Are we powerless?

Faith, fellowship, self-governance, and a Texas supper worth gathering around

There are some evenings in Texas that stay with you.

Not because they were fancy. Not because everything was scripted. But because good people made the effort to gather in person, share a meal, listen, ask questions, and walk away thinking a little deeper about the world we live in and the responsibility we each carry.

That is the spirit of the Brownstone Supper at Sovereignty Ranch.  Brownstone hosts suppers with interesting speakers at numerous locations around the country each month.  

Before Daniel Mentz began his presentation, Mollie Englehart of Sovereignty Ranch welcomed everyone with gratitude — gratitude for the people who came, for the land, for the food, and for every hand that touches a meal before it reaches the table. She reminded the room that food is not just food. It is creation, labor, stewardship, family, farmers, truck drivers, cooks, and God’s provision all meeting together on one plate.

That was a good way to begin the evening.

Daniel Mentz then stepped forward and introduced himself as the National Status and Passport Director at Sacred Honor Educational Fellowship. He explained that Sacred Honor offers a complimentary membership and that his presentation was an abbreviated version of their private member documentary, Breaking the Spell.

The title fit the message.

Daniel’s presentation was not light dinner conversation. It was a challenge. He asked people to consider how much of modern life is shaped by systems, contracts, assumptions, legal language, financial obligations, and habits most of us never stop to question. His central theme was that people often feel powerless inside systems they do not understand, when his belief is that people have far more responsibility, authority, and choice than they realize.

Whether a person agrees with every detail or is just hearing these ideas for the first time, Daniel’s message was clear: learn, question, study, and do not live by fear.

Sacred Honor Educational Fellowship describes its work as education around self-governance, lawful remedies, and private administration. Their Foundation for Self-Governance is organized around four pathways: National Status & Passport, Trifecta, Equity Passage, and Allodial Land. The fellowship’s own material emphasizes that the journey depends on each person’s situation, goals, responsibilities, and level of readiness.

That is an important distinction. This was not presented as a quick fix or a casual idea. Sacred Honor’s own material says these measures require intelligence, critical thinking, self-responsibility, and careful stewardship. It also states that the information is educational and is not legal, tax, or financial advice.

That point matters.

The strongest part of the evening was not simply the information Daniel shared. It was the invitation to become more aware. To ask better questions. To understand what we sign, what we agree to, what we assume, and what it means to live with more personal responsibility over our own affairs.

Daniel spoke often about contracts, commerce, law, public and private life, and the idea that people need to understand the systems they are operating within. He returned again and again to the idea that fear and confusion keep people passive, while education and responsibility can help people move with more confidence.

For most people in the room, the evening was probably less about memorizing every term and more about recognizing a larger theme: self-governance is not passive. It requires learning. It requires discernment. It requires responsibility.

And that is where the setting mattered.

Sovereignty Ranch is already a place built around big questions — food, land, health, faith, responsibility, freedom, and stewardship. So it made sense that a supper there would become more than a supper. It became a gathering where people could share food from the land, hear a challenging presentation, and leave with something to think about on the drive home.  

That is real Texas to me.

Real Texas is not just a place on a map. It is neighbors around a table, engaging each other in meaningful conversation. It is a prayer before a meal. It is land being worked, food being served, and hard conversations being welcomed instead of avoided. It is the freedom to listen, learn, question, and decide what deserves a closer look.

Daniel Mentz gave people plenty to think about. Sacred Honor Educational Fellowship gave the framework for where those ideas come from. Brownstone and Sovereignty Ranch gave the evening a home. And the people who showed up gave it meaning.

In a world where too much happens through screens, there is still something powerful about gathering in person, breaking bread, and talking about what kind of future we want to build.

That is why evenings like this matter.

And that is why we will remember this one.

Get tickets to the next Brownstone Supper Club meeting at brownstone.org

Brownstone Supper Club Gathering
July 24, 2026, at Sovereignty Ranch
Featured speaker: Terri Hall

$80.00   

Terri Hall is an Anti-Toll Road activist in Texas.  “I was in a TxDOT hearing when the public found out what was going on, and everyone in there was so upset and felt betrayed. TxDOT had just a few years earlier promised to expand this highway with gas tax funds, and here we were hearing them claim that now there was no money and hundreds of thousands of drivers would now have to pay a toll tax to use the same lanes we drove on today toll-free.”  Attend the next Brownstone Speaker event featuring Terri Hall to learn more about her decades long fight against toll roads in Texas.  

We  can’t wait if the house is on fire

At the May 29 Sovereignty Ranch Supper Club, independent filmmaker Mikki Willis did not deliver a polished motivational speech or a neatly packaged conference talk. What he offered instead was something more useful: a direct reflection on propaganda coming from official sources, institutional deception, public cowardice, personal responsibility, and the difficult work of rebuilding human community after years of manufactured division.

The evening, hosted in partnership with Brownstone Institute, began with Ranch owner Mollie Engelhart framing the larger purpose of the gathering. Brownstone, she reminded the audience, emerged from a moment during Covid when governments, media, and major institutions insisted that human beings should separate, isolate, comply, and remain silent during the Covid pandemic.  Against that model, Brownstone chose face-to-face conversation, local community, and the conviction that freedom is built from the people outward — not granted from government. That context mattered, because Willis’s remarks fit squarely inside that same argument.

Willis is best known publicly as the filmmaker behind Plandemic, but his own story begins well before COVID. He spoke about being in New York during 9/11, where he joined in search and rescue and body recovery efforts at Ground Zero after the towers fell. For him, that experience shattered the illusion that the material ambitions of Hollywood meant very much. Standing amid dust, wreckage, and death, he was forced to ask what kind of work he had really devoted himself to, and whether any of it would be worth leaving behind to his future children. His answer, at the time, was no.  So after that self reflection, he changed his mindset from a passive observer to pushback against propaganda and mainstream media lies.

That reckoning pushed him away from the career machinery he had once pursued so eagerly. But another formative wound ran even deeper: the death of his brother after treatment with AZT, followed shortly by the death of his mother. When Anthony Fauci re-entered American life as the authoritative face of the COVID response, Willis did not see a neutral technocrat. He saw the same man he associated with an earlier medical catastrophe. That memory, he explained, is part of why he recognized the pattern early and moved quickly in 2020.

