Michael Paul

Open Individualism (OI) is the theory in philosophy of self that there is only one subject, and this subject is every sentient being at all times. It’s a solution to the theory of personal identity. This is opposed to Closed Individualism, the common view which claims that personal identity is unique to individuals and survives over time, and Empty Individualism, which claims that personal identity is different at every moment (minimum unit of time). OI seems to be the most parsimonious and logical conclusion to the problem of personal identity. Regardless of your metaphysical commitments, whether you are a physicalist (materialist) or idealist (believing that the most fundamental aspect of reality is consciousness, as Leo does), it makes sense in either case. If, theoretically, the entire universe and all of existence was strictly physical, OI makes perfect sense. Quantum Field Theory states that any particle is an excitation of an all-pervading field, or fabric. Therefore, we are all vibrations or excitations of one all-pervading fabric, rather than discrete objects which come into and leave existence. This means that, essentially, we are all the same person. If idealism is true, and everything that exists is made out of one consciousness, then OI logically follows from this conclusion. If you’re interested in OI, I highly recommend Magnus Vinding’s book You Are Them.

The last few months of my life have been very difficult existentially. I fell out of touch with my spiritual side and temporarily adopted a strictly naturalistic, secular, and atheistic perspective on the universe and life. However, after taking a purely logical approach to understanding ourselves and our relationship to existence, I rediscovered the truth that all the great sages throughout history have taught us. I think what caused me to fall out of touch spiritually was the fact that I was trying to gain insight strictly by listening to teachers and trying to understand what they meant, rather than figure it out for myself. This ultimately frustrated me and forced me to give up the facade I had created of truly understanding. Here’s my current understanding: we are entirely comprised of the fundamental substance of existence itself, whatever that substance may ultimately be — pure consciousness/awareness, energy, etc. This is true even scientifically under the materialist paradigm — this view says we’re all made up of atoms, and atoms comprise the entire cosmos. Therefore, if each one of us is entirely made up of the substance of existence itself, then we are not separate from the totality of existence and hence are existence. There is no difference between us and existence itself. The entirety of existence is whole and can manifest itself into a potentially infinite number of forms, and this is everyone’s true Self. Continuing this line of thought, since we are existence and experience/perceive ourselves and existence consciously, then it follows that consciousness must be a fundamental attribute of existence since we are. This is because, if existence can develop a sense of individuated consciousness with each of us, then it itself must be conscious. There is no separation between our consciousness, mind, and perceptions and the rest of existence. The ego is the part of us which prevents us from seeing that there is no actual separation. All of our body’s actions are existence’s actions. Thanks for reading, hope you got something valuable out of this. I know these ideas are not original to me, it’s just that I’ve finally come to my own understanding of these things.

I think a found a potential solution to the dilemma of free will. From the perspective of the body-mind and/or separate self, free will is an illusion. This is the relative or personal view. However, from the perspective of the One Absolute Consciousness (this is what we truly are at our most fundamental core), which is primarily impersonal to the body-mind, we have total freedom or free will. It’s just that this freedom does not belong to any individual, separate ego. In other words, Consciousness is and has always been in control. Feel free to tell me what you think of this.

There is quite a bit of literature about the phenomenon of false memories. Also, many studies have confirmed how the human memory is extremely fallible and susceptible to alterations, distortions, confabulation, and even outright fiction. It’s difficult to discern a false memory from a real one because most of the time, we do not attempt to verify our subjective experiences — we just assume that these memories are real, almost video-like recordings of objective events. But that’s not how memory works at all. If you’re interested in this phenomenon, I highly recommend the work of Dr. Julia Shaw and Elizabeth Loftus. To take this a little further, if we get to a very deep level of awakening we can realize and even directly experience that our everyday notion of past, present, and future is illusory, and that only true Eternity (which is Consciousness or Awareness) actually exists. This is what people like Eckhart Tolle refer to as ‘the Now’. If ‘linear time’ is truly is illusory, than our memories are simply just references to experiences that take place in the Eternal Now.

A Course in Miracles denies that “creation” or the Universe is an aspect of the Divine, and instead considers it to be an illusion created out of guilt for having separated from God. Don’t believe that bullshit. I highly recommend you move on from ACIM. It’s anti-life, from what I’ve experienced.

This is a fantastic book which describes the Divine Nature perfectly. Dr. Hawkins explains God as simultaneously Unmanifest and Manifest as all of creation. Therefore, God is Transcendent (of time and space) as well as Immanent as the Universe. God’s omnipresence throughout all aspects of Reality is definite. This book is highly recommended to all authentic spiritual seekers. It opened my eyes to how Reality actually works, as well as the limitations of the separate self/ego-mind of the contracted human being.

The past never actually happened because it does not exist. Memory is an imagination, exactly the same as our imagination of the future. The future also does not exist. Space requires time to have substance, but since time is impossible, space is also impossible. The ego and all suffering is rooted in the idea that time actually objectively exists beyond the subjective human imagination of it. Therefore, we have no free will (how could we exert such a will when there is no body existing nowhere and at no time?) and do not exist.

