How to identify the dangerous hidden predator in men - Hugh Newton
Episode 535, released 11th February 2026.
🚨Please note: there’s a moment in this conversation that contains reference to abuse in childhood
Men’s work facilitator Hugh Newton names the predator in men as a genuinely dangerous survival force, how it drives manipulation, coercion, and harm when unrecognised, and how men can learn to spot it before it damages others and themselves.
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Or if you prefer to read: Scroll right down for the transcript
Hugh’s life began in the midst of a war in Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia, and growing up in such harsh conditions meant that he had to work hard to overcome his complex childhood trauma. He began his self development journey over 30 years ago, and his work now focuses on supporting men to meet the parts of themselves that most people would rather deny.
In this episode, Lian and Hugh, explore the predator within as a cold, calculating instinct that lives beneath behaviour as a real force that can injure, dominate, and destroy when it operates without awareness or restraint. They explore how this part forms through childhood predation, abuse, and sustained danger, why it learns to hide, disguise itself, and detach from feeling, and how it can shape men’s relationships, sexuality, and sense of power.
From there, the conversation turns to how predation shows up in everyday life, not just in extreme acts, but through emotional cruelty, sexual pressure, manipulation, subtle undermining, and the inner predator turned inward as relentless self attack… and what it actually takes for a man to face this force safely, take responsibility for it, and prevent it from harming others.
Listen if you want to recognise the part of men that goes cold, focused, and dangerous, and understand what actually stops it from hurting the people closest to them.
We’d love to know what YOU think about this week’s show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment below.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
Why the predator shuts down feeling in the body, and how that emotional coldness makes harm possible
How predatory behaviour often looks ordinary, polite, or successful while still leaving a wound
What happens when a man stops denying this force and makes it answer to conscience rather than letting it act unchecked
Resources and stuff spoken about:
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Thank you!
Lian & Jonathan
Episode Transcript:
Please note: We are a small team and not able to check through the transcript our software provides. So you may find some words are out of place and a few sentences don’t make complete sense. If you do see something utterly ridiculous we’d love you to let us know so we can correct it. Please email any howlers with the time stamp to team@bemythical.com.
Lian (00:00)
Could the most dangerous parts of men be the ones that stay hidden, sometimes even from themselves? Hello, my beautiful soul seekers. This week, I'm joined once again by Hugh Newton, a men's work facilitator whose life began in the midst of war in Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia.
Growing up in such harsh conditions meant he had to work hard to overcome complex childhood trauma. And he began his own self-development journey over 30 years ago. His work now focuses on supporting men to meet the parts of themselves that most people would rather deny. So together, Hugh and I explore the predator in men as a genuinely dangerous survival force and whilst we may describe the predator as an archetype, it isn't only that, it really is a cold calculating instinct that lives beneath behaviour and can injure, dominate and destroy when it operates without awareness or restraint. We talk about how this part forms through childhood predation, abuse and sustained danger, why it learns to hide and disguise itself and how it detaches from feeling in order to survive, shaping men's relationships, sexuality and sense of power. We talk about how predation shows up in everyday life, not only in those extreme acts we might see in newspaper headlines and how it shows up in those kind of more subtle ways, emotional cruelty, sexual pressure, manipulation, subtle undermining and how it also can turn inwards as relentless self-attack.
We also importantly explore what it takes for a man to face this force safely, take responsibility for it and prevent it from harming others. So listen, if you want to recognise the part of men that goes cold, focused and dangerous and understand what stops it from hurting themselves and others. And before we jump into all of that good stuff, if you have just arrived here for the first time, welcome. If you've come back, welcome home.
And if you keep finding yourself here without subscribing, your soul clearly knows what it's doing. Honor the call and go ahead and subscribe. It's challenging to live in this crazy modern world. The wild sovereign soul path is what we know will help. And so if you're struggling the challenges of walking your soul path and your heart longs for guidance, kinship and support, come join Unio, the community for soul seekers.
UNIO is the living home for the wild sovereign soul path where together we reclaim our wildness, actualise our sovereignty and awaken our souls. You can find out more and walk with us by hopping over to BeMythical.com/unio or clicking the link in the description.
And if you're called to go even deeper on your wild sovereign soul path, come join us for the very exciting upcoming wild sovereign soul course, a three month immersive and mystery journey into becoming a wild sovereign soul. And of course your own unique expression of that. And this is the first time in, think it's two years that Jonathan and I have co-guided a course together. this is something you do not want to miss. So you can register your interest at BeMythical.com/wss And there isn't a huge amount of details there at that page yet. We will have more soon, but again, if you put your details in, you'll be the first to know when we have all of the dates and everything else available.
And now back to this week's episode, let's dive in.
Lian (03:54)
Hello Hugh, welcome back to the show.
