Identity

Its like my life is a pool of water and spiritual practice is ink drops being dropped into that pool. the ink in my case feels like its not spreading out easily over the whole pool, colering it evenly, but instead spreads slowly, like the water is cold and not letting it spread easily. Dropping more ink, spiritual practice, in it will definitely work. But perhaps heating up the water could make it go more smoothly. Heating up the water being synomous for expression, throath chakra, being myself. I feel like I am going through big changes in state on a day to day basis. Somethimes being in self-trancended type states, and somethimes completely lost in ignorance.

I have grown quite a bit of the last years. One thing that has been hard for me for during the process is letting my growth penetrate my “external world”. I find it easier to do the growing by myself, this in a sense comes easier to me. But then expressing what I’ve learned, being who I have become in my everyday life, is challenging to me. This is the core pillar of why I have been having troubles with my throath chakra. So examples of this are: - being around the same people, not cutting others out of my life and letting my social circle evolve with me - doing the same activities, things like going out, discussions, etc. And in general, just being in the state of being when I am alone. Just being aware, speaking of a state of self-awareness, moving from it. I feel this need to pretend and please others. Make them like me. Not rock the boat too much. At times I can see that I am them, but only in flashes. I am afraid very little of the way my life is now will remain if I fully open up. My life will first have to fall apart.

I like him as well! ?

Not to forget imagination ?

Interlinking things like synchronicities, law of attraction, infinite inteligence, vision, miracles, mind creating reality, self-fulfilling prophesies, etc.

There seems to be this paradox in personal development between on the one hand needing decipline and pushing yourself to grow. The pain and suffering you have to endure and look for. Putting yourself outside you comfort zone and all this. And on the other hand there is this whole idea of that you should flow with life. Accept yourself. Dont be neurotic and hard on yourself. Don’t guilt yourself into things. What do you think about this, is it a balance? Do they seem like opposites but actually aren’t? I personaly struggle with finding the right path with this. Would love to hear your perspective.

Yeah, this. You can’t flow yourself out of a rut into a flowstate most of the time. Practicaly, did more advanced people flow their way to where they are? Or did it take some years of pushing themselves to be able to say that. Just like you should not search for enlightenment. But if you dont start with that, you aint gettin enlightened.

No one else feels like they are a werewolf at full moon? ?

Hee, I was wondering how others experience the connection between making changes, growing, doing personal development, and their body changing. For me it feels like the two are very much connected. During psychedelic trips and other peak experiences my body feels like its morphing. I move my body in crazy ways, bones cracking and all. My posture seems to adjust itself to the state of consciousness I am in. for the last year or so my back had been hurting, which doesnt really seem to go away. Other wierd pains and stuff also come and go. Things like hips and legs hurting after sexual breakthroughs and more. So far the chakra model has had the most explenatory power for me. I am curious about the experiences and perspectives of others on this connection ?

Hmm kids seem to have this authentic curiousity about things. They don’t have to oush themselves, they just follow their desire to learn. That being said, kids also can’t sustain themselves and need a lot of external guidence. They couldn’t survive by themselves. What do you mean work it out in cycles? Like, pushing yourself until you get to a “new level” and than flow from there? Hmm, I feel like I am quite blessed with the things I am working at atm. I can decide a lot of stuff by myself and create what I want. However, if I don’t push myself a bit, I would just fall back into watching bullshit on youtube and other unconscious stuff. There are a lot of things that are pulling me that, if I dont push it away, I get sucked back into. What if you want to do all the unconscious bullshit? I want to watch some Netflix with a bowl of ice cream ? Yeah, this makes a lot of sense, thats kind of what I try to do now. I also try to keep looking at the big picture to not think that Im either totaly winning or totaly failing. Sounds interesting, but I don’t think its something I am going to do tbh. Feels to scary or too counter-intuitive ?

Nice to hear your visions ? here is mine. I have decided to become a conscious leader. My life purpose is centerer around growth. First and foremost my own embodiment through both spiritual work and more traditional personal development. From here inspire and help others to create true changes in their lives. For the upcoming years I will do this by starting my own training/coaching company, where I combine psychology, personal development and business to develop people within organisational settings. Later this might evolve into more spirituality centered stuff, but I need to work on myself a lot before I get to that. Overal, I want to get the most out of life. Really get to fundamentaly understand reality and myself. Also, being a creator will be a core pillar.

