00:00:02

James Redenbaugh: This meeting is being recorded. Hi, Gary.

00:00:08

Garry Chilluffo: Hey, James, how are you?

00:00:10

James Redenbaugh: Good to see you. Hi, Samuel.

00:00:12

Garry Chilluffo: Hi, good to see you.

00:00:15

James Redenbaugh: Nice to meet you.

00:00:16

Samuel: I am so excited. I'm currently. I've been having a. A chat with a project like Leadership Project AI on this all morning. It's been very good. So

00:00:33

James Redenbaugh: great. Wonderful. How are you both today? Good to be with you.

00:00:39

Samuel: Good. We're doing great.

00:00:41

Garry Chilluffo: The sun is out, it's warmer. We've been under gloom for a week. Storms.

00:00:49

James Redenbaugh: Yeah.

00:00:50

Samuel: So my daughter was like, is this England? Why is it so foggy here all the time?

00:00:54

Garry Chilluffo: Yeah, it's foggy like two or three mornings in a row. It's like, wow, even my time. So, James, so basically this is your core team of working this baby. Yeah.

00:01:07

James Redenbaugh: Great.

00:01:08

Garry Chilluffo: And we can employ others as needed, group input, whatever. But we're your. We're your tag team the to do this. So just so you understand. Yeah. In one way. We're not putting anyone down, but we probably have the most. We're the most visionary. We have the most vision about what has to happen.

00:01:40

Samuel: Absolutely.

00:01:41

Garry Chilluffo: And for various reasons, other people are just caught in, you know, back. Back a few years ago and whatever. And they're transitioning. Yeah, they're transitioning. It. It's a slow process. So anyway. Yeah. So anyway, we're excited about this and to kind of like kick it off and kind of get rolling so that I. So that because of the new news that came through. Yeah, yeah. We're out of the building and property end of the end of December.

00:02:17

Samuel: Yeah.

00:02:17

James Redenbaugh: Wow.

00:02:18

Garry Chilluffo: But, you know, the Franciscans gave us three years since Justin's passing. And it's like, you know, and it's kind of. It's not a personal thing. It's just business. It's like they're. They're unloading property.

00:02:31

Samuel: Yeah. Like the downtown, like, monastery is. Is sold. It's gone.

00:02:37

James Redenbaugh: So

00:02:39

Garry Chilluffo: anyways, which one. Which one was that? You're not talking Sacred Heart, are you?

00:02:44

Samuel: Yeah, Sacred Heart.

00:02:45

Garry Chilluffo: They sold Sacred Heart.

00:02:46

Samuel: They sold Sacred Heart.

00:02:49

Garry Chilluffo: It's a. It's a church. Going. Going church.

00:02:52

Samuel: I know, I know.

00:02:54

James Redenbaugh: Okay. Well, yeah.

00:02:56

Garry Chilluffo: And. And James, you probably should know, you know, the Franciscans, of course, are part of the. Part of the Catholic family. Just different, derivative. But

00:03:07

Samuel: like the mystical arm.

00:03:11

Garry Chilluffo: Yeah, mystical arm. But the Franciscans who had their own little operation and they called it the provincial or the province, and they were stationed around the United States. And the one that we were. Or Justin was part of was St. Louis. But they've taken all of these sites Satellites and combined it all into one into Atlanta, Georgia. So. So because of that, yeah, they're just some. They're just going through some major changes. And. And, yeah, but I. I think I will add to you so you understand this. Samuel and I are probably more in agreement in this than most others. But this is kind of a. This is kind of a good transition, the Hermitage. Because as much as it's a lovely property, it doesn't really fulfill all of our boxes in terms of having groups in there. Large numbers of groups and whatever. But beyond that, because that facility is there since 1985, when it was started. Everyone's working back in those days. And this is how we did it. It's kind of like it's as much of a benefit as it is a drag or a negative. And so this isn't a bad thing. And now it's going to force the board to, like, go do what they should have been doing the last three years.

00:04:38

James Redenbaugh: Yeah.

00:04:39

Garry Chilluffo: Going out there and finding a comparable space.

00:04:42

Samuel: And I would say in the last board meeting, there was a spam. There was surprise. Some board members, like J. Black, who was on the board, said straight up, like, this is going to be a good change for us. Like, this. This could be really good. And then the president is also very much in that camp as well. But the website. I think the website change and rebranding is going to help them see and process and begin to really engage in, like, what does the future look like? And. Yeah, so we brought this up. We've been talking to the board and people about this for a year. But it's hard for them to, like, grasp onto it. Like, okay, it's his theory, you know, move the hermitage world, you know, and it's kind of a theoretical thing. Even though they've had presentations on it, we've shown them lots of stuff. But this kind of more. Makes it more real and more tangible. So I'm excited for this.

00:05:49

James Redenbaugh: Great.

00:05:50

Garry Chilluffo: Yeah.

00:05:51

James Redenbaugh: Great context. Well, I'm excited to get into things with you both today and start exploring vision and possibility and strategy and talk about our design process and how we can go about that together. Before we jump into that, I wanted to invite you guys to start with a little meditation or practice. I'd love to get a taste of the. The kind of thing that you guys do together, the kind of space you occupy. So I invite either of you to lead us in. In a brief meditation or. Or whatever you feel called to do. Cool.

00:06:42

Garry Chilluffo: I'll follow you, Samuel.

00:06:43

Samuel: Okay. Yeah. So let's. Let's just settle in, comfortable posture, just settling into the to space. We're into the present moment, Taking some deep, calming breaths, Allowing ourselves to relax, Bringing stillness, presence. Flowing in. I'll use some of Friar Justin's visualization. And we can imagine divine, cosmic, unconditional love as a blue, white light that enters through the crown of our head, bringing with it the connection to universal intelligence and this love, blue, white light energy fills each of us. Each of us is feeling that love, greater awareness. We allow that energy which is truly not separate, but the same. Tonight, all of us, we can feel this blue, white light, love energy moving through us, connecting us to all the rest of the people on the planet, all the whole world. There's nothing in space. Nothing in the spirit world is separate. There is no time or space. And so for this moment, this time, we're going to connect to the spirit of fire Justin, to his work, and to the greater work of serving the divine into all people and bring it into this very moment. Let's just sit with that for just a moment. As we bring this meditation to a close. I'll count from one to three. That three we will feel awake, refreshed, as if we had a long night's sleep. 1. Coming up to feeling energy and ready to face our task ahead. 3. Thank you.

00:10:51

James Redenbaugh: Thank you, Samuel. That felt amazing. Really beyond the words that you were speaking, I can feel the. The energy that you and your community share and what you're holding, and it's great to get a little taste of that. And I want, Yeah, I want to invite more of that into my life. Feels really good. Thank you.

00:11:21

Samuel: Conduits. It's okay.

