DefinitelyNotARobot

@integral No this was supposed to be an example of a younger Kanye who was much more self-reflective.

One of his cousins should convert to Judaism, that would fix the issue, All jokes aside, it's actually weird to see this side of Kanye. He used to be muuch more down to earth. I find it sad that he got lost in these far right ideologies. I think this is a great example of what Leo was talking about in his video on the trap of a toxic life purpose.

If he put all of that self-destructive energy into his music he might've dropped another good project, but I guess Kim really broke this mans brain beyond repair. I feel sorry for his children.

Isn't the reason for why I'm not experiencing the pov of other people because I am finite, and that if I became infinite it would also include their experiences and every possible experience that could be experienced? So isn't the "non-existence" of other povs just another finite concept, or a human perception?

I had that insight a few times, especially while watching certain, highly conscious, spiritual teachings. It's the same vibe as talking to people in your dreams. And you're right, that's a big mind fuck! I wish I could recognize our shared being more often during daily life.

If I hold a blue ball in my left hand and a red ball in my right hand, I can notice that there is a subtle belief in a basic distinction between blue ball vs. not the blue ball, or red ball vs, not the red ball. The blue ball is the blue ball but not the red ball and the red ball is the red ball but not the blue ball. And it's such a convincing belief too! It feels so "obvious" and so "common sense". But when I try to put my finger on the actual distinction my mind can only point towards relative properties like the colors red and blue, but not to the fundamental essence of the objects/the distinctions themselves. And though I'm starting to see how all of these distinctions are just beliefs, it doesn't make them any less convincing in my daily life. Especially when suffering is involved. It's funny how I went through most of my life not noticing that this is just a belief. I mean it's so obvious! Of course it's a belief, what else could it be? But it's a very deeply rooted belief and it's such a big part of my literal sense of reality that I can see how I might've let it slip for the past 24 years. It's very sneaky, but ridiculous obvious at the same time. I'm curious to know what lies beyond these distinctions, though I'm also scared because I know what it's like to loose your sense of reality from previous trips. I still think it's time for another serious trip so I can get a better glance at these sneaky distinctions. It also made me realize that there are many more of these sneaky beliefs that I'm still oblivious to. That's weird and lowkey unsettling, but also cool and exciting, because it opens up a lot of opportunities for what life could be.

Maybe more videos on your blog? Like shorter 10 - 20 min videos about interesting insights you've had lately. You could make it a small series. Or just experiment more with your video formats in general, the blog is perfect for that. I liked what you did with that "Reading A Poetic Description Of God-Consciousness" video. I can only speak for myself, but it inspires me when I see content creators try out new things. That's a big part of being artistic. I know that you're content is supposed to be more of an "trans-intellectual" (I don't know if that's accurate, but it feels right) type, that's why I'd like to see more of your artistic side on your blog. See it as an alternate way to communicate the beauty of existence.

You should read up on trauma. I love the book "The Body Keeps The Score" by Bessel Van Der Kolk. It gives you a solid perspective of what trauma does to your mind and body and a few ways to deal with it. Trauma can trap you in circles for many reasons. There is neurological reasons as well as psychological ones. One idea for example is that traumatized people subconsciously recreate traumatic experiences in order to "get the upper hand" over the experience. But that can backfire because you can get re-traumatized again and again. Think of how something like a smell can sometimes trigger nostalgic memories from your childhood. In the same way certain inputs, like the feeling of abandonment, can trigger you to relive some traumatic experience (the interesting thing is that your brain can't actually distinguish between your memory of a traumatic experience and the present moment, so you literally feel like you're back in that memory, even if the present moment isn't as bad) which might look like you're "over-reacting" from the outside, but is a valid experience neurologically and emotionally speaking (though other peoples judgement can also be valid in that they can help you see problems you yourself don't see). It's simply a negative feedback loop. You can also look at it from a karmic perspective. What you're basically trying is to burn through your karma and break the circle of your suffering. And you're already on the right path, since you're here on this forum, reading these words. See it as a confirmation from the universe that you're headed in a good direction and that things will be alright. That's because you've gotten into contact with your inner child. That's what this is. These images of the angry child are glimpses of your own inner child. Becoming aware of this is also a good first step. Think of what kind of "parent" you want to be for your inner child. If you were a child, and you felt like this, what would you want to hear from one of your parents? Say these words to yourself and see how your inner child responds. You can try and have a conversation with it, it might feel weird at first, but it can be very revealing. You can write it down, say it internally or say it out loud (probably not around other people or they'll think you're crazy lol). Ask and feel into its needs and wants. Give it some warmth and love. Just take a break from all the drama and whoever you feel like is harassing you and take it easy. Nobody will ban you if you stay out of all the drama.

@Tyler Robinson Good for you! That's already a huge step. Best of luck with your struggles.

Because you seem to struggle with this. You're right in that you have a very "loud" personality. People notice you. That's why it's even MORE important to learn how to deal with these things yourself.