Hugh Newton (03:58)
Good morning, Lian It's lovely to be here again after our previous chat. And thank you. really looking forward to talking today.
Lian (04:08)
Me too, me too. We were just considering that the last episode we did provided a really lovely foundation for us to go really deep into the topic that we're going to be exploring today. And so I wouldn't necessarily say listeners have to have listened to that, but we aren't going to kind of, I guess give so much of the context of overall about men's wounding in this one. So if it seems a little bit kind of like, they've kind of dive deep quickly, it's because of that. So I'm saying that to give us permission to do just that and dive deeply. So today we're going to focus on the predator in men and what that is, why that is, how that might show up, what can be done to meet the predator in a way that is ultimately for the greatest good of all. So, let's begin by defining what is meant by predator in the context that we're speaking about it.
Hugh Newton (05:13)
Yeah, thank you. In Sovereign's Journey, we spent a lot of time supporting men to look at what is going on under the surface, what's going on underground in men, and so what urges them to behave in certain ways. And one individual part that I have found is pronounced in men is a part that I call the predator. So what is the predator? Well, actually, Predator is very much a part that operates in our animal instinct. It's often very hidden, very underground, and it's a part of us that works where men focus very single-mindedly and very powerfully on something that they really deeply want. And then this part comes up
Lian (06:09)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (06:11)
in response to that, but it can also come up in a very much a protective nature as well, where the predator in men is a very powerful force that seeks to protect us from pain and damage and actually from predation from others. By animal instinct, a very good way of recognising the predator in nature is to watch predators in action.
Lian (06:29)
Hmm.
Hugh Newton (06:38)
whether it's a leopard stalking his prey or lions operating to catch another animal to kill and eat it. If you watch a
Lian (06:38)
Mm-hmm.
Hugh Newton (06:49)
leopard stalking his prey, they're amazingly focused. There's nothing that gets in the way. They're utterly and completely locked onto their prey and they will chase and do whatever's necessary to take down and kill that animal that they focused on. And so what is the predator in the masculine? Well, it's an animal instinct that focuses extremely clearly, has an enormous amount of power. And part of the complication of this part is it lies in what I call the magician archetype, the magician quarter. So this part of us isn't dumb. It's not stupid. This is a very clever calculating and working it out part of us that is combined with fantastic focus force and strength and that can get amazing results for men. And the thing about it, we've all got it inside us. So actually this is a natural nature orientated part of us. It's only when this part of us that works out of wound that it becomes particularly problematic for men and for men who use and work out of a wounded predator.
Lian (08:10)
Oh, beautifully explained. Thank you. And it occurs to me, I was pondering this conversation prior to us having it and I was looking at it much in the way that you're talking about, I was like, of course, I guess there is overlap with the hunter is an aspect. Would you say that they're kind of one of the same thing or would you say there is something about the predator that's different to the hunter archetypally?
Hugh Newton (08:39)
Yeah, in its natural form and in its healthy form and used in nature, this is very much the hunter. Very much the hunter stalking, tracking, watching out for all signs, watching out for signals and having a plan as a way to get what this part needs. In a lot of ways, a lot of men might think hunters more warrior.
But the thing about a warrior is the way the more warrior part stands is it's not disguised, it's not hidden, it just goes front forward with whatever it might be opposing. The predator doesn't do that. The predator is more clever, likely to be in disguise, masked, thinking of ways of operating.
Lian (09:10)
Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (09:38)
in a way that's not being seen, camouflaged, hidden, much more careful and actually much less confrontational and less likely to be hurt by whatever he's talking.
Lian (09:51)
Hmm
Yes, a wonderful distinction. It's so interesting looking at that word predator through this lens, where when it's applied to animals in the wild, we don't have a negative attribution to it at all. We see it as something, you know, powerful and beautiful and part of the ecosystem. When it's applied to human beings and perhaps in particular men, it almost inherently has this dark negative quality. So it's really interesting hearing you start by defining its beautiful aspects. There's something really interesting even just hearing you name it like that, where it opens us up to recognising, yes, this is a heart, something necessary and wonderful. And of course there is a way that that can be distorted.
Let's have a look at now because again, we have this collective reaction even, like almost an instinctive reaction, the idea of a man being a predator. It's like, ⁓ gosh, you know, that that's who would want that. So I'd love to hear you talk about the fact that this doesn't necessarily need to be, you know, an actual a man who is a predator. But when the this part of a man
does become distorted out of balance, how might that show up that isn't the kind of, again, something that's going to make headlines in the newspaper, but is something that's happening for everyday men going about their lives? Again, perhaps unnoticed to them and their partners and families.
