The Sound of Freedom with Paul Hutchinson | Recovery Vow Podcast

n this gripping episode of The Recovery Vow, Eric Kennedy sits down with Paul Hutchinson—co-founder of Bridge Investment Group and undercover operative behind the hit film Sound of Freedom—to uncover the real story behind child trafficking, undercover missions, and spiritual warfare.

Paul opens up about leaving a billion-dollar business to follow a divine calling, rescuing children from sex trafficking around the world. From confronting high-level traffickers to posing as a buyer in dangerous operations, Paul shares the intense emotional toll of this work—and the miracles that made it possible.

But the mission didn't end with a rescue. Paul shares how his own personal healing, divorce, and spiritual journey were shaped by the very darkness he was fighting. He calls on men to rise up, speaks to the power of forgiveness, and offers a warning about the hidden costs of comfort, ego, and silence.

This episode is not just about child rescue, it's about soul rescue. And it may just change your life.

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• Transcript

  Welcome to the Recovery Bow podcast. I'm your host, Eric Kennedy. Hey, Recovery Bow family. I just want to say thank you so much for watching this episode today, but I want to give you a glimpse of what's inside. We're going to be talking to Paul Hutchinson, who wrote the book Sound of Freedom. Now, Paul not only wrote the book, he was one of the executive producers on the film. And he's going to share uh some of the work he's done to rescue the children that you'll read about. Maybe you've watched the movie, but we're also going to talk about uh recovery. There are different kinds of recovery. And I never thought about it, but until today when Paul's uh shares, you'll you'll hear the different kinds of recovery that the children go through and then the people that deal with different types of addictions like porn and trauma and how that leads them into becoming uh people that Paul not only rescue but want to serve. And he's going to tell you about different retreats that he offers through his ministry and his program. So, I just want you to sit back and listen. This is going to be a great episode with a great speaker and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have. When I was talking to uh to Britney like how did Paul Hutchinson hear about recovery val? I'm so thankful you did. Um and that the your team did. Uh but yeah, I would have never thought that you had um a struggle of any kind. Do you have a struggle or is that just part of your ministry? Everybody Everybody has struggles. Yeah. you know, and and you know, when we when uh when we when we did the Sound of Freedom movie, a few really key things that really resonated in my life was one, when when we had Bill Camp say the words, when when God asks you to do something, you don't hesitate. Right. Right. And um you know, I think that that kind of sums up a big part of my journey and uh and recognizing that there's a whole bigger purpose to everything than just money and cars and things and popularity and and whatnot. And and uh and I think that's what's brought us eventually to this podcast today. Yeah. talking about about that divine intervention and um and how we all go through that. No, you're you're absolutely right. Um I'm very very excited to have this conversation with you today. Um we want to share our platform to to give your book as as much recognition as it can get. I do want to ask like how long have you been doing this work where you are out um rescuing these people and I mean what brought you to the place that you decided to do this movie? Can you how much of that can you share with us? Yeah, I can I can share everything. I I stopped doing undercover work about two years ago, just before the movie came out. But I I led over 70 undercover child rescue missions over a period of 10 years in 15 countries. Wow. And um you know the the story of the actual rescue work started about 11 years ago. The real story though started roughly 30 plus years ago. and and it was it was a conversation with um a friend kind of mentor uh on success principles and he said Paul he said the the average person donates about 2% of their annual salary to to charity he said sadly millionaires donate even less than 2%. He said, 'But deca millionaires, sent a millionaires, billionaires donate considerably more. He said, he said, it doesn't matter if if you know, if somebody is a is a is a Jew or a Muslim or a Christian, most of them believe in either the Torah, the Quran, the Old Testament. And the last book of the Old Testament in the book of Malachi, it specifically says not 2%, not 3%, but if you choose today that you're going to be charitable and donate 10% to God's mission, feeding his sheep, right, to making the world a better place. If you choose that that number is 10% or higher, it says that the windows of heaven will open, that there will not be room enough to receive it. Well, that mentor I at the time I was, you know, I'm earning like $2,000 a month. I'm a struggling, you know, college student. And and he said he said some of the wealthiest families in the world made a decision that they would donate 10, 15, even 20% of everything that came in. And and he said, you can call it karma. You can call it universal law of exchange. I call it God. there there's a very real power that is that is very interested in you and I doing good and and so fast forward my success in my businesses flourished. I I I became uh the founder of a company that that helped people overcome anxiety, depression, PTSD, addictions, childhood trauma. Sold that company for $20 million at 29 years old. Wow. Now, most of that was restricted stock and pink sheet companies, but I was rich on paper and that was important to me, right? And then then I started investing in real estate, put together a team. John Pennington and I are the co-founders of a company that was called Bridgeel Loan Capital that morphed into Bridge Investment Group, built it into a massive company. I rec I retired in 2017 with over 4,000 employees and almost 20 billion in assets under management. That company has continued to grow. I still get checks from it and is now almost 50 billion in AUM now, but I retired to focus full-time on philanthropy. And and and I truly believe that the reason behind that was that decision to cocreate with God. That decision to to donate 10, 15, 20% to charity and and watch the windows of heaven open. I ask I tell people, you know, how does somebody become a partner, let alone a founder of a multi-billion dollar company? Well, you're not a University of Utah dropout, right? That's what I was. the statistical probability is zero. The only way I can understand it is that I made that decision. There's a couple what I call multipliers and that was one of them in in showing that I would be a good steward of that money even when I was broke. I told my my mentor I says I that's why I want to be wealthy so I can be charitable. I didn't realize that I should be charitable so that I could receive that abundance coming in over time. So that 10% you talk about um that that kind of gets hung up with some folks that are that are new to giving if you will. Are you saying that um you give 10% to your church organization and anything above the tithe is what you're giving to missions or you're just trusting how do you determine what your 10% is? This this is how I see it. You know, you can choose to give that to your church. You can choose to give that to the Red Cross. You can choose to give that to the Child Liberation Foundation. You can choose whatever you want to. It's a it's a principle of building up the kingdom. It's a it's a principle of of feeding the poor, clothing the naked, you know, and and and feeding the hungry. This is this is these are these are the things that we are supposed to do with that tithe. And if if if indeed your church is using it to accomplish those charitable things and helping humanity, wonderful. If they're not, find other ways to do that. But I chose up and beyond that 10%. I chose 15, even 20%. And and in doing so, I truly believe that the massive massive blessings that came were directly because of that. I I have multiple many many examples. I have one where we had a huge radio personality uh Glenn Beck wanted to launch his anti-child trafficking campaign from Bangkok, Thailand, and it was going to cost $100,000 to get him and his team and everything there. All that we wanted to do, he had a massive audience, 50 million people plus on all of his his platforms, etc. And at the time, the foundation that we were working with had a bunch of grandmas who were donating $5 a month, $20 a month, and that was kind of sacred money. you know, we didn't want to use that for, you know, one big trip to Thailand. And so I decided I would fund that. Myself and my business partner, Don, we we jumped on a plane, flew with him to Thailand, did all the filming, etc. Came back as the plane touched down back in the US. This is this exchange thing. This is the windows of heaven opening story, right? As the plane touched down in the US and I got cell phone signal, I had two voicemail messages that popped up on my phone. The first one was from the member of the family that owns the most hotels in the world. You can probably guess what that one is. And he said, Paul, he said, I I've been looking at the numbers. I want to put another $10 million in your senior housing investment fund. And the other one was from a guy who was running the money for the the family that owns the one of the largest gas station chains in the United States with even a bigger number. and my income from those two voicemail messages multiples exceeded that 100 grand that I just put out in charity. And so I I I tell people I I you know I'm not that charitable. I just need help running my companies and God does a better job. So I figure I'll just help here, you know, and and beautiful blessings come in other areas. I've got a friend of mine that I'm thinking about. um his name is Gary and Gary's taught me a lot about finance and when it comes to giving and seeing the reward and and almost having an expectation from what God's going to do in your life because of your dedication to um giving or tithing. You know, I I was never