Self-inquiry and hardcore retreats are the same thing.
The two most powerful technique are: 1) Psychedelics, and 2) Hardcore solo retreats.
That's what I've said for a long time.
For self-inquiry to be effective it has to be done in the middle of a hardcore retreat.

If you are asking that question that already demonstrates a wrong attitude towards this work. It shows you are not taking responsibility for your truth-seeking work. As if I am the source of your truth. No. I am not. Finding truth or getting results in life is 100% on you. Even if I am say, Satan, it is your job to realize I am Satan and stop following me. It is not my job as Satan to tell you I am Satan.
It is your responsibility to figure out why techniques are not working for you. This may require trying new techniques or hiring an expert to coach you through your sticking points.
My teachings are extremely clear and straight-forward. If you have a hard time understanding them just conceptually, there is something amiss with you because almost any other teaching will be less clear with you. I explain things in unusual detail and clarity relative to Ralston or someone else. Of course this doesn't guarantee results, but at least you should be clear conceptually on what this work entails. For example, I go out of my way to stress how much effort and time this work requires.
This doesn't mean I am above criticism, but you can ask others here about whether my teachings are unclear or confusing.
You can also ask others here if they got results and what they did to get them.
Just in general, achieving any serious result in life -- whether in business, career, dating, art, or spirituality -- will require 10x-100x more work than you initially assume. Almost any serious project in life is way harder than it seems. Go try to direct a Hollywood movie and you will see how much harder it is than you imagine. Which is why great things are rare and valuable. If it was easy, everyone would be Awake, God would not be a controversial topic, and my channel would not exist because there would be no one round to pay me to create content. The only reason my channel can exist is because the work is so hard that 99% of humans will never do it. If everyone was successful in spirituality I would be out of a job.

I read comments under my YT videos every week of people saying how much the work has changed their lives, even saved them from depression and suicide.
If you are not seeing benefit from the work that means you aren't actually doing it, you are misunderstanding what the work is, you are probably lost in concepts.
There are thousands of insights in this work and you haven't gotten any of them?
You are just reading words and having ideas. Yes, that alone is pointless. But that isn't even to begin the work.
Yes, it is very hard to experience the stuff Ralston talks about. It requires serious hardcore meditative practice.
There is no easy way to understand deep metaphysical truths. The only way is either psychedelics or week-long meditation retreats. If you are not doing that you will not understand God.
I think you are underestimating the seriousness of this work. Did you really think you would transcend death with such meek effort? We are talking about insanely difficult things here.
What is it you want me to do? Stop doing my work because you are too lazy to do a 2-week meditation retreat?
This work is very, very, very advanced. It requires the drive of a bull to succeed in it. After you complete 10 two-week meditation retreats, then you may complain about it not working. But until then you just haven't even begun the serious work. The problem is, people today have no work ethic. They expect Awakening to be like watching Netflix and quit as soon as the work gets rolling.
Zen monks meditate for years and still don't reach these insights.

It all depends on the effort you put it.
It depends on your looks and the caliber of girl you require.
The hotter the girl the harder she is to get.
But I've slept with models and 10's. It's not easy for me.
If your standards are low it's much easier.

That's just untrue.
Hyper masculine is the ideal for great reason. It gets you LOTS of sex.
Emerald, you do not represent typical women or men. You are highly unusual.
Typical men and women are chimps. I've seen thousands of them up close in Vegas. They are way less mature than you imagine. I promise.

I recommend everyone try relationships just for the experience and growth opportunities.
It's usually better to do something challenging than do nothing at all. But if you have some better alternative like pursuing hardcore meditation retreats in a cave or launching a business, do that.

Of course girls make your survival harder because you gotta take care of them and protect them.
But in return you get sex, intimacy, love, emotional support, companionship, children.
It's a trade off.
It's more worth it for the personal growth you get as a man rather than the pleasure of sex.
The amount and quality of sex I got was not worth it. But the amount I grew myself in the process was worth it. The growth would be worth it even if I got zero sex. The sex lasts for minutes. The growth lasts a lifetime.

Some people are so stuck in ideology that only a rubber-bullet will rouse them.
If you refuse to listen to reason, force and suffering become the only way.
Politics is not a joke. This is survival.

For all concerned.

I know exactly how girls respond to attractive men. My feelings about it are irrelevant.
I encourage all men to go out and socialize past their comfort zone and learn from direct experience, not ideology. See for yourselves how girls behave out in the streets.
And build genuine relationships. Learn from that too.
If anything is true you will see it in the streets and in the bedrooms.

Looksmaxing... you mean the thing every woman does every day of her life? 
Do women have a gay fixation when they show off their tits and lips?

