Ancient Wisdom & Modern Leadership: 5 Questions for Leticia Gonzalez-Reyes & Brian C. Muraresku
Leticia and Brian explore what hidden histories, sacred rituals, and timeless traditions can teach leaders about purpose, resilience, and long-term vision.
Welcome to The Unlock! If you’re new here, I usually share my own writing on leadership, growth, and resilience. On the off weeks, I’m sharing something new: short, meaningful interviews with people who have deeply influenced my thinking and approach to life.
Today’s conversation is with two people whose work has shaped how I think about history, spirituality, and wisdom. Leticia Gonzalez-Reyes has been a close friend for years, and her connection to mystery and ritual has deeply impacted my family. She has this way of making the unseen feel tangible, of bringing reverence into the everyday.
I first came across Brian C. Muraresku’s work through his Joe Rogan Experience episode (which blew my mind) about his game-changing book The Immortality Key, then later heard him speak at TEDxBoulder using one of my golf clubs! His curiosity and determination in uncovering lost knowledge—particularly around ancient rites and sacred substances—challenge us to rethink what we know about spirituality, leadership, and human potential.
In this conversation, we explore what ancient wisdom can teach today’s leaders about resilience, long-term vision, and finding a deeper purpose. If you’re someone who values big questions, you’ll love this one.
Leticia Gonzalez-Reyes is the Executive Director of the Athanatos Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on exploring humanity's hidden histories through both scientific and humanistic lenses, aiming to rediscover ancient, enduring practices of meaning-making. Previously, Leticia co-founded 109 World, a non-profit dedicated to creating mindfulness and eco-friendly retreats worldwide. Recognized for its impact, 109 World was awarded "Most Transformational Personal & Collective Experiences" by U.S. News & World Report in 2020. Leticia has also contributed to Forbes Nonprofit Council and Thrive Global and received the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award. Her work has been featured in Forbes, U.S. Business News, South China Morning Post, and more. Before 109 World, Leticia served as Atlantic Director for the Hult Prize Foundation, the world’s largest student social business competition in partnership with Bill Clinton.
Brian C. Muraresku, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University with a degree in Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, is an internationally practicing lawyer and member of the Bars of New York and Washington D.C. He resides outside Washington D.C. with his wife and two daughters. Muraresku's debut book, The Immortality Key, soared to become a New York Times bestseller in 2020, also named "Best of 2020" in the History category by Audible. He introduced the book on the Joe Rogan Experience and has been featured on various platforms including CNN, NPR, and SiriusXM, as well as celebrity podcasts like Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Additionally, Muraresku engages with some of the world’s most renowned academic institutions such as Harvard Divinity School and Yale University, speaking on topics including consciousness, psychedelics in Western civilization, and archaeobotany. He advises researchers and academics in rediscovering forgotten chapters of human experience and founded the Athanatos Foundation, promoting interdisciplinary dialogue inspired by his book.
I asked Leticia and Brian these questions separately, so you’ll see their individual perspectives throughout the interview. While some answers may overlap in theme, each reflects their unique approach and insights.
Q: What first drew you to the path of exploring mystery and ritual with Athanatos? How do you see leaders and others reconnecting with these ancient practices for more purpose and resilience today?
Leticia: In 2021, burnout led me to close my organization. Stepping away from my executive role, I realized I had been consumed by productivity myths, leaving little room for genuine self-reflection. I embarked on a year-long sabbatical to reconnect with life and myself and discovered the ancient Indigenous practice of vision quest, which helped me resist returning to old patterns. This experience inspired me to explore ancient traditions, seeing their importance in evolving consciousness and guiding humanity’s spiritual journeys. At Athanatos we recognize that the use of transformative technologies to promote mystical experiences and spiritual growth is not a new concept; they are echoes of practices our ancestors held sacred, some for over two thousand years —like the Eleusinian Mysteries. However, cultural amnesia, particularly in the West under dominant Judeo-Christian frameworks, has obscured these traditions, creating a sense of separation from our shared spiritual roots. To me, leaders and individuals today can reconnect with these ancient practices by first understanding their original essence. By engaging in the work to uncover the original meaning and the containers that held such practices for so long, we can reclaim the wisdom we once held about ourselves, our natural world, and our connection to it. This knowledge is essential for bringing greater purpose and resilience into our modern lives, and for also reimagining our social, political, and economic systems to reflect values of compassion, sustainability, and collective well-being.
