IN THE BUSH Podcast

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Joel sits down with intuitive healer Amanda Mahalik. 

In this episode:
Psychic, medium or intuitive healer? Amanda explains the differences and why she prefers "intuitive healer."
How a reading feels. For Amanda everything starts as a feeling, and the words, images and sounds follow.
Staying grounded and keeping boundaries as an empath. Amanda says you can turn the volume up or down.
Amanda's path: a metaphysical store as a teenager, then a three-year clairvoyant intuitive healer program at about 20. She has been doing this work for around 17 years.
Awareness and energy. Joel shares how he places his awareness elsewhere to send healing energy, such as to a friend's kidneys.
Channeling and intention. Amanda talks about 15 years of vocal channeling and how an invocation helps you tune in.
The Akashic Records and the collective unconscious.
Spirit guides: what they are, how to connect with them, and how to use discernment. Guidance from a guide carries love and support, never control or ego-flattery.
Synchronicities and signs, including Joel's owl encounters.
Where humanity is headed: facing fear, staying compassionate, and remembering that nothing is set in stone.
Visit Amanda's website to schedule an intuitive reading and explore her group offerings.
https://www.amandamiamehalick.com/
Support the show
Huge thank you to everyone who supports In the Bush podcast — if you've been enjoying the show, please consider making a donation to help us keep producing the content you love. Every bit of support helps us keep the mics on and the episodes coming. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time! 
www.primalskillsacademy.com

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Greg Everett is the founder of Catalyst Athletics, a longtime weightlifting coach, and the author of Tough: Building True Mental, Physical, and Emotional Toughness for Success and Fulfillment. He is known for helping athletes develop not just strength, but the identity and emotional resilience to sustain it.
Joel Van der Loon speaks with Greg Everett about the deeper side of toughness, moving beyond physical grit into emotional self-awareness, identity, and purpose. Greg explains why the hardest challenge for many people is being alone with their own thoughts, and why true resilience requires more than discipline or athletic ability.
We discuss how childhood conditioning, coaching relationships, marriage, fatherhood, and even solo time in the wilderness shape the way men respond to stress, success, and failure. Greg also shares how he helps athletes rebuild their sense of self so their sport supports their life, instead of defining it.

Key topics
In this episode: why emotional toughness matters just as much as physical and mental toughness
Greg explains how solitude strips away distraction and forces buried thoughts and regrets to surface
The difference between performative toughness and the quiet confidence of truly capable people
Why many athletes are held back by old coaching wounds, self-worth issues, and identity built too tightly around sport
How Greg uses the ideas of character, capability, capacity, and commitment to help athletes grow
Why success should be defined by personal growth, not just medals, money, or outside approval
How marriage and fatherhood can become daily training grounds for emotional regulation and self-awareness
Why women, friction, and close relationships often reveal what men most need to work on
The value of getting out into the woods, sitting alone, and journaling to take a life inventory
Greg’s view that a meaningful life is built by contributing more than you consume
Support the show
Huge thank you to everyone who supports In the Bush podcast — if you've been enjoying the show, please consider making a donation to help us keep producing the content you love. Every bit of support helps us keep the mics on and the episodes coming. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time! 
www.primalskillsacademy.com

