Haumea2018

I think these two quotes juxtaposed pretty much speak for themselves.

"The world owes me"/"everything should be free" is something I see a lot of among immature young people. So this commenter doesn't surprise me. Usually people grow out of it by their thirties. It's not even worth addressing seriously. When you're young you believe a ton load of bullshit. It's very easy to put that under the high-flown rubric of "spiritual beliefs" because that makes it unimpeachable and non-falsifiable. But spirituality isn't about any specific beliefs; in fact, it's about no beliefs at all. You had a balanced answer that "Don't forget that awakening ain't development, and development ain't awakening. " And this is true. As I said above, you still have to do the work of integrating your awakening. Since I've had the opportunity to experience the process firsthand, let me reiterate that it is a lot easier to do the work after awakening. RASA definitely gets you to that point, the success rate is extremely high for those who stick with it. The bottom line is that it's hella hard to awaken without shaktipat. Long and hard. There's plenty of work leftover to integrate. Years even. Getting to awakening is huge, though.

I just want to point out to skeptics that these transmissions aren't anything new. You can research "shaktipat" if you want. There's a long-standing tradition of shaktipat masters giving transmissions to students. It's part of the Kashmir Shaivism tradition. So there is no spiritual law that you must go it completely alone. A master's grace isn't a new concept. They don't need to do the first one for free if they've established a sufficient reputation and track record of effectiveness. They have enough people who are coming to them without having to do freebies to convince the skeptics. They have enough word-of-mouth referrals. It's like anything else. Credibility is established through happy customers. You don't need to prove you're for real to every single new potential customer. It's all about results. They've been doing it for years now.

Best money ever spent. I mean, seriously, I would have spent 10x that much easily. Wouldn't have gotten out of the 500s in this lifetime otherwise. You still have to work to integrate it, but it's easier to do the work without an I-thought.

He also occasionally holds group transmissions which are $25 a pop. Maybe not as powerful as one-on-one, but still pretty powerful.

Cue Barney from "How I Met Your Mother": wintruition.

Obviously I'm not in your head, but on the surface of it it seems as if the first quote is sort of an existential crisis. Is that over now? That's the main issue here.

Sounds like a depersonalization episode which you sometimes get from smoking pot. I would highly recommend...not smoking anymore pot and thinking less, doing more. People who are prone to existential rumination should not smoke pot period.

This isn't something you treat on your own, both for safety and efficacy reasons. I think if she wants to go that route, it's probably Mexico or elsewhere like that. e.g. https://genesisibogainecenter.com/ckbr-12-for-parkinsons/ (I provide the link without endorsement. There's just little solid information as it's an experimental application of ibogaine right now.)

I've taken strong psychedelics, successfully. When I mean "successfully" I mean as far as the outcome/aftermath, not necessarily all pleasant trips. (In fact, none were pleasant.) So I'm speaking from experience. What kind of expertise would satisfy you? More expertise than someone who hasn't done them, certainly. I also know how incautious a lot of people are when it comes to this stuff. I've talked to people who've had bad outcomes because of it, similar to Arkandeus. As far as I know, nobody on this forum is an "expert" if by that you mean a medical researcher. I have friends who are shamanic providers now as well. There's a lot of benefit to be had through ayuhuasca and iboga, e.g., but you totally have to be an adult when it comes to this stuff. These are not toys.

Hood Mysticism Scale. Interesting. Thanks for posting that.

This is why I always warn people. Don't be stupid with this stuff. Do it under qualified supervision.

Psychological freedom is just lack of resistance to whatever arises. If you feel sad, you feel sad. If you feel anger, you feel anger. The difference is you're not going "I should be feeling something else right now." The reason people think these things are a problem is because they think they're only supposed to feel positive emotions. To some, that's happiness, enlightenment, bliss, whatever. That's the biggest load of crap about spirituality or enlightenment out there. The problem isn't the negative emotions. The problem is fear of feeling negative emotions. Fear, suppression, denial, distortion, overcompensation, etc. What keeps a depression going isn't sadness, it's an inability to feel sadness, numbing yourself and feeling nothing, e.g.

