BlessedLion

there is a cost to authenticity, but the cost of being inauthentic is much higher

I think it's because 1) You are showing that you have the balls not to conform, you aren't afraid of social conditioning and being seen as an outsider, this immediately shows that you are okay on your own and not needy. Needy people are not authentic, they twist themselves into a pretzel to be liked and get their "needs" met. 2) When you are authentic there is a certain "aliveness" to your being and energy. And that is captivating, have you ever heard someone explain something they didn't care about and could just feel the dissociation and numbness in their voice? Now, have you ever heard someone lit up talking about a topic they love? This is the difference but it's like that 24/7, authentic people are moving from alive energy so it's more captivating and interesting. 3) It shows confidence and uniqueness, i truly believe we are all unique fingerprints of God and when you find your authentic self you are expressing that fingerprint and there is a certain beauty to that and it's much more interesting that just being some copy/paste (Insert personality here based on where they are from) Peter Ralston is a great example of authenticity, there is something about him that is so engaging and interesting even when he's just being himself.

All true, @integration journey that's the problem, those platforms are basically soft porn funnels these days. Having those apps is like trying to quit drinking at a bar. Which many men aren't aware of they are just scrolling insta then the next moment they are on pornhub and don't know why.

This is a very mind blowing and terrifying article on where porn addiction, along with the shaming of porn addiction ("NoFap" , "Semen Retention", "Streak Culture") is headed. You have to realize that the porn today is not what it was even a decade ago, it's an entirely different beast and is tailored for addiction. Instagram, Facebook and even YouTube are catching on and many of these platforms are largely just porn funnels for OF creators. You'd be shocked at the amount of men today who have a porn habit that they can't actually kick and how deeply it is effecting their relationships, drive, work and mental health. Sexuality is our foundation as humans and is connected to our self-esteem, self-perception and sense of empowerment, also i believe watching other men have sex with a woman you are attracted to is harmful on a subconscious level, there is something about being the observer who pleasures themselves that cuts away at your own masculinity or ability to attract, so obviously i am a proponent of quitting things like porn and doing semen retention. But is shaming it and fighting it the solution? Well, this article shows you where that goes.... I think the reason these men create some sick humiliation out of their porn addiction is because those "quit porn" cultures have shamed them into thinking they are pathetic betas when they inevitably relapse. So it ironically turns into a fetish and the ultimate nihilism around their sexuality, masculinity, and life purpose. It's truly an issue on a deep spiritual level. Instead of seeing porn as an indulgence like wine, a stupid movie, or sugary snacks, we treat it like the antithesis of masculinity and that one slip up redefines your whole identity and your streak. Thus, leading to a massive binge and relapse cycle rather than just "oh yeah i watched some porn this weekend, it's not ideal but i'm getting back on track." This article is actually a glimpse at the forefront of what is to come in porn addiction and consumption culture, and it's only going to get worse. Now is a good time to work on breaking this habit or at least having a healthy relationship with it. My estimation is there will be a whole generation of men who otherwise would've been fathers and had jobs who just surrender to the potency of this addiction and spend their lives in a sort of dopamine fueled hell. Although i do think humans will figure it out in the long run, and the restrictions on porn will get better (it's insane that 10 year olds can access it and are being shown this shit on instagram, like come on guys), we are in a downtrend in human development- it's not just porn , it's the AI Brain slop, the addictive algoryhtms, that toxic and shallow dating culture and apps, the political delusion and lack of integrity and decay, the outsourcing of critical thinking to AI, the general nihilism, and the use and addiction to drugs (most people spend the weekends simply blasting their nuerons with substances) which is why i largely lay low, stay offline, meet people face to face, and focus on my passions and health while living in nature. https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/the-goon-squad-daniel-kolitz-porn-masturbation-loneliness/

sure

100%, this is almost even better than the sex or whatver Where's the fun in that?

Ture, I think it's a balance, teachers can help extract what's already within and inspire us and help us see the way with less distraction and traps, but we also have to do the heavy lifting and inner work

If i had never done pick up or cold approach and learned those skills, to create connection with a total stranger outside of an already established social circle, i'd probably have had 75-80% less sex in my life

You gotta just do it and treat the rejection, cringe, and failures as exposure therapy. Use it as a meditation to sit with those parts of you that feel not enough and awkward, bask in the pain of it, enjoy the sting of it. This is the only way to truly keep it sustainable because if you spin into stories of being a loser, socially weird, etc every time you go out it will be miserable and you'll give up. You have to make it fun, don't do gimmicky shit, be yourself. It's actually a great training field for training your mind and healing parts of yourself, cuts right to the ego. You can turn it into a craft or path of mastery even.

