The Symptoms of Soul Sickness with Justin L Shaw

play and enjoy. By subscribing, you'll get notified when new episodes drop, and you'll help the show reach more listeners, which obviously means we can bring on the guests that you want to hear from. New episodes drop three times a month, the sixth, the sixteenth, and the twenty sixth, so mark your calendars. Today's guest is Justin l. Shaw. He says he's a little bit deepok and part Tupac, and we're about to find that out, honestly, and he's

all about healing with a healthy dose of humor. He's a former stand up comedian turned spiritual guide at least I think so. Justin's journey from heavy drug addiction to emotional enlightenment is as crazy as it is inspiring. Drawing from the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Justin's own thirteen Rungs of Sorcery don't just target drug and alcohol issues. They tackle everything from phone addiction to soul sucking materialism because,

let's face it, spiritual bankruptcy can take many forms. So if you're ready to laugh your way to a healthier soul, Justin's got you covered. Justin, how's it going, great, man?

stopped doing comedy because I just so I went. I moved to LA from Phoenix after college just to pursue a dream. I knew I was funny, I knew I could make people laugh, so I would do comedy there, just like in open mics, nothing major at all, just open mics around the town. And but I was always really high when I was doing it. Xana's in particular, Opiate's just things that made me forget and get me more loose, so I didn't have like panic attacks when

I hit the stage. So things got really out of hand with drug addiction there, and I just I eventually went to rehab out in California and got sober, and then I tried to do stand up comedy without the drugs. And although I felt funny, the panic attacks and the anxiety and being in that scene that it's you know, it's very much a scene that isn't too healthy for those of us with substance abuse issues. There's a lot

of drinking and just that whole night club. I mean, and you have to wait all day before you go on stage, like it's just anxiety riddled and then the panic attacks and the bad scene. I was just like, this isn't this isn't for me. So I just kind of gave it up and you know, put comedy in my pocket and realizing that now, you know, I get to reinvent the whole new thing, and you know, I'd like to use this book to kind of become a

mystical comedian is what I call it. It's not a thing until now hopefully, and do kind of stand up philosophy and kind of kind of combine the two worlds of comedy. I've I see a lot of my spiritual leaders and teachers and you have your comedians, and I don't see a lot of mixing in between the two. And I found that, like, wow, I could really you know, spirituality and trauma healing and it doesn't have to all be serious. It's sometimes needs to be serious, but it

can be really fun and funny too. And so the book I wrote is is there's it's just a it's a cycling of laugh thing feel, you know, like I

had to keep the shattered concentration of generation TikTok. So I knew, like I had to really keep people's attention, and the comedy really keeps people's attention, like it really like you know, you laugh and then you feel something and think and then like so I just I really I leaned on my skills a lot to write this book, and I'm going to continue to lean on them, you know. I hope to do lectures and things like that. This

is very much the beginning. The book's been out like five weeks, and like, I have plans and visions for the future, but right now, I just want to get get that book out there and just let people know who I am, and then hopefully maybe people will show up and hear what I have to say.

not that kind of a sorcerer, my sports sorceress. But to the you, So we're using source energy, which is where we all came from and where we're all going to the energy that fills space to heal trauma and thrive, to make heal and thrive. That's that's that's the two key points that to sorcery. And I use that. So it's kind of it's it's a it's a step by step or rung by wrung guide to become a sorcerer

with a you. And so it is. And and I kind of bird that I had all this stuff in my head, you know, after a series of horrible events and you know, things in my childhood and just all the horrible things, and then in my adulthood, I had a series of four years where just I had just ten major things happened, you know, like major losses, of all kinds of things and just this horrible cycle of events that really brought me to my knees and I and this this is kind of what was burned from it.

And I just I had all this stuff in my head thinking like, I, you know, I could really help people get through things. And I've learned so much, you know, because I was in such pain. All all that made me feel good during during my years of getting better

and and healing was just learning. And I've learned. I've learned so much stuff that I had to think about, how do I want to like organize this, and so I thought about the twelve steps and so like, as you know, here's a system of healing that like helps people. But for me, there's a lot more that I needed out of a that I did not get. And you know, there's a there's a focus on sobriety and AA, but uh, there's no focus on thriving. It's just gives people sober.

