Shawn Ryan: There's A Battle For Your Soul, It's Happening Right Now
Sean Ryan, founder of one of the world's largest podcasts, discusses his unconventional life journey from Navy SEAL to CIA contractor to controversial podcaster, including his recent spiritual crisis involving psychedelic use, alleged demonic oppression, and Catholic exorcisms that have fundamentally transformed his faith and professional direction.
Summary
Sean Ryan recounts his remarkable journey across multiple high-risk careers and lifestyles. He spent 6-9 months in Navy SEAL training (BUDS), deployed to Haiti, Afghanistan, and Iraq where he conducted direct action missions and trained conventional units in advanced tactics. After leaving the military, he contracted for the CIA and various private security firms, taking on increasingly dangerous assignments.
At age 34, seeking adrenaline rushes unavailable in civilian life, Ryan moved to Medellin, Colombia, where he spent two years deeply embedded in drug trafficking networks. Rather than dealing directly, he focused on network building and intelligence gathering, eventually operating at high levels within the criminal infrastructure. This period culminated in a close call when Colombian police bugged his apartment and placed him under surveillance following his reckless display of cash at a bridge in a dangerous neighborhood. He escaped Colombia within 12 hours and eventually returned to the United States.
Ryan eventually transitioned to podcasting, building one of the largest shows on the planet by conducting in-depth, unfiltered interviews with diverse guests ranging from military figures to politicians. He discusses concerns about platform manipulation, guest infiltration by intelligence agencies, and algorithmic suppression of his content. He initially supported Trump but has become disillusioned with the administration's foreign policy, particularly regarding Iran, and believes both major political parties serve corporate and foreign interests rather than Americans.
The conversation takes a dramatic turn when Ryan discloses a transformative and disturbing experience three months prior. After taking 5-MeO-DMT following an Ibogaine journey, he experienced what he describes as encountering hell itself—a state of total emptiness, abandonment, and fear lasting approximately 90 minutes, during which his body became severely contorted in ways witnesses described as horrifying. Following this experience, Ryan has undergone multiple Catholic exorcisms with priests who believe he is experiencing demonic oppression rather than possession. He reports experiencing nightmares, supernatural phenomena (picture frames falling off walls, allergic reactions during communion), and a persistent spiritual battle. These experiences have drawn him deeper into Christianity and Catholicism, leading him to plan a multi-year Bible study series on his podcast.
Ryan addresses the professional consequences of his spiritual pivot, including loss of advertisers unwilling to support faith-based content, but frames this as a necessary alignment with his values. He emphasizes his commitment to journalistic integrity, discussing episodes he deliberately did not air due to concerns about misinformation. He plans to shift his podcast focus toward biblical education and documentary-style investigations into domestic poverty rather than political coverage.
The interview concludes with reflection on balancing entrepreneurial ambition with family life. Ryan expresses some guilt about the time demands of his business but frames his work as creating a meaningful legacy and providing creative outlet. He discusses his new venture, Glacier, a privacy-focused mobile app offering VPN, secure DNS, and burner phone numbers to protect user data from exploitation by data brokers and foreign intelligence agencies.
About this episode
What happens when the relentless pursuit of adrenaline leads to losing your soul in the process? Shawn Ryan reveals the hidden psychological toll of ambition, the dark side of psychedelics, and the ultimate price of true alignment. Shawn Ryan is a former U.S. Navy SEAL, CIA contractor, and the creator of The Shawn Ryan Show, one of the most influential and widely watched independent podcasts. After transitioning from elite military service and dangerous covert operations into media, he has built an expansive platform known for raw unfiltered conversations. In this episode, he explains: ■ The Adrenaline Trap: How former elite operators often suffer from severe post-service depression because normal civilian life cannot replicate the neurological highs of combat. ■ The Psychedelic Nightmare: Why an intensive ibogaine treatment designed to optimize his mental state instead opened a terrifying portal to the spiritual realm and severe supernatural oppression. ■ The Cost of Alignment: Genuine personal transformation demands going through a shedding phase, in which you consciously step away from profitable ad deals, social networks, and short term incentives to stay true to your values. ■ The Illusion of the Herd: Authentic, lasting achievement relies entirely on nurturing a unique voice anchored in personal belief, while imitating results in creative paralysis. ■ The Ultimate Priority: Chasing ambition eventually demands sacrificing family time, demonstrating that no amount of business success can make up for absence in your children's lives. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:26 What Made Shawn Ryan? 00:03:38 What Separates a Navy SEAL From the Rest of the Military 00:06:09 What Really Happened During Operation Red Wings 00:08:44 How Becoming a Navy SEAL Changed Him 00:09:54 Are Podcasters Being Compromised by Planted Guests? 00:18:25 Did He Endorse Trump? 00:20:19 Has His Opinion on Trump Changed? 00:21:20 How the Military Feels About Deployment to Iran 00:22:30 Would America Be Better Off If Democrats Had Won? 00:29:19 Why the 2028 Election Matters to Him 00:32:48 Why He Deletes Podcast Episodes 00:37:20 Ads 00:39:47 Why He Moved to Colombia After Contracting 00:39:58 Did He Get Involved With Drug Networks in Colombia? 00:42:04 What Happened With the Police in Colombia? 00:46:49 Was Colombia Enough to Make Him Get Clean? 00:47:46 The Turning Point That Changed Everything 00:49:56 Why Going to Therapy Was So Difficult 00:51:02 Why He Turned to Psychedelic Therapy 00:54:14 What Is Ibogaine and Why Did He Take It? 00:57:16 The Hell He Experienced During Ibogaine 01:00:01 What Happened During His Psychedelic Experience 01:00:59 How That Experience Changed His Life 01:08:23 Ads 01:09:32 What Is an Exorcism and What Actually Happens? 01:11:44 How His Experiences Affected His Family 01:19:23 Had Supernatural Things Happened Before? 01:21:34 What He Thinks About Sponsors Walking Away 01:34:36 What Is Glacier and Why Does It Matter? Follow Shawn Ryan: YouTube: https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/DoJWKmI Instagram: https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/AKYL4qQ X: https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/Fofoug4 Glacier App: https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/APvONfo - (20% off for the first 3 months) The Diary Of A CEO: ◼ Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼ Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/BWjLTZK ◼ Shop The Diary Of A CEO collection: https://thediary.com/collections/shop ◼ Get email updates - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/5IB1H6E ◼ Follow Steven - https://link.thediaryofaceo.com/AGU9QP4 Sponsors: Shopify - https://shopify.com/bartlett Ketone - https://ketone.com/STEVEN for 30% off your subscription order
Key Insights
- Ryan argues that his addiction to adrenaline from military operations created a void civilian life could not fill, driving him to increasingly dangerous pursuits in Colombia despite recognizing the risk as potentially fatal.
- Ryan claims that intelligence agencies insert planted guests onto major podcasts to spread specific narratives, with the goal of one viral sentence rather than coherent arguments, making it difficult to detect manipulation.
- Ryan asserts that his podcast's refusal to endorse a single political party and its massive viewership (150-200 million views monthly) resulted in algorithmic suppression and exclusion from YouTube's 'popular podcasts' section.
- Ryan describes his psychedelic experience as opening access to a forbidden spiritual realm that humans were 'never supposed to have access to,' suggesting the experience triggered genuine demonic oppression rather than psychological hallucination.
- Ryan contends that the timing of supernatural events (picture frames falling, allergic reactions) surrounding his decision to create Bible study content demonstrates a spiritual battle over his platform's influence.
- Ryan claims that multiple military figures (SEALs, Special Forces, Delta operators) have privately contacted him to share similar negative psychedelic experiences, suggesting a widespread phenomenon being suppressed by the psychedelic advocacy community.
- Ryan argues that proximity to political power (photographed with administration officials, invited to White House events) functions as a capture mechanism that constrains future editorial independence regardless of the influencer's intentions.
- Ryan states that advertisers canceling contracts upon learning of his faith-based content represents an organized effort to suppress religious messaging despite the apparent contradiction in targeting family-focused audiences.
- Ryan describes his exorcism process as involving Latin and English prayers designed to trigger reactions that help priests identify the specific nature of alleged demonic oppression through elimination.
- Ryan argues that the cost of his spiritual authenticity (lost advertisers, skeptical audiences, family stress) is justified because living in misalignment with his beliefs would create worse long-term consequences.
- Ryan claims that his near-death experience in Colombia (surrounded by hundreds of people after throwing cash at homeless population) was orchestrated by undercover police using him as bait to establish probable cause.
- Ryan asserts that data brokers selling individual location and app usage data have enabled Iranian operatives to successfully target and attack U.S. military personnel at overseas bases.
Topics
Transcript
As a founder building a business when I was in my early 20s, I think I always had a deep sense of imposter syndrome because there was something that I wasn't good at and that thing was finances. Finance and understanding your financial position as a small business is the great enabler of all of your dreams. I was running from it until I discovered a platform called Xero. Xero is an accounting and financial management platform specifically for small businesses and it brings accounting, payments, payroll and analytics all into one place, even for people that don't love doing finances. Xero wants to do the financial work for you. But its core ambition is to go beyond keeping the…
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