Jason Lange: All right, and welcome back. Well, today I am super excited to have what is only my second guest so far on the podcast. So it comes with pretty high honor because this isn't something I often do, but today I'm talking with Dr. Luke Adler, who is an incredible healer friend in all around the badass man. And Luke is a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. He's an intuitive and compassionate healer. He's a teacher. He's an author. He works with breath work.

Luke Adler: He's.

Jason Lange: He's kind of done it all. And he's a man I came across in my personal journey, I don't know, five or six years ago now, which we'll talk a little bit about. But I'm very excited to have him on today to talk about shadow, what it is, how it impacts us men, and how we're hoping to serve some of you guys by creating a pretty awesome upcoming intensive shadow work experience. So, first off, just welcome Luke.

Luke Adler: Jason. Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. This is pretty rad.

Jason Lange: Yeah. And so you and I were just talking here a little bit before we began recording, and I think a great place to start is. So we have this upcoming program, the Heart of Shadow, which is going to be geared for about 14 men to go pretty deep with us in early 2023. And what I want to start with is, like, from your end, why. Why are we doing this? Why are we bringing this to men? What's. What's the inspiration here? There's a lot of different things we could be working with men on. Why Shadow?

Luke Adler: Yeah, I mean, you know, you and I have worked together, I think, five, six years, had children together, been through probably some of the hardest things we've experienced in our lives together, witnessed that, supported each other, and have seen each other's work grow individually and then in our businesses around healing and transformation and serving men. And I think, you know, when I tune into to you and I stepping forward and making this offering, it seems like we're both at a point where we want to offer something more robust, more complete. And in some ways, I think we've worked solo or maybe kind of off a couple off shoots of collaborating with someone. But to me, this feels like, let's take. Let's team up with someone that you trust, you've gone incredibly deep with, not just once or twice, but, you know, over the course of five, six years, and. And offer something that we don't necessarily see in the marketplace of transformation and healing. And there's a lot to say about that nuance, but I think the depth, you know, the deep, the deep grit, the deep reaching into oneself and coming forward with not just the shiny gift, but the ability to hold your pain and be awakened to it is something that you and I have watched each other do, supported each other through. I think there's a sense in this offering. Heart of shadow. Let's make this available to other men. And I think we both can testify to the fact that, you know, you don't know who's open to this work. You think, oh, this is just like the hip people in Santa Monica or San Francisco or New York. I mean, I work with people in rural parts of my state who are conservatives, and they crack. They crack wide open. You know, they're hungry for transformation. They don't know it. They don't know what to call it. But I think you and I, you know, we're husbands, we have kids, kids, you know, we live in the real world. We're. We're grinding and we're off. We're making these really powerful offerings. So there's some kind of inspiration there for, I think, in working together. And. And I think also we're tuning into a time where people need something quite powerful. So I. I can kind of riff on that more, but I'm. I'll kind of pass it back to you, Jason, and see what. Where you maybe want to fill that in or.

Jason Lange: Yeah.

Luke Adler: Well.

Jason Lange: What I like about this and what I think is a pretty amazing thing that's part of the genius of this, like, in terms of where it oriented from, is this has been our life. This has been our lives. And so, you know, guys who listen to me and follow my work, you know, no, I'm. I'm super into men's work. I have lots of different men's groups, and I've been in a pretty deep group with you since 2018 and known you for over a year before that. And we have been living this work. So I think part of. For me, the inspiration from this is, like you said, you know, we've both been on pretty intense journeys these last years, and one of the things that has helped, literally helped me survive it has been our group, an intensive men's group that focuses on this type of shadow Work that we'll be talking about. And, you know, you are one of the men on the planet I will turn to, to be held, like, literally to be held in a way that I'm not always comfortable with other men. And I think there was a realization of that, of, okay, well, this is the guy I turn to. Why don't we create something kick ass so other men can have this experience?

Luke Adler: Yeah.

Jason Lange: And there's a lot of men's work out there. And this specific type of work we're going to be bringing, I think is a. It's a very unique sliver of that that's very potent and very individualized, like way beyond a lot of different things that I think there really is a deep hunger for and thirst for in men. You know, I was just looking at was a new. New research article came out. It was just earlier this week, I think, and it was, yeah, like, nearly four times as many males died by suicide compared to females in 2021.

