The Journey Home: Finding Peace Within with Udo Erasmus SUMMER REBOOT - Episode 279

Udo Erasmus has been called the "father of fats", as he was educating on it long before the keto diet came about.  He is the founder of Udo’s Choice award-winning supplements and is the author of the book Fats That Heal Fats that Kill, which has sold over 250,000 copies.

Discover a paradigm-shifting approach to wellness that goes beyond diets and exercise routines with renowned nutrition expert and philosopher Udo Erasmus. Drawing from his extraordinary life journey—from war refugee to biochemist to wellness pioneer—Erasmus shares profound insights into what truly constitutes optimal health.

At the heart of this transformative conversation lies a simple yet revolutionary idea: the root cause of our discontent isn't external circumstances but our disconnection from our inner essence. Erasmus explains how our natural process of focusing outward to understand the world leads us to lose touch with the perfect peace and unconditional love that forms our core nature. This disconnection creates what he calls "heartache"—not caused by trauma, but by forgetting our way home to ourselves.

With remarkable clarity, Erasmus guides us through his eight-step process for complete wellness, addressing everything from internal awareness to physical health to our relationship with nature. He describes life itself as solar energy—sunlight stored in molecular bonds, released in our cells as the unconditional love that powers every function in our bodies. When we reconnect with this energy, we naturally feel fulfilled and shift from self-centered striving to service-oriented living.

Most powerfully, Erasmus offers practical guidance for bringing our focus back inside through simple stillness practices. He challenges the notion that more doing is the answer to our problems, suggesting instead that deliberate time for being—connecting with our inner essence—transforms every aspect of our lives, from health choices to relationships to our impact on the environment.

Whether you're seeking better physical health, emotional balance, or deeper meaning, this conversation offers a roadmap to wellness that begins not with changing what's outside, but with remembering what's already within.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Sandy K Nutrition
• 2:29 Introducing Udo Erasmus
• 14:17 Searching for Harmony: Udo's Early Life
• 32:34 Reconnecting with Our Deeper Nature
• 46:00 The Biology of Wholeness
• 59:02 Life as Solar Energy and Unconditional Love
• 1:14:10 Finding Your Way Back Home
• 1:24:42 The Eight-Step Process for Wellness

Transcript

Sandy Kruse: 0:02

Hi everyone, it's me, sandy Kruse of Sandy K Nutrition, health and Lifestyle Queen. For years now, I've been bringing to you conversations about wellness from incredible guests from all over the world. Discover a fresh take on healthy living for midlife and beyond, one that embraces balance and reason, without letting only science dictate every aspect of our wellness. Join me and my guests as we explore ways that we can age gracefully, with in-depth conversations about the thyroid, about hormones and other alternative wellness options for you and your family. True wellness nurtures a healthy body, mind, spirit and soul, and we cover all of these essential aspects to help you live a balanced, joyful life. Be sure to follow my show, rate it, review it and share it. Always remember my friends balanced living works. Remember my friends, balanced living works. Hi everyone, welcome to Sandy K Nutrition, health and Lifestyle Queen.

Sandy Kruse: 1:33

Today, my guest is Udo Erasmus. He is the founder of Udo's Choice and the author of the book Fats that Heal, fats that Kill, which has sold over 250,000 copies. As an acclaimed author and speaker, udo has an eight-step process that takes into consideration all of the elements of nature and human nature, including physical health, mental health, presence and awareness, life, energy and being in harmony with nature and humanity. Udo's background includes studies in biochemistry, genetics, biology and nutrition, as well as a master's degree in counseling psychology. So today, psychology. So today we're going to talk about what is optimal wellness. I mean, people ask me this all the time what do you need to eat? And I'm like, well, eating is part of it, but it's not all of it. So today we're going to talk to the expert and hear how we can truly optimize our wellness. And with that, welcome Udo, I'm so happy to speak with you.

Udo Erasmus: 2:51

Glad to be on. This is good stuff.

Sandy Kruse: 2:55

It is. I mean, udo and I had a chance to talk a little bit beforehand and I can already feel his energy. We are very aligned in a lot of ways without even having a full one hour conversation yet. We wanted to save that for you guys, of course. So you have to tell me, because you've got a little bit of history and you know. You have to tell me how you ended up where you are now.

Udo Erasmus: 3:23

Okay, you got 81 years. I'll tell you the whole story.

Sandy Kruse: 3:27

Okay, let's go.

Udo Erasmus: 3:28

So I was born in 1942, which was during the Second World War in Poland, which was then part of Germany, and we were refugees when I was two and a half years old, fleeing out of Poland, with the communists chasing us in tanks and trucks on dirt roads, in horse-drawn hay wagons, mothers with young children. All the men were at war or dead, and the allies were using the refugees, us refugees, allies these are the good guys on our side, right.

Sandy Kruse: 4:00

Yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 4:01

They were using us as target practice, shooting at us from planes. Wow. So we were got the communists behind and the capitalists from the front, or whatever you call that and my mother had six kids younger than six, six and younger, with her by herself and they were dead horses and dead people in the ditches and she got completely burned out and she realized it was winter, she realized it was safer to go through the fields than to stay on the road and so she had six kids. She couldn't handle six kids under six going across the fields, so she left four of us behind and took off with two of them and my her sister eventually caught up with her, found out what happened and came and hauled us out from where we were and reunited reunited us with the family.

Udo Erasmus: 4:56

I don't remember all of this stuff. I remember not feeling safe. That was that carrier. I mean, that's still an issue for me, yeah and didn't know what I could trust, because every day you get different advice and never felt like cared for. Even though my parents did the best they could and other people did the best they could, I never felt cared for. And then we were in Germany after the war and I remember listening to yet another argument between Germans. You know very intense arguments about things that I thought as a six-year-old were completely trivial, and the thought came to me it was like man, there must be a way that people can live in harmony. It's like man, there must be a way that people can live in harmony. And then a little cocky voice of a six-year-old that doesn't know how complicated everything is. I'm going to find out how.

Sandy Kruse: 5:55

And that's been my driver all my life.

Udo Erasmus: 5:56

And so I went into science eventually to try it, because if you don't know how things work, it's not predictable. So that's like I wanted some predictability. So I went into science to understand how things work and I was always an experimenter as a kid, trying to figure out how things work from my own experience not from what people told me, because I didn't believe people that much, because they told me all kinds of opposing things. And then I got into biological sciences, how creatures work. Then I got into psychology, how thinking works. Then I got into medicine because I wanted to know how health works but realized I'm only learning about disease. And after the first year medicine I went back into biochemistry and genetics, because you learn more about health in biology, where you study normal creatures functioning normally in normal situations, than you do in medicine, where they study disease.

Sandy Kruse: 6:55

Yes.

Udo Erasmus: 6:56

And you don't get to know what health is by studying disease. You need to study what health is if you want to know what health is. It's kind of like you're saying you want to know what light is, so you look into the darkness. Well, you're not going to find out what light is by looking into the darkness. You look, you find out what light is by looking into the light, and so I, so I I left university at 26, 25, 26, because I never got an answer to something in me that was really restless.

Udo Erasmus: 7:34

You know, I call it heartache now, but you could call it heartbroken, you can call it lonely, you can call it longing, striving, restless, you could call it grief, sadness. There's lots of names for this feeling in the heart. Everybody knows the feeling. When I give talks about that feeling, I have never met a person who doesn't know from their own experience what heartache feels like, and so I never found anything at university that addressed it. So I left university. Then I got a little bit into traveling and a little bit into psychedelics, and the psychedelics kind of blew my war baby mentality open because I realized on an LSD trip, oh my God, I was very serious and very studious and I was always trying to figure everything out and I thought if I knew everything, I'd finally be happy.