And and my problem was I became stagnant and I was sober, and I was bored with my life, and you know, so you know, something happens and then I was already looking for an excuse to go back out and drink and use because I was just bored with AA because I was not thriving. I was just sober, you know, I kind of got sober. I was like, so now what you know? So there was just much

more to desired for this concept. And I knew that AA kind of has this symptom discrimination of you know, not only does AA, you know, like separate between drugs, which originally the NA was an original that offshoot oft AA because all the old timers and geezers didn't want to hear the hippies talk about their drugs and they're in their alcohol meetings without realizing first of all that alcohol is absolutely a drug, and so they offshoot and

all these different you know, all the different drugs have at different meetings, and everyone's separate and doing you know, like no one wants to hear, you know, cocaine talked about heroin meetings, all this prap, and and they you know, they don't have meetings for a shopping addiction or a phone addiction. They just recently started doing meetings from like gambling. But it's all the same thing. So I started realizing, like,

this is all the same things. So I created the system where it's runs so because I mean, moving forward is good. Steps forward is good, but moving up is better because you get a better perspective on things, Like the bird has a better perspective on things than a worm. So I rungs to get a higher elevation of consciousness. So that's kind of where it all came from. And is it's pretty it's pretty fun and exciting the whole thing for sure.

you got to go up a little bit more and you're.

to guide you. But you also would get lost and die on the way up to the top of average without one. So I needed spiritual sharp but I found lots of them. And now I was like, I want to be one of those two. Right.

really holding me back. You know, I consider Christianity to be this this amazing, beautiful mansion house that you see, but it's built on this cracked foundation of judgment and fear. So when I was living in my beautiful house of Christianity, all of a sudden my mother fell it terminally ill and it was bad, and so she ended up dying.

But her dying days were absolutely traumatic for me because I had it programmed into me from my Christianity that because my mother never went to church and she wasn't a practicing Christian, that she was going to help. And this made her dying days absolutely dread. Dread. Instead of being kind of this shepherd of the next life that I would be, I'd be super excited for like you know, you're you're a glass of water getting pourn back into the ocean bomb, you know, like it would have been

so different and so healing for me. Instead, I was filled with dread and fear and and just was I was. Probably she probably didn't even want me there, like my energy was so bad. So after that whole thing, I really started questioning my beliefs. And the whole point of this thirteen to get back to it is because the number thirteen is set in our culture to be unlucky,

and apparently it's kind of like a Christian thing. One of the things is is that there were thirteen people at the Last Supper and was considered the thirteenth person, and so therefore thirteen is unlucky. So means absolutely nothing, and for some reason that caught on and in society, thirteen is extremely unlucky, to the point where we don't have thirteenth floors and hotels like this is ridiculous. Thirteen

is actually a divine number. It is a number for the divinity, and it's it's actually said to bring good luck to those who embrace it. So I chose thirteen very purposely in that one of the main concepts of sorcery is to start questioning things that we believe that might not be true, things that we hold truth that might not be So the number thirteen kind of gets that going. So, yeah, it was very important number thirteen.

some meditation. I'd always heard of meditation that tried it, and it just I wasn't for that. The meditation stuff wasn't for me, you know, like I just couldn't you know. My mind was like my mind was like my web browser, you know. I you know, four tabs opened and two were frozen, and I had no idea where that music was coming from, you know, like so it's just just a mess of jumble mess in there. So I really

needed meditation, but I just gave up so quickly. So he started really honing me into it, and it made me realize the importance of this giving your mind a break and how critical it is now. I mean, like I do it every single day, But when I first started doing it, it was very difficult and it didn't seem very rewarding, but after after a while, I started to get better at it. And it's just like, you know, a lot of people understand the body better than the mind.

