sholomar

I like Lizi's stuff. Zeitgeist. A few standalone videos as well... also diddly. ASMR must be done with headphones, if you are not familiar with it... the higher quality the better, such as a pair of Sennheiser open back or equivalent. Here is one of the older ASMR videos that really started it all...

Could be anything really... microplastics, pesticides, drug use, smoking, eating lots of charred and burnt meat, pollutants in our food supply, stress. Personally I believe the main driver is obesity. They should measure the BMI of everyone getting these diseases. Our level of bodyfat is unprecedented compared to any time in evolutionary history. Also, many more people used to smoke in the past than they do now. My grandmother lived until 85 smoking 2 packs a day and she was never a person I would call "playful" either though she craved drama and worked hard. She was thin and stayed generally active despite her smoking. Genetics has a role, letting people breed who have sub-optimal genetics because we want to be compassionate, the society of coddling people, but mostly it's people are fat and don't move. It's really that simple. Anyone who chews tobacco is at enhanced risk of cancer of the mouth and throat as chewing tobacco is FAR worse than smoking it. Every single person I've known who is a long time chewer develops precancerous growths in their mouth... so if you are reading this, don't be a fucking idiot... stop chewing tobacco. Smoke it if you must. The synthetic polymer problem is not really anything anyone has really thought about yet... it's not just microplastics in food, but on clothing and fabrics that doesn't just end up as dryer lint, but often ends up in the air. There's no easy solution to this. Where I work I breathe in a cellulose based fiber called "lenzing" as part of my job... I often wonder if it's bad for me long term and I should find a different machine to work on. "Lenzing™ fibres are man-made from natural wood cellulose molecules derived from renewable sources and are eco-consciously manufactured with innovative and sustainable processes. At the end of their lifecycle, Lenzing™ fibres are fully biodegradable."

It's largely genetic. My father would deny this but it's true. When I lived off chinese food (americanized chinese with lots of sugar and fat) I had a cholesterol of 150 with an HDL in the 50's to 60's... when I started to eat paleo/meditarranean the HDL did rise a bit but nothing super significant... my latest reading was 157 total cholesterol with HDL of 65. I do zone 2 cardio, some weight training, eat meat, vegetables, eggs, and high fiber carbs. Maybe reduce refined carbs to improve cholesterol readings. I believe refined carbs are the true villain to many people's diets who are prone to metabolic syndrome, just based on the way we evolved as a species. I use a Polar H10 chest heart monitor and their app to maintain a zone 2 pace during my cardio. Maybe try that.. and less dietary carbohydrates, especially fructose. When evolving humans did not have access to the high fructose ultra sweet genetically modified fruits of today.. they were seasonal and much more tart and smaller. Whether people want to admit it or not, our diet was paleo.... tubers, berries, meats, until around 10,000 years ago, which is when health started to decline... Most of this guy's content is rather hit or miss, but this video is absolute gold... Another good book I stumbled across on reddit is called "the thin prediabetic" .. written by someone of asian descent as they often have thin prediabetics in their culture.... the solution he mentions involves building type 2 muscle fibers to reduce insulin resistance, reducing carbs, and eating bitter foods like "bitter melon" along with a few other topics https://www.amazon.com/dp/1095483773