Sandy Kruse: 8:31

And.

Udo Erasmus: 8:33

I realized the tears were running down my cheeks. I was laughing and crying at the same time, and it struck me as unbelievably funny that everything that I had been so studiously looking for on the outside was all already present within me. I was like God's big joke, right? Somebody said you know, you know, there's a. There's a joke about that. God's God says I can't stand it. People are always complaining, they're always asking me stuff. So somebody says well, hide on the top of Mount Everest. And I said no, they're going to find me there. No, well then, hide in the deepest hole in the ocean. Oh, they're going to find me there. And so a little wise guy says why don't you hide in the hearts of people? They'll never look there.

Udo Erasmus: 9:26

Oh, wow, wow, there you go and and that's kind of like that was the realization. Oh my god, everything I'm looking for outside is inside. That, by the way, is true for every human being, because we, we come into the world. Well, let's, let's go back you when I, when you were in your mother's womb I call it the Buddha tank.

Udo Erasmus: 9:47

When you're in your mother's womb, where was your focus? Well, let's see, there was nothing to go out to, there was nothing to do, everything was taken care of, it was pretty safe. So where was your focus? Because it had no place to go. Your focus was at rest inside, in its source, in life and beyond that, in awareness, in pure awareness, and you were basically in deep meditation because your focus was all inside. And you're hanging out out, floating in this little tank. You know, sometimes a little smile come across your face yourself if you've seen the pictures, and you were in a blissful state. You could could say and it was like completely boring because there's nothing going on for nine months. Can you imagine sitting down and doing nothing for nine months and yet you weren't bored?

Sandy Kruse: 10:50

No.

Udo Erasmus: 10:51

You were in bliss and then you came out and you were lit up People love babies because they're lit up, because they're still inside their own life. And then you came out, and then you had to get to know the world. So your, your focus went out through your senses into the world and you focus, you, you focus change by any time something changed outside, because the way we're built is, anytime something changes on the attack, we're immediately attracted to it. Why? Because we have to figure out very quickly is this friend to embrace, foe to run from, or irrelevant to ignore? And so we have to do that.

Udo Erasmus: 11:39

And so we went out with our senses, with our senses and in the process of going, learning to get to know the world, we went from present inside and absent outside in our focus to present outside and absent inside. And when we disconnected from our deeper nature is where heartache began. Because when you get disconnected from yourself, it doesn't feel, you don't feel whole, you don't feel one, you don't feel peace, you don't feel loved, you don't feel. And so then we live our life because we forgot that our problem was that our focus went out.

Udo Erasmus: 12:24

And nobody tells us now we're looking for what can I do that'll get me taken care of, and so we come up with something. Could be, could be sex, it could be money, it could be projects, it could be, uh, fame, it could be. Whatever it is. We come up with something, and the idea is, if I succeed in this thing that I've just cooked up in my head to do, then when I succeed I will feel okay again, I will feel whole again.

Udo Erasmus: 12:55

But it never happens no, it doesn't because what happens is you get three days where we say yeah, I did it, I did it, I did it.

Udo Erasmus: 13:03

And then the fourth day or the fifth day or a week later or however long it doesn't usually last a month this uneasiness is back and then you say, well, maybe I didn't think big enough or maybe I thought in the wrong direction. And then you set the next goal and again you hope. You know and you don't necessarily consciously hope, but subconsciously, unconsciously or consciously, you hope that when you succeed you will feel taken care of and the whole time you're going out to try and connect to what you need to connect inside, because the problem is not something on the outside, the problem is that you connect it from yourself inside now, why do you think this happens?

Sandy Kruse: 13:53

do you think this happens because of you know I'm going to bring up trauma. There's trauma, no, okay, okay. So why? Why does this happen? Why do we lose touch with our? I don't know. I'm just going to say heart center, yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 14:12

It is a normal, natural, necessary process that happens to every human being because you have to get to know the world, because you have to survive in that world. When you're inside your mother's womb you don't have to protect yourself, the protection is already provided. So it's a normal, natural process. What is abnormal? And it's automatic, by the way, going out through your senses to monitor change is automatic. You know, if I give a talk and there's a door at the side of the room, if that door opens and somebody walks in, I lose my entire audience in a split second, just because change attracts our senses, attracts our focus, because we have to deal with it. That's survival mechanism. So that's why.

Udo Erasmus: 15:10

But the return to bring the focus back inside, to reconnect to yourself, to your deeper self, has to be deliberate, because there's nothing inside of you saying look at me, look at me, there's nothing changing. No, there's like perfect peace inside in the core of your being. There's unconditional love inside of you. Around that, there's inspired purpose around that. That's the shine of life into the world. That's already within you but it's not jumping up and down to get your attention, and anything that jumps up and down gets your attention.

Sandy Kruse: 15:50

That's so true.

Udo Erasmus: 15:52

So it's a normal process. Going out is automatic. Coming back has to be deliberate. In heaven, on earth, in the perfect peace and the unconditional love inside is because we are not deliberately making time to sit still and bring our focus and get good at bringing our focus back inside of the space that our body occupies and observing the energy that is our life and the awareness that is life's source.

Sandy Kruse: 16:33

So the biggest question is how do we come back? How do we come back to that?

Udo Erasmus: 16:40

The short answer.

Sandy Kruse: 16:42

Well, you know, we got some time.

Udo Erasmus: 16:43

We can talk about it, but the short answer is do less, do less. You know we talk about work hard, yes, accomplish stuff Right, play hard. Yeah. Nobody says do nothing hard. You need to take time to do nothing just as hard as you do stuff. You need to go from doing to being so, doing to being Because. Which one is more important? Well, we're called human beings, but we're actually living like human doings.

Sandy Kruse: 17:19

Totally.

Udo Erasmus: 17:20

Everything we do, do, do, do, do, do, do, and then you turn into do-do True, so we're do, do, do, do, do, do, and then you turn into do-do True, so we're doing all the time. But here's the thing which is more important. Well, it's very easy. You can be without doing, but you cannot do without being. So being is your foundation, cannot do without being. So being is your foundation. So being is the more important because you can exist without doing. You could just sit, breathe lightly, just feel what it feels like to be alive, right, not do anything, leave everything outside, on the outside, and leave it, you know, and just be present in the same space that you were in when you were in your mother's womb. That's what meditation is about, that's what self-knowledge is about, that's what mindfulness mindful, internal mindfulness is about. Right, and we don't do that.

Sandy Kruse: 18:24

And no, we don't do that. And no, we don't, I mean it. I think it gets much harder to do that when our world is much more complex. And you know, we've got can I?

Udo Erasmus: 18:34

can I disagree? You go right ahead I'll tell you why, because you only need one distraction. We have more distractions than we've ever had that's what i'm'm talking about Udo Distractions.

Udo Erasmus: 18:45

You only need one distraction Anything that moves is your distraction. Anything that changes is your distraction. You hear a sound oh what's that? You hear a noise in behind your closed blinds oh, what's going on? So we're so attracted because for survival. And yet in the end we don't survive bodies, you know so we. So what if we? What if we took time to create a safe space where we're not going to be disturbed, and every day we took five minutes or 10 minutes or half an hour or an hour to just be present in the space in which we live, because my life is entirely inside my body, right, and I take time to actually experience that, then we would be getting the rest that we need. We would not get burned out In that place. There is no trauma. Let me get back to that in a second.

