The Human Mind And The Power of Compassion With Lion Goodman
Tom Dardick and belief therapist Lion Goodman explore Lion's personal story of transformation, survival, and spiritual growth. They also dive into the potential for personal growth and transformation through unexpected experiences and the role of curiosity, humility, and openness in this process. Lion also shared his insights on the power of beliefs and stories in shaping our perceptions of reality, the fundamental virtues essential for humanity, and Tom's model of the human mind. The overall theme is the benefit of nourishing our capacity for compassion.
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The Human Mind And The Power of Compassion With Lion Goodman
It's my pleasure to welcome Lion Goodman to the show. Lion has a story unlike anything I've ever experienced or anything anybody I know has ever experienced. He'll go into some details on that and what it meant for him. We riff from there onto the nature of our beliefs and life experiences and what is most important in life. We get philosophical and broad in our discussion. Without further ado, let's welcome Lion Goodman to the show.
The first thing that grabbed me about your storyline is the dramatic example of being shot and befriending the person who shot you. That is stuff that movie plots are made out of. I thought that might be a good way for us to ease into how stories can unfold and what your mindset was. Let's learn from your experience as to what all that meant to you. Do you want to start from that story, or is there a better starting point other than that?
It's always a good place to start because people get riveted by the story. It's an unusual story. It is about personal power and the power of submission, relaxation, or compassion. I am happy to start there.
What happened?
I was 26 years old. I graduated with a degree in consciousness studies from the University of Colorado. I couldn't find a job because nobody was hiring people with consciousness degrees. As far as I know, I created the first one. I was on the bleeding edge of my studies. I took a job as a traveling salesman. I was selling jewelry and gift items to stores and traveling the Southwest in an RV van.
I was doing this for a few years, figuring that at some point, I would know what to do next. That point never came. I was having a good time being on vacation and making some money. I was a nice guy on the road. I was a good Samaritan. If somebody's car broke down or got a flat tire, I'd stop and help them. It was part of my ethics.
You weren't destitute living in the van. You'd get a place to stay.
I was living in the van, but it was a nice van. It was an RV.
You're going around an RV.
I was a traveling hippie salesman.
That must have been a cool lifestyle.
It was great for a 26-year-old. After about a year and a half, I was not satisfied. I wasn't moving forward with my life. I was having a good time but wasn't doing anything. I was trying to figure out what I would do next. I thought about maybe going back to school and getting an MD degree, which was the original idea, or a PhD in Psychology, which was another idea. I wasn't doing anything about it. I was continuing on my way.
One day, I was traveling between Las Vegas and LA through the Mojave Desert. I came across a guy whose car had broken down. He was staring into the engine with a hood up as if he knew what he was doing, but it was clear he didn't. I stopped, and it was about 110 degrees outside. I rolled down my window and said, “Can I help you in any way?” He said, “Yeah, I put $200 into her and she won't start. I don't know what to do.” I said, “I'm heading into LA. Do you want a ride?” He looked at me funny and went, “Yeah, okay.”
He grabbed his duffle bags, a couple of other bags, and a suitcase and brought them into my van, which was already crowded with all my traveling salesman stuff. I ended up traveling with him for three days. I was going to drop him off, but we became friendly and talked. I grew to trust him. I'd send him on errands to wash up the van or to gas it up. At night, we'd camp out somewhere.
On the third night out, we were camped out near Puddingstone Reservoir in the Claremont Area, East of LA. I was in the back of the van, crouched down between cabinets, moving things around, trying to make more room in the van. he was in the front of the van listening to music. Suddenly, there was an explosion, and something hit me in the head. I thought maybe the gas stove had exploded.
I looked up to the left of the gas stove. It was intact. I looked further to my left, and there he was with a gun pointed at me from the front seat. I realized I had been shot. At first, I thought he was warning me. That moment, I said, “Lt's all yours. Leave me naked outside. Take the van. Take everything. Leave me alive, and I'm fine.” No, he shot again. I realized he wasn't warning me. He was going to kill me. I was in a crouched position, stuck between cabinets, couldn't move, couldn't do anything. I was a sitting duck. His hand was on top of the back of the seat. I knew enough about physics to know that I was going to be dead soon.
