ItsNick

He doesn't really want to go into detail about it. He talks about suffering from "nerve pain" for 18 years and after resolving it facing a "tsunami of trauma" because of how horrible the pain had been on his body-mind. He is also admits taking medication to help with his anxiety but doesn't specify what he uses. There's an hour-long talk where he talks more about it all here: https://adyashanti.opengatesangha.org/store/downloads-file?dky=Cd5ost38&admv=1

I remember the first chapter of the power of now was something like that lol. Of course I exaggerated a bit, but it was basically that. I think this idea of awakening or enlightenment is held by many people, partly because this is how it's sold. I'd imagine if you made the external conditions bad enough for these so-called enlightened beings, or their internal conditions by changing their brain chemistry with drugs, you could make them suffer a lot and increase their fear of death. Is it possible to transcend the fear of death? Maybe, but I don't think you can be human and do that.

What @Leo Gura said... But if you have sleeping problems then maybe modafinil isn't the best idea for now. I can't say it's safe for you but they indeed have opposite effects on the CNS; I imagine they could cancel eachother out somewhat. I also recommend you come up with a plan to slowly reduce the dosage of the benzodiazepines (preferably with your doctor). Then you won't have this problem anymore. If you have sleeping problems I suggest you could also look into Yoga Nidra (here's an interesting book: https://www.amazon.com/Nidra-Re-print-Swami-Satyananda-Saraswati/dp/8185787123/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=yoga+nidra&qid=1691847894&sr=8-2

It would be interestingly to meet other species of human like neanderthals, heidelbergensis, homo erectus.

Cyrus the Great (Persian/Achaemenid Empire). We know a lot about the Greeks in part because they wrote more but also because victors write the history books. Not many people know about the Persian empire. Here's an interesting documentary I found:

I liked his perspective on the public discourse on climate change. Less fear and guilt as a motivator. Emphasizing his love for the planet. And I'm quite tired of all the doomerism myself. If it's really 5 past 12 we might as well all go outside and drink ourselves to death. Currently a lot of media (at least here in the Netherlands) takes every heavy rainfall or heatwave and shows statistics of old people dying as a consequence, and then pointing to the horrors of climate change. I don't have the feeling this is a great motivator for people to start caring about the environment (like my boomer father). Instead he does love the idea of generating his own clean energy using solar panels, which should also be an economically beneficial choice. But some of his conspiratorial positions are troubling. Either way he will have to work together and find majorities, so I don't think he would be able to do too much damage. And he's a damn better candidate than Trump, who should legally be in prison now lol

A friend of mine showed me this game. It's an indie puzzle game that forces you to think in very strange and creative ways.

@The Redeemer True success is power over your own mind. Imagine true power being you being able to live how you want. Independent of other people.

I have the sense these platforms are more useful for people hiring freelancers for their own projects. And not so useful for freelancers themselves. (I once was such a big nerd about the final episode of an anime not having subtitles I paid someone on upwork 50 dollars to make subtitles for me...)

I assume per month? Definitely possible. Cannot tell you how (exactly). Also most of what you find on the internet to make fast money from home is garbage. Some ideas and my own freelance experience But the fact that you're a med student suggests you are educated to some degree. You could leverage that and do online tutoring. Or something creative that's similar. I used to freelance for a company that was digitalizing educational books in an interactive online environment. Then took their idea, changed it a bit, Covid happened, left the company, and then offered my service to local high schools who were panicking. Also back in 2014 me and a friend owned a YouTube channel making Binaural Beats and made a lot of money from that. But YouTube isn't the easiest platform to make money that easily anymore. I suggest you could try writing about an area of interest on a platform like Medium. You can easily get 100 followers writing about a topic you're interested it. Then in a few months you could earn at least 100/month. Maybe later add some affiliate marketing to the blogs too. So if you have no experience with freelancing and earning money yet, I suggest you just get some experience. Set low goals first like earning 10/month, then 100/month, then 1000/month.

My advise to mods: Close this thing.

1. I personally can't. Some people can. Just try a microdose at home with nothing planned and see what happens. 2. No. But keep in mind the dosing will be different than for LSD of course. Do some research.

@Alfonsoo Why do you want such a book? I was personally raised christian, then slowly became an atheist reading and learning more science. I also listened to Richard Dawkins types back then. Later I opened up more and started reading about mysticism and listening to Leo and some new age types etc. My recommendation: Diversify your information intake. Read books and listen to people with different points of view. Learn not to attach yourself to any of them. Just keep being curious.

Infinity cannot be exhausted. I'm surprised he has been able to communicate as much as he has already so clearly. At some point it's not possible anymore. At least not in any ordinary form of communication lol.

Definitely. Don't let bad trips scare you so much you never take psychedelics again. But of course don't push yourself either, which is you also noted: But this also applies beyond trips of course. Stay grounded. Become wise enough to know when to take a break from psychedelics.

You cannot necessarily "integrate" every high state you reach on psychedelics into the "ordinary" human consciousness. Human consciousness is too limited to contain it. But there can be some sort of integration in a human way. Interpreting these states from the POV of a ordinary human consciousness and changing how you understand reality, think, behave, feel, etc. Excuse me for perhaps being too vague. I have difficulty articulating exactly what I mean.

