fewrocker

Very cool suggestions!! I'm actually enjoying a lot of the songs you guys put here. That was the post idea @Zizzero Devin Townsend is pretty cool! Im listening to "By your command" and loving it

-> Choose a song you think represents each stage -> Give a small explanation if you want -> You can skip one or two if you want -> Pick something based on your particular taste so we can discover some new songs Purple. Shaman - Ancient Winds (such a mystical vibe) Red. Whitechapel - The Saw is the law (so aggressive and about domination) Blue. Zac Brown Band - Chicken Fried (good ol' traditional values) Orange. Jay Z & Kanye West - Niggas in Paris (look at me bro) Green. Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Shine (human connection vibes) Yellow. Dream Theater - The Dance of Eternity (complex and integrates many elements and styles)

Actualize your vision

Many teachers say weed is not a good substance to get spiritual, non-dual insights. I beg to differ. The altered state of consciousness makes it much easier for me to grasp the illusory aspect of many things I take for granted normally. It allows me to travel deeply inward. It gives me mind fucking epiphanies doing self-inquiry. This is probably a very subjective effect. How is it for you guys?

Get well

@Shroomdoctor The goal was pickup! I went out seven times. Four times it worked out, one time it was absolutely amazing. And the funny thing is that the best one was the first one, so it is not just a linear growth process. I still have so much to go, but I believe just the fact of leaving home and going for it is a huge first step

@Dan Arnautu Dude! I've been going out alone once every week (wednesday/thursday) for two months now. It is one of the most amazing things you can do. The hustle will bring you the answer. My next step is probably to go out 5 nights in a row. Just hammer it down. And in the future, maybe do a 30-day challenge. I've heard you cannot come out of it completely transformed if you know what you're doing: minimum amount of alcohol (preferably zero), total presence, and just take action Sexuality is one of our most primary drives. If you tackle coming out of your comfort zone on that realm, many others will be a piece of cake. It this is not about attachment to the action. Good going out means maximum engagement with least attachment, just like spirituality teaches us

Maximum engagement with least attachment More action with less resistance Yeah!

This is again paradoxical. Suffering coming from growth pains and ego backlashes are a natural sign of development. Suffering coming from facing the obstacles, getting out of the comfort zone and going against your mind's will to stay as it is are also signs of development. However, you must be very careful with your interpretation. You're not pursuing suffering. You are not looking for suffering in order to get a sense of development. If you happen to get identified with the suffering, to become that "poor person that suffers", you are fucked. Your ego will feed of that shit like crazy. The ego doesn't want to be the coolest person on the Earth. It wants identity, and suffering can become an identity so you will have a huge ego that craves suffering that you won't be able to escape. Many people are addicted to suffering as a form of creating their identity. Be very careful of that because that is not spiritual, that is not zen, that is not beautiful. "To grow you must suffer" is a powerful phrase if you know where it is coming from. But listen to it without presence and wisdom and you can get fucked. I guess if you put it like "To grow you must suffer, feel the suffering, assess what is going wrong and act to change it, time and time again, dozens of times, hundreds of times, and you will see you've become great". If you're not learning from the suffering, that means, changing your behavior based on it, you haven't learned anything

The individual needs space to flourish and then become better at helping others and advancing consciousness (even though the next stage is orange and they're not very concerned with helping the whole World, but each stage you're getting closer and closer to a place you can help) Blue values tends to hold back individual space and development How will you develop if you can't explore your sexuality? If you can't use psychedelics? If you get irrationally tied to your family because of a moral value and can't get out there to experience the world by yourself? How will you develop if you don't get the chance to develop your own values, because you have to follow the values that are imposed to you (noble or not)? Blue tried to calm the chaos os red by coming with very strict traditions, rules and moral values. It was the only way and that's why it constituted a stable stage. But once the chaos of red is dissolved, do you really need to stay confined within all the moral barriers as an individual? Can't you become developed enough that you will become fair and promote justice not because it is written on the holy book, but because you truly believe it deep down and you can feel it? If you want to grow and truly help the world one day, don't you need to do some personal exploration? These are good questions to contemplate on

hahaha I love the amount of pick-up instructors there. Dude, I'm being honest here. Pick-up is an amazing activity to both spiritual and personal development if you do it the right way, and most people think it is stupid

Great topic and discussion! I fell into this trap, but now I can see it. This can be one of the most dangerous traps of the spiritual path. Inactivity is not enlightenment. Spirituality as an excuse to become lazy might be worse than activity without presence, because if you know spirituality at least you know that you're doing the wrong thing. Activity and consciousness go hand in hand. Reality is already perfect. But the consequence is not that you should do nothing. But that your actions should flow with the perfection. Unenlightened action will go against the perfect flow An amazing text that talks a lot about that is the Bhagavad Gita. Check that out, especially the third conversation: http://bhagavadgita.swami-center.org/karma-yoga.shtml This is a 5,000+ year old text with so many modern concepts being discussed. It is truly wonderful