a big giver until like 10 years ago when I really understood what it meant and things money didn't become an issue anymore. And now let me tell you something, Paul. Not I'm not rich by any means. We're wealthy when it comes to life and family and everything and we've got everything we need. Um but if I play the part of um having a nonprofit now and that's what Recovery Vow is. We we we're a nonprofit uh after writing my book Marriage After Addiction and creating uh this podcast and these workshops and really reaching the people that are in recovery uh specifically ones that are married. Um people want to give. I mean, just like you're saying, like they want to see. So, it's hard. It's been one of the hardest things to do is to go out and ask for money. Um, but when when you're sharing the heart and the vision behind it, um, it becomes a necessity and you have to tell the story of what you're doing. And I'll be honest with you, I've been blown away. This is my first time ever running or organizing or being a part of a nonprofit that that I'm in charge of. I've never done this before, but just by sending text messages and and and and creating quality videos and just the starting at the bottom, man, we it's not a lot, but we raised $100,000 last year doing that. And it's because people want to give. And so that's why I asked the question, do you feel like some people are uh wanting to to give um after they've reached their their 10% and there's going to see, you know, there's just more things that are going to happen if you can go above and beyond that because I've been I've been challenged with that before. People say, "Well, I can't give to you. I'm already given to, you know, the church or I'm already given to, you know, this organization." Maybe they're just strict on on that. Um, so I may want to pick your brain later on just how to stretch someone um, when it comes to getting to understand the mission and vision behind what you're doing and and why reaching 3 million people in the first year and the growth that we've had and seen like those numbers are important when I share that. But it's the people that send the emails kind of like the the people that you rescue. It's the people that we see um success in after they go through the workshop or go through the book or hear the podcast and they're depending on these stories. Uh man, that's that's been the big big win. Um so yeah, I just I may want to pick your brain later on that if that's okay. Well, and I I'll tell you right now, I I don't remember a time where it was only 10% for me really. I it was 15 20 or more that uh in fact now it's even it's almost all of it because I I have I have everything that I need. So everything everything that is the extra that's coming in from the success of the movie from the the the retreats we do all of those is going right into the charity working and well those are beautiful role those are two things I do want to talk about. I want to talk about the movie. Um, and then I want to talk about these retreats because I wanted to understand how did you get to the point where you were rescuing these uh boys and girls and and all this undercover work that you do and then what made you decide to do recovery type of retreats. So tell me and I I'll tell I'm meant to take you into the darkness because this is all about recovery. So I'm going to tell you about my recovery. Right. Okay. So 11 12 years ago I I wasn't I wasn't Paul Hutchinson. I was Paul effing Hutchinson, right? I I had built a multibillion dollar company. Uh I was on my second marriage headed for a divorce, but that didn't matter cuz I was having big parties. I had I had a h I had I had two helicopters at one point. Two helicopters, you know, a private plane. I had a I had 10 bathrooms in my house, eight private suites, seven fireplaces, three kitchens, a basketball court in my basement, and I had built a a a stage on the side of it with a DJ booth and stripper poles on my on my stage, right? This was this was the energy that I was living in. And now I was charitable. I was doing good things, but I wasn't in line with what I how I really should be living. Now, that was the point where I got the phone call from our attorney general that said, "Paul, you know, I I I know you've helped a lot of children's charities. I let me talk to you about child trafficking." And I was told about these 20 children that were in Cardahanet that needed to be rescued. And so, I I helped to make that happen, introduce some people that could help finance that as well. And uh a few weeks later, I got a call from one of the operators and he said, "Paul," he said, "I'm here in Cardahana. There's not just 20 children here that are being sold in trafficking. He said there's more than 50 and there's more than a hundred children these other rings in these other cities we've identified. He said, "We have a plan that we could rescue all 100 children on the same day, but I I need your help." And I said, "Well, how much do you need?" He said, "I need you. Can you be in Colombia in two days?" He said, "The head trafficker has a piece of property he wants to develop into a child brothel resort type hotel. He he believes he can make tens of millions of dollars a year selling these victims to wealthy Americans and he needs a few million dollars to build it out. He said, "Our our plan is you fly down here." He said, "I can't teach my Navy Seals how to how to that are here how to negotiate a multi-million dollar real estate deal." He said, "And I don't know of any ultra successful business owners who've had the training that you've had. I I have a certain set of skills that makes me somewhat safe in a dangerous place. But he he said, "If you can come down and negotiate this deal, tell them you're willing to fund this hideous project under one condition. You have a big party, you want to bring your friends down, and uh they bring all of their existing inventory. And if you're happy, then you'll fund their their project." And so two days later, I'm I you know, and at the time I'm I'm at a I'm at a third generation billionaire conference in in Atlanta, Georgia, raising money for my investment fund. I'm I I said, "Well, what do I wear?" He goes, "Well, dress like a wealthy playboy." I I look down. I've got a suit on that costs more than my first car, right? I have I have cufflings that were $2,000 each, a $50,000 watch on. I'm think I'm like, I think I got the the outfit, right? And um so two days later I'm face to face with the most evil people on the planet selling pure innocence. And just for a glimpse inside of that moment, how old were these um victims? Ages 11 to 18. And majority of them were under 16 years old. M um I'm I the first meeting I'm sitting there and here here's what's interesting. I I um I thought I thought that the traffickers would have, you know, earrings in their noses and tattoos down their necks. And the first trafficker I met was a businessman, cleancut, wellspoken, polo shirt. The next one I met was a beautiful woman that worked with a modeling agency. I thought, "These guys aren't traffickers." until I sat down and started talking to them about their hideous plans. And and one of them halfway through he goes, "Pablo, I have a gift for you." And he leans forward and he shows me his phone and there's a picture of an 11-year-old child. On his phone, he said, "This is Princess. She's still a virgin. We just took delivery of some. She's my gift." And I'm like, "How does somebody get to this point?" And I thought, "Wow, if we could get these kids out before they're ever hurt the first place, that that would be a miracle." And something he said made me realize that he had more. I said, "Fuego," I said, "You just took delivery." I said, "You you have more of those." He called him zero kilometer miles. I says, "You have more of the 0 kmter mile?" He goes, "Oh, yeah. I got three or four more." I said, "You're bringing those to my party, too, right?" He goes, "Oh, no." He says, "They're too expensive." I said, "They're too expensive. I'm already paying this guy $25,000. I'm paying him $500 per victim for a minimum of 20 of of of 50 children just for two hours in the afternoon. He goes, "He you already paid 25,000. You want to f those other zero kilometer? That's going to cost you maybe 2,000, maybe 5,000 for that little one. It's going to cost you maybe 10,000 more." I'm I'm legitimately pissed at this point. I'm I'm got my nice suit on. I've got my nice watch. I I put my hands on my chest. I said, "You don't think I can afford an extra $10,000?" He's like, "Oh, no, he no." I said, "I want every one of those children at this party." Yeah. I said that. I said, "Don't touch them. They're not for you. That they better not be touched at all." You understand? So, we you we were in Atlanta and you were faced with these different people that that did not fit the description of what you would say um would be people that would traffic. So, I was Yeah, I was in Atlanta, Georgia when I got the call, but you know, he says, "Can you be in Colombia in two days?" And so, that's I literally I flew down to Colombia. I'm there in Cardahana and face to face with the most evil people you can imagine that were selling children. And and again, they weren't they weren't like I thought they would be. You know, they wouldn't have earrings in their noses and tattoos and whatnot, but I I realized over time after after a few years of doing that undercover work, I recognized that that the common thread was arrogance, greed, lust, and a separation from God. They they were they were absolutely not not living by the moral principles that you and I have been have been taught. And so so that separation that that selfishness, that greed, that envy, that lust, I I ended up having to look in the mirror myself and ask myself, Paul, how is this showing up in your life? What is going on that that makes you think that you can lead your life in a place? Now, I wasn't doing anything illegal. I was of I was helping children, but you know, I would have parties every other weekend with NBA players and NFL players and half-dressed girls and, you know, all of this stuff that was creating a um a huge separation between me and my divine creator. And uh and that's when when I had to start waking up and had a few experiences that were that were absolutely life-changing when