Leo Gura

User "John Flores" has recently been banned from this forum for a particularly egregious Forum Guidelines violation. He was using the PM system to recruit people to start a Messiah cult -- with himself as the Messiah (of course) -- promising they will become billionaires if they join. I couldn't make this shit up. Needless to say this goes against everything self-actualization is about. In the future, if anyone ever contacts you privately to start any kind of secret group, please report them to me immediately. This is a very dangerous phenomena which we need to stay on guard for. Also be very careful about meeting up with online strangers in person. There are real nutcases around. Which is why I tend to be strictly against private chat groups and the like, because these things need to be moderated, or else they can get badly out of hand. Actualized.org will not be a tool for dogmatic behavior of any kind. With the general rise of fake news, alt-facts, and conspiracy-peddling all over the web, we need to make an extra effort to avoid all forms of dogma and cults of personality. I want to stress that you not hold me or Actualized.org as any kind of cult, dogma, or thing to "follow". I am not special in any way. I do not want you to be my follower. I do not want you to believe anything I say or teach, or hold it as true or special. I am fallible. Everything I say could be wrong and should be taken with a grain of salt. My teachings are purely pragmatic. I am not to be idolized in any way. If you find yourself holding me as special in your mind, that's your projection -- something for you to become mindful of and to own as your doing. If you find yourself revering other teachers out there, whether it be Ekhart Tolle, Mooji, Rupert Spira, etc, likewise, that's your projection, which is actually holding you back from learning their teachings. No good teacher wants to be idolized or blindly followed. If user "John Flores" re-appears in the future under a new alias, please report him.

@Azrael Great stuff. Thanks for the write-up.

@Franz Interesting... Yeah, I don't like methods of administration which involve puking. Wonder if there's any workaround for that. Also, not eating for 24 hours seems hardcore. Might try it one day.

@outlandish I have read reports of people passing out and waking up 30 minutes later with no memory of what happened. Or going red from not breathing. So there's definitely a lethal potential there if you go that high and maybe have a weak heart, or pass out face-first on a blanket. Warnings for this substance need to be broad, because people have all sorts of different weaknesses and conditions which might worsen the trip into lethal territory. And I know how lazy people are about weighing accurately. They are too cheap to buy a $25 miligram scale, thinking they can just eyeball the dose. That could easily lead to a 30mg dose turning into a 50mg dose.

No, I don't keep a narrative of my growth. I sorta scratch that itch through my videos and blog. But I do journal to myself sometimes. I haven't read into Aurobindo much. It's rather dense reading which I don't want to wade through right now. Didn't study the Theosophical society much other than the gist of it. Animals are vastly different from humans because they do not conceptualize. So they are like effectively enlightened. Although they don't appreciate the fact because they can't self-reflect. At least that's my best theory of it so far. Best not to compare yourself to animals. You have a much more complex set of issues to deal with than any animal. Even if you're enlightened, you still have a TON of human stuff going on in your head.

@Echoes Who knows what its like from the inside? From the outside it will just look like you stopped breathing and suffocated.

@phoenix666 Sounds like a great opening of the portal.

@Franz Ah yes, the infamous Psilohuasca. I hear it's comparable to 5-meo in depth. But gotta be careful and observe the MAOI diet for it to be safe. Thanks for sharing. How did you manage your diet for before and after the trip? Did the rue give you nausea or anything like that? I am interested in finding a good alternative to 5-meo, because 5-meo is so rare most people cannot access it.

That's what they said about Trump

@Outer What's really funny (and sad), is that virtually everything that's true of cults, is true of culture and society as a whole. Cults are like the little mob bosses while society is the Big Kahuna.

That works up to a point, but CBT can only take you so far. Precisely because it's cognitive. And cognition is the whole problem. A) Sadhguru is highly educated. Which should be obvious from his manner of speech. He has a degree in English Literature. B) He's 59 years old.

You will lose consciousness at higher doses, and your breathing and heart can stop. So watch out! You can kill yourself with 5-meo.

@Antonio Yoga!

You can still do whatever the hell you want within reality. All your dreams are still actionable. You have an infinite playground at your disposal. What else could you possibly ask for? You have been given EVERYTHING! And still you want something more?

@sgn Tis hard to solve overthinking with more thinking Rationalists who try to grasp the nature of reality with their intellect alone, often end up going full-insane. Of course. Because the whole project is fatally flawed from the get-go. The intellect is such a tiny thing.

Hehehe... the notion of "a reality" is a cultural bias. Not to mention: time, space, science, math, self, other, life, sentience, death, mind, brain, language, money, society, country, race, age, pain, good, bad, up, down, and intelligence. You're grossly underestimating how deep the rabbit hole goes.