Udo Erasmus: 19:51

In that place, there is no trauma. You cannot traumatize perfect peace. That is your deepest nature, it's actually your universal nature. And you cannot traumatize unconditional love. That is your individual essence and I'll get back to that in a second too. You can't, you can't, you can't, you can't. You can traumatize the body, you can traumatize the mind, you can traumatize the emotions, you can traumatize your social group and you can traumatize uh environment. So trauma exists only in the world of change. Trauma does not exist in the world of the unchangeable, of the eternal, of the timeless. Trauma often triggers heartache, but the trigger is not the cause. It's really important to understand this. The trigger is not the cause. It's really important to understand this. The trigger is not the cause, because there are a lot of um, there are a lot of triggers for this uneasy feeling yeah and we, and and we call this uneasy feeling by all kinds of different names, depending on what the trigger was.

Udo Erasmus: 21:07

But this feeling began not from the trigger. This feeling is your default after you disconnect from yourself. And that feeling, when your heart aches, when your heart hurts, when you feel uneasy in your chest, and you feel uneasy in your chest that feeling is the result of your focus, having wandered into the world and disconnected from yourself, from your deeper self. So what that means is that when your heart aches, instead of trying to make it go away, sit with it. Sit with heartache when your heart aches. Be why is that? Because it's the greatest gift you've been given other than being alive, because it's your call to come home to your heart, to life, to peace. And so if you sit with it and just feel it, don't judge it. You might cry because it's intense. It can be intense, but it won't kill you. But if you sit with it and you could bring your focus just like a hair's breadth in, you're in the place where the pieces, you're in the place where the reconnection happens. You're in the place where the pieces, you're in the place where the reconnection happens, and the cure for trauma is to find your way back to that place in you.

Udo Erasmus: 22:32

Everybody gets traumatized in childhood, some more in different ways. My war was definitely traumatic, obviously. Rape is traumatic. Obviously, skinning your knee when you fall off your bicycle and hit a rock with your kneecap, it's traumatic. Obviously, if somebody hits you, it's traumatic, you know, sometimes when they yell at you and the tone is traumatic because we're vulnerable. We're vulnerable creatures, right? So everybody has trauma and not a single person on this planet has has lost their perfect peace or their unconditional love. Their focus has wandered into the trauma, but the peace and the love are still there.

Sandy Kruse: 23:26

It never goes away.

Udo Erasmus: 23:27

So what does it take to get your focus, to bring your focus back to the peace and the love that are the essence of your own existence and to begin to live from life? You maybe have to let go, bring your focus back to the peace and the love that are the essence of your own existence and to begin to live from life. You maybe have to let go. You have to forgive, not because forgiveness doesn't make what happened right, but it frees you from being preoccupied and doing it to yourself. Does that make sense?

Sandy Kruse: 23:54

It does, it does. I mean I think everything that you're saying makes sense. So, really, what you're saying is that heart center, everybody's heart center, is pure Really.

Udo Erasmus: 24:05

Absolutely, even if you're a mass murderer.

Sandy Kruse: 24:08

Yeah, it's just you've lost your way in getting there and reaching it.

Udo Erasmus: 24:14

Yeah, well, why do people? Okay, I'll give you, I'll tell you a story. I was giving a talk on peace because I know what peace is. Peace is not the absence of war, that's a ceasefire. Peace is a presence, it's a feeling within you, and it's real when you feel it and it's not real when you don't. So I was giving a talk on peace and a woman at the end put up her hand and said so you know, with all of this talk about peace, I hope you're also against violence against women. I was like, wow, I never expected that question on a talk of peace, right, yeah? So I said to her okay, I have never heard of, or read about or witnessed an act of violence against women by someone in a moment of peace, by someone who was experiencing peace.

Udo Erasmus: 25:10

It's not possible. You know, when someone is at peace, everything's okay, they're okay and everything else is okay. Why would you have a reaction? If somebody wants to leave you, they can leave. If somebody wants to come closer, they can come closer. If they want to do neither, why would that be so important to you that you would try and beat them up? Well, it wouldn't be. When you feel unconditionally loved by life. Why would you ever hurt anybody? And so I said so. If that's true and it is then maybe instead of focusing on violence against women, we need to focus on peace. How do you teach people the peace that is so powerful that it makes violence unnecessary and unthinkable, because that's within every human being yeah, I get where you're going with that, yeah, yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 26:15

I get where you're going with that.

Sandy Kruse: 26:17

Yeah, yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 26:19

So yeah, it's interesting, like right now I'm reading the Fourth Turning. It's an old book from 1997, I think, okay, and a book about why countries fail and succeed. And they talk about cycles of you know you get a war, and then after the war you know the war is always worse than anybody think, thought it would be and then after the word, that people settle down and then they get into prosperity and and and helping each other because they've realized how bad war is, but but then after time they forget and then they start to drift again and then they get back into war and we're definitely on that kind of a track right now. Yeah, everybody knows it, you can feel it.

Sandy Kruse: 27:06

Yeah, we can.

Udo Erasmus: 27:07

So I was born during the Second World War. After the First World War, which ended in 1918, and the beginning of the Second World, which began in 1939, there were 21 years in which if people in Europe had cultivated the peace that is the core of their own existence and had taken time to tap into that, or the unconditional love that is their life energy, if people had done that in Europe in those 21 years, there would have not been a second world war. And now we have second world war and we've had vietnam and we had korea and we had, like you know, and we have stuff going on and now it's kind of like russia and us and you know it's not sounding like they're best of friends or anything like that yeah, yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 27:59

Right why? Because from 1945, when the Second World War ended until now 2023, we have not taken the time, we have not had the wisdom, we have not deliberately the time, we have not had the wisdom, we have not deliberately made peace important in our lives. And if you don't, you know, if you don't deliberately go in, then you will always drift out, and when you drift you're always going to go downhill.

Udo Erasmus: 28:34

So at first it's good and you know, thank God we survived the war and now we work really hard and we try to rebuild and do all of that, and then our kids have it a little better, so they get a little sloppier, and their kids get a little even better, so they get even more sloppy. And we're now at a place where we're on the last stage before the civil war and the external wars.

Sandy Kruse: 28:59

So it's a cycle all the time.

Udo Erasmus: 29:02

It's a cycle, but only because we're not doing our homework.

Sandy Kruse: 29:05

Yes.

Udo Erasmus: 29:06

And so my point of the whole thing is listen, the most incredible thing is inside of you. Let me build that up again a little bit. What is life? What is life? What is life, you know? You ask a physicist, they come up with all kinds of stuff. You ask people what is life? I can tell you. It's very simple.

Udo Erasmus: 29:24

Life is solar energy. It's, in fact, it's a fraction of solar energy. So here we have the planet floating around and the sun shines and some of the light hits the planet right, half of the planet right. The other side is dark. Yeah, it's this okay. And it's filtered through 93 million miles of space. Then it's filtered through the atmosphere, then it's filtered through plants. Plants absorb some of the sunlight and they reflect some of it. What they absorb is stored in bonds between atoms, because the energy excites electrons and makes them bond. That solar energy is stored in the bonds between atoms. We eat those as food and in our cells those molecules get broken down and the solar energy fraction is released. And now we call that life and it runs everything. What is it Like, that energy? I say it's unconditional love. It's empowering, unconditional love. It is all powerful within you, omnipotent. It's everywhere present in your body, in every cell, omnipotent. It's everywhere present in your body, in every cell, omnipresent, and it knows everything about how to run a body because that's what it does.

Udo Erasmus: 30:44

So, omniscient, all knowing in your body right that's the definition of god, by the way yeah, I've heard that present that Omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient.

