear your testimony, your message, and obviously go watch the documentaries.
01:37:50.000 --> 01:37:57.199
But to someone who's listening right now, that I think they sense something's wrong in the culture in our country.
01:37:57.359 --> 01:37:59.520
They can't quite put their finger on it.
01:37:59.840 --> 01:38:04.640
And when they do put their finger on it, they might not necessarily know what to do about it.
01:38:04.800 --> 01:38:05.199
Yeah.
01:38:05.439 --> 01:38:08.319
What is your message to those people?
01:38:08.800 --> 01:38:16.479
Well, the first thing that just hit my mind when you said that was I pray for discernment.
01:38:16.960 --> 01:38:21.520
I mean, I and I and I'm not saying that not because not everybody's gonna be a Christian.
01:38:21.680 --> 01:38:23.920
Most people watching this will probably be Christians.
01:38:24.319 --> 01:38:28.560
But a lot of times when I say discernment, educate yourself.
01:38:28.880 --> 01:38:29.840
Look into it.
01:38:31.439 --> 01:38:37.520
Because the problem is what's important today, tomorrow, it gets overcome by other events.
01:38:37.920 --> 01:38:38.960
And you have to move on.
01:38:39.039 --> 01:39:04.000
But but to structure yourself and to discipline yourself into um the but see here's the thing, if you're not getting the right the right education, meaning there's so much disinformation and misinformation out there, that's where it gets becomes confusing, even for myself.
01:39:05.279 --> 01:39:06.720
And that's why I say discernment.
01:39:06.800 --> 01:39:16.239
That was the first thing that popped in my mind when you asked me that, because I I see things that I and I hear things behind the scenes because you know the world I'm in.
01:39:16.800 --> 01:39:18.720
And I don't know what to believe myself.
01:39:19.199 --> 01:39:21.359
Sometimes I just take a knee and pray.
01:39:22.000 --> 01:39:26.399
And I pray for discernment because that's all that God can gift us.
01:39:26.960 --> 01:39:34.880
And if if He will reveal to you what you need to know when you need to know it.
01:39:35.039 --> 01:39:36.560
It's never failed me.
01:39:36.880 --> 01:39:42.880
Now, I'm not gonna lie, I have prayed for a couple burning bushes.
01:39:43.039 --> 01:39:44.720
Like, I need a message.
01:39:45.600 --> 01:39:47.840
I need a burning bush, God, I need some tablets.
01:39:48.000 --> 01:39:50.479
I mean, I want you to like write it down for me, you know.
01:39:50.720 --> 01:39:54.319
But uh, but yeah, he didn't do that.
01:39:54.640 --> 01:39:58.800
So um, you know, but I just then that means patience.
01:39:58.960 --> 01:39:59.680
Be patient.
01:39:59.840 --> 01:40:03.439
I mean, look at look at the stories in the Bible, how long it took sometimes.
01:40:03.600 --> 01:40:05.520
I mean, we were talking about the other night.
01:40:05.760 --> 01:40:07.760
Um, 40 years.
01:40:08.079 --> 01:40:09.359
Moses, 40 years.
01:40:09.439 --> 01:40:12.159
I mean, oh, it didn't happen in two or three weeks, a month?
01:40:12.399 --> 01:40:13.680
Right, go 40 years.
01:40:16.560 --> 01:40:17.920
40 years.
01:40:18.800 --> 01:40:20.159
That's a long time.
01:40:21.199 --> 01:40:21.680
Yep.
01:40:22.720 --> 01:40:32.640
So, I mean, even Job, I mean, look at like, I mean, these are obviously everybody knows these stories, but I mean you don't, it's not your timeline.
01:40:33.279 --> 01:40:50.960
And a lot of times things that are roadblocks are really there to either protect you or or it's not time yet, which like I keep I keep going back to my injury because I keep going, I I had two ways to look at it.
01:40:51.119 --> 01:40:56.880
I could have been a victim in that situation and just let it, you know, let it all let it all go.
01:40:57.039 --> 01:41:04.479
Like, oh, I'm I got hurt and I'm just gonna limp around and get people feeling sorry for me, or I can be a warrior, I can be a fighter.
01:41:04.720 --> 01:41:05.039
Amen.
01:41:05.600 --> 01:41:06.079
You know?
01:41:06.319 --> 01:41:07.279
That's good, man.
01:41:07.439 --> 01:41:08.239
So that's good.
01:41:08.319 --> 01:41:10.000
Well, hey, can I mention one last thing?
01:41:10.159 --> 01:41:11.199
Yeah, absolutely.
01:41:11.520 --> 01:41:28.960
So I am I am about to I've been working on uh the book about my healing, like about when my back was broken, and I started writing this book probably that happened to me in 2014, so that was what 12 years ago.
01:41:29.199 --> 01:41:56.159
I I started writing this book six years ago, and I finished it, like I got it 12 chapters, but I had one chapter, and for the last six years, I I couldn't finish this book, and I finally got it finished or got it to where it's close to being finished, and it was about PTSD, and it was about struggling with post-traumatic stress syndrome, and I didn't think that I had that.
01:41:56.640 --> 01:42:01.439
So, anyway, I finally realized that I do kind of have it and I do have to deal with it.