If people want to be really self honest there's actually quite a bit of fundamentalism in this forum, you just don't see it because you believe your leftist philosophy is the right and best way for everyone to live... you consider yourselves tolerant but are you? I see conservative bashing and this sort of moral/intellectual elitism every time I visit. It's not truly wanting individuals and cultures to develop at their own pace when you want to force feed stage green values on them and insist they embrace them. Truth is, a lot of leftism causes a lot of depression and mental problems in a lot of people, especially boys/men, because a lot of it is counter to the way we evolved and are optimally designed to operate as the species homo sapiens. Perhaps that utopia you seek is simply out of reach for our species without genetic engineering. I do understand why these stage blue/red/orange cultures think they are right. When you are conditioned to think a certain way from birth it has a profound and strong programming into one's emotional/subconscious brain. Throw in a million year old genetic drives to behave certain ways... It's nothing personal... in fact human behavior should be taken very impersonally.. like a bear pooping in the woods. You change behavior through positive and negative reinforcement of what is considered "good" and "bad" and you have a culture. Humans in general like to fit in with the herd, or a herd, and so you sustain that culture through these cultural mores. Change takes time. It can't be forced. Religion is just another tool of control, a way to make a person fit into something, to make them feel like they belong. Having a "God" to worship also satisfies the human craving to have an alpha male to guide them. Truth be told society would be much better if everyone followed the ten commandments, regardless of what the rest of the religion is about. I see wokeness as a sort of religion of it's own, to be honest... just another belief system for people to fit into. Religion was the woke movement of Roman times...

Love this video... wasn't sure where it would fit best. Regardless of whether there's free will or not there seems to be 4 things that make for successful outcomes... The best performing strategies shared 4 qualities: - They are all nice (not the first to defect) - Forgiving (retaliates but doesn't hold a grudge) .. this conclusion actually came as a shock to the researchers - Being retaliatory (when your opponent attacks, strike back immediately, don't be a pushover) - Being clear (can't establish a pattern of trust with a program that has seemingly no rules/reason behind their behavior) It's best to assume you have free will, even if you don't, because defeatism can lead down a rather black pilled path that spirals downward. That said, I don't believe there is a whole lot of free will as a species... we are products of our DNA, enviornment, and upbringing. Even my knowing all this intellectual stuff about all these topics is because I had the internet. If the internet didn't exist, I'd be totally different. Unfortunately the more knowledge one gains the more black pilled the world seems... ignorance (taking the blue pill) truly is bliss. Even if you make a perfect human paradise, you can't change the basic laws of nature that drive evolution. The Lion will continue to eat the baby gazelle... this is why the solution is not more knowledge, analysis paralysis, but getting off social media and living, being, with a proper mindset.. the subsconscious mind can be reprogrammed. Leo's 65 principles for a good life video... screens are the poison, social media is the poison, hours on the internet are the poison, should statements about how reality "should" be are the poison. I have this video on my homepage to remind me. Most of this guy's content is hit or miss, but this video is golden.

Socially constructed narratives.... the fantasy we live to take away from the brutal fact that nature is savage. You'll get the gist of the video in the first 5 minutes. Either you'll enjoy what he's saying or not. He's right in that there's a level of pessimism when you see the truth of what this reality is really like, unlike the socially constructed fantasies in which most people live to one degree or another. Then you need to find your inner peace...

We used to have anylabs around here where we could order tests on demand but they closed down. Unfortunate. A quick google search for your area shows this. https://www.albertaprecisionlabs.ca/ The types of things to get tested for have already been covered by other posters here. All the ones Leo posted are among the most important. I would add getting a fasting glucose test and A1C test. Ferratin levels check for iron... high iron means you should donate blood.

