Ep 111: Part 11/12,Tantra After Mormonism: A Late-Life Awakening with Rich Priddis: How to Build a Relationship with God Series

In this provocative episode, Janelle and Andrea sit down with Rich Priddis—a conscious intimacy guide and sexual healing coach whose life story reads like a sacred jailbreak. Raised inside the rule-bound, externally dependent world of Mormonism, Rich didn’t begin reclaiming his erotic and spiritual freedom until 49. And once he cracked the door open, the entire universe rushed in. You’ll hear about sacred self-pleasure, embracing uncertainty, following sensation, practicing gratitude and how its never too late to change your mind. There’s a nod to ISTA, Quodoushka and Rich’s morning drink: Kauai coffee, chocolate, muscle milk, cayenne, cinnamon and MCT oil. You’ll hear:

-Why God and technology are sisters in uncertainty

-An invitation to link spirituality and sexuality

-Why Rich recites an intention every time he gets in the car

-How self-love has been a pre-req for Rich to serve the world

-Why God does NOT require a middle-man

-All about exploring the forbidden and how it led to Rich’s truth

-How Mormonism broke down his ability trust his inner self

Today’s guest can be found online at RichPriddis.com

TRANSCRIPT:

Janelle Orion 0:00

Janelle, struggling to discuss sex and intimacy with your partner, not feeling met, seen or heard in your relationships. I'm Janelle And I'm Andrea. We're two midlife Mavericks sharing our own experiences, messy, AF and no regrets with marriage, divorce, polyamory and pleasure. We've learned that when you're brave enough to figure out what you want and ask for it, with partners, friends, family and most importantly, yourself, you'll feel more alive and free question everything, especially your mother's advice. There's no rom com formula for this. But don't panic. Being alone matters, honey, I can't miss you if you don't leave, what if your breakup could be your breakthrough? Our podcast is for brave hearts. Anyone who seeks or has found the courage to confront their fears and limiting beliefs about breaking societal norms in the spirit of finding their truth. If you're seeking permission to be brave in your relationships and want to feel less alone along the way we got you,

Andrea Enright 1:06

wow, wow, oh my goodness. What a story that rich, prettiest just gave us from a childhood and a life, a life up to 49 of Mormonism, deep Mormonism, to now, weaving gratitude and self pleasure and tantra into his relationship with God and finding himself and so much love in his new path. I'm stunned at his courage,

Janelle Orion 1:41

yeah, and I just really felt the groundedness of his lived experience come through as wisdom.

Andrea Enright 1:51

Yeah, he's gone through so much, and he's gleaned so much from it, right? The Mormonism, and they will articulate it in a really beautiful way, yes. So up next, we're interviewing rich prettis sex and intimacy coach. Stay tuned.

Janelle Orion 2:10

Hi, brave hearts. Welcome to permission to be human. I'm Janelle And I'm Andrea, and welcome to our latest episode of season five, building a relationship with God. We have been interviewing other brave hearts all season of various walks of life, various faiths, various ways that they express their faith. And today is no exception. We have rich purdes here with us to share his views, and I'm so excited.

Andrea Enright 2:42

Yeah, I am so excited to hear a just a completely different another journey, right? Like everyone has, has shared exactly how their relationship with God or spirit or whatever they call that has expressed and I learned a lot already in season five. So Rich, welcome to the show. Rich pritus is a conscious intimacy guide and sexual healing coach who had never tasted coffee or alcohol until he left the Mormon church at age 49 now his large mug of Kauai coffee, chocolate, muscle milk, cayenne, cinnamon and MCT oil is the most important part of his day, and he says, no one is taking that away. Best intro ever. Love that.

Janelle Orion 3:35

It's a beautiful, succinct example of finding your truth rich. Yes, of your like, someone told you you can't do this, and you're like, actually, this is, this is how God expresses through me, right?

Andrea Enright 3:48

Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much for being that articulate in in sharing that that as your bio.

Janelle Orion 3:55

How would you just describe your spiritual or religious beliefs?