The block comes with trying to come up with the most "convincing" or "coolest" dialog. That won't happen. Even she doesn't want you to come with a smart-ass line, she just wants to feel you're a cool guy she can be comfortable with A lot of RSD videos can help with that. It is key to get the mindset of "It is not what you say, but how you say it". That's why these guys can do silent approaches and pick up girls without even talking Approaching with confidence, keeping deep eye contact, giving a firm handshake and holding the shake for a little longer than usual already counts as more than many words. On top of that, just do the simple things. Introduce yourself. Make a simple comment about the environment / her clothes / her friends / something that just happened / ask for an opinion on something, etc. Be present and really listen to her answers, because her answer will give you at least 3 topics/directions you can go if you listen carefully. Presence helps a lot on this part Some other hints: - Do some warm-up, talking to people on the street, on the line of the club, or just call a friend on your way to the club and talk - The first approaches are useful to get you into a better flow state. In that state, you will be smoother. But it is key to understand the first approaches might not come out good, but you need to go through them - Your ego is the one that comes with that fear and the block because if it makes you not approach, it will never get rejected. Comfort zone. Weakening the ego is important for talking to girls. Just realize the only way you will become better is with more approaches, so the initial "newbie" phase is necessary and it will only pass with more approaches - Understanding that it is a numbers game and you will become very good after your 5000 rookie mistakes helps a lot with the approaching, because now you will approach and build up energy with each one, since each approach gets you closer to your goal (just like Schwarzenegger talks about each rep on his sets and why he worked out smiling) - Stick this phrase in your head: "If you said hi, you already won". Just say hi and see where it goes. If it goes good or bad, have some compassion for yourself, know that you are a tiny bit better, and go again! - Start simple and work your way up as you build calibration. Leave the complex genius lines when you are a master, because if you try to use bad-ass lines without calibration you will just sound weird. Respect your stage of development - Introduce some playfulness and just have fun dude. Self-amusement helps a lot with coming up with things to say, because you won't be looking for the perfect line to please her, but for the line that will please you, and it is easier to know that. No, that's not selfish. That will help you show your personality, show that you are comfortable with yourself and if you're not a jerk they will enjoy it too As for the visualization, just imagine a cool, comfortable interaction. You being a cool guy, she is enjoying it and smiling. You're getting to know her and she is getting to know you. Nothing out of this world, just a comfortable interaction

A friend and me who are in the same spiritual journey met yesterday to talk a little bit. We met at 10pm and talked until 5am and it felt like 20 minutes. So many good insights, experiences and ideas. I can definitely tell it was a push forward in consciousness. We thought about the idea of building a group of 4-5 people with the same goal of understanding the illusion, reaching samadhi. Each one will read different books, watch different things, experience different glimpses of the absolute and sharing this will also help all the others move forward towards awakening The big question is: usually, these people don't just put themselves out there. My friend and I don't like to talk about these things with other people, because their ego instantly get defensive and the result is destructive. So there is not a lot of people like that out there, and the ones that are are not easy to find. The question is simple: where should one look?

Habit managing and changing works differently from people to people. Good to do the stuff that works for you, if you're being honest all the time in judging if is actually working That is definitely a good one. Just be careful of not using the "Im getting better a little bit at a time" card to avoid getting better in a quicker way. With the porn thing, if your gaps looked liked this: 1 week, 2 weeks, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks. That looks like good progress. But "3 days, 4 days, 5 days, 6 days, 7 days" is not good progress. Actually you might get a mindset of "woof, I've beat my best gap of 7 days, so I will just jerk off on the eigth" It seems to me that it is much more a question of honest judgment of the process than the process mechanics itself

I wouldn't take it literally. I think it is just alluding to the fact that most good stuff that will make you grow will come with resistance and suffering from your current state. If you want to become better, it is never something that you just do and become better. You have an intermediate moment of tension, learning, sucking at it, getting out of your comfort zone, not fully knowing what you're doing, to then integrate it it and reach a better place. Becoming better and self actualizing = changing yourself. However, ego does not want change. Then the emotional challenge appears Therefore, resistance, emotional challenge, etc. might all be pointers that you're looking at something valuable (don't punch your mom in the face because it is emotionally challenging)

We need a change of paradigm Will this change come naturally when people realize the damage that is being done? Or will the change come radically after a huge conflict?

We need a change of paradigm Will this change come naturally when people realize the damage that is being done? Or will the change come radically after a huge conflict?