Udo Erasmus: 30:54

And so this is God within your body. It runs everything, it never sleeps, it never asks for a raise, it never goes on strike and it takes care of your body 24, 7, 365, lifelong. If you were in touch, if you could bring your focus in touch with that, you would feel that love. And when you do and you feel cared for, there's nothing left to do except help, because it's not about you anymore. Oh, my god, I am so, I am so cared for, right. And then it's like okay, well, where can I help? Well, that's easy, just lighten people's, you know, bring a little light into a situation. You know, help the lady across the street, you know, whatever it is. You know, carry somebody's groceries, whatever. Simple stuff, right, but also big stuff. So, and then the question is what needs to be done? So then you do it not because it's going to make you fulfilled, because you're already fulfilled. You do it because it needs to be done. You don't do it for money, you do it because it needs to be done what about ego?

Sandy Kruse: 32:12

where does ego fill it?

Udo Erasmus: 32:13

I'll get to that in a second, okay, okay. The third thing is what's the biggest splash for good that I can make in the time I have on Earth? So then it completely changes. Before I knew how to connect to that, I was always looking what can I do that will get me taken care of? And I wouldn't do things that needed to be done because I couldn't see how they would take care of me, and that's why things are neglected that clearly need attention. Some of them are about environment, some of them are about social, some are about relationships, some is, I mean, on every level we're neglecting things that need to be done because we don't see how they'll take care of us.

Udo Erasmus: 32:53

And even rich people, really rich people why don't they give their money away or why do they charge more than they need to? That's how they got rich. Why? Because they are so discontent and these people are not happier than the poor people. They're so discontent that they think that if they gave away what they don't even need, they would be even more discontent. So they hang on to it and when they find their contentment, if they do, it will change them and they will actually use their money to help, rather than using your money just to get even more money.

Sandy Kruse: 33:29

Right.

Udo Erasmus: 33:30

Right Now. You said you asked the question. I said no, you asked a question.

Sandy Kruse: 33:34

I said where does ego fit into all this? Oh, ego. Some people will do all these things that you're talking about just to fuel their own ego and then say look what I did. I'm a philanthropist, I did this, I do so much good, right? So it's like it's not feeding the heart, it's feeding the ego.

Udo Erasmus: 34:01

Right, but what is the ego? See, you just made that up. What you said about ego, you just made that up.

Sandy Kruse: 34:07

I did.

Udo Erasmus: 34:08

Yeah, you just you put it in words spontaneously.

Sandy Kruse: 34:12

Yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 34:13

Well, ego is just what you make up about yourself. When you go to the heart, you don't need to make anything up. When you go, when you go to the, to the presence inside, you don't need to make anything up because what you are within is way bigger than your ego could ever get. And when you feel content, you don't need to make up an ego, you know. Then you don't go around saying how do I look Right?

Sandy Kruse: 34:44

Who cares what if you care about how you look?

Udo Erasmus: 34:49

Well, it depends on how much you care.

Sandy Kruse: 34:51

Okay.

Udo Erasmus: 34:52

Right, I mean obviously, look, I didn't come here naked and I did comb my hair and I did brush my teeth.

Sandy Kruse: 34:59

That's good, that's good, so so.

Udo Erasmus: 35:02

So there are certain, there are certain standards, but I'm not doing that because when I do that, I feel more. I feel eat, but I don't eat more than I need to eat, right, I? I, I go for walks, I, I do what I need to do. You know, I prepared for getting on the show with you right to look to you. I looked you up on the on the internet. I read some of your story. So I do all that because I want to get a feel for who you are and how we can have a good conversation. But I'm not doing it because when I know more about you, I feel like I'm bigger than you, or better than you, or that I have power over you, or that I can push you in some direction or that I can take something from you. I'm not doing it for that.

Udo Erasmus: 36:03

Okay, ego is a shell you build. It doesn't even exist. You are way bigger than the biggest ego you could ever create for yourself. Okay, why is that bigger than the biggest ego you could ever create for yourself? Okay, why is that? Because you are, because your internal nature is infinite. How do you put an ego around infinity? How do you put a shell, because ego is a shell. How do you put a shell around something?

Udo Erasmus: 36:34

that is dimensionless yeah right and and and it's. It's a quality in that, as there's a certain amount of humility that comes from going deeper inside, because I oh my God, here I am. My body is 70% water, 1% oxygen Actually it's different, but 1% free oxygen, a few less than 1% vitamins, 4% minerals, 10% protein, 50% fat and a little bit of air, a little bit of water and a little bit of dust got put together in a way that allows me to have the human experience for a while. And I'll have that experience and I entirely love my life because I'm actually present in it, because it feels good by nature. So I'm not having to do anything other than to go there. I'm not creating the good feeling.

Udo Erasmus: 37:43

The good feeling is my nature and so, because I get to do that, I say well, I didn't create this, I don't make the earth turn, I don't make the sunshine turn, I don't make the sunshine, I don't make the green plants absorb that light, I didn't create what makes that light, that solar energy, uh, shine with from within me. Right, I get to be, but I get to. I get to be, but I get to. I get to enjoy this show and it's always in movement, it's always changing, except for the stability in the peace and in the unconditional love.

Sandy Kruse: 38:24

So, really, what you're referring to, for a lot of people they'll know it as just remaining present.

Udo Erasmus: 38:31

Yep Right Presence presence is a power word. Yep. Yep, right Presence is a power word, yep.

Sandy Kruse: 38:34

Yeah, Now let me ask you this, Udo, because you know, obviously you endured trauma as a child. We've all had traumatic experiences throughout our lives. We come across traumatic experiences. How, what is the best way in which you can remain present in your heart center when there's trouble all around you? How, what do you do? What do you tell us your secret?

Udo Erasmus: 39:07

Okay, don't go out to the trouble. Okay, you don't have to go out to the trouble.

Sandy Kruse: 39:12

What if the trouble's like really close? Like you have, you know, a terminally ill spouse, or that's real trouble, or yourself? Right, right.

Udo Erasmus: 39:26

Okay. So here's the thing you might have cancer, right, we know that's a topic. Yep, you might have cancer. But then look what is the cancer? Your body has cancer, but your life is unconditional love and can never get sick. Life is perfect health, the energy that makes you cannot get sick, never dies, is formless to begin with. If you have that feeling and you let that feeling take over your body, a few things happen. One of them is you feel loved. Well, cancer has a pretty strong association with anger and depression. Well, you cannot be inspired by the love you feel and depressed at the same time.

Udo Erasmus: 40:24

So, there's your cure for depression, one of the factors. Second, is, if you feel love and you say, oh my God, I get to have another day, you probably are going to take more care about what you put in your body than you will if you're bummed out and your life is not worth living. And so what do you do? Well, your body is part of nature and all of the building blocks for your body come from nature, and some of them are called essential building blocks 18 minerals that your body can't make have to come in from outside. 13 vitamins that your body can't make but plants can have to come from outside. 9 essential amino acids that make proteins Plants can make those, but you can't, so you have to eat the plants can make those, but you can't, so you have to eat the plants to get those right and two essential fatty acids that come from fats that you can't make but plants can, so you, you have to bring those in from outside.

Udo Erasmus: 41:29

How do you do that? Well, you don't do that by eating white sugar, white white flour and fried oils. You do it by eating fresh, whole, raw, organic, natural foods, right? So I'm just talking about what happens when you cultivate the love, that is your individual essence. Then you don't go out and do stupid things that get you bad reactions, right. So just by moving your awareness inside into the love, the unconditional love that is your nature, you've already done. Just by doing that and nothing else, you have already started doing a whole lot of things that are really good for health and work against cancer.

Sandy Kruse: 42:17

Yeah, you don't need all those dopamine hits right.

Udo Erasmus: 42:21

Right, for instance, and you don't need to burn yourself out trying to prove that you're somebody, and you don't need to do all kinds of stupid things to build your manufactured ego that you've created because you're out of touch with your own magnificence. So you created some shell of that as a substitute. You don't need that Right. Peace can never get sick, inspiration can never get sick and unconditional love can never get sick. All three of those are within you and they are the core essence of your being.