I know about astral projection. Seems to be real. I haven't done it. Post-enlightenment you'd return back to social life. You wouldn't live in a cave forever. I rarely have sex as it is. Meditating in a cave. Many of the authors of the books on my book list offer retreats or workshops. They are all excellent. No About 6 years ago. Yes, I knew about it from the very beginning of Actualized.org, but I wasn't ready to talk about it. And I didn't know it's fully scope and depth yet. 13.785% Almost no effect. A bit more monkey mind than usual. That's mostly all. Yes, but there's a good reason. Reality is the most beautiful thing ever. Yes. No view. It's just a bodily function, like crapping. No I've never met any aliens. I dunno. It's not a consistent thing for me. It requires discipline to hit it. Not much. I have higher priorities. You need to watch some of my videos on epistemology. Sorta. It's going slow because I have lots of inner growth to do on myself. I am in the process of outlining a book. Kids? Probably not, but who knows. I will, but I have to get it from my Mom first. It's a physical photo. It's random. I use lots of different techniques because part of my job it to experiment. The full life is actually quite good if it's in a decent part of the world. I feel like 1 day of enlightenment wouldn't be enough. It would be too short know or appreciate anything. I don't see them as different. It was done against my wishes. 45.381% Reality is way more twisted than that. You don't actually exist. You never have. You just think you have. So you cannot die and there's nowhere to go. No idea Oooo... good question. Ralston's books.

No No News isn't empowering. It's like bathing with pigs. I guess the best way would be by reading a high quality journal / paper. 8 hours usually Yes, you can start there. Yes, eyes open or closed. I usually do it easy-open otherwise it's easier to fall asleep. Shinzen Young Not sure. It's a pretty common idea in self-help. And it's just common sense. 1) Of course it inflates the ego. But it also does check the ego because I am open to feedback and my mistakes become more apparent to me when I interact with people. 2) I cross-reference dozens and even hundreds of sources. Every new insight has to fit all the other stuff I've learned. After a long time of doing this, it's really easy to filter out bullshit. I have no interest in creating a cult or a corporation. I just a guy doing his art. I don't want to manage a throng of minions. 1 I would like too, but have other priorities. Depressed, not really. Lazy and bored, yes. Yes, many subtle addictions. It's a complex issue. I've used them a lot. Less nowadays because of my existential work. Thousands of beliefs. The key is that I understand they are beliefs. Ask better questions No, because my whole life is already it. If anything, I have the opposite problem. I show my vision boards in the life purpose course. I wasn't really struggling. I was excited to get my career going, doing my art, and having a big impact in the world. No, it was a temporary thing. There's no conflict. Reality is infinitely complex and it functions all by itself, without you, without free will. I've very visual. But also intuitive. I don't. Not a priority for me. If I did go out, yes, I would rely on many things I learned in game. No, it's not updated. It requires a lot of work which I don't have time for right now. I would follow the weekly videos instead. No, don't remember that at all. Not a high priority. Yes, depending on your level of development. That'd be interesting. Never considered it. No. All the experiences have been very positive other than one death threat through the mail.

@SOUL Except addiction is 80% psychological.

@RossE Yeah, I've had that experience on shrooms where I look at a clock and laugh because the notion of time is so ridiculous. It's just a spinning thingy!

IQ is the biggest load of bullshit. Such a red herring. Never take those tests. All they do is compare you to some arbitrary standards some rationalist chimps concocted in their infinite ignorance. Unless you're clinically retarded, you're good. The highest IQ people are some of the biggest fools around. Just because you can solve a math puzzle quickly, doesn't say anything about your wisdom or level of consciousness. Self-actualization means you have to stop thinking of yourself as a statistic. Statics are for policy-makers and people who care about measuring the mob. As a self-actualizer, you are going to grow so high above the statistical mob that you will not even fit on the scale. You will be qualitatively beyond all that. Your true nature is Absolutely Infinite, and you're trying to measure yourself with an IQ test? Lol. You might as well be measuring your dick to see if it's big enough to self-actualize.

@Electron You can push things a bit, but you're not going to become passionate about something you don't care about. You have natural passions already within you which must be unearthed, and then cultivated. What you're asking is sorta like trying to get a ball to roll up hill. Even if you could do it, it's not worth the energy. You want to become more organic as you grow, not more contrived and forceful.

@Space It's almost the exact opposite of what you're saying: do nothing but be conscious. Just sit and be conscious without manipulating anything.

@DoubleYou There is a long history of Indian and Middle Eastern yogis using hashish for spiritual purposes.

This! *thumbs up* Ahhhhh.... The non-self-actualizing walrii of the world