Rich Priddis 3:59

At the moment, I believe that there is a higher power. You know, I grew up in the Mormon church with this image of a man like this, resurrected, perfected being, and it took me a while to sort of wrap my head around some other idea, because I was indoctrinated with that idea. And now I believe that there's all kinds of cooperative energies out in the universe, things that I can't really comprehend. And I relate it to looking at my cell phone, you know, like even, even what we're doing right here, that we're in this live thing talking. And I really can't comprehend how it works. People kind of explain it to me, but it still blows my mind. You could have been on the other side of the world and it's still talking. And I think the same thing about the universe, and I think that we I've come to the conclusion that in order to wrap our heads around it, humans attach some kind of thing. That they can comprehend, like seeing an image of a father, you know, a perfect father, or the deer tribe that I've been involved with around here, that we talk about the directions, you know, the north, south, east, west, and the and the fire and wind and elements, and how those affect us and and power animals and things like that. I think those are all valid ways of us sort of grokking what is happening something that we can't comprehend. So that's kind of how I look at it now, and also that I'm, like, connected to all of that, and like, I'm the I'm a god. Basically, we're all gods. We're all ourselves, our higher selves, connected to whatever that is

Janelle Orion 5:47

I love. What I'm hearing is there that you're like, I don't know exactly what it is. I don't exactly know how to explain it. I certainly can't comprehend it. I just know that it's real, and then I'm a part of it, and that we as humans try, an attempt to find ways to explain essentially, the unknowable.

Rich Priddis 6:07

Yeah, one of the interesting things that, if you don't mind me just saying interesting things about when I left the church was, you know, we're used to praying to this being, this man who I was told, if I left the church and I sinned, if I wasn't good enough that I wouldn't be getting communication from him, like he would block it off until I was a good boy. And the amazing thing was, when I left and I was doing all these sinful things, I felt like I was getting more downloads, more information coming through from wherever it was coming from, and that just kind of blew my mind. But I think it's because I was actually free. I wasn't stuck in that rigid place where I could only receive certain things and do it in a certain way. I was free to to bring in what I needed. It was, it was really an interesting realization, you know, wow, I just

Andrea Enright 7:03

want to, like, jump in that. Like, I love that I'm hearing a some kind of comfort in this uncertainty, like you're okay with it, and I love the comparison to technology or, like, we do this all the time, and where most of us are probably comfortable in that uncertainty of being in touch with someone across the world, and not exactly knowing how that works, but just going with it. So I just hear a trust and comfort and uncertainty that's beautiful. And then what you just said, I just was like, wow, it's not just hell that you were threatened with. It was no you're going to be cut off like, like, no one's going to talk to you anymore, so just like, Whoa, that feels like quite a threat. Yeah.

Rich Priddis 7:48

Well, and the and the whole thing with the Mormon church is about families can be together forever. You get married for eternity to this one person and and the threat is you're cut off from your family. You can live with them forever, if you're good, but you're cut off and you're in some other place if you don't do what you're supposed to do.

Janelle Orion 8:07

Got it so it's not, it's so the threat level comes at all the levels, right? It's like, okay, you're gonna get cut off from your God, but you're also gonna get cut off from your family. The other part that, like, had me go, Wow, is this direct response to like answer? Basically, she like, Okay, I want to leave this church. There's something compelled you to leave, obviously, and I want to go and for the very first time, I'm going to sin and I'm going to have a cup of coffee. And immediately something was like, this is incredible, right? Something affirmed the choice of drinking coffee for you that was outside of you.

Rich Priddis 8:51

Yeah, the coffee we weren't allowed to drink alcohol. So I tried, you know, like, beer for the first time, and it was really a cheap beer, and I hated it. And, you know, I found what I like now, but, but those things I hadn't even tasted smoking. I never smoked. I still don't smoke, but, yeah, till I was 49 I hadn't even tried any of that. And I was with one woman. For you know, I was virgin until I got married. And I got married, unfortunately, for the wrong reason, because I felt like I had to be married to have sex. So I rushed into something, and then I was just with that woman for 26 years, which is beautiful. We have beautiful children. I love that. And yet I came to the end of that, and I was like, Okay, I want to see what else is out there, not only with coffee and alcohol and those sorts of things, but with sex and relationships, I have no clue, except for this one person you know. So that was quite an adventure.