Luke Adler: Wow.

Jason Lange: And suicides for males 15 to 24, increasing in an alarming 8% from 2020. Like, it's just going up. So, yeah, something. And, you know, we could spend episodes talking about this, but something is happening to men. Something is happening to men. And the heart of Shadow, this program and journey we're really going to be taking men on. This is, I think, from what you and I have experienced in our own lives, one of the potential medicines we think many men are missing.

Luke Adler: Yeah. Yeah, without a doubt. I love that imagery. I mean, everything you said, actually, I have to comment on just the way you speak and the way you deliver a message, Jason, is so penetrating. I think what you just did was an example of that for men who are maybe getting to know you. This is one of what I have experienced as your great gifts is this ability to kind of ground down and settle and transmit a message not in a harsh way, but in a penetrative way that lands. And I think anyone who's listening today can see that and experience that from what you just said. So that's a real highlight, I think, in one of the gifts that we're offering. That sliver, I think when you said that sliver, that sliver of unique men's work and what I got from that, you know, like, I've been leading men's work for. Since 2005, kind of like check in style, shamanic style. And what we've done is so distinct from that. And I think you use the word specificity. It's so unique to each man. It's not necessarily taking men through kind of specific exercises that all men need to work on. It's this ability for the facilitator, in which cases you and I to tune in to a particular man and allow him to unfold his shadow in real time and kind of wake up or become or illuminate in his own awareness through the group space, through being held by the facilitation and the other men. That ability to wake up to your own curriculum, your own, your own trajectory through your own conditioning is, is I think what's incredibly unique about what we're offering the curriculum men is you, whatever you've lived through and been through, that's what's going to come up, that's what's going to move through the space. So you're not going to learn kind of a strategy or a paint by numbers approach or a way to hold, you know, certain energy in your system. You're going to learn what you need to learn. What's missing in your kind of palette of expression and, and we can dive deeper into what. What that is. Exactly.

Jason Lange: Yeah. I think this is one of the really unique things about this type of work is, you know, it'll be a journey we take men on, but the whole structure of that journey is oriented to exactly what you just said, to helping men come into contact with whatever it is inside of them that is really next, next to come alive, next to bring energy, to next to engage with in a different way. And that's, that's different for a lot of men. You know, for some men, you know, we've worked with and I've done this kind of work with. They're coming from a place of like, I feel really stuck in life. Right. Like, I just, I can't seem to get moving forward. I can't seem to quite kick start my life in the way I want. And then there's like the whole other end of the spectrum of like men who have. They've checked all the boxes, they've done like a successful businessman, have families, like everything that we're told we're supposed to do to create a happy and thriving life, they do. And yet something still hollow inside or not not quite connecting or just like there's just like a deadening, you know, sometimes that shows up in some of us men. And this work is, is really, you know, through our experiences, I think what gets to the root of that and. Pretty fast.

Luke Adler: Pretty fast. Yeah, I think you were describing that, that sense of being stuck or even the, the sex. The successful man who has this hollow feeling. And I think what characterizes the shadow to some degree is we all arrive at a place in our lives or we become aware of ourselves in such a way that we feel like we're between a rock. The colloquial expression between a rock and a hard place. Or as I've heard men say, I'm between a rock, a rock and a rock. It's just every choice sucks. Or I don't like any of my choices, or I have this beautiful wife and kids and successful, but I'm not happy. I'm not satiated by this. What is that? I'm. I'm stuck and everything looks right, or I'm stuck and everything looks terrible. And it's that. It's that. That phenomenon that we're interested in knowing, you could say at the core of shadow is that feeling, but also through exploring that feeling and, and becoming aware of it is kind of on the other side of that is where all the power and freedom is. And yeah, our, Our, you know, it's not really a method, but our way of working is about how to contact that, not run away from it, not manage it, you know, not cope with it, but actually awaken to that. That what we would consider that dark place that we're afraid to go to and realize, wow, that's actually the seat of all of my power. You know, I think for men, I actually heard Brene Brown say this recently for men, that the. The greatest source of shame is to acknowledge any form of weakness.

Jason Lange: Yeah.

Luke Adler: But for shadow work, the only way to uncover your deepest power is to face your deepest shame. So to face all the places where you feel impotent, weak, not erect, not powerful, not capable. And for men, for all of us, that is linked to our emotions. One of the things, our mentor, one of the men we study with, you know, his. His context for the work is emotional literacy, which doesn't sound very sexy or interesting. Emotionally literate, like, oh, cool, that's boring. You know, And I remember when I first read his books, I was like, I've done all this. This is basic. Forget it. And then six months later, I picked the book up again and I read it slower and I. And I realized, holy, I have. I have gone into the shallow end of some of this, but have not penetrated the depth of any of these feelings. In fact, I've used spiritual practices to get away from all of them. Yeah. Which is largely my story. Just, oh, stay. Stay in bliss, stay in meditation and avoid everything painful. And, hey, life works pretty well. But you can't feel anything or connect with anyone because I'm out there in the, you know, the upper echelons of consciousness, just avoiding what it is to be human.

Jason Lange: Absolutely. That's a common thing in a lot of the transformational realms that people have probably heard the term spiritual bypass. And this shadow work we're talking about, it's basically the antidote to that. It's like the. The direct opposite. Like, you're floating in the heavens, it's going to bring you down, which might sound painful or, like, why would you want to do that? But it's ultimately so much more real, authentic, and vital and really does expand our capacity for, like, living a meaningful life. You know, one of my teachers, I remember, he said, you know, basically, you can determine the quality of your life is determined by your emotional range and what you have access to, right? And so many of us men, because of culture, family, religion, different things. We're. Our range, we're given of what's appropriate is like a sliver, right? Because acknowledging anything else makes. Makes us weak. A faggot pussy. All the different things we're kind of. That are hammered into us in. In our society. And this work, I think it really helps uncover and connect them into their full range of expression and do it in a way that ultimately, like you said, it's. You know, I. I like this metaphor that comes from our same teacher of, like, facing our dragons. Like, the thing we're afraid of.

Luke Adler: We.

Jason Lange: We actually come into relationship with it and like, like, literally look it in the eye sometimes. And suddenly, like, something starts to happen in our bodies. Like an actual fire I've seen in myself and you and other men, like, it comes online, starts to burn. Like there's. There's something. I'm here again, right? And what I love about this work is sometimes, you know, in. In, you know, you and I live this in our men's group. I'll think I'm doing really great, and then we'll get into a group and I'll, like, connect to something. I'll be like, holy crap. Part of me's been offline for nine months, and I just, like, drifted away from it. But then there it is in my body again, and it, like, I can feel that vitality and that realness, and then I can bring it back to my family, to my community, to my work, which has been so impactful and is. Is why, you know, this is some of the most challenging work I've done. Right? Like the butterflies, the confrontation, the grief and fear. I Mean, I've never cried harder than when I cry in this work. Like Luke said, I'm like snot pouring out of my body, like convulsing on the floor. And without exception, what happens on the other side of that is always more space, grounding, presence and trust in myself that, wow, I can really do this because so much energy, at least for me, has often gone into. It's like the, the anti energy of trying not to feel the things. Like it actually takes a lot of life force to, to not go to these different places inside ourselves. You know what I, what I've called on the show before, like our energetic kinks or our shadow things, or sometimes it's stuff we're aware of, sometimes the stuff we're not aware of, which is why gifted facilitators and group cohorts and men like can really see it. Like, wow, do you. Are you aware of what's happening for you right now? And then it's like, no, I'm not. And again, something starts to come alive and to wake up in that sense. And you know, this work has been utterly transformational for me. I've told the story of, you know, I was in therapy for years before I got into this. And the first time I specifically did this work with our mentor, 10 minutes. Within 10 minutes I was on the floor talking like a 2 year old boy, crying in a way. I was like, I had no idea that was inside me, like, like, you know, cognitively. I kind of knew some stuff had happened, but I actually had never contacted that place in me. And it started what was, you know, what totally changes trajectory in my life where I was like, wow, that little boy has been walking around with me for a long time. No wonder I keep getting into these certain situations because he's there and I'm not aware of it. And turns out a two year old boy is not quite effective in the world in the same way that I would want him to be.