Hugh Newton (11:39)
Okay, so the question then occurs to us is how does the predator become unhealthy and how does the predator become too much? The predator that comes too much is dangerous for the world, ultimately dangerous for ourselves because people do things in this predatory way that can get them into prison, basically, let alone the damage they're doing to those who they predate. Where does this come from?
Lian (11:47)
Mm-hmm.
Hugh Newton (12:08)
Well, I end up thinking its damaging in too much form. It's a bit like if in our childhood, usually we faced abuse or we faced predation. If we were overpowered by the people who were supposed to be taking care of us. This is the whole arena of being physically abused. It's also the arena of being of sexual abuse.
If a boy is stuck in a situation where he has been physically abused for years and years during his childhood, then because he's not strong enough to oppose it, because his little warrior boy is not strong enough to say, no, you can't do this, you're breaking my boundaries, this is not OK, then what happens is a boy will tend to move back into a much more primal part of himself.
the primal part we're calling the predator here, where he moves up into his mind, perhaps plots how he's going to protect himself, plots how he might take revenge someday, how he might put a stop to it, how he can be clever and work out ways to protect himself in the face of profound danger.
Lian (13:28)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (13:29)
For me as a child growing up in a war where particularly at night times we could be predated on by being attacked and killed. I noticed that for myself. My warrior boy who was armed by my father and trained to protect my family, actually he became quite scared and he didn't have enough at that stage in his life to fully be able to want to kill people or any of those dangerous activities. So what happened to me as a child, I feel like I took on the evil that was coming towards me and faced it outwards as a force I could use to protect myself and others. A bit like on the outside of churches, you see those gargoyles with those frightening spaces facing outwards to the world as a protective force.
Lian (14:01)
Hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Hugh Newton (14:26)
looking quite dark, even though what they're protecting is light and love inside the church. What I was protecting is my heart, my love, my family, myself. And yet I took on a really dark, predatorial energy to face out into the world, to use it to sense like an animal would where I'm being predated on where the danger is and to bring inside myself a really
Lian (14:32)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (14:54)
strong, steely, somewhat merciless, without feeling force in which I bought the surface to help me stay alive and protect others that I needed to protect. This is really, really primal and an it's incredibly powerful force. Actually, I feel it's perhaps the most powerful force that us men have inside us.
Lian (15:09)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (15:23)
Very cold, calculating, very dangerous and very powerful as well. The difficulty we've got is what we do with it once we've got it inside us.
Lian (15:30)
Mmm.
just ask a question. Something you said there really hooked my curiosity. It was, I think the word calculating, it's, it's, it's always the antithesis of emotion and kind of passion is it's, you they're almost antonyms. And I was like, it really hooked me that it by its very nature, I'm guessing it needs to have this lack of emotion, lack of compassion, lack of connection in order to have that sort of single minded focus. I'd love you to say a bit more about that before you go on, because there was something about that that really stood out to me. think particularly in a world where I often, I think we touched this on this actually in our last episode, I often hear from women
that men aren't emotionally available. what we're talking about here, if man has a lot of predator and perhaps unhealthy, imbalanced predator, that would go a long way to explain least part of that. So I'd love for you to say a little bit more about that if possible.
Hugh Newton (16:54)
This is a very cold part. It's a very cold part in men. if a boy has survived heavy predation, he has usually survived that by killing his emotions. And I've heard of people in very, very difficult situations where horrible things are happening to them and they kind of detach and perhaps move up and away from themselves, look down, watch what's happening without any...
Lian (17:17)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (17:22)
feeling about it or any disgust or even any fear. This is a part actually, fear lies in this arena, but predator generally kills his own fear, both so he can go out and do what he needs to do in his predator state, also so he has no feelings about it, no softness, no gentleness. This is a very cold part.
Lian (17:47)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (17:48)
If you think about it, when men go to war, this is a part that plays the roles of spy, double agent, being dropped behind enemy lines to operate in ways which infiltrate, which undermine. This is a part which can torture others in order to get information out of them very, very cold, very cold blooded and very uncaring about the suffering of others.
Lian (18:19)
Mmm.
Yeah, there's, I'm really glad you've described that. Cause I think there is something about that that really brings this part to life for me in a way that I can feel it. Ironically, I could feel the lack of feeling, really clearly now. Thank you. Sorry, I interrupted you as you're about to go on. If you, can pick up from where you're about to go.
Hugh Newton (18:47)
So the painful part of all of this is it's a bit like the vampire. A vampire is a pure predator predating on, I know it's mythological, but it's a good term of reference because lots of us have seen vampire operating. Exactly. It's a very good way of seeing the predator in human form predating on other humans.
Lian (19:01)
We don't mind myth here, just to be clear.
Hugh Newton (19:15)
watch films around vampires, it's all the guile, the fact that it's quite disguised. The difficulty if we get predated on as children, the predation breaks our boundaries, goes inside us, and we as adults become naturally orientated towards being predators ourselves. If we receive the vampire bite of abuse of some and predation as child,
Lian (19:38)
Hmm.
