The Healing Cocoon Podcast

In today’s episode of the podcast, our guest, Andrew McFarlane, walks us through his lifelong journey of finding transcendental meaning and purpose. 

An actor turned conscious entrepreneur, he started his career in Hollywood at the age of twelve, appearing on notable television shows such as The West Wing, King of Queens, and ER. He is most recognized for his role as Tony on the hit ABC sitcom, My Wife and Kids. 

After his 15-year career as an actor, he changed direction to focus on developing socially conscious business ventures. In 2011, he launched a juice business in the heart of Hollywood called Open Source Organics that grew into multiple locations. Now he spends most of his time working on multiple conscious businesses and mentoring other aspiring mindful entrepreneurs.

A Peek Behind the Curtain of Reality

Andrew’s life of experiencing transcendence started in his youth. In hindsight, he can say it even began in the formative years. At just four, he can recall a consistent pattern of sitting down and breathing, as though meditating or working on his energy. 

At 15, he began to ask questions about his Christian upbringing and when he didn’t find answers that satisfied his spiritual longing, he went down a different path, exploring the altered states of consciousness he could achieve with cannabis and, in his early twenties, psilocybin. His experience with mushrooms became a pivotal turning point after a five hour, out-of-body trip left him reevaluating the realities of our physical world in a way that was hard to reconcile with his mystical, inter-dimensional experience. From that moment on, Andrew deepened his relationship with spirit and sought to be a vessel of awakening for others through his creative and conscious business ventures.

Transcendence as a Concept

Unless you’ve had an out-of-body experience, understanding any sort of explanation about another reality is generally beyond the capacity of our earthly minds. However, Andrew eloquently communicates his understanding of what lies beyond as both a concept and an innate ‘knowingness’ in an attempt to shed light for those interested in the idea of something more than the physical. 

He says, “Your mind and your body are connected. So there is a point when you leave your body, and there is a mind, and there is an intelligence there, but it is not the kind of intelligence that we’re aware of. It’s like in the same way that there’s a knowing that you have a mind, but that knowing that you have a mind isn’t your mind, right? It’s like there’s intelligence in things that are not just concepts. In this 3D world, we already have things we know, but we don’t conceptualize them—they’re a deeper knowing. So I often say that the mind is a reflection of intelligence. It is not intelligence itself because we know there are things that animate this reality that are intelligent.”

The paradox of it all is that a transcendental experience is like seeing a new color, and experiencing it as both new and familiar at the same time. 

The Deeper the Roots

As Andrew grew into the transcendental experiences of his early twenties and aligned with the desire to inspire consciousness, he found that one way for him to give meaningfully to others was to support them in their health. So, he threw sleep aside and invested all his energy and life savings into a successful vegan juice bar that ultimately became multiple locations. However, the intensity of being on the clock 24/7 as an owner/operator in the hospitality industry ultimately drove him to sell the business. But the experience didn’t make him shy away from future conscious entrepreneurial ventures, he just began to work smarter, not harder.  

The juice bar was an essential experience because it became a torch for his future that taught him the difference between “doing” and being effective. Because of that lesson, he was able to take on more than ever, without sacrificing sleep to the point of delirium. 

He uses the example of a tree. “The deeper the roots go, the bigger the tree can grow. I think the deeper that I’ve gone into myself and my process, the more I’ve been able to expand and it actually feels simpler. Like maybe my life on paper or from observation looks really complex, but I actually feel like I have a much more graceful life now than I did before.”

Learn more about Andrew on social media at @theandrewmcfarlane.

For the full interview with Andrew, listen via the link on this page, thehealingcocoon.co, or find us on Instagram @thehealingcocoonpodcast.