From there, Willis revisited the release of Plandemic, a film made on a shoestring budget that became, by his account, the most widely viewed independent film in history, seen by almost one billion people.   More important than the numbers, however, was what the film revealed: millions of ordinary people were hungry for information that had been filtered out of official channels. Deleted. Erased.  The institutions of media and medicine had insisted on a single authorized story, and the more aggressively they tried to suppress dissent, the more obvious it became that something deeper was at stake.  (“There’s something happening here….what it is ain’t exactly clear.”)

That led to one of the most revealing sections of the evening: the question of division.

COVID was not just a public health event. It was a social sorting mechanism. Families split. Friendships collapsed. Churches fractured. Colleagues turned on each other. Willis and Mollie used the painful rupture between Willis and Ryland Engelhart as a case study in what institutional pressure can do to real human relationships. Public distancing, reputational fear, and organizational coercion all played their part. Yet the more significant lesson was not the fracture itself, but the path back: apology, public accountability, and restoration. That restoration did not happen by pretending no damage had been done. It happened because the damage was named.

That distinction mattered to Willis. Forgiveness, in his view, is essential. But so is accountability. He made clear that he did not simply want private reconciliation while false public narratives remained intact. If the injury was public, the correction needed to be public too. That is a point many people still resist. The cultural preference now is to “move on” without acknowledgement, as though time alone can repair betrayal. Willis rejected that idea. Healing requires truth.

The conversation then widened beyond personal relationships and into the larger political and psychological landscape. Willis argued that what Americans have lived through is not random confusion but coordinated manipulation. He referenced institutions such as Tavistock, which promotes gender surgeries for children,  the long history of mass psychological management, and the deliberate use of media, ideology, fear, and consumer distraction to fragment social trust. Whether or not every audience member agreed with each specific example, the broader thesis landed: the divisions of modern life are not merely unfortunate accidents. They are useful to those who profit from weak, frightened, isolated populations.

Against that backdrop, Willis’s answer to the obvious question — what now? — was blunt.

He continued, “It is time to get busy. If the house is on fire and children are trapped inside, there is no time for inaction. We should be tearing boards off the house to get inside and save our children from those who would do them harm.”  He found a new purpose to tell the truth. Like Mollie Englehart, he moved out of California to Texas.

Whether it is Covid, or gender mutlilations, or indoctrination of children in our schools and universities, we should be stepping up, telling the truth, and questioning official sources.

He described the moment in terms that were hard to misunderstand: the house is on fire. When that is true, people do not have the luxury of retreating into personal comfort, niche identity, or endless abstraction. Whatever role one ordinarily plays, there comes a point when responsibilities converge. The task now is not passive commentary, but action rooted in clarity, courage, and memory.

Memory was one of his key themes. He returned repeatedly to the idea that human beings have forgotten what they are for. Children, he observed, do not naturally dream of becoming bureaucrats or brand managers. They dream of becoming heroes, firefighters, doctors, farmers, builders, protectors. Something in the modern order has trained adults to dismiss those instincts as naïve, when in fact they may be among the clearest indicators of human purpose.

In Willis’s telling, much of modern culture functions as a system for making people forget — forget God, forget family, forget service to others and country, forget courage, forget that real life is not measured by convenience and consumption.

He also made an explicitly anti-collectivist argument. Once people identify too deeply with a tribe, label, or institution, they begin to subordinate truth to belonging. That is when obedience becomes more important than reality. Whether the tribe is partisan, ideological, institutional, or religious, the underlying dynamic is the same: agreement becomes a condition of safety. Willis warned against this instinct, arguing instead for a deeper identification with one’s humanity and moral responsibility rather than with managed group identity.

The audience discussion underscored how these tensions remain. Questions about family estrangement, public accountability, ideological bubbles, and elite delusion all pointed to the same reality: people are still trying to figure out how to live honestly after years of pressure to conform. Willis’s answer was not sentimental. It was practical.

Tell the truth. Expect less from institutions. Refuse resentment, but do not abandon clarity. Stay grounded in family, faith, and real community. Learn to become, in his phrase, “bully-proof.”

His closing emphasis was unmistakable. Human beings are not the problem; they are the solution. The anti-human impulse that runs through so much modern politics, media, and elite ideology tells people they are too many, too flawed, too divisive, too dangerous, too burdensome. Willis argued the opposite. When rightly ordered, human beings are capable of repair, creativity, sacrifice, and moral courage. The question is whether enough of them will remember that before the systems built on fear and fragmentation harden any further.

That was the real weight of the evening at Sovereignty Ranch. Not that one filmmaker offered answers to every problem, but that the room was reminded of an older truth: communities are rebuilt by people willing to tell the truth, endure discomfort, make amends, forgive where possible, and refuse the machinery of division.

For those who were not present, this is the  full video of Mikki Willis’s presentation at sovereignty Ranch.

That, in the end, may have been the most valuable contribution of the evening.

The conversation at Sovereignty Ranch did not offer a tidy formula for national renewal. It offered something better: a reminder that the work begins much closer to home. In apology. In forgiveness. In family. In courage. In food. In faith. In truth told plainly. In communities willing to gather before they are told not to. In the refusal to forget what kind of people we are meant to be.

l-r Mollie Engelhart, Taylor Henry, Rick Clark, Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, Clint Clint Brauer, Frank Glatz, Pete Oberle

Welcome Real Texas readers wherever you are.   Last Saturday, May 2, 2026 Ramona and I listened to several powerful speakers discuss regenerative farming and ranching techniques throughout the day, at Sovereignty Ranch just outside of our hometown of Bandera, Texas.  When it came time for a round table discussion with Mollie Englehart and other leaders in the regenerative ranching field, we secured front row seats for the Round Table because U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was a participant in the discussion.  

Like many of you, I have seen Secretary Kennedy on TV many times and have watched him do numerous chin-ups, push-ups, sit-ups and other physically demanding exercises on various TV news shows and interviews.  He is 72 years old and I was impressed at how physically fit he appeared to be.  