it came to redirecting myself back onto the path that I needed to be. So, how did um how did Paul the um we'll say playboy. That's that's kind of weird. I was how does Paul the Playboy go from being you could call me the hedonistic selfish bastard if we want to. You know there how do how do you go from that to Paul the rescuer? Um well here's the thing as uh on that first rescue mission and for the first couple years of doing the undercover work. Sadly I was still kind of in that space. I was still in this arrogance ego space and it worked well. Sadly, the the traffickers were looking for guys like Jeffrey Epstein, right? These big arrogant guys that were doing horrible things. So, you know, if I I came down, I was throwing cash around and throwing f-bombs around and whatever. That's the kind of energy they were looking for. And I could build relationships with them and get them to show me where they were where they were keeping the kids and boom, then we would do a sting and take them down, etc. So we were rescuing a lot of kids in that space. But it was although we were making a powerful positive impact in the lives of those children for me and a lot of my operators it was it was toxic. I I had I had Green Beretss with seven with I mean some of these guys, one of them had 300 missions in Afghanistan, in the Middle East as a Green Beret and one undercover mission with me in Ecuador and seeing a a menu with children's faces and the things that they would do and the amount of money you would have to pay for those things. It was it crushed him. He already had PTSD. And we were I was blowing through operators. I was going in and out of operators and these guys one operation. They were just I can't handle that negativity anymore. And for me and my life, it was it was kind of a disaster. And I I I received a phone call from two of my operators, Jimmy and Andy. And um Jimmy had done 13 undercover missions with me. Andy had done, I think, 22 at the time. And they called me up and they said, "Paul, do you trust us?" And I said, "Yeah, I I trust you literally with my life. I I'm in charge of talking. They're in charge of making sure I don't die." They said, "You need to come to this healing retreat." I'm like, "I don't need to heal. I'm Paul F and Hutchinson. Everybody wants to be me." They said, "No. Uh, your kids don't talk to you. You're you're on your second marriage headed for a divorce and uh and you think that happiness is going to come from another car, another plane, another house, other things. He said um you need to do some deep introspective work in order to to really see what's what's valuable in life and what isn't. Now, what I'm going to say next is uh is something that I'm I'll just be honest is a little bit controversial, okay? But I think it's important for people to understand what tools are out there that are incredibly effective and how it worked for me. Now, what I will say is that everybody everybody needs to get to a point where you can get out of your head and into your heart. Everybody is born with the ability to feel that still small voice of truth that that guiding light of God in their life. And there are different things that people can do to get into that space. And um and again coming from a background where my first successful company helped we have 50,000 people a month that were calling in off of an infomercial to get help with anxiety, depression, PTSD, addictions, and childhood trauma. And I recognized that a lot of the toxicity that was out there, the demand side for people that were doing horrible things to children many times came from unhealed trauma. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not a sympathizer in any way of somebody who hurts a child, right? I have literally put my life in danger hundreds of times to ensure that they never hurt innocents again. However, if we're going to fix this problem for good. It's not just a bunch of undercover missions that we're going to pull these more kids out of hell. We've got to pull the hell out of humanity. We've got to we've got to figure out where this is coming from. We need people to return to that divine connection. They need to they need to to to break those chains of addiction to pornography, addiction to alcohol, addiction to drugs, addiction to sexual addictions of all kinds that are leading them down this path to hell. Can I ask you a question, Paul? Yes. Are you saying in that statement that most of the people that would show up to uh be a part of the trafficking of these children, nine time nine out of 10 or 10 out of 10 had some kind of a trauma or an addiction in their life? Almost 100%. 100%. In fact, over 70% of incarcerated felons remember having significant verbal, physical, and sexual abuse as a child. Yeah. And so there's there's a massive correlation there. Now, the majority of men, let's just talk about men, okay? One out of five men have have been a victim of sexual abuse at some time in our life. and 1/4 of them, it was under the age of 10 years old in their own home. The majority of them grow up to be protectors. The majority of my undercover operators have been abused as children and they grow up saying there is no way I'm going to ever allow that in the life of another child. And so they risk their lives to ensure that. However, however, one out of every three, if not given the love, the help, the healing, the tools that they need, one out of every three will become a contact offender in verbal, physical, or the sexual abuse of a child. And so, if we as humanity are going to fix this problem, it's not just sending a bunch of additional operators undercover and rescuing more kids. Yeah, that that I have amazing stories of bringing these children back to the light and in and bringing back to their families. That's a beautiful story, but it doesn't fix the problem. What fixes the problem is asking where the demand is coming from in the first place. And it's unhealed childhood trauma and it's unspoken as well. Realize this men, if you're like, "Oh, well, I don't want to tell anybody now of what happened when I was eight because they're going to think that I'm going to pass it on if I tell them and I'll be less of a man." No, you won't. You were eight. That was a horrible thing that happened by your uncle, by that situation. And the simple act of talking about it takes the rate of passing it on from one in three to about one in 50 and in some cases one in a 100. So just talking about it is releasing so much of that trauma that you're not going to have that generational trauma passed down to your kids and other people. So just talk about it. Let's get it out of the way and find tools to release that. Everything of our past, everything that was done to us and everything that we did, all things can be forgiven. All things can be healed. They're both going to require the help of God to do so. But they can in every way be completely cleansed from our lives so that we can step in to the highest and best versions of ourselves. That's really beautiful the way you say that. That's uh one of the chapters in marriage after addiction talks about uh being a generational breaker versus being a generational blamer. So I I can appreciate the way that you say that and the beauty in that is that you see these children that come through this that you rescue now. That's a totally different kind of recovery that they're going to need. Like that's you know that's but there's still recovery. the the beauty in what you're doing is the people that are there to consume them or to purchase or how I don't I don't know the proper verbiage because I they're just not in that world. But you are trying your best now to to catch them right where they are. Not to punish them, I guess. But if you can, are you saying that you want to be able to reach them and give them um a way to um break, you know, this this cycle that they're in? And and are they too far gone when they're showing up to Well, realize this. If if if you you rape a child, you're you're wasting my oxygen, right? You've already cross the line. We're done. We're done with you. You're going to prison. You're going to be put in a position where you're never going to hurt a child again. What I am saying though is that every mission I found myself wishing that I had a time machine, that I could go back in time, 5 years, 10 years before that child was ever abused in the first place, and pull them out. And then I thought, okay, if if that's all I did, then another child would be sucked back into the deepest recesses of hell to fill that demand. And so instead, what I would do is I would sit down with that trafficker. I would sit down with the perpetrator before they ever cross the line and said, "What is going on in your life? What kind of things are you holding on to that makes you think that in any way it's a good idea to go down that road? If we could stop it before it ever happens?" Now what we don't have is a time machine but what we do have is hundreds of millions of men and women who have dealt with severe trauma as a child that onethird of those men if they don't get the help they need are going to end up passing that trauma on in some way. And so if we can just take a big net, a big love net, and circle all of them, everybody who's ever been through some of that trauma, everybody who's on the road of, you know, people people say, "Oh, you know, pornography is addict of victimless crime. I'm I'm in the the the quietness of my own office and I'm not hurting anybody." No. Guess what, guys? It's a it's an addiction that is stronger than cocaine and heroin. And just like any hardcore drug for many people, they require something harder to have that same fix. And so their pornography started out years ago looking at the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated and then it goes into, you know, looking at the the Victoria Secret models and then it goes into just looking at some half naked and then full naked and then videos and then sex videos and it goes on and on and on. Guys, it is a progression. Think of your own life. that progression continues because it's insatiable because it isn't in line with your divine plan. And in doing so, the for some guys a little bit harder to fulfill that that addiction. For some guys, a little bit harder is a little bit more grotesque or or rape videos