At that point, I had to decide, “What now? What do you do when you're facing death?” The first thing I realized was that I didn't want to die with anger, upset, or fear in my heart. I wanted to die in peace. The first thing I did is I went through my past, and I asked forgiveness from anyone that I had hurt. I forgave everyone who had hurt me. I knew that I had to clean up the past to move forward.
Compassion: What do you do when you're facing death? The first thing I realized is I didn't want to die with anger, upset, or fear in my heart. I wanted to die in peace.
Was that a result of you as a unique person, or did it come across from perhaps the fact that you'd studied consciousness studies in college? That's an unusual reaction. I'm wondering how you ended up being in that space and how you reacted that way.
It was my study of consciousness, psychology, human nature, karma, spirituality, and reincarnation. I knew a lot. I had studied On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's books, and Buddhist studies. I knew enough about the process of life, even at the age of 26. I said, “This is how I want to die. I want to die in peace.”
Having the presence of mind at that moment, when the crisis hit, you were developed enough to have that actual reaction because the lower parts of our brain are going to react, fight or flight. We're going to have an instant reaction without engaging our conscious mind. You were developed to the point where your consciousness had retained power in that moment.
It was clear that I couldn't flee and fight. Those options were out. I was a sitting duck, and I was going to be dead soon.
Surrender was the only real path.
That was the only thing I could do.
Let's say if it had gone down a different way where you had those options, would you still have reacted the same way? Was it truly a matter of the circumstance?
It's hard to imagine a different circumstance. Since that's what's happened, would I have run if somebody had been shooting at me? Probably. Would I have fought back? Not if somebody's got a gun in their hand. That's about as far as I can go. At that point, he shot twice. I'm going back through the past and cleaning it up. I'm also stretching up toward God and saying, “I'm ready to come home. I wasn't expecting this sudden return home, but here I am, and I'm ready.” I'm in these two places at once, this expanded state of consciousness. He shot a third time.
The second and third bullets missed me by fractions of an inch. I knew I was soon to be dead. By this time, my attention was focused on the light, and I was filled with this golden honey-colored light that was like love and compassion. I was saying, “This is where I'm going. I'm headed home. Who could have predicted this?”
I was floating outside of my body, looking down on the van. It looked like a little toy house or toy car with people inside doing this funny thing. I thought that was amusing. I was like, “I'm ready.” He shot a fourth time. This time, my head was thrown violently to the side. I was back in my body, and blood was rushing down all over me. My head hurt. I couldn't figure out where the bullet had gone because I'd studied anatomy, physiology, and psychology enough to know that if the bullet had gone through my brain, I should be missing something. I'm scanning my body.
First of all, it was confusing that I was back in my body. Secondly, I'm scanning it and looking for what's missing. What did the damage do? I couldn't find anything. I felt intact. That was unusual. I was confused by that. I thought at that moment, “If I'm going to die, I want to at least look my assassin in the eyes because I was perpendicular to him.”
I picked up my head, turned, and looked at him. He freaked out. He jumped up from where he was going, “Aren't you dead? You're supposed to be dead.” I didn't have any answer for that. I said, “Here I am?” I was in this expanded state of consciousness with this light flowing through me close to the source. He said, “This is weird. It's like my dream this morning.” That was my reaction. I said, “What dream?” He said, “I was shooting at this guy, and he wouldn't die, but it wasn't you. It was somebody else in the dream.”
At this point, I think to myself, “Who is writing this script? How did I get into this movie? I don't remember signing a contract. Am I going to get paid at the end?” It was strange to have him say that. I thought, “I don't know what's going on here, but if I can talk him down, maybe he won't shoot me again.” This is where personal power comes in.
I don't know if you've ever read Dune. Bene Gesserit had this way of controlling people with their voice. I was seeing if I could calm him down with my voice. I was speaking slowly and calmly. He jumped up again and said, “Why aren't you dead? You're supposed to be dead. I shot you four times.” He kept saying it. I said, “Maybe I'm not supposed to die.” He said, “Yeah, but I shot you.”
“You're supposed to be dead. I shot you four times.” He keeps saying, “I shot you four times. Why aren't you dead?” I said maybe I'm not supposed to die.