So it is much like going to the gym, where when you haven't been to the gym your whole life, and maybe you've been eating garbage and weigh three hundred pounds, that first gym experience kind of sucks. But you after repeated visits and keep going, you see yourself get stronger, you see your body changing, and it gets more fun. It starts to get you high, and you started lot

liking it, enjoying it. But it's only repeated visits, and especially in the beginning, the first you know, especially month really you know, because you're rewiring your brain and getting everything you know, creating good habits. And that's what meditation did for me. And I had an experience early on

in meditation where drug free, absolutely no no drugs. A lot of people say this is the kind of experience I hear people say when they talk about you know, like mushrooms or keademene or something, and I had a similar experience, but this there was I was completely drug free. There was no no drugs at all. I think I

had coffee that morning. That was it. And so I had this experience to where it was about three hours and it was just it was like a it was a bliss attack, like I've always had panic attacks, and like you can feel kind of an conset of a panic attack, and and like the breathing heavy, and this was like a bliss attack. And it was truly transformative. And I just laid there on my bed, eyes open, like just having this bliss attack in my mind. At the same time realizing that I had been in airplane

mode my whole life. Like you know, airplane mode you turn on your phone when you go on the plane and it blocks all the messages, you know, like all the calls and messages, and like you know, when you get to your landing spoke, you turn off all the messages come in. I felt like I had been on airplane mode my whole life. So all these things that all of a sudden I knew were true because they were coming from my higher self, the outside outside of

the illusion. All these things started realizations started coming to me and started uplifting me. And as I was feeling amazing, and that's how I knew they were true because I was just I was just getting this these ways is of ecstasy that would just were incredible, and all these thoughts that were like everything I thought in my life was you know, with all these things I thought were true, we're not true. And and there is a force in the universe that is all around us at all times.

And and they say God is around us. But it's it's it's different than that. It's I mean, science has a name for it. Even it's dark matter, although I don't like to think it sounds nefarious. I'm not a big fan of that term dark matter. I feel like I'm the dark matter. It's light matter. But it's it's like it's it's it's like fish when you when you go to fish and you ask them about the water these swim in, They're gonna say what water, And it's

it's it's like that. And this experience was like it was like a fish that's been living in a pond its whole life, and all of a sudden it gets caught by an angler and pulls out into this whole new like majestic, stick insane reality. It didn't have any

idea existed, you know, like what is this? So that is that's what it felt like, and that's what started really my new healing journey, and and and just kept going at like this is okay, I need I need to chase this and more people need to know about this because this is something that should be taught in schools. There should be everyone needs to know about this. There is a force that can be used for It's a

sea of information, the Kashik Field. It's everything that ever was, it ever will be, and all this information is in there and I tapped into it. I didn't write that book with my brain. I tapped the brain is the receiver and I tapped into something that is all around us to write something that is well beyond what you know a C plus college student could have ever wrote. Like I mean, if you read this like it's I

read it, and I just I'm in shock. This came out of me because I I was tapping into something that wasn't me. So so yeah, it was not written with the use of my brain. I was tapping into something that force. The force the Star Wars Force. Star Wars really explains it so perfectly. Obi Wan Kenobi says, it's it's a it's a it's an energy field created by all living creatures and it and it binds the universe together and energizes us, and that's exactly what it is.

So I yeah, I found the force and that that is what truly started me on my higher elevation of consciousness journey.

ton of pop culture. So I grew up part of my childhood was rather neglectful, so emotionally wise, it just was a very whole atmosphere and emotional vacuum that I grew up in and I gravitated and globbed on towards pop culture because that's what made me feel good. So I, you know, all these movies from childhood, I'd watched eighties, nineties and two thousands, and I'd watched them over and over again. And you know, the music of that time period and the movies and the shows and the video games,

and they're all extremely important to me. I'm a huge geek, nerd whatever. So there's aspects of pop culture that I bring into this that was already programmed into me that is like, oh my gosh, I can mesh these two things. And I mean I truly now believe and I and I and I see the things that I grew up on in a different light, like Star Wars, like Holy

they have they have it right the whole time. So I see these things that I grew up on, I'm able to like work them into the spiritual spirituality aspect. So I just believe that that some of many of life riddles are are hidden in the you know, the answers to many vice ridles are hidden in the kind of the nukes and crannies of pop culture. So I use so many pop culture things to illustrate points. So I use humor and then pop culture, and I just

make it a lot of fun. So you know, like there's there's some there's some deep stuff to it, for sure, but there's also a lot of humor and fun and anecdotes and it's very different. I can I've never read anything that approaches it, that's for sure.

against the Machine t shirt. You're he already got my attention instantly.