I think some psychedelics probably do mess with your aura. Some people in the 60s and 70s definitely had one too many hits of LSD. Chronic (pun intended) pot smokers probably do mess up their aura. It's all about what you do, how much of it, how often, under whose guidance, under whose aftercare, etc. A medicine can turn into a poison very easily. And there are a lot of reckless fools out there, I've met some of them.

It's hard to discuss this in the abstract. I don't know you or what's missing in your life. A sense of meaninglessness can come from more basic deficiencies in your life. I went through a period like that in my early 20s and in retrospect it had nothing to do with existential bullshit, it was more developmental/psychological. I think if you lay all this BS aside, look critically at yourself and see what you're neglecting as far as your self-development, you can figure out how to cure it.

Look, this idea that equates enlightenment to the renunciation of worldly desires is just wrong. 100% wrong. It is much more subtle than that. People on this forum, for some reason, have come to associate enlightenment with passivity, resignation and indifference to the world. Enlightenment is the natural state. What does that mean? Does it mean you don't care if you live or die? No. It's just that your self-concept is unattached to survival concerns. This doesn't mean you have no spontaneously occurring survival concerns. If a bus is coming at you, you're going to move out of the way. This is hard for people to get, because they believe enlightenment is something otherworldly or extraordinary. In reality, it's the flowering of ordinary. All kinds of impulses run through you, including survival impulses. Nature taking its course includes self-preservation instincts. The simplest way to put it is, enlightenment is the absence of resistance to what IS (i.e. everything that naturally arises.)

Green: pretend you like soy and Fleet Foxes to appear less threatening. Green pickup has been around since the 1970s. See "Alan Alda" and the sensitive male. It's just more pervasive now.

Sounds about right. Just overcome the insecurity.

OK, guys, time for real talk. This is not about you being more self-actualized. You just need to pick better quality men. They sound like, well, not to be too judgmental, but...losers. This would be a problem for you regardless of spiritual interest or inclination. You have to believe you deserve better and pick appropriately. These things are not a sudden surprise. We just ignore all warning signs because we want to be with someone.

Precisely. Learning to enjoy the process is super-helpful and if you can't learn to enjoy it, at least learn to tolerate it. But believe me when I say that you can overcome neurosis. It's mostly about being more mature and/or sufficiently self-reliant.

No problem. It took me a long time to realize these things. Hopefully you can apply them much earlier than I did and live a better life.

If you want to see fractals, just look at a tree. They are everywhere in nature, just open your eyes. No need to trip balls. The universe has a fractal shape.

It sounds like you're already on your way to overcoming your trust issues. If you realize that the devil is just your own stuff projected externally, you start to overcome it. Maybe some people are trustworthy and some aren't. The only way you know is by slowly building trust. You don't have to fully trust someone or fully distrust them from the get-go. You can assume someone deserves some minimal trust and if they violate it, it's of little cost to you. And if they don't, maybe you can increase your trust in them. And so on. In other words, it's not all or nothing. Maybe it's like slowly filling a cup, a gradual process. People tend to go to the extremes of all or nothing. This is rarely wise.

OK, I'm going to teach you guys something here. Forget about this enlightenment crap for a second. Think of your life as an archetypal story. What type of story do you want your life to be? A tragedy? A comedy (i.e. happy ending?) In order for it to be a comedy as opposed to a tragedy, you need to let of go of stuff that is holding you back and embrace stuff that moves you forward. Embrace positive change. It can be painful to give up stuff that is holding you back, even though it's holding...you...back. 'Cause the ego just wants to keep the status quo, it doesn't give a crap if you're happy or not. If you can be honest with yourself and figure out what crap you need to give up and what positive things you need to embrace, your depression will let go. Depression is just insufficient responsibility. Maybe you need to embrace sufficient responsibility for something. Start small, doable. Maybe take responsibility for yourself. What do you evade now? Maybe it is as small as cleaning your damn room as per JBP. Maybe it's more advanced. Whatever it is, do it. Then figure out what habits hold you back. Maybe give up one of them to begin with. Start with baby steps. Don't worry about the cheese, worry about the next step in the maze. Be consistent. If you're capable of this, you'll be more happy and successful in a year.

Well...I sorta dig systems biology these days, I think it's the future. But it may not be for you. Just do whatever you're into and help the field evolve into Yellow.