@Jed Vassallo Deep contemplation

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Alexander Marchand, he’s an avid student of A Course in Miracles who created several comic books based off of the fundamental principles of the Course. I have to say that I don’t agree with much of what he (and the Course) says about the nature of reality. Marchand makes the claim in the book (copied straight from A Course in Miracles) that the mind of God dreamt up this universe “as an attack on God”, which doesn’t make sense because how could creation ever be separate from Oneness? He also talks about how the point of life is to wake up out of the dream, but in his paradigm doesn’t that mean to physically die? I understand awakening in the sense of becoming “lucid in the dream”, but to actually wake up out of the Universe? I don’t buy it. Even if this reality is a dream, it doesn’t mean it was created as an attack on God. That’s a concept from the Course that simply makes no sense to me. It’s dark and doesn’t ring true to me. Thoughts?

Be careful. Kundalini is an extremely powerful energy that should only be activated under guidance and with proper care and preparation. Speaking from personal experience with an involuntary awakening at age 18, just know that if you go down the path of Kundalini that you are sure to experience some very dark moments where the light will seem very distant, even if you take proper care and are responsible about it. Kundalini doesn’t mess around, and it’s crucial that we understand the dangers involved in pursuing it recklessly. It is not for the faint of heart. If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask. Any comments on your own experience with this energy are welcome, of course ?.

Mantak Chia’s The Multi-Orgasmic Man

After watching Leo’s latest video on death, I think I finally understand why I’ve been struggling with spirituality and suffering through the pain of confusion. It has to do with the fact that I haven’t seen that death is actually love. I spent much of the early part of my life fearing death, trying to run from death, until I had a full awakening into the nature of death — it’s nothing but love. When I was two years old, we lived in a 3 story house. My room was on the top floor and our chimney ran down the outside of the wall of my bedroom. One night as I lay in my bed, lightning struck the chimney and completely blew out the wall of my bedroom. I remember being so terrified that I couldn’t even speak or see anything. I had tunnel vision for a few hours. The noise is what scared me the most. I’m pretty sure that experience altered my unconscious reality and made me more sensitive to suffering and death than the average person. But now I’m able to recontextualize this experience and realize that this early brush with death was important because it gave me a new appreciation for life.

I’ve struggled with spirituality for my entire life. Even to this day I still have trouble grasping certain ideas and dealing with the ego’s fears surrounding my true divine nature. I feel a lot of pain, depression, and shame for certain actions I’ve done in the past, and I want to do better in the future. I don’t want my life to veer off into a negative direction where I’m chasing unhealthy pleasure to avoid pain and suffering, yet I find myself engaging in activities that I don’t think are good for me. Some of which include pornography and sex. I guess I just want to say that I’m not perfect but I want to do better.

@silene I’ve felt more able to forgive myself at different times in my life than this time period, and I’m not exactly sure why. It’s something I need to work on. And I’m not against sex per se, but a certain kind of unhealthy attachment, addiction and lustful pursuit of it.

I left this thread alone for a few days as I was traveling and had some pretty interesting revelations during that time period. I’m not quite sure why I even asked this question on this forum, I guess I just was in a different state of mind and thinking about people in a unique way. I don’t actually think other people exist in the way I used to, even a week ago.

By this I mean, could some people be totally lacking consciousness and higher intellect? Are there some people who look and act like conscious beings but on the inside they have no subjective experience of reality? And how would we ever know? I ask this because I also wonder whether everyone possesses Kundalini and if that determines whether they have a subjective consciousness. I’m not claiming this to be the case of every human, or even the majority of people. But some segment of the population.

Spinoza was a European philosopher in the 17th century who was one of the first of his time (in his culture) to propose a pantheistic understanding of God or Nature. His magnum opus, Ethics, directly challenged fundamentalist, traditional Judeo-Christian religion (and all religion in general) and tenets of God being an anthropomorphic being with characteristics of man. His understanding of God or Nature was that of an all-encompassing, eternal, infinite substance. He denied humans and even God as having free will, as everything is dictated by causes. Is anyone familiar with his work? If so, what are your thoughts on this great philosopher? It is my opinion that he had a certain degree of spiritual enlightenment.

@Leo Gura How come I’m imagining extreme levels of suffering if I don’t want to suffer at all?

Also, for anyone following this thread, Spinoza claims that humans and all finite beings are “modes” or expressions of God. So there is no contradiction here with what Leo teaches.

The ultimate truth can be pointed to through language and philosophy, but I agree with you that getting lost in philosophy won’t ultimately lead one to realization. I think it’s good, however, to find people who share common views to you who have a general understanding of how nature works. Even if they’re no longer alive and were from a different time period. Confirmation of knowledge through various sources can prove to be a great way to solidify understanding, in my opinion.

Check out Spinoza’s Ethics.

@Buba I’ve been through something similar. It’s hard. You have to keep going and not give up, eventually it gets better and you learn how to live with it.

If free will were an attribute that humans possess, on what basis would it make its decisions? So far in thinking about this question I’ve only been able to come up with three categories of answers, all of which seem to negate the existence of the “you could have done otherwise” free aspect of our will: 1. Deterministic (cause and effect) answers. This obviously is not free will. 2. Appeals to randomness (including quantum indeterminacy). Since, by definition, we cannot influence chance events, this does not match our intuitions of the “free” aspect of will. 3. Some combination of both determinism and randomness. Perhaps I’m not thinking deeply enough about this question. If you think you have a good answer to this problem that doesn’t fall into one of those three categories, please feel free to reply. If not, you’re still welcome to discuss!

@Buba Everyone is on a unique path. Some people are being elevated through different experiences, some of which are dark. These can be an extreme catalyst for growth. @bobbyward Masturbation can be grounding during the kundalini process. Just don’t over saturate yourself with it.

@Nahm Another deep insight for me to contemplate Nahm! Thanks!