or bondage things. For some of them, a little bit harder is a little bit younger. A little bit younger. Pretty soon, they're fantasizing about things they wouldn't have even thought was attractive 5 years ago. and then they're acting out on these horrific fantasies. Guys, you have to break that chain before it ever even gets close to the abuse of a child. Take a look in the mirror and say, "What in my life do I need to change that is out of alignment?" The very second that you look at a woman instead of the divine feminine that she is and see her as an object, you start going down a dark road. and you're playing in the same energy that these perpetrators were. And so the answer in in liberating not just the children, but the answer in liberating humanity is for all of us to say, "Okay, what in my life is out of alignment? What do I need to do to change to get rid of arrogance, greed, and lust in my life? What what addictions do I have that I need to break the chains of with God's help so that I never pass that on?" People are like, "Oh, well, you know, I would I would never ever ever uh hurt a child." And and I'm hoping that nobody on this who's listening today would ever hurt a child. However, all of us have to ask yourself what the ripple effect of our actions are. For example, you know, you uh this is something I call tension transfer. You go to the office, you're you're out of alignment. You you're you're you're angry. You're frustrated. You yell at one of your employees. He goes home, yells at his wife. His wife yells at the son when he gets home from school. The son kicks the dog. That kick to that dog literally was attention transfer that started with you. Now, now let's just say that that employee at work, what you didn't know is that he had been abused as a child. And let's say that what you also didn't know is that his pornography addiction has slowly progressed to the point where he was looking at highly illegal material. And let's just say you also didn't know that he's been he's he's he's so frustrated with life and his own condition that he's abusing alcohol and his wife leaves him because of his alcohol addiction and his pornography addiction. And let's say that you didn't also what you didn't know is that this is the weekend that he has his 12-year-old daughter in custody with him and her cousin. And now you being out of alignment, now you coming in with anger, you push him over the edge and indeed you harm a child. So we as humanity need to stand up and say, "Okay, how what are the ripple effects of my actions? How am I showing up in a way that is affecting the children in my family and my neighbors and and how do I keep them safe in a way that that that that ripple effect is never going to affect them? Well, we all have to do some inner work. We all have to have to return to a connection with God. We all have to release that the anxiety, depression, PTSD, addictions, anger issues, childhood trauma. All of these things are contributing to a world where children are being harmed. Paul, how how long now um have you been offering the retreats to where you're trying to catch people before it becomes this issue? I found, you know, our our beginning retreats were uh were just for my operators. We had uh Green Beretss, Navy Seals. We had guys who, you know, we started using some breath work, some deep meditation, some some different types of plant medicine that we can talk about if you want to that are kind of on the edge, but very powerful, incredibly powerful tools in helping people return to God, break free of their addictions, etc. And in doing so, uh, we helped a lot of our operators get to the point where they didn't have to have Xanax and Prozac and and have PTSD stamp for the rest of their life. And then we moved, and this was about 9 years ago, we moved over to working with women who had had uh severe childhood trauma, had been abused, sold by their their mothers, abused by their uncles, etc. And in doing so, we were able to get 10 and 20 years worth of therapy done in four or five days. And so then we moved to uh to working with with what I call my my personal stuff. We've expanded. We've been training facilitators in the proper use of these tools and and we just finished with a retreat yesterday. We have a 7-day fully immersive transformational healing retreat experiences where where where and it's very very Godfocused in all that we do that in the 12 steps in Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12 steps of of Sexual Addicts Anonymous. There's there's I think there's four there's five of those steps that are God-focused. You have to you have to admit that you're powerless and you you turn that over to God. You have to you have to acknowledge the existence of a higher power. You can't break these things on your own. And so bringing that all together with some of the other tools has been incredibly effective. In fact, almost 100% of the people who come to our retreat say it was the number one most impactful transformational week of their entire life. Wow. And so they're coming to you. They're they're um are you operating as a nonprofit or are these people are they paying to get to you? How does all that how does this program work? The Liberating Humanity is is currently a for-profit that benefits the nonprofit. So, you know, people will come for a week-long retreat. We'll help them heal through all of the stuff and all of the extra money goes to the the sanctuary and then and then safe houses and the Child Liberation Foundation, etc. So, it's a for-profit. I I figured that that we're going to charge adults to fix their crap and we're going to take the profits and we're going to help heal the children. Yeah. I mean, uh I went to treatment and it and it was expensive. Um Yeah. you know, can insurance help pay for for this? I mean, this is a different type of addiction. This this is this is and I'm I'm going to tell the audience and you know, and and this part is is uh is controversial, but it's important that you hear it from somebody who understands it very very well. Okay. So the um 8 years ago when I was Paul F and Hutchinson and they convinced me to come to this this retreat, this doctor had been traveling around the world and identifying different types of plants that have incredible powerful healing tools. Now the uh in the late60s many of these were thrown under the bus by the the the by the US government deemed as schedule one drugs. So what I'm talking about is is the proper use of things like psilocybin, other types of of psychedelics. Now I am not a fan whatsoever. In fact, I'm adamantly against the recreational use of any of these things. However, however, let me explain the science behind it and why it's so effective when you're when you're working with trained facilitators who understand it. When we're children, our our brain is in a state of neuroplasticity. We're very very impressionable. At four or five years old, if you have something that happens, you know, your uncle abuses you, that gets gets dug into your subconscious mind. And a lot of the things, in fact, 95% of our day is literally controlled by our subconscious. After about 9 or 10 years old, in order to have some changes in our subconscious, it takes about 21 days to instill a new habit. And and a lot of our addictive behaviors, a lot of our childhood trauma or our our worry or what if thinking or negative expectations, a lot of these things are embedded in our subconscious mind and it's very difficult to break through through them. They're the um the proper use of something like psilocybin creates a temporary state of neuroplasticity where it's not going to fix anything by itself. Yet if you have a trained facilitator while in that neuroplasticity state can literally create 5 10 15 20 years worth of therapy in a matter of a few days and for me I'll tell you my personal experience and why it changed everything for me that the the I again I'm 10 years ago I'm on my second marriage headed for a divorce. I'm having these raging parties. I'm I'm in this toxic energy of sex and and and greed and lust and all of this crap. And in the my first experience after a guided meditation, prayerbased, very God-based in this experience, I I the the the neuroplasticity from the psilocybin put me into a state of pure empathy. I felt in every cell of my body. It was the most beautiful, horrific experience in my life. Horrific because I felt in every cell of my body the pain that my children felt when I cheated on their mom. And it was so heavy and it was so dark. And then then I felt the joy of the children that we had helped to rescue while they were as if I was them. And then I felt the pain of the family that was destroyed because some guy came to my party and slept with a cheerleader and broke up with his his he broke up his marriage. And and it was as if Satan himself had his foot on my chest and pushing me down to hell. And it was so heavy and it was so dark. And I and I remember I had headphones on. I was listening to this meditation music and I'm on the medicine and I was just feeling this heavy energy of the the ripple effect of my actions. And then I changed my playlist to what I call my my Jesus list. And this redemptive music just I could feel the hand of God pulling me out of of the dirt and the slime just falling off of me. And I remember saying to myself, Paul, did you learn your lesson? And so I turned it back to that meditative music that I was in as a strong beat. And boom, I could feel the emotion. The medicine just took me down to this place of pure empathy again. And I could feel and I left myself down there feeling the pains of hell of the ripple effect of everything that I did. And then changed the music back and then that redemptive and it was so beautiful and it was so powerful. And then I came out into the other room and the the main facilitator knowing that I had I wanted to reestablish a relationship with God. And I I um I had I had been raised in in Utah in the predominant church there and I had left that church 20 years before and as part of it had had I'd never reestablished a relationship with with Christ. and and the the the facilitator, I'm sitting there talking to her and I I point at this statue of of of Zeus and Poseidon and and I have Atlas holding the world on the shoulders and I said, "I feel like Atlas." You