Sandy Kruse: 42:58

So how do we get there, Udo?

Udo Erasmus: 43:02

So then you say I'll get there. So then you say then you don't say I have cancer, you say I'm perfectly healthy, but my body has cancer because, I am that unconditional love.

Udo Erasmus: 43:16

So how do you get there? First thing is, you have to understand that it's already within. What you're looking for out there is already present within you. That's number one. Number two you have to ask yourself am I interested in perfection? Am I interested in love? Am I interested in actually experiencing that, not just talking about it, not just having words about it? But do I want to experience that or do I want to embody that? Then are you willing to put some time aside for the exploration that brings your focus inward into the space your body occupies? And if you're willing to do that, then you create a safe space. And in that safe space, don't do this while you're driving. I'm going to do a little meditation thing okay so you close your eyes?

Sandy Kruse: 44:20

yes, you close your you want me to do this with you?

Udo Erasmus: 44:22

oh sure okay, okay okay, so close your eyes and I'll see how still you can become and see how deeply you can go into that stillness and see how long you can stay there. And while you're in that stillness, lighten your breathing and slow it down a little and then follow your breathing round and around and do it until your breathing is completely circular and there's no, no stops and starts and jag. It's because your emotions fragment your breathing. So do peaceful breathing continually and notice how calm it is inside. Some people call it boring, but it's actually peaceful. Notice how peaceful it is when you have nothing, when you have no doing. Going on breathing is still doing, but that's the only thing you're doing. So do it lightly, do it quietly, and what does it feel like?

Sandy Kruse: 45:47

well, it feels good, except it would make.

Udo Erasmus: 45:50

What does it feel like in the space that your body occupies? Because, because, if your senses monitor energy, inside you can see light. Inside you can hear sound. Inside you can feel that love in your emptiness and inside you can even taste sweetness, taste sweetness and do that every day and learn to get good at bringing your focus back inside the space your body occupies.

Sandy Kruse: 46:29

So this is the main.

Udo Erasmus: 46:32

That's how you do it Now. You can read books about it. You can read books about it. You can read scriptures about it. You can read what the master said about it, because all the masters talked about that and they all took time to do that themselves. That's where their wisdom came from, and what's what was in them is also in you. You know that the uh or you can find somebody who can teach you a method, because there are like hundreds of methods, hundreds yeah, I have a few yeah, and but the but the issue isn't the method.

Udo Erasmus: 47:09

See if the method it's your intent. You know there's a's a Kabir, a poet, who says when the guest is being searched for and he calls the guest this feeling that's inside your inner being, when the guest is being searched for, it is the intensity of the longing for the guest that does all the work. And he says look at me and you will see a slave of that intensity. What is that intensity? Heartache.

Udo Erasmus: 47:38

Heartache is the greatest gift you've been given because it's your call to come home and it's not trauma, doesn't start it. That's why this notion that trauma gives you heartache, that's wrong. It triggers it. But heartache is actually your call to come home and it's your call to come home because you disconnected from it. Yes, so it's heartache is for wholeness, like thirst is for water or hunger, it's for food or tiredness, is for sleep, most important gift you've been given. Because if it wasn't for the heartache nagging you until you deal with it, through all of your stings, all of your distractions, nagging you and nagging you and nagging you again and again and again until you deal with it, you would never find your way back home, ever. That's why it's such a gift, so celebrate heartache.

Udo Erasmus: 48:38

Don't judge it, love it, be with it, accept it, sit with it, embrace it, appreciate it.

Sandy Kruse: 48:49

That's a very powerful statement. Right there, heartache is your call to come home.

Udo Erasmus: 48:54

Yeah, I love that, andache, is your call to come home.

Sandy Kruse: 48:56

Yeah, I love that.

Udo Erasmus: 48:57

And everybody uses heartache for more distractions.

Udo Erasmus: 49:00

Yes, because they haven't been told clearly enough that all that's happening there is. It's not your fault. This is a normal, natural thing that happens when you get disconnected from yourself, which everybody does. Bring it home, bring it home. Bring it home. Sit with the heartache. Why heartache? Because it gets you out of your head, makes you simple, grounds you. It's also your driving force, it's also your heart calling you home. It's also the starting point for the journey back to yourself. And once you learn to get good at it, then you'll get sloppy again and you'll drift, and then the heartache will come back and it'll remind you to come home again. Super important.

Udo Erasmus: 49:45

And it's not cultural, this is biological. This is not cultural. This is not religious, this is not racial, this is not gender, this is biological.

Sandy Kruse: 50:00

Biological roots of wholeness. And when you do come home, then just like what you were saying. So this is where we get to the part of this eight-step process for optimizing your wellness. When you do come home, you don't need those dopamine hits, you don't need, right? You don't need to eat that food that you're addicted to because you're ignoring the heartache. You don't need to be drinking your alcohol every night because you're ignoring the heartache, right?

Udo Erasmus: 50:34

So when you come home, I wouldn't say, even so, you're ignoring the heartache, right? So when you come home, I wouldn't say, even so, you're ignoring the heartache, but that's your way of trying to deal with it.

Sandy Kruse: 50:41

Yes, yes, or it could be ignoring, right. So when you pay attention to it, all those other things tend to not take precedence over your life anymore.

Udo Erasmus: 50:55

Yeah, nothing feels as good as being present in your own space. Yeah, nothing, right. Nothing feels as good as wholeness, nothing feels as good as presence Nothing, nothing, nothing. And in that presence anything is possible.

Sandy Kruse: 51:14

So part of that process, Udo, would be, you know, coming into your own breath and feeling that quietness. Like what else can we do other than that, or is that really the main way to do it?

Udo Erasmus: 51:27

Stillness, some stillness practice that gets you inside, into the energy that is your life.

Sandy Kruse: 51:34

Yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 51:36

Or the energy that you are, or that's your divine self, whatever you call that. After that, you just do what needs to be done. You just help where you can. You know, if you think about purpose, you know people, a lot of people, struggle with what's my purpose and what should I do and how should I live. Two purposes. Number one purpose find your way back home so that you can live in the fullness of your own existence. And the second purpose is help where you can. It's that simple Right Now. Whether you have depends on what you. How you help, depends on the circumstances and depends on your talents and your, your experiences and your, your knowledge. Right? But the first purpose and all the masters said do this first come home to the divine within your being. Every human being has that divine insight. It's the master. In fact.

Udo Erasmus: 52:39

I'll tell you another story, how I came up with this. The war helped, you know, psychedelics helped. But I got to a point. At one point it was 1970, so I was 28. And I had thought one day. It just occurred to me nobody remembers my grandfather. He hasn't been dead for 50 years. I don't even remember his name. He died before I was born, so I never knew him, but nobody remembers this guy and they're still talking about this Jesus guy 2,000 years later. So I come from a Christian culture. So could have been Buddha, Could it be Christian, Could have been anybody.

Sandy Kruse: 53:17

Right.

Udo Erasmus: 53:18

So. So I said, well, there must have been something about him, and I don't know what it is, but I want to know. What did he feel? Yeah, that made him able to live like he did, speak like he did, do what he did. I want to have that feeling. Nobody ever said you can't have that feeling.

Sandy Kruse: 53:42

No.

Udo Erasmus: 53:43

Right, and so I started trying to figure it out. Well, the only thing you have available to you 2,000 years later is the Bible. So I got the Bible. It's called the Red Letter Edition. Everything Jesus says is in red ink. Everything else in the Bible is in black ink, so that gets you focused.

