Bluebird

@Nervtine In my experience, you need to transmute the emotion from a fear-based emotion (grief/apathy/anger) to a love based one (acceptance/love/peace). Ultimately even these negative situations are literally made of universal love, which is a more esoteric Truth that I find extremely helpful. The universe is giving you what you need so that you can surrender to the repeating situation and transform it into one where you feel love. For example, can you feel love that these people are leaving you. Love for them and yourself at the same time. The reason you feel negatively about it is your beliefs, and those are attached to emotions. Sit with emotions for as long as you can when they arise and watch them SLOWLY transform into lighter ones. Then really scrutinise your beliefs about these situations, inquire into their truth. For me, Letting Go by David Hawkings and Loving What Is by Byron Katie are two must read books for this.

@ryanvoey Seems so arbitrary, why 35? Why not 40? Is it a gradual solidifying or does it just happen all of a sudden? If it's gradual can it be reversed, loosened, slowed? What gets solidified? Do you know people after 35 who have changed an aspect of themselves? I would inquire more into the truth of this rather than take it on as a limiting belief.

This has almost nothing to do with Spiral Dynamics. Not everything is related to the spiral. There is psychological baggage here that needs to be processed. I recommend reading through the books on Leo's Book List in the Emotional Mastery section. It seems to me like you've got more pressing issues than just being Stage Yellow or not. Even if you were to move up the spiral you will still be carrying all this emotional trauma from the past. You've seen the pattern, now you need to spend some time to really understand it at its core. If you understand deeply enough why people seem to be disappearing from your life, not there for you, etc. then your experience of reality will start to change. Good luck and all the best, take some time to be with your emotions rather than worrying about conceptually moving up some arbitrary spiral.

@Joseph Maynor Very easy to momentarily come out of no-mind/being and quickly project something onto it, and then return to being. But I feel like this is how most non-dual theory is developed.

@7thLetter I think you may be confusing observation with projection. It is a very delicate and confusing balance and I struggle to navigate it. In my experience, I just assume I'm projecting if there is any doubt. But basically, if you have any judgement around something, or if there is any emotional trigger or attachment then you are projecting. If you can say a particular PUA is acting in a slightly narcissistic way and it might backfire on him in the long run that's fine. It's when you judge someone for being a selfish little narcissist and get reactive, judgemental, or emotional about it that you can be certain it's a shadow projection. Based on some psychedelic trips I've had, I'm pretty sure the statement it's all a reflection of you is pretty damn accurate on so many levels. On a very deep level, the world manifests itself in such a way as to take on the forms of your fears or projections. It's super hard to explain and almost not worth it, it's something to be experienced. But there are definitely degrees of projection, you probably don't project as heavily onto a leaf as a gun, or as heavily onto a random uber driver as a police officer that is pulling you over. Yes, this seems very true to me. I was judgmental of people, but mainly myself for a long time. In a certain sense, you are projecting the skin colour difference. Consider that you could genuinely not notice the different skin colours of people, the only reason you notice is because your attention is directed towards the meaning behind the difference (maybe, idk?). Consider that if you really grounded yourself in actuality like as close to totally as possible, the idea of separate skin colour wouldn't even make sense. The projection breaks down. It's super hard to become aware of subtle projections, which is where psychedelic trips with other sober individuals can be super amazing for becoming aware of projections. But then again, I could be talking complete BS

A good practice is to see how you are really the culprit of the projected traits. It's definitely a psychologically healthy thing to do in my experience. You can either become more grounded in actuality and the projections do drop away (ground-up), but I also believe it's a good practice to tackle the projections themselves (top-down). You do this by inquiring into the truth of the belief, and then subsequently seeing if you are actually the selfish/wasteful/greedy one. For example let's take: "Most business people are selfish" Then see if you are selfish (you are) and in what ways. Make a massive list, for example (let me trigger you for a second). 1. I judge business people for being selfish to feel better than them 2. I believe my beliefs are more correct than their beliefs 3. (Me) I give advice online to make myself feel wiser and smarter than I really am

Many people go to the 10 day retreats with no training or former practice at all. It'll be intense either way, but the first 3 days are the hardest and at the retreats, you have no possible distractions and the energy there is quite peaceful. Your ego is definitely making a big deal out of it, but I still think that mini-retreats are awesome and I want to do more myself

Everyone is a mirror of you. Some people we let in closer, who we project more heavily on, seem to mirror us more intensely. In this sense, anyone and everyone (everything) already is your twin flame. I'm not sure about the actual validity of the idea though, and not sure how you would even confirm this in direct experience.

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat." - Shakespeare Go with the tide, then act on the flood. There is a moment of action required, but too much mindless swimming will lead to fighting the current.

You would certainly think so. But when you experience peak states of consciousness, it is very much interpreted as infinite love or bliss. What it actually is, well, it is what it is. But love, bliss, ecstasy, are all good human labels for "it". My suspicion is that it does go deeper than the experience of love though.