00:11:26

James Redenbaugh: Totally wonderful. Great. Should we start with a little bit of introductions? I'm, you know, you guys must know each other very well. I'm. I'm pretty new. I'd like to get to know you guys and I'll just share a little bit about myself and my background and invite you both to do the same. I'm James. I'm here in Philadelphia. I have the extreme privilege of getting to work with some wonderful organizations around the world doing good and conscious work. And I've gotten to do this for over 15 years now. I started my professional journey working for a magazine that doesn't exist anymore called Enlighten Next Magazine. It was called what is Enlightenment Magazine before that, and they did kind of a survey of enlightenment in the west and lots of interviews. And I was lucky to be there at the time because it exposed me to just so much, so many different paths and traditions and people and teachers and. And that kicked off a journey of getting to work with really wonderful folks and growing my team over the years and the skills that we. That we use to build community platforms and websites and brands for organizations like yours. And every. Every project is very unique. You know, as. As time goes on, I. There's more of a sameness to everything. It's like all the same thing. The Sufis, the Vedas, the Franciscans, and there's more diversity. There's more beauty and uniqueness and purpose in the different expressions. And I've been very excited about this project, not only because of the vibes that I feel talking to Gary about it and exploring the content, but I've always been curious about the Franciscans. You know, I've always heard wonderful things about St. Francis. I've read a number of Christian mystics over the years and appreciate the perspectives. And two summers ago I got to spend some time at a monastery in Austria. It's a. I forget the. It's not Franciscan, but they were. They're very cool and mystical. And I didn't grow up Christian. We're very Christian. We went to church once in a while and I think I. I definitely had a resistance to probably over sharing at this point, but I'll just go with it. Resistance to Catholicism for a long time because, you know, gets a bad rap and I mean

00:15:11

Garry Chilluffo: the.

00:15:12

James Redenbaugh: The church does over the year, you know, Crusades and whatnot. But my mom converted to Catholicism about six years ago and she's always been somebody who's like, introduced me to new mystical things like in. In Light, Next magazine and meditation when I was really young and yoga and. And then she was like getting into Quakerism and Kabbalah and you know, it was EST training and landmark stuff back in the day. And then she found Catholicism and I was like, wait, what? This is weird. But over the years, going to church with her and seeing what she loves about it and listening to her, I really get that there's something wonderful there and there's so much beauty in that. And she loves the community, she loves the service. She goes to a really cool, progressive, diverse, LGBTQ friendly Catholic church and in Germantown not far from here. And she also has her gurtjief group and studies her chief and she also does interbeing stuff with me and Evolve World. But yeah, long story short, I've been essentially re. Like rediscovering Christ or discovering Christ for myself in new ways the last few years and. And there's so much there I even started reading the Bible for the first time. And, yeah, I just. I know it's, you know, there's worlds and worlds in that, and I have awe and curiosity for it, especially the Franciscan strain, knowing it's rather mystical. And. And it seems like what you guys and Farrah Justin have been doing is a particularly mystical, particularly open flavor of it all. So I'm excited to get to know it more. And. And my goal here is to. To be on the inside of it with you and to create with you, not try to make something attractive or take you through a process that, you know, is. Is templated or. Or try to apply something to you from the outside. But I want to bring the tools that I have and the team that I have inside of your sphere so that we can look at it together and get a shared sense of what wants to emerge. You know, what does it want to be. I definitely have a strong belief that organizations and initiatives have an energy and an intelligence unto themselves in the same way that we do as individuals, in the same way that a family does as a family unit. And. And so I want to get to know that that's how I like to work is it's very intuitively and intersubjectively and relationally. That's what AIRA stands for. Intuitive, relational, and intersubjective. So that we're creating together, even if I or one of my team members is putting the pixels together, putting the code in place, I want you guys to feel like you've. You've made this with us. So that's a big share. Wow.

00:19:03

Garry Chilluffo: Well, your spiritual journey is transformational. Like, wow. I won't start yet, but I just wanted to interject about, you know, religion and spirituality. And I was born. I'm Catholic background. I'm sorry, Italian background. So I'm a Catholic background, born and raised. And certainly the church hasn't been very LGBTQ friendly, but that wasn't really the only reason. A lot of. A lot of egos and power structure because it's all human, right?

00:19:43

James Redenbaugh: It.

00:19:44

Garry Chilluffo: You know, so. But I've explained to people that, you know, I found. I found father Justin 82, 1982, when he taught me. He was. He was teaching the Silva meditation program.

00:19:59

James Redenbaugh: So

00:20:01

Garry Chilluffo: that started that off. And basically I finally found my footing with, I'm not part of religion, I'm part of spirituality. And because religion in my mind is. It's all man made. And you're kind of looking through colored sunglasses. They're all the same, except different color, you know, Anyway, but the point being, where I'm going with this is, this is what Father Justin or Briar Justin, by the way, I've known him for so long, he's just Justin to me. But I, I do add that little preface.

00:20:37

James Redenbaugh: He

00:20:41

Garry Chilluffo: created and gathered a community, a lot of them ex Catholics and finding more meaning in the message and what it all meant, blah, blah, blah. So. So he built a what, Samuel and Interfaith center and accepted anyone. I mean, he even had Jewish friends who were part of the whole process.

00:21:04

Samuel: It was Buddhists in the. Buddhists in the building for a while and. Yeah, all different things.

00:21:10

Garry Chilluffo: So. So we're not. So we are not Catholic affiliated and we accept all. All persons, all religions. So I want to make sure that. That you were clear on that. That and, and with. And with Father Justin's passing, that even steps us back even a little further from church, as in hierarchy and all. So. Yeah, anyway, I, I just wanted to make sure. I pointed that out because that may not have been clear up front.

00:21:48

James Redenbaugh: Yeah, yeah, wonderful. That's. That's the sense that I was getting. This, this gathering I did at the monastery in Austria was actually. It was an interfaith gathering put on by the Austrian government and the Parliament of World Religions. And. Yeah, it's a. David Steinl. Ross. I'm sure you've. You know him. It's his monastery.

00:22:16

Samuel: Okay. Yeah. Oh, right. Okay, that makes sense. Okay.

00:22:20

James Redenbaugh: Yeah. He was there. He's getting very up there in age.

00:22:25

Samuel: I never know when these guys have passed or not. There's like. I'm not.

00:22:28

James Redenbaugh: I know. I think he might, he might have recently. He was. He's on the edge, if not cool, but wonderful. Great, Great to hear. So. Yeah. Who, who are you guys?

00:22:42

Garry Chilluffo: Yeah. So, Samuel, I'll let you go first if you want.

00:22:45

Samuel: Well, I, you know, since you started, I just wanted to continue. You got, you got. I feel like you started your story, so.

00:22:51

Garry Chilluffo: Who, me?

00:22:52

James Redenbaugh: Oh, yeah.

00:22:52

Garry Chilluffo: Well, okay. Well. So, yeah. So of course this is how I got involved or engaged with Friar Justin through silver meditation class. Back then. It was. Back then he was in a.