The shadow is the reactionary side to us that you know a lot of us want to work on and may not be two big fans of you know, the people with anger issues or druggeted. You know, it's that reactionary side to feeling uncomfortable in what we do. So it we are the awareness of the shadow, not the shadow itself. So I recommend to people to name their shadow to keep some distance from it. That because it is not you. You are the awareness of the set shadow,

not the shadow itself. So I named mine Floyd because in quin Tarantina's classic Not Pulpits or loads it true romance, True romance, Brad Pitt has a small cameo role in it, and he plays this He plays this roommate to one of the more central characters, and he's he's just this kind of loser, stoner. He's always on the couch. He doesn't pay rent, he doesn't do chores, he just just

lies in the couch and does nothing. But the guy that owns the house doesn't kick him out of the house because he just he loves him like a brother. He obviously loves him, and he lets him stay even though he can beats absolutely nothing to his life. So I have named my shadow Floyd because he is that kind of stoner, loser that isn't you know, He's not going to cause any harm to me as long as he's just he's on the couch, and I can love him like a brother, but kind of keep my distance.

So the shadow is something that's really important to understand and embrace. And you know, one of the things the I think the healthiest person or I've ever seen with their shadow is Eminem. Eminem handles his shadow beautifully. So he names his shadow slim Shady. He is aware that the shadow, slim Shady, is not Marshall, and he says it over and over again. He embraces his shadow in

that he's aware of this reaction. And he had a horrible, a dreadful childhood, all kinds of horrible trauma that created his shadow. His he's very open with his drug addiction and his anger issues and and and and so he is aware that this, all these bad things that happened to in his childhood, has created this side of him that is not desirable and can destroy him if the

shadow is in charge. And he talks about in as many of his songs, you know, when the shadow was in charge, he doesn't call it the shadow, he calls it slim, but he when the shadow has been in charge, and he's he's just he was just horribly drug addicted and just fallen off and and so now he treats a shadow differently. He speaks, he lets this, He lets

the shadow speak and then leaves it be. So I think he's he's he's the he's the kind of peak attainable for people to try to understand the shadow, like, you know, find your some shady you know, name it and deal with it in appropriate manner like like it can be in different ways certainly, but you know, to to kind of feel the reaction is different than to like let it go. You know, we're always going to react

to certain things. You know, like I can be as i'd like to be, you know, like the peaceful monk, but when someone cuts me off in traffic, I you know, there's a reaction that comes to it. But I'm at a point spiritually now where like that reaction just dwindles so quickly, whereas before, I mean, there's a point in my life in my twenties where I there could have been a road rage accident. I could have followed that person home, like I was really screwed up. So, you know,

we're always going to react to certain situations. But how long are we going to stay in that reaction? And that's when we kind of have some separation of the shadow and just you know, love it, you know, love the shadow and just be like, I know you're pissed off right now trying to talk to it, but this isn't that big a deal to move on with our life, you know. There's just there's a healthy way for us to not be so reaction there. Yeah, and that's what shadow Work is about.

all kinds of you know, SAgs can be. I mean, there's a million things that make us happy, and those things aren't necessarily bad. It's the attachment to them that brings the suffering. The attachment to these things just turns pain into suffering. And it is the running away from pain that makes it persist. Whatever you whatever you resist, will persist, and you have to heal it, or you have to feel it to heal it. So distractions are

very easy to find. And I'm very happy to say, like I I went completely you know, when I was writing the year this last year that I was really writing and putting the book together, I just made a goal that I was going to do healthy things and I was going to have no distractions. So I didn't go on dates. There was no drugs, no alcohol, no you know, I'm you know I've been and I'm going to continue the drugs and alcohol certainly that my life is so much better without that stuff, let me tell you.