Luke Adler: Oh man, that's just so many gems in what you just said. So many gems. I think I remember the first training we did in Hawaii. Maybe that was 2017, I think, you know, I, I'm used to doing. I was raised in a spiritual tradition, so when I'm done with the retreat, I'm used to feeling this exaltation and this expansiveness and I didn't feel any of that. I didn't feel like altered in a, in a, as in a state of consciousness. I felt more like just as you were describing, I just felt more here. I felt More present. And here's the distinction. I felt more present in my body.

Jason Lange: Yeah.

Luke Adler: Not out of my body. I was used to feeling very present, but kind of in this expansive way. What was so distinct about this is I'm present, but I'm here. I'm in my chest. I'm in my guts. I can feel my hips and the freedom in that. What was so unique about that compared to all my other work is that I wasn't having to turn away from my pain. I was beginning to not mind pain, or let's be more specific, I was beginning to not mind grief, anger, shame, lust, anxiety, worry. I was starting to not have to get away from them. And it's not that I was being run by them. They weren't flooding through me. It's just, oh, here's the origin of some deep grief in me or some profound anger in me. And I. I am now occupying that, that conditioning, that memory, that event. And now anger can flow through me. Now sadness can inform my life. Now I can feel shame, as uncomfortable as it may be, and allow me to feel remorse and. And to apologize from a deep sense of relating to what I've hurt or damaged and not be stuck in the toxicity of shame, but liberated from its healthy, healthy regions. Healthy, healthy source. And I think it's. It's a different kind of. I don't know if enlightenment is the right word, but it's. I know one of the words that's used in this work is intimacy, is this ability to just be close to life, to not have to get away from it because it's uncomfortable. Like, colloquially, people will use this term when they're uncomfortable. They'll say, I don't feel safe. But not feeling safe is, you know, feeling unsafe isn't a feeling. That's a description of a. There's really only two feelings there. I feel uncomfortable, which is kind of more of a physiological description. But the. The deeper the nuance of that is. I feel afraid, I feel fear. And that can be worked with. You can work with fear because that's a clear sensation. We can identify it in the body. Close your eyes, you can breathe, you can feel it, and speak from it. You can feel into the origins of that feeling. And I think, you know, this is just very simple explanation. But when. That's. When someone's guided through that, like you said, Jason, you can wake up quick to something you just been staying cognitively attuned to, but haven't, you know, haven't dropped from the headquarters to the heart to the Gut quarters where, where it's viscerally living and resonating through us, making our decisions for us on top of maybe some sophisticated intellectual narrative or something. And, and to liberate the body, maybe liberate too strong of a word, but to, to allow the body to unwind, that kind of stored tension is, I guess it brings ease. There's relaxation, there's ease, there's. There is a kind of comfort that results. Like I can be with someone who reminds me of my father, who was a kind of domineering alpha type, and I don't feel bothered at all. In fact, I can activate that part of myself too and meet that head on if I want to. Or I can be more, you know, internal. I have the choice. I don't have to. I don't feel diminished anymore. I can be my full size. Yeah, it's. It's wonderful. It's wonderful to have that.

Jason Lange: Choice is such a important word in terms of like, why. Why is this stuff worth doing? Is it. It does bring so much more choice to how we consciously respond to our lives rather than, you know, so much of what shadow often is or like embedded traumas, history conditioning we have that we're just, we're not actually in the driver's seat. So shadows. Often it's elements of ourselves that are stuck in the unconscious, right? It's running our lives or it's influencing our lives and the choices we make. But we're not, we're not aware of it. And so we're not actually driving a lot of the time. And that's where we can get into similar patterns over and over and over, certain situations over and over and over. Where stuckness can come from, where reactivity can come from. In this work, this shadow work is, is really about, you know, what's at the root of this, you know, literally what's at the heart of the shadow. And the beautiful thing is when we come into contact with that, there is so much life force, right? It's, it's like, it's. You know, I've seen it in myself, I've seen it in so many men we've worked with. It's like a. It can be like a nuclear reactor, like when suddenly it's like, boom. Somebody. Wow. Like there's somebody in something here that was not here two minutes ago. Like there's an actual energy and a presence in the body that I think is just where I see so many men suffering these days is exhaustion, fatigue, depression, numbness. How the am I going to get through Another day I got to manage my kids. I got to manage my job. I got to go get a girlfriend. Like, it's exhausting.

Luke Adler: Yeah.

