Leo Gura

Yes, definitely agree here. The poor need more voting power and more outright assistance. I'm all for helping elevate and educate the poor.

Not as much as you'd think. Most poor people are stage Blue. They are easily fooled and misled by demagogues like Trump. Their fears are easily stoked. Their prejudices, closedmindedness, and ethnocentrism is easily exploited by charlatans and narcissists.

Science is part of the culture war to these people. Science is culture. There is a long and rich history of science denial by conservatives. Going back to Galileo.

FDA != Big Pharma The FDA has extremely rigorous standards which are difficult and expensive to clear. Clearing all 3 phases of the FDA approval process usually costs tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. Obviously no natural supplement or herb will have enough research funding behind it to clear that bar. It's not a conspiracy theory. The FDA is not some evil bad guy holding back natural remedies in order to make the big pharma more $$$. The FDA simply has a very high bar for what they are allowed to endorse because millions of lives depend on it. Just because some natural remedy worked for a few people does not at all mean that it would pass rigorous scientific testing. If you really care to understand how FDA approval works, listen to Rick Doblin, he's an expert on this:

It's a culture war. American nationalists feel like their culture is dying and they will fight to defend it at all costs.

Of course it's complicated, but the rich are smarter than the poor generally speaking. Beware this Marxist idea that the poor are somehow equal to the rich, equally capable as the rich, and equally smart/wise as the rich. This is a dangerous idea. The poor are, for the most part, idiots. This doesn't mean there aren't some rich who are idiots. There certainly are. And it doesn't mean that the smartest rich are deeply spiritually wise. But the rich are generally smarter and wiser and more competent than the poor. Don't forget. People without college degrees vote overwhelmingly conservative and for buffoons like Trump. As bad as you might think being ruled by the rich is, being ruled by the poor would be way worse. Rule by the poor will lead to stuff like fascism and genocide. Believe it or not, rich people are actually MORE morally developed and conscious than poor people. Poor people simply have less opportunity and ambition to abuse it. Poor people are not your friend and they will not save society from evil. Progressives and socialists are way too enamored with poor people and populism. Populism is not some automatic good. Populism can cause all sorts of devilry.

Rich hold most of the power because they are smarter. Poor and middleclass folks tend to be ignorant, ideological, conservative, out of touch with politics, and not ambitious enough to do anything about it.

Of course. We need a special of tier of higher taxes for large multi-national corporations. We need stronger enforcement of existing tax laws and eliminating of loopholes. We need to stop all off-shore tax havens. We need to raise capital gains taxes. We need tiers of wealth taxes on wealth over $10 million, $100 million, $1 billion, $10 billion, and $100 billion. We need to tax luxury and elite goods more. Stuff like yachts, jets, expensive jewelry, expensive mansions, private islands, fur coats, exotic cars, expensive wine, etc. We need much higher estate and inheritance taxes. We need to tax 2nd, 3rd, and 4th homes at ever higher rates for each new home. If you're buying a 4th home you should be paying 75% of that in tax.

That's a pretty good map. You could also look at a map of CPI: Corruption Perception Index. https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi

A materialist circle jerk

We've discussed this issue and these articles a lot on this forum already. Search Bentinho's name on this forum and you'll find some deep discussions.

Thyroid hormone doesn't work for many people in the sense that it doesn't address the underlying issue. Taking thyroid hormone is like pouring water into a leaky bucket.

No. And yes. It's both. Depends on what context you're using those words in. Why? Isn't it obvious that you are more conscious when you are sober or meditating than when you are in a food coma? If consciousness cannot be increased, then what is this work we are doing? What is spiritual practice for? How could awakening happen unless consciousness was asleep? It still is. Just because some parts of the universe have less or more light does not make the universe any less made of light. It's all light in various degrees. No one is saying an ant has less existence or reality than a human. Both are made of consciousness, but they are not equally conscious. You're not fully conscious of what consciousness is or can do. It hasn't changed. You just need to add to your model that consciousness comes in degrees of self-awareness and various states. Consciousness is like water. It can be murky or crystal clear and everything in between.

That is tricky because there can be so much nuance in how those terms are defined by which people. It's just not so simple. There are hundreds of variations in awakening and various states and levels of consciousness and mastery. You cannot make sense of it with any simplistic model or set of categories. Consciousness is a very fluid thing. Self-actualization is different from self-transcendence (enlightenment), yes. You can read more about that from Maslow. Self-actualization is the second highest stage. Self-transcendence is the highest.

@Hello from Russia WTF?

@Jg17 Consciousness is a spectrum from zero to infinity. The closer one gets to infinity the more "moral" one can be. You don't need to hit infinity to make improvement. A human is more conscious than a cat. A cat is more conscious than an ant. An ant is more conscious than a plant. And Obama is more conscious than Trump. It's not rocket science.

Taxes, taxes, taxes. It's that simple. He can have plenty of wealth, but it should be significantly taxed. There's no need to demonize billionaires. Admire them but tax them appropriately.

You have to explain why you posted this here.

That is basically a first date.

Don't limit your contemplation to penetration

@Cykaaaa It's hard to say. I honestly don't have much direct experience with Red people. It's dangerous to speculate about such things without lots of personal experience.

So clearly there's something amiss in your inner game. It's a mind thing. You need to become more conscious of what your mind is doing at the moment when you penetrate and go soft. What is your mind thinking? What is the fear? What are you visualizing? What are you feeling? Get very clear and honest about that. Sound like you might have fear of premature ejaculation or that you're putting so much pressure on yourself to perform in bed in a certain way. Good sex requires getting out of your head and into the feelings in your body. Try literally moving your awareness out of your head and out into your body.

That is this. But you can't handle it.

Of course! Because most Chinese from mainland China are stage Blue ethnocentric. Which is why they put Muslims in concentration camps over there.