He came up to me and looked at my head. There was blood all over the place. He said, “Does it hurt?” I realized he was caring. He's gone from wanting to kill me to caring. There's a shift there. I continued to quietly try to calm him down. He kept saying, “Why were you so nice to me? I wanted to kill you. I wanted to take your stuff.” I calmly tried to get him to a place where he wasn't jumping around. He was all adrenalated because of shooting me. He kept looking out the windows, but we were nowhere near anything. There was not going to be any rescuers coming.
I was out of time with this expanded consciousness. I don't know how much time this whole thing took, but at one point, he was expressing his care about how I looked and whether it hurt. He said, “I'm going to take you to a hospital I know.” I said, “Okay. That was a good idea.” He started putting stuff around me so I couldn't stand up and jump while he was driving, which was the furthest thing from my mind. He got in the front seat and started driving.
He drove for about an hour, which was maybe a half hour. I couldn't tell, but I had time to think about this and go, “What the hell is going on here? How did I end up here? What is this for?” I didn't have any answers, but I had a lot of questions. I was reviewing everything. The sudden shift, the sudden betrayal, and an attempt to kill me after I had been nice to him the whole time. I’m giving him clothes and take him under my wing.
This is three days.
We had been traveling together for three days.
You knew about him, and he knew about you. He's not shooting a stranger. He knows your life's story, what you're trying to do, and the whole bit.
He has been driving for some time. He finally pulls the van over, turns the engine off, and stops in silence. I knew we weren't near a hospital because there were no bright lights. I calmly waited. He walked back to where I was and sat down on the bed next to me with a gun in his hand. He said, “I can't take you to the hospital. I have to kill you.” I went, “Why is that?” It's good to be curious in those situations. He said, “If I take you to the hospital, they'll put me back in jail. I can't go back to jail. I went, “You’re not a crazy person with a gun, but an ex-con with a gun.” It raises the level of seriousness here.
I began talking to him, and I said, “They won't put you back in jail if you take me to the hospital.” He said, “Yeah, they will. They'll come get me.” I said, “You could get away.” He said, “I can't trust you. They're going to come after me.” This began a conversation that lasted about eight hours. At one point, I said, “I'm in this uncomfortable position. I'd like to get up and stretch.” He said, “Okay, don't pull anything funny.” I went, “I won't. I promise.”
I got out of the van and stretched up. He pointed with his gun down this small hill to a pond. I started walking down to the pond and thought, “He could shoot me in the back and push me in the water. That's a possibility.” I felt invincible somehow. It was this light that was filling my heart. The love and compassion that I was feeling included him. There was no separation between us.
I bent down, splashed water on my face, and washed some of the blood off. I stood up and turned toward him. He held out the gun to me and said, “What would you do if I handed you this gun?” I said, “I'd throw it in the water.” He said, “You wouldn't try to kill me. You wouldn't shoot me.” I said, “No, why would I do that? You have your life. I have mine. We're okay.” He looked at me strangely. He said, “You are the weirdest person I've ever met.” I thought, “I'm the weirdest person you'll ever meet.”
We went back to the van and continued this conversation. I got him to tell me his story. He was raised in poverty. His father was a drunk. He got beaten. He finally went into the military. He went AWOL because he couldn't handle it. He got into drug dealing and stole drugs. His whole story unfolded. One thing I realized later is that he was telling me his life story and the beliefs that led him to become a criminal. Here I was, a hippie salesman, and my beliefs led me to be where I was. It was beliefs underneath both stories. It’s beliefs we have accumulated in life.
After negotiating and telling stories and all that, we finally came to an agreement. The agreement was that I wouldn't turn him in, and he would never do anything like that again. We shook hands and drove to a place that he knew. He got out of the van with his stuff, including the gun, somewhere. We shook hands again. He looked at me strangely and said, “Good luck.” I gave him some money and jewelry that I had. I walked back to the van and took myself to the hospital.
The MD said, “Two bullets bounced off your skull. You're a lucky man.” I said, “I knew it wasn't luck. It was blessed. I was a blessed man.” He said, “You have to turn this in to the police.” I said, “Yeah, I know.” I walked out of the hospital and took myself to a place where I could rest for a while with a bandage on my head. I kept my part of the agreement, and I believe he kept his.
The doctor said, “Two bullets bounced off your skull. You're a lucky man.’ It wasn't luck. I was a blessed man.
You have never reconnected since.