Jason Lange: You know, I, I, I've been, I've been joking lately. I've, I think I'm going to make a T shirt. So stay tuned, guys. Of. You know, essentially in, in a large part, the, the like to joke. The essential masculine disposition is grumpy, tired and fatigued. Like, just like it's, or irritated. I can't remember the third word I was using, but there's like this state, Right. You talk to most men and they're like, yeah, I'm just like, tired, or I can't figure it out, or I'm exhausted. I have so much to do. And shadow is almost always linked to that in my experience, because there's some part of our immediate experience we're not in contact with. And so much of this work is just in a very safe container. So it's part of what Luke and I create. It's part of what we create in the group is a place to actually, with consciousness, with love and support behind you, begin to turn towards these different places in your life. Sometimes they might be vague and just kind of senses in your body. Sometimes they may be explicit things that you do kind of know of. Like, every time I talk to this person in my life, things go sideways. I don't know how to be with them. And we get to help guys learn how to be with that in a different way that isn't just doing the same thing over and over and over again. And, you know, as I have been saying more and more often, like, I really, truly believe, you know, some people can say whatever they want about this term, but I think this is the modern warriors work. This is actually the work of a warrior now. Whereas, you know, in times past, our rites of passage as men would be about, like, going out into the world and exploring the unknown and going into unknown lands or territories or places. You know, this is not really quite the same thing in the modern day anymore, but that's all shifted to these interior spaces. Right. And some of this stuff, you know, goes back, goes back in our lineage to our fathers, our grandfathers, that masculine and feminine chains behind us of, like, this is stuff that accumulates over generations in our nervous systems. And here we are, like, doing some piece of work that is super intense and is. I like to kind of think we're not even just doing it for ourselves.

Luke Adler: Yeah.

Luke Adler: One of the other things that's worth highlighting, we've, we've mentioned it, is that you, you use the term and I've used, you've heard me use this term that I had no idea that was in there, or I, you know, when we did a piece of work, I couldn't, you know, I maybe intellectually understood it, but I, I, I wasn't, I wasn't aware even a significant percentage to how much this thing, this feeling, this event conditioning was running me. And I think the phenomenon, to do this by yourself or even to do this in, in the therapy, traditional therapy that's incremental and change, which is more about changing your behavior. This would be more in the category of experiential therapy or healing where, where you're transforming your relationship to something by moving directly towards, towards it as opposed to managing it by shifting your perspective from a safe distance or just from a greater distance. Not necessarily. Say I have only been able to awaken to some of this shadow by being in a group, you know, and as an experienced meditator, sure I have. I can slip into witness consciousness and observe myself from an altered state. But observation isn't the same as waking up and integrating into something that's, that's still kind of crimped or diminished. Within my nervous system, I can observe it safely, but I haven't been able to gain the ability to become it. And what happens in a group, you know, here I am, I'm looking through my eyes at you, Jason, but I can't see myself or experience myself. But you can reflect to me things that I just can't see. I'm not built to see myself and the power of expertly trained facilitation and the hearts and nervous systems of a group of men who are literally pulling for the very best of you to come forward without any shame or pressure. It's just this powerful invitation to feel and through feeling, to break through what is, is, you know, barriered and necessarily so barriered because we had to protect ourselves from something that, that was dangerous when we were younger. But we're older now and we have the ability to create our own safety. And so the group in a way becomes a surrogate for our, for our own strength, power and love. So what gets reflected is this, this group, this love, this empathy and compassion that can't help but pull forward everything within the individual that's ready to heal. It's just automatic. There's no pressurizing. And I think that's also what's so unique about this work compared to lots of other work I've done, which seem to have a kind of pressuring or a pejorative or a patriarchal tone, like, you know, kind of like wake, wake the up or let that go or, you know, move on or it's time to let it go, but with a subtle sense of shaming. Yeah, I've never. I think one of the distinctions about this work is there's no shaming in it. The invitation itself is so powerful. Whatever, like you said, whatever's next or ready to open, it just does. And part of that is the group container. And so that's why we have this extended container of 10 weeks. And then it's our intention that, you know, the group itself would continue under self leadership to create a continuity of transformation. And then you have people want to jump in and do our next program. You know, of course that's available, but that group container over time, in my experience, is what separates. Oh, that was a great workshop or that was a great three week event to like, wow, I can get a lot done in 10 weeks. And if I'm motivated, I can keep this group going as a support structure for me indefinitely, which is what you and I have done and can testify that there's a secret to sustained transformation and that's supporting the structure of it.