I just had this insight whilst watching Leo’s newest video on his blog. I’m developing a workshop around vision, it’s importance and how to create one. it just hit me that the essence of vision is about what you think is possible in your life. Most people simply have no idea whatsoever about what is possible in life. They literally can’t see anything beyond what the people around them are doing, 9-5, a family and some partying and netflix. This creates a self-fulfilling prophesy effect. How can you persue anything if you have no idea that its possible? Think about it, you litaraly don’t know any better. You literaly have no idea how profound life can get. This is also one of the main pillars of value I think Leo creates with his contend. He gives you the foresight about what is possible. Wait a minute, its possible to understand reality at its core? Its possible to experience infinite love? Its possible to be so fulfilled in life that you cry often about the beauty of it? Shiiiiit, I better get to work ? what do you think is possible? Whats your highest vision for yourself?

@Jed Vassallo Than why don’t you wake up? ?

Hee, I was pulled towards this thread because I feel like I am skyrocketing in my growth, literaly I have had this image of a rocket launching off with increasing speed until the point it hard to handle ? Three biggest things for me are: - Vision; create a long-term direction of where you want to go. It doesn’t even need to be that specific. It’s really about setting your mind towards creating an amazingly deep life. This vision will start to create so much structural tension that you will be pulled in ways towards it that are hard to imagine. - Habits; don’t think about, ah I need to do this one thing. If only I overcome this one obstacle I will be on my way. Build solid habits from the ground up. Things like meditation, yoga, fitness, healthy eating, visualisation, reading, etc. You know the deal. These will start to snowball and add on top of eachother. - Psychedelics. Over the last two years I did around 30 psychedelic trips with psylocibin mushrooms. Not extremely high doses, but consistently every few weeks with specific intentions. This single habit I think can bring tremendous change, although it also makes the ride a bit rocky, in my experience. ?

Or she didnt get/see the message. Small chance, but could happen. Most likely indeed lack of interest.

So I watched the latest video about self-bias and the documentary about the fyre festival from the blog. This got me wondering, how do we get away with so much deception? Especially on an individual level, on a micro, day-to-day basis. On a larger scale, like deceiving ourselves as a country against another country, or race against another, I can see how we can reinforce it. Also how it creates friction with the outside group. But how come this doesn’t lead to disaster on an individual basis every day? I go around, setting double standarts left and right. I allow myself to double park, but others not. I cut myself slack when not cleaning the kitchen, but not the other roommates. I allow myself to not be kind but not others. Etc, etc. How come we are still able to retain these relatively cohesive and social groups? I mean, everyone is mainly preocupied with his/her own survival, and it is relatively easy to spot these self-biases in others. How come we don’t point out the bullshit in others all the time? Is it because we are so asleep that we don’t see it? Do we accept it in others because deep down we know we do the same? Whats going on here?

@Bill W Interesting, so pretty much you think all these small actions compound and than show up as bigger, more major problems in our lives?

Hmm, I think my question was misunderstood for the most part, or I misunderstand the answers. My question wasn’t so much, how do we manage to survive. My quesion is, how come we aren’t engaged in fights and debates all the time? If I go trumping around like a devil in my social circle. I am constantly setting double standarts. For example: - When I need something, I expect others to be there. When they need something Im not. - When someone else does something wrong, I get mad. When I do something wrong I justify it. - I treat others like shit, but expect them to treat me well. - I put my needs above theirs. How are we all tolerating this from eachother? Why are the people around me not constantly saying to me; wtf, stop acting so selfish! Or are we setting less of these double standarts in our close circles, because our sense of identity includes these people?

I can top that ?, shared it with like 10 people, maybe more. Responses have been ignoring, saying they don’t like it, saying they kinda like it, but never following up. So yeah, kinda stopped with it.