Recent studies on hormesis suggest the maximum lifespan can be extended, quality of life issues aside, is 30-60%. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1568163723003409?via%3Dihub Regardless, I don't believe in the "relativity" theories promoted by the stage greens, that there is no "ultimate truth" that and that reality is simply what you perceive. There are very specific rules to incarnating in this physical reality that if violated come with consequences. Just try jumping from a plane without a parachute or drinking gasoline claiming you can do anything, because facts don't exist and everything is perception. Have that peanut allergy? Doesn't matter, munch away... all you have to do is believe that you are invincible. I'm not inclined to judge those who don't exercise, even if I do. Both my grandparents lived into their 80's without being exercisers. They were frail, but I guess exercise is a habit you either grow to love or you don't , like any other habit, and not everyone wants to live forever or want to spend half their week walking around. One of my grandmothers literally smoked 2 packs a day her entire adult life, for 50 years, because she had a near death experience in her early 20's and didn't fear dying (despite being an atheist at the time) Regardless, the two things that extend lifespan and quality of life the most tend to be exercise and caloric restriction, specifically lower intensity zone 2 exercise such as slow jogging, which is probably the most beneficial activity any person could really make a habit. I must jog to keep my sciatica in check. It's not an option. It took 60 days for the pain to go away, but it stays away as long as I do my 10-20 miles a week. Road biking on the other hand makes it worse or at best has no effect, which is unfortunate because I enjoy doing it, but if you really think about it, sitting on a hard stationary seat and rotating your legs in a hunched over position is not really natural from an evolutionary standpoint. For nutrients I've narrowed it down to just a couple the average person could use to help with longevity and just because we tend to be deficient in them: Vitamin D, K2, and Magnesium.. if you get a lot of sunlight you can skip the D and K2. Humans evolved in sunlight, and now we get almost none. This is a problem as far as production of Vitamin D goes. Glycine or Collagen in the diet, along with the related compounds choline and betaine (egg yolks and whole wheat) .. we evolved eating the organs, skin, and bones of animals, and now we only eat muscle meat, lacking collagen. We ate a ton of eggs, a top choline source, and are now scared away by government propaganda on eggs. A diet rich in polyphenols. Think berries and cocoa. They actually work because they provide low dose stressors to the body.. the hormesis effect, as do all plant foods. The majority of evolution we ate paleolithic... meat, eggs, fish, berries, nuts, and tubers. https://nautil.us/fruits-and-vegetables-are-trying-to-kill-you-234982/ Regardless there is a lot of analysis paralysis in modern society today. Most people would be better off getting off social media and using common sense over falling into some echo chamber when it comes to anything, not just diet and longevity. Yes, I'm guilty of this. Sigh.

The more checks and balances against the concentration of power and wealth the better. I'd implement lifetime term limits for all politicians, to prevent people from having "career political" positions. I'd place strict limits on being able to donate money to politicians and corporate influence in politics. I'd imagine each side goes back and forth on this issue depending on who's in power at the time, because any "side" ultimately wants unchecked power. Thankfully they don't get it. Personally I'd abolish "executive order" power in the United States also. Everything that is implemented should have to be through a vote in house and senate. It's probably human nature that dictates that every great nation has it's "secret service" type institutions where information is compartmentalized to maintain plausible deniability and even presidents aren't aware of everything that goes on. Really, human nature itself is the issue. We must keep evolving. Whether we genetically engineer the species or simply allow time to pass, our species will change and grow and so will our values. I get that many here believe it's not occurring fast enough for them, but if you look at the entirety of the 5 million years of evolution from apes, the rate of growth the last 100-500 years has been quite frankly insane, especially since the advent of the computer chip, but we are still stuck with primitive hardware/DNA. It's among the reason things like anxiety disorders are so rampant, and people do things that seem to be "evil" by the definition of some. It's also why I don't trust autocratic types of government... you are left in a position to trust the person in control at any given time isn't going to be a psychopath, given psychopaths have a drive for power and seek it, by diving power you lesson that risk.

I love AI because it does such a good job at removing bias. It's no secret when I pop by here that I'm critical of much of the ideology, and it mostly comes down to a single paragraph of text in Leo's document: "The fundamental problem and damage with leftism is that it adopts utopian ideals without appreciating the stark and brutal survival conditions and the realities of human nature. When leftists underestimate the harsh realities of human nature, they come up with fantastical political ideas which are far too advanced for their time and lead to a clusterfuck if implemented." My big critic of the left more than anything is their sense of moral superiority they tend to have about their attitude that almost reminds of me of a religion or cult, that vibe that comes off them... that those conservatives are so much beneath us, that we are superior... it's a very off-putting vibe, from someone who tries to be totally without bias and doesn't identify as either "conservative" or "liberal" ... that said I'd acknowledge the conservatives would do the exact same thing if they had the power, and they have. There is a definite bias here in the forum... yall just think you are right and they are wrong. Ultimately I would say it's more of a relative truth than an absolute one. That said, I respect Leo, and all of you, and your position, and hope that humanity can some day reach your level of ideals, despite the evolutionary wiring of our DNA which resists it. Personally I think genetic engineering is needed to tweak the animal instincts within us, particularly the fear response.... to selectively reprogram parts of our genetic software.