No, this story's been published widely. There was a film made based on the story, but it's unlikely he will be reading any of the places where it was published.
There was a film made on the story.
Yes.
What was that?
It was called The Kindness of Strangers. There's a major film by that name. This is a small film, a twenty-minute film. There's a link to that film at the bottom of my story on the LionGoodman.com website. It won best film at a film festival.
It's an incredible story. It's hard for authors to beat what happens in reality.
Reality is way more interesting than any other way in the imagination.
One of the signs of talent in the creative arts is reflecting reality deeply. When you can get to that, that's when it starts being universally useful. One thing that I was thinking about as you related that storyline is when he said, “It wasn't you in my dream.” It reminded me of an experience I had a couple of months ago. I'm not going to go into the story. I've told this on my show before.
In the dream, I was robbing a guy at gunpoint, and it turned out that guy was me. I interpret the dream as being my unconscious or my higher self, telling me, “These are the ways that you're stealing from your own life.” As a result of that, I've become more disciplined and focused. I see that as a tremendous gift from a higher source. I'm wondering if you think or if you have thought about the person he was shooting in his dream was his old self, perhaps.
I've never thought of that. That is likely to be true.
I'm going to start crying. This is a beautiful thing. That's a two-bullet struck you, two narrowly missed you, and two lives on completely different paths as a result of that. Your path up to that point led you to have the reaction you did. There's a lot involved in that experience. You hit on a couple of things that I think are themes that come up for all of us and are tethered by.
Our realities and experiences are shaped by our beliefs. Our story that we tell and our narratives that we have. We're living a narrative. We're beings of limited perceptive power. No matter what, we do not perceive all there is to perceive. We only see a slice of that. That slice is massively impacted and shaped by what we expect to see. What we expect to see is based on those stories. This is a dramatic example of how those two stories can be different. What do you take as some of the things that relate to being in touch with our beliefs and perhaps being stewards or authors of our story, exerting our power in that way, Lion? What are your thoughts along those lines?
We see a tiny fragment of reality. We see it from a single point of view. One of the things I now teach is how to see things from multiple points of view. This has expanded awareness and attention. We can extend ourselves. Even Einstein said, “We have to extend our compassion to the whole world.” That way, we see through others' eyes. We see what reality looks like through others' eyes. We do it in our practice by trying on other people's beliefs.
We try on beliefs like clothing. We're going to a clothing store. We want to try on a new outfit. Sometimes, it makes you feel crappy. You’re like, “This doesn't look good. It doesn't feel good.” We take it off and throw it on the floor. Sometimes, we go, “This makes me feel good. I feel sharp. I feel great.” We can try on other people's beliefs.
I tried on the belief Jesus is Lord. Those who believe go to heaven, and those who do not go to hell. I was raised Jewish. I never had that belief. I wasn't familiar with it, but I wanted to try it on to see what it felt like to be inside that belief and look out through that lens. The first thing I noticed is that everywhere I looked, I saw people who were going to go to hell. All I wanted to do was to save them. The compassion and the desire to serve others and help others. I had no idea that was the basis of proselytizing.
That's an example of seeing through other people's eyes and seeing through their beliefs. You can do this with anyone. If you're curious, you can try on anyone's belief and see what it feels like to be inside that belief. There’s the old saying, “Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their moccasins.” The advantage of that is that when you criticize them, you're a mile away, and you have their moccasins.” It's the same principle. What does it feel like to be that person?
That engenders compassion. You wouldn't go, “They're angry because they're hurt. When you can see that, you see the trauma in other people, and you recognize that they've come to their conclusions through their experience and their history. They're seeing the world through their story. When we can open up to other people's points of view, it expands our own compassion and our own ability to see them as struggling human beings. There's the famous saying, “Be kind because everyone is fighting their own battle. They are fighting a great battle.” That's the first thing.
For me, it means expanding awareness and attention, being interested in everything in the world, and trying to understand the principles of a good life through virtues. Another point for me is, how do we live a good life? How do we create a good life? Ancient from the ancients of Aristotle and people have been talking about the virtues. The qualities that when we take on and live and practice create goodness for us, for our family, and for the whole community. The vices do the opposite. They create harm or difficulty for ourselves, for our family, and for the greater community. Those are a couple of the principles that I took away. Well,
You took a whole bunch away. The things that came to my mind as you laid that outline were that in order to be on the path toward the light, I should have curiosity, humility, openness, playfulness, a sense of wonder, a sense of exploration, and discovery. Humility is the realization that we do have that one point of view. No matter how smart you are and what you've been through, it's that one point of view. There are billions of others.