Jason Lange: Absolutely. And nobody made us do that. Right. So we were in a facilitated container, but our group continues to meet afterwards because of how important and vital it's become in our lives. And that is part of the structure and intention for, for this, for this group and for this circle of like, you know, this kind of work, it's kind of crazy, but it's like the type of work that bonds you. You know, it has certainly bonded me to you and other men in our group for like a life. Right. Just like sometimes a quick experience, it's like, wow, we went through that together. We're good. You know, it's just like, I'm in whatever, like, good to go for forever now. And that. That group container, I mean, followers of mine know, if there's anything I hammer home, it's, you got to be in a men's group. You got to be surrounded by men in your life who can hold you and take care of you and call you forth in these powerful ways. And there is something. I've done this work one on one, but there's something about the group experience that creates. It's like a. It's. It's an energy field that as this work goes and one man steps in and then another man steps in and in ways that are beyond comprehension and predictability. Predictability, right. One man's work will move another man, which will unlock a piece of work. And then it. It just creates this, like, generative cycle that I've seen over and over and over again in these circles that opens something up and allow for a type of healing that for so many men, they've just never had. Wow, these are men I can be safe with. I can be real with. I can show the parts of me that are ugly and hurt and that I judge. And these guys actually celebrate it. They're like, welcome it. And it is so much. You know, you mentioned Brene Brown, and I, you know, I use her. One of her definitions of shame all the time, that it's such a unique emotion because it's a social emotion, meaning it's one of the few that's created in relationship. So, Right. If. If we're the Tarzan born in the middle of the woods, we don't have shame about how we look like if we've never come into contact. We just. We are. You just exist. It's not until in a relational context that shame is born because there's a right way to be, or I'm judged by someone else. But the unique thing about that is it means it's really hard to heal shame alone. You have to heal it in the same relational context it was often created in. Doesn't mean it has to be with the perpetrator, the people who caused that. But there's something about getting back into that group space that I've seen unlocks it of, like, I was able to talk about or share or show this part of me, this thing that I never thought I could do or that everyone would always judge me for or ostracize me for or kick me out of the group. And here I am Being loved for that, that very thing. Right. There's literally love coming my way because I was willing to go there. And the healing I've seen come from that, in addition to the just seeing other men do their work and realize I'm not alone. Wow.

Luke Adler: Right?

Jason Lange: Like we're suffering in this together in our different ways. And it's one of the great magics of group work I've seen is it's like, it's not like life suddenly becomes easier doing this work, but there's something about doing it in a group that makes it easier to deal with life. Oh yeah. We're all on this journey and we're dealing with it. And there's. It creates a certain type of resiliency that I've experienced, you know, pretty heavily these last couple years through some massive challenges in my life and relationship and parenting that I'm like, I don't even know. I literally don't know where I would be had I not gotten into this work, you know, before these last years came up. Like just a husk, a shell of myself, I think, in a lot of ways. And probably pretty sick, honestly, because, you know, you can probably speak to this too. Like when we don't deal with this stuff in our body, it's not like it just goes away. Right. Like it has, it literally has an impact on, in our body and our well being, in our, in our health.

