Sonic Bloom 2019 Series: Chad Hargrove on Forgiveness and Natural Law [INTERVIEW]

Written and Interviewed by Erika Kirchmayer

Photography by Erika Kirchmayer and Fatima Hasan

“I’m a love-mongering father, medical doctor, student of life, esoteric teacher, healer and mystic here on a mission to remind others of the simple and profound truths we already hold beneath the surface of our conditioned minds. My formal and informal courses of study have brought me to a state of moral obligation to speak about matters effecting human freedom. After coming to understand the underlying causal factors that create individual and collective suffering, it is NOW time for SOLUTIONS!” -Chad Hargrove, MD

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Did you pursue/complete higher education? If so, what discipline did you study and where did your studies take place? 

CHAD: Yes, I did. I knew I wanted to be a physician since my Junior year of high school, so I applied to Northern Kentucky University. The school is just across the river from Cincinnati. I went there and completed my Bachelors in Chemistry and Biology.  I graduated from University in 2008. Then I got I accepted to University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky. I dealt with a lot during that time, my mother was sick, and I took a few leaves of absence. This ended up turning my 4-year course into a 5-year course, but I graduated there with my M.D. in Allopathic Medicine in 2013. After that, I went onto start a Pediatrics Residency at Southern Illinois University. I practiced out of St. John’s Children’s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois. Residency is where you go from being a student of medicine into being a doctor, and having your own patients and making critical decisions that involve other people’s well being. I completed my undergraduate and Medical training as well as 2 out of 3 years of the Pediatric Residency. 

What led you to study natural law?

CHAD: Hmm. Well, I have to definitely give it up to the work of Mark Passio, who runs a site called WhatOnEarthIsHappening.com. This is a man who spent thousands and thousands of his owns hours compiling and aggregating information revolving around the occult and esoteric or mystic traditions, including the esoteric aspects of the major religions. He also studies subversive mind control and manipulation of the population through media, and healthcare and agriculture and other means. He is the best teacher of natural law that I have ever come in contact with. Even parts of natural law that I remember vividly contemplating as a child; I didn’t have the words for it. I would think about a lot of the different hermetic principles as a child and I grew to forget those as I went through the adulteration. In society’s washing machine of imagination, I lost touch with those deeper truths that I once understood. Following when I left [the Pediatric] Residency and I began a more spiritual walk, I came in contact with Mark Passio’s work. He does some amazing presentations of Natural Law and to hear him iterate what I already knew and what I believe everyone already knows but we all get distracted from it in the game of life. That’s what inspired me to study and teach Natural Law, the sentiment that we’re not trying to create students, we’re trying to create teacher; leaders not followers. Even though I didn’t quite feel ready when I first went out in my community and started talking about Natural Law and started to present this work formally, Mark Passio’s words really helped me along with some music which has inspired me to step in front of my fear. My fear is gonna be the blockade for everything I want to achieve in life, as it is for everybody. If I wait until I really feel ready, I may wait until I’m dead. I want to remind people that they have the capability to be great to themselves and others in this world. That statement is one of the most rapid tools we have to transform the way our society operates. 

How has your personal freedom shifted after having practically aligned yourself with natural law?

CHAD: Oh man, it’s shifted tremendously. Aligning with Natural Law in my life I was able to achieve a level of cognitive and emotional freedom that I never thought was possible. I’ve struggled throughout my life with anxiety and depression as well as other things that I thought were life sentences. I didn’t think I could anything about them. My level of spiritual, emotional, and mental freedom has greatly increased. As far as physical freedom, because I’m not the only person on this earth and my perspective is not the only one that matters, it is what every single person is thinking, feeling and doing. We are all co-creating a situation where we are all bound and don’t all have physical freedom we all want. But I do believe through transforming the mind and achieving mental and emotional freedom personally, then we can co-create a world where everyone is truly free on all levels. To answer your question, my freedom has grown exponentially. While I still I have things I still need to work on, I’m completely sovereign and free to broaden my perspective, being forgiving of myself and also to not be complacent to know I can keep addressing those issues within me and without me. 

Some formal teachings of natural law stem from Christianity, are there any other Christian teachings you prescribe to? 

CHAD: Yeah, you know I was raised Christian and baptized when I was about 10 or 11 years old. We were a loosely Christian family, a non-denominational Christian family. The idea of God being something separate from us never sat right with me. I will condemn any teaching that says divinity is something outside of ourselves and that we have to bow or kneel our entire lives [to this divinity].  That being said, I would consider myself an esoteric Christian as well as an esoteric Buddhist and an esoteric Judaism practitioner. The underlying fundamental esoteric traditions have given rise to the religions that I ascribe to. With Jesus saying, “That you are all God and that the Kingdom of Heaven lies within us.” I believe this is a powerful allegory for humankind’s ability to evolve in consciousness.  Whether or not Jesus Christ walked this earth as a historical figure or if everything written about him is simply an allegory for consciousness alchemy is not what matters to me. I can’t prove one way or the other but if you look at the deeper underlying meanings of the allegories then the Christ is within us all. A lot of the Golden Rule teaching we find in Christianity actually had Natural Law origins if you observe the Hermetic philosophies and Egyptian mystery schools those proceeded a lot of our modern cultural religions. I prescribe to many religions’ teachings, but I weave it into my tapestry of spiritual understanding. 

