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1) Soul is really ineffable, hence the ambiguous term "soul". My current understanding is that it's an energy that animates the physical. God divided itself into individual souls so that it could experience itself as whole again. A soul is not your egoic mental structure or your memories or anything like this. And no soul is actually separate from another soul or from God, so don't look at it as a separate identity. 2) I say that angels are not separate from you because on the fundamental level, nothing is separate from you. You are literally everything in your experience, and that just happens to also include angels. It's a paradox. I am an angel because I am everything. But I am not an angel from the conventional perspective. I'm just a guy on the internet like you.

I'm curious what experiences have you had that led you to that conclusion?

That's great. I've heard that dreams are definitely one of the ways where we communicate with higher beings, although I didn't mention that in this post. If you want to know more about them or communicate with them, ask! They're willing to do so.

You're welcome.

@ashashlov @Scholar I just started this, only at around 3 minutes so far so I can't really say what the effects will be. But I'm excited to see the possibilities.

I've done it a couple times at festivals and can't say it did anything for my personal growth. But I have heard people who claimed that MDMA opened them up spiritually, notably Sam Harris and Tony Hsieh.

I can definitely relate. As I've gotten deeper into this awakening process, I've started to realize just how magical the world is. We're essentially all wizards with amazing powers that would blow the average person's mind. You know how this sometimes makes me feel? Afraid. We like staying small. We like saying "this is possible, this isn't possible". It gives us a sense of "realness". I look back and realize that as a kid I would have killed for this. As a kid, we all want to believe we're in a magical world with super powers like Harry Potter. Yet now I push it away. I also used to use my imagination all the time. What happened to that? Now I "seek the right answer". So yeah. So much of this process is almost like becoming a kid again. But now you're a grown-up kid.

I've found that they do go hand in hand. As I've understood the Absolute more, I've found myself gravitating to these kinds of ideas. That being said, having an enlightenment experience does not necessarily guarantee relative knowledge.

The question I'd have you ask yourself is: are you being honest? Do you really want to become a sage so badly that you're going to become celibate? Or, are you actually afraid of what would happen if you tried to have sex? I'm not saying which is true. But self-honesty either way is going to be critical here. Next, I'd question the assumption you have that having a sex life will distract you from the path. You're taking that highly for granted which makes me feel like you're just trying to rationalize your decision to become celibate. What about Tantric sex? Tantric sex is an entire spiritual practice based around sex. So dig into your motivations a little more before you make any drastic decisions. Why do you feel like you have to be a sage? Who told you that you should do that?

Yes...and no. It's complicated so let me explain. Attracting women is mostly the art of being 100% authentic. By that definition, ANYTHING can work given that you own it and it's genuine. "Trying" to be funny because you're trying to impress the girl is much, much worse than honestly not having anything funny to say. So that's why I say "yes". But here is why I say "no". What is "being funny" from a girl's perspective? It's not ab ability to come up with incredibly clever jokes. Otherwise attracting women would just be this game of who can come up with the best puns and wittiest jokes. You have to go first. When you think it's funny, she'll think it's funny. Essentially this makes you the proactive energy in the interaction and her the reactive energy. A great sign that a girl is reacting to you is that she is laughing. So if you're gaming right, she's probably going to laugh at certain points, even if you're not that funny. There's just no way around it.

Ironically, what your intuition will usually tell you is counter intuitive. Counter intuitive actually is not a good word. Counter reasoning might be a better word.

Wasted energy in my opinion. You don't go back. There is only forward. I see a serious merging happening between science and spirituality. It's beautiful really. Right brain, left brain.

Before you do anything else, just make a mental note that you are reacting to this trigger in your decision to become good with the opposite sex. Keep this in the back of your mind. This is the foundation for why you are doing this. The reason you are getting triggered is likely because you had some experiences growing up where you felt like you couldn't be "that guy" with women and it hurt. Other guys seemed to get what they wanted, but not you. Next time the trigger comes up, become aware of it and try to fully feel it as much as possible. That might seem strange but triggers only exist because we don't let go of them. Anyway, onto getting girls. There's plenty of content out there for how to be good with girls, just start with YouTube. You're 19 so I'd try to find some stuff related to being in college.

RSD is definitely a good bet. They know their craft insanely well and tend to fall heavy on the self-development / spirituality side of things. So it ties nicely with Leo's content. But really it's all about finding someone who you resonate with right now. I went through phases where I jived with certain teachers and then I moved on. In that respect, it's a lot like the spiritual path.