know, at the time I had 4,000 employees in my company. I feel like Atlas. I've got the world on my shoulders, but look how strong God made me and, you know, to be able to handle that. And she kind of laughs a little bit at my ego at the time that I was still working through. And she said, "Paul," she said, "I I see that, you know, you're you're seeing some, you know, traits in those Greek gods." She said, "But you know as well as I do that those were mythological gods." She said, "What about your relationship with him?" And she points at the statue of Christ that I had. And I here I'm in this neuroplasticity state, very hearttopening energy being facilitated. And I said, "Oh, I don't qualify for a relationship with Christ." And she said, "Well, why not?" I said, "Well, after I left the church of my youth, my bishop told me until I was rebaptized into that church, I would never have a relationship with God." And I she said, "Do you really think that that's true?" And I said, "Well, no." She said, "Why don't you work on that relationship?" And so here I'm, you know, I'm on mushrooms. I can barely walk, right? And I, she helps me take down this statue and sets it on the bean bag with me. And I held that statue for the next two hours and had the most meaningful conversation. Wow. With God that I've ever had. And it was transformative in every way. Now, this isn't for everybody. I've I've been friends with RFK for about 10 years and he's committed to help decriminalize the proper use of these tools. But it's important for people to understand that this is not a toy. This is not a recreational thing. You go to your friend's house and getting high. No, this isn't what it's about. Do some studies on the the John Hopkins University. Here's something interesting. when it comes to being God- centered. One of John Hopkins studies had 850 self-proclaimed atheists. Not not agnostic. I don't know if there's a God. These were atheists. There is no God. 850 self-proclaimed atheist. After one single session with a guided meditation, plant medicine using psilocybin, one single experience, twothirds of them said, "I am no longer an atheist. There is a God." Now you can say, "Oh, they're hallucinating." No, I believe that what it does is it thins the veil and in doing so helps us come face. They say that hell is when the man I am comes face to face with the man I might have become. And that's indeed what happened to me. And so, you know, I know that some people are like, "Oh, you know, that's controversial. Do some studies on your own. You can go to liberating humanity." But for me, that was the journey that brought me back to God. And after that, the undercover child rescue missions were very different. I wasn't playing in that energy of greed and and lust. I was tuning in to that guidance that happened on every mission and was incredibly more effective at finding the children with that with that being led by the spirit of God. Paul, when people come through um your retreats, are they going through um a meditation um experience like what you just described within their seven days? Yes. So, we we start out with um um we start out with with teaching people some very effective meditation techniques with things that you can use every single day. I I I believe that most people when they pray, most people when they pray and think about your prayers, right? Think about all of our prayers. Everybody who's listening today, your prayer is, "Okay, praise, praise, praise. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry. Please bless this. Please bless this." And go on. Now, imagine having a relationship like that. Okay? Imagine you're you're you're dating you're dating somebody and you you call this person up and you say, "Hey, wow, you're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're the most amazing person ever. You're so amazing. Oh, by the way, I'm so sorry. I really screwed up on this. I really screwed up on this. And by the way, can you fix this? Can you fix this? Can you fix this? And then you hang up, right? And you never listen back. You think that's a very healthy relationship, right? It's not. But unfortunately, that's how a lot of us our relationship with God is praise, praise, praise, sorry, sorry, sorry, fix, fix, fix, goodbye. And so the the meditations that we teach, we we spend two days in teaching people how to tune in. And this has nothing to do with the with a plant medicine in the beginning. And in doing so, we we we teach people how to get out of their conscious mind and get into instead, you know, right now we're in a in a beta wave mind, you know, state right now. And you get that into your into your alpha and then into the theta. I train people how to get right down into that theta state where you're completely out of your head. You're listening from that place of the heart and tuning in so that you can receive your own beautiful divine guidance in that communication with God. Everybody can do it. You don't have to be a prophet to have direct guidance and answers to your prayers. This is something all of us can do. The problem is we live so much in our conscious mind. We never tune in. We never get to that place where we can really quiet our mind and listen to that that place of the heart. I teach how to set sacred space and how to how to connect in that in that beautiful divine way. Then we we teach some breath work. Uh we have some breath work practitioners. That's another tool to get you out of your conscious mind and get into that meditative space as well. So we teach breath work and then we have what we call a cacao ceremony. Cacao is just hot chocolate, right? We we literally bought a a chocolate factory here in Colombia and turned it into this beautiful retreat. We have 200 cacao trees here. It's beautiful. And and uh we have this this this connection because chocolate and roses are a super high frequency energy. And we teach people how to how to start loving themselves. Step one to healing is selflove. And and here's something important. You know, I Yesua Jesus was asked what are the greatest commandments? And he says, "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, might strength. And the second is like unto it. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Guess what? There's three loves there. Love God, love neighbor, love yourself. And if you don't love you, if you don't love that man or woman that you're looking at in the mirror, it's really hard to love your neighbor. Mhm. Authentically. And so forgiving yourself and releasing all of that toxic energy from our past. Learning to love yourself is the first step to healing. So we do that and then we do uh two full days of psilocybin. We also have some other tools that we're very very proficient at working with uh buffo and combo etc. But they they have to be used in the right way with the right facilitators with the right sacred space and the the the god- centered um uh retreat that we have. Yeah. I remember in in treatment, this was one of my most favorite times during um a 30-day treatment was learning how to meditate uh and listening to um meditation music um or a score or whatever you want to call it. But we als they also pushed us to listen to music that were um you ever listen to a certain song and it became something when you hear it, you could kind of go back to the first time you heard it or those feelings or those emotions you get, you know? And I remember them them telling us, you know, they would play these different songs and it would register with some of us and it wouldn't register with everybody. Um, and they would tell us to close our eyes and they would teach us to breathe and and and we probably didn't get there as quickly as what you're talking about and in your um uh retreat. But I remember seeing these u images in my mind and and walking through with clarity versus um u addiction and just seeing where my life could be at if if I did these things that they were trying to teach me. I recently just started listening to um meditation music again. and I haven't listened to it in years, but it does like it I I put it on in the car um and and sometimes in my office and I just let it play. It just brings such a level of peace. So, um I don't you can you can get into that meditative space. You don't have to be, you know, on a yoga mat in in cross-legged position. You can you can do transcendental meditation when you're sitting on the subway. You can it's just a matter of getting out of your head and into your heart. You you have to the the voice of God isn't always a thunderclap. You know, sometimes it's a whisper and and and getting out of our conscious mind and into that that in fact, I'll tell you this story that's just that that changed my life years ago. This was 35 years ago. And just feel into this for a minute. I I met a guy by the name of Jerry Prine. Jerry sadly died in 2010, but you can look him up online. Jerry Jerry um couldn't read or write yet. He was tested at the university by us at the the highest IQ they had ever tested, one of the highest IQs in the world at the time. And um and he was the inventor of of a whole bunch of medical life-saving devices. He was the inventor of of um the original software that that IBM used for voice recognition. Literally our whole Siri, all talking to our phone, all of that stuff, right? Yet, this guy never graduated from elementary school and he couldn't read or write. And I remember I I went to lunch with him and he somebody introduced me to him and he the first things he said when we sat down, he said, "Paul," he said, "you could have an IQ over 200 if you wanted." And I said, "No, I'm really not that smart. You know, I worked hard for my grades. I didn't even get a scholarship." He goes, "No." He said, he said, "Uh" And I said, "I don't think you can change your IQ, can you?" He goes, "No." He said, "The difference between me and you is that I listen better than you." And I said, "You listen better than me? I touch my ear." He said, "No, I listen better than you." And he touched his heart. He said, he said, "Paul," he said, "do you think that I'm the inventor of those medical devices?" I said, "Well, you you have the patents, right?" He goes, "Yeah, I do." I said, "You're not the inventor." He goes, "No, I'm not." And I I didn't quite understand. He said, he said, "How long has the