Consilience

You know it intellectually, not experientially. Just like you know the surface of the moon intellectually, not experientially.

@the-philogynist Maybe save your opinion until after having had sex?

Of all the thought stories to be lost in ?

@the-philogynist I encourage you to be open to the possibility that sex requires practice to master, and there are skills within sex by which you practice achieving mastery.

Yes! Great analogy. Im sorry @the-philogynist I wasnt trying to insult your intelligence.

For me it seems to... the lighter my mind’s become (less thoughts, less judgements, more self acceptance and self love, more gratitude, more joy, etc.) the less food I want to eat... my bodyfat has gone down and I dont feel as hungry. It’s like I naturally feel the need to fast. This change has been completely involuntary though but it feels like as my baseline consciousness changes, it has been reflected in the way my body wants to fuel itself. Also Im vegan and feel 0 need or craving for meat or diary. I feel like my body responds very well to high vegetable and high fruit diet. I also focus on protein intake too though, just non animal sources obviously.

? alright buddy. Feel free to believe that. When you try to eat a woman out and get confused why just “licking” isnt enough, dont say we didnt warn ya.

I already have. Since you’re a virgin that probably explains your beliefs on the matter. I dont say this to be mean, just as friendly constructive feedback. As you gain experience with sex, you’ll understand how sex is in fact a skill. There’s a lot more that goes into good sex than humping. But if you view sex as completely mechanical, it’ll more than likely limit your sexual abilities in the future. Anyways I agree... porn feels pointless other than to remove energy from the body and mind. It actually feels harmful sometimes.

There are techniques you can practice with sex and get better at. For example, giving oral to a woman, or a woman riding a man - there’s a skill, a finesse, a rhythm to these sexual acts that can improve over time. And after you’ve been with different partners with varying skills, you can observe the difference. Even staying with one partner, you can improve your ability to give pleasure based on feedback and thus, improve your skill. You can also get better at tuning into non-verbal cues as to what your partner enjoys. It’s an intuitive skill you can develop, being able to read what your partner enjoys in the moment without them actually having to use normal language. There are a lot of details to sex you can improve upon. This has been my experience anyways.

Uhh... This is incorrect.

The documentary “Ram Dass Going Home” deeply impacted me early on the path... it’s bittersweet to hear he’s now finally gone. Very inspiring soul and a true spiritual leader.

I will miss your mystifying posts. Farewell brotha... Unless you return, then talk to you later. Either way I've appreciated your contribution to da forum.

Okay fair point, it's an opinion. But what other schools teach about self-deception, godel's incompleteness theorem, materialism, strange loops, self-actualization, life purpose, how to use psychedelics responsibly, moralization, spiral dynamics, etc,. I just meant actualized.org covers content way beyond traditional spiritual schools, providing tools and resources not only about how to become enlightened/raise consciousness, but more generally how to live a badass and fulfilling life. So that's what I meant by "beyond anything contemporary spiritual schools have produced." I fully acknowledge though that it is a biased opinion. Leo's work resonates with me and it wont for everyone, but I think it's fair to say the man's done a great job with his business. There have been plenty of anecdotal reports of people who feel Leo's improved their lives. And so my point, part of actualized.org's content was created BECAUSE of tripping. So part of why it's been as successful as its been has been because of Leo's uses of psychedelics. We should acknowledge this.

I think in order to truly know the answer to your question, you'd have to truly know what boring is, to contemplate boredom until you understand it fully. So first what is boring? What is the existential nature of boring and why and how exactly does it arise?

@Nak Khid Have you ever tripped?

LSD and the Mind of the Universe by Christopher Bache might be something you're interested in. Very interesting book and his approach towards psychedelics is different than Leo's but hardcore nonetheless. If you're truly curious about learning more about potential novel insights discovered while tripping, I'd give this book a shot. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RGLX9NX/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 To be fair, actualized.org is a resource Leo manifested for humanity and it is leaps and bounds beyond anything contemporary spiritual schools have produced or talk about. And I have no doubt a large part of this manifestation has been the result of insights and ideas discovered while tripping.

Really like this explanation ??

He never left

@V-8 You're killing me Very fascinating posts, in very weird ways. I truly hope you're happy my friend.

@Buba wow congrats on the sobriety ? Yeah I mean at the end of the day, it is all kinda the same shit haha. But it’s beautiful shit... and it can be beautiful without drugs as Im sure you’ve seen!