Hi guys! I think psychedelics would be a huge next step on my journey. I am a very chill person 95% of the time, and I have amazing trips every time I smoke weed - amazing spiritual trips, actually. However, I know that weed scratches the surface in this case, and I need something deeper. I've also been meditating for more than 9 months every day without skipping a day for at least 20 mins. However, 3 years ago, I had an experience of a huge bad trip smoking weed. Every time I smoked it was amazing and I really never felt anxiety in my life. I believe I have a condition in which I actually can't feel anxiety. However, that day, I had a huge panic attack so it was quite shocking because I never felt anything like that before. It was a traumatic experience and after that some anxious thoughts appeared. Because of that experience, there is a small 5% fear inside of me that if I do psychedelics, the bad trip could be even stronger, and I might not fully recover from it (I know that is kind of the idea, because the bad trip might be a result of the ego being deconstructed). However, this 5% fear is still the only thing between be and starting experimenting with psychedelics. I have this feeling like I have 99 reasons to have an amazing self-discovery trip, but 1 reason that might bring me to a shitty experience, but still that 1 reason is enough to hold me back. Do I just push it and everything will be ok? Any words of advice?

@andyjohnsonman @zambize @robdl All cool insights! I guess the main issue to be attacked here is deconstructing this fear. Contemplating about its substance. Understanding what makes it arise when I think about the psychedelics. And slowly deconstruct it. The "Who is it that is feeling fear?" paradigm is powerful Also, starting with a smaller dose and a lighter drug such as 2cb and slowly climb up the psychedelic ladder helps a lot with this issue. Also, having the benzos will help Thanks a lot for all the inputs!

@robdl Yep, it makes a lot of sense. I can actually see that I am in a fear loop but deep down fear is illusory. The loop goes like this I want to do psychedelics > But I've had a bad trip and that scares me > I don't want to have a bad trip that might make me completely unconscious and unable to do SA work anymore > Fear is an illusion and I should know that deep down it will be ok > I want to do psychedelics The ego is smart. It is using my own desire to continue to self-actualize to prevent the psychedelics from happening. It is like it is letting me do a "lesser evil" so I don't do the more powerful one that can kill it easier. But the fear still remains, since I believe that there is a possibility that in fact shit can happen Thanks guys. Just being in this discussion makes me see the egoic patterns with more clarity

@Charlotte They weaken the anxious thoughts and experiences. For that, they work. They even make you sleepy so maybe you can just sleep it off. Just not a good idea to make constant use of them like doctors love to prescribe. It numbs you down, takes away your energy and it can become really, really hard to stop taking them. Also, if every time you feel anxious you pop one, you will feel you need them, when in fact you can work on anxiety a lot with just consciousness. Nowadays, when I feel anxiety, 20 mins of meditation on it are usually enough. However, having the benzos as a punctual possibility for the day of the trip sounds like a good idea

Ok, you might see a lack of sense. But also try to grasp the lack of sense in your aversion to it

@SgtPepper Interesting. My paranoia on the weed bad trip was hugely because I didn't feel anxiety before and suddenly I felt a very strong form of it. Something I didn't understand or couldn't control. But I'm much more aware now. I believe I would be good at tapping into the clarity you are speaking about. Good words @Leo Gura Powerful words. I believe I get what you are trying to say/do. You are trying to challenge my ego into doing it so I can finally grasp what I am missing and lose the fear (if it doesn't have to do with that, my bad). Right now the strength of my presence and consciousness to use it is way stronger than my fear, so it will probably happen sooner rather than later. However, the peace of mind of hearing from more experienced users about how to deconstruct the fear could still help. I will keep reading some trip reports and get more info about it

@Serotoninluv Cool. My plan is to start with 2cb low dosages, because it is one of the first psychedelics in the pyramid. One step at a time. I guess the benzos will give me peace of mind, too. Simple and good stuff @cetus56 It is somehow funny because a part from that single episode of breakdown, I don't see much shadow at all. I am sure there is a lot of shadow hidden, like in all of us. But deep down I'm truly cool. I would cry if I had the urge to, I would't hold it back. But I'm mostly filled with bliss, I have way more presence than the "average person" and I can see the beauty of it all. However, there is the 5% monster lurking around, I feel it @Leo Gura I am open to the bad trips. I am open to the power they have of facing the ego. I am aware that bad trips are mostly motivated by the ego screaming for survival, afraid that the house-of-cards illusion will be broken. Still, I can't say for granted that it is impossible for me to have an episode which will send my spiraling down to low consciousness. And people in insane asylums can't do self-actualization. I guess the chances of that happening to me are like 1%, but I just wanted to have the peace of mind that it was actually impossible before using. I would be ok with bad trips, if only it wasn't possible for one of them to end my consciousness path