Luke Adler: Yeah, yeah. In. I mean, both in Western medicine and Chinese medicine, we know that the physiology has this ability to store toxicity disease, kind of not great virus or non beneficial bacteria. We can store it in the joints, in the lymph, in the liver, in the blood. And of course, when those storehouses of, of pathology overflow, that's when you see symptoms. You know, you don't necessarily see them when they're the coffers are half full of mucus and imbalance, you know, bacteria. You see it when they're full and then they, they spill into the skin or into the blood or you know, overwhelm the digestive tract. So yeah, I mean, from a physical standpoint, disease is inevitable. And you know, from, from Western medicine and Chinese medicine both agree that, you know, if we're not working on our emotions, the tension of those emotions, the energy required to maintain that tension for and for it to become autonomic or unconscious is a shitload of energy that's not being used to repair and digest and rest and regenerate the system. Instead, you're just managing this very slow decline, which is what we're Describing as this fatigue and grumpiness and irritability. I mean, all that is an expression of a sub clinical disease process where you're just kind of, you know, you're kind of feeling okay, but kind of shitty. And it just, it just progressively gradually, without really noticing, insidiously worsens over time. And, and then you see a kind of chronic disease show up that runs itself through the system like big immunity or cancer or something like that. I'm not saying any of this to scare anyone, but as a clinician for 20 years, I can say this because I see it. And I think for me, what's so heartbreaking is I've had patients die throughout my career. Many patients die for different reasons. But when I see someone who hasn't engaged in their inner work and they're just, they're so recalcitrantly stuck on, you know, not wanting to heal and open up and I just see, oh, here's a soul that's. This isn't going to be the time they, they do it, they heal. It's, it's sad. I, I can accept it and go, okay, I guess then. The work here is about death. The work here is preparing for a good ending. And that can be a beautiful experience too. My sense is, you know, and what I feel like I've seen our group break into is not only while we're here, let's make the best of it, but let's be on the living edge of life. I'm sure you have these moments, Jason, where I'm sitting there, I'm looking at my wife and my two girls and we're playing a card game or they're just goofing off and I'm just so, and I'm tired maybe, but I'm so thankful. I just like, can rest in how beautiful my wife's face is and my daughter's face and the color of their eyes and their hair and express my love to them and just, you know, there's a sense that if I were to go, if I, if this were to be my moment, that it would be okay like that I, I've, I've arrived, I've already arrived in life and there's a continual arriving and I'm, I'm. That's all through this work. I'm not chasing something or trying to get anywhere. I'm already here. And if, and here's the thing. I know you and I can create that for people because we have, you and I have worked together before. And so this is an invitation for Men to not only have a taste of that, but to start to live like that. I want that. Any man who wants that, you know, you and I are basically saying, okay, come get it. We have, we have cultivated ourselves to be able to offer this. Yeah. And it's beyond, like, it's way deeper than excitement that I feel, I feel heartened. It's not even courage. I feel like, guys, there is a way to navigate life that's meaningful and powerful and easeful. Doesn't mean life's easy, but you're more capable and able to face it. So yeah, I'm, I'm just all in for this, you know?

Jason Lange: Yeah. And you know, men, you know, listening, like, you'll kind of know there's like a call for more. Like, is this it? This can't be it, right? This is, there's got to be something more. And my experience has been that more is on the other side of going to these places and doing this work that sometimes scares us. You know, this shadow work of really coming into full bodied contact with all aspects of ourselves. Our, you know, our mind, our soul, our heart, our emotions and our body, our vitality, our sex, our energy, our life force. We siphon off so many different portions of this stuff in different ways, trying to protect ourselves and because of all these often accumulated experiences, right. That we just kind of build up around ourselves and it's, it's by no fault, it's like nobody's fault this stuff happens to us, right? But it's, you know, what I will say is, I think it is a modern conscious man's responsibility. If you want to create a better world, you got to be doing this work, right? We need people, we need men alive right now. Like we really need men who are alive and in their body and who give a. And who can speak up and who, who can open their hearts and can kind of lead the way for other men because, well, we all know what state the world's in right now. And so much of that comes from the collapse. Shattered, broken, hardened, unconscious, masculine in so many ways. And this work is a, is a, is a road map through that of like there's something more. There's really another way to be where you don't have to just be the pushover nice guy and you don't have to be the just pure asshole dick. Like you can give a. And show up with force and life and caring in a way that actually relaxes people around you and makes you more trustable. And there's just something so, you know, I, I think it is like a bit of a rite of passage. There's, there's something that happens like, you know, certainly happened to me when we do this work. And it's like I finally touched the thing I thought I could never do or go to. Like I'm actually alive on the other side of that. You know, it creates like a, a boldness certainly how I've experienced it in myself of like, okay, like I, I can do this and I don't have to be afraid of this stuff. And it has a, a very, I guess, positive upswing. And then it, it's like, well, as I learn to be with these experiences, I have to spend less energy avoiding them. So it's, you know, I like to think of it as like an ocean wave where it's like, okay, here comes the wave now. Most, most of my life I spent like trying to hide from it, minimize it, not feel it, get away, run away. And now it's like, well, just let it come. Let the wave crash. I got my men holding me, I have tools to do this. I know how to be present in this. And then it's over. Yeah, you know, it's like, oh, that was like 25 minutes. And I've been avoiding that for how long? Or that's been running the show for me for how long? And now it's like, like it's not there. You know, there won't be more sets of the wave. But there's, there's such a freedom on the other side of it and the freedom that comes to, comes from doing this type of shadow work is, is just profound. And you know, I, I know we're speaking of it in some vague ways, but it's really about creating a safe space for you to access all different parts of yourself, feelings, sensations, whatever that might be, in a way that you can really come into contact with them and not have to hide or avoid or be confused about these pieces.

