About You

The “About” section of any website is typically built to establish trust and an understanding of the product/service being offered. It can include accolades and savvy language to entice someone to believe that this website holds the best option on the market for what you’re searching for. While all that is valid, I’m not here to tell you that I’m perfect or convince you of anything you may not be ready to know. The reason you are reading these words is to do something about YOU and much less about me. Therefore, my goal is to provide enough information here so that you may find what you’re looking for to help you make choices about what steps to take next on your path. And… maybe you’ll discover something about yourself by reading my story.

There are often many stories we have to describe ourselves — based on who we are talking to and what we want people to think about us. Anytime one speaks from this perspective, what the other person hears is only a “story”. If you are looking for transformative healing in your life - then I invite you to get curious about the powerful healing properties of plant medicine combined with my coaching program to create profound personal growth and spiritual development. Who are you? What is your story?

About Me

I’m happy to share many stories about myself, where I came from, what molded me into the man I am today, how I ultimately came to find my “original” self, and how I became “boundless”. One of the most important things I can say is that I have discovered my purpose, mission, and passion and now I’m walking my path.

First and foremost, I am no longer apologizing for who I am.

I no longer have the shame and guilt that I carried with me for a lifetime. I have learned to receive love, most importantly from myself. In learning to love myself, I learn to share that love. As an empath, I feel and connect with the energy of others and my mission is to help others connect to the light within themselves so that we may all turn on our “lovelights” and collectively brighten up the world. Working through my own mental health struggles, I found relief by combining sacred spiritual practice with plant medicine, daily meditation, yoga and breath work, healthy choices around food and lifestyle, and consistently challenging physical exercise. I have personally experienced relief from anxiety, depression, ADHD, and chronic pain; while having a deeper connection with people, family, and that spirit that drives me on this boundless journey. Where I go from here is to share a unique gift that allows me to help people be the best versions of themselves, to open up and be free while tapping into that light that is burning deep inside.

Embarking on the Become a Health & Life Coach Program in April 2019 with Health Coach Institute was a life-changing experience…Embarking on The Third Wave Psychedelic Coaching Program in May 2022 has been transformational and now the journey is boundless.

I am a philosopher, writer, musician, and avid winter enthusiast. My career path has included all kinds of twists and turns in my pursuit of happiness on this bumpy road called life. I’ve lived a remarkable life indeed - As a “seeker" the experience has always been a top pursuit of mind and I even built a business around it — creating VIP Experiences for some of the world’s top musicians, living in a million-dollar home, with a wife and two beautiful boys, and two twin baby girls on the way… and suddenly one day at the age of 35, I dropped my kids off at school went to the office, came home and the house was empty… and it all came crashing down. Within six months I filed for bankruptcy and walked away from the career I worked tirelessly to create. Call it a mid-life crisis, call me out for all of my mistakes, call it a failure, call it part of my path. As with every one of us who goes through something similar, it becomes a defining moment in life where I either give up and completely give in to the ego-driven desires and unbeknownst programming from my past, or work through the shit. To do the work. Open myself to the awareness of rewiring my brain, habit change, and letting go of shame, guilt, addiction, jealousy, resentment, anger, and so many other emotions. Understanding we have a choice in every moment to respond, or react; to choose, to listen to our body, our spirit, our mind, and the energy within and around us. At 43, I stand taller than ever today and ready to share my experience and gift with students of life, like myself.

The call to teach became strong over the last six years, especially after the birth of my children; and through the long process of healing from the heartbreak of total loss, I have come to understand the value in my experience for helping others with similar struggles. I am a walking example of how to heal. Enter coaching. I understand that I have a unique gift that allows people to open up to me and share their deepest fears and desires. And I have now learned how to support this energy, share my knowledge and experience and create a practice to help others heal and become the best versions of themselves.

Why Plant Medicine? Why Psychedelics? How did this enter my life and why has it played such a pivotal role in where I am at today?

Education is a constant pursuit for me. I was a member of the National Honor Society all four years of High School with a 4.0 GPA and on my way to graduating “with honors”. This was a big deal for me because my last name starts with a “V” and being the youngest in my family, I knew how long and boring graduations were. I made a promise to my dad I would graduate with honors so I could sit up in the front and he wouldn’t have to wait to hear my name called. 3 months before I was on my way to graduate with honors, I got expelled for 6 weeks for getting busted with pot on campus (ironically wasn’t mine and someone stashed it in my car under the seat). Little did I know that incident would likely change the course of my life. Being in the Bible belt of Texas in the late 90s was no pick-nick with weed. It was zero tolerance. Despite being captain of the football team, president of D.A.R.E., and in A/P classes - I was booted and sent off campus to a detention facility. I struggled to maintain my 4.0 GPA - taking A.P. Calculus, English and Chemistry weren’t too easy in a 3’x3’ cubicle with no teachers. My GPA dropped to 3.9 when I made a C in one of my classes for the first time. Unfortunately, I didn’t graduate with honors. I had a chip on my shoulder for “The Man”. When everything went down at school I was made a mockery of and called a hypocrite by my peers. After all, I was the president of the anti-drug organization on campus! I think like most kids when they’re 17, I was pretty confused and lacked guidance from my parents - neither of which ever smoked the “devil’s grass”. And yet as this took place, the valedictorian of our school was also suspended for getting caught smoking grass. 