Caveat: Strictly speaking, I wasn't smoking daily, however some weeks were 7/7 while other 5-6/7 so basically daily. I've known for the past 2 years that one day I'd need to seriously cut back on my weed use. However, even in the midst of this addictive behavior, I always tried my best not to judge myself and instead, I tried to get as much value out of my experiences with weed as possible. And it feels like that's exactly what I did. Weed has given me quasi psychedelic states, insights into non-duality, and insights into my own emotions and subconscious mind. It truly has been a gift from Earth and it's the reason I got into spirituality at all. My former atheistic, rationally minded self was flabbergasted at how strange it was that consciousness could be altered to such a degree, and the philosophical implications thereof. This lead me down the path towards investigating "the hard problem of consciousness" which eventually had me watching "brains do not exist" from Leo and well... here I am haha. That all being said, while weed has been a spiritual ally on the path, it has its shadow side of addiction. However I realized I needed to transform my relationship to the substance... Because there was (and still is to a degree) a massive clinging to the substance. It's a subtle craving that I had, craving that always undercut my experience, particularly in the evenings, my favorite time to get lit... I think the sneakiness of the craving and addiction is what has been the most fascinating aspect to observe. Until I've stopped for this long, I don't think I realized just how MUCH I actually craved, how quickly the urge to go smoke drove my behaviors. It wasn't until I actively decided to stop did I start noticing the sheer volume of these microscopic, lightening fast urges to go get high. So after 30 days of no longer smoking after such heavy use, what have I observed? Benefits: Clearer mind More stable focus/attention Less random thoughts while sober More satisfaction with baseline consciousness Higher sensitivity with senses/perceptions (i.e. more overall mindfulness) Body feels incredibly more energetic during meditation Feelings of Kundalini movement while sober More physical energy Better sleep More willpower and discipline Meditation satisfaction has really ramped up since abstaining Short-term memory feels more powerful Can operate quite well off of less sleep Dream more often and more powerfully Baseline happiness feels higher Everything feels sharper, and higher resolution Baseline consciousness feels more psychedelic My heart chakra has opened up substantially this last month (but this could have nothing to do with weed) Music sounds better sober More synchronicities while sober Negatives: Less creativity with personal projects Less random insights/discovery Less euphoria in life (but this could also be a positive?) Less direct connection with my subconscious mind No more medical benefits (weed helps manage a chronic disease I have) Emotions are harder to investigate Missing the crazy presence and NOW'ness I get while high Feel less connected with intuition Where do we go from here? I told myself when I stopped that I wouldn't get high again (with weed, LSD and mushrooms are still kosher lol) until January 1st. After having taken this much time away though, I'm not sure I'll be ready by then... We'll see. From my pov, I still consider weed to be an amazing substance. Even though it can kinda energetically wreck the mind and body, and is definitely addictive, it has taught me so much about myself, about life, and about consciousness. It's helped carve out my particular journey through life in a multitude of ways. For some reason, I don't really think total abstinence is the direction I want to go with it. I can't really be sure what the optimal frequency of use would be, but the ability that weed has with connecting me to powerful intuition, subconscious thoughts and emotions and the creativity is something I do see genuine value in. However, I honestly think a frequency akin to 1-2x per month is the limit... I feel like more frequently and I'd run the risk of cravings returning. Conclusion I just wanted to share my experiences with the community. Weed most certainly has powerful properties that I find useful for both life purpose work and spirituality. But god damn it's addictive... So you gotta be careful. I hope I can be successful with transforming my relationship with it into just another tool I occasionally use, akin to normal psychedelics, but I am open to completely letting it go if that's what I feel is best. Time will tell. Thanks for reading, I hope you found value for your own journey, and all thoughts are welcome. :)

It took me about a week to feel totally sober. Interesting that our stories are so similar though... good luck on your journey with da bud ?

@fridjonk I see! That makes sense... I might have to follow your edible protocol then. It's very interesting how edibles and smoking are both so similar, but so different haha. I appreciate the feedback. Yeah that was a little unclear. I have them more frequently while sober now, but I still used to have them sober. I also got them while high. Crazy shit would just fall into place and I'd feel like it was even more profound because I was baked

Really appreciate your last sentence. Thank you. I guess what I see is the creation aspect is made of distinctions not separation. I draw a distinction (lol) between distinction and separation. So I fully see how I as a human am distinct from say, a tree, a rock, another human, but I don't equate this to literal separation. Separation itself is a relative thing. Like, separated by what? Separation has to be a function of something else. Separated relative to space, relative to boundaries, relative to time. Is one finger separated from another? I would say no unless we're saying separated relative to distance. Instead I would say, a finger is distinct from another finger, but it's all one unified, un-separated hand. And so when I look at the totality of my direct experience, my direct experience as 1 conscious experience, I don't see or feel separation, I see 1 thing, 1 form which contains within it an infinite amount of distinctions. Maybe what you're calling separation is what I'm calling distinctions?

Oh nice That's cool that you feel this is an appropriate frequency. Do you feel urges to get high in the days following one of your sessions?