universe been around?" Mhm. I said, "Millions of years." He said, "Billions upon billions of years." He said, "Those medical devices were invented billions of years ago. I was a better listener than you." He said, "When you understand that we live in a world of universal truth, that we can literally tap in to the mind of God. we can tap into the he said there are countless musical scores that were written note perfect the first time he said you know why I said no why he said because they were already written he said when we learn he said most people discount their intuition because they know not from where it came from the books they read and the people they talked to and their limited knowledge in the world he said when you understand that that intuition comes from a place of infinite truth, you will learn to trust it and it will keep you safe and it will guide you to the successes in in the most important areas of your life. And so so for in that meditative space that is learning to listen that is how I I I was able to attract and identify the right people to build a multi-billion dollar company. And later in the undercover work, after I had broken free of a lot of my toxic crap of my own, I was able to tap back into that space and literally be led to where the children were, what we needed to do to keep our team safe, etc., etc. So, how did this how did this experience and I'll just say it's um you've created you created your own spiritual experience almost like some people receive that or have these moments of clarity if you will or rock bottom or whatever but you're creating that that spiritual moment through that you were already doing the the rescue work and then this then you decided to do this and then you continued doing the rescue work. How did how did that uh shift or how did that spiritual experience did it elevate the work that you did? Massive difference. Massive difference. In the beginning, I was going in as Paul Stone or Paul Steel and you know I have you know pictures of me with Lambos and Ferraris and you know and and it was all money and and and getting these guys to introduce us to their boss who selling kids because sadly that there's a lot of demand for those things that come from big arrogant egos with with that have already done everything in the world. Now they're throwing money at things like that. after my my my transformation and I recognizing that I didn't want to be in that same energy again. A few examples I remember um uh in Ecuador uh we we were called by the head of the federal police and he said, "Hey, you know, we've got all of these leads. I want you to come down with the team." And so I went down there and you know they they uh one of these girls had had had been trafficked out of this one section downtown and but uh we weren't told where and um and so they let me off. I get out with my team and I I'm sitting there in this this courtyard area. I'm looking around. There's just, you know, prostitute, prostitute, drug dealer, drug dealer. And I'm I'm just feeling I'm just feeling and I I see down this alley and there's this girl that's kind of leaning back against a wall. And immediately I could feel it. I could feel it that she knew something. So I walked down there with one of our guys. I won't tell you the whole story, but she ended up taking us literally within 2 or 3 minutes to exactly the the place. They had 12 kids that were there with two or three minutes just by following. It wasn't those guys. It was this one way down this alley. And then then we get back in the van. We identified that place that geotagged it. And that he's like, "That's exactly where that girl said that she was being sold out of. That's the, you know, now we know that that they're still selling, you know, have that as a as a child brothel there. And then moving then he he drives us to another area of town. He says, "Okay, there's this other area where where there's um there's a place that does fingernails and hair. It's a spa and they it's a front though. We we got a lead on it. It's a front. They have a massage place in the back and this is where they're selling selling these victims out of there." And so I we we drive up and then he's like, "Oh crap." I said, "What?" He says, "It's gone." And I could feel immediately everything in my body just said, "Stop." I said, "Stop." He goes, "No, why stop?" I said, "No, stop." He says, "They're gone." He says, "They must have got the the wind that we were on to them. The it's closed down. There's there's no spa there." I said, "No, stop. I can feel it." So, he stops the van. I get out. Uh, one of our our Green Berets gets out and and uh Jimmy and Jeremy uh some of my other operators and I go to the back of the van and I just close my eyes, breathe in through my nose and just feel, just feel. And and there was a restaurant that was over to the left and I I I went over right into the restaurant just following that that intuition. Walked up to the owner of the restaurant and said, "Hey, uh there's supposed to be a a spa here. There was a massage place." and and he says to me, he says, "You have an appointment." Freaking knew that place was still there. I said, "No." He goes, "Oh." And you didn't even want to talk to me anymore. So, I walk out in front and there's people walking everywhere. And then there's a a random lady that's walking her dog. I don't know why that was, but immediately I could feel overwhelming that she was the one. I walk up to her and I said, "Hey, can you help me with something?" I said, "I uh I've got I've got an appointment." I kind of lie sometimes undercover. I I got an appointment for a massage place here, but it's gone. And she looks at me up and down. You know, I've got a I've got a hat on that says effers upside down. I've got a big fat chain. I you know, I looked apart, right? And um she she takes her phone, makes a quick phone call. Sure enough, 2 3 minutes later, this madam walks down, opens up these two steel doors, brings me and two of my operators in, takes us down this this alleyway up into this this center section where there was rooms all around the outside and opens up a menu. That's the one that broke that Navy Seal. I mean, that great beret that was with us. And um and it was there was no way we would have identified that if I hadn't been tuned in. And it happens all the time on those operations. So for a number of years, that's all we did was we we weren't following logic and protocol. I I truly believe that God looks down at what we're doing with business and life and he's like, "Hey, you adults deal with that. Great. Good job." But he sees what's happening with these kids and says, "No way. If I've got good people willing to pave the way, I mean, willing to do the work, I'm going to pave the way." And I saw more miracles in that work than any other time of my life. Do the children that that you rescue Let me ask you a couple questions because I mean as you're telling every time that you talk I'm I'm seeing I'm visually seeing this in my mind. Um and this is just like I said in the beginning this is a whole different type of recovery but um the children that you rescue one how many have you rescued to date? Can you share that or is that it's too confidential? Yeah. So through through the Child Liberation Foundation and other foundations that I have helped to fund and start, we've calculated well over 7,000 children are now back with their families. Um beyond that though, um Tony Robbins came and saw an operation that I had led the undercover work on on on another foundation for a while and he came and saw that firsthand. And through his efforts and through his audience, over 70,000 children are now back with their families. And and with the movie, I don't know why this number seven keeps coming up, but you know, I I did 70 missions, 7,000 children through all of those 70,000 children there. And over 70 million people have seen The Sound of Freedom. And so, you know, you count that, it's it's a massive massive number. We've watched it. It was it was heavy. I mean, I remember watching it with my wife and We we cried. I remember crying. I was like, there's there's no way. Um, just from them being in containers and, you know, being shipped overseas, it was it was it was I'm very proud. And here's a here's something that's super important at this point, and this is for the audience here to really delve into. The majority of children who are being abused, who are being trafficked, who are being sold, the majority of those children don't get taken from a healthy family and put into a containership and move to another country. The majority of children come from broken homes, runaways, a broken foster care program. That's that's a big big deal there. And so parents are like, well, you know, they'll leave the Sound of Freedom movie. What what can I do? I want to go do something. Well, the worst thing you can do is go to Mexico and try to go rescue children. You you're you're going to get arrested. You're probably going to get shot. The best thing you can do is go home and hug your kids. People are like, "How does hugging my kids make a difference?" Well, you need a relationship with them where they can very comfortably come to you and say, "Dad, mom, I I I I don't like it when I go to this friend's house because her her brother took pictures of us when we were changing, and now he's gonna show him around the school if we don't do other things." or or this babysitter, she's showing us pornography and now she says we should trust her more than you. Or these are grooming behaviors. And guess what, guys? The majority of children who are being abused and even sold for for sex sleep in their own beds at night and their parents have no idea what's going on. They have no idea. If your 12-year-old daughter is all of a sudden she was outgoing and and had friends and now she's a recluse. Don't just think that she's going through puberty, you need to have a healthy conversation with her. She needs to know that you're their 911, that she can call you about anything. if she screwed up, quote unquote, she send a a nudie picture online to somebody that she thought was another boy, but it really was a 37year-old or a 45year-old man who was exploiting her. It happens every single day. Every single day. And so having those relationships with your kids is incredibly important. in