Luke Adler: Yeah, yeah. And useful freedom.

Jason Lange: And so I just want to give guys a quick roadmap here before we begin to close out of like. So, yeah, we mentioned Luke and I are going to be running a 10 week journey for men. It's called the Heart of Shadow. And it is a. Going to be a pretty profound experience, you know, is our intention and hope. And what's really unique about it is it's a hybrid program, meaning there's some virtual stuff and then there's a actual live intensive, which I know so many men I work with have been hungry for after these years of COVID and everything being virtual, you're going to get both with this. And it's a powerful thing because the virtual work actually kind of seeds how deep we can go in the live work and then allows some integration on the other end. And we'll be kicking things off on Tuesday, January 3rd. Doors are open now for registration. There's a couple different payment plans and options, whether or not you want a single bed or a shared bed, shared tent. At our facility that we'll be doing the live event in in Northern California. And some of our themes for shadow work that we will be exploring to really kind of prep for our live intensive is we're going to be going through manhood and masculinity, lineage, family and our parents, money and purpose, sex and intimacy and power. Like what it means to actually come into full contact with our power as men. And that's going to kind of set the ground for then a pretty deep experience we'll have in February of 2023, February 15th through 19th, where we'll be up in Bell Valley in kind of Northern California, which is super important and sacred to Luke and I, because the man that runs the place actually is in our men's group. Like, we do this work ourselves there. You know, we do. We walk this walk. We're not just, hey, look at us. We live this, and we've lived this work there. And it is an incredible piece of land and container for going deep in a pretty profound way. And after that retreat, which is about three and a half days, it starts on a Wednesday afternoon and wraps on a Sunday morning, we'll have three more post sessions virtually to do some integration and, like, really focus on how to bring this work forward in lives, the future of the group and whatnot. So this is a really powerful offering container that we really want to highlight for you guys. It's limited to 14 guys, so we're going to be able to go deep with each man. Everyone, you're going to get personalized attention from Luke and I, and we're going to go to some places and do some things that, you know, are quite exciting. And as our teacher once told me, you know, should have a little bit of fear because, you know, fear and excitement are. They're very similar energies. And as we learn to embrace that, it's part of what helps us come alive. So doing this work, it can be scary. It's still scary for me when the attention turns on me. I'm like, what am I going to do? What if I do it wrong? What if I don't do anything, but it's just trusting that process that always takes me through to do this deeper, more integrated and alive place.

Luke Adler: Well said, Jason. Well said. Luke Adler: I mean, I'm just, I just wholeheartedly invite. If you feel called or touched at all, just send in a question. Jason and I are happy to engage with you. We know this works. We live it. We've done it with countless groups and men and reach out to us. We want to make this happen for you. If you feel called and if there's concerns, considerations, bring them up. It's not a big deal. Hope to see you January 2nd. It's going to be, it's going to be really fun and really beautiful. Thank you. Jason.

Jason Lange: Yeah, super excited to go on this journey with you man and men. Please reach out, please sign up, let us know if you have any questions. This is going to be a very potent way to start the new year. So as you know, we're starting to wrap up 2022 and this is often the time of year where we take stock of, you know, what worked, where did I get to, where I wanted and where did I not, and what might need to shift. This is going to be a pretty profound way to make sure 2023 will go differently for you. There's a gravity and an energy and a momentum to this work, and when you make that decision to go, all in your life will reflect it in terms of what's possible for you. On the other side. If you're ready to step more fully into your life, make some powerful changes heading into 2023, just visit Art of Shadow. Learn all about this upcoming program with Luke and I. It's going to be powerful. It's going to be deep. Dare we say, it's even going to be a little bit of fun. We look forward to hearing from you.