Janelle Orion 9:49

Yeah, and rich, would you mind saying how old you are now? Because just kind of reference to how long 65 you're 65 now. Okay, so you've been on this journey for 16 years. Is sex? Can chapter, maybe multiple chapters, of of your life. So I'm 51 now, and I have a stepson, but he didn't have children myself, but I got married for the first time at 45 I'm divorced now, but what I'm hearing right is that at my four at 49 right? You'd already been married 26 years, and you are your kids were already grown, I'm guessing. And so you're like, I'm like, here's this whole life I have in front of me, and what, what's going to happen with it? Is it? Yeah, there's something pulling you to say there's got to be something more for the next half of my life.

Rich Priddis 10:34

Yeah, because it's an interesting phenomenon that I see. Anyway you look at Mormon people, and they're beautiful, and they seem happy in that. But there's also this level of what I call shut down, and that's exactly what I was with so many of them, where there's just, there's no real joy in their face, in their eyes. It's, it's like this contracted sort of thing where I think, I'll speak for myself, I felt stuck. I was in this box and things like, well, you know, self pleasuring is a sin, and you're not supposed to have sex, and you're not supposed to do anything, and so you're stuck in this box like it feels like this pressure is happening, these natural feelings and natural, you know, urges, but you're not supposed to act on any of it in any way. So, yeah, so that was a great thing for me to actually get out and experiment and look at different things and then realize that I wasn't being struck by struck by lightning every time I did something that. Now to me, this seems natural and good. Everybody should be able to do that was like getting the answer, you know, that they didn't think I was going to get not being struck by lightning, not not having my whole life fall apart because God, you know, was mad at me now,

Janelle Orion 11:56

but the courage it took, right, the courage it took for you to say, I'm going to have a cup of coffee at the risk of getting struck by lightning, but I'm going to try it anyway.

Rich Priddis 12:05

Luckily, I ran into somebody right after I got divorced that was also leaving the church, and we sort of, you know, coupled up and held hands and left together, and that was helpful, you know, to have that support,

Janelle Orion 12:18

right, so that you weren't alone. Yeah, you've mentioned something about, like, having experiences, right as part of, like, a reason why we're here. You've mentioned that in what you what you shared. And I'd love to hear a little bit more about that, because it sounds like that's what you know, at 49 there was something that you're just like, I've there was so little you were quote, unquote allowed to do. And so you were just like, I just want to try, without the assumption that you had to like any of it. But you guys want to try to figure out what it is that I like,

Rich Priddis 12:51

yeah, I don't know how free I am to speak, please, like, masturbation, things like that. Is that okay? It's all welcome here, yeah? So totally that was a sin in the church. And if I masturbated as a young man, I was enjoying it, and I'd get to the climactic part, and it was amazing, and then I would immediately go into this deep shame, like this, this, oh, I'm terrible now. I'm the God thing, hating me and all of that. And it was, it was, it was terrible after I left the church and got divorced and I started actually studying self improvement things and investigating different ways of thinking. I used to go to trade shows in Vegas a lot, either exhibiting or attending, and I had just been discovering Tantra, you know, just just looking at looking it up, and I thought, Okay, I want to experience something tantric. And I thought, Vegas, there must be something in Vegas. And I was surprised there wasn't. I looked, I looked up Tantra, and Vegas just didn't have anything. But there were these few women who would come, you know that you could call them to your room, which I'd never done. That was like way out there for me, but she would come and give me a tantric massage. And so I tried it. I called her to my room, and it was this, you know, scary kind of thing, and she we're both naked, and she oiled me up, and she was sliding her body across mine, and she gave me a happy ending and and in the end, I was like, wow, I don't feel that deep shame. Actually, I really enjoyed it. And that was one of my first breakthroughs, where I was like, I should be getting struck by lightning. I should be feeling all this shame I should be all this stuff. And it was like, whoa. No, that was really great. I want to. I want to. And so the next time I went to Vegas and I brought my partner at the time with me, I said, Let's both do it. So we called her to the room again and and we both got a tantric massage. You know, they said, she said all the right words, I don't. That it was necessarily tantric sort of,

Janelle Orion 15:03

and I know you rich as a result of both of us, or ArcGIS, all three of us, having gone through ista, which we just call it to simplify it, you know, International School of Temple arts. It's a tantric retreat. Did Tantra become? It sounds like it did a big part of your life after that experience.