Each round table participant had a short presentation and they all, to a person had thoughtful and intelligent points they made about the immediate need to improve our nations food supply.

The continued use of glyphosate by big Ag producers was the elephant in the room and Mollie as moderator of the panel was the first to bring it up.  The point was made to Secretary Kennedy about the dangers of glyphosate in our food supply and the panel members expressed their hopefulness about it being a banned substance as soon as possible.  

We all knew Secretary Kennedy would be semi-hard to understand. He has a raspy, shaky voice due to a rare neurological condition called spasmodic dysphonia, which he developed in his early 40s. This disorder causes involuntary spasms in the muscles of the larynx (vocal cords), leading to a strained or trembling voice quality.

Ramona filmed the entire discussion — over an hour — holding her camera as steady as she could because we knew this conversation would be worth hearing in full.  It’s not often the current Secretary of HHS would be in Bandera, Texas on a panel full of experts in the field of improving our national food supply.

The Round Table brought together people working from different angles, but all toward one bigger conversation: soil health, food quality, farmer freedom, regenerative agriculture, and the health of our families.

Mollie Engelhart opened the panel discussion with heart, courage, and conviction. She spoke about regeneration not just as a farming practice, but as something we carry into our communities and our daily choices. 

One of the things that stood out to me was her willingness to talk about changing her own mind — from being a well-known vegan chef in Los Angeles to becoming a Texas cattle rancher practicing regenerative agriculture. Her message was powerful: when we are brave enough to say, “I believed this, I learned more, and I changed,” we give others permission to grow too.

Taylor Henry of Acres U.S.A. Publishing Company brought the farmer, educator, and land entrepreneur perspective. He talked about how education has always been at the center of agricultural freedom. Farmers do not just need another product sold to them — they need the knowledge, tools, and confidence to understand their own soil biology and make decisions that actually work on their land. His message reminded me that regenerative agriculture is not a trend. It is a learning process, a business model, and a pathway back to healthier farms and stronger rural communities.

Rick Clark shared from years of real, large-scale farming experience, and his presentation was incredibly practical. He talked about cover crops, roller crimping, reducing chemical and fertility inputs, and meeting farmers where they are instead of demanding an all-or-nothing change. What stood out to me was how clearly he showed that regenerative practices can support soil health, human health, and profitability at the same time. He was not speaking in theory — he was showing what is already possible when education, patience, and real-world farm experience come together.

Clint Brauer of Greenfield Robotics shared a story that connected family, farming, innovation, and health in such a personal way. He spoke about returning to Kansas after his father became ill, and how that helped shape his mission to reduce toxic chemicals in the food supply. His work with robotics is not just about futuristic technology — it is about giving farmers practical tools that can help manage weeds, plant into cover crops, and reduce dependence on chemical inputs. I found it encouraging to hear innovation talked about as a support system for farmers, not a replacement for them.

Frank Glatz from Contact Biosolutions brought the perspective of safer alternatives  to herbicides and the long road it takes to bring new agricultural products into real use. He talked about bioherbicide technology, regulatory hurdles, performance, cost, and the persistence required to get an environmentally conscious product from idea to approval to market. His message reminded us that change does not happen overnight. Behind every better option for farmers, there are years of testing, approvals, funding, and determination.

Pete Oberle from Trailhead Capital spoke about something we may not always want to talk about, but absolutely have to: money.

Regenerative agriculture needs farmers, education, technology, and consumer demand — but it also needs capital, financing, infrastructure, and market support. He talked about the investment side of food, agriculture, supply chains, biologicals, automation, and health. His message helped connect the dots between what happens on the farm and what has to happen in the larger economy for regenerative agriculture to truly scale.

Documentary film producer Ryland Engelhart helped frame the whole moment with gratitude and vision. The packed meeting room could feel how meaningful it was to bring these leaders, farmers, innovators, and policy conversations together at Sovereignty Ranch. Events like this do not happen by accident. They take belief, work, persistence, and a willingness to gather people who may come from different places but are asking many of the same big questions.

And then Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke.

This was the part that stayed with those attending most deeply.

He connected public health directly to food, and food directly to soil. He talked about the microbiome — not only in our bodies, but in the soil — and how the health of one depends on the health of the other. That really struck many of us who read and know and realize the absolute importance of our personal microbiome. We often talk about healthcare as something that starts in a doctor’s office, but his message was that health begins much earlier: in the soil, in the food, and in the systems that grow and deliver that food to our families.

Secretary Kennedy spoke about how farmers are often trapped in a system many of them did not choose — a system built around chemical inputs, subsidies, distorted incentives, and policies that make it hard to step away, even when farmers want to. 

He said (and emphasized) the fact that many farmers want markets, not handouts. They want a realistic “off ramp” from the chemical treadmill, not just more pressure and more debt.

One of the most powerful parts of his message was that this is not just an agricultural issue. It is a health issue. It is an economic issue. It is a family issue. And, as he described it, it is also a spiritual issue. He spoke about his experiences in nature on a family farm as a child and now the loss of butterflies, frogs, bugs, biodiversity, and the richness of the natural world — not only as an environmental loss, but as something that changes the human experience itself.

He also talked about the importance of real markets, decentralization, farmer independence, and giving farmers pathways to grow nutrient-dense food while still making a living. He acknowledged that the current system is deeply locked in and that change will not be simple. But he also said he believes we may be at an inflection point — a moment where years of work by farmers, ranchers, consumers, innovators, and advocates may finally be starting to move the ship.

What I appreciated most was that he did not speak as if one person, one product, or one policy can fix everything. The message was bigger than that. Soil health, food quality, chronic disease, farmer survival, rural economies, technology, education, and public policy are all connected. If we want healthier people, we have to look at the whole system.

Sitting there in that room, listening to farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs, innovators, investors, and Secretary Kennedy all talk about soil, food, health, and the future of our country — I truly felt like I was witnessing something important.

If you are reading this, I wish you could’ve been there.  It’s one thing to see a very knowledgable person such as Secretary Kennedy on TV and in some canned interview…..it’s another to see him in person and hear his sincerity in working for change.   As one old cowboy said “it must be hard to herd and get elephants moving in the same direction.”   