00:23:14

James Redenbaugh: I

00:23:14

Garry Chilluffo: wouldn't call it a monastery. A Franciscan site that had Franciscans there and it was a retreat center. I think that's what it was. It was a retreat center. Yeah. And so that's where he was teaching from. And he found meditation. He found. Found Silva and he knew that this is how he could connect and engage with people. So. So. And that was a wonderful property which the Franciscans eventually sold that and and that became another new development. But so Justin, by 1985, opened up. They. They found the Hermitage. The building, as we know today, is the Hermitage. And. And he worked his ministry, built his ministry from, from. From there. And so I've always been involved in and out of his life and helping with production and all. So a little bit about me. For all of my adult life after school in Rhode Island, I have been a commercial photographer, architectural and advertising. It was kind of my main niche. Kind of semi retired at this point. After Covid, a lot of businesses didn't come back, or they just retired, or the budgets didn't come back. And it's like, yeah. Another friend of mine who is a competitor per se, she said, I guess we're. I guess we're quasi retired now. It's like, well, I guess so there was no plan and it just kind of happened anyway. So. So my part of my direction here is my skill set in marketing and advertising, as in messaging, because my whole job, my entire life is, you want me to shoot something? What do you want to say? And that's the primary. What do you want to say? And so there's always that process in there, whether it's an architectural shoot or an advertising shooting, you know, a CEO or a product. So that's kind of my background. And like I said, I was in and out of Justin's life as he needed me. Hey, I need something. Okay, what do you need? And in 20, 20 or 21, there's another friar, a really good friend of Justin's, Friar Bert from. And he was in. He was actually in St. Louis and had his own little thing going over there too. He wanted. He was getting older and couldn't really do the traveling anymore. And so along with. And I've already mentioned this to you, we have the Hermitage board, board of directors that runs the Hermitage and makes the decisions and all that. But we also have the Hermitage Charitable foundation, which was just a foundation that was set up building funding.

00:26:27

James Redenbaugh: And

00:26:30

Garry Chilluffo: our governing documents basically are there to state that we support the Hermitage. And so we are the funding army in this process. Grants, if you will. But there's no grant writing of any kind. And we have a board of three on the foundation. There's a doctor and then Lulu, who you haven't met yet, but she's the associate director, maybe director now or whatever, basically office management and the building and all that. So she writes the checks. So. So I became. I was asked to become. I. Sorry, I got off track there. I was asked to become. To Fill in for. For Bert's shoes and become the chairman of the foundation. Justin was vice president and secretary. And then we brought Lulu in, who had always been on the sidelines as a non voting member. She was basically doing the financial stuff and brought her in. So. So she's that third member of. Of that team. And like I said, we're there to support what the Hermitage wants to do. Well, of course Samuel came along in 24. 20. The end of 24, I got hired.

00:27:57

Samuel: 24. Right.

00:27:58

Garry Chilluffo: That's what I meant as program director. And so in the beginning, the board with. With Justin's passing, the board just went quiet. Dead non reactionary. Nothing going on for basically a year. And I was the only one. I was the only one in the field trying to get something moving. And it took some time for them to come out of that grieving process and. And wake up and. Yeah, it is. And kind of take hold and so. And we do have some. We do have some issues with bored personalities. And a lot of them are. I would say they're good intentional people, but they're kind of stuck in 1995 or this is the way we've always done it kind of thing. And there are also some. Can't let go of the past, can't let go of Justin, can't let go of Lulu because she's always done everything. And we're of course moving forward and that just moves. That moves responsibility out among others. So yeah, so that's. That's kind of in a nutshell and why we've been so focused on getting the kind of website that we're looking for, as Samuel said at last meeting right now. And it's an old site, our current site is old, of course, but it's basically a brochure. That's all it does. It just sits there as a template. And we were trying to explain to them that this is more than. This is like a system that's going to operate for us. And this becomes even more imperative because we are now out of the building that everyone relies upon as Hermitage. So yeah, so that's going to be. That's kind of our. The crux of our direction. It's more than a. More than a brochure. This is the place you can go and engage. We want them engaged. We want them to be inquisitive and stay there for a while. And one of our side topics taglines is come for the meditation and stay for the spirituality. So kind of like that one. I don't think we really use that do we, Samuel? It's just a unofficial tagline that we have. So anyway, that's me and how that interplays with the hermitage. And then the board hired Samuel in the fall of 24 because we had no one working on programs. And so that was his role. So that's my story, I think. Oh, may I say. May I say one. I'm sorry, one other thing I wanted to tell you, James. So we created that request for proposal, that rfp. And of course every. I may have mentioned this to you. So everyone, everyone would say, oh, I've got a friend. Oh, I've got a friend. I've got a friend. So we just made it very clean and sent the RFP out to anybody who had an interest and total of six and three never responded at all. One responded to go, this is way beyond me, but thank you for considering me gone. So we were down to two. And the other you came in, we were hoping. Because your whole process was where I originally thought. And then Samuel thought, this is where we're going. And we weren't looking for the cheapest site. We're looking for the partner, which we've been trying to drill that into people on the board. But the foundations paid for it. So say thank you and we move on. And. But the other one gave a lovely, lovely proposal and it's going to be wonderful in WordPress.

00:32:13

James Redenbaugh: It's like.

00:32:15

Garry Chilluffo: Well, that was just the no go right there. No, we're not working in WordPress. So there we are. So I just wanted to make sure you. I wanted you to know that little background. And so we've ended up where we wanted to be from the very beginning.

00:32:28

Samuel: Absolutely.

00:32:29

James Redenbaugh: Great. Awesome. All right, wonderful.

00:32:34

Samuel: Thanks, Gary.

00:32:34

Garry Chilluffo: Yeah, that's good. Yeah.

00:32:37

Samuel: Let's see.

00:32:38

Garry Chilluffo: So

00:32:40

Samuel: nice to meet you, James. This is our. A new, new thing. I've seen some emails a little bit, heard lots about you from Gary. It's very exciting. I saw the work that you've done, which is just. It was exactly what we were looking for. Like this is. This is the right convergence of skill and being

00:33:02

James Redenbaugh: awesome. Thank you.

00:33:07

Samuel: So let's see. So I have a very different background.

00:33:10

James Redenbaugh: I'm

00:33:12

Samuel: originally from Massachusetts and grew up in a Mormon household. So not Catholic at all. I've been in Indiana for 20 plus years, 23 years, something like that. And my Earl might became here early for I was a hospital administrator. So I went to school for business administration, focus in healthcare. Spent a small stint running like occupational health and pro and practice management kind of stuff. Realized that I am not money motivated and that's kind of a problem if

00:33:50

Garry Chilluffo: you're gonna be in business.

00:33:53

Samuel: It just. I was so purpose driven and that kind of was at a. It did not converge well. It totally you know it did not work well. So. So then the reason why I tell you that is because about our now let's see now. Eighteen years ago the way the universe works way God played a funny trick on me. My wife ended up working I state became a stay at home dad. So I've been a stay at home dad for almost 18 years about and I have five girls that I helped raise. So I have two. Two adult children, 22 and 19 and I have two high school kids 17, 15 and I have around here I homeschool. My youngest one, she just turned 13 so that's my main occupation has been child development and but. But I'm always spiritual. Like I'm. I was very very spiritually minded and have self. I. I'm very self motivated and so I study a lot and the whole like all years I did lots of ministry because I was stay at home dad. I had some time. So I did like and we. We purposely moved to inner city Indianapolis to serve. To serve the poor to, to.