Sandy Kruse: 54:05

I like the focus.

Udo Erasmus: 54:06

I wanted to know what the master was about. I didn't care about the history and all of the Old Testament stuff Although I mean, I'm not saying there's not good stuff in it but that's not what I wanted I wanted to know what the master was okay, and so I started reading it.

Udo Erasmus: 54:18

And one of them is what you have done to one of the least of these that you have done to me. I was like, well, what does that mean? And to me, the only way that that makes sense is that I am in them too, right. If what you have done to one of the least of these that you have done to me, I am in you, I am in them, I am in everyone, right? Or the kingdom of heaven is within you. Yeah, heaven, that's where all the good stuff is supposedly Right. Yep, we get it after you die. Why can't you be in it while you're alive?

Udo Erasmus: 54:59

because if it's within you, it's already there it's there but then you got it, then you got to go there, then you got to bring your focus there right. So I started doing that and I put little things to the test and I had some really cool experiences like it was a real good adventure. And then this group of Christians came up the coast from California, called themselves the Jesus People's Army. And that should have been a warning to me, because army is not a real good word for me.

Sandy Kruse: 55:26

Yeah, right, because I came out of a war, right yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 55:29

But I missed the cue. I got the idea oh, these guys must be trying to figure out what I'm trying to figure out. So what will happen is we'll all get together, we'll all share our stories and our adventures and we'll all leave enriched Right and continue on our journey. So they had a coffee house and I decided to visit their coffee house and I walked in. I sat down at a table coffee house and I walked in. I sat down at a table and the moment I sat down, this other guy swooped in to the chair next the other chair next to the table at the table, and I looked him in the eyes.

Udo Erasmus: 56:04

I didn't introduce myself and I just said to him it must be possible to see God and live. You know, because God is everywhere, so God's got to be inside too. Everywhere means everywhere. Right Must be possible to see God live. And there were stories in the Bible about people who saw God and lived. We were told if you see God, you die. And I think well, let's see, he's my father, he loves me unconditionally, he wants all the best for me and if I look at him he kills me. What the hell is that Right? So there are things that didn't make sense to me, that we were told yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 56:40

So I said that to him, right, and I thought this is a good thing, good way to start a conversation. Well, he jumped out of his chair and his arms were flailing around in the air and he yelled at me. He said you're from the devil You're from. The Antichrist, get out.

Sandy Kruse: 56:57

Oh my gosh.

Udo Erasmus: 56:59

And this is the love of Jesus, right, anyway? So I go slinking out of there and I'm standing on the sidewalk and I'm really confused. I said, holy smokes, Maybe I shouldn't have asked that question, maybe I'm asking questions I'm not supposed to ask, and I got really confused. And what I used to do in those days this was in 1970, right, whenever I got confused in the city and it all got too much for me, I would go out in nature just to clear my head. Yes, because the pace is slower. So I hitchhiked to the west coast of Vancouver Island, stayed on a beach for the weekend. There was nobody on the beach except me. It was beautiful and somebody had draped plastic over logs and made a little dwelling.

Udo Erasmus: 57:47

So I said okay, well here's my retreat for the weekend and I went into this dwelling, I went to sleep and in the middle of the night I woke, bolt upright from dead asleep, and there was this being made of light. No words, no labels, just a being made of light. Couldn't tell if it was male or female, couldn't tell if it was old or young, but it embodied a message. It didn't say the message, it embodied a message and I could put words to the message. The words were I am come not to judge but to love. I am come not to judge but to love. And instantly all of my confusion and my desperation evaporated. I have never had a question what the master's message was. I am come not to judge but to love. I don't know. Can you sum up the message of Christ any closer any better than that? I don't know.

Udo Erasmus: 58:56

I can't I have come not to judge but to love. And then it's like that's the message of the masters to humanity, but that is also the message of life to your body Unconditional love, without judgment. And then I just like it might blow. And then it was like, okay, I want to be able to live in that experience and that's what led me to do the stillness practice, and they all did stillness practices. You know there's lots of stories about Jesus going off into the mountains and 40 days in the desert by himself, into a quiet place with no distractions. Well, you know, these guys like buddha and christ and they were not different from us. We say, we're told they're different, but that's a, that's a control trip by an institution. They weren't different. What was different is they took this inner stillness seriously and we mostly dabble in it. And when you go to that inner stillness you get insights and inspiration that comes from there. I agree that are always there, but you have to go there to find it.

Udo Erasmus: 1:00:09

I agree, and so if you're just following them around and memorizing the words, that's not the same as having your own personal experience of that powerful reality, of that presence. There's no way to save the world and there's no way to run the world in a sustainable way that isn't based on you first finding your peace and your unconditional love within yourself, because that changes how you live into the world.

Sandy Kruse: 1:00:48

I agree.

Udo Erasmus: 1:00:49

You know, when we say, oh, we got to fix up the environment and we got to fix up whatever it is, that's that, that is the new fad that we need to all focus on. We're not going to fix the environment if we're not connected. You know, because the reason we're destroying the environment is because we're discontent, and we're discontent because we disconnected from ourselves and there's no way. So when we connect, you know, when I feel peace, I literally see peace everywhere. You know, the entire universe unfolds in peace, including when galaxies blow up, and everything it takes place in unconditional peace. It takes place in perfect peace and the peace is not affected by any of it. Peace is just a container. It's a dimensionless container in which everything unfolds. Your existence unfolds in that container and the entire universe unfolds in that same container.

Sandy Kruse: 1:01:45

Okay.

Sandy Kruse: 1:01:46

So, I have questions. Yeah, I have questions. All right, I have questions because you know, you see, now people are highly triggered, highly triggered. And you know, I just had a bit of a light bulb moment when you were talking and I'm like my gosh, if we could somehow teach all these people, who are always triggered by all these things going on, just to come to their center, come to that peace, like you said, come home, there would be no more triggering, there would be no more of that fighting, there would be no more. You know, it's so big right now.

Sandy Kruse: 1:02:29

Udo, I don't know how much you're on social media, but people are so triggered all the time. But if they just come home and you know, I'm with you on that, because I guess I've done a lot of mindfulness practices for many, many years now I feel like that's where I find my inspiration for creativity, for the things that you know how you talk about, that fire in your belly that fuels your fire. It's when I'm at peace. I go for my walk with my dog, I sit on a log in the forest and I just listen to the sounds. I'm like people take your headphones off. Take your headphones off when you're in nature.

Sandy Kruse: 1:03:13

Don't listen to that podcast, don't listen to my podcast. People take your headphones off. Take your headphones off when you're in nature. Don't listen to that podcast. Don't listen to my podcast. Take listen to my. I'm like no, no, no, only listen to my podcast, maybe when you're cooking or cleaning. Okay, when you're in nature, just be present. And then I come home and I feel that love and I feel that inspiration and it's almost like nature calls me. It's like okay, sandy, you're getting a little unhinged over all the things that are going on all around you. Come back home. So this is so powerful and really what you're saying. If you can somehow figure out how to do this, come home, then all the other things in your life will fall more into place.

Udo Erasmus: 1:04:04

Yeah, well, that's what? Yeah, that's another one of the quotes Seek first the kingdom, and all else shall be added unto you, and so, and they always said to put it first and we always put it last, we do everything else first. We do this and that and that, and this and this and that, and then we maybe do it as a last resort, and that's why we're messing up everything, you know, in ourselves, with each other and in the world.

Sandy Kruse: 1:04:35

Right, how long have you been this Zen? How long have you been this Zen? Is this since 1970 that you've been like this?

Udo Erasmus: 1:04:45

Well, you know, 1970, that experience was, that was my, that completely reset my life.