01:42:01.520 --> 01:42:21.680
Not not like it's like a psychosis thing, it's like a physical thing, and so this book is gonna be uh coming out in the next hopefully the next year, and uh it's called After They Cut, and it's a double entendre from like when they cut you or After They Cut, right, you know.
01:42:22.079 --> 01:42:31.680
So um, yeah, so the book's gonna be called After They Cut, How I Healed My Shattered Spine and Rebuilt My Life After My Injury.
01:42:31.920 --> 01:42:33.760
So That's Awesome, man.
01:42:33.920 --> 01:42:36.640
Well, uh when it comes out, you'll have to shoot me a taste.
01:42:36.960 --> 01:42:38.319
Uh send me a copy, man.
01:42:38.560 --> 01:42:39.359
Absolutely, absolutely.
01:42:39.600 --> 01:42:40.560
But no, that's awesome, man.
01:42:40.640 --> 01:42:45.119
So where um again, can you let our audience know where can people find your work?
01:42:45.359 --> 01:42:47.760
Okay, the best place um I'm only on Twitter.
01:42:47.840 --> 01:42:50.239
I I mean I'm I'm on Tree Social, but I never post there.
01:42:50.319 --> 01:42:51.760
I haven't posted there in two years.
01:42:51.920 --> 01:42:53.439
Um I'm on Twitter.
01:42:53.680 --> 01:42:59.119
I have the most complicated uh name.
01:42:59.439 --> 01:43:00.399
Oh, your handle?
01:43:00.560 --> 01:43:00.800
Yeah.
01:43:00.960 --> 01:43:02.399
So I'm gonna give you my handle.
01:43:02.479 --> 01:43:13.840
It's um it is I'm at Crux C-U-R-X 4150 7251.
01:43:14.399 --> 01:43:18.640
So that was my uh that was my handle before I went public.
01:43:18.960 --> 01:43:27.199
So um, and then if you want to see the movies, that out of shadows is on X, on that account, it's pinned to my account, you can see it.
01:43:27.359 --> 01:43:32.479
And then if you want to go to our website, it's just into the light.movie.
01:43:32.800 --> 01:43:33.600
That simple.
01:43:33.920 --> 01:43:35.359
Into the light.movie.
01:43:35.520 --> 01:43:36.640
And both films are there.
01:43:36.720 --> 01:43:42.000
If you click on the website, you can see out of shadows and on the landing page and into the light.
01:43:42.239 --> 01:43:44.800
Out of shadows is you just click on it, you can watch it.
01:43:44.960 --> 01:43:57.039
And then if you want to watch into the light, it's 999, and you can watch it, and it's uh it'll help support us, help support our mission, and uh it'd be greatly appreciated if you guys uh if you care enough.
01:43:57.199 --> 01:44:00.479
And they're only an hour, they're like an hour and 15 and an hour and seven.
01:44:00.560 --> 01:44:12.159
Yeah, so it's not a lot of time, but I guarantee you the one thing that I've gotten a lot is most people watch the movie and go, I need to watch that again, because there's a lot in there.
01:44:12.399 --> 01:44:13.039
Yes.
01:44:13.359 --> 01:44:16.479
Yeah, I think I've watched each one of them two or three times myself.
01:44:16.960 --> 01:44:17.520
I get that a lot.
01:44:17.680 --> 01:44:23.279
People, because you miss things because I laired a lot of things in there because it's a lot of information to unpack at one time.
01:44:23.520 --> 01:44:24.079
Yeah, absolutely.
01:44:24.239 --> 01:44:25.760
So yeah, well, Mike, thank you, man.
01:44:25.840 --> 01:44:26.640
This has been incredible.
01:44:27.039 --> 01:44:30.479
I am so I am so stoked to come down here and see you.
01:44:30.560 --> 01:44:34.000
I've I've respected what you guys are your mission and what you're doing.
01:44:34.079 --> 01:44:37.359
You guys have been supporters, and I just want to support you back.
01:44:37.520 --> 01:44:39.279
So thank you for having me.
01:44:39.520 --> 01:44:40.159
Awesome, man.
01:44:40.239 --> 01:44:41.439
Well, thank you for being here, brother.
01:44:41.520 --> 01:44:42.079
It's an honor.
01:44:42.399 --> 01:44:43.119
All right, man.
01:44:43.760 --> 01:44:50.159
All right, well, now's the part of the show where we take our guest into the red zone.
01:44:50.319 --> 01:45:10.560
And I'm excited about this one because I'm gonna when Mike and I go into the red zone and we start talking, we're gonna start talking about uh the occult, what really goes on in the industry, kind of behind the scenes, and get into spiritual warfare, uh, spiritual warfare components of the industry and what's happening in our culture today.
01:45:10.720 --> 01:45:12.079
So I'm excited about this one.
01:45:12.159 --> 01:45:18.000
And if you want to join us over on the other side, please go to our Patreon account and subscribe.
01:45:18.159 --> 01:45:24.159
Uh join the Defender Circle today so that you can hear the conversation that we're about to have.
01:45:24.399 --> 01:45:26.399
Alright, Mike, you ready?
01:45:26.640 --> 01:45:27.600
Let's do this.
01:45:27.760 --> 01:45:29.119
Welcome to the Red Zoom.