This interesting opportunity has presented itself to me. At my university there is about to start a small research on psychedelics, and I have the chance to participate. At first, I was very excited. However, now I have gotten more information about it I am not sure whether it's a good move. Really, what bothers me, is the lack of information. The procedure is quite straightforward. I first undergo some medical and psychological tests (a few hours). On a different day the trip will take place, under controlled circumstances with medical and psychological professional support (few hours in total). A few days afterwards, some short written tests are done determining my well-being. This is all nice and good, and in addition I would get payed 120 euros. However, for the sake of minimalizing the effects of expectations, they do not reveal what specific substance will be used. Also, you don't know the dosage. Here is what they say about the substance: GH001 is a potent, fast-acting and short-lasting psychedelic substance of the tryptamine class producing alterations of consciousness and perception (so called “psychedelic effects”). The active substance in GH001 has been used outside the medical context for decades in recreational or self-exploratory settings. The aim of the present study is to explore the safety, tolerability, and the cognitive and psychedelic effects of different doses of GH001 in healthy subjects. Each subject will receive a single dose of GH001, administered via inhalation after vaporization. Up to 7 dose levels, ranging from doses expected to cause mild psychedelic effects to doses expected to cause strong psychedelic effects, will be tested. Each dose level will be given to a group of 4 participants. The study will start with a group that receives the lowest dose level. A higher dose level will only be given when the prior dose level is considered to be safe. The dosages that will be investigated with GH001 are based on dosages reported for recreational use of the active substance of GH001. However, participants will not be informed about the actual dose level they receive to avoid expectation effects. For the same reason, subjects will not be informed about the actual active substance in GH001. Dose information and information about the actual active substance can be provided to participants after the study has been completed. Related psychedelic substances such as LSD, psilocybin or dimethyltryptamine have been administered in contemporary research settings in healthy and patient populations with a low risk of adverse reactions, however GH001 differs from them in terms of nature, time to onset, intensity and duration of the psychedelic effects, and it may have a different side effect profile. You will be administered a single dose of GH001 via inhalation after vaporization. The present study is the first clinical study to determine the safety, tolerability, the psychedelic and cognitive effects of different doses of GH001 in a controlled environment. That is why the information regarding possible side effects below is based on available data from the prior recreational use of the active substance of GH001. The dosages that will be investigated with GH001 are based on dosages reported for recreational use of the active substance of GH001 and are expected to provide anything from a light psychedelic experience to a full peak experience. The type and intensity of symptoms can vary significantly between different people. GH001 may influence your feelings (euphoria, joy but also fear and panic) and perception. During the experience, GH001 may also cause visual and auditory hallucinations, a distortion of time and space and alter the perception of your own body. A peak experience can consist of spiritual, mystical experiences such as feeling one with the universe and a sense of losing self-control or ego dissolution. The psychedelic effects of the doses used in the current study are expected to startimmediately after inhalation with peak effects within 1 - 15 minutes, overall duration of effects of about 30 minutes and some after effects for about 1 hour. Anxiety and/or nausea are common at the onset of the experience and trembling and dilated pupils may occur. At doses that cause a peak experience short term unresponsiveness or unconsciousness are common. After higher doses, the ability to form memories of the altered state of consciousness may be affected. Some users of the active substance of GH001 from recreational use have reported psychological difficulties, including anxiety, sleep disturbance, and resurfacing of some of the acute effects, which can last for several weeks after the experience. In recreational use of the active substance, nausea, vomiting, tinnitus, blurred vision, high blood pressure, increased heart rate (pulse), coughing, and difficulty breathing have been observed. Further, there are very few reports of fatalities where the active substance of GH001 was administered in unknown doses of unknown quality in combination with other potentiating psychoactive drugs in an uncontrolled environment. That is why this study has a number of precautions taken to minimize the risk for you. These precautions include administration of a qualified study drug, following strict procedures around dosing and providing higher doses only once lower doses have been shown safe, and only in the dose range which has been previously described in the recreational use of the active substance of GH001. Importantly, no additional medication or other psychoactive drugs will be allowed, and GH001 will only be administered in a supervised setting with presence of a medical doctor. At this point, I am leaning towards not participating. Although it's a cool opportunity, and I would like to contribute to the research on psychedelics, the fact that I don't know what substance it is, and what dosage I will get, puts me off. Let me know what you think, and whether you know what substance they are describing!

Hmm I feel what you are saying. I just think that this issue of self is the core from which all other problems and dynamics emerge. For me these different angels definately help to deepen my understanding. However, what gets repetative for me is criticizing things like religion, science, public figures, etc. In my perception these often come by in shallow ways which don’t help that much. If critizing some of these domains, I would rather see an indepth analysis on one topic. Like for example going into depth on science, would love that. When just scim criticizing, I just take over the criticism without the deep understanding Leo has behind them.

Thank you. I decided not to participate.

Oh, to add to that, my experience so far with psychedelics is around 30 trips with psilocybin truffels. All pretty low doses (15 grams max).

@Leo Gura Yeah I get that, just thought you were oversimplifying the situation.