Sandy Kruse: 1:04:53

Yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 1:04:54

Completely reset my life. Yeah, completely reset my life. But I never told anybody about it because it was my question and my answer and I thought that was really important for me because I came out of a war and so this was my way of finding my way yeah, yeah. And and because people weren't interested in that, changed for me 9-11, 9-11.

Sandy Kruse: 1:05:19

Interesting.

Udo Erasmus: 1:05:20

You know what happened 9-11?.

Sandy Kruse: 1:05:21

Yes, of course.

Udo Erasmus: 1:05:22

I was. I was already working with oils and I was doing lots of media stuff and my take home from 9-11, my take home from 9-11, we were actually we were whitewater rafting that day, me and my kids.

Sandy Kruse: 1:05:37

Yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 1:05:38

And so we saw the plane hit the tower. In the morning, when we got up and turned on the TV, we had an appointment on the river at 10. So we left that behind. The river was not affected. This is like the thing that happened to me, just because of the way the situation the river was not affected, the sky was not affected, the clouds were not affected, the trees were not affected, the slopes the slopes, you know, in the canyon were not affected. So I got like a space from that, the event of 9-11.

Udo Erasmus: 1:06:14

And the take-home for me was, you know, discontent people, which is almost everybody, because contentment comes from connection inside, not even connection outside, but connection inside. Discontent people will always spread discontent. And if people who are content and I claim to be one of those people if we don't do more to spread contentment than the discontent people do, to spread discontent, guess where we're headed? That was my take home and then it was like, okay, that was in 2001. So from 1970 to 2000, from 1970 to 2001, I didn't talk to anybody about it and then it was like, okay, this needs to become part of the conversation. The journey to contentment, the journey to peace. Real peace has to be real and to embody that. This has to become part of the conversation. And then I had to begin to try and figure out. How do I even talk about this?

Udo Erasmus: 1:07:22

Yes yes, and so I then started talking about it. So I started talking about it in 2001. Quietly, I talk about it more loudly now because I see I'm not doing enough. I'm not doing enough and people in generally the world is not doing enough to go from discontent to contentment. It's still more about money and fame and power and all of this stuff.

Sandy Kruse: 1:07:50

And only science. You can't end, just science.

Udo Erasmus: 1:07:59

Well, science is like a religion. Now.

Sandy Kruse: 1:08:01

Well, this is yeah, I was going to say Udo, because last year I went to a conference. It was a very science-y conference, a lot of biohackers and a lot of really smart people, a lot of doctors, and I lectured there and it was called the journey to wellness and within that okay, it's not exactly what you're saying, but it was not just about science how did you biohack your way into health again when you weren't healthy, right? So it's like take the peptides, do the IV therapy. You get what I'm saying, and my talk was about stuff that was not science, and so some people kind of looked at me funny and went okay, I think you're talking about technology, and most of the people who biohack are discontent.

Udo Erasmus: 1:08:56

I think you're talking about technology, and most of the people who biohack are discontent. Discontent because they haven't done their homework, the homework that all of the really wise guys that people are still talking about thousands of years later recommended that we do, because your body will crap out one day. Anything that has form will lose its form. The only thing that will not lose its form is anything that has no form to begin with. So what in you will survive? Your physical death is the peace, is the love, is the inspiration. Those will survive your death and those are the essence of your being. You know, if I say to you, hey, listen, whose body is that? I pointed you, what would be your answer?

Sandy Kruse: 1:09:47

Mine.

Udo Erasmus: 1:09:48

Mine. Yeah, it's my body.

Sandy Kruse: 1:09:49

My body. Everybody would say that yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 1:09:51

Yeah, yes, you just busted yourself. You're not the body. You live like you're the body. We all live like we're the body, but you've just told me you're not the body, you're the owner of the body, and the body is your property, your possession, my body, right? So if? If that's true, then who are you as the owner of the body?

Sandy Kruse: 1:10:17

Oh geez, you're getting deep on me.

Udo Erasmus: 1:10:20

No life owns the body Right. So you, in your essence, are actually life, you're the owner of the body. How well do you know yourself as life, the owner of the body? And most people would have to say almost not at all, because we never go, we never go and get it, we never take the time to get in touch with that energy, that solar energy, that is life energy, that is Christ energy, that is unconditional love, that is Buddha energy, krishna energy, that is master energy, that is unconditional love, that is Buddha energy, krishna energy, that is master energy, that is the master in your body. That runs the whole show.

Udo Erasmus: 1:11:00

And we're not in touch with that. Well, you know, if you don't know who you are, how would you know how to live? You know, if you don't know whether you're a table or a chair, you don't know whether you should put a plate on yourself or somebody should sit on you, right?

Sandy Kruse: 1:11:20

Yep.

Udo Erasmus: 1:11:21

And so yeah.

Sandy Kruse: 1:11:25

Well, so you know, really, the fact is is that I think you know there's different names for it too. What you're speaking of, you know it's your internal being, your essence, the spirit within, and I am a big believer that optimizing your wellness is when you can marry really all the facets. But it begins in here, so it starts in here, and then you eat well. Then you eat well, then you do right. So yeah. Okay.

Udo Erasmus: 1:12:00

So let me go through them. Yeah, Number one core is I call it internal awareness, but you could call it presence, you could call it lots of things.

Sandy Kruse: 1:12:10

Okay.

Udo Erasmus: 1:12:12

That's where peace lives. Peace is the solar energy that is unconditional, empowering love. That's number two. Number three is the shine of that love into the world, which I call inspired purpose. I like that's the positive part of mind. Then Then you get the physical body. That's about food and fitness and rest and activity and detox and detox, and that's the one where most people focus on if they're talking about health. But it's not enough.

Sandy Kruse: 1:12:50

Nope.

Udo Erasmus: 1:12:51

And then number five. I call it survival smarts or protective mind. That's your protection from the world around you. So that's about survival skills, but it's also about feeling the calm that you need in the storm, and that calm, of course, is the first part of it.

Sandy Kruse: 1:13:16

Yeah, goes back to number one, right.

Udo Erasmus: 1:13:19

How does a person run into a burning house to save the people that are going to be killed? You have to have a certain amount of, you have to be able to get into a state, and the state that the hero gets into is a state that is even his body may perish, but he knows that he, but his, his essence is indestructible right so you go in, you need to do what you have to do.

Udo Erasmus: 1:13:54

So that's number five. Number six is social group, seven is natural environment and eight is infinite awareness, which is the same as internal awareness. Only when you recognize, when you go into the internal awareness, you recognize that awareness goes from your core out to infinity. It is not restricted by the dimensions of your body. Those are the eight Now. Each one of those has a different nature, has a different function, needs a different kind of attention on a regular basis, goes off in a different way and responds to a different kind of intervention, goes off in a different way and responds to a different kind of intervention and if you want to live a whole life, you need to give each one of those eight its due.

Udo Erasmus: 1:14:43

That's why you need to take time for stillness, to feel the peace, to feel the love, to get the insights. All my insights come from quietness. Einstein once said 99 times I think and think, and think and I get nothing. And then I shut up and I swim in silence. That's what he said. I swim in silence and the answer comes to me. That's how he did his work. That's where inventions come from, that's where insights come from, that's where the science comes from. Science is not on the outside. You know, if you can be objective outward, you can be objective inward.

Sandy Kruse: 1:15:21

Yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 1:15:22

So, and science is based on observation, and what you focus on is what you're going to observe. And what you observe you're going to learn, and then that becomes your knowledge base. Focus inside for what's inside, focus outside for what's outside. But if you want constancy in your life and you want stability in your life, it's not in the world of change, because everything is changing, it's the world of change. Seasons change, the leaves change, the colors change, the movement changes things. You want stability in your life, you have to go to your foundation, because you have a stable foundation in that peace, in that contentment. So those are the eight parts, and I actually called it the book on total sexy health, because I was trying to use sexy as the power word, because it's the power word.

