Rise Interview with The Perrys & Stephen Johnson – OSP 01

We’re BACK! 
(sort of)

The Not-So-Daily Solutions Podcast (or Occasional Solutions Podcast as we’re now calling it. Or OSP) is back with some interviews from the Rise Float Gathering.

When we were there, Juliet had a chance to speak with a lot of the speakers about their presentations and we decided to share them with all of you! Here’s her conversation with Glenn and Lee Perry along with Stephen Johnson where they talk about how the industry has changed and the future of their plans to preserve their legacy in the industry.

We hope you enjoy!

The Rise Gathering website

Listen to Just the Audio

Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: All right, welcome everybody.  We have something a little bit different for you today.

Ashkahn: Yeah, we were just out at Rise the Float Gathering out in St. Louis. It’s a float event that happens every year put on by Float STL out there.

Graham: While we were off kind of gallivanting around, having fun, Juliet got a chance to sit down with all of the speakers after their talks and ask them a few questions.

Ashkahn: So yeah, we kind of have a couple speakers grouped together, doing little group interviews that you’re going to get to listen to over the course of these episodes.

Graham: Yeah, so we hope you enjoy them. They’re definitely great to listen to even if you didn’t get a chance to some out to Rise and see the talks live.

Ashkahn: And you should definitely come out to Rise next year. It’s super fun. The website is RiseFloatGathering.com. They usually do it in the April-May timeline, and we’ll definitely see you there if you decide to come.

Graham: Yeah, and in the meantime, enjoy the interviews.

Juliet: So these interviews are intended for the people who maybe can’t make it out. We’re going to try to get them out this weekend, as much as possible, so we’ll talk about a lot of this stuff that you’ve kind of already mentioned while you were up on stage and all that sort of stuff and try to hit some of the highlights. But for starters, it sounds like all three of you have very exciting things that you’re trying to bring forward to the industry for next year, which is awesome.

Juliet: What about this point of time in the industry inspired each of you to start cataloging or bring about what needs to be shared? Was there a particular moment where you said, “okay, this is the time?”

Lee: My answer is I don’t know that this time is different from any other time. Each time we addressed was that time, is what comes up for me to answer that question. I don’t know whether I’m misreading it or not understanding what you’re asking, but …

Juliet: What about now made you decide was a good time to write this book, I guess.

Lee: Couldn’t put it off any longer.

Juliet: Okay. Does that align with what you think as well, Glenn?

Glenn: Yeah, well, if we don’t get it done soon, we may not be able to do it.

Juliet: Uh huh.

Glenn: Also, relative to what I was saying in my talk, I had a realization recently of one of the reasons that I think I have the highest quality of life of anybody I know. I thought, “Gee, I could share that with people so they could use that to have an incredible life.”

Juliet: That was one of the first things I ever heard you say when I was with Graham and Ashkahn. We visited on a float tour. You were talking about how you have one of the highest qualities of life of anyone that you know, and seeing you out in Grass Valley and how you lived, it just seemed so readily apparent. And I think that it’s difficult to really appreciate that when looking from the outside.

Juliet: What do you think that quality of life really entails? What does that mean to you?

Glenn: I think there’s about 8 things that, I think, result in having an incredible quality of life. And I don’t think we can go into all of those at this time, but one of them, for example, is eating well. I think, what I’ve noticed, is the people who have the worst diets have the most trouble in life. And the people who are very careful to eat healthy, alive food, have the best quality of life. It makes an enormous difference. And so there are little things like that that make such a big difference in the quality of life.

Juliet: Thank you.

Juliet: Stephen, what about this point in time now inspired you to start working on this documentary with your son?

Stephen: I think, first of all, I kind of consider myself to be a little peripheral to the industry as a whole. And in a sense, I kind of really honor that because hopefully, I’m more of an objective observer. What I’ve seen of the industry, in my time being involved in it, is it’s grown very rapidly. Now there’s a contraction taking place. But it continues to grow, and with that growth, comes all kinds of different ways to look at it and to be able to categorize it.

Stephen: For instance, the science aspect is coming in. You can’t stop that at this point, not that we would want to, but that’s one aspect, one pathway that’s being developed, which will probably, if it continues, eventually lead to medical involvement in the field. You know, there’s other aspects, as well. As more and more people are opening up centers, they’re introducing more and more pathways and how to be able to explain what it’s all about and then articulating that.

Stephen: And I think what’s been getting lost — and a lot of this comes from when we met by phone with the FDA, just the little bit of exchange that we had, the recognition that what it’s really all about. Seemingly, they can enter this better than I. Seemingly was the initial impulse of it, which is the enhancement of consciousness to expand one’s consciousness to become better in the world, to make the world better. It’s kind of being watered down. Not that a lot of these other pathways are important, but the heart of it is getting watered down a little bit. And I think we need to continually bring that back up.

Stephen: Why are you doing this? Obviously, you need to make a living if you open a center. There’s a lot of different things involved. But people go in and they come out, and of course, it’s very subjective what happens to each person. But there’s commonalities. And the commonalities are all really positive, open kind of things. I think it’s more important now, that I can see, to articulate that and continue to articulate it than ever before.

Stephen: Another thing is your book is scheduled to come out in January. We’re hoping the documentary is going to be done in January. I think we should work something so these two things come together at the same time.

Juliet: Nice.

Glenn: Great.

Stephen: Wouldn’t it be cool?

Juliet: Yeah.

Glenn: Definitely.