00:35:24

James Redenbaugh: To.

00:35:25

Samuel: To. So we live there and serve there

00:35:27

Garry Chilluffo: and

00:35:30

Samuel: learn lots of things there and like my oldest daughter has gone into non profit management specifically for people like helping people out of hard places. So kind of that influence is there. So then. Then in 2000 around 2017, 2018 I turned. I was about. About 40 and as it happens sometimes your brain changes and I my whole world changed and as part of that it was deep reckoning within myself and deep deconstruction of. Because I had studied everything like hours every day and so I just found all the holes totally, totally completely deconstructed and. And put my faith in God and the universe. Didn't know what that was at one point at all because I totally went down and rebuilt from the inner voice

00:36:37

Garry Chilluffo: and

00:36:41

Samuel: that we call. I call it mystical transition. Like it was. You know I started studying, starting studied I rediscovered Christianity. That sound resonate with me. I was like I totally had to rediscover Christianity. Started studying with Buddhist monks. Now I kind of live in this really cool area. There's a Hindu temple up the street. I still go there every week. So I studied with Hindus, studied with Buddhists down the street from me as well. Studied, got correspondence with Sufis from Turkey, studied with them, ran to and yeah like just everything really. So my main three studies were Hinduism Christianity and Buddhism. But I've read like in the Quran and I've done shaman traditions and all of that and studied human development. Went to when we live in information age. So I started taking online classes just you know, free, you know, so would go to. Yeah. So I started taking all sorts of anthropology and human development and psychology and all of that. Just like my brain opened up in the direction came. But most important to that was the inner transformation. What we call awakening. Right. Experiences and then things that just move me to a completely different way of under. Like my whole perception of reality is different. The way I understand things the way I

00:38:18

Garry Chilluffo: think it.

00:38:20

Samuel: Some of it is like I popular knows non dualism. There's no separation between things. So even things like political parties are not separate things. They're one system. Every everything, everything is one system. And so I did that and I started. I had many different experiences. Started my own like I would say a little ministry because my. My. One of my main motivations was I always want to tell my children the truth. That was like when they wanted got married. I was like, this is why I will not lie about Santa Claus from the get. From the get go. And so on this journey I was like, okay, I've discovered all these things. My children are starting to have some faith crisis questions as well. I need to stay ahead of them to provide guidance. And so I was doing that have little meetings with my. Especially my oldest daughter who was in college and her friends college because that's a good transition point too when you go get out of the house and do college, you know, go to college and stuff. And I was looking for a contemplative teacher of Christian to come till the teacher that was local. I found Father Justin as soon as he met I was like, oh yeah, he had a presence of a mystic now. I yeah, he just was very. He had clearly gone through his own transition of mystical awareness and but had been at it way longer than I had. Like, it was just amazing. I was like, okay, this is someone I need to learn from as much as I can in the time I have it. And so I started going to his. The hermitage. I also went to like Quakers because they're. They're contemplative, right? They we just sit and do,

00:40:13

James Redenbaugh: you

00:40:13

Samuel: know, on unplanned, unscheduled meeting with them.

00:40:16

Garry Chilluffo: And it was.

00:40:16

James Redenbaugh: It was great.

00:40:18

Samuel: The inner light would talk. It was just wonderful. But it really. But I started going to Justin and the spirit was like stay, you know, go to hermitage. This is really good fit. I Brought my oldest daughter Julie with me. She really liked it. And I got through. Successful living with just fire Justin. He also called me, told him he. The first time I met him, he said, call me Justin because, like, Franciscans don't like titles. Call me Justin. And then I realized no one followed that. No one else. No one else did that. So, yeah. So then. And then when Friar Dustin passed away, I just sat at the hermitage and I was like. I was reluctant to kind of step up because, like, this is bigger. I. I was doing my own thing. And. And just over time became apparent that that's what I needed to do. There was no one else around, honestly.

00:41:22

Garry Chilluffo: And.

00:41:25

Samuel: And so then I stepped into that role. The fry. The. The hermitage has a deep, deep spiritual root in Justin, But it was a dying organization. They hadn't done. Justin just slowed down. Like he. He's his 80s. Yeah, of course. And. And it was a beautiful word of mouth. They did no outreach. That's still something you struggle with right now. That's why we're getting a website and some things. Justin had been kicked, had basically not defrocked, but kicked out. He was no longer allowed to go to any. To do any service in a Catholic church. Last few years, he became too controversial.

00:42:22

Garry Chilluffo: He.

00:42:25

Samuel: And I don't know all the reasons why, because of Silva and such, but I don't know all the reasons why, but he was like, you're the highest order. And he took this from. From Catholic doctrines. He was like, the highest order. The highest thing you can follow is your conscience, that inner light. And it goes. It's. And he takes. He goes right from like Vatican ii. He's like, here's. Here's the. Here's what it says. Following the conscious is more important than any earthly authority. Like, amen.

00:42:55

Garry Chilluffo: And he taught.

00:42:55

Samuel: He taught Catholics that they were like, from their own dockets, but they. They did not like that.

00:43:01

James Redenbaugh: So.

00:43:04

Samuel: And so anyway, so I stepped in the role. I started teaching as part of this for me journey that, you know, this is for me, this is also my own call to ministry and acceleration business. And as you know, is not about tactics. It's not so much about your particular offering you have. It's about your personal transformation always. Your business only succeeds at the level that you. That you operate. And so, so that's. So it's been a journey of figuring out. I'm still on that a lot. Because what I think what's going. Oh, I think it's going to happen is happening is that. That Justin. Justin's spirit lives in the hermitage. And his message is going to be accelerated with. With what I'm. With my presence there. And so it's not a pride thing. It's just that, you know, that's why I have to live in kind of that world that Justin can do more beyond the grave they could in. In person. And so we. We need to facilitate that. And so I. So I come with a mystical unity of all things, and that's what Justin lived in. So

00:44:56

Garry Chilluffo: I will add. I will add that we, a few of us, I don't know. I don't know if all of us, but a few of us believe that the hermitage is. Is the people and the community and not the building. Although it is tied to the building. Yes, in a big way, because it kind of. It started its origin there. Okay, I guess I can call it that. And. But. But it's about the people. And there's a. There is. There is a community there. And. And of course we want to grow that. And no one. No one has. Well, a couple of things. We took three to six months to basically collect all of our assets, be they books, writings, whatever. They were everywhere with different people. I mean, it just took a while to identify and find, you know, basically his writings and texts. And the books. Well, we had the books, of course, the homilies, which are all on YouTube, but collecting them all, all videos, everything, anything we could find, we of course collected and we now have that in our own cloud storage. With that being said, and with Kirill, your friend, by the way, Samuel James was in. I'm sorry, Kirill was in James's Wedding, by the way. He's a newlywed with kitties. Just so you know that part and the challenges and the challenges of that. So with Kirill's, not his engagement, but because of that work that pushed us into. Okay, we need to find everything that included the three books that Justin wrote, that's Successful Living videos and what. Oh, yeah, Successful living. Yeah, all. Yeah, everything. And so that is in a kind of a library. And that's what the.