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Joel Van der Loon and Eva Müller explore energy healing from a practical, experience-led perspective. Joel shares his own intense somatic releases and spiritual transformation after divorce, while Eva explains how she works with high vibrational divine energies to clear stuck emotions, expand the system, and support healing.
We discuss why energy work is difficult to understand until it is felt, how childhood conditioning and stored emotion shape adult life, and why both speakers see present-moment awareness as central to healing. The conversation also covers intuition, vibration, God, and how Eva’s group-based work is designed to support ongoing transformation.
Visit Eva's website www.nextelevations.com to receive energy healing transmissions to improve your life.
To learn more about Eva, book private sessions, our receive free meditations visit https://www.em-healing.com/
Timestamps
00:00 - Joel introduces Eva and frames energy healing as a real, lived experience
03:11 - Joel describes full-body release, chakra work, and somatic clearing
05:45 - Eva explains how she transmits high vibrational divine energies
07:25 - Clearing stuck emotion, ancestral patterns, and past life influences
08:48 - Life energy, chakras, and why openness creates flow
10:55 - Mysticism, direct experience, and why the present moment matters
13:17 - How energetic blockage can become physical illness
15:25 - Resistance, surrender, and staying aligned with life
16:19 - Why the mind drags people into past and future
18:24 - Energy available now versus self-created obstacles
20:45 - Childhood conditioning from ages one to seven
23:04 - Triggers, stored pain, and subconscious belief systems
25:01 - Why somatic healing matters more than insight alone
27:22 - Eva’s path into energy work and early experiences of silence
29:39 - Working beyond the mind and feeling energy in the body
33:12 - Energy as vibration, information, and transformation
35:07 - Reality as a mirror of inner vibration
38:46 - Atoms, nonmatter, and the vibrational nature of reality
40:23 - Nature, high vibration, and emotional states
44:08 - Clearing low vibrational emotions versus processing them mentally
45:41 - Why triggered states lose power once the system is cleared
46:37 - Fast-track healing through high vibrational energies
47:36 - Sitting with emotion instead of suppressing it
49:32 - Joel asks about channeling and guidance
51:09 - Eva describes channeling energy and receiving information as knowing
52:34 - Hands, intention, and developing a personal framework
54:48 - Healing unfinished emotional energy from childhood
56:49 - Why the mind is a small part of the human system
57:19 - How thoughts are formed from energy and stored information
58:40 - Why thoughts disappear when the system clears
60:06 - Sensitivity, boundaries, and tuning into energy only when needed
66:27 - Eva’s view of God, creation, and the divine mother
72:19 - Eva explains her offerings and group-based energetic work
74:11 - Free Thursday meditation, guided practice, and Q&A
76:34 - Why she works with groups instead of one-on-one sessions
78:30 - Closing thanks and invitation to explore the work
Support the show
Huge thank you to everyone who supports In the Bush podcast — if you've been enjoying the show, please consider making a donation to help us keep producing the content you love. Every bit of support helps us keep the mics on and the episodes coming. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time! 
www.primalskillsacademy.com

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Joel Van der Loon shares a solo episode on purpose, vulnerability, and the process of uncovering what he believes the soul is here to learn in this lifetime. He explores how childhood conditioning, fear, and unconscious beliefs can block clarity, and why inner honesty, meditation, and time in nature matter for anyone trying to live more authentically.
In this episode, Joel reflects on the tension many men feel around vulnerability, the role of intuition in decision-making, and the difference between chasing external expectations versus listening to inner guidance.

Timestamps
(00:00) Opening the episode and why vulnerability matters
(00:40) Why men struggle to share cringeworthy or sensitive feelings
(01:53) The listener question that inspired the episode
(03:20) Intuition as the way to recognize truth
(04:44) Early signs of passion and life force
(05:26) Family influence, vocation, and choosing passion before money
(06:25) Independence, selfhood, and not being shaped by fear of failure
(07:06) Passion as energy and the soul’s compass
(08:01) Childhood conditioning and how beliefs get programmed early
(08:58) Why self-doubt must be questioned and challenged
(09:27) Thoughts, reality, and the first step toward purpose
(10:08) What he means by life’s purpose and the soul’s lessons
(10:39) Inner peace versus performative spirituality
(11:39) How purpose affects relationships, work, and emotional state
(12:08) Restlessness, authenticity, and midlife purpose-seeking
(13:36) Finding yourself by doing the hard work honestly
(14:45) The Boyd Vardy idea of knowing the destination without knowing the route
(15:15) Surrender, trust, and resisting the need for control
(16:10) Why inner guidance creates more peace than ego control
(17:06) Easy path versus right path
(17:34) The fog analogy, stepping stones, and moving without full certainty
(18:32) Signs, synchronicities, and bodily affirmation
(19:06) Deprogramming the mind through consistent work
(19:36) Why mindset alone is not enough and the body stores emotion
(20:35) Somatic work, energy healing, and releasing stored emotion
(21:05) Buddha, suffering, and the chatter of the subconscious mind
(22:02) Meditation and the idea of higher wisdom or the superconscious
(22:43) Simplicity over overcomplicating spirituality
(23:11) Why 2027 is framed as a major turning point
(24:25) How to meet confusion, agitation, and misalignment
(25:10) Stepping into fear and acknowledging it instead of avoiding it
(25:39) Taking stock in solitude and deciding what needs to change
(26:08) Closing thoughts, feedback, and the future direction of the podcast
(27:06) Nature, meditation, and inner tranquility as recurring themes
(27:37) Outro and call to subscribe and share