Stephen: Once the interviews get done, Colin says it won’t take him long, if there’s money, to finish it up. It’s what he does. I saw that. I looked at your card and went, “January … January, we were kind of hoping for January.” If it can happen then I think this should be a confluence.

Juliet: Nice.

Glenn: January 6th.

Stephen: January 6th? I got it, I got it. So maybe we can show the documentary on those days. These are two big things, you know? I mean, this is the biggest thing. If we could just give them a good ol’ one-two punch experience, it might wake some people up.

Glenn: Another thing, based on what you said early on, of why I talked about what I talked about, is that we have felt that both manufacturers and center owners are not floating near enough. It’s so peculiar because at least center owners, to me, the most important thing they can do for their business isn’t some kind of marketing thing or this or that — it’s float. But they don’t seem to know that. And I think it is so critically important for these people to be floating so that they actually understand what’s going on because if they don’t understand it at a deep enough level, they can’t really support their floater well enough. It will hurt their business.

Stephen: When you said that, when you brought up that example of if you didn’t have an hour, you wouldn’t float. Then you stopped floating, then you realized if you just went in for 5 minutes. That was so perfectly said, and it relates exactly to what meditation is.

Glenn: Mm-hmm.

Stephen: People do the same thing. If I can’t sit for 20 minutes like my guru says or if I can’t sit for half an hour like I’m supposed to according to this plan, you know what, take a quiet walk for 5 minutes. Sit in your chair, look out the window, anything for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 6 minutes. If you do it every single day, it makes a huge difference.

Stephen: I really took that to heart. I don’t have access to tanks up there very much. I have to travel to float. I try to do it as often as possible, but I’ve meditated every day for 50 years. That’s my go-to. Someday, in my life, I would love to have a tank, if I had any place to put it. But then I would do it every day. Maybe for 5 minutes, but it would be every day.

Glenn: And for people, tank owners and manufacturers, if they can’t float, meditate.

Lee: Or find the essence of what we’re talking about, the caring, the love.

Stephen: That’s right. Absolutely. ’cause that’s what floating and meditation embody.

Lee: Right, and go there. But be sure you’re not getting taken over by, “dammit!”

Glenn: So be mindful in your life.

Lee: Right, be mindful.

Stephen: And then you’ll have a better life than anybody else you know.

Juliet: Well, I think there is a lot of wisdom there, and there’s no shortage of people in society, throughout the world, throughout history, who have attempted to pass on this narrative of be mindful in things that you do, take your time, learn to be present. And, as true as those things continue to be, it does often seem like those very important messages get drowned out.

Juliet: So how do you think that we can alter this message so that we can learn the lessons from the past of the people who weren’t heard as well?

Lee: It’s a good question.

Juliet: Yeah.

Lee: It’s a very important question.

Juliet: Mm-hmm.

Lee: And there may be many answers, and maybe that’s part of it. Sometimes you see a small child who has the answer by going over and hugging another one. And how to incorporate all the possibilities into the way one runs one’s life.

Glenn: I think Edison and Tesla illustrate the two holes of possibility. Edison about being in ego and mind — he wanted to figure things out, he wanted to work on things, and so it took him a thousand tries to come up with a light bulb. And Tesla was connected to Spirit, so Spirit gave him all this stuff and it happened like that.

Stephen: Great example. Yeah, great example.

Stephen: I’m not sure this answers your question, but I would suggest that for anybody to develop a practice, you know, meaning practice in that a time when one opens, when one allows the outside to come in to inform the inside. That way, you balance body and the cerebral and the bodily and the spirit. And I think it’s difficult in our day and age, with the flow of information and everything else happening, to be able to do that. The emphasis to just take the time, whatever that is, if it’s 5 minutes, whatever it is, but develop a practice that in that time, that’s what happens. You allow that to take place.

Stephen: It’s difficult for a lot of people, and people are overworked, and they’re overburdened, and it’s very stressful. It is hard, it’s a hard time. But it really would help to incorporate that.

Stephen: I know you guys are gardeners, and I talked to Kevin last night, and we talked about how we begin our days. He said he begins his days by walking out barefoot and standing on the ground and then going into the garden. And I went, “well if that’s not a practice, I don’t know what is!” I mean that is a life affirming practice. That’s what it’s about, I think.

Glenn: You said what are the things that make up a great life. If I’m having trouble, if I’m in an upset or under enormous stress, I walk down to the garden and I stick my hands in the dirt or I look at the plants, and it all changes. It changes my state. And that, being in contact with nature, to me, is one of the most important things you can do.

Stephen: I think it is the most important thing because it embodies totally unencumbered life is nature. That also is presenting us with the greatest challenge that humankind has ever, ever faced, an existential and real challenge. I think just sticking your hand in the dirt — you know, I don’t have dirt or a backyard with dirt, but I hike up in the hills, and there’s places where I get up there and I get away from people, and then I just sit. Sometimes I’ll just walk into a grove and I’ll just sit down. And when I get up, it’s when I get up.

Stephen: Same thing. And I think that’s exactly what happens in the tank — somehow, the genius of it, somehow you’re in this place and you open. It’s the same thing when you go into nature. How in the world did anybody ever develop that? It’s fabulous.

Glenn: I mentioned 4 things that, I think, we’re generally awake. We’re generally present. One of them is when you feel in awe of a scene in nature.

Juliet: I think it would be very easy for all of us to spend the day talking about these fantastic ideas. I think we do need to cut it short here, but thank you so much for sitting down and talking, and I’m really excited to share these with everybody out there.

Glenn: Thank you.

Lee: Thank you for doing it.

Stephen: Yeah, it’s wonderful.

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