00:47:21

James Redenbaugh: The.

00:47:23

Garry Chilluffo: The Just an avatar can kind of work from. We have access to that along with everything else and basically building a good base, a good sense of. Of Justin's work and putting that into play in a. And newer messaging with younger people and online, so a larger audience we've been working off. Basically the only thing they did was email with. Through constant contact, which has of course been dwindling through the years. It's a finite number. Half are probably even like, not even

00:48:10

Samuel: There we have about 300 active users approximately.

00:48:16

Garry Chilluffo: Yeah.

00:48:17

Samuel: Of email. So that's, that's pretty good. That's like it's okay, but it's not going to keep. It's not going to pay our bills.

00:48:23

Garry Chilluffo: Right. But anyway, that, yeah. So that kind of gives you that little bit of sense that, that we're building off of what Justin wrote, believed was guiding us, giving us. And, and there's just so much content.

00:48:41

Samuel: So give a little additional note for background in what Fire. What made Fire Justin famous really was that he went did parish renewals. He went to different parishes and did programs there that where he taught this successful living, which is like a combination of life mechanism and meditation to Catholics. And so he went around the world to various congregations, like hundreds of congregations parishes teaching this in parish renewals. And that's where he got, we got the funding. He got paid like people donations came roaring in, went all over the world, all U.S. europe, Australia and for, for decades. I. And, and, and so that, so he has, so he has a large reach. But then after 2015 is when they kind of shut him down. They kicked him out and so

00:49:51

Garry Chilluffo: they, they banned him. They banned him from giving parish missions.

00:49:54

Samuel: Yeah, they banned him. Which was the, which was the. And reach of the, of his ministry. So there are. So like, so we do have people. For instance, this new thing for Gary, I'm talking to a. I am getting the group in Australia to do a successful living online program that's probably May July somewhere and I've recently gained contact with the person from people from Europe to do programs over online there.

00:50:24

Garry Chilluffo: So,

00:50:26

Samuel: so it's not a little like just local play thing.

00:50:29

James Redenbaugh: Right.

00:50:30

Samuel: That he does have international reach and around the US but it is spidery. I would say it's not solid. Like there's not solid connection. It's just kind of like tendrils here, tendrils there.

00:50:42

Garry Chilluffo: And.

00:50:42

Samuel: But we'd like to use some of that reach and grow from what we have.

00:50:51

James Redenbaugh: Awesome.

00:50:52

Garry Chilluffo: Because he has some really loyal fans in Europe and Australia. And yeah, by the way, being banned from doing parish missions had everything to do with the Roman Catholic Church because that's the churches. That's the diocese. It was there and it was their decision. Not the Franciscans per se. Although the Franciscans weren't entirely supportive of him either other than. Well, you're, you're, you're doing your thing. Just go do your thing and try and try and behave so that those two worlds.

00:51:35

James Redenbaugh: Yeah.

00:51:36

Samuel: Yeah. Which, which kind of puts us in a good Place like it's. I think this could. This in the current environment where radicals like Justin can, Can. Can meet people that are on that and in various spaces. So people with some religious background that found the holes in their religion that developmentally. It's a developmental process. Also those who are religious but not spiritual. I mean, it's spiritual but not religious. Right. So our, our net is. Is too. A little bit wide. Like we can, we can do all these different traditions. It doesn't matter what tradition you're from.

00:52:19

James Redenbaugh: We're inter.

00:52:19

Samuel: We're inter faith center. So the question is that I wrestle with a little bit is what's too wide and what's too narrow. Like, so we got to get the right scope. And so I think part of I'm this process. I think will. Will help with that.

00:52:37

Garry Chilluffo: Solidify that. Yeah. And that's. And that said, we're less. And. And there are individuals that we're less about church. Churchy. Well, Catholicism in particular, and churchy and just more spiritual, which is what we really are. We're not, you know, we're not promoting any one religion. There's all of these fates and all of these out there. And it's like, you know, we, we want, we want to use all of that.

00:53:13

Samuel: Yeah. So, yeah, all. All backgrounds.

00:53:17

Garry Chilluffo: Right?

00:53:20

James Redenbaugh: Wonderful. It really sounds like, you know, you mentioned the conversation, constant contact list dwindling. And obviously for our. Justin passed away and you guys are losing the building. But it sounds like there's this distilling that. That's happening of that light into a more concentrated form, creating the opportunity for a bigger release into the world as a whole. So it definitely feels like a lot of opportunity there and a lot of access points for people of different backgrounds and experiences to define what you guys are offering. And I want to ask you guys about. About the names. So like, first of all, I'm curious what what hermitage means to you and, and why Hermitage, besides the obvious that, you know, there. There is this building. But tell me about the. The concept of the hermitage.

00:54:34

Samuel: Can I just read from Prior Justin?

00:54:37

James Redenbaugh: Sure. Yeah.

00:54:41

Samuel: So. And it says, what is the hermitage? And what he wrote was that the hermitage is where a hermit lives. A hermit is a person who lives in the quiet, away from everyone. So as to achieve self awareness, to become a holy person. We teach that the hermitage is a quiet space within each human being. Meditation is a means by which a person can discover this place and use it to achieve a, quote, full life. So the hermitage is the inner self. And we are using meditation to to become aware of. Of the inner hermitage.

00:55:39

James Redenbaugh: Wonderful. Yeah. I was doing some research on the etymology of hermitage, and it's. You know, it goes back to Greece, and it's that. Bring it up here, that quiet place, Aram, to. To rest, to be quiet still. It's a beautiful word. And tell me about world. You know, the. The hermitage world. What are you seeing there?

00:56:17

Garry Chilluffo: So, yeah, I'll get that. So, basically, because a couple of things, because we are more than just Indianapolis, and we want to continue those directions out to that spidery network that we have around the world. If you look at our website, beyond it being dated, it just looks like. I even think you said that in a proposal.

00:56:56

James Redenbaugh: It.

00:56:56

Garry Chilluffo: It just looks local. It looks old. Old and looks local. And because we wrestled. We wrestled with. Okay, let me go back a little bit. We did wrestle with this, the hermitage, in terms of a URL. You look that up and there's pages of hermitages from places, buildings, cities, retirement homes. Yeah, you name it. It just. It's like, okay, so they obviously wrestled with this back a few years ago when they created the current name and site for Hermitage Indy. And that worked for then, but now moving forward, we're. We're pushing out there. Not just Indy, but all of the United States and parts that we've already been that were.

00:57:49

James Redenbaugh: We're.

00:57:50

Garry Chilluffo: I don't know if I'd say solid ground, but we have good inroads in Europe and Australia with people there that are still loyal and want to see the hermitage continue. And so we had some strategy sessions with. I think you were on at least one, weren't you, Samuel? With me, with. I'm sorry, with Shift Network. Steven Dinan.

00:58:15

James Redenbaugh: Yeah.