Notable quotes
“Passion to me is just an energy flow through your body.”
“Your life's purpose is your soul's purpose.”
“The most important thing that you can do right now in your life is to step into fear and let go of anything that does not serve.”
Support the show
Huge thank you to everyone who supports In the Bush podcast — if you've been enjoying the show, please consider making a donation to help us keep producing the content you love. Every bit of support helps us keep the mics on and the episodes coming. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time! 
www.primalskillsacademy.com

Send us Fan Mail
This episode breaks down how Oregon wildlife management actually works, from agency structure and habitat biology to wolf conflict, roadkill, and mule deer decline. Jamie Bowles from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife also shares how traditional bowhunting shaped herunderstanding of animals, predators, and the discipline required to hunt ethically.
In this episode, Joel and Jamie discuss the realities of managing wildlife as a public resource, why habitat fragmentation matters so much, and why “ballot box biology” frustrates working biologists. Jamie also explains how traditional archery changed the way she hunts and how that experience made her a better biologist.

Timestamps
00:00 - Jamie’s role as regional habitat biologist
02:19 - How Oregon’s wildlife agency is structured
03:18 - District wildlife biologists, assistants, and technicians
06:03 - Habitat division and Pittman-Robertson funding
07:01 - What a regional habitat biologist actually does
08:29 - Access and Habitat plus wildlife habitat tax incentives
10:15 - Wolf biologists and non-game wildlife work
11:12 - Game animals versus non-game animals
13:25 - Why wildlife cannot simply be left alone
14:48 - Wildlife management is really people management
17:04 - Why humans and wildlife inevitably conflict
18:29 - Bear conflicts, low berry production, and human food attractants
20:54 - Why wildlife is a public resource
21:23 - Ballot box biology and bear hunting methods
25:35 - Habitat loss, fragmentation, and migration barriers
27:29 - Roads, fences, and why fawns and calves struggle
29:48 - Wildlife corridors and winter range protection
32:10 - Mule deer numbers and historical decline
34:32 - Predators are not the only cause of decline
37:48 - Reporting roadkill with iNaturalist
38:47 - Wildlife crossings and future conservation priorities
41:41 - Funding challenges and the need for new conservation models
43:48 - A hunter’s perspective on nuance and stewardship
49:01 - Wolves, boundaries, and the reality of dispersal
51:33 - Jamie’s path into hunting and traditional archery
55:11 - Learning archery after years in wildlife work
60:40 - Why traditional bowhunting forces closeness and patience
62:08 - Building an arrow setup and tuning for traditional archery
65:18 - Spot-and-stalk, tracking, and the challenge of archery hunting
70:53 - The first grouse Jamie harvested with a recurve
73:34 - Redefining success in traditional bowhunting
76:28 - Adrenaline, shot control, and knowing when to move
82:11 - Why the full hunt matters more than just the harvest
86:29 - A first wolf encounter while hunting
87:57 - Calling elk, hunting with a friend, and a near opportunity
91:43 - How traditional bowhunting improves her biology work
97:22 - Trusting intuition, slowing down, and listening in the field
98:45 - Jamie’s social presence and artwork
100:05 - Final call for public involvement in wildlife management
Support the show
Huge thank you to everyone who supports In the Bush podcast — if you've been enjoying the show, please consider making a donation to help us keep producing the content you love. Every bit of support helps us keep the mics on and the episodes coming. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time! 
www.primalskillsacademy.com