#51 George Demourtzidis | Shilajit, Sin, And Starting Again

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Sunny Banana (Sunny Banana + Jarvah Biltong)

One bad drink in Fiji turns into a lifelong lesson: what you consume shapes you, not only your gut, but your focus, your mood, and the direction of your soul. George Demourtzidis joins me from the Gold Coast to talk about the unexpected bridge between health and Orthodox faith, starting with the practical stuff we all feel daily: energy, clarity, hormones, and the basics of what we put into our bodies.

George shares how he works in land development and why he chose to build a health supplement brand around shilajit, a mineral-rich mountain resin often called nature’s multivitamin. We get into why sourcing matters, how fake products flood the market, and why third-party testing is non-negotiable if you care about real results. From there we zoom out into a bigger idea for men’s health and mindset: your inputs are not neutral. Water quality, processed food, music, and media all train your attention and, over time, your appetites.

Then we go deep into Orthodox Christianity: the Eucharist as the real Body and Blood of Christ, the countercultural reality of being told “not yet” at the chalice, and why confession, fasting, and repentance are part of a serious way of life rather than a quick spiritual shortcut. George opens up about drifting into a hedonistic lifestyle, hitting a low point at 32, and the verse that turned him back: Matthew 6:33. He also shares a powerful Pentecost experience that brought a kind of peace and joy he can only describe as grace.

If you care about clean living, spiritual discipline, and becoming whole, this conversation will challenge and steady you. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Sunny Bunani. Welcome to the Sunny Banana ICU. Thank you for tuning in, brothers and sisters. Today I have a wonderful guest. I'm very excited about our talk today, George Demotzedis, who's sitting on the Gold Coast. Welcome, George. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me on the podcast. Fantastic to have you here. And we're going to delve into a lot of things about life and being human. But maybe let's start uh where most people start. George, tell us uh, you know, where you're from and and what it is you do.

Land Development And Shilajit Explained

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Yeah, cool. So I'm from Adelaide, Australia. And in terms of what I do, I do a few things now actually into a land development. So I procure land and do land subdivisions. And then on the side of that, I actually have a health supplement called Shirogy. It's a brand called ProViblife. So you can go on Provifeau.com. And it Shirogy, if your audience doesn't know, is a mountain resin product, and it's packed full of nutrients and minerals, and it's good for overall health, it's good for energy production, it's good for hormonal regulation and support, it's good for focus, it's sort of nature's own natural multivitamin per se. So I've been doing that, and then of course, as you know, that's how we connected. Um getting into some content as well about you know faith, masculinity, and just overall men's health and mindset.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Lovely. Yeah, that shilogy, it's basically like coffee on steroids, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yeah, so the shilogy, the mountain resin itself, is found in two locations, either in the Himalayans or the Altar Mountains, which is in Kazakhstan. We get ours from a supplier in Kazakhstan. A lot of the Himalayan Shiraji products out there, I wouldn't trust 100% because there's a lot of fake stuff out there. Whereas with our product, we've got two independent parties that have tested the product as well. And yeah, it's pretty much a non-caffeinated energy product. I mean, it's it's such a versatile material. It it can be used for you know, focus, energy, overall well-being. It helps even with your physiology as well. Like when I started taking it, that's why I wanted to sell it, because I wouldn't sell anything that I didn't personally believe in as well and take. You know, like for example, if you were to say, hey, George, sell me these pink coffee cups, that's not something I believe in. It's not something that I use. But this product here, I actually started taking it myself, and then I I wanted to start selling it as well. So yeah, it's an amazing product. And so, yeah, that's pretty much what I do. So I'm involved with a few things, but yeah, trying to keep things simple.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Awesome, brother. Yeah, there's it seems to be a movement with humans today, with people wanting to, they're very more much more conscious about what goes into their bodies and they they they're aware of how much preservatives and chemicals and things in the supermarkets.