00:58:15

Garry Chilluffo: And as a matter of fact, I will credit Stephen Dinan for. Mentioning creating the seed of doing a. Just an avatar. Ar. Avatar piece that we could engage people. Matter of fact, it was his friend Kirill who he put me in touch with. And. And then in a later strategy session with Stephen, he suggested that we look at Hermitage World, because that's kind of where we're going. It's not just Indy, as in Indianapolis. It's not just Indianapolis because right now we have both. Well, the Wednesday night is the Energy Circle, which is in person, but we have the. We have multiple Energy Circle things going on, elements going on, but one is Tuesday night, and that is nationwide. So it's like, you know what? We've outlived the indie moniker. And Stephen's idea was, why don't you call yourself in Hermitage World? And we kind of looked up. It's like we could get those URLs and those are all bought. World.com, world.org, which is what we want to use and one or two others. So we've kind of covered the bases. The point of all that is, is when, now when you go to Hermitage World, that's what will come up even in a search, you know, and, and not 20 pages of all these hermitages that are out there around the world. So, so that's kind of how we got there.

01:00:05

James Redenbaugh: Wonderful. Yeah. And what more can you guys say about your hopes and dreams for this, for this new space? What, what qualities do you want it to have? Let's start with qualities.

01:00:21

Garry Chilluffo: Well, let me, if Samuel, let me take this for a moment and you can, can you can tag on, please? First off, I did want to say

01:00:30

Samuel: that

01:00:33

Garry Chilluffo: Justin's messaging, his core messaging is evergreen and it is perfect for today's world also. I mean, as in generation. And we know that as wonderful as technology is, technology has not really been a friend to the younger generation. And they're all now just finding they're in a void. They don't know what to do. They need guidance. You know, tech is just, I mean they even self, self. Not self aware, self imaging. They think I'm referring specifically to. Sometimes I'll go in and look at Reddit and of course there'll be some bonus, bonus generic stuff that comes up. And one of those subs is, you know, grooming or I forgot the name of those subs. But a lot of these younger people like think they're ugly. They want to make themselves more attractive. I finally, a couple days ago I said, what is with young people? You all think you're ugly. So it must be between technology, filters and what was the other thing? Basically you're comparing yourself to something that doesn't really exist, but that's that side of it. More on the spiritual side. A lot of these kids, a lot of these people are growing up and they need this kind of messaging that's been helping all of us. And like I said, his messaging is evergreen. And it's like, let's refashion this so we can get it out online and however we want to, well, package it and present it, be it classes, discussions, whatever that, whatever that looks like, that's what this website needs to do. And I've mentioned to you before, yeah, we're obviously not looking for a brochure of a website. We're looking for, for engagement, that they're intrigued, they're interested, they want to check it out more, dive deeper. We think having the element of the just an AI avatar will be part and parcel to that because they can actually engage personally with personal information back to them. And so we think this can be part of their journey. It should be transformational for them and they'll want to keep coming back. And then right now we're basically looking at part one is just building out what we do free in terms of information that we give. Now of course you can by a class or whatever. And then part two, building that was yet another suggestion from Steven Dinan. You could look at memberships that give them more, more engagement, more things, more, more touch points. And so we kind of see that as, as an evolving feature in the website. So that's what I got to say. Samuel. Anything?

01:04:05

Samuel: I I cheated this is this. In preparation for this discussion I spent a bunch of time with chat GBT as I have a. Anyways some guidance right. And I have you know, different people. So. So I, I've been thinking about this. So Gary, you. I. I'm going to say ditto but I'm saying different words.

01:04:30

James Redenbaugh: Sure.

01:04:34

Samuel: So there's really things. One of the questions that, that I, that that the I called my counselor asked me was like what do we want people to. The first 20 minutes when someone's on the site for 20 minutes what do we want that to. To be? You know, what. What's the hope of that? And so the first thing was that they feel less alone in their spiritual longing. So many people that come to hermitage are searching for like minded people. So you know, there's a reason, there's a problem. Right. They're just searching for companions.

01:05:13

James Redenbaugh: So

01:05:16

Samuel: I think we want that to be something where they can realize that there are other people asking the same deep questions about being human, about God, about meaning, about spiritual journey, awakening. What. You know there's a. There's a variety of things and Justin speaks to all of them. The second is. And this is a term that actually we've hired someone new. Richard. Richard just lost his last name.

01:05:49

Garry Chilluffo: No, no, no, no. He's local for us. Yeah well now that you've asked just like oh really?

01:05:56

Samuel: Anyways, we have a new guy. He and I. He and I both connected on the work of. Of Father Boyle in California which uses the term cherished belonging. So we, we both will feel like. And we want to create a place that. Where they feel a place of cherished belonging. So it's not about belonging to anything. Not belonging to a Belief or doctrine, but belonging to a shared human seeking. And that seemed really important. And actually I wrote about this last night that at our Wednesday in person meditation circle, I felt that it was just about a community of seekers, you know, and it wasn't about. You could come with any belief people, different backgrounds we had all different, you know, a great variety of people. But it was. It united around a shared human experience of, of, you know, divine seeking in whatever way it was. And the third thing that, that's more touches my work and Justin's is that they. For people to stay in that container, they need to see a path. Now it's not a rigid path, you know, not like this doctrine, but some sort of structure, a gentle structure that has stories, has practices, gatherings, companions, ways, you know, raise great, you know, friendships. And so there's a, A, A gentle path. And Justin had had a path that he. Programs that you would go through. And so I want to. I'm working on updating that and adding my own flavor to some of that. So it's, It's a. The website I hope would. Would communicate moving from spiritual like isolation to the possibility to participate in a. In a community. And yeah, I.

01:08:13

James Redenbaugh: The.

01:08:14

Samuel: I'm kind of caught mid progress because the suggestions of like, how to name that community so like contemplative, what comes up a lot. But it was not. It's not simply contemplative. So it's something like a community where, where we're devoted to say, meditation, inner awakening and like this one, the discovery of the divine presence within. Divine presence within is a very Justin kind of word. So that's what I hope like, and I hope out of that, like, if we can do some of that, then when we hook this up to a social media content machine that feeds people to the site that they will come, have this experience, resonate with it and participate and along the way support us with money eventually. But. But first they have to feel it. You know, they have to feel our presence. And all of that isn't. Is all things that Justin produced?

01:09:26

Garry Chilluffo: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So by the way, his name is Brendan. I was stuck on R and I just couldn't bring the name up. I don't know why I had a blank there. But yeah, I mean, in my mind we're wanting to build community, but and more specifically help building their spiritual journey. That's part of that path that you mentioned. Samuel.

01:09:59

Samuel: I just want to say that like the Internet is a tool. So as I work with the board and people at hermitage, I say it's we can have the best tool in the world. You could do like the perfect job, but if it's the people there aren't living it, it'll fall flat.

01:10:16

Garry Chilluffo: So.

01:10:17

Samuel: Yeah, and, and we. More we, we do have a lot. We have, everyone has their bumps like we have our challenges around, but there are a lot of people who are very dedicated to this kind of vision.