in some of these uh retreats and different programs that you guys are creating now. Um what are you doing for the children that you have rescued? You're you're talking 7,000 or 70,000. Those are huge numbers. Are there programs in place for them once they get back home to kind of just work through that trauma? Absolutely. Now, here's something really interesting. Just feel on this for a second. Remember how I talked earlier about how when we're kids, our our brain is in a state of neuroplasticity, right? We're very impressionable. If we have a 10year-old or a 12year-old who you know for a fact that she was in that kind of a situation, you can immediately put her into a a healthy environment with a therapist, with a psychiatrist, with some some people who are doing dance therapy and art therapy, etc. that are that are helping her release that trauma. And children are incredibly resilient. And it's amazing to me how many of them when put into that healthy environment recover quickly. Now, the ones that don't are the ones that are in your own neighborhood. That their abuser wasn't some stranger. Their abuser was somebody that they loved and trusted. It was an uncle. It was a grandfather who said, "Nobody needs to ever know about this." And that child feels dirty. That child feels betrayed. That child holds that trauma deep inside and buries it in their subconscious mind. And 10 and 20 years later, it's coming out in low self-esteem and anxiety and depression and anger issues and addictions that that are controlling their life. And in that situation, it's going to require getting deep into that subconscious mind, which is things like our our retreats where we can create that neuroplasticity. Imagine some concrete that hardened when you were a child and inside that concrete is something that that is, you know, the spikes that are coming up that are popping the tires of every car that comes on it. Or maybe it's grandma's vase that's in there and you can't get it out with breaking things. But what if you could create that neuroplasticity again? You could easily pull that vase out. You could easily pull those spikes out and and create a a healthy future with the kids that are in the the safe houses. We have certification programs through the Child Liberation Foundation that are helping to to train facilities all around the world that are giving kids a healthy alternative to to where they were. Here's the thing, though. We we have found that the best solution is to put them in a healthy home. Sadly, most of these children didn't come from a healthy home, right? Half the children that we rescued in Thailand were sold by their own families. You can't put them back in that family again, right? And and many of these kids are runaways or foster care program. And so getting them into a healthy home. And we have some foundations that we help to sponsor that that actually bring in uh a family, a mom and a dad where they just lost their jobs. They're going to be out on the streets. And they say with this mom and this dad and this one child, they say, "Listen, we're going to give you a home. We're going to give you a job in this in this retreat area, this this safe house area. We we have one in Guatemala and one in Costa Rica." what where these these and they say we're going to give you a home. We're going to give you a job and we're going to give you three more kids because we don't want these kids in just a random orphanage type of a thing. We want them in a family environment. We're going to have therapists and psychiatrists that are on staff in the facility as a whole. But it's a win-winwin for all of them in creating these family units. And sometimes we have to move them around, but or we have other foundations that we help to uh pay for adoptions of these kids as well. And so, yes, that's a it's a lot of work, but ironically, it's easier to pull the hell out of the kids when you pull them out of that situation immediately than it is for us grown adults who have held on to that trauma for so many years. Absolutely, man. The work you're doing is incredible. Um, I don't want to make a hard shift, but I do want to talk about um, your book, Sound of Freedom. So, these are going to be stories from experiences that you've had with with these are true stories, everything. And and so this comes out when this episode releases, we're going to we're going to bump it in front of a few others so that it releases about the same time that your book comes out. Thank you. We want to um help help you with that. But um, what made you do this, Paul? Is this is this just something that I I realized, you know, with the movie I realized that we couldn't take millions of people to see what I had seen. It was too dangerous, right? But we could help millions of people feel what I had felt. And so the Sound of Freedom movie is all about creating awareness. But sadly, there wasn't enough time in the movie to be able to to give people the tools to do something about it, you know, and now we're all aware. Now what? Well, the the sound of freedom book, the the first the there's four sections of it. The first six chap five or six chapters, the first section is called the making of an undercover operator. But a lot of it are tools that parents can use to keep their children safe. This is this is, you know, everything from situational awareness to understanding different types of hand-to-hand combat to understand even the charity stuff that that that put me into a position where we can now make a make an impact. But then I go through the the rescue story on the island, the rescue story dressed up as doctors in the jungle, etc. Go through some of these stories and and a bunch of the different operations, but then the last section is all about liberating humanity. It's about what do we need to do to heal? What does how do we fix the generational trauma? How do we look at the man, the woman in the mirror and release ourselves from those toxic energies that are creating a ripple effect that is affecting children in our world? And so, so the the the book is a powerful tool that's not only going to take you through a a beautiful heart space transformation that I went through, but it's going to give you all the tools to keep your children safe. All the tools that we as adults need to to be able to to heal humanity so that this isn't a problem in the future. Yeah. I love it. I mean, you're you're just you're giving a glimpse into what you've seen and just how people can be a part of um understanding what you've done. Sorry, just one second, Paul. Can you hear that out there? We got to go turn something down, Paul, real quick in the church. Total totally good. Just ask them if they can give us 10 minutes. Paul, just while uh Cameron's gone to do that, I was going to bring my book up. I want to make sure that um I want to make sure that I get a copy of this to you. So, I got your address from Britney. I would love that. Thank you so much. Yeah, this was written it's written as a workbook, so it's very practical. It's not intimidating at all. Um it's written as a workbook for the man and the wife or the husband and the wife to um have this. and they go through each chapter and there's questions at the end of every chapter for them to answer together. Um, and it just helps them restore their their marriage after addiction. You know, when I went through treatment, there was nothing for me and my wife to do together. I was just expecting her to forget. Hey, I did 30 days in Florida. I need you to just forgive all the crap that I've put you through and let's just move on. But it's not that easy. That marriage didn't last, by the way. But, so I'm on my second marriage now. Um, and we've been together for 11 years. But we really believe in this because that's why I was asking you earlier is is what can we do um to give people the tools that are um in their recovery, whether it's, you know, that kind of recovery, but what you're doing um through, you know, these retreats and those different things, you know, those different ways that you're connecting with people. You're giving them tools. And so I want to make sure that I get this tool in your hand and and I'd like to talk to you again after this podcast to um I don't know to have a meeting with you just to to continue the conversation if that would be okay. Love that. Would love that. Where where is home for you? I'm in uh I'm in Evans, Georgia right now. So my studio is here and then um I go back and forth to Dallas. So my Purdue my publisher is Exom Marriage out of Dallas, Texas. And then I go there and record. They have a really big, you know, nice studio that I can record there in. I I'm in Dallas at least five or six times a year. Um I heard Oh, I got a little camera. Yeah, we're we're there. We're there all the time at uh Well, I was hoping to make u I think it was um I think it was Britney that told me that Yeah, he's in Dallas and I was I was like I'd love to have him in person. So, we'll do this we'll do another one again. I would I would love that. you know, we can we can we can talk for the entire thing on just just addictions. You know, one of I I bring in groups of men who were who and it was funny as I'll uh this last group, this last group was about 80% men and uh we had we had 20 20 participants and most of them were men and I pulled the men separate and I said, "Guys," I said, "Now, I I know I've talked to each one of you about your intentions and some of you are like, "Yeah, you know, I want to just be more present and now I want to, you know, be whatever." I says, "I'm just going to tell you right now, I already know that the majority of you either currently have or have recently had within the last couple years an addiction, an addiction to pornography, an addiction to alcohol, and a sex addiction, whatever it is. And it's pervasive." And we have an 85% success rate in helping people completely break free of those addictions. And we're talking even so much as we have some doctors we work with. We don't bring them here, but we have some doctors that use some of these plant medicine tools that have an 85% success rate of helping people break free of of of cocaine and heroin addictions with no relapses at all. Now, those are, you know, down in in Peru that's using something called Iawaska, which is super heavy and you're throwing