Rich Priddis 15:20

Yeah, I went through a lot of different experiences. I went, I had a mentor, tantra teacher, and I went through a Tantra teacher training after doing a bunch of, you know, workshops on, on that sort of thing. Yeah, attended is to, I've actually, I've actually been involved with almost 50 is to trainings over the years. Yeah? But then the quad OSCA, which is the deer tribe here in Arizona, and they, they're similar, but a little bit different, you know, perspective,

Janelle Orion 15:54

yeah, I've actually done there. I've done the q1 Oh,

Rich Priddis 15:57

sweet, yeah. And shamanic de armoring. I tried human awareness Institute, the high did a couple levels of that. And they all have their, you know, their approach, basically the same kind of area of, you know, sexual healing, I'll say conscious sexuality, as well as other things. But yeah, so I went through a lot of and other things I did. I went through a lot of experiences that way, in training and and then I decided I wanted to share it with other people. But, yeah, it's been, it's been a quite a path.

Andrea Enright 16:37

So I think I'm hearing that Tantra is part of or woven into your expression or relationship with God. Is that true? Or can you say more about that?

Rich Priddis 16:50

It is okay. So here's a here's a weird thing. People might think is weird. I'll just say that I discovered that that raising our energy is a very important thing, our vibrations, right? To connect with God. Lot of people have heard about that. And when I was a little boy, we were taught to pray and to give thanks first, like that was really important to thank God for the things we had. And I thought that it was because he'd be mad at me if I didn't thank him, right? But then as I got older and left the church, I realized that gratitude, in the beginning of, you know, your communication with God or the universe, has a way of shifting our energy, and that's what Tantra is all about. You know, shifting this energy and breath, movement and sound, and moving our emotions. And so if I'm giving gratitude, it's going to raise my vibrations, you know, from maybe depression or discouragement to wow, I really do have some nice things going on, and it puts me in a better position to communicate, you know, to receive things. If I'm super depressed, I'm not open to anything. I'm just like the bump on the log, but if I'm raising my vibrations being grateful for things that I'm open to, what might want to come through. And then I added to that, this is the weird thing for people, probably I started in my meditation, I started self pleasuring, and that's like, Whoa. That's that would blow my old church friends mind. You know that I'm praying to God while I'm pleasuring, but it's a great way to shift the energy to you know, if I'm if I'm stuck, there are lots of good reasons to self pleasure. And I'm not saying you know that I'm masturbating and going to climax place. But I'm just, I'm making myself feel good and raising those vibrations so that I can then be in a good place to connect with universe, God, the cosmos, you know, the cooperative energies, whatever you want to call that. So anyway, so that connection with Tantra

Andrea Enright 19:01

that's awesome, yeah? Like, what? What an interesting twist of using self pleasure and gratitude to raise your frequency and open you to the relationship.

Janelle Orion 19:12

Yeah, you've just articulated something. So that's sort of tantric, yeah? And you've just articulated something that I know to be true. And I have, there are several friends and other teachers who are not tantric teachers, who acknowledge that that orgasm and self pleasure specifically are like really, kind of like rocket fuel to expanding our consciousness for, you know, change, like altering our state of mind for a period of time, and that some people really get a lot of their downloads, right? It could a prayer. But like those that the downloads come once they're accessed, that state, that self pleasure and erotic energy, or gasmic energy, can can touch on of appreciating you, even for my. My own like growth and like perspective shift of like, oh yeah, I know that to be true, but I haven't said it that way. And actually, I don't even self pleasure that much with that intention. And so I'm like, oh, I should, like, add that.

Rich Priddis 20:15

Yeah, yeah, I'm ready taking notes,

Rich Priddis 20:19

but it's in lovemaking too. There's that component of connecting with the universe, and that's one of the okay, there's nothing wrong with just having a quickie and doing, you know, getting to climax and all of that, all of all of it's good, but there are those things that the moments that I really love is where you, you can be making love for an hour, two hours, and you're just going deeper and deeper into that energy and and then really, there is often times this connection that happens. You know, you heard about sex magic, where you can use sexual energy to manifest the things that you that you want. But I've experienced, and my partners have experienced these times where they get these downloads while we're making love and like a rewiring of the of the nervous system and things like that, where it's just it's just beautiful. You know, beyond what so many people do a sex where it's just, let's get this done, and it lasts just a short time, and there's this goal oriented thing. I love, the goal of getting to that place where you're just totally open and and everything your monkey brain is has left, and you're just open to receiving this information, or whatever it is that wants to come through, or healing or transformation.