I will always be the science/math geek. I'm all for humans figuring out how this "reality" works right down to the mathematical equations that govern every action, so that we can hijack the system, play God and remake it into a utopia through things like genetic engineering, rather than some esoteric philosophy that reality is what you perceive it to be, which is half truth. I mean, when you change someone's gender, that's basically what you are doing. Nowhere in nature can any animal do surgical procedures and take pharmaceutical drugs to do these alterations. In essence, the political left are doing the same thing I propose... altering nature to suit their own needs. That said, you can use logic to justify anything... that's it's power, and it's flaw. It should be used appropriately.

I'm all for preventing concentration of power... meaning democracy over autocracy. In those rare instances you get a benevolent leader maybe autocracy may work, but human nature generally prevents that from happening... most autocratic nations turn into variations of 1984. For these utopias to work, every member of society must generally be at that spiral dynamics level of development, otherwise the best solution is gridlock. Indeed you are correct... we need to find a balance and a way to get along rather than each side taking hardline stances in their echo chambers. Like it or not, Nazi Germany was an autocratic dictatorship... maybe one that some people believe was a good system (mostly right wingers/conservatives) but in the long run it would have stifled self expression and innovation. My father is such a person... he believes Germany was doing a good thing and doesn't in general like jews, seeing them as the parasites who run the central banks and promote "cultural depravity." Me? I see human nature being human nature. If you eliminate a group of people and create a vacuum, what fills that vacuum won't necessarily be any better. If you get rid of today's elites the people who fill that role would eventually end up in the same situation, because of our genetic makeup. The key is really stage yellow or greater leadership who can recognize you have to deal with each stage at their own level and give them time to evolve at their own pace, assuming they don't try to take over the world (think China)

Gotta say I love the discussion in this particular thread... great retorts by both sides. What leftists miss is that capitalism itself fuels the technological innovation that allows their "utopia" to be possible, otherwise evolution and natural selection both prevent such utopias from occuring. Nature doesn't care about the stage green morality (woke leftists) any more than stage blue values (religious right) and both are just another philosophy that groups of people try to force feed on everyone else. People strive for more because of the reward at the end of the journey. If you take that reward and redistribute it to people who literally did nothing to participate in the system other than consume, there's no reason or incentive for people to strive for big achievements. Natural selection and evolution are amoral, and morality is a human construct, in my opinion.

I've had it my entire adult life. I tune it out so it doesn't really bother me. For me it's not really a bother, not like the eye floaters are at least... but the more the mind dwells on something the more those connections form in the brain so I practice radical acceptance of what I can't change as much as possible.

Rotating shifts with an inconsistent bedtime takes a huge toll. I'm experimenting with working all nights with a fixed bedtime between 4:30 and 6:30 AM... I've made it so by closing 2 doors I can make my place pitch black any time of day. I realize that's not really feasible when you have a wife and 2 kids, but it amazes me how many people where I work who rotate shifts tell me they simply get by with 3-4 hours a sleep a night. That takes years off one's life potentially... messes up the nervous system in a big way. It stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and induces a state of chronic, low level stress in the body. There's a reason divorce rates are so high where I work... when the body is stressed in that manner it affects the personality.