But it has to start somewhere.  I witnessed a very big roomful of people who are directly involved in our food production stand and applaud Secretary Kennedy.  It will take those people in that room, people who work for us such as Secretary Kennedy who has the name, family name, the reputation as a fighter for what is right and just, and us as consumers to stop buying and using glyphosate and similar poisons that end up in soils and then in our kids’ cereals and plastics in our bloodstreams.  

I learned that today is a good day to start. 

Many thanks to Mollie Englehart, Ryland Englehart, the panelists, Sponsors, and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

He now knows where Bandera, Texas – “Cowboy Capital of the World” is located.  He has been here.   He listened to us.  

You can watch the entire Round Table Discussion with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy here on YouTube.  Ryland Englehart was the first speaker introducing the panel.

From Missionary to beekeeper to Texas Ag Commissioner

Just a few years ago, Nate sheets was a political unknown.  Now, he is on track to become Texas’ next Commissioner of Agriculture after defeating incumbent Sid Miller in the republican primary election.  Nate Sheets is a 5th generation Texan, a Navy veteran, a conservative republican, a businessman and founder of Nature Nate’s Honey.  He was also a Christian Missionary. Nature Nate’s become the number-one branded honey company in the U.S., generating annual revenue in the hundreds of millions. In 2021, the company was acquired, and Nathan transitioned from CEO to serving on the board.  He had started the honey company as a side hustle with one beehive in his mother’s backyard.

He was recently the featured speaker at Sovereignty Ranch where we caught up with him and heard his inspiring story.  We met him and his lovely wife Patty were he introduced himself, explained his Christian background, and gave insights into what he hopes to accomplish to those attending the Brownstone Institute Supper Club held at Sovereignty Ranch just outside of Bandera, Texas.  It was the largest gathering thus far at Sovereignty Ranch for the Brownstone Institute sponsored public forum.   Several members of the Bandera Republican party attended the event to hear and meet Nate and Patty Sheets.

A Beekeeper’s Journey and a Bigger Fight: Nate Sheets on the Future of Texas and American Agriculture

There are some evenings at Sovereignty Ranch that feel like more than a gathering—they feel like a moment of clarity.

This was one of them.

As guests settled in, surrounded by the beauty of the ranch and the quiet rhythm of the land, Nate Sheets stood up to share a story that began in the most unexpected way—with a single beehive.

Left to Right: Rene Leith, Raqi Irving, John Irving, The Deets, David Werst, Dede Skoglund, Gwinda Tschirhart, Laura Briscoe

Invited were some incredible women — and leaders — from Bandera, and it meant so much to experience this evening alongside them.  These are not just guests at a table — these are women and leaders who truly care about our community.

All are members of the Bandera County Republican Women, and among them:

Dede Skoglund – Precinct 408 Chair, Bandera GOP Laura Briscoe – Precinct 104 Chair, Bandera GOP John Irving – Chair-Elect of the Bandera GOP (to be installed this January) Raqi Irving – Secretary of the Bandera GOP

This was a meaningful opportunity for them to meet Nate Sheets — and you could feel it. Conversations flowing, connections forming, ideas being shared.

This wasn’t just a dinner table… This was leadership in motion.

From Beehive to Business

What started as a hobby between Nate and his wife quickly became something much more.  Nate explained that when they married, his wife Patty suggested they needed a hobby together.  They decided scuba diving wouldn’t workout too good and the same went for hang gliding.  Nate had the idea of bee keeping.  Except he remembered they didn’t have a backyard as they lived in an apartment. So, he asked his mom if he could place a beehive in her backyard.  She said “yes” and one thing led to another……over a 17 year period of time.

Bottling honey by hand in a garage, delivering it before sunrise, and answering every customer call himself, Nate unknowingly built what he later described as a 17-year “consumer research project.”

People kept asking the same questions:

• Where is my food from?
• Who made it?
• What’s in it?
• Can I trust it?

Those questions would go on to shape not only his business—but his mission.

Building Something Bigger

That small honey company eventually became one of the leading honey brands in America.

But for Nate, success wasn’t just about growth—it was about quality, transparency, and trust.

He began testing every batch of honey for pesticides, contaminants, and additives long before it became common practice. He saw firsthand how what affects the bees ultimately affects all of us.

And that realization led to something even bigger.

A System Under Pressure

During his talk, Nate shared a sobering truth:

America is losing farms at an alarming rate.

Behind every statistic is a story—families who can no longer afford to farm, generations stepping away from the land, and a system that has shifted toward efficiency over nourishment.

At the same time, we are facing a health crisis:

• rising chronic disease
• dependence on ultra-processed foods
• a disconnect between consumers and producers

The pursuit of “cheap calories” has come at a cost.

Growing Food Better—and Growing Better Food

Nate’s message was simple, but powerful:

We need to grow food better—and grow better food.

That means:

• supporting farmers and ranchers
• creating direct relationships between producers and consumers
• increasing transparency in how food is grown and processed
• rethinking how we value quality over convenience

It also means returning to places like Sovereignty Ranch, where food is grown, prepared, and shared with intention.

Why This Matters

One of the most striking parts of the evening was the realization that this isn’t a political issue—it’s a human one.

As Nate said, “We all eat food.”

And that simple truth has the power to bring people together across backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives.

Closing

At Sovereignty Ranch, where regenerative practices, transparency, and community come together, Nate’s message felt especially at home.

It was a reminder that the future of food isn’t something distant or abstract—it’s something we are shaping every day with the choices we make.

And sometimes, it starts with something as simple as a beehive.

I watched Nate interact with the people gathered to hear him speak.  He did not interact with those there like a politician.  He talked to them like he was a man with a mission:  To market Texas products to the world, to use best practices to have farmers and ranchers grow clean nutritious foods, and to explain to consumers what is in their food.  He would love to see farmer’s markets in every city and town growing and selling food to local markets .  My thoughts?  Texans made a great choice in the primary elections….and there is so much more we can do to support Texas agriculture and food growers like Sovereignty Ranch.  Thanks Mollie Englehart, Ryland Englehart for introducing us to Nate and Patty Sheets.  Texas and Agriculture will benefit from their stewardship.