Janelle Orion 21:54

It relates, deeply relates, I mean, to this idea of sacred sexuality, right? Of like, oh, you're you're making your sexual love, making sacred, and in doing so, through prayer, through gratitude, through this erotic energy, you're now opening yourself up to these, you know, higher, benevolent, cooperative energies to get messages from that and you know, and the messages probably will guide your life to a higher, you know, state of something. So I'm curious, how would you describe your relationship with God? Is it? Do you consider this different than your relationship with self? That's something I'm

Rich Priddis 22:35

actually working on right now. Is is reminding myself that I'm connected to everything like so i It's that idea that we're all one, everybody in some way, that we're all connected, and that if I really go into it, I feel like each one of us, I'll speak for me that I'm all powerful, that I can create my reality, my life, that goes into some of the shamanic stuff, we can create our own reality, but the Yeah, that I have this Direct Connection, and I Okay, so here's the thing. I was taught that we have to go through other people to get to God, you know. So there's the Jesus thing that he diverse ins, and that's wonderful and everything. I'm not knocking that, but we had to go through somebody. But not only that, in the Mormon church, you know, we had to be have worthiness interviews every six months to tell us if we were worthy to go to the special temples. And we got a thing, a little card that's called a temple recommend so we could go to the temple. And these temples are different than, you know, like in this Do we have temple nights where we're exploring our sexuality and stuff, but this is where you go to get married for eternity, and you get all the secret handshakes and passwords and all of that. But there was always this programming to look outside myself, to determine if I was good enough. And it really messed me up, and it creates a situation with people where they become so dependent on that outward validation, that outward direction, that they can't tap into the power that's inside of them that God gave them, you know, to really it's always this thing, like even I have A couple kids that are still in the church. I raised them, you know, I raised them all in the church. And then one day I said, just kidding, what to do with that? Fair enough, you know, they they still say things like, well, you know, it didn't happen, so I guess it wasn't God's. Will and, oh, it's, you know, it's only going to happen if this, this something outside of me wants it to work, and it, it takes away their, their power, really. So to answer your question, I feel like we're all connected to to God, to the source. I'll say, and we have more power than we realize, that we don't have to go through some other outside, validating source to create our lives. But I have to remind myself of that, because I get going through my daily life, and I get my monkey brain going, and I'm like, Oh, crap. Things aren't going the way I want. And and then I have to bring myself back, and I go, Okay, I'll say the things that I'm they're going well for me, raise my vibrations. And a lot of that is that, hey, I've got a couple lovers that you know are wonderful, and I get to do things like this with you on this podcast, you know, and whatever it is that to bring me back. And then I can go, Okay, now I can ask for the things that I want verbalize them. I call that spell casting a spell, you know, you you talk about spelling words. And so it's my casting a spell of what I want is speaking it.

Janelle Orion 26:22

Andrew and I were both raised Catholic, and we've heard about Mormonism, and it's interesting. I'm noticing that I'm having, like, you know, my eyes got wide when you were like, Oh, here's this, like, worthiness, like, card or whatever you get to receive. I'm like, wow, that seems so restrictive. Clearly aware that, like, the Catholicism, for me, was very restrictive. It just had its own right, like you had to go to confession, and did you deserve? Yeah, you know, like someone was telling you how you could so it's like there's the control and like having to defer to something outside of us happens in so many of their of their religions. What I'm also really hearing is when with the question of, is God different than self? Ultimately, the answer was, you get to have a direct communication with God like you're clear that that is your ability. Whether it's outside of you or inside of you, doesn't matter, but it's, it's it's, there is no intermediary,

Rich Priddis 27:19

correct, and that we actually are gods. It's all connected. And we're just here having an experience. But I feel like, yeah, we're directly connected to everything that's out there that I can't comprehend. That's the problem, right? When you say God it, it brings me back to that one person that I was taught to worship that single being and and now I believe that I can't comprehend what that source is. You know, it's that's just a representation for me to be able to grasp onto and go, Okay, I can, I can handle that. I can wrap my head around it.

Andrea Enright 28:00

So, I mean, it sounds like, at a minimum, even if it's a little murky, your relationship with God and your relationship with self are overlapping.