@Tistepiste I like this idea a lot. A beautifully designed, and integral meditation app. Not just guided meditations. A timer, tracker, and reminder. Guidance, progress plotter (stages of meditation), mini-advice on dealing with hindrances as they arise, etc. I'm a developer myself and have launched some apps. If you're interested in working with someone on this feel free to PM me as I would love to hear more about this and potentially work with you on it. The trick will be to not let the scope get out of hand I think, figure out a specific issue that needs to be solved first that isn't on the market and then getting that sorted super well. Then from there, expand!

Figured it would be good to compile a thread of what people have found to be their most effective spiritual practices. Of course, psychedelics could be a part, but I had more in mind ongoing or daily practices. I guess the more details the better. Timeframes, specific techniques, how long it took to see results, at what point on the path it became effective etc. Personally, I've been finding body awareness very effective recently, as it can be a sustained practice that grounds you in reality and quiets monkey mind. Would love to hear from people who are further along the path though.

@TheAvatarState Holy shit man, you basically described my experience exactly. @Wisebaxter Don't do it man. Took 600ug of LSD one night because I was chasing that sweet ego death, and I got it. But boy oh boy did it get messy. Destroyed my apartment and got handcuffed by the police after breaking into an off duty police officers house. This was literally my worst fears manifesting, the police. It'll help you purge for sure, but trust me, there are easier ways. The after-effects of that trip have been manifesting for 5 months, I'm still letting go of the emotions that begun to flood forth on that trip. On that trip I wasn't sure what the fuck was real. The ego-death was not smooth at all, have taken 5-MeO in a ceremony and it was beautiful. Will be doing it again for sure, high dose of acid, maybe but I'd approach it with more caution than anything I've ever done before in my life. Like mars landing level of caution. You've been warned. If you have to do it, you have to do it. But have a trip sitter without question.

@kieranperez Sounds like you're really growing man. Just the fact that you were willing to explore programming for a week is a great sign that you're starting to try and look after yourself. Definitely, think it would be good to do whatever you can to take care of your survival needs. Just get a job, save a bit, heal your psychology a bit and then come back. Nonduality isn't going anywhere, literally. Take all the time you need, no hurry man. Good luck, maybe use the forum a lot less. Not so much intake, but ask your own questions when you feel the need to talk to someone.

If it triggers an emotional response then there is likely a subconscious emotional pattern here that will keep being triggered until addressed. Feeling into the emotion that arises fully until it dissipates is the best solution. Then these things genuinely don't bother you can passing a shit test like that could become effortless. Just do it each time you feel the feeling arise. If it doesn't bother you, then yeah, just talk to more girls.

Be gentle with yourself. No rush, the more you do it the easier it becomes because emotional pulls dissipate.

Watch as the desire arises, as a sensation (feeling-emotion) in your body and stay with it as you surrender it.

Are they a factor? No doubt. Are they "by far the biggest factor"? That's really up to you, but it's just a limiting belief, and in even then how you look is only partially related to your genes. Dress, how you speak, carry yourself, energy, wit, no fucks given, etc. are all part of this "attractiveness" thing.

No doubt. Leo's content is only useful to the degree that you do the work and bring it into your own reality. The videos are for sure a distraction to me at this point, yet I continue to watch them since I'm addicted to learning new information. Just do the work, don't worry about others.

Just create some integration actions for each stage and start working on the lower red and blue stages. Maybe pick up or marital arts or self discipline or business or whatever it is. Start sorting out your life. Don't even worry too much about the spiral. It isn't helpful for everything. Just start doing the work in areas you have neglected. For me at the moment that is relationships.

If you are not at a high level on the spiral in any aspect of life, such as relationships (pickup), then you need to move up the spiral. Each stage has a lesson, by rejecting the stage you will not get the lesson. Having not gotten the lessons you will be very toxic at high levels in that area. You are much better off indulging in the stage fully, whilst being aware of the fact that there are limits and a higher stage to it. Turquoise/Yellow thinking is fine, it's helped you see how underdeveloped other areas of your life are. Now get some stage red and embody it in your actions.

@Aquarius Sounds like you could be projecting your Animus onto these men. Can you be certain these are intelligent, serious, dedicated men or is it more likely that this is just a projection? You'll be served 100x over by reclaiming your Animus projections and then seeing the men truly for who they are (maybe just a chill dude with no ambition working in a grocery store, all good). But I could be wrong.

In terms of inner psychological work, 80% of the trip is in the preparation. You need to be doing all the work beforehand, understand the mechanisms, see it in your sober state, discover what your issues are. Read aboyt them. Then when you trip everything will be 100x more powerful, but still built off the sober state. Of course, sometimes psychedelics take you somewhere you never would have gone when sober. But that's won't happen every single time ina major way necessarily.

Seems pretty hard-wired in. How would you survive without first developing an ego? It would be nearly impossible.

@EternalForest Teenagers are likely just the most emotionally volatile. Adults then repress this when they realise it no longer works. Teenagers have not yet fixed down their identity and so explore everything to see what fits. Eventually they git sick of this and normally end up picking one that kinda works for them. This is you now, that's your identity. Emotional development is not volatility, nor is it repression or escapism. Most teenagers also have not experienced that much relative to middle-aged individuals, so there is less perspective. It's quite natural to become more emotionally balanced (and also repressed) as aging occurs.