Azrael

Man, I really know what you mean. I struggle with this every day. And personally I have weeks in which I feel kind of very enlightened and detached and I have weeks where I'm completely in my head and there is no way out of it. While this always goes from on side to the other I actually just try to let it be. When I'm resisting, I'm resisting. When I'm laughing, I'm laughing, when I'm sitting, I'm just sitting. And I don't judge my ego so much any more for playing devil and priest at the same time. Because the judging is also just another stream of thoughts that is just happening. Here is a very nice view to go about your spiritual journey: Try to see everything your ego does, everything the watcher sees and every perception you have as the most marvelous kind of act that could be played. Try to get a good fascination for that. And also see it in other people. Then just go about your life, do your business and go seeking and see the beauty of it.

Actually from doing this for a good year now, I can tell that you need a good amount of faith. Not in a kind of religious "Wu-Wu" sense but the faith to meditate every day, to watch and re-watch Leo's videos, to read book after book and get a real good understanding in which direction to go, to integrate new realizations and so on. But here is the thing, you can exchange "faith" for actual first-person experiential Truth on the way. And when this starts to happen it kind of goes automatically (at least for me) and then someday you cross the point of no-return because you have seen a few goodies from the other side and can imagine what else might be there. So yeah, have some faith man. It'll treat you well.

I go with the "Burmese Position" which gives me the stability of a lotus position and I'm able to sit in without moving for 60-120 minutes without much difficulty (this took more then a few strong determination sits). I also like it because it pushes my back up and creates a very erect posture that induces a meditative state kind of automatically.

As a first step I'd encourage you to figure out your life purpose before choosing a degree. I took Leo's course and I am amazed by it's contents. Secondly then, I'd really think about studying at all. I'm myself studying computer science and it is a very deep passion of mine. And I also see how university can help you learn stuff very deep, but I think there are a lot of degrees / skills that you could learn out of books and lot's of practice through working in your field. Be very aware of that before you actually decide to go with a plan. Also, be very aware that university will give you a very academic approach to things. If you like that - that's fine. But research how stuff is presented to you. A lot of my friends dropped out of university because it is too academic for them.

This can probably vary. I had several spiritual encounters in meditation and I can see how I progress and get to deeper experiences and more direct Truths however actual spiritual experiences appear very random in intensity and duration. "spiritual experiences" is used here as a description of a single very transforming experience that does not lead to a permanent stage off satori but displays some deeper truth of reality.

I'd guess that "Self-Actualization" isn't the right place to discuss DMT-Trips and that this is better off in "Meditation, Consciousness, Enlightenment, Spirituality". Also SWIM has done some heavy research intellectually and also experientially and somehow comes to the conclusion that DMT-Trips can give you very deep personal / spiritual insights and are amazing to do (for emotionally VERY stable people) but I think the long-term usage for spiritual growth is nothing compared with a habit like meditation. It's nice to experience it and can deepen your spiritual growth (so SWIM experienced it with all traditional psychedelics when done with a lot of discipline and spiritual targeting) but it probably won't enlighten you (with some rare exceptions) and that's for a good reason. Check out PsychedSubstance, he is actually one of the rare exceptions that got to a stage of satori with LSD and he himself said that he wasn't ready for it. Use psychedelics with caution and they can help you a lot but don't see them as little tricks to skip the process.

I use the "do nothing"-technique as a standard combined with the "strong determination sitting"-technique. If you do let's say 10-20 strong determination sits you transcend your 20 minutes meditation time, no pain comes up any more and you're very centred and calm. These two techniques are responsible for my fastest and deepest meditation growth. I'm currently meditating a hour every day for 10 months and it changed the way I perceive reality and myself to the complete positive.