So when I was a child I had a love for trippy, weird, and mind fucking shows. Just recently have I become more aware of how me being attracted to spirituality, Leo's work, and psychedelics had already started early on. Here are some examples. #1: Yu-Gi-Oh: "Is this all just a game?! " In the final season of Yu-Gi-Oh the protaganist realizes that him trying to save Egypt was all just a game he was playing against someone else. And the world and people within it were the playing field. The moment I watched this scene I was mindfucked and shocked and loved it: This show had some more mindfucks I loved. #2: Pokemon: Address Unown! Didn't watch much Pokemon as a kid cause I wasnt really into it. But I kept rewatching this specific episode. I really loved the weirdness of it. In this episode a strange alien-like Pokemon Unown sent Ash and his friends into the mind of a traumatized Pokemon Larvitar. They then explore his mental world to try and find the root of the trauma. I couldn't find a short clip online but you can watch it here at the 8-min mark: https://www.pokeflix.tv/v/05-address-unown. Or else just enjoy this cool image of the the Pokemon Unown. #3: Courage The Cowardly Dog (His Nightmares) I actually didn't love this as a child. I was scared to death. I was 4-5 years old though watching this. And then I kept re-watching it until I loved it. Nowadays it also reminds me of bad trips on shrooms and weed. This show had plenty more scary and bizarre shit. It seems nowadays they don't scare kids with things like Courage anymore There's more I could share but this is what I'll share for now. Took me a while to remember and find some of this lol. Feel free to share some of these yourself!

1. Don't expect too much in the short-term. The game is still long-term. The principles of Mastery still apply to psychedelics. 2. You can't always avoid bad trips. Even if you're careful. Be prepared to face hell. I've had my worst bad trip on weed of all things. 3. Beware of Paranoia. "Have I lost my mind?" You might believe you've lost your mind after a difficult, destabilizing trip. The more you believe this to be the case the more evidence you might find and the more it seems to be true (paranoia). In reality when this happens take a break from psychedelics and allow your mind to stabilize. 4. Professional help can be great. It can be nice to talk to a mature professional who has experience with psychedelics. Especially if you're a beginner. This excludes most psychologists in today's world, sadly. And this is quite rare on the internet too but we're lucky to have someone like Leo giving advise for free. Thankfully there are more and more trained psychologists who have and give psychedelic therapy. Research your options. 5. On distractions and intentions. Some things you might want to do when tripping is only a distraction and waste of the trip. But ultimately this is relative to your intention for tripping in the first place. And sometimes you'll end up throwing your initial intentions out of the window when tripping because you realize there are higher possibilities. 6. Be open to try different psychedelics. I expected shrooms to very similar to LSD based on what I've read. But in my experience they affect me completely differently. In all honesty, every psychedelic I have yet used has affected me completely differently. Don't expect your experiences will be the same as you read the average person has. Especially if psychedelic A doesn't do for you what you want, try B, then C, and so on. 7. Not only fun and games. You can't hide and suppress your wounds and traumas. They will all be revealed and if you resist this process it can get nasty. Psychedelics are not about escapism. It's not alcohol, it's not sedation. But in the end this is a good thing and will improve your life. "Everything is brought up to be exposed to the light, and whatever is exposed to the light itself becomes light."

Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (with MDMA specifically) with someone who knows what they're doing is gold. There are some great guides here in the Netherlands. But such great resources might not be available elsewhere. Otherwise finding a great trip sitter will work too. Especially when dealing with difficult trauma and if you're inexperienced a trip sitter will be helpful. Also consider breathwork and the various types that exist to release trauma from the body. Potentially with a guide as well. I also have an old post about releasing trauma from the body long term which might be helpful: Wishing you the best! <3

Basically anyone can do it, using your def. Answer: LANGUAGE! It's a technology not outside our biological brain. Other than that, basically any organism with mirror neurons can do this to some degree. As far as we know this includes humans, songbirds, and macaques. Interesting paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3510904/ But I do believe humans are capable of channeling more complex information from other humans and higher beings. A very small percentage might be able to pull it off without psychedelics.

@Leo Gura Is it similar to being mindfucked by a paradox or strange loop? Not being able to make sense of it and yet witnessing it?

In the first few years of middle school I was terrible at maths. It was my weakest subject. Then I got a maths teacher who gave me a Rubik's cube and I fell in love with it, competing with my best friend to get our times under 10 seconds. We also bought very strange Rubik's cube variant puzzles, like shape-shifting cubes. Playing around with many such puzzles and creating mathematical riddles for myself and this friend of mine slowly turned maths into my best subject at the end of high school. I love intuitively understanding maths. But I'm horrible at writing proofs.

Valuetainment has always been a rather low-consciousness medium but lately they've gone very far to the right and conspiracy theories. Their recent guests have been Andrew Tate and now Alex Jones: They not only give a platform to these people but spread their insane ideologies and conspiracy theories to a large audience... Talking about immaturity...