up a bunch, but 85% success rate in breaking free of heroin and cocaine using some of these tools. And people are like, "Oh, aren't those addictive like drugs?" No. Psilocybin is safer than table sugar. There's literally never been a case of addiction. Not one ever. There's never been a case of overdose. And when used properly, it breaks those addictions completely. So, um, if it's used properly, are you doing this? Is it a one-time thing if it's used properly or? Yep. Is it okay? Just once. This is not something you don't need. It's not like Xanax and Prozac where you have to have that forever just to overcome your anxiety. You can literally you come down and and one time one time we we we do a a week long. It's actually two separate nights of using the psilocybin with the rest of the week is all supporting up to it. And and we're not talking micro dose. We're talking macro, right? It's it's a it's a full send connect with God and your higher self experience. But when when you have a guided facilitator that's there that's breaking that you've sat down and identified the things you want to release in your life, those addictions, those negative behaviors, those then then in that state of neuroplasticity, boom, you can break free of all of those chains. So, so then you go home and you're you don't have them. They're gone. They're gone. They're gone. And so it's a it's a powerful powerful tool that um that needs to be used correctly. When folks go through that uh Paul and and they leave after that seven days, are they taking anything home with them like homework tools? A whole bunch of homework tools. And we we have a we have a WhatsApp chat that we have with each group because you kind of have a new tribe, right? You got accountability partners, you've got, you know, people that are keeping you on track. You have uh you have meditation. We do meditation every day and teaching them different breath work tools and stuff. And so yeah, all of those they've got workbooks, they've got homework, etc. And um and we we we we have we have follow-ups with the facilitators as well. But um but there's the majority every single person say that it that it was either the number one or within the top two most transformational experiences of their entire life. I got a question. Sure. How many people come through that experience are married? Um we have about 50% about 50% about 50% of of of the last six months about half of them are married and half of them are not and the married ones we bring them through as couples um because especially if there's some addictions that are there because the the first half the first three or four days is all about release release breaking free breaking free of all of this stuff and then the second half is all about embrace. What is that 4.0 version of you look like? What's that for 4 4.0 version of your marriage look like? And if we can then bring them together having released those things that don't serve them and help them create this highest and best version of themselves and I can put them in front of a mirror together and have them, you know, state their positive present affirmations as a couple. Yeah. Here's something else important that um that we I teach all of our people, and this isn't a religious thing, but this is important to know. Statistically, in the United States, you have a 50% chance of getting a divorce or higher. 50% on your first marriage, 60 plus% on your second, 70 plus% on your third marriage. And and um so you have a one in two chance of getting a divorce or higher. If I told you you could do one thing every day, just one thing takes literally two to five minutes of your day. You do one thing and it would take it from one in two chances of getting a divorce to one in a thousand. Would you want to know what it is? Well, of course. Now, here's what's crazy. It's super simple. Pray together with your spouse every day. Yeah. You don't you don't have to have some crazy, you know, our father in heaven. You have to memorize. just hey God, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for this day. We're so grateful for this. This is what we're creating together and we're grateful. We're grateful for this and please help us with these things. And and if you meditate too and receive those beautiful answers coming back is incredibly beautiful. Doing that takes it from one and two to one in 1,152 is one of the most astonishing studies I've ever found. And it's not a you don't have to go to church every day and serve here and whatever it is. Simply pray together. Connect with your divine creator every single day. And you go from one and two to one in a thousand. I like that. I I don't know how this is going to work. I'm just going to be honest with you, but I want to keep carrying on this conversation. I want to get to know you some more. Um I want you to know who I am. I want to make sure this is one of the tools that the 50% of people that come through your um retreats, I want to give them this tool. Now, like I said before, Paul, I'm a nonprofit. Um, so I'm I'm not doing this uh for me. I'm doing it for them and really for the supporting spouse that's going to come there and and go through the retreat u with you. Uh I want I want them to have this tool to take home with them. Um so I would love that. I would love more on on how that looks. I can send you I'll send you a foundation. Oh, if we got a foundation, we can donate to your foundation as part of it. You know, that's what we're doing is we're we're taking Liberating Humanity into Right now, it's a for-profit. We're taking it into a a nonprofit because overall liberating humanity is really that's that's that's eradicating child poverty and global hunger and trafficking and and and healing from addictions and and all of those things and restoring marriages. all of those things as part of helping humanity break free from those chains. Well, Paul, I just want to say thank you so much. I was I was wondering when I got the invite to to hang out with you and just have you on the podcast like what are we going to what are we going to talk about when I've got Paul Hutchinson with from the sound of freedom and I've got recovery val. But now I understand recovery is not and this this book it doesn't cover just drugs and alcohol. this book is applied to porn addiction, you know, um different types of pro process addiction, you name it. But now I get it. I I I really do I understand that um this is a different kind of recovery, a recovery that I I never tapped into and I have my own trauma, but I I know that my trauma led me to um drugs and alcohol, cocaine, and but it could have easily like for for other people, it could have led to a heavy porn addiction. um or abuse of some kind. And I thank God hearing these stories now that I'm thankful that I I I was I was able to find recovery through through my own addiction and and it wasn't that other type of addiction. So, I have a heart already um to make sure that I stay connected with you to to help wherever I can. So, well, the the good thing about the camera going off halfway through is now you got my number. So, let's stay in let's stay in close contact. So, I told Cameron, I said, "Uh oh, he just messed up." Um, no, I I'll honor that. I I I I like honoring um honoring that and making sure. But I do want to say um from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for your team reaching out uh and taking the time to come on the Recovery Vow podcast. Um the Recovery Vow is made up of our podcast, the book Marriage After Addiction, and we have these workshops now. Um and hopefully, um we're going to continue to grow. I'll be praying for um your ministry uh and and the work that you're doing. I want to get more information on it uh for myself uh and just understand um how I can because people come to me and they want to know what they can do to to find sobriety and I help him find these treatment centers. But there's a different kind of treatment out there now that I I just learned about today. Let me ask you one question before I do close. Mhm. In the safety of it, do you require people have a certain amount of time in detox before they get to you for um your service? No. No. No. The the only things that are required if uh if somebody is trying to overcome addictions to uh SSRI, these are anxiety depression medications. We we do need them to be off depending on which you know, Xanax, Zoloft, whatever. depending on what they're on, we need them off for a minimum of four days, sometimes up to two weeks before they come on. Uh with alcohol, we need them to not have drank for the last week before they come in. Um but it's it's not like months. We we we uh we need to have them off enough where the the the um the drugs are not in the system right now and they're not going to interfere with with some of the neuros neurosapses that we're we're helping to fix. Um but but aside from that, no, we just we need maximum of a couple weeks depending on the the drugs and and we can get them through it. the uh the hardcore ones of of uh cocaine and heroin addictions. We don't handle those here. We have doctors in in Peru and and um Costa Rica that have them come in. But again, 85% success rate in helping break free completely and zero cases zero cases of addictions to to these tools. Yeah. Is there anything uh closing statement that you would like to offer before um before I let you go? Um anything on the books? I'll hold these up just for the audience to kind of see as we close. You can go if um you know, you can go on to to Amazon or anywhere online and get the Sound of Freedom book, but a lot of the things that we've been talking about, you can go on to liberating humanity. Just liberating humanity on my Instagram, Facebook, everything else are all liberating humanity. But liberatinghumanity.com will uh we'll give you some some tools to keep your children safe. They'll give you information on the retreats. You can pre-order the book or you know you can even just order it there. You'll have a link on on that as well there. So, all of those tools are there, including uh a link into the Child Liberation Foundation that if you want to get directly involved with uh helping with the rescue, rehabilitation, and reuniting of children with their families and some of the programs that we're creating with the foundation There.