Yeah, because gay men are outcast, bullied, and killed.
Being gay for a woman is not nearly as lethal as being gay for a man.
No man is going to beat up a woman for appearing too manly.
Women do exactly the same thing. Wearing nasty-looking make-up that no man likes and doing ugly lip injections and fake eyelashes and cheap plastic nails that look so tacky our dicks go limp.
I literally watch porn, see the girl's makeup and my dick goes limp.
But the women always say, "I'm not doing it for you, I'm doing it for ME! I'm not here to please your dick."
Likewise, men are not here to please your vagina. Men get jacked to please themselves.

@SQAAD I know this is very painful, but there is a deeper lesson here for you about the importance of work.
You can't just expect to live for 5 years on someone else's dime as an adult. You need to learn to handle your own survival responsibly.

Fucking. Fucking never changes.
It's always been about maximizing value. Deny it all you want but survival runs you through and through.

Survival takes place within Being. So if you stop long enough to look underneath all the survival what you see is the underlying Being, which is Consciousness for its own sake.
Spirituality is about seeing the Being underneath all the unconscious survival.
Emptiness just means free of survival.

I see this biohacker stuff like an extended performance art / grift.
You create a biohacker public persona and then monetize the shit out of it by selling hope and pills to gullible rubes.
Dave Asprey has pioneered that particular art. It's a very sneaky survival strategy.
Of course there will be a million dollar book deal, talkshow rounds, overpriced branded supplements, a special trademarked diet, and more.

Im struggeling for a while now with socializing. 
i find 90% of my interactions are ABSOLUTE BOREDOM and fakery.. meaningless ping-pong of bullshit.. when its funny i can enjoy it more but most of the time its not even truly funny, i just pretend to laugh to fit in.. im talking about relationships, family and even friends sometimes. 

im not the most social guy in the table for sure but also not the most shy and introverted guy. im definetly not a socialization ninja but i can handle conversations quite fine and without anxiety and shit.. i just dont truly enjoy it.. and lately i cannot stop myself from asking "why? why do i even bother? its so lame and full of phony people doing foolish things and concerned with banal things.. i dont find people and their opinions interesting so why do i even try?" 
 
could someone please enlighten me here with some higher perspective? 
why do you enjoy socializing? what do you find exciting about it? 


P.S
oh lord save me from thy stupid misery and from foolish social activities

Whatever horror you want to imagine.
I said, you would not believe me that reality is Love.
I didn't say that.
Not necessarily. Human existence is horrific enough if you bother to really look into it.
Do you understand the horror of torture prisons in the Middle East?
You know of such things intellectually, but I'm talking about the horror of living it. If you lived through it, you would not be so open to reality being Love.

I personally know someone who utterly tanked their grades in high school solely because of their computer game addiction. I mean -- all F's. 
They were later able to redeem themselves by doing very good in a Community College, allowing themselves to get into a decent University.
But another person I know is currently in his 4th year of Community College, its supposed to only take 2 years, because of his computer gaming addiction. 

Smart phones and social media present a new unique challenge that never existed before. Attention spans are dropping and internet addiction is real.

@Moreira Personal Dev, Consciousness, Growth, Truth, Learning, Health, Reading Books, etc. -- these are all values. Some people value them, some don't.
People who are into self-actualization should seek out relationships with other people who are also into self-actualization. Otherwise, you two will quickly grow apart.
This doesn't mean the person has to share all of your values, but there needs to be at least like 50% alignment on the most important ones.
You can't be a self-actualizer who dates a fundamentalist Mormon. It's not going to work. The freedom and honesty that comes from self-actualization will disturb the Mormon too much.
Fundamentally, you want to find a person who's into growing themselves and values health over dysfunction.
That can be hard to find. But that's what a self-actualizer needs.
Start hanging around yoga classes or Wholefoods, where such people congregate

The problem would be: a disconnect in values.
You can't be in an effective relationship with someone when your values are totally different.
And the deeper question is: Why would you want to be in a relationship with someone who's not into your values?
That would be sort of like wearing a shoe that doesn't fit. It might work for a while, but not in the long run.

The biggest thing will be values alignment. Find friends whose values align well with yourself and then friendship will be pretty easy if you invest energy into it.

It's pretty low con overall. But it does force one to grow as a man because it is so challenging. And there can be some high con aspects to it if you do it right.
It's basically learning how to socialize. And socialization is pretty low con overall.

Frankly, if you believe me that reality is Love, it just goes to show that you haven't actually confronted the horror of reality.
If you knew the horror, you would never believe me.
Which would make the awakening all the more of a mindfuck.