A Fiji Wake Up Call On Health

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Well, interestingly enough, I was when I was younger, I went to a wedding in Fiji. And this is actually how I got into the health space. I was with some locals towards the end of the trip, and they were drinking. I'm not sure if you're familiar with cava. Yes, it's a it's a plant that they put in the water. Yeah, and and you drink it, and I had no clue about health, water quality, and I drank some cover, and I think they had just used the water from the tap. And sure enough, a few hours later, it was a very, let's just say, interesting time for me in the in the bathroom. And when I came back to Australia, I had stomach issues, and I was very sensitive to certain foods and stuff. So I had to be very mindful. I went down the path of you know seeing a naturopath, then just one thing led to another. So even though that negatively impacts me at that specific time, it ended up being the catalyst for me to get into the health and wellness space. And from there, I've always been very conscious, you know, what water I drink uh drink, what food I eat, and yeah, pretty much what you consume. And I guess that goes across even you know, consuming what you're watching, what you're listening to, all those things have an impact on on your mind, body, and soul.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Yeah. I can I can't I always think of this as well. It's like what you put into your bodies, uh, what you what you through your eyes, through your mouth, has an effect on your soul or your spiritual life. 100%. Yeah, yeah. So so Carver, yeah. So I I used to play rugby and with some Fijians. Obviously, when you play rugby, you will play against Fijians. And then they brought the stuff out. I never tried it actually. But too conservative, maybe. I don't know. I didn't try it. I stick I stuck.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

I'll be honest, I didn't I didn't notice maybe because I didn't have enough of it, I didn't really notice any major you know effects on myself. But apparently, if you you know drink enough of it, you get into like a mellow kind of state. Not sure if it's yeah, if it's bad or anything like that. But that's it. I haven't tried it since. But yeah, now I'm very mindful of water. So if I go to a restaurant and they just have their normal tap water and they bring it to the table, I don't I don't even drink it. I have to make sure I get my water from a good source. Even when I came every time I travel and I come to the hotel, I straight away go to the local supermarket to buy. I mean, there's like maybe three or four brands of water that I buy. But yeah, so it sort of scarred me a little bit to be honest, because yeah, I'm very like conscious, uh, aware of what I drink and what I consume. Yeah. Because ultimately you you are what you eat, you know, you are what you consume as well.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yeah.

What You Consume Shapes The Soul

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Just to jump into a a spiritual orthodox point there that I think was uh an elder was talking about the the Eucharist, and you know it whatever you eat becomes a part of your body. Like literally. 100%. Yeah, in a physical sense. So, and as Christians, we know the physical and the spiritual are so closely intermingled because of the incarnation of Christ, which will come up in a bit.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Part of consuming the Eucharist is for that exact purpose, is for Christ for you to become like have Christ in you. I remember I asked an elder that before. I said, with the communion, how does it work in the body? And he goes, anything you consume, George, becomes part of you. So the reason why we consume the Eucharist is so that Christ can become part of us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

So yeah, I remember like it's not just a symbol.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

No, pretty much, I think aside from the Orthodox, and maybe I don't I'm not too familiar with Catholicism. I'm pretty sure they're the only two denominations that view the Eucharist as the body and blood of Christ. I'm pretty sure every other denomination, I mean, you would probably correct me on this, see it as just a symbol. Yeah. And that's not what the early church, I mean, even Saint Paul himself, you know, speaks about people that partook of the body and blood of Christ unprepared, ended up getting sick or dying. And even Christ himself, when he was talking to his disciples, is take this, eat it. This is my flesh. So there's yeah, the early church fathers or orthodoxy in and of itself, they knew what was up.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Yeah, yeah. In Anglicanism, it's small, it I think I got the the impression that it was up to the believer. So if the believer thought that that was changed, and that was in essence the body and blood of Christ, then so be it. But if your faith wasn't there, then it wasn't. So it depended on the the faith of the the uh yeah, which isn't orthodox. It's not orthodox because the divine liturgy, something's happening.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Well, that's exactly right. Part of the reason why we go to the divine liturgy, the main purpose of it is to partake of the banquet of Christ. That's that's pretty much what the divine liturgy is for, is to prepare the communion like into the transform it into the body and blood of Christ. And and I remember reading a book recently by St. John Christoston, and there was a segment in the book talking about that if you partake of the Eucharist unprepared, you could potentially become possessed. That's how serious this is. And I know one convert, I actually baptized him. His knowledge on orthodoxy is far greater than mine because he had to do the catechism classes. Whereas me, I was Cradle Orthodox. So unfortunately, us Cradle Orthodox, we sort of take orthodoxy for granted. We don't really know as much as these converts that are coming into the faith. But anyway, long story short, he said that in the in the early church, or even even now, for example, there's a part in the in the service where the priest says catechumens depart, and all the catechumens have to kind of stand outside of not be where the communion is, because he said that people that are not like orthodox can sometimes experience headaches. Because it the the Eucharist, it gives the believers or orthodox people nourishment and life, but to the unbeliever or the non-unorthodox, it can it's like fire for them, but it's it's like good for us. It's like a good fire for