Rich Priddis 28:09

Yeah, it's a never ending path, you know, to reprogram and and to get where we're going, obviously. But God's not like getting in my way. He's not preventing me from doing the things that I enjoy, having my pleasure and and whatever it is where in the past, and I think in a lot of religions, there's this idea that he actually gets in the way. It's like, No, you're not going to get this because, or it's not my will, or it's whatever these things are, these controlling things. And I think that His will or its will, or

Janelle Orion 28:45

specifically that pleasure is bad, like you're not supposed to even want the pleasure, right? God doesn't want you to have pleasure, right?

Rich Priddis 28:52

And I think what it really is is that God or source, or whatever it is, is just wanting us to have our experience and to whatever our highest good is. But he's not going to he's not going to go, well, that's not your highest good. So you can't have it. You know, I think we are the ones who decide we have that power. I don't think he's getting in the way.

Janelle Orion 29:17

How does your relationship with God or the you know, cooperative beings help you find peace amidst the suffering of the world, right with everything that's going on,

Rich Priddis 29:30

I believe that we can create our own experience. That doesn't mean that nothing bad is going to happen, but I believe that some people just go through life just without Shin they don't have any stated purpose. They're just kind of drifting. Drifting is the word I want. They don't know what they want. They don't ask for what they want specifically. And I believe. Believe that if I I'll just speak for myself again, that if I am actively saying, here are the things that I want in my life. Like, okay, so for example, every time I get in the car, I say, I want to have a safe and useful trip. And I'll say sometimes, hey, travel angels. I have all these kinds of words for different travel angels, or or parking angels. Want to have a good parking space, but I state what I want. I want to have a safe, a safe day today, and I speak it out loud. And when somebody's in the car with me, they hear me, and they they're used to it. And so I feel like, yeah, there's a lot of trouble in the world, and I can connect with the universe to guide me through it. If I'm just drifting and I'm just taking whatever happens, then I'm going to be caught up in a lot more of the trouble in the world, then maybe I need to be is if, if I'm saying, hey, I want to have a safe trip today, or hey, I I want to have this happen, or I want to, you know, improve my my health and my body and so, you know, What do I need to do? So it's being active in your experience, really taking some responsibility for the nature of your experience on the earth and and realizing that there are a lot of other people having their experience, and maybe they're creating something you don't want to be involved in, and that's really sad some of the things that are happening, and somehow they've created it. So that's what I try to do. And I have my struggles, right? I have things come up, and I'm sometimes in the mystery, don't know why this is happening. And so then I try to do my best to again, state what I want. And then I am comforted because I have things come through. Maybe I'll have a message show up on my computer, or something that helps me, or I even, like the little seeing the time when it says 1111, you know? And I go, Oh, my angels are telling me that everything's okay, you know?

Janelle Orion 32:21

The first thing that came up was, actually, I teared up because I had never, I've actually never realized this, but my dad said, had said, says a prayer. He's 95 he's not driving anymore. Every time our family got in the car together, he would say a prayer out loud, oh, really, yeah, for us to get to a safe tour destination. And I had never tracked, never tracked that that's what was happening. So I just had this whole like, wow, wow, the protection of my dad knowing that. But what I'm hearing is that it's not that you're saying bad things don't happen, right? But that you do get to influence your experience, and that it's the perspective that you have, you can ask for your desires and recognizing that they also might not look like you thought, but you know you're asking for them, and simply by asking for them, that's giving you comfort that you have these other beings supporting you. It's like you're not alone in crafting your life.

Rich Priddis 33:34

Yeah, and then the comfort actually comes also, because I've consciously asked for something, and then I'm looking for things to show up. So you know that the time, you know 1111, I'm like, Okay, I asked for some comfort. So there it is. Or a message will come through. Somehow, somebody will say something to me, or or an opportunity will come along, and I'll go, oh, okay, I asked

Andrea Enright 33:58

for that. I'm hearing this intersection of, you know, what some people would call, I don't even know how this fits in anymore, the Woo, right? Like you're believing this mystery, you're believing the cooperative energies in God and spirit. And yet I also hear these very secure, structural words like accountability, responsibility, boundaries, intention, right in the world, which is just a beautiful melding together. Because I think we need both, right? We need both of those buckets to live our best life.