Absolutely. This is known as Saktipat and it is very real. Don't underestimate the power and effect one can have on another with one powerful conversation. Not in some fantasy Jesus way, walking on water and having everyone who looks at you dissolve into unconditional love, but in a more human way. One retreat can change the whole trajectory of someones life

I agree, this isn't really news and it doesn't really matter.

No way that Trump Tweet is real....holy shit....he's actually a heartless psychopath.

What do you think the solution is? Date around? Multiple girfriends and polyamory? One Goddess/Marriage? Celibacy? I'm curious what your take on this is. I spent about 8 months of voluntary celibacy while doing ancient practices like meditation semen retention, yogic transmutation of sexual energy and it gave me super human levels of creativity, discipline, energy, and connection to the Divine. I mean it was unreal, never experienced anything like that, it was like that movie "Limitless" I felt like I was on the Limitless Pill just by directing and retaining my sexual energy Now I've realized that i want to come back into the body and date around, it's not putting women on a pedestal but also realizing that human intimacy is something i'm ready for again. Not in an attached way, but let's be honest, if I don't take action on it nothing will happen. So many guys do this "don't pedastalize her" attitude and they just end up sexless and watching porn, you have to at least take some action, doesn't have to be in a needy way though. And i also don't want to do the pick up douche bag thing, that is soul-less. Thinking I can meet some conscious women who are open to a more Tantric container, there are plenty where I live.

Yeah, it's a tough situation. I really think many men are going to ruin their lives with this by not knowing how addictive it is before it's too late. This has already happened but I think it's going to be on a large scale until the government and other institutions step in. It'll be like how they didn't know ciggarettes were bad for you until it was too late, but this is even worse because it chips away at the psyche and brain chemistry on a deep evolutionary level. Not to mention the spiritual consequences.

I actually agree with Owen, I also think that life is the psychedelic when you are truly in tune with it and engaged. There is no need to blast your nervous system. But i've spoken on this enough here with great detail and it never seems to land, so whatever, people can do what they're going to do. But I don't think it's very kind to your mind, body and nervous system. I agree with @Jodistrict that it retraumatizes the system and there is a dark energy to it, never truly feels stable. Once you truly have God anything but just resting your own Beingness and Heart seems kinda silly. The horizontal (consciousness) goes forever, it's cool to contemplate and explore it, but also .... this.....now....infinity.... perfection..... I think psychedelics are great gate-openers but they have a lot of risk and I see so many people falling into the shortcut they provide. But it's not really a shortcut at all because there are no shortcuts in this game. Most truly profound and embodied teachers got there sober. Pick-up has it's problems and can certainly corrupt your soul, but it can also be foundational for many men. More men need pick-up today than ever, because so many are just submitting to becoming porn addict incels. The problem with most pickup culture and material is it completely disregards the women and her being, it's all about the guy reaching the goal of getting laid in some psychopathic way. This is toxic and harmful and also doesn't really even provide great results. The problem with most pick-up is that you have to act inauthentically, you have to do little tricks and gimmicks and psychological games that you put in front of your own self and authentic being to "stay in frame" or "attract" but let me tell you when you are just being yourself and she chooses THAT, then you have sex, it is a much cleaner experience, it's fine to learn to pillars of escalation, eye contact, etc but the psycholgical gimmicks are where your soul dies. Recently i have been contemplating if there is a way to attract and seduce in a conscious way. Surely, there have been men of past who have a natural and honest charisma that results in sex but doesn't harm the woman or require lying, manipulation, and ghosting. Where the woman actually benefits from the experience as well without needing it to be anything other than what it was. Almost like a maturity around the whole thing. Pick-up is wildly immature, I can't even do it anymore, I'd rather just not get laid than do that bullshit. I am still working on this contemplation and will expirement but i think of a guy like Hank Moody from Californication as this type of naturally attractive man that women genuinely want to sleep with for it's own sake. Not because you gaslit her inner child or posed as some alpha douchebag, but your just calm and cool in that energy and honest about what you want and can provide.

Great question, i can honestly say i don't regret much, i could say i wish i had spent my college years doing something more meaningful and meditating rather than just partying and sex but actually i needed to experience that and get it out of my system. Maybe i regret not dating girls more, like i could've had more girlfriends, instead of just hook ups and not giving up so quickly on that or not prioritizing it. Also, i wish i never started watching porn, that seems to have only had negative results in my life, but also breaking free of it has taught me a lot too. But all in all i don't regret much and am very grateful for everything i've gotten to experience, i feel like i've burned through most of my karma and at 32 I can fully devote myself to my life purpose, which is ahead of the curve in general.