The Eucharist As Real Presence

SPEAKER_01 11:18

us, but it's a bad fire for for them, which I thought was interesting.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Yeah, yeah. Um so I'm I'm part of the rocal, the Russian Church abroad, right? Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia. Yeah. And yeah, we say we we the the priest told us that in times it could have been people that would sneak in or non-Orthodox and they would just make sure there that there weren't people partaking of it unnecessarily or in an unspiritual state or not ready for it. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Well, I know I know the priest that I was going to when I went to the Russian church, if he didn't recognize a person in the line of communion, he would, I've seen him a few times, like tell them to leave the line.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Um, even me, when I when I first went there, I had to ask him to to be out of commune. And when he'd asked me when my last confession was, it'd been a couple, like maybe two months, I think. And he was like, No, no, no, no. He's like, you know, I can't like let you commune. Yeah. So the one thing I love about the Russian church is I don't know if it's the same where you are, but they have confession pretty much like before the service starts, and even before the communion comes out, the priest would come out to the side and confess people. That there is amazing. And I've I've never experienced that. But yeah, but the Russian church in in Australia itself or in Adelaide where I'm from is very small. It's a very small community, but yeah, I I enjoy it nonetheless.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Yeah, yeah, that's a fact. We do uh also Vespers the night before, if you can, if you can confess there, or just before the divine liturgy, yeah, Father Alexander. It's uh it's a brushes up against modern culture, that doesn't it? So so countercultural because you come to church thinking, I'm getting something, I'm needing something, yeah, give it to me, I need it. And then when you get rejected like that, it it's an opportunity for humility, but you know, it would be like it would turn some people off and be like, probably I'll never go there again because they they were damaged or hurt or offended, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

So yeah, I think I think it's a lot of people just think well, now that we're on the topic of communion, that you just commune. And I remember I think I had spoken about this in one of my posts. A lot of people think I don't want to come across for a second that I think I know how to get close to God, but a lot of people think coming close to God is a very, you know, you just say a prayer and like you're close to him. But it's actually

Communion Preparation And Church Boundaries

SPEAKER_01 14:03

like in the Orthodox faith anyway, it's actually very difficult for one person to leave their old self, fight their passions, humble themselves, confess, fast, repent, commune. Like it's uh it's a whole process. Yeah, it's not it's like a it is a it's a way of life, it's not a yeah, like I said, so people might might come to the church thinking you know, you just go out there to commune, but there's actually a whole process behind it, like preparing for communion. And I think it's that's fascinating in and of itself as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yeah. The the amazing thing, I've only been Orthodox for two months, and with confession and that's and that mystery is that when you fall it's just it's like an accountability. You know you fall, you're gonna you're gonna sin. But the more you get up, you get up and you go, and you go to confession, you and you and you continue doing this, it's like the training of the spirit, training of the soul, the process, as you say. It's humiliating, it's embarrassing some of the sins. However, when they're when they are brought out into the light, God's grace works with that, and then you work with God's grace, and that process is beautiful. You know, I think we call it theosis, theosis.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah, theosis. We're meant to technically we're meant to become gods by grace, but small g, not not the capital G. But yeah, confession in and of itself is is an amazing thing as well. And I mean, even the priest that I confess to, you know, he knows you know, my whole family, extended family, friends. So even, you know, some of the things when I started confessing, you know, you are embarrassed. But I remember my first confession was was a big struggle for me. I sort of got talked into it, to be honest. I kind of didn't really want to do it. And I remember sort of fighting with myself and saying to myself, oh, I'll just confess in my room in front of the icons. And I remember someone telling me, no, I'm like, you gotta do it, you know, sort of giving me encouragement to do it. And I remember driving there, I think it was on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, and I was like sort of shaking because you know, I'd done some unpleasant things in my life. But after it, I shouldn't be not really meant to tell people this type of information, but for orthodoxy's purpose. I remember my first confession when I got down on my knees and the priest put the Bethrachili over over me, which represents the Holy Spirit, and when he did the prayer of confession and absolution, I remember something coming into the top of my head, into my spine, like this feeling. And I remember my spiritual father, when we walked out of the room, he said, George, your whole complexion has changed, like your whole face has changed. And I knew it was