It only makes sense that if you're going to grow, you're going to have to try some other things on for size. Otherwise, you're going to be stuck. No matter how wise or accomplished, it doesn't even matter. It's still going to be a movement in the direction of growth to adopt the attitude, habit, and skill that you are pointing to and try those beliefs for size. Would you agree with that?
All the qualities you mentioned are all in the virtues. Those are all virtuous qualities. Aristotle said, “Virtue has to be practiced.” It may be inborn in you, but until you practice it, you're not going to sharpen your knife. It's honing our behavior, point of view, and understanding. That process is a lifetime process. There's no end to it.
Who knows how many more years you might have? It is not enough. This journey is way longer than that. In the Eye of Power model, the outer layer is the four capacities. You could call them virtues. When you were laying out all that, I was thinking about the people quadrant, which is this one right down there. Where I've got my pen is the capacity and the people quadrant.
I use the word consideration, which is capturing that feeling of what you've been talking about. The consideration of what it is from that point of view. What am I missing? What do they see that I'm not? What about putting down ourselves and picking up somebody else's stories, beliefs, and points of view? In the model, you're constantly nourishing that and trying to use that and build that capacity to move you in a higher direction in that area. Our attitude towards others is that quadrant that's
We're not solo beings. We are relational beings. We live in troops like the monkeys we belong to. If you're pushed out of a group, that's certain death for a monkey. It's true for us. There are more people living alone in the United States than ever before in history. This is a gigantic experiment. We don't know what that's going to be like because we're relational beings. We have to be in a relationship with others.
With all this isolation and all the phones in front of our faces, there's something damaging happening, but we're not going to know what it is for a generation. We already can see that kids are committing suicide when they get dissed on social media. We're doing a dangerous experiment. We'll see how it turns out.
I had a conversation. It was a stranger. We were on a cruise. We were sailing away from Puerto Rico and San Juan. It was a beautiful sunset and one of those poignant moments. A bunch of people were out on the back deck, watching the sunset as we sailed away. I started talking to this guy. He is from New York City. He was telling me that one of his fears in his apartment was that a person had died, and it was three weeks before anybody knew the person was dead. He said that happens all over the city. He said to me that that was his fear. He was in a position where he could see that happening to himself.
I wrote an article on it. It moved me. This is years later, and it's still in my heart because we're not made for that. We've evolved in that close-knit, familial tribal of 200 people. We're wired in this modern world of technology. We still have a long way to go to get the fit right. That's a painful process. A lot of what we're pointing to is what the pain looks like.
One of the techniques I use for people to get underneath fear is to find the core belief and the core fear. Dying alone is one of those core fears. Being pushed out, ostracized, being alone, and living under a bridge, people have that at their core. You can see it around. You can see people who are homeless and poverty-stricken. Somehow, we can empathize with that psycho because we're not separate beings. We're all part of one being, as far as I can tell. That one being appears in many different guises. We're all bozos on this bus in different costumes, but we're on the same bus. We’re part of humanity.
It's hard to stab someone because it's you're right up close, but it's easy to send a missile across the country line and kill people without having any feelings about it. We're not built for these things, for this distant killing or distant dissing on social media. We are in new territory. We don't know what it's going to be like.
There are books like The Fourth Turning that are saying, “Yeah, we're in this transition period. It could either break up or break down. Anything is possible with this chaotic, uncertain time we're in.” We have to be more conscious. We have to expand our awareness as much as possible to deal with the chaos, uncertainty, and volatility that's going on around us all the time. Share that expanded awareness with others because that's all we can do.
We have to expand our awareness as much as possible to deal with the chaos, uncertainty, and volatility that's going on around us all the time, and then share that expanded awareness with others.
None of us have a crystal ball. We can't necessarily predict doom or victory. The best I can tell is that it seems like things in general, whatever we want to measure, have this noisy curve that bumps up and down randomly. There seems to be a slope that emerges that tends to be north. That's the basic reason why, at heart, I'm an optimist, or maybe because I'm an optimist, that's the way I see it. We have to expect that noise. We have to expect things to cycle and go up and down in the short term. If you're buying us an investment, the expectation is going to do nothing but go up from there. You're going to have a little root of awakening.