01:10:32

James Redenbaugh: Yeah, it's, you know, it's very much a. However great it can be, it's a surface or a screen or a, a shell. And the, the real product is, is relational and is alive in, in individuals and in the space between them. So the best that I can do is make the, the, the doorway into that very accessible and translucent and responsive and transmissive. But it's not to be mistaken for the thing itself. Similar to like words on a page in a book.

01:11:31

Samuel: Yeah.

01:11:31

James Redenbaugh: You know, aren't, aren't the thing, but they point you to, to the thing. And the, the greatest things these days are alive living in, in people and, and of course connected to the souls of the non living people on the other side. So it's, I love the web medium too because as a metaphor it's, it's resonant with that kind of energy because it's, it's light. You know, we're working with light. We're working with connections and cables and these, you know, these wires that spread around the whole earth which are not unlike the connections between all things and all people and the connections in, in community. So yeah, I mostly try to get out of the way and let you know, let what's already there come, come forth. And so I've got some, some tools for that and, and processes. In the beginning, it's good to start in a, you know, with a wide angle lens in receptive mode looking at points of inspiration. We can start getting into, in, into mood boarding and feeling and colors and textures and tones and frequency and, and pattern. And I like to use architectural metaphors especially for projects like this because we're not just creating a facade. It's a space that we want people to feel invited into and it's, you know, like I said, it's a representation of the, of the space that's non physical that we're inviting them into. But I think that the interface itself should feel like a, a space and the, the designs, the forms, the geometry, when done well, can inspire and can create space in the user for, for transformation and for new possibility. When we see something beautiful and new and aligned and harmonic, we're more Open to having an experience that we haven't had before and more open to. To new ideas and new possibilities and actually shifting things. So we want it to not just be a bunch of rectangles, but have like, intentional proportions of things, intentional color choices and shapes and geometry. You know, of course, without it feeling super new age or like there's a bunch of sacred geometry in your face. I'm more. Although I love sacred geometry, I think we want a subtler approach where the whole of it feels sacred without hitting you on the face with, you know, what it. With anything. I mean, there's just so much bad design out there. So much bad new age design with rainbow angels and unicorns and stuff. We won't do that. So, you know, we'll look at things like, like arcs and archways and architectural features and, you know, any. We can bring anything into the process, any ingredients to play with as, as elements that will permeate the. The site will find themes and, and codes that are relevant to the work that can kind of become patterns or moments or a design language for things like icons that will help the whole thing just kind of resonate on the same frequency. And then we can think about the different spaces in the place as a hermitage or a monastery or a cathedral or however we want to think about it. The different pages serve different functions. You know, most people will probably enter through the front door, but those also side doors and what are those vestibules? Like what. What do we want them to be greeted with when they walk in the door? How do we want them to feel when they're learning? How do we want them to feel when they're talking to the Friar Justin AI we'll want to map those, those things out and create a kind of architectural plan of how that can work while keeping in mind, like, what. What are we going to launch with? What are we going to build towards in the future? You know, what's on the horizon? What's the. What's the mvp we want to get online as soon as possible, things like that. So we'll start to play with those kind of concepts and I'll give you ways to, to research and share things with me and. Yeah, and then we'll start to develop a sense together of what this, what this wants to be and what palette will we be painting with and, and then start to put it together and design things in Figma and see things in place and then move it into webflow where we can really have more objects in motion. Interaction, animation, not just static forms, but you know, and aliveness in there with each element in service to the. The teaching. It sounds like the teaching is. Is core, you know, and the teaching, I. I imagine is the community, you know, and that's really what's core. But the. The. The teaching is like the door into that, you know, and like beyond the community. It's that. That inter. Interspace inner space that we all. That we all share. So there are these. These layers. But what we want people to find are those pathways that you mentioned, those ways deeper for themselves, for their family. I love what, you know, what's there right now. One of the first things. You're an instrument of peace in your family, at work and in school. We'll have plenty of opportunity to. To rethink and evolve the copy. But I do love that bringing the attention on. On the user as an active instrument of peace in their. In their world, you know, and that's the whole point. It's not what can I get out of this for myself over here, or how can this alleviate my suffering? Or it might start as that genuinely, which is super valid. But the end goal should be like, how can more people around the whole world become brighter, bigger instruments of peace or whatever language we want to put to that. I want.

01:20:18

Samuel: I want to make sure I. I don't know if Gary send you this. There's a couple videos that I shared with the board where Justin talks about the purposes of the hermitage itself. And I'll study because I think watching him present those will. Will help solidify this. Because exactly what you're talking about, the first one is the purpose of the hermitage is to help as many people meditate daily so we can have world peace. Like that is the stage over and over and over again.

01:20:53

Garry Chilluffo: I was going to bring that up, Samuel. I believe that's on the Facebook page that Richard said what he read on the Facebook page was exactly where his head was at with up for us.

01:21:07

Samuel: That was. That was mission statement. Yeah, that was.

01:21:09

Garry Chilluffo: Was it the mission statement?

01:21:10

James Redenbaugh: Yeah.

01:21:10

Garry Chilluffo: Is that what he saw? Okay. I was gonna say, well, we could send. Send that along also the videos too.

01:21:16

Samuel: The other one, which is a little deeper.

01:21:18

Garry Chilluffo: Yeah.

01:21:19

Samuel: Was the. Well, he uses the word avatar.

01:21:25

Garry Chilluffo: Basically.

01:21:26

Samuel: He want. Wants everyone to. Wants those that want to have the goal of being. Well, to use Christian terms, being Christ. But he used the word avatar, which is a Hindu term. You want to like, be an avatar, be Christ. Because he said Christ is an avatar as a. You know, he challenged us to. To have that as a goal, to really say that to ourselves. Like we can be the Christ, be as Jesus, be as Buddha, you know, and it's that, it's that, yeah, that process of, you know, imagining this crazy thing called world peace and abandoned land and becoming avatars, you know, this really outlandish kind of goal. But it's not outlandish because it is what he said, that's where humanity's headed and to be part of that. So, so what you're saying resonated so well. I was like, yes, you got it.

01:22:22

Garry Chilluffo: And I will add to that too, that, you know, a lot of people put Justin on the pedestal, of course, but he was very adamant about, I, I don't want to be the martyr. I don't want to be this thing. It's my message. So that's, that's what he was pushing. Yeah, right. So. And, and I know we're getting close on time. James, I just wanted to mention to you that. And Samuel concurs with me on this. We knew that we were looking for someone like you because of your tools and your expertise, but also beyond. The engineer had the spiritual space, that consciousness focused space that we just did not see anywhere. And so, and I think my early words were, we want someone who has, who speaks, you know, spiritual speak. You know, you get the depth and you get the depth and that range. And most of them are just engineers because there were some others I didn't even bother going after. They were very commercial. They have no sense of this space that we're trying to create. And as someone said, well, just tell them what you want and they'll do it. That's not what we want. And I'll give you this parallel. A lot of people would hire me and I would say to them, I'd have some ideas, right? It's like, well, using my expertise and background, hey, how about this? And it's like, no, we just want you to do that. So I, So basically I'd say, so you just want me to be the button pusher? I'm just going to push the button. That's all you want from me. And you're paying a pretty big dollar for a button pusher. And it's like, no, we're hiring you and your mind and your expertise and your, you know, all this. Want to make sure I say that to you?