Watch the Full Presentation

An evening conversation

Sovereignty Ranch Supper Club — Brownstone Institute Gathering

As the final course of the evening was cleared and guests settled back into their seats, the conversation at the Sovereignty Ranch Supper Club naturally shifted from food to ideas.

The evening’s featured speaker was Alec Zeck — an independent researcher, writer, podcaster, and former U.S. Army Captain whose work explores the intersection of health, culture, agriculture, and personal responsibility.

Zeck is the founder and host of The Way Forward, a growing podcast and community focused on exploring how individuals and societies can reconnect with natural systems — from food and farming to health and spirituality.

His talk at Sovereignty Ranch did not follow the structure of a traditional lecture. Instead, it unfolded more like a thoughtful conversation — one that invited guests to reflect on the deeper relationship between human well-being and the systems that sustain life.

Throughout the evening, Zeck spoke about themes that have increasingly become central to modern conversations around health and culture: the importance of curiosity, the need for independent thinking, and the value of rediscovering personal responsibility in a world that often encourages passive consumption.

Many of his ideas centered around the concept that human health cannot be separated from environmental health. The soil that grows our food, the systems used to produce it, and the choices individuals make about what they consume all play a role in shaping the well-being of both individuals and communities.

It was a fitting topic for the setting.

Just hours earlier, guests had toured the regenerative systems at Sovereignty Ranch with ranch founder Mollie Engelhart, seeing firsthand how agriculture, ecology, and food production intersect on the land itself.

Zeck’s presentation connected many of those same themes to a broader cultural perspective — encouraging people to ask deeper questions about how modern systems influence health, food, and community life.

Rather than presenting a rigid set of answers, his message emphasized something more foundational: the importance of remaining curious.

Curiosity, he suggested, is what allows individuals to question assumptions, seek better information, and ultimately make more informed decisions about their own lives and health.

That spirit of open conversation seemed to resonate with the audience gathered at the ranch.

As the evening continued, discussion moved naturally between the speaker and the guests, creating the kind of thoughtful dialogue that the Brownstone Institute Supper Club gatherings are designed to foster.

The Power of Belief

One of the most fascinating parts of Zeck’s presentation explored how belief itself can affect the human body.

He shared examples from medical research on the placebo effect, where patients experience real improvement after receiving treatments that contain no active medicine. Just as powerful is the nocebo effect, in which negative expectations produce genuine physical symptoms.

In some studies, participants developed measurable stress responses simply because they believed they had been given something harmful—even when they had only received harmless saline. In others, people healed faster when they believed more time had passed since their injury, demonstrating that perception alone could influence biological recovery. 

For Zeck, these studies reveal something profound: the mind is not separate from the body. Thoughts, expectations, and emotions can trigger real biological reactions.

The Story of Water

From there, Zeck introduced a concept that may sound unusual at first but is gaining attention in emerging areas of research: the role of water.

The human body is made largely of water—roughly two-thirds by weight and even more at the molecular level. If water makes up most of what we are, Zeck suggested, understanding its behavior could be essential to understanding life itself.

He referenced research on what scientists sometimes call the “fourth phase” of water, a structured state that forms near biological surfaces in the body. In this state, water behaves differently from ordinary liquid water, storing electrical energy and helping power cellular processes.

But Zeck went further, discussing experiments exploring whether water may also respond to environmental influences such as sound, imagery, or intention. Some researchers have observed that when water freezes after being exposed to certain stimuli, the ice crystals form distinct patterns.

When we begin to pay attention, water seems to reveal itself as far more than background to life. It becomes a participant. In Veda Austin’s work, water appears to respond in visible ways to words, music, intention, symbols, and emotion, forming shapes in frozen patterns that feel strikingly specific rather than random. A thought of a hand may be followed by an image resembling a hand in ice. A word associated with tenderness may produce a softer, more delicate formation. Music, prayer, memory, even visual images can seem to leave an imprint. Whether one views this through the lens of science, mystery, or sacred wonder, the invitation is the same: to stop treating water as mute and begin noticing that it may be answering all the time.

That possibility carries enormous weight when we remember how deeply our lives are tied to water. Our bodies are filled with it. Our food depends on it. Our land rises or suffers by it. If water is in some way responsive, then the atmosphere around it matters. The words spoken over a home, the peace or chaos inside a room, the reverence or care with which we live—all of it may matter more than we think. To pay attention to the language of water is to recover a forgotten humility: that creation may be listening, recording, and reflecting. And if that is true, then water’s power is not only that it cleanses, nourishes, and sustains life, but that it may also mirror back the unseen world we bring to it.

Zeck pointed out that we certainly live in an amazing world.

According to Zeck, these patterns may reflect the environment or information the water was exposed to.

Whether interpreted scientifically, metaphorically, or spiritually, the implication is intriguing: if water responds to its surroundings—and living beings are largely water—then thoughts, emotions, and environments might shape life more deeply than we realize.

Coherence and Influence

Zeck described this idea using the concept of coherence.

When systems are coherent—aligned, stable, and organized—they influence surrounding systems. When they are chaotic, they spread disorder.

To illustrate the point, he shared experiments in which a single high-quality pasture-raised egg was placed among several highly populated egg factory-produced eggs. When the eggs were later analyzed, the surrounding eggs showed improved structural patterns simply from being in proximity to the healthier one.

The lesson, he suggested, is that coherence spreads.

A calm, healthy, grounded person influences their family. A strong community influences its culture. One stable system can help organize others around it.

Collective Intention

Zeck also discussed studies exploring whether collective human intention might influence communities.

In one well-known experiment, groups of people practiced focused meditation with the specific intention of reducing violence in a city. During the study period, violent crime rates dropped significantly compared to projected levels.

While such results remain debated in scientific circles, Zeck used them to highlight a broader idea: human consciousness may be more interconnected than we typically assume.

If that is true, then the emotional atmosphere we create—fear, anger, gratitude, forgiveness—may shape our communities in ways that extend beyond individual behavior.

Forgiveness and the Path Forward

Zeck closed his talk on a deeply human note.

In a world filled with division and resentment, he argued that anger alone cannot create the future people hope for. The real challenge is learning how to process pain, forgive others, and step out of cycles of resentment.

Forgiveness, he said, does not mean ignoring wrongdoing or abandoning justice. Rather, it means refusing to allow hatred to define one’s own inner life.

When individuals learn to cultivate clarity, compassion, and responsibility within themselves, they naturally influence those around them.

You can watch Alec’s entire presentation on YouTube:

The Way Forward

Ultimately, Zeck’s message was not about politics or ideology.

It was about agency.

Instead of seeing the future as something controlled entirely by distant institutions, he encouraged people to recognize the power of their own daily choices—how they care for their health, what they believe, how they treat others, and what kind of emotional atmosphere they create in their communities.

For Zeck, the path forward begins with a simple but profound realization:

When individuals become more coherent within themselves, they help bring greater coherence to the world around them.

Returning to the Ranch

As Zeck finished speaking, the room sat quietly for a moment—one of those pauses that happens when people are still turning over ideas in their minds.

Outside, the Hill Country night had settled in fully. The sky above Sovereignty Ranch stretched wide and dark, scattered with stars, and the pastures beyond the gathering space were nearly silent except for the occasional rustle of wind through the grass.

Conversations slowly resumed around the tables, people leaning toward one another to continue discussing what they had just heard.

It felt fitting that a conversation about coherence, community, and the possibility of a better way forward had taken place in a place like this—on a regenerative ranch, surrounded by land being carefully restored, where food, friendship, and ideas are shared around the same table.

If Zeck’s message carried one enduring thread, it was this: the future may not be shaped as much by distant powers as by the quiet, everyday choices of individuals reconnecting—with the land, with one another, and with the deeper values that guide how we live.

And on that Hill Country evening at Sovereignty Ranch, that possibility felt very real.

You can listen and get to know Alec Zeck and his ideas on his podcast, “The Way Forward”  wherever you receive your favorite podcasts.

I’m David out in Real Texas

…Leaning into the wind with a positive attitude-My Way Forward

Discover Sovereignty Ranch: A Hill Country Destination for Regenerative Living

by David Werst

Just outside the cowboy capital of the world—Bandera, Texas—lies a place where food, land, and community come together with purpose. Sovereignty Ranch is more than a working ranch to visit; it’s an invitation to reconnect with nature, understand where your food comes from, and explore a healthier, more sustainable way of living.  What they do there is important.

Here is my advice.  Be sure you make a visit to Sovereignty Ranch a priority if you are going to be in Bandera and anywhere in the Texas Hill Country.  Go to the Sovereignty Ranch and look around, find the time when you can take a ranch tour, have a leisurely healthy lunch and peruse the store part of the ranch where you can buy the amazing sourdough bread, tinctures and health products, fresh eggs and organic meats and veggies.  The visit is an experience to learn and enjoy just being there.

Ramona and I love Sovereignty Ranch and visit there often.  We know we will be eating clean, chemical free food, learning more about nature’s ways and natural choices in our food supply, and we love browsing the growing selection of healthy products you can purchase at every visit.  Also at almost every visit, we buy a loaf of the fantastically huge Sourdough Bread, farm fresh ‘really’ pasture raised eggs, and you will see a nice selection of organically grown by-the-season produce.  You can also buy fresh raw milk to make your own yogurt, or maybe farmer’s cheese.  Ramona’s last yogurt was Farmhouse Strawberry Cloud Greek Yogurt made with Strawberries and the raw milk, ‘fresh squeezed that day’,  we purchased at the ranch.

Nestled in the Texas Hill Country, Sovereignty Ranch welcomes tourists and locals alike from Bandera, Kerrville, Fredericksburg, San Antonio, and Austin—all drawn by a shared curiosity about clean food, regenerative agriculture, and intentional living.

Very often when you visit, you will meet a living and breathing force of nature named Mollie Engelhart.

Mollie is a nationally recognized voice for clean foods, sensible regulations, personal responsibility for health issues, and natural chemical free lifestyle choices.  She writes in the National edition of Epoch Times newspaper several times a week on various important topics concerning our food supply and life choices that might be out of sync with nature.  Mollie also has her own ‘Substack’ you can connect with and she shares her take on varied topics concerning healthy living.  She doesn’t shy away from controversial topics and is a huge proponent of the “Food is Medicine” movement.  You can buy her book “Debunked by Nature” and learn why she left a successful life as a vegan chef and multiple restaurant owner (multi -million dollar) operations in California and headed to Texas  to start a new life.

Meet Mollie Engelhart: A Voice for Nature

At the heart of Sovereignty Ranch is Mollie Engelhart—author, entrepreneur, and nationally recognized leader in the regenerative farming movement.

Mollie is the author of Debunked by Nature and a frequent columnist for Epoch Times, where she writes extensively on food freedom, regenerative agriculture, and the impact of chemicals on human and environmental health.

Her work challenges modern industrial food systems and offers a hopeful alternative—one rooted in soil health, animal welfare, and chemical-free living. Visitors to the ranch quickly sense her mission: to restore both the land and the people who depend on it.

A Working Regenerative Ranch

Sovereignty Ranch practices chemical-free regenerative farming, a method that goes far beyond organic standards. Rather than relying on synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides, the ranch focuses on:

• Soil regeneration and carbon restoration

• Humane, pasture-raised livestock

• Biodiversity and native grasses

• Natural animal health practices

• Closed-loop, sustainable systems

Guests can learn how regenerative ranching improves nutrient density in food, supports local ecosystems, and plays a powerful role in long-term environmental stewardship.

The Farm Store: Clean Living Starts Here

The Sovereignty Ranch Farm Store is a favorite stop for first-time visitors. Open to the public, it features a thoughtfully curated selection of chemical-free and naturally produced goods, including:

• Pasture-raised meats and ranch products

• Tallow-based skincare and salves

• Chemical-free soaps and body care

• Natural supplements and wellness items

• Clean pantry staples and specialty foods

• Detox your body products (parasites, heavy metals, plastics)

Every product aligns with the ranch’s core philosophy—no unnecessary chemicals, no hidden ingredients, and full transparency about how items are sourced and made.

Clean, Nourishing Dining

The on-site restaurant brings the ranch’s values directly to the table. Guests enjoy meals crafted from:

• Regeneratively raised meats

• Clean, nutrient-dense ingredients

• Thoughtful preparation without industrial additives

• Seasonal menus inspired by the land and seasons

The focus is simple: real food prepared the way nature intended—supporting human energy, wellness, and long-term health.

https://www.sovereigntyranch.com/restaurant

The Sovereignty Supper Club

One of the ranch’s most recent unique experiences is its Sovereignty Supper Club—an intimate dining gathering that blends exceptional food with meaningful, thought provoking conversation.

Guests come together over dinner to discuss topics such as:

        – – Vaccine Choice for Texans – –

• Regenerative agriculture

• Food independence and sovereignty

• Health freedom and nutrition

• Environmental stewardship

• The future of farming and local food systems

These evenings foster connection, education, and community—offering far more than just a meal.

A Destination for Learning and Inspiration

Whether you’re a Hill Country traveler, a curious foodie, or someone seeking healthier living, Sovereignty Ranch offers something rare:

• A place to learn directly from working land

• Take a farm/ranch tour and learn about the land

• A welcoming environment for families and visitors

• An opportunity to meet like-minded people

• A deeper understanding of how food choices shape our health and future

From day visitors browsing the farm store to supper club guests engaged in thoughtful dialogue, Sovereignty Ranch creates an experience that stays with you long after you leave.  Feed your mind at Sovereignty Ranch.

Visit Sovereignty Ranch

Just minutes from Bandera and an easy drive from Kerrville, Fredericksburg, San Antonio, and Austin, Sovereignty Ranch stands as a living example of what’s possible when nature leads the way.

Here, food has a story.
The land has a voice.
And visitors leave empowered—with knowledge, inspiration, and a renewed connection to the natural world.

Texans are a friendly race of peoples of all sizes, shapes, colors, and backgrounds.  Heck, our very definition given to us back in the olden days was Tejas, meaning friendship.  Visitors to Texas often comment on our habit out in Real Texas of waving from our pickup trucks to other vehicles and passersby. The visitors often ask, “do you know those people?”  “No” we answer, “it’s just our way of being friendly.  But just so you know…in smaller cities and rural areas, very often we do know who we are waving at on our highways and rural roads.

So, with all that friendliness going on we feel it’s time to welcome a powerhouse of a lady named Mollie Englehart and her entire familia and entourage to Texas by way of California.

From California?  Yes.  Mollie was a very successful chef, owner of five very successful restaurants in the L.A. area, and a mover and shaker in her field.  She also had many ‘name brand’ friends, people you have heard of in the news and social media, who frequented her establishments.  Her busy lifestyle included a small farm where she grew avocados and citrus and she has an indomitable American entrepreneurial spirit.

She got here as soon as she could.  And after getting to know her and her mission in life, Ramona and I have become fast friends and admirers of Mollie, her brother Ryland, and her staff at Sovereignty Ranch just outside of Bandera, Texas.

That American spirit and her own independent thinking led her to realize there was something wrong with the crushing over-regulation by the liberal borgs on both the local and state levels in California.  She also was a keen observer of nature as well as the stifling business environment and her independent spirit led her to question the validity of the California liberal political policies from city hall to the state capitol to the agri-business policies of the big growers.  It was over-zealous local city and county regulations, state level agriculture policies, and a growing unease that motivated her decision to make a move.  Since Mollie Englehart is an action oriented person, she moved her entire operations to….where else but Texas.

The birth of Sovereignty Ranch

After looking at a good many locations where she might settle, she ended up in what locals refer to as “The Free State of Bandera.”  Sovereignty Ranch is located just 10 minutes or so north of Bandera in Bandera County, Texas which is known as “The Cowboy Capital of the World.”

It is here where Mollie operates Sovereignty Ranch and has initiated regenerative farming operations and her organic farmstead/restaurant.  Visitors can take a tour of Sovereignty Ranch, riding in a special open air vehicle with Mollie pointing out areas of interest and explaining exactly what is this term “regenerative farming and ranching.”  The tour takes place most Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.  Before or after the tour, you can have lunch or dinner at the restaurant and enjoy clean, delicious, nutrient dense food, as well as good conversation.  You will learn more about the best practices a great many smaller farms and ranches are turning to instead of relying on big agri-business who grow with chemicals, pesticides, and pollutants. Also while there, you can purchase special sourdough bread, organic pasture raised eggs, raw milk, fresh meats and bacon, and a good many other organic tinctures and products.

Food is medicine

More and more people are finding that clean, nutrient dense Food IS medicine.  If you are interested in learning about eating clean foods, there is a gathering on September 25-28 this year of 2025 where you can learn wellness practices from world renowned experts in this 4 day Wellness Summit.  Food is Medicine is the theme of the Wellness Summit and this theme is what drives Mollie Engelhart’s passion for Regenerative Ranching and Farming. Click on the link to learn more, get tickets, and attend:  Food is Medicine.

Mollie stays busy at the ranch, busy with her four children and husband, busy with the restaurant, and busy writing.  In her book, “Debunked by Nature,” she chronicles her awakening to a new way of looking at life by observing the natural order of our world.

Editor’s note:  Occasionally we publish an advertorial here on Real Texas blog and here is the explanation.  Sometimes, seldom, very occasionally, rarely, once in a while I turn in to an old softie and get a message from a youngster trying their hand in the PR business or maybe an agency of some kind and publish their work as they are trying to expand their business by saying good things about those who hire them to do so.  I have no doubt that Sonterra Storage is a great place to store your excess items and I have used such places in the past.  So…there you have the reason for this blog post….it came from a young lady named Noemi Laurio and I wish her and her client -Sunterra Storage nothing but the best forever and ever.

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Do you remember where you were on September,  11th, 2001, at 7:46am?  I do, and many of you do also….

David was teaching his History Class and I was asleep.  I woke up and looked at the TV.  I thought David had left one of his action movies on, but as I watched, the news station was reporting live.  I saw a plane crashing into one of the Towers and a huge ball of flames come out the other side.  I couldn’t believe what I was watching….I sat up in bed and turned up the volume….even the newscaster was in disbelief as he was reporting what we were watching.