Q: Leaders often focus on the future, while Athanatos encourages us to look back and explore the hidden dimensions of human spirituality and history. For a leader used to the tangible, what might surprise them or shift their perspective by engaging with these teachings?
Leticia: In our quest to build a brighter future, we’ve realized that technological and scientific breakthroughs and market success are not enough. We are being called to step into a deeper consciousness, one that wields these advancements responsibly. Ancient teachings emphasize the importance of cultivating a community dedicated to mystical practices and exploring the profound questions of human existence and consciousness, particularly regarding death and dying. Across various philosophical, religious, and spiritual traditions, death is regarded as a vital aspect to connect with and learn from. When we look back and uncover the hidden and forgotten chapters of human history, we see that our concept of death has changed. Our relationship with it in the West has largely faded, and it seems that until this relationship is rekindled, we will lack a holistic understanding of life—one that transcends material and biomedical reductionism. Embracing death could help our culture develop a more effective, ethical, and inclusive framework for consciousness exploration and practices that foster meaning and purpose.
Q: At the dinner you hosted after TEDxBoulder, we heard powerful insights from Brian and Jamie Wheal on the relevance of plant medicine and altered states today. What do you think people are truly seeking in these practices, and how might they help leaders tap into a deeper wisdom?
Leticia: Because psychological authenticity and social belonging have become rare, I believe they are perhaps the greatest and most pervasive longings in the contemporary world, and what we truly seek in these practices. I believe this is what most people mean when they say they yearn for greater meaning or purpose in their lives or for the opportunity to participate meaningfully in the world. They want to feel more real and more in communion with the web of life. I personally believe that the relevance of psychedelics and altered states today is so we have the opportunity for a soul revolution and a cultural transformation — the transformation from an egocentric “Industrial Growth Society” to a soul-centric “Life-Sustaining Society”, or what economist David Kirten in The Great Turning calls the transition from “Empire to Earth Community.” It is every person’s responsibility and privilege to contribute to this metamorphosis and I think reconnecting with nature — respectfully and responsibly — through rites of passage or psychedelics is a powerful tool to remind us of that.
Q: As someone deeply curious about ritual, what’s one practice or mindset from ancient traditions that you think could help today’s leaders build resilience and purpose? How has this impacted you personally?
Leticia: A mindset from ancient traditions that has profoundly impacted me is the belief that preparation is fundamental. Simply undergoing a rite of passage or ceremony does not make someone wiser. Some form of developmental preparation is not only necessary but essential. In ancient traditions, the day-to-day process of personal development was a much greater factor than the rituals. So, I would say that what can help leaders—and all of us today—is the discipline to walk the path to becoming an initiate. Bypassing this stage of preparation hinders the potential for true transformation. We live in a society where everything happens fast, and immediately. We have hacks for everything: books with how-to lists and ten-step guides for any goal. We lack patience. We lack discipline. I am not saying we need to meditate in a cave for ten years, but it wouldn’t hurt to build resilience, reconnect with our purpose, and relearn how to undergo true transformation. Vision serves society best when anchored in context, and preparation not only provides that but also informs us about our past and where we truly are—and where we can go—from here.
Q: I really appreciated your TEDxBoulder talk on your near-death experience; it resonated with my own reflections on mortality. How has confronting death shaped your purpose and legacy, and what advice would you give to leaders looking for clarity in their mission?