Confession As Humility And Healing

SPEAKER_01 17:33

real because when I got into the car, I used to love listening to beats, you know, trance music or RB hip hop. And I remember sitting in the car and I had no idea, you know, what was going on. But I had to be in complete and utter silence. I had to drive with no radio, no noise. It was it was as if I was in like a state of tranquility or or ecstasy. It was it was very bizarre. But I'll never forget that. That was like my first confession when I was about 19, 20. And then I sort of yeah, went off the path and now sort of just re-the last few years gotten back onto the path.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Beautiful, man. Well, that's let's go. That's a great segue into being being cradle orthodox and then bringing you back. That someone asked me who how many from what religions do you see people going to orthodoxy from? And the first answer was not that this relates to you, but I said paganism. So I've met some people who were actually you know involved in the occult, some Vikings, actual actual Viking believers, believing in the in the Odin religion, and all that don't know Christ, or Christ has come to them in dreams, or they've in their dark practices have encountered him there because obviously we know that Christ went down into the pit to save us all. So he's there, he's everywhere.

unknown 19:04

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

So tell us more about how you you you've been a cradle orthodox and um in the last few years you've come back to the church.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

So I was cradle orthodox, but throughout my whole life, I never really believed. I wouldn't say believe, but I never was really on the path. I think I was so obsessed with my own comforts of where I was. And I think as a human, the further down the path of sin you are, it's very difficult to get yourself out of there and to place yourself in church. So when I was growing up, there was a few occasions, you know, my Easter and Christmas Christians, you know, you'd go to church Easter, you go to church at Christmas. But it was more of a tradition rather than a yearning in my soul to want to be there. I only, to be honest, I'm 37 now, and I've only just since I was maybe 33 up until now, actually enjoyed being in church, like sitting there, not really understanding what's going on, even though my soul does, and enjoying being there. And that's a very difficult place for me anyway to be, because I used to never want to go to church. So to help answer your question, you know, Cradle Orthodox wasn't really going to church aside from Easter and Christmas. Then when I was about 19, 20, I had my first confession, but I don't think I was mature enough to really understand what was going on. And then shortly after that, I went off the path. I wasn't really going to church, I wasn't really fasting. Up until when I was about 31, 32, I was probably in the lowest sort of pitfall of my life. I sort of woke up one day. I was living a hedonistic lifestyle. So obviously I wasn't going to church, wasn't confessing or anything like that. And I woke up one day and I was thinking to myself, you know, I'm 32, I wasn't married, didn't have children, I wasn't making the money I wanted, I wasn't living where I wanted. It kind of felt like my dreams and desires in a worldly sense, I hadn't accomplished. And the one thing that was missing in my life. Was was God. But it was it was a conversation that I had with, she was

Returning To Church After Hedonism

SPEAKER_01 22:07

actually a client of mine. And I got on the phone to her, and I still remember where I was. And I said to her, her name's Sharon. I said, you know, Sharon, I'm uh 32 now, and obviously explain to her what I just explained to you. And she said, George, don't worry about any of that stuff. And I said, What do you mean? And she said, Matthew 6.33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. And that was a aha moment for me. That was the catalyst for me to, because I sort of thought to myself, you know what? The first 32 years of my life, I've been living life on my terms without God. Now I was at a point where the last resort that I had was God. So I thought to myself, I actually want to give this a go. Not that it was going to be a transactional thing, like, oh God, I'm going to do this now. I want you to do this for me. I was pretty much in like a low point in my life where I don't think my family could help me. I don't think my friends could help me. I think the only life, my last option was, all right, God, I need your help now, type of thing. So then I made a time to see my spiritual father, which that's an interesting story as well. Not sure if we've got time for that. And yeah, after after my confession, he gave me, because again, I was 32 years old and I still didn't really enjoy coming to church. And my spiritual father said to me, George, he said, Don't come every week. He said, Come every fortnight. Anyway, so I went every fortnight. And then I used to leave, I used to commune, and then I used to just leave. And then one day he pulled me up and he said, Why are you leaving? And I said, Oh, I don't know. He goes, I want you to stay till the end. And then after that, I had met an elder from Perth, which is on the other side of Australia. It's about a three, four-hour flight. The monk that's there. And he ended up coming to Adelaide for a service. It was Pentecost. It was about two, three years ago. And I was hosting him at home. It was Saturday night, and we were just chilling. We were just having a conversation. And he said to me, George, tomorrow, Sunday at church, he goes, I need you to take. He was with his novice monk as well. So there was the elder, his novice, and there was me. He said, In the morning, I need you to take me and the novice to church. I said, What time? And he said, I think quarter to seven. I said, nah, I'll go to church at quarter to seven. I've never been to church for the entire service. He goes, No, no, no. He goes, you need to come, you know, like we're we're we're staying with you, like we're a team. Because I was going to get someone else to drop