Rich Priddis 34:31

And this is really a tantric idea, where you state something and something comes back. Because, you know, you probably heard where attention goes. The energy flows. In tantric practices, you put your attention on something in your body, and that's where the energy is going to go. But also in just living life and connecting with God, one

Janelle Orion 34:53

thing I do want to like just dive into a little bit, because I think you know, depending on who's which you know, bravehearts who are listening. Be somewhat confused, right? Is when we think about, yeah, the humanitarian crisis is of the world, and there's so many, right? What I could hear and what you're saying is, oh, if you're in a war zone, you call that

Rich Priddis 35:14

in no. What I meant by that is that somebody decided to pull the trigger on the war, you know, so that's kind of their reality that they helped to create, not that the victims are creating. That. What I am saying is that it's possible that if you find yourself becoming in that war zone situation, to ask to state. I want a way out of it. I want to change this. I want to what can I do? But it's actually speaking the words, I think that starts that process. It's like the universe wants to help us, but we have our free agency, and so if we're not saying what we want, then it doesn't know what to do. And so we just kind of drift, that's what I believe. And so, yeah, we can find ourselves in situations and then actively do things to maybe avoid the next piece of it. And also, too, one of the big things I have that I struggle with is when people are always negative. Like, all they can talk about is negative, negative. I I have to stop sometimes I'll stop people, because I find that for me to be in a good place myself, I have to look at what's right with things. In fact, I say I want to look at what's right with everything. Like not that everything has something right, but, but we can get stuck in this negative attitude and just keep going down, down, down the black hole. And if we're looking at the things that are going right, it can help us to have hope. And then again, if we're in a terrible situation, we can say, well, I'm alive, you know, maybe I didn't get killed in this war, and so I'm alive and and my family's with me, whatever it is. And you can look at what's right, and then then move from there to saying, Okay, now what can I do? What can I ask for to get out of this? And and when people are complaining a lot, too. I like to say, Well, why don't you do something about it, you know, all of the humanitarian stuff. Okay, well, are you doing something? Are you? Are you? Have you joined the cause? Are you just complaining?

Janelle Orion 37:33

You know, well, and that ties into my next question, which is, does your relationship with, you know, God or spirit, give you capacity to directly support those who are struggling, and if so, how

Rich Priddis 37:48

I mean, I feel like this whole connection to our higher self and to God and to the universe, It's creating an energy of compassion, of love, as opposed to say, if I'm saying that God doesn't exist or there's no help in the universe and everything sucks and I'm angry. And you know that kind of energy developing, continue to develop that relationship with self and God really learning to love yourself. I mean, that's probably the greatest thing that you can do to help build a relationship with God. And then, and then you're building those, those tendencies to want to help other people. It's not all about you. Then if you're not feeling good about yourself, then then you can't that. You're always looking for something outside of you again to to make it okay. And so you're going to complain about things that aren't happening right, and that aren't making you feel good. But if you're if you're grounded in yourself, you're in alignment, and you love yourself, then you can help other people. And you you have the capacity your your buckets full. And so then, then, yeah, you will want to help. And that all ties into, you know, loving yourself and knowing that there's a higher source that is here to help you and you're not alone.

Janelle Orion 39:13

The thread that I'm, I'm, I'm creating there is that in a way, like self love and a relationship with our higher selves, in spirit and source, are very, very closely tied together. They could almost possibly be the same thing, very close.

Andrea Enright 39:36

Yeah, I like, I think I start saying they're sleeping together. I like every night,

Andrea Enright 39:48

is there any aspect of your relationship with spirit in your your early Mormon education that still persists today?

Rich Priddis 39:56

Yeah, there's a lot of good in the experience that I had growing. Up and emphasis. There's a huge emphasis on feeling like, like, feeling the spirit, feeling it in your heart. They called it a burning in your bosom. They called it in the old days or burning in your heart. And so we were taught to seek for that, you know, to really in prayer and different things, to to look for that feeling that that came in. And I realized that I did feel that a lot. And I think people in other religions feel that a lot in different situations. And I think it helped me to be able to connect with spirit or with God. But I don't think it mattered that it was that particular religion, or the Catholic religion or whatever that teaches us to to somehow connect. So yeah, I value there's so many little things that I go, Oh, okay, just like the Giving thanks when I prayed and like that, really helped me a lot, beautiful, maybe, maybe it was presented in a weird way, but it gave me something. So, yeah, I that's how I really, I think have my connection is from all of that

Janelle Orion 41:14

so rich. How would you suggest someone find their deepest belief or spiritual path, if they're new on this journey.