What is enlightenment anyways? Is it just an intense release of oxytocin in the brain? Is there really anything to "reach" since once you hit that state the ego would not exist. What I never hear talked about enough on this forums by Leo is reincarnation, whether we are actually incarnating here to "learn lessons" and "raise our capacity for true love" or "raise our frequency" if you look at personal growth from David Hawkin's scale of consciousness. Surely some here have read Michael Newton's books (Journey of Souls)... is that our reality... where we incarnate here as souls in this reality which is more akin to a virtual reality video game, that we come here because oneness is boring? If so, it's pointless to reach enlightenment because the Source will just create new souls, new realities in which to visit anyways. In fact he says they do in his second book. If we don't have souls and are just animals then there's no point in any of this work... life out your life as your DNA would have you do. I think a lot of us are stuck in analysis paralysis. Me? I enjoy figuring out how everything works. I want a user's manual for everything because what fun is there in being spontaneous?

Authors such as David Hawkins and others I've read have suggested that people can have food allergies, but they don't manifest unless a person is in a stressed/sympathetic dominant body state, from being stressed, lonely, and anxious. A lot of times this stress feels so normal to people they don't even realize they have it. It's a state of tension they carry with themselves constantly. David Hawkins in his books told of how he cancelled his belief system in having an "allergy" to foods or thinking they were bad for him, and was able to resume eating foods he hadn't eaten for years. I believe it was his book "Healing and Recovery" but it might have also been "Letting Go" There are people with genuine allergies that will end up in a hospital if they end up consuming the item, such as with peanuts and latex, but that's far different than just feeling crappy after eating something. Those type of "allergies" are more a result of being overly stressed out, in my opinion... so stressed out it becomes your default state of being. I can speak from experience. It also comes from analysis paralysis, and using Dr. Google to research "too much" about nutrition and health. Overthinking, overanalyzing, micromanaging. All that is stressful. All that is ego. I'm guilty of all this crap. LOL

Reading this study had me think about the sheer amount of microplastics we must breathe in from our clothing every day, how much of it ends up in the environment as laundry lint... there's no avoiding it. Almost all fabrics contain synthetic fibers of some sort. At some point bacteria will evolve to digest plastic I bet. Those blue masks we had to wear during covid would go through the laundry and come out looking flawless. In any case I told my father to get rid of his plastic cutting board, and I stopped microwaving and cooking food in plastic containers.... because it's an easy change to make. No biggie. They've always been really bad at recycling where I live now. They were better where I used to live 20 years ago than they are where I live now... one of the benefits blues bring to the table.

Going by polyvegal theory I'd say we both have an underactivated ventral vagal response. Like it or not the best way to cultivate that part of the nervous system is through playful socialization. It's why people who don't have a lot of friends will often get a pet. If a person is lacking the ability be playfully social with others, they will tend to always be at a disadvantage in this regard. This is a skill that you can develop, which I'm trying to do by watching content like "chrisma on command" on youtube. It's just important given our biology so I'm forcing the issue. That back and forth banter that Schizophonia and Arabia did as an example... good for the nervous system. That's how normies act, and a lot of Autists and introverts and people with anxiety disorders are not good at it. A lot of men who have problems keeping women are too serious, not playful, they lack a personality. Other then that I'd say keep a fixed healthy sleep schedule and unwind when you are not working, meaning don't spend every waking moment in front of a screen when you are off work. Avoid any content that is negative in nature, anger provoking such as world news/ world events or anything "black pill" related. Practice sitting in a room doing nothing. It's a great nervous system release. If you actually do this you may notice intense feelings come to the surface, like Leo says in his video on "meditation technique do nothing" ... need to be able to let the feelings out without resistance... be the "emotional superconductor" ... You need proper mindset. Thoughts ultimately create feelings over time. A negative mindset will lead to no progress. It just won't. I'm curious what your cholesterol level is... I have a theory that a lot of people in this state have cholesterol that is too low, simply because being stressed out all the time depletes the body's hormones which are made from cholesterol like cortisol. Low cholesterol is often seen in disease states. If you are skinny, vegan, and anxious/depressed, a low cholestrol is likely the result. I eat meat and eggs to try to keep it above 150ish, as it's tested as low as 115 mg/dl ... that low and your body can't produce steroid hormones optimally especially under stress. This webpage is one of the most comprehensive I've come across describing what you mention. http://www.holistichelp.net/dysautonomia-autonomic-nervous-system-dysfunction.html You should also get your testosterone levels tested. If you do, I'd love to hear the results. Low testosterone levels in men might be an issue. I've fixed my nervous system to the point where I can exercise and weight train to failure again. Weight training, especially to failure, used to quickly bring up nervous system fatigue in me. It's a gradual process to fix chronic stress states.

