Topic: Va Hospitals

Mandy Rowe highlights that TrueRest locations offer free floats to veterans on the 11th of every month, with some locations extending the offer to first responders. Dr. Feinstein shares his experience working at the VA in San Diego, where long waitlists for psychotherapy left many veterans in crisis. Both guests advocate for installing float tanks in every VA hospital to provide immediate, non-invasive relief for those suffering from the horrors of war.

Dr. Richard Amerling recounts the stressful environment at Bellevue Hospital and the Manhattan VA during the initial COVID-19 wave, noting the isolation of dying patients due to no-visitation policies. He claims that by June 2020, the ICUs had emptied and New York had reached herd immunity, yet media fear-mongering continued. Amerling asserts that lockdowns were implemented after viral spread had already peaked, rendering them ineffective and politically motivated.

The guests propose several solutions to systemic inequality, including the decriminalization of low-level drug possession and the elimination of money bail. Dr. Smith suggests redirecting funds from "wasteful" ventures like space travel, the war in Afghanistan, and Blue Angels flyovers toward social services and the VA hospital system. They emphasize that the current "business of war" ruins lives and drains resources that could be used to support domestic communities.

In 1947, L. Ron Hubbard sought psychiatric help from the VA before publishing his own theories on the human mind in 1950. He proposed the existence of a "reactive mind" that stores traumatic memories, specifically focusing on incidents occurring in the womb. This theory suggested that external sounds or physical trauma during pregnancy could negatively impact a person's adult life, leading to a brief national craze for Dianetics.