Hugh Newton (19:44)
We have a heightened possibility of becoming a predatorial in our own adult life. And that might be predatorial in different degrees. It might be out and out, serial killer, sexual abuser, various things like that. Or it might be just predatorial in a way that subtly seeks to undermine people.
Get power over others in underhand ways, know, pay compliments where it looks like a compliment, but the person actually felt a slice of pain when they received it because there's a nasty hidden judgment in that compliment. Various ways like that where people seek to coerce, manipulate,
Lian (20:28)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (20:37)
The difficulty we have is characters like this because they are so clever and so powerful, end up heads of department, heads of companies, heads of ruthless businesses which seek to coerce and control and get money out of people in underhand ways. The thing is about a Predation is once we see it we end up seeing it all over the world because it's a force which is Out there in front of us, but it's mostly hidden
Lian (21:09)
Mmm.
Mmm.
I'm guessing on the flip side too, like with any shadow, there's a pole of a kind of inflated and deflated. I'm guessing we also have a culture where there can be a lack of this part, a lack of focus, a lack of that single-minded moving towards something. And it doesn't perhaps have the most more obvious profound harm that we're talking about when the predator is in balance in the way that you're talking about, but would you just touch on that sort of deflated predator a little, please?
Hugh Newton (21:57)
Yeah. A deflated predator is, a lot of ways, it's naive. It's that if I don't have any predator or if I say there's nothing like that inside me, then I'm not likely to be able to recognise it in the world. And so I'm not likely to be able to recognise it in either myself or when it's coming towards me.
Lian (22:18)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (22:25)
For me, it's particularly important that women recognise the predator and the predator in men. I'm not saying that men come towards women in general circumstances in a predatorial way. We all know we've all watched the news. We've all seen men being brought forward and held to account for very, very predatorial actions towards women. And this has been going on for quite some time now.
The predator in men which used to largely in view. think when I look back at the 70s and 80s maybe where organizations knew that men were operating in predatory ways, but it was brushed under the carpet and no one really said no and women were hurt by this. Now all of it's been coming to light and we've got lots of it going on with half the world.
Lian (23:02)
Hmm.
Hugh Newton (23:24)
demanding that what's on all the Epstein material gets revealed because all of the young women who were predated on, or the girls who were predated on by what was going on there are starting to speak up. The world is speaking up about predation, particularly women are speaking about masculine predation, it's been brought to light so it can be more cleanly recognized and the world is saying it's not okay.
Lian (23:34)
Mm.
Hugh Newton (23:53)
It's not okay for men to operate like that. And it clearly isn't, but in the past it was brushed under the carpet a bit and now it's being, the world's been made aware of it. And if we are very, very low on predator, we can be a bit naive. We think everyone's good. We think everyone is innocent and lovely and that people are coming towards us in love. So we can't recognise danger signals.
That's the danger if we don't know there's part of us. And actually, it can also be very useful and natural predator to give us strength, to help us do difficult tasks, to help us when we need to climb over a mountain, for instance, to help us out in the wild or the bush where we need to survive. All of these, this energy can be very useful in its healthy, natural form.
Lian (24:22)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (24:51)
When we've got too little of it, we end up a bit unfocused and a bit naive. And when we've got too much of it, we end up extremely dangerous.
Lian (25:01)
How do you see this? Maybe I'm asking in a bit of a leading way actually, I'm going to ask it differently.
In a healthy sense, what part, if it does, does the predator play in a man's, let's say, approach to a woman that he's interested in romantically, sexually? Is there a role for the predator in a healthy way in that context?
Perhaps not, but there's something about that that's led to, there's this following question I want to ask you, but I want to ask you that first rather than just assuming.
Hugh Newton (25:52)
Well, mainly in a slightly difficult place around relationships where it's up to the man to take the first steps, to show his interest, to risk being refused, to risk being shamed, to step into a very vulnerable place in front of someone to declare his love or his interest and the predator can be...
really useful about giving us a strong backbone, being really clear, being able to care for ourselves if we're hurt. It can be useful for that, but Predator is not really a force we want engaged in our relationships too much, because it's just not enough feeling in this part of us. So it's very good for focus, very good perhaps for reading the signs, but really it's not so much our Predator who we want moving forward and trying to advance us in relationship. It's much more our lover or our beautiful sovereign but not so much predator.
Lian (26:54)
Hmm.
Hmm. Thank you. That really makes sense. And I was, was pondering, just like you were saying at the beginning in a, in a culture where we do see that men typically are the ones to make the first move and make those advances. It's a challenging time where men are, as you were just talking about, have this message of, you know, we are no longer, um, okay, if we ever were, but we're kind of much more now vocally okay, we're men not being predators. And what I see a lot of is good men in such a kind of like, can't possibly act in a predatory fashion that it becomes hard for them to act in the ways that you're talking about, know, again, totally un-predatory, but making that first move, you know, starting to show that interest.
I've got a teenage son and we talk a lot about these kinds of things that are happening in his own life and with his friends where they're really like now, like what is okay? Is it okay for me to approach a girl? And if so, is it okay in this situation? And there's a lot of, and it's a good thing in some ways that they're talking about this, but I think there's also this, it's kind of renders them a little bit impotent, excuse the pun.
Because it's like for fear of being predators, they're not sure what's okay to do.
Hugh Newton (28:34)
What a question. What a question. This is an area of huge difficulty for men all over, I think. The difficulty men have is how do they approach and enter this realm without being predatory about it? And how do they know when they're being clean and clear? The first thing to do and the way I work is that men need to know this energy inside themselves, inside out, in order to be aware of what they're coming from. And the thing is about this side of us is that men, if they are approaching someone or wish to bring themselves forward, then the thing to do is check their heart and check their feelings. The thing about predators is very cold. A man in a very predatory way might want to approach a woman
Lian (29:04)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (29:31)
and pretend he's beautiful and loving and heartful, but actually all he really wants is to get her in bed and he wants sex with her and actually he hasn't really got any feelings for her at all. All he's aiming to do is try and get his agenda, his sexual agenda met in a way that might not be right for her, that might not have permission from her, that might not be led forward by her because whilst the man at his job approach someone it's also his job to really carefully watch out for the signals and make sure that he is following someone who wants him to follow them. If he's pushing forwards regardless and looking to seek his own agenda and very much is single-minded about wanting to have sex or to conquest or those sort of things then he's starting to get into grey and a darker territory and definitely if a man's coming towards a woman without love in his heart, then it's more likely to be coming forward in a predatorial way.
Lian (30:36)
Hmm. Beautiful. it, listening to you, I just had that moment of like, gosh, this is something I really wish boys and young men could hear, hear what we're talking about here because it's, there isn't anything really to replace that, that invitation that you just made to kind of really check in. I coming from my heart? You know, there isn't really anything else that's going to replace that. And yet it's not really something that's being spoken about. Yeah,
Hugh Newton (31:12)
Mm-hmm.
Lian (31:12)
I was also taking a moment as you were talking to reflect on how predatory our culture can be in relationship to women where again, young boys and men are, often immersed in this kind of predatory, like almost like this water they're swimming in is one of this sort of predatory gaze towards women, predatory messaging around women. I would love to you talk a bit about this because I think there is something quite conscious needed for men to recognise that kind of without and within in order to, as you say, kind of really meet them. It requires a willingness to do that and to see this clearly. I would love to hear you talk a bit about that kind of more collective predatory aspect.
Hugh Newton (32:08)
Yeah, the difficulty we've got about the collective predatory aspect is that mostly our society says, no, this isn't okay, you can't behave like this, you can't do this. And so the predator aspect stays underground. And when it comes to the surface and is seen and is acted out, then that's punished by our society and people who do that generally end up in jail. The difficulty we've got is where either our culture or the overall government gives permission to this and says it's okay. So how does our government do that? Well, for instance, if we've got a racist government, it's all about placing someone else as an other and say, it's okay to discriminate against them, it's okay to hurt them, it's okay to punish them. With the Nazi regime in the Second World War, the Jews were made as the other and...
Lian (32:44)
Hmm.
Hugh Newton (33:07)
everyone in society was given license to predate on them, beat them up, spit on them, haul them off to camps, various things like that. I worry at the moment with the rise in the right wing, for instance, with this obsession with immigrants, people are outed and say, well, they're not good, they're not part of us, and we can predate on them. We can do bad things to them where our government allows.
Lian (33:12)
Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (33:38)
The recent huge advance for women recently is that this side of men and this way of behaving has been brought to the surface and mostly the world has said it's not okay. And yet the difficulties you've got leaders in somewhere like the States who are behaving predatorially in the way they behave and particularly in their treatment with women maybe in the past or who knows what's going on now. And that signal, even if it's not openly said that it's okay, that signal gives permission to other parts of the population who go, well, if they're doing it, that means it's okay and we're allowed to do it. And so I can get on and do these horrible things to people around me because I'm not going to get in trouble. And I've kind of got the message it's okay. So it's ultra important.
Lian (34:29)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (34:32)
for instance the Me Too movement, all of these Black Lives Matter, these are so important to lift groups and say it's not okay to predate, it's not okay to predate on women, it's not okay to predate on people of color, it's not okay for your predator to be unleashed and to be brought out into the world in a way that can be hugely damaging.
Lian (34:57)
Hmm. It occurs to me there's almost like a dehumanization needed to be able to see someone as prey, where they no longer are a fellow human being, they become something else. And that's required for the predator to be able to act as the predator.
Hugh Newton (35:20)
Dehumanization is massive. If we're told one group are like animals or they're less than or something like that, then that opens the door to predation really. Predators need to see others as other to be able to do a lot of damage to them. But in all honesty, that's not always the case. If you think about lots of sexual abuse happens in families. Various things like that. Sexual abuse is pure and utter predation. It's finding someone who's weaker or smaller, who can't fully defend themselves, who doesn't really understand what's happening to them, and it's abusing them in a way where they are told that they have to hide it, they have to hide the lies, have to hide the secrets. They are coerced and told that they are the bad ones, that it's happening because they are bad. And so they're so filled with shame by the perpetrator that actually they coerced into silence. And that's why it takes some women so many years to come out into the open, to be able to step out of that coercive control which stays around them, which is all pure predator.
Lian (36:38)
So moving into what the work looks like, and again, this is a challenging, no work of this kind is easy, but I think there is something about recognising the predator within that I'm guessing is particularly a threatening idea, you know, as man coming to you to do this work.
it's going to be a really, know, almost like everything's going to be set up against recognising the predator within who wants to be, you know, a bad person. And so I'd love to hear you describe how a man might be able to kind of move into that work in a way that feels less threatening and how that can unfold. And I guess also ultimately, why do that? Like why, why? do this work to meet the predatory and what lies on the other side of it. So the number of questions there, but I'm going to trust you're going to weave it together beautifully.
Hugh Newton (37:43)
Good, thank you. Why do this work? Well, to be safe. In all honesty, if I don't work on the predator that lives inside me, I am not safe. I'm not safe because this force is very powerful, it's also very fast and very disguised. And before I know it, my predator will be out predating on someone and I haven't even noticed that that's happening. because I maybe have justified it and made an excuse. Well, they're bad anyway, so it's OK for me to predate on them. And I won't fully recognise that this is actually what I'm doing. The person on the other side will feel the bite. They'll feel the pain. They'll feel the hurt. But I might not even be aware I'm doing something like that.
Lian (38:16)
Hmm.
Hugh Newton (38:36)
A lot of people don't want to act out their predator outwards into the world and so they're acted inwards on themselves. Predator acted inwards is our self-critic essentially and so our self-critic, my self-critic would say to me, you're bad, there's something wrong with you, everyone knows that, you're full of darkness, you'll never be loved and I can attack, it's like self-critic attacks me. I try and use that predator force to attack me rather than letting it loose out into the world. But most of us who have predator act inwards against ourselves and we also act out in the world. How do we get a grip on this powerful part of ourselves? If I don't fully recognise my predator I push it into shadow and I don't own it and I can't
Lian (39:17)
Mm-hmm.
Hugh Newton (39:30)
I can't deal with this part of myself. I can't deal with my inner darkness because I say, well, I'm not really dark. I'm a nice person. I'm OK. I'm good and clean and I'm not preditorial. Then there's no way I can work with it because I've repressed and hidden it and I've denied it from myself as well as everyone else. What we do in the Sovereign's Journey is we set very safe, confidential space where the men who are working with us have an opportunity to go into their predator in a way that has no consequences in the world. Men literally are able to step into this part of themselves in a held and facilitated place and become the dark predator that they really are. Voicing what their predator wants to do, who it wants to attack, who it wants to kill, how it wants to do that, who their predator might want to torture or et cetera, et cetera. And they get a chance to live that out and absolutely own it, absolutely feel it and know what it is like to be in this part of themselves.
Lian (40:43)
Can I ask you a question here? Because of course that work that you're doing isn't what is happening, you know, in most rooms in the world. This is a very specific curated space that allows for this in, as you say, in a safe way. Have you found, and of course there is a kind of selection bias in that the men have chosen to be there, but have you found that almost all men in that setting do have this powerful predatory predator aspect and what they voice are things that typically wouldn't be welcome in the world. Like is it quite my sense is, and please feel free to share examples. I think there is something about if a man's listening to this, hearing the kinds of things that are spoken about, and him recognising, my gosh, those hidden thoughts I would never be able to share out loud is not just me. I'm not bad and evil. This is a part of me that actually many men share. Does that make sense? Like, if it's a common thing that men do voice this part of themselves in ways that would be quite extreme if heard in another setting, would you be able to give some examples of the kinds of things they might say?
Hugh Newton (42:07)
Yeah. So first of all, the depth and the degree of our predator depends in a lot of ways as to how this predator was used against us when we were young. Now, if we were safe all of our lives and we had a very lovely, innocent and safe life and safe world, then we...
Lian (42:24)
Mm.
Hugh Newton (42:36)
have a natural predator inside of us that's normally quite healthy and that is useful in different ways in a man's life. But if we have a predator inside of us who is really dark and dangerous because of how we were predated on, then that part of us can get out in the world and really action quite powerfully. If you like, I can step into the predator for a couple of men and you can hear how this part of us might speak out. Would that work here?
Lian (43:18)
Yes, I think that would be really helpful. And again, I'm thinking particularly men listening are kind of recognising like, it's not just me.
Hugh Newton (43:28)
Yeah, so, so, so this, this, is a few men, speaking in their predator. I'm animal. I'm automatic. I want to hunt down and kill, especially when I feel vulnerable or unsafe or uncomfortable. I want to hunt and kill. Fuck you. I'll remove you from my world. If you challenge any part of me, I'll fuck you up. I'll undermine it and I will make it look like you were the one who's in the wrong. I love to hunt more than I love to fuck. I won't take no for an answer. I just want to destroy you. I take no prisoners. You've got no right to be here because you are dirt. if you don't give me one I will destroy everything inside you. I will rip you apart. I am powerful. You are only here to pleasure me, to serve me. Those are a few words of men in their predator.
Lian (44:44)
Gosh, I could really feel the... I could feel... didn't feel like you were play-acting. If I could feel the truth of that part speaking. Thank you. I think that's something really helpful in voicing that in this way. Thank you so much for that.
So what have you seen, you know, a man having done the work you're describing to meet that predator within, what can he perhaps look forward to on the other side? And again, I appreciate this is, you know, difficult work. What have you seen can be the result of it? What lies on the other side?
Hugh Newton (45:30)
So the first part of the process is where a man totally lives in his predator. It feels what it feels like to be in his body, takes all the action, said all those nasty things that this part wants to say. Once we've done that, then we ask the man to shake it off completely and sit in his heart in his true loving sovereign. And we have another man role play his predator in front of him.
The reason for that is us men find it very difficult to truly understand who we are from inside. We need it's so helpful if we can see ourselves there. And so a man will role play his predator using his actions, his words, and he will be able to see exactly what his predator looks like.
From there we ask a man in his sovereign, his true king to make terms with this part of us. The terms that I've made with my predator is, Predator, I love you, I appreciate you, I know where you come from, I know how powerful and how dangerous you are, and the terms I'm making with you are that you never ever act out without my permission.
Lian (46:43)
Mm.
Hugh Newton (46:45)
So for instance, I'm in a difficult situation and perhaps someone's aggressing with me or being threatening or undermining me in some way. In the past, my predator would be out in front and wanting to deal with that person. Now I can feel my predator stepping up and like, this isn't okay, I'm going to get them, I'm going to take them down and I'll be, thank you, I know and appreciate that you're here, but you are not to take any step. You are to wait in the wings.
And we have to do that. I need to know that when my predator is getting activated, my heart beats really fast. I get very focused on the person who is causing me difficulties. I don't give a damn about the consequences. I just want to take them down. I'm recognising those signs. I recognise my predator. OK, my predator is coming up. I need to ask him to sit down and I'll call on him if I need to.
Lian (47:37)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (47:45)
If I'm ever in a situation where I'm in absolute deep danger or I need to protect loved ones who are in deep danger, for instance, such as the situation we just seen in Australia where two men are predating and killing people around, then I wouldn't ask my predator to come forward in a way where I would be able to go forward and take those gunmen out, for instance, and try and protect other people. I need to keep this force inside me.
Lian (48:11)
Mmm.
Hugh Newton (48:14)
I can't get rid of it. It's very powerful and I need to use it in ways that support me and I always need to be able to recognise it. And so my Predator has agreed he will not act out without my permission and he stays in the wings and I notice him when he wants to come forward and I ask him to wait until I give him permission. And there's no way to do that. There's no way to get a grip on this part of us without fully going into him is my feel around.
Lian (48:46)
Yes. Thank you for giving the example also about what's just happened in Australia. also, didn't, I don't tend to consume the news, but of course, you know, these kinds of things you find out somewhere rather at some point. And I only found out the other day, you know, the tragic case of the girl, the young woman that got stabbed on the train in America.
Hugh Newton (49:01)
Mm. Mm.
Lian (49:14)
I only found out, I think last week that there was a man that had actually stepped forward to protect others in that situation. I think he's still in hospital. I think I may have that wrong again, because I don't consume it directly. get sort of hazy mixed messages sometimes. But my sense is he did try to protect others and got stabbed himself. certainly at some point was recovering hospital may even still be there. again, such good examples of where there is a healthy response needed in certain circumstances that is a protective force. So I think really, really wonderful examples. So, sorry.
Hugh Newton (49:56)
And if just to say if us men are looking for the part that would make us brave enough to go against someone who is abusing others it's this part that has that strength that has that determination and the cleverness and it's this part that would stand up against someone who's abusing others and go You know, there's no way if you're gonna do that. I'm gonna kill you I'm going to stop you from killing others. I will take you out and
Lian (50:14)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Hugh Newton (50:24)
What I notice in situations is where people bully or do things out in front of anyone else, they need men stand up and go, no, you know, not one man, but several men. I watched the amazement when a man steps up and protects. Actually, for me, that's a man's job. I've done it several times in my life, and it's the job of a man to protect women and children and those who aren't strong enough from...
Lian (50:36)
Mm-hmm.
Hugh Newton (50:54)
other men maybe who are bringing evil intent to the world and if men as a whole stand up against that then that sort of thing will be happening a vast amount less because predators will know that they can't get away with that.
Lian (51:08)
I just realised I read a little example of this yesterday on one of my kind of local communities, Facebook groups. A mother had thanked this unknown man who was a bouncer at a local bar or club. And she said, she described to me, said, I just want to give you my heartfelt thanks, but I probably get emotional actually as I say this. Apparently her daughter, I don't know if she'd had a drink spiked or something, but she'd been with a group of about 10 men and this bouncer stepped in and made sure she was kind of removed from that group and put in a cab to go home. You know, goodness knows what would have happened to her otherwise. And the mother was just sort of saying this, you know, thanks this anonymous person for, you know, potentially protecting her daughter from goodness knows what. just, again, I think it's so helpful for...
all of us, but many in particular to hear like that part is welcome when it's used in that way to protect others. We need it.
Hugh Newton (52:12)
We do. We do. When predators are predating on the world, they need extremely strong ⁓ predators to stand up against them and say no. And to literally say, you do this, I will be returning what you're doing to others. I will do that to you and I'll stop you doing that. And I think this used to be much clearer in the world where men are a protective force and it's our job to protect those in need protecting and
Lian (52:30)
Mm-hmm.
Hugh Newton (52:41)
For me, it's just as important these days as it ever was.
Lian (52:45)
Yeah, absolutely. So we are up on time. Is there anything you would like to say that we haven't yet been able to cover before we close?
Hugh Newton (52:57)
Just to say thank you for bringing this powerful and when it's working out of wound this very dangerous part of us to the surface. For me it's important that the world recognise that human beings have a predational force inside of us and that it's really dangerous when governments or society give license to this part of us to come out and just to thank men and women and say to men it's advanced work and it's powerful work to know this force and to bring this force into safety essentially inside ourselves and I bless every man who has the courage to do this work because it's really important.
Lian (53:41)
Yeah, my blessings too. It really is so, needed. Hugh, can men in particular, I'm guessing, find out more about you and the wonderful work that you do?
Hugh Newton (53:56)
Thank you. Yes, my work is the Sovereign's Journey and this is an organisational, an organisation of men where we're work on our inner world so we know ourselves exactly who we are and we can choose to be who we wish to be in the world rather than being undermined by parts of us that are in our shadow and in our unconscious. Sovereign's Journey.co.uk
and we take a very powerful journey with men to get to know themselves inside out and rise into their profound sovereignty.
Lian (54:35)
Wonderful. Thank you so much, Hugh. I'm so glad we came together to create a part two. This feels like it was exactly where we needed to go. Thank you so much.
Hugh Newton (54:43)
Yes.
Thank you very much.
Lian (54:47)
What a fascinating episode. Here's what stayed with me from this conversation. The predator in men functions by shutting down feeling in the body, creating emotional coldness that makes harm possible without conscious intent.
Predation can hide behind ordinary, polite or socially successful behaviours. which is precisely why it can cause damage whilst remaining unrecognized. When this force is acknowledged and made answerable to conscience and responsibility, it can be contained and directed in healthy ways rather than acting unchecked and causing harm. If you'd like to hop on over to the show notes, the links are at BeMythical.com/podcast/535 And as you heard me say earlier, If you're struggling with challenges of walking your soul path in this crazy modern world and long for guidance, kinship and support, come join us in Unio, the community for soul seekers. You can discover more and join us by hopping over to BeMythical.com/unio
And if you're called to go even deeper on your world sovereign soul path, come join us for the upcoming world sovereign soul course. a three month immersive initiatory journey into becoming a wild, sovereign soul. You can register your interest at BeMythical.com/wss
And if you don't want to miss out next week's episode, head on over to your podcasting app or platform of choice, including YouTube and hit that subscribe or follow button. That way you'll get each episode delivered straight to your device, auto magically as soon as it's released. Thank you so much for listening. You've been wonderful. I'll catch you again next week. And until then, I'm sending you all my love and blessings as you walk your own wild sovereign soul path.