I call myself an apocal-optimist. Things are a chip, but it'll turn out okay. I'm a student of history. When you look at civilizations rising and falling, that's a big, long curve. That civilization could last 2,000 years, but it could crash, burn and disappear. Those who don't learn from history are forced to repeat it. We seem to be repeating history.
What's important is to have as wide an awareness as possible and be kind in a world where you can be anything. The best we can do as humans is to be aware, be kind to each other, care about each other, and hold onto each other as we evolve together. No matter what happens, whether it breaks up or breaks down, that's what's going to get us through.
One other question about the virtues, Lion, I've heard it said from others, and it seems true to me that the virtues can be boiled down to two basic fundamental pieces. Courage and honesty. It seems to me that courage is doing the right thing, even though you're afraid. Honesty starts with the ability to see ourselves accurately in the mirror and share a respect for the truth internally and externally. Those two, in harmony, give birth to the other things that we've been pointing to. Can you expand on that? Have you any thoughts about that thinking? I'm always looking to learn.
I have a collection of over 650 virtue words. It's a big complex. All models are wrong, but some are useful. The best model I've seen is head, heart, and gut virtues by dividing them into three areas. You mentioned courage, which is of the heart, truth, and honesty, which is of the head. The belly virtues are things like the will and creation. It’s the movement forward and the creative move movement that we have.
You can sort virtues in any way, but they're all dedicated toward creating happiness or what Aristotle called eudemonia, which is flourishing. How do you flourish in your life? How do you have your family and community flourish? It's by practicing the virtues. When you practice the vices, which are the opposite of the virtues, you create unhappiness.
We can help our families and communities flourish by practicing virtues. When you practice vices, which are the opposite of virtues, then you create unhappiness.
That was what Aristotle came to when he looked at what virtue is. Virtue is the qualities that allow a thing to fulfill its purpose. For example, the virtues of a knife are strength and sharpness. The virtues of a racehorse are speed and stamina. What is the virtue of a human? In order to know that, you have to know what the purpose of a human is. Aristotle came to the conclusion that the purpose of a human is happiness or flourishing, eudaimonia. The way we get there is through the virtues and arete in Greek.
That was smart guys figuring out what the essence of life is. How do we create happiness for ourselves and other people by being kind, smart, truthful, courageous, willful in a good way, and relational? This is how you create a great life. This is what your whole show is about. It's bringing all of those good qualities to your life, relationships, work, family, and community. That's how we create greatness in ourselves and our environment.
It reminded me of another model I've been working on and thinking about for a few decades now. I call it the Three Cs. It's consciousness, connection, and creativity. What I think there is that it seems to me like those are the functions that infuse the emergent mind in the human species. The thing that is made in God's image seems to me like those are the things that are emergent qualities that can't find a fourth. That's the three that get it. I'm throwing that out there if it lands with anybody or if it sounds like it makes sense or not. That's what I'm thinking.
It makes a lot of sense because we talked about our relational life. We are in a relationship. That is the connection part. Consciousness is the awareness part. Your third one was creativity.
It’s reshaping the world in a way that you can and only you in that particular way.
I see us as small bits of the creator. The creator had to create creation something. Since it was already everything, it had to divide and fragment to create new things. We're each like a new bubble of awareness and creative power. Because we're like God and made in God's image, we have the ability to create and destroy. It's important.
We are made in God's image. We have the ability to create and also to destroy.
In tradition, it's the creator, the sustainer, and the destroyer. Those are the triune gods. We have those abilities in us. We can destroy as easily as we can create, but what is the enlivening part? It's the creative part. We are creatures who have the ability to create. We are part of creation. We can create creation because we're part of the original creator.
We didn't get too deep.
I'm glad this was a surface conversation.
One more thing that I'm wondering about before we wrap up Lion is that it's such a major story and experience. I'm wondering. Since the age of 26 and your path since then, has that experience echoed in any way? Is there anything more that you might add so that the story is not one event but a narrative over the time of your life? Another way I might ask that question is, if you were not meant to die, what was the business from then on?
What's interesting is after I was shot, I knew that I was not supposed to be a traveling salesman anymore. I landed in LA. I was staying in LA. I started trying to find a job. The job I found was as a headhunter, which is ironic after having my head hunted. That was my first career. I spent several years and had a great life. I built a great life. I got married and had a kid. I had my own business and built a business up.
When the dot bomb happened, my million-dollar consulting business went down the tubes. Most of our clients were those companies. There were many people available for work. They didn't need us anymore. That was another crisis time in my life. I handled it the best I could. It was difficult, but I was kind to my employees. I gave them salaries until they could find other jobs, but I had to close down. I ended up deeply in debt because of it. I was trying to stay in the unknown and not come to conclusions quickly.
At some point, my girlfriend at the time said, “Why don't you become a coach?” I said, “I don't know anything about coaching.” She said, “You do. You've been coaching executives and people looking for jobs for many years. I don't want to coach anymore. I'm going to give you my clients.” I went, “Okay.” That's how I got started coaching. I got handed a bunch of clients. I started doing what came naturally. It turns out it was like a duck taking to the water. It felt perfect.
I was able to use everything that I had studied. I spent all that time after being shot doing self-development workshops. I took more than 100 workshops and trainings, trying to understand more about the universe and people. I was able to use all of that in my coaching. I realized, “I've got something to teach.” I began teaching other people this methodology I was using, which is now called the Clear Beliefs Method of Trauma-Informed Therapeutic Coaching.
It's halfway between coaching and therapy. We go into the past and clear the past stuff that's in the way. That allows people to move forward in a new way. We're clearing traumas, old limiting beliefs, and negative beliefs about the self. We're clearing the stuff that people are still carrying from the past. We've got twenty different methods of clearing it completely out of the psyche. It doesn't return.
I'm thrilled with the work that I'm doing now because I get to spread that technology. I've got more than 600 graduates in 45 countries around the world. That's the grace that's been given to me. It’s the ability to pass on what I know to other people. It's a thrill to be able to do that and see them be able to create such healing as I can. That's the glory of my life.
For anybody reading this, talk about how you would coach them to take action and reach out to you. If they want more from you, what should they do?
LionGoodman.com is my main website. If they're interested in learning this methodology, ClearBeliefs.com is the website for the training company. Those are the two places people get in touch with me through the contact forms on those websites.
It's a compelling story. There are a lot of truth bombs there. For those who might feel in their heart or might sense that they've got that blockage or need that thing, it sounds to me like it'd be a great move forward to reach out and get clear beliefs. If you can't get clear, your alternative is looking through dirty glass and water. You don't see too well. Lion, thank you so much for being on me. I enjoyed getting to know you and your story. I'm always thrilled to meet another person who is dedicated to uplifting people and serving the light in the world. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Tom. It's been a true pleasure to have this deep conversation in many directions at once. That's a great dimensional view of what's happening.
It’s my pleasure.
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It was my great pleasure to welcome Lion Goodman to the show. With these interviews, I feel like I always end up with a new friend, and I love it. Lion is a fellow traveler in the ways of light and love. He’s making sure that people get past the things that are holding them back. We clear beliefs and blockages and make sure that we are moving forward and not held back by outdated storylines or the energies that keep us from the full expression of ourselves. That's what we're all about here. We're birds of a feather, and I’m happy to have a lion among my new friends. Thank you, Lion, for being with us. Thank you for reading our discussion. Until next time.
Important Links
About Lion Goodman
Lion Goodman is founder of the Clear Beliefs Institute. He is a professional certified therapeutic coach with 40 years’ experience as an executive coach, teacher, healer, and Subconscious Pattern Detective.
He is the creator of the Clear Beliefs Method for deleting limiting beliefs, healing childhood wounds and resolving traumas from the past. More than 600 coaches, therapists, and healers around the world have graduated from his Clear Beliefs Coach Training.
Lion is the author of five books, including Clear Your Clients’ Limiting Beliefs and Creating on Purpose. He has taught workshops on 4 continents, and his articles have been widely published in books, magazines and blog sites. He has been a featured speaker on summits, radio programs, podcasts, and television shows.
Thousands of students and clients have reported profound transformation from his work, allowing them to feel freer, be happier, and achieve their goals faster and easier.