Rich Priddis 41:24

Okay, so the biggest thing for me, with the church, with following this sacred sexuality path, all of it, is coming to a point where I could well find my truth, which is what you're talking about, and and actually live it. And I think it takes so many different it means diving in and doing the personal work, you know, the personal development, whatever that may be. I mean, I went through so many different things, landmark education and, you know, the self improvement books and everything, but, but I had to finally come to a place, and it really has just been in the last few years where I really feel solid, that I'm I'm living my truth like to do the work I'm doing, I had to give up relationships because people I was with just couldn't handle that. I was being so open and everything. And so I would try to adjust myself and go, you know, I can do this, or I can do that, and then it just didn't work. And I finally had to say, This is my truth. This is who I am. People, in general, humans, have a hard time stepping up and saying, Well, this is who I am. This is my truth. So let's say you have an alternative sex life, you know, and you're afraid to come out of the closet or something, well, that's a big step in finding and living your truth, and if you're afraid to even do that, then you might have a hard time finding your truth about God and everything you know, because you're you're trying to still please other people. I guess you know, it's a tough one, it's a path. It's a it's it's a lot of work, but that's what I would recommend, is is in any place you can, whatever that little piece is, to discover that truth and then and then live it, no matter what anyone else says, and not hide it, not stuff it away. That gets into shadow work and stuff like that. But we never get there totally I don't think, but it'll get you closer and closer to the more that you actually live whatever truth you've discovered. It'll get you closer to the bigger truth. Rich.

Janelle Orion 43:43

Thank you so much for this conversation. Is there any question or thought that you would like to that hasn't been said that you'd like to express towards our brave hearts and anyone listening,

Rich Priddis 43:56

just that the and this is just because it's my, my focus, my The

Rich Priddis 44:03

important thing in my life right now is that our life force, energy is just so important, and it's stifled in so many ways, and shamed and and there's so many people who are contracted or who have just given up on it. I'm amazed at how many people just are like, Yeah, I just don't, don't have sex, I don't whatever I don't do and and

Janelle Orion 44:30

are you equating life force energy to sexual energy?

Rich Priddis 44:34

That's a big part of it. Yeah. Is that creative energy that we have? That's what our sexual energy is it's creative on the path, like you're saying, to finding the truth and God and all of that, this is a huge piece, is accepting our bodies and loving our bodies, and because that's where these messages and downloads come to. Do you know? And that's where we feel, what's right, and really, really having a good relationship with our body and, yeah, our sexuality and our and our emotions, you know, that's it's all such a big piece. So that's it.

Janelle Orion 45:17

Love, love it. Yeah, Richie, if someone wanted to get a hold of you, you know, for for your coaching or anything like that, what's the best way to find you?

Rich Priddis 45:28

It's rich. Predis, calm. It's my name and

Janelle Orion 45:31

it's P, R, I d, d, i s correct.

Andrea Enright 45:35

Thank you so much for coming on today. This has been such an education and a witnessing, just witnessing, that journey of transformation, really, just being open to something completely new, and how much, how much love you found,

Rich Priddis 45:51

thank you. And

Janelle Orion 45:52

something that you mentioned early on was, you know that there's people who were, you know, were in the church, who didn't have, they didn't see a sparkle in your eye. So if you're only listening and you're not watching this on YouTube, then I'm here to attest that Rich has a wonderful sparkle in his eye. Thank you. And and also to call out, right, that this journey started for you at 49 and you are at 65 like living this really vibrant, full, joyful life. This is a testament like there's it's never too late, never too late, never too late.

Rich Priddis 46:28

Yeah, to make a change. Well, thank you for having me. You're welcome.

Janelle Orion 46:31

Thank you Rich. Hey, bye, brave hearts, we'll see you next time.

Janelle Orion 46:41

Hey, Bravehearts, looking for permission, work with us. Andrea offers permission coaching, and Janelle offers erotic wellness sessions. Follow us on Instagram, meet us in real life at permission to be human workshops in Denver. Subscribe to our newsletter. Do all this and more at our website. Permission to be human. Dot live. You.