But just really focus on my own healing and writing this book at the same time. So it's a very metabook. It's it's like creating the system and healing at the same time. I wrote the book for me, but after it was done, I was like, holy grab, this can really help a lot of people. So, you know, I I I really secluded myself from a lot of distractions

and and and stop my happiness chasing. Joy. Joy is something that you find when you're not doing any of the things, like it's still gonna make me happy to do the I mean, you know, food is a big one that makes me happy. There's there's all kinds of things that may and there's nothing wrong with that. But joy is what you have in between those happiness things. You know, exercise makes me happy, and you know, like

there's all kinds of that are not bad. But I have now found joy, which is having joy in between these things that that are kind of worldly things and distractions can can be used as distractions, but you know, once you find joy, then then they then they actually make you happy. But joy is only found when you're when you're in between your happiness chasing, and if there's no joy in between you know, doing things that you enjoy doing, search that.

What do you think is the biggest obstacle that people face, Well.

of constantly turning outward. Because if you're constantly turning outward and there is no joy and you're only just chasing happiness, something is wrong in there. There is something in this and it would be into anyone's best interests to look into them, because the pain doesn't go anywhere. It's it's just it's an illusion. Running from pain. You cannot outrun it. That you can't out run it. It has to be dealt with. I mean, you can attempt to outrun it.

You can, you know, outrun it until you die, but then you die miserable. You know, you could be a drug addict until you die, and I guess you can try that not a great life, but it does not it remains, it does not go anywhere. So everyone's obstacle is going to be different. And it's a matter of rewiring your brain to get into healthy habits and stop running from the pain and you know, just constantly chasing

that happiness. It's it's very easy to find. But once you take the time to heal and really embrace healing and turn to healing and thriving and healthy things, things change insanely quick. And it's a matter of doing those health of things and getting getting in touch with your higher self, your intuition, and slowly going through that healing process really really changes things for the best for sure.

I always say so, like, I mean, I know that stuff really deeply ingrained the idea that okay, I should just avoid my stuff and go do drugs. And I took that with me throughout my teenage years.

influenced by these these musicians and things. And you know, I was Eminem was big for me certainly growing up, and you know his his you know, the whole thing at the time coming out and your drugs and and that was that was big in the in the nineties, right, Like that was that was kind of what it was. But you know, other kids that I saw that you know, didn't have the kind of spiritual bankruptcy I did, that

had no effect or influence on them whatsoever. So really it comes down to the spiritual state of who it is. I mean, there's you know, it's just impossible to blame on you know, I can't blame anyone else. It's just, you know, it's it's you, the spiritually bankrupt, connecting with another spiritually bankrupt person that has more success than you do. It's it's just it has nothing to do with them,

but it's it. It's it's everything to do with with us where we're at in our spiritual walk and journey because because we because now there there's no way anyone could possibly influence me. There's just no way, Like there's just no way. And obviously when you're younger and there's a little bit more influence too, but it's the spiritual bankruptcy.

When you're younger, that's when you're really highly influenceable. But now I'm at the point, like I can you know, like I just that's no one's gonna no one's gonna take me off my course, Like it's just not gonna happen.

terrible drug dealer, but I'm now a hope dealer. And that is the main takeaway I want people to have, is that you can go from you know, I've spent you know, I've been many rehabs, park and I you know, nights and park benches, jail, just horrible experiences and it is possible to overcome that many deaths just in recent years, just whole series of really nasty things happening to me. So and that, and that's in childhood and adultsoo, and

that's kind of covered in there a little bit. I don't I don't go too deeply on it, because you know, comparing war stories doesn't do a whole lot. You know, you know, your pain, maybe you may have gone through more than I have, or maybe maybe not as much. You know, then you kind of you kind of get into that whole thing. So pain is paid and the reason we feel pain is because we are very spiritual being stuck in a very physical world. So I would

like people to get hope out of it. And even when the you know, if you can, maybe the world is against you. You would feel the world is against you, and maybe it is, but the universe is for you and that's really all that matters.

But for little Justin it would be the number one thing is to start getting in touch with the intuition and your higher self, which is the self that is outside of the illusion, the simulation. I make the best argument for simulation theory in that book I've ever heard. And so that is the outside, that is you playing you on the other on the other side. And once you get in touch with that and have that connection, you are now a player character and not a non

player character, and you have control of your life. The world is filled with NPCs, they're everywhere, and those are people just running programs. We're just we're just robots running programs. And once you get in touch with your higher self, now you are in charge of your entire life. And that would be the number one thing. And there's there's a big there's a whole rung in there about instinct versus intuition, and they are a big there's a big difference.