Do you consider yourself religious? If not, how do you identify in relation to divinity? 

CHAD: Well, I would say that I consider myself spiritual and not religious. If you look at the true underlying meaning of the word religion, it comes from the Latin religios, religiare; which means to bind or hold back. There is no one doctrine that I ascribe to, so I would say I’m spiritual for sure. As far as divinity goes, a huge part of initial ego destruction which came from the divorce and loss of custody of my daughter was coming into contact with the very powerful science of quantum mechanics. I believe that science in the form of quantum mechanics has discovered God for well over a century, and they call it the Unified Field. Some people call it consciousness, some call it the super string field, or the quantum vacuum, the void. But beyond the shadow of a doubt, Quantum mechanics has discovered a non-physical field of potential that underlies every physical particle in existence. So every physical particle in existence comes from this unified field. I believe that the field has intelligence and that is what we’re all connected through. This is the divine to me, it’s not something I’m a part of, I am made of it. We are all connected through that divinity which underlies all physical and non-physical creation. 

What is your experience with public speaking thus far? Have you presented with others?

CHAD: You know, what you got on film there [at Sonic Bloom Festival] was only my second time formally speaking publicly. I travel all the time because I spend half my time in Oregon and the other half in Cincinnati, and a billion places in between. I’m constantly informally segueing conversations into teaching and learning opportunities. When it comes to speaking on Medical topics, I’ve presented a good handful of presenting papers in my formal academic training by presenting the research I did or doing Pediatric Grand Rounds, Resident lectures, and things like that. When it comes to these topics [from my workshop], I have very little formal experience.

What lead you to leading workshops at festivals? 

CHAD: I went to my first festival in 2014 and this was about 6-9 months after my divorce when I was having my dark night of the soul. I went to Summer Camp [Music Festival] just for one night with a friend. What it really came down to was that my hope was restored that humanity could be this good to each other all the time if we only cared enough to do it. So that [experience] made me think that I should continue to learn how to release my fears and speak about it when I thought it was time. I thought that festivals were a good place to start because everyone is so open-minded, heart-forward and connected. They come there to [the festivals to] learn and heal and grow! 

Did you have an imaginary friend growing up? And if not, why?

CHAD: Hmm, you know I had a great imagination. I can’t say that I had any one imaginary friend that I kept to myself and introduced to others. I had some pretty profound dreams but they didn’t involve other beings, they involved me being in these unbound spaces where sound was amplified. I did believe from the time I was about 9 years old that I had a guardian angel who I believe to be my Uncle who died while I was in the womb. I’ve had a few things happen throughout my life that has confirmed that [belief] for me or at least lent credence to it. For one reason or another, I never really had an imaginary friend. 

Do you have a favorite medium of entertainment as of right now, whether its literature, media such as movies and shows or a hobby?

CHAD: Yeah, music is always my number one. I’m trying to get my dexterity back on a guitar and I play a few different hand drums; the theme and durbaka. I use it to channel and release and be creative. I don’t watch too much TV or news. Every once and a while I might check out a movie or a show and look for the underlying allegories in them. But I’m pretty much limited to audio lectures, podcasts, and then books. I’ve never been the biggest reader and I want to get better at that. I’ve got a big stack of books that I’m slowly working my way through. Some of them I’m reading for a second time because I think they’re so important. 

Do you have anything coming up that your followers should look out for or someone who may want to hear you speak live could attend?

CHAD: I’m definitely gonna be doing a workshop at Arise Music Festival in the Children’s Village. The event is on August 2nd, 3rd, and 4th at Loveland Ranch in Loveland, Colorado. And then I’ll be doing a workshop at Resonance Music Festival in September at Cooper’s Lake in Pennsylvania.

I’m thinking about breaking the workshop I did at Sonic Bloom Festival into two parts. One comprised of Natural Law and another of Forgiveness because I could easily fill an hour with each topic. Also, I wanted to mention my friend who is about 7 or 8 years clean off of Heroin who has been clean by using the 12 step program told me today I’ve inspired him to start to lead some workshops. We are thinking about speaking together about Conscious Recovery and talking to people about the pitfalls of the 12 Step Program. The 12 Step Program is amazing and it has helped countless people but I also do believe there are some pitfalls which dis-empower the people that practice it. So, we want to talk about that and also talk about psychedelic use in recovery. We are going to try to co-present this material at Resonance Music Festival as well. All of this stuff I have regular, informal talks about and it’s all just a matter of giving a slight bit of organization to it. In the next 6-9 months, I hope to have at least 3-4 of these children’s books finished and in the publishing process. I felt very compelled to start this process after a night at Sonic Bloom that I should start to shift my material into easily digestible children’s books. 

Connect with Chad Hargrove, MD at Arise Music Festival 2019: