Former male stripper reveals why he ditched his ‘partying’ lifestyle to join a monastery in Thailand

A former male stripper shared how he ditched his drug-fueled partying lifestyle to live one dedicated to peace and meditation.

Ashley Edelman said he was struggling to find himself after he left his native Australia and first got a job in Cornwell, in southwest England, as a male stripper. 

Then he eventually joined a monastery in Thailand.

‘I had been in the Army since I was 17 and always struggled with confidence, but back then, drinking masked my social anxiety,’ he recounted in a piece for Newsweek. 

‘So when I got the chance to strip, I thought, “I used to get naked for a laugh in the Army for free – I may as well get paid for it.”‘

Soon, Edelman said he got a gig performing in one of the United Kingdom’s largest touring strip shows –  impressing even his parents with their choreographed routines.

But as Edelman became more and more successful, he said he started bodybuilding – and took steroids and other drugs.

‘It was part of the lifestyle,’ he explained. ‘Cocaine, weed, partying – it all blurred together. But it wasn’t sustainable.

‘Eventually I burned out,’ Edelman said, writing that he hit rock bottom in 2018. 

At that point, Edelman decided to quit the stripper business.

But when his marriage ended four years later, he ‘returned briefly’ to the adult industry ‘but something didn’t feel right.

‘I felt like I was selling my soul,’ he said, noting that he did not regret his time in the adult industry.

‘It served its purpose – but over time, I started pushing my own boundaries just for money,’ he admitted. 

‘That’s when everything began to shift.

‘I started exploring breathwork, personal development and spirituality,’ Edelman shared – noting that the path led him to iMONASTERY in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he spent a month living like a monk with no phone or music.

He woke up every day at 4am, chanted, did chores and attended Dharma classes.

‘I had profound spiritual experiences,  including visions – or what I call “downloads” – that told me I was meant to move to Dubai and be a grounding presence for others,’ Edelman wrote. 

It wound up being kismet,  as two days after he left the monastery, he learned he had to vacate his home.

‘It all aligned effortlessly,’ he said.

Edelman now lives in the Middle East, where he says he meditates daily, host breathwork sessions, coach clients, help people regulate their nervous systems and ‘remove limiting beliefs.’

‘I live in zero resistance,’ Edelman wrote. ‘ I feel calm, grounded and self-aware in a way I never imagined possible.’

To maintain his new carefree lifestyle, the former stripper said he stayed off social media for six months – and only returned in April 2024, when he said he made a promise to himself that he would only post ‘when it truly aligned with who I am today.’

Now, Edelman has more than 147,000 followers on Instagram, where he says shares his story to inspire others.

‘So many people suffer in silence. They think they’re alone. But we all go through the same things in different ways and transformation is possible,’ he wrote.

‘I used to live a life most men dreamed of – fast-paced, wild, seductive. Now I live a life rooted in service,’ Edelman concluded.

He said he wants to return to the monastery in Thailand each year, ‘but I know I’m not meant to live there full time.

‘My mission is not to serve myself, but to serve others.

‘Everything I went through – every show, every mistake, every revelation – led me here,’ he wrote.