Agreed, there are many aspects to it. Just realizing you are awareness is not enough, and then integrating God Realization into your every thought action and intention is a whole other beast. Although it does seem to happen naturally as one becomes more and more conscious. But they do have to keep going, stay humble and keep the mind open. Far too many people think they are done too early, and another group thinks they are never done, that this is "lifelong work" and they can never actually be fully free.

It's like a pure channel to Infinity:

It took me years of intensive hatha and kundalini yoga before feeling the chakras and energy moving along the spine in a significant way. Be more patient. Don't mix psychedelics with a kriya yoga practice that could go poorly. Be patient.

I guess it's saying that once you awaken deep enough you realize that everything is God and the implication is "So it doesn't matter if you smoke and drink" However, i have to slightly disagree, awakening to your body as God makes you want to treat it better. You fall in love with the body and have less of a need for stimulants because what are they giving you that you don't already have? And yes enlightened people can still be addicted to shit, like Watts being alcoholic, that doesn't diminish his awakening- but let's not glorify it and say that those 2 things go together. It's not like that is ideal, it's just leftover karma even though they are already awake.

I had been contemplating sharing a similar post. As much as i crtique Leo and disagree with some of his ideas and arrogance, his work has had a profound impact on my life. I learned from many teachers so it's hard to know what came from who, but Actualized.org helped me understand some profound core pillars and foundation that i wasn't finding elsewhere. He also introduced me to true masters who changed my life like Ralston, Wilber, who i likely wouldn't have found otherwise. Infinite gratitude, this channel is one of a kind and extremely potent.

I've also completely given up on "staying informed", I see it as a wildly large distraction which provides little value to your personal life. For those who think this is selfish, i think you can actually do more good and provide more value by staying away from the political arena and focusing on your area of mastery, inspiration and philsophy. It's good to understand politics and the systems but keeping up with it serves no value to my life purpose. I check major news stories once a month and other than that i stay away. It pulls the mind in different directions, and since quitting news and politcal updates, my mental health, focus, and happiness skyrocketed. If you really take a break and come back you will clearly see that most of this stuff isn't even actually news, it's like a drama or TV show, none of it actually really is that important or significant.

Im 100% in agreement with you on this. I quit psychedelics long ago, and the path of intensive yoga meditation and study has created a stable sense of God Realization, not a state but a permanent shift. It’s now glaringly clear to me what God is, what I Am, and it’s so simple. I feel like psychedelics blast your nervous system and send you into weird and strange corners of consciousness which cause confusion about the Truth. Many people come back with all sorts of wacky and dark ideas about reality that always have this tinge of fear and darkness to them, rather than love and perfection. Another problem with them is once you start doing them they become your door way to God (or what you think is God) it creates a dependency. Your mind will always compare your weak meditation with being blasted by 5 MEO DMT. Notice how none of the great masters of past of modern times recommend psychedelics as a legitimate path. The people who go all the way just by developing their consciousness have a certain sturdiness, embodiment and aura that people who use psychedelics to awaken simply don’t have- not even close in fact. For example compare Peter Ralston or Yogananda to Aubrey Marcus or anyone else you know who uses 5 MEO to become enlightened- big difference. I’ve been blessed in life to study with true masters of consciousness, in person, and seeing that makes me know it’s possible in this lifetim, without drugs. So that’s quite final for me. Also once you awaken the subtle energy centers you want to preserve them- I think drugs deplete your energy centers. But I think it’s cool Leo is going in person, I find in person much more fulfilling these days. I’ve actually been off the forum for a while now as I’ve been in real community, offline, chatting, learning languages, doing yoga, dating. My YouTube channel is fun but teaching yoga in person is much more of a growth path and fulfilling in that I see the fruits of the practice in real time. All the best to the people who did this though, I hope it works for them, or at least shows them what is possible through a life of devotion, discipline and contemplation.

He calls environmental protection the "Green Energy Scam", so dystopian, we're so fucked

100% I've noticed when i don't actively make the effort, there is no chance i am going to meet women. One thing that helped me a lot was finding a yoga community school but that was a rare and lucky find. It's getting harder and harder to just meet people in general, everyone is burried in their phones, ordering food online, etc. I think like the mass majority of people do their dating online now which is depressing.