Udo Erasmus: 1:16:13

It is trying to use sexy as the power word. Because it's the power word. It is everything sold by it. But I wanted to use sexy to sell people on their own magnificence. I think that that would have been a good, but it didn't work out. That was not. It didn't work out, it kind of trivialized. The topic is what?

Sandy Kruse: 1:16:29

happened?

Udo Erasmus: 1:16:29

ah, yes, I could see that yeah, and so it was a good experiment. I learned a lot from it, and so I have to rewrite all of that. But yeah, it's amazing that what is in us. I've been doing a practice now for over 50 years.

Sandy Kruse: 1:16:52

Yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 1:16:53

Because I got from. Oh my God, this was an incredible experience. Then it was like it started to become a memory and I was saying what do I have to do to stay in that experience?

Udo Erasmus: 1:17:05

Yeah, and that question led me to someone who said the peace you search for is within you. I can reveal to you that peace. That was interesting to me. I didn't think he could because he was 14 and I was 30 and but I was interested in peace because I came out of a war. I said well, I'll check it out. I don't think he can. If he can, I don't want to miss it. If he can't, I'll just keep looking. And then I learned a method and literally it's. You know, the method is. It's just, the method is a method. It's a good method. Basically, sit down, get quiet, bring your awareness inside. What do you see, what do you hear? What do you taste? What do you feel?

Sandy Kruse: 1:17:46

Start there.

Udo Erasmus: 1:17:48

Yeah, it's always about a stillness practice. You want to fix the environment, do less. When we had the lockdowns, the air got clean over China. The dolphins returned to the canals in Venice that were polluted.

Sandy Kruse: 1:18:04

Yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 1:18:05

They weren't, boats weren't driving around, so the water got cleaner. In Vancouver, you know, the flowers were brighter in their colors, and we did that by doing less, not by doing more. Yeah, so it's not like this is the next big project. Oh, yeah, yeah, environment, do, do, do, do, do, no, no, do less do less except maybe plant trees and and see if we can't do.

Udo Erasmus: 1:18:31

Do intelligent water management, yeah, to take water from where there's too much to where there's too little. It's actually not a bad project. It was started in 1910, and then they gave up on it. They had built a grid system for all of North America to prevent droughts of water, an irrigation system. We still need it.

Sandy Kruse: 1:18:54

Yeah, this has been such a great conversation, udo, you're just so wise and such a pleasure to talk to.

Udo Erasmus: 1:19:07

Can I say one more thing?

Sandy Kruse: 1:19:09

Absolutely.

Udo Erasmus: 1:19:10

I was talking about state of being. Whatever your state of being or your state of emotions is, will automatically come to expression. So if my state of being is peace, then literally I'll live into a peaceful world because I will see peace everywhere. But if I'm angry, I will see enemies, so I will live into a world of enemies and I will create enemies by my anger, so I will create a world that looks like my state of being you know in my sphere of influence, and if I'm afraid or fearful, then I'm going to see danger, and I'll see danger even if there isn't any, and I'll start saying what if?

Udo Erasmus: 1:20:02

What if an asteroid that's 18 miles across and going at 18,000 miles an hour? What if it's coming down and it's heading for my head? Right, I mean, I could right.

Sandy Kruse: 1:20:15

Yeah, totally.

Udo Erasmus: 1:20:16

What if? And then I'm going to. And then what do I? Oh my God, what do I need to do to prevent that from happening? Well, I got to look at the sky a lot, so I better take my roof off right and I better be in a flat place where I can run like hell. Yeah, right, or I, maybe, gee, is there a way I could blow up the asteroid, or you know. And then you start fantasizing about all of these things. It all came out of you being fearful.

Sandy Kruse: 1:20:44

Totally.

Udo Erasmus: 1:20:45

And imagining something into place. So if I'm fearful, I will create a world filled with fear.

Sandy Kruse: 1:20:51

Yep.

Udo Erasmus: 1:20:53

So if we want to build a world of real peace and unconditional love, we need to begin by embodying that. Those states of being yes, right, and so everything that needs to be done on the planet requires us first to change our state of being to something that's already within us, but deeper than we've gone and more beautiful and more magnificent and more awesome than we've experienced. That's the cure for every problem on the planet.

Sandy Kruse: 1:21:29

Yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 1:21:36

Yeah, every problem on the planet came from not doing that and every problem on the planet will get made better from us doing that.

Sandy Kruse: 1:21:42

More Beautiful, Beautiful, All right, Udo, where can we find you? Is there anything that you know? You haven't? You wanted to say that you didn't get to say. You know, where can someone find you?

Udo Erasmus: 1:21:56

yeah, well, uh, okay, that's the wrong question, of course, because what you really need to do is find yourself okay, right, okay, but someone might want to find you too.

Sandy Kruse: 1:22:07

You're a very wise person yeah, then what?

Udo Erasmus: 1:22:11

I don't know and you're're going to write on my coattails. You should be writing on your own. We could learn from you? No, because the wisdom you have, that same wisdom within you.

Sandy Kruse: 1:22:21

Yeah.

Udo Erasmus: 1:22:22

You know, where do I go for that wisdom? I'm not going to experts on the outset, I'm going to the place where that wisdom lives within me.

Sandy Kruse: 1:22:28

You gave us the answer right, but you've also done a lot of other great things.

Udo Erasmus: 1:22:35

You've written some books. If you talk about oils and enzymes and probiotics, which are the most important for physical health, yeah uh, you go to udoschoicecom u d-o-s choicecom and we talk about why we did it and how we did it yeah and you find the products in the health food stores.

Udo Erasmus: 1:22:58

If you're more interested in this kind of stuff, I've got beginnings of a website. It's called theudocom T-H-E-U-D-Ocom, and I have some psychology stuff on it. It's a mess, it's a work in progress stuff on it. It's a mess, it's a work in progress. And the book the physical book, is called Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill. The book about human nature is called the Book on Total Sexy Health the Eight Key Parts Designed by Nature. Yeah, that's here's the other one.

Sandy Kruse: 1:23:32

That's a kill. It's a good one, you guys. I kept it, of course.

Udo Erasmus: 1:23:38

And I have a YouTube channel and I'm on Instagram and I'm on Facebook.

Sandy Kruse: 1:23:44

Awesome.

Udo Erasmus: 1:23:46

I'm not hard to find because my name is weird Udo U-D-O. It's not even a four-letter word. If you punch Udo in Google, I come up on the first page.

Sandy Kruse: 1:23:56

There you go.

Udo Erasmus: 1:23:56

Very few Udos in the world. Udo Erasmus, I'm not hard to find.

Sandy Kruse: 1:24:03

You're so lucky.

Udo Erasmus: 1:24:05

But just remember, finding me is okay, but finding yourself is what really is the focus. Beautiful that you need to take seriously.

Sandy Kruse: 1:24:16

Beautiful Because you're awesome.

Udo Erasmus: 1:24:17

Because you are awesome, you are magnificent, and what a shame to end your life before you've discovered how incredible it is just to be you.

Sandy Kruse: 1:24:33

Perfect.

Udo Erasmus: 1:24:37

That's a beautiful way to end. Thank you Singing oh my god.

Sandy Kruse: 1:24:40

Thank you so much, udo. I loved our chat, thank you. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to share it with someone you know might benefit and always remember when you rate, review, subscribe, you help to support my content and help me to keep going and bringing these conversations to you each and every week. Join me next week for a new topic, new guest, new exciting conversations to help you live your best life.