At times my marijuana use was anything but responsible, and recreational indeed. I believe my experience in college was akin to most kids - my grades suffered a bit, and I discovered new amazing music. But also having ADD and anxiety, I learned that marijuana helped “slow down the train conductor in my mind” so that I could focus. I learned to balance my use with school and work.

Perhaps the shame and guilt of being punished for having weed on campus - when it wasn’t even mine- and given the illuminating information I got from reading The Emperor Wears No Clothes is what led me to change my major from Architecture to Philosophy - much to the spite of my conservative dad.

I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Texas in 2003. During my time at The University of Texas, I took some amazing classes, including an American Studies class called “Society, Politics, and Culture of the 1960s”. In this class I learned about how Bob Dylan got the Beatles stoned for the first time, I listened to firsthand accounts about what life was like on campus in the 60s from a member of the Black Panthers, I witnessed firsthand accounts from a professor who taught on campus in the 1960s and was now getting her Ph.D. in her 80’s, and I listened to first-hand accounts from a leftist author who hung out with John Lennon in New York regularly. All of these experiences and accounts changed the direction of my life. As a kid from a conservative family, I was the black sheep. My older brother literally beat me up the first time he found out I smoked pot. He disowned his best friend. This is what I was up against, but I knew in my gut…told my mom in 1995 at the ripe age of 16, “I think marijuana has positive benefits and will be legal someday when I’m older.”

After graduation in 2003 I moved to Whitefish, Montana on to pursue dreams of living in a true ski town where I could grow some roots… after-all I grew up skiing since I was three years old and running around my parent’s ski rental shop, albeit we lived 9 hours away from the closest “ski area”. Nonetheless, I had the mountain spirit instilled in me as a young child. I realize now that it was my pursuit to connect with that childhood version of myself - that original self before I lost it.

After four seasons of creating an amazing sense of community, the burning desire to seek more from life ultimately led to my departure. I chased love and dreams with stops in Austin, LA, Nashville, and Denver along the way… For over a decade I successfully (and unsuccessfully) chased my entrepreneurial dreams and built a career in the music industry, only to lose it all when my marriage fell apart in 2016 as mentioned above.

Over the course of a decade in the music industry, I saw the pitfalls that fame and drug and alcohol abuse can have on artists and industry professionals (including myself). In 2011 my knowledge of medicinal marijuana grew tremendously when I was hired to manage the creative product development of Willie Nelson’s marijuana brand and merchandise called Pure Willie. As I immersed myself in the life of Willie Nelson, along with the health studies that were being published, I started to see for the first time the fruits of my beliefs about the truth behind marijuana and its many benefits. After all, Willie Nelson is in his 80s and lives on the road touring 300 days a year - that is an incredibly taxing lifestyle on one’s body. He doesn’t drink and lives a relatively clean life - opposite of a lot of the other aforementioned. We could all learn a lot from Willie and I took heed of it ever since. It’s not the plant that is the problem, it’s with people’s own ability to manage the use of it. Same with alcohol or any other kind of substance. My departure from the industry was no mistake. The timing was divine.

I returned to Flathead Valley in 2017 looking to reconnect, rebuild and find my path. I continued my pursuit to teach as a ski instructor, which ultimately led me to the realization to begin Life Coaching. Over the last 6 years, sacred plant medicine has allowed me to heal old childhood traumas, ADHD programming, anxiety, and depression while creating new neural pathways to be the best version of myself. In May of 2022, I enrolled in an intensive Psychedelic Coaching Program by The Third Wave to be a responsible, reliable resource for the psychedelic community. As the legal landscape unfolds before us, I am confident that this coaching practice and others like it will not only become widely accepted, but a vital part of our culture going forward. The veil of deceit has been lifted and now it is time for healing to occur naturally, openly, and without falsehoods from Big Pharma and the propaganda machine.

Never the best student, but a natural teacher — A Jack-of-all-trades — Man of many pursuits and experiences. I’ve created and managed thousands of customer experiences. Now it’s time to take all of that and create my own practice with a goal to serve 1,000 clients over the next 20 years.

Today I continue to be a devoted student of the backcountry - spending as much time hiking and Alpine Touring as possible. My coaching methodology is heavily influenced by the teachings from The Third Wave, O.G. Mandino, Dr. Joe Dispenza, The iChing, A Course In Miracles, “How To Change Your Mind” by Michael Pollen, Easter Body/Western Mind, constant pursuit of knowledge and experience with other important spiritual, mindfulness, philosophical, self-care, and habit change books, workshops, and programs. A divorced father of four children, I am seeking to create a Brotherhood for Healing through my coaching for other divorced fathers struggling to fight the stereotypes that we are not committed, loving, and incredibly valuable to our children’s livelihood and development. 

Passion is my greatest capital. Empathy will take me to the doorstep of one’s heart. My goal is to guide every client down the path toward their best self. Connect with me and let's take a walk into the unknown. 

With Loving Kindness,

Chas Vergauwen