Most people use those interchangeably, instinct and intuition, but they're very, very different. Instinct is a fear based guiding system and intuition is your heart. So it's essentially instinct lives in the gut and intuition lives in the heart and they're very different. You need your instinct in times of distress, and it's it's good that it's there. But when your instinct gets turned up to high, then you're constantly fearful

of everything and it interrupts with your life. So to heal from that and run things through your hearts, I go through there in How to Train your Intuition in the book, and it's a series of asking yourself questions and put in your heart. You know, you have to clear your mind through breathing techniques and start asking a questions. You have to get a feel for the questions though. First ask a question that you know the answers yes to, and you'll get a feeling. Maybe you'll get a word.

You might you might hear something audible, you might get the word in your mind. It's different for color. It could be color, it's different for everybody. But you have to get a sense of what yes is. And then you ask a question that you know the answer to no is, so you get the feeling what no sounds

like from your intuition. So you start asking this and you start getting you start asking it questions every day, like and you start training over thirty days and started with simple things and you know, should I, you know, go to this event, should I call this person and start getting it getting in touch with that signal. And once you start getting in touch with that signal, it starts guiding you to your destiny essentially. So and that's what it has done for me, and it actually it

saved This is a great one. It saved my life. Probably about two months ago. I was finishing out of the book and I just live in apartment alone with my dog. And I was eating steak one one evening and I had swallowed a bite and I swallowed it down and it kind of got stuck. Nothing crazy like you know instinct, I would have just swallowed again and tried to you know, like go open and get it down. And and before I could do that, like louder than ether in inner voice, not an audible but an inner

voice just went stop. And I was like and I stopped in my tracks. I was like, what, like is going on? And it talked me through and it said, you know, another swallow and you're gonna die right here in your apartments. And so I'm sitting there like what and so I I and then I talked back to it, and I'm like, so what do I do? And it walks me through, you know, like it was lodged, but it wasn't. It wasn't to the point where I couldn't

get air. So it said, you know, just just breathing slowly because you don't want to get relodged, and breathing slowly air around it and then just shoot it out. And that's what I did. It just shot out. And it's stuff like that, Like you know, your intuition will lead you, will always always lead you away from danger, whether it be of the emotional kind or of the physical kind. It may it may not be correct every time.

With little things, you play with it because you can ask future events and like I play with it sometimes and you can ask these events with it and a lot and it is right more than it is wrong, but sometimes wrong. But when it is, what is, and our emotions tend to get in the way with that. Sometimes we kind of want something to be that way and we want to hear like we want even though so like we'll be asking question and we want the certain answer, and so like that can kind of mess

with it. So you have to be really clear minded when you're speaking to your intuition, but it will speak very loudly and undeniable. When you are in physical or emotional danger or someone of a loved one too, it'll speak loudly that too. But that is the number one thing I would say to anyone, anyone at a little Judson or any other little people out there, it would be to develop your intuition because it will guide you to the life of your dream.

So the book is on Amazon. You can search my name justin l. Shaw, or you can search the word sorcery with a you and it'll so sorcery one on one thirteen runs and it was like this year, that's what it looks like. So you can search the word sorcery. Don't put in sorcery one on one for some reason, I'm trying to work with them. If you put in sorcery one to one, an auto exit to the actual sorcery and then it will leads you to a series of books which are apparently about becoming a better wizard,

which might be interesting, but it's not my book. So so the search for my name or just the word sorcery and this this book should pop up at some point. So that's on Amazon, and then you can get a hold of me. I have five hundred free e books if you can't afford a book. I just want to get the information out there. Like I said, this is just kind of the foundation launch pad for where I want to go. So I'm not big on you know, I don't really care about sales as much as I

want to get it out there. So I have five hundred free books ebooks that I can send you a code so you can get and you can get that on my email which is Sorcerer thirteen with the U SO s O U C E R E r one to three at Gmail or telegram, Sorcerer thirteen as well sous sou cr R thirteen on Telegram and Gmail.