Seek First The Kingdom Turning Point

SPEAKER_01 25:29

him off in that early in the morning. And anyway, he ended up convincing me. He goes, nah, like we've got to, we've got to, because he's he's he's young as well, he's like in his 40s. So anyway, I remember going to that service, it was like quarter to seven, like we were there, the lights were just came on, the service from quarter to seven up until because Pentecost service is a lot longer because they do the prayers at the end of the divine liturgy. Finished at about 11:30. And I remember that was the first time I had experienced like peace and joy. Because this elder said to me, George, peace and joy only comes from Christ. So you might be happy, you know, in a worldly sense, you might feel happy, but happiness is fleeting. Peace and joy only comes from Christ. This is what how he had explained it to me. I remember that night and on Monday as well. I I was again, these aren't stories you're sort of meant to share with people, but for the sake of orthodoxy, I'll share it. I was in a state of ecstasy, and I couldn't really like tell anyone about it because I don't know if I was tripping out, but it was as if I was high. And the Monday night I had to take him to the airport, and I remember driving because I was driving that day, and it kind of felt like I was under the influence. It was really bizarre, and then on Tuesday, he went back to Perth and he had called me, or I had called him, and I said to him, He said, How are you feeling? And I said, I actually feel as if like someone had like spiked my drink and I'm on something. And that was like the first time I had experienced this. It lasted for about three days. Now you're gonna ask me, George, what was it? I have no idea, but the only way I can explain it was this like intense peace and joy that maybe people call it grace. Obviously, I might have just gotten like a real small dose of it, but then it got me thinking now, because I've been to Mount Athos twice, and every time I'd gone there,

Pentecost Service And Three Days Of Peace

SPEAKER_01 28:05

again, I wasn't mature spiritually to have gone there, but it was God's will for me to go there anyway. But I was thinking to myself, why are these people here? Like, you know, the world in a worldly sense has so much to offer. Why are they here? And after I experienced that whole service in full and the ecstasy for three days, now I knew why they were there. And so since that time there, I'd I reckon for about a year, I was at church like bright and early. Like I wanted to be there early to like get that feeling again. And that was pretty much pretty much it. So, you know, crowded cradle orthodox, I was living a hedonistic life on and off up until about 32. Then I was in a you know low point in my life. I heard that chapter, Matthew 6, 33, and then I just took the leap of faith, and I just wanted God in my life, and then interestingly enough, when I did make that leap, because there's a saying, take one step for God, He takes nine steps for you. Things just started working out in my life. Now, obviously, I'm still single, we don't have a wife or kids, but I think I truly believe you know God's preparing me and her for that when it's time. But opportunity started coming in my life, and my life started turning out for the better, and that's pretty much it, brother. That's pretty much in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

Beautiful. Thank you, brother. We're gonna take a break in a moment, but thank you for sharing that, brother. We're gonna move on, that's gonna give us a nice uh platform for the next the next

Supporting The Hastings Church Building

SPEAKER_00 30:06

topics. But before before we have a break, I just wanted to say to our our listeners the purpose of our podcast is for our church building here in Hastings, England. Subscribe or support all the money will go towards buying our new building so we can worship in and move forward in Hastings here in England. Also, this podcast is brought to you by Java Biltong. Biltong is the South African dried meat snack that knocks the socks off beef jerky for its protein content. And if you subscribe and support our church fund, you'll have access to great value built on. And also, that's only for UK people only, to the Biltong. Sorry, I cannot ship meat over to Australia. See you soon.