01:24:31

James Redenbaugh: Wonderful. Thank you. I don't really know how I ended up here, but I'm very grateful. A friend of mine has a magazine called the Artist of Possibility where they have different theme. He's a spirit. He's a meditation teacher and puts out this digital magazine. And it has different themes. The last theme was AI the theme this month is Collective Awakening. And so he's interviewing Elizabeth the Bold and Diane Hamilton and Craig Hamilton unrelated and. And a few other people in. In the Collective Awakening space. And he asked me to be the artist, the featured artist for it. So I need to make this. These six art pieces or use art that I've done in the past about Collective Awakening. And I. I started the process of thinking and writing about how to do that. And it's so funny and perfect because it. It forced me to confront exactly how I think about myself as an. As an artist. Even going back to. I studied art and architecture in school, and even then I felt like the best things that I could make, I wasn't making them. And so I had very difficult times taking credit for them and even talking about them, because I would be like, I don't know how this came to be through me. And now I'm at the point where I don't even. I don't even think I exist. I don't think any of us exist. It's a beautiful temporary illusion of our separate self. But I'm a facet of our collective, like everyone is. I'm an assemblage of impulses and conditioning and inspiration and, you know, streams of so many things that have come before me and things that I've been blessed to be encountered with. And my main goal, like I said, is to get out of the way and to, like, keep my ego from getting in the way or just, like, making myself available to what wants to be because it's. It's not me. And so much is like, knocking at the door these days, wanting to break into our reality and make itself known. Like the world is, I feel, really waking up more than ever. And it's more important than ever for us to do that and give people more tools to let go into that, because it's just so. So beautiful and fulfilling and joyful and blissful, and there's nothing sad about realizing that I don't exist.

01:28:11

Samuel: Very freeing.

01:28:12

James Redenbaugh: Yeah.

01:28:14

Garry Chilluffo: Yeah.

01:28:14

James Redenbaugh: It's a relief.

01:28:17

Garry Chilluffo: What was the name of that? The digital magazine Art in Artist of Possibility. Oh, Artist of Possibility. Yeah.

01:28:27

James Redenbaugh: I've got to make the art today, so I'll let you know how it goes.

01:28:34

Samuel: I hope that we get a sense that. That, like, this hermitage is our little part of that. Like, that's. We. We're a little node collectively. See, you know, facilitating the. Just was a facilitate, like being A part of that collective, you know, awakening. And. Yeah, that's the exact. His explicit goal.

01:29:04

James Redenbaugh: And it's like a. As a center, it's very much a fractal representation of the whole. Like, it is the. The world. And it's. So it's both a part and a whole unto itself. I'm just swapping out my camera battery here. Wow.

01:29:23

Samuel: Okay. Well, so thank you.

01:29:25

James Redenbaugh: Yeah. Because there's so these multitudes in there and. And all these parts, and it's a part of something bigger. And so this will be really fun. I'm excited to. To play with you guys and see what unfolds.

01:29:40

Garry Chilluffo: Be great. You know, I should tell you that, Samuel, I should tell you that we have an older. We also have an older crowd that's part of the hermitage, as in leadership.

01:29:55

Samuel: I'm like the youngest one.

01:29:56

Garry Chilluffo: The other. Yeah, you're the youngest. I'm young at heart, but older. But we do have some pushback right now going on. Even with the AI avatar. They. They read crap and they go, oh, they start just. I mean, they just start. The sky is falling and we're gonna. Lawsuits and, you know, gonna unfold. And it's like, oh, please stop. So we're. We're trying to. Yeah, as a matter of fact too, you know, they kept coming. Well, it's an AI website. This AI website. I had to explain. This is not an AI website. It's going to be using some. Utilizing some AI software to do things for us, but it's not an AI website. But so we've been getting some. Already some pushback. And although I don't.

01:30:41

Samuel: That.

01:30:42

Garry Chilluffo: That's not really a challenge. It's just education and dragging them along. But yeah, the other. The other thing that popped up, just so you know, because it could possibly change not our direction, but how we handle things. The avatar in particular. Of course, I brought this up like a year ago, but the board didn't do anything with it. And now all of a sudden, we're going to be losing the hermitage building. We've got a new website coming on with. With an AI avatar of Justin now. It's like, well, do we have a right to use him? Will the Franciscans like you let. Will the family let us use his name? And you know, and it's like, well, now. Now you bring this up. It's like, I thought we, you know, we kind of. Stephen Dinan basically said, doesn't sound like you're really going to have a really big issue there. Although we are looking at it and it might make some changes. Hey, if we have to. If we have to, we will simply just not use. We'll just use a little friar as the avatar. It might not be Justin per se, if we. If we don't have permission to use it, but I. I don't.

01:31:54

Samuel: Just to be clear.

01:31:55

Garry Chilluffo: That's a problem.

01:31:56

Samuel: We have the. We. The hermitage owns the copyrights on written works. Books, yes, some recordings, you know, some CDs that he created. What we're. What we don't know exactly is the legal standing of his likeness.

01:32:10

James Redenbaugh: Right.

01:32:10

Samuel: And so that's what we're looking. So the. All the important part. The heart we have, we own.

01:32:16

Garry Chilluffo: We actually own it. So we can. We can talk about it all day long, you know, we own it. But it kind of came to light again when Justin's ashes finally came back through and the Franciscans were very clear that we own. That we own him.

01:32:32

James Redenbaugh: That's.

01:32:33

Garry Chilluffo: Those belong to us. Blah, blah, blah.

01:32:35

Samuel: So we're getting some legal advice to. Just to make sure to. Yeah. Calm nerves and move forward, which is

01:32:41

Garry Chilluffo: a good thing to do because I. You know, I brought it up a year ago. We really need to look at that. And no one. No one did anything with it. I guess they wanted me to do it, and I didn't do it. So there you are.

01:32:54

Samuel: So. Yeah.

01:32:55

James Redenbaugh: So.

01:32:55

Samuel: Okay,

01:32:58

Garry Chilluffo: cool.

01:32:58

Samuel: Is there anything we can send you? Last thing, I guess. James, what can we do to support you more as far as materials or things? I like to say videos, but yeah,

01:33:10

James Redenbaugh: I'll set up some kind of a shared workspace and invite you into that. In the meantime, you know, think about what. What might be relevant and points of inspiration. I'll also share a. A questionnaire that I'll tailor to you guys to answer about branding, and you can go through and spend some time with that and. Yeah, and then we can meet at. At some point next week and review that together and start to look at some. Some visuals together as well.

01:33:46

Garry Chilluffo: Okay, cool.

01:33:50

James Redenbaugh: Cool. All right, great. Yeah. Good to be with you both. Thank you so much.

01:33:55

Samuel: Thank you so much.

01:33:56

Garry Chilluffo: Same here. All right, have a good one.

01:33:57

James Redenbaugh: Take care. Ciao.

01:33:58

Garry Chilluffo: Bye.