I'm overwhelmed just reading this post. I'm not saying you're not justified in how you feel, but you've got too much thinking going on for your own good. What you need is some delicious simplification. 1) Study up on how to get good with girls 2) Talk to girls 3) Repeat ad infinitum until you get a girlfriend or become celibate

Consciously, no one like suffering. Subconsciously, many people live for it. Which is why they get more and more of it. This is why bringing awareness to your actions and being honest with yourself is so powerful. When you truly see through the programming, it has to fall away.

Be careful with this. Positive focus is a great place often to start on the personal development journey. And so I'm not here to talk you out of it. But, there are better paradigms you're going to have to move onto at some point. Yes, you have subconscious programming that is running you. But the reason this negative programming is running you is because you're ultimately resisting it. I'd highly recommend checking out the book The Sedona Method. You may save yourself a lot of time and frustration.

And how can you prove your experience here and now is real? What if you're a brain in a vat somewhere like the matrix? And if you're a brain in a vat, how can you prove that brain in a vat isn't actually being mirage generated by aliens? Also, how can you prove that experience outside the here and now isn't real? And what's your proof of that proof?

Everybody comes to this stuff in their own way, let Spirit guide them. I follow the golden rule: if you don't ask, I don't push. Of course, he may not know what to ask for. In which case I'd just offer some suggestions. Meditation or yoga is an easy place to start getting into this kind of stuff.

Be aware of what you're eating. If you go in on an empty stomach, it's going to hit you harder. Do it early in the day, but do meditation first. You're going to be awake for a very long time. If you do a high dose, surrender and courage are going to be important. Since this is your first time I'm assuming with any psychedelic, I'd be cautious. Make sure you have nothing to do the next day, and maybe even the day after that. I spent almost an entire day just crying after my trip. If that happens to you, you've got to be able to feel your emotions. Becoming conscious of where you're holding back and release the resistance. Let it come up and out. Good luck. Report back with your results!

There are practices you can start that will help. But ultimately, I've found that unconditional love is a byproduct of increasing the accuracy of your perception of the world. For instance, when you're a low consciousness person, you see everyone as separate from you with no connection. In fact, since they're "not you", everything they do is either an attack or something that benefits you. If it's an attack, you're angry / afraid. If it's to your benefit, your love is conditional. From this perspective, it's easy to see how unconditional love is not possible. But then your consciousness moves up and your realize the only thing that divides us is concepts in the mind. We are separate, but also the same. Now it's much easier to show unconditional love. So I won't worry too much about "trying" to show unconditional love. "Trying" to show unconditional love is ego. Heal your own wounds, increase your connectedness to Truth and love can't help but follow.

Life purpose isn't just something you figure out and then poof, it's over. No. You will be continually refining your life purpose your entire life. Most people want to just "figure it out" and get it over with. They're confused, probably in pain and just want to have a purpose so they feel like they know what they're doing. You've got to fight that. I'm not saying don't trying to figure out what your purpose is...but you've got to be okay with the ambiguity and confusion. Go inside yourself. Don't run from the emotions, feel them fully and accept them completely. When was the first time you felt like this? Once you've done that, can you let it go? Can you let go of NEEDING to know what you're doing here? There is no "reason" to do anything. There is no "reason" for someone to sing. There is no "reason" to laugh or make a joke. But it turns out that reason isn't all its cracked up to be anyway. Do what you love because you love doing it. That's the only reason you need.

Very well said. This is tricky to explain because the mind loves to distort. "No-self" is technically a concept. "Non-existence" is a concept. Reality is transcends all of it. Really the only thing you can say is silence...but that doesn't get us very far in terms of practicality.

I understand where Leo is coming from when he advocates not partying. I look at how much time I spent partying, i.e destroying my body and drowning my pain, and I just shake my head. That being said, every parent tries to keep their kid from partying and it does no good. Why? Because if the desire is there, it's there. Repressing it only usually makes it worse. I've seen kid after kid who held back partying in high school because of their parents...and then as soon as they hit college explode. How else can you really learn? Sometimes you have to make the mistake yourself. So there's something to be said for looking at personal development as a process. Yeah, maybe you'll look back in 5-10 years and realize you wasted a bunch of your time. But now that insight is personal and genuine. Not something someone just told you to do. So I'm not going to tell you to party or don't party. I'll just say follow that intuition. You'll figure it out. There definitely are. And the fact that you're in college means every time you step outside there's a chance. See that girl in class? How about that one sitting on the bus? In line at the store? You can talk to all of them. There is literally nothing stopping you except maybe some beliefs you have. Also, how about building a social circle? Join some clubs, join greek life, join it all. College is filled with this kind of stuff. There are no shortage of opportunities. Only your willingness to receive them.

Fascinating stuff. Never tried it but could be an interesting experience to look into. I'll say that I definitely feel like we eat way more food than we need. He's right that most people eat out of comfort / emotional needs, not actual nourishment.