Brian: We will all confront death at some point. True philosophy, as defined by Plato in the Phaedo, is the separation of the soul from the body – in this lifetime – as preparation for death. Death, in that sense, is the soul returning to its natural state. Many of the world’s religious and philosophical traditions carry a similar understanding. In my case, death came knocking a bit prematurely, when I was only 5 years old. That experience left no doubt about the realness of our mortality and the limits of our physical lives. But it also gave rise to an insight, which I later discovered was quite ancient – that true self-discovery often lies in self-effacement. Throughout my life, clarity has always best arrived when I acknowledge the insignificance of my conscious plans. Dying to self, each and every day, has a mysterious way of keeping one humble and accountable.
Q: Your curiosity has uncovered knowledge that others couldn’t access. What do you think enables you to find these “keys” to hidden knowledge? What advice would you give to leaders eager to explore uncharted areas but who may feel they lack the background or access?
Brian: Curiosity and exploration are the hallmarks of our species. In an age of information bombardment, where the attention economy seeks distraction at every turn, being true to your innate sense of wonder is becoming a rare commodity. But the formula remains simple: follow your bliss. Before I published my first book, I spent 12 years in constant research. It was a proper passion project, on nights and weekends, with the very simple goal of triggering my bliss. Dr. Cornell West has said that “engaging with the classics and with our civilizational heritage is the means to finding our true voice. It is how we become our full selves, spiritually free and morally great.” Seeking ancient answers to time-honored questions about life and death is what kept my spirit alive amidst the ennui of a legal career. I had no university affiliation, no journalistic credentials, no emolument. And certainly no expectation that my private research would one day become a public conversation. The formula works: pursue intellectual adventures for the sake of it; eschew attachment to any results; play by the rules; be kind.
Q: Spirituality and leadership can be challenging to connect. Based on your research on ritual and sacred substances, what do you think set the great minds of ancient Greece—such as philosophers and innovators who engaged in the Eleusinian Mysteries—apart in their pursuit of growth and knowledge? How might their approach to learning differ from the ways modern leaders seek to learn and grow today?
Brian: For our ancient ancestors, philosophy was a way of life. Preparation for the Mysteries at Eleusis – the culminating experience of a lifetime – would typically involve years of discipline: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Mentorship was central to the initiation, within a culture that prized this particular rite of passage as fundamental to human existence itself. Across most of the West, we have no such ceremonies today. Nor a worldview that seeks harmony between the mortal and immortal realms. If sacred substances were consumed during the enactment of the ancient mysteries, they would have been ritually administered by highly trained professionals (who likely inherited the position from birth), within a highly systematized sequence that ensured temporary release of the soul from its mortal confines. While initiates did indeed gain experiential insight into the nature of the soul, and its survival of bodily death, Eleusis was a collective undertaking: as many as 3,000 people in communal ecstasy. The lesson, it seems, was of societal, global, and cosmic significance – far beyond the individual.
Q: Your work bridges wisdom from ancient rituals to modern insights. For leaders in fast-paced environments, what can ancient traditions teach about cultivating patience, resilience, and long-term thinking?
Brian: Marcus Aurelius was an initiate of these ancient mysteries. “Death like birth is a Secret of Nature,” he writes in the Meditations, “a release from the impressions of sense, and from impulses that make us their puppets, from the vagaries of the mind, and the hard service of the flesh.” Prior to his physical death, it seems the Emperor very much internalized the psycho-spiritual death of the Mysteries. For those who have died to self, and continue dying to self daily, the virtues of patience and resilience become something of a spiritual discipline. Challenges become opportunities to practice detachment; invitations to retreat into that inner tranquility, born from the discovery and constant re-discovery of the true self – which is timeless and immortal. Even if you lived for 30,000 years, said the Emperor, the present is all we have. Between that infinity of the past, and the yawning abyss of the future, you’re always right here and right now. Exactly where you’re supposed to be.