Then as I watched another plane was coming onto the screen and headed right for the other Tower….it slammed into the 2nd Tower!  Smoke, fire, and dust was everywhere…the newscaster gasped and couldn’t even report the news.  Unbelievable!  It was at that moment when everyone watching knew we were under attack….by persons unknown.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen what seemed to be a long time, but really wasn’t, both towers tumbled to the ground!  I mean tumbled to the ground…only dust and no structure.

I called David’s classroom and tried to put into words what just happened.  David reassured me that the Towers were built with tons of strong steel and would not totally fall to the ground.  He calmly explained that he had actually been in the World Trade Center and had dined at the restaurant at the very top.  “It’s very strong and won’t fall down”, he assured me.  I was screaming at him, turn the TV on!  There are NO MORE TOWERS!

Later that day, I received a heartbreaking phone call from my dad in Arizona.  He told me that a dear family friend had just gotten a job with an insurance company and was in one of the towers for an orientation.  He had been out of work for a long time and was so proud to tell my dad that he finally found a really good job and was heading to New York for orientation and that he’d catch up with him soon.

We both cried….

Over the phone that day, my dad repeated to me a story that I had heard hundreds of times at dinner parties.  He liked telling the story of how I came to own my first dog which happened to be an expensive Bird Dog.

I was only 5 years old and my dad was going to take me Dove Hunting…I’m an animal lover and didn’t know a thing about guns, hunting, nor did I have any interest in going.  He told me that our friend Gary Bird was training a puppy to be a Bird Dog and that I could probably play with him.  That was exciting to me.

My dad had polio as a boy and wore braces and used crutches.  The reason I’m telling you this is because it sets up the scene of this story.  My dad hunted from the back of a pickup truck sitting in a chair in the bed.  Sam, the puppy was on the ground with Gary, who had been working with him for a couple of weeks on retrieving dummy birds.  Someone had the bright idea of letting me try to shoot a dove. They briefly showed me how to hold the shotgun, which was bigger than I was, and as they were pointing way off into the distance and telling me what to aim for…I saw a bunch of Doves right above us and before anyone could stop me, I shot straight above us…the shotgun knocked me on my butt and I started crying for more than one reason.  Not only did the shotgun almost take my arm off, but later on, the little pellets where coming straight down on top of us and they burned like crazy.

My dad was yelling at me, Sam the bird dog was so scared he hid under the truck and Gary was laughing so hard as he was rolling over under the truck.

After a while, everyone settled down except I was still in pain and crying.  Gary came over to tend to my arm.  He explained after the fact, why they were pointing in the far distance, and then why I shouldn’t shoot the doves overhead.  Fine time in telling me that the pellets would come straight back down and that there were so many of them.  I had little burn marks all over my arms and legs; a bruised up shoulder (it was amazing that I didn’t dislocate it) and my ears were ringing so loud that I couldn’t hear anything.

Gary told my dad that he was the proud owner of an expensive house dog, a family pet named Sam.  I was so happy because I thought that he was giving Sam to me for all the pain I was going through.  My dad explained that now Sam would be gun shy and would not be a good hunting dog.  That was fine for me, even though I didn’t know how much a ‘Pet Hunting Dog’ cost!

Sam and I were like brother and sister.  We did everything together, I cooked pretend food for him and he would sit in a chair in my playhouse and eat.  I would dress him up and we’d play house.  He was the best friend ever.

We slept together, ate together, played together and were never separated. He had 11 cats  we had adopted that he watched over. Yes, 11.  He was such a great dog and never had to retrieve a bird in his life!

He lived to be 13 years old and it hurt so much to lose him.

My parents would have dinner parties and Gary would come to them.  He’d play with Sam and of course he and my dad would have to tell everyone of how Sam became my best friend.

Like Sam, my friend Gary was gone in a blink of an eye.  For days my dad would call to let me know that he hadn’t heard from Gary’s wife.  We were all hoping that maybe the group had taken a morning break and that he stepped outside the towers to get a newspaper or to check in with his wife or call my dad, hoping that he wasn’t in the Towers. As time passed and we didn’t hear from him and we knew….

Each year as the bell rings and they read the names, I get a chill when they say Gary Eugene Bird….I know exactly where I was when I lost a dear old friend.

Now 20 years later, I remember…

I will never forget.

There are a good many fellow veterans who will never forget also.

God Bless America.

A Real Texas Christmas 2020

A Real Texas Christmas means a lot to us all
The muchachos and ninas all speak with a drawl.
There’s a mixture of Tex-Mex in all that we say
And at this time of year we might holler olé.

Feliz Navidad means a lot to us here

But we don’t have a sleigh and all those reindeer.

We do have our friends and we’re ready to hear

Those magical words that Christmas is near.

In Real Texas we’re special each and every one
In the way that we act when the work day is done.
When we leave we say “bye” or some “Adios”
You can bet on a real friendly greeting from us.

As that holiday time gets some closer each day
The baking at Christmas reminds us of home
And the food Mammacita is going to fix
We’ll clean off our plates out here in the sticks.

Guajalote’s all gone, that’s the turkey to you
We ate that darn bird ‘till we just couldn’t chew.
Our language is mixed; but we know what to say
We just talk and the words come out all sorts of ways.

Now Thanksgiving’s gone and Christmas is near
And the cowboys have gathered in all of their gear
For a few days of rest and a lot of good cheer.

It’s Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas to you
In this part of Texas those are some of the few
Of the words that you can hear from our Real Texas crew
As those holiday bells are beginning to chime.

For it’s nearly Christmas, Yep it’s almost time

The excitement is building, they almost can’t wait

for the kids to see Santa, It’s gonna be great

for familias to gather in a grande tamalada

to make Christmas tamales, and some enchiladas.

Christmas is special anywhere that you are
but a Christmas out here is the best sort by far.
Out here in Real Texas, with our neighbors and friends
We celebrate the season-best wishes we send.

The future is bright here at this time of year
We visit with friends that we all hold so dear.
The gifts we exchange are not always from stores
It’s the things that we do, for each other and more.

So Feliz Navidad to you one and you ‘all
with a Real Texas accent and Real Texas drawl.
We wish you the best that the season can bring
It’s ‘mucho prospero’ and everything

Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas

—-David Werst 2020