Top favorites: Apples. I try to eat new varieties I come across that are highly rated on the apple rankings website, though my favorites that are widely available are Cosmic Crisp and Honeycrisp. I've had SweetTango and they are one of the best out there. I got some SugarBee right now from Aldi and they really do taste like honey... quite crisp, thin skinned, and delicious. Grapefruit, but a specific variety that I don't know the name of... like oranges, not all grapefruit are created equal. I used to hate grapefruit, but I enjoyed eating warheads. I forced myself to eat them and came to absolutely love them. Oranges of course Pineapple Frozen Broccoli, Cauliflower, Peas, just because they are healthy and low calorie. It should be noted that produce, much like almost everything we eat, is nothing like the produce we evolved eating. Through selective breeding and genetic engineering today's fruits and vegetables are much sweeter and more appealing to the palette than anything our ancestors had. Many didn't even exist. In fact, the only that still resemble their original form are berries like raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. Another interesting fact... without genetic engineering the banana we currently enjoy (cavendish) will eventually not be able to be used for mass production due to a disease spreading around. It replaced a variety called the Gros Michael that our grandparents got to enjoy that itself got decimated, that tastes similar to what we know of as "artificial banana flavoring" which was actually developed around the Gros Michael banana. Eventually, genetic engineering will create some marvelous produce, I'd imagine. I'm all for it. It's our job as homo sapiens to hijack this simulation and play God, to fix the errors in evolution. To future great tasting GMO food.

Indeed... you have to deal with each stage at their own level, something greens don't understand. If they are not careful, they are going to cause the decay of the west. Overprinting of money by central banks (quantitative easing, a term you should become familiar with as it's the new norm) combined with limitless forced immigration into virtually every developed nation. Voting for either of these parties is no longer an option for me to be honest, as a citizen of the US. They are both terribly off base with their policy. Danioover9000 has a point... there's such thing as "too much freedom" given our genetic makeup. We need checks and balances, more of them, for all "sides" because any monolithic entity that becomes large enough then becomes a threat to the system, whether it's a religion, political party, cultural movement, nation, corporation, government, person with high net worth who then buys influence, or whatever. My big fear is the democrats think that if they just have unlimited power, everything will be better in the US. That is dangerous thinking, and no it won't! Some of their policies are truly inept.

Anyone think these drugs were actually criminalized because they wanted people to be assimilated into the hamster wheel of wage slavery? Taking drugs that make you outcome independent probably doesn't fit well with that.... to see the futility of working 60 hours a week to barely be able to afford rent with the price of housing these days. It's illegal in my state but everyone who wants it uses it anyways. Nobody cares. It's like speed limit laws... they are more suggestions than laws.

The open focus technique from the book Open Focus Brain helped me most here. We tend to use narrow objective focus to bury and distract ourselves from negative emotions. Adjusting attention style to cultivate an alpha brainwave state helps purge those emotions and make me aware of when my emotions are fueled from thought stories since thoughts and emotions feed off each other.

What is the purpose of life? Who's to say who's thinking is "right" or not... it's all open to interpretation and there are many levels of truths. The behavior of human beings is in my opinion mostly genetic programming/destiny. Our egos are computer programs shaped by DNA and culture. It's all quite impersonal in the end, but we are all programmed to make it personal.