@Tyler Robinson That's the problem. You can't hold it back. It just draws you in. You're like a moth that flies into a lamp, gets hurt, and blames the lamp for being too hot. Personally I don't have anyone on my ignore list. I just don't engage with people I don't like, unless they post something that interests me. If they're being rude I just move on with my day. That's me. You're obviously a different person and I'm not telling you to be just like me, which would be boring, but I'm giving you an alternative perspective to yours, which is that you don't have to engage with these people. You don't have to read their posts. You don't have to let them get to you. You could do it differently, just like thousands of others on this forum don't seem to have a problem with it. It's all a choice. It's YOUR choice. You can choose to take control back from the people who keep harassing you, by not reading their posts. That's it. That's the worst you can do to them. It's to not give them attention. Now what @Razard86 was getting at is that you can either a.) block people, or b.) train your own mind to be able to ignore them out of its own power! I've struggled with addiction in the past and I can tell you that forcing your problems to go away through external means (for example: I used to give my computer to my mother when I felt like I was playing too many video games), can help, but most of the time its just a way to ignore the root problems of your addiction. The most powerful solution is this:

@Tyler Robinson I don't mean to be rude, but you're one of the people on the forum who engage in drama the most. I think this is something you should REALLY really contemplate deeply, because you seem to have a problem with this. There also seems to be a lot of projecting in your post (I'm not saying that as a judgement, I'm basically doing the same thing right now). I hope you find a healthy way to deal with drama.

Very true! I love me some drama from time to time, it can be fun, but it can also become an addiction. I think some people just can't help themselves. I think a little drama is okay, but you have to accept that you are taking part in it. It's a cooperative effort. It's funny to me when people crave drama, get what they want, and then blame others for it! It's a very sneaky way to keep doing what you're doing without having to change your behavior. Because if it's always an-other that is creating your problems, then there is simply nothing you can do about it! And thus the game continues. I can catch myself doing the same thing every now and then. It's beautiful how much you can learn about yourself from watching others and vic versa.

Are we talking about the website or Actualized.org as a whole (including the YouTube channels)? Personally I would like to see live Q&A's. I mean YouTube allows for live streaming, so why not use that opportunity to expand your teachings to that medium? You could run a test stream to see how it works out. There is a chance that it might end up being a mess with trolls flooding the chat, but that's why running a test could be helpful, just to see how you can handle that format. People also have a point with the site looking/feeling outdated, but I honestly don't think it's that important considering what this forum is supposed to be. There is just a few UI changes that might be appropriate. A dark mode would be nice, though it's not THAT important since there are other ways to get that going (browser extinctions and such). That's also a +1 for me. Mega-threads are kind of all over the place. An extra tab with all featured posts would be nice. That's also a great idea! Maybe a feature to bookmark blog posts (or star/favorite them)? Finding specific blog posts can be a pain in the ass.

What makes something conscious to begin with? Like if you built a human, atom by atom, at which point would the human become "conscious"? Could a single atom make the difference? What I'm getting at is that we lack a clear definition of consciousness, perhaps because there is none, which makes it difficult to assess at which point something can be considered conscious in any meaningful capacity. Maybe AI is conscious in a very "primitive" sense, a very basic form of consciousness so to speak.

It's just another narrative. I mean why does there have to be a reason? I think you should look at the source of the question for answers. What are the beliefs and assumptions that gave rise to that question in the first place? And then deconstruct those.

I've had experiences with lucid dreams where I became aware of the fact that I was dreaming and all the characters around me suddenly dropped "their act". It's like you're playing this game with yourself where you pretend to be different people with their own seperate identifies and once that illusion fades, all of the characters immediately know their true nature. The interesting thing is that I've had similar intuitions with people in real life. Sometimes it feels like it's all a game of peekaboo where everybody knows that all of this is all game, but would obviously deny it because it's all part of the game. And they take the game very seriously! You could literally torture them and they wouldn't tell you a thing. Just like it's often the case in dreams. I remember my first lucid dream from when I was like 6. I was dreaming that I was with a friend when I became lucid. I told my friend that it was all just a dream and he didn't believe me! I was like: "Look I can fly!" and he was like: "Well there could be another explanations for it." and I went: "Look I can't die!" and jumped off of a building, but he was still convinced that we weren't in a dream. So does eveybody know it's just an act? Or do people literally have 0 clue? I sometimes feel like the dream is revealing itself through characters. It's like all of reality is Self-aware! That's so fucking weird! What I wonder is, if it would be possible to awaken to such a radical degree, that literally all of reality awakens, in the same way that there are dreams where I'm lucid, but the characters are still in their roles, and dreams where the entire dream merges into a single mind. I guess I shouldn't say "merge" since it's not like there were independent minds to begin with. It was always one mind from the start.

Why do you want to quantify God realization? That's like asking how many empty spaces there are between these words. There's just space. In the end, only God can realize itself, because that's all there is. You can't seperate God realization from God, as if they're two individual entities.

Do reality checks again and again throughout the day (just use a time, the more often the better), meditate before sleep (you can also try to meditate into sleep) and sleep on the back (I can't explain that one, but I personally have significantly more lucid dreams when I sleep on the back for some reason). See it less like a habit you're trying to build and more like a scientific experiment you're running. Genuinely contemplate the possibility of you being in a dream when you do reality checks, don't just do them mechanically. All of this also kind of depends on how prone you are to lucid dreaming and dreaming in general. Keeping a dream journal and contemplating your dreams immediately after you wake up can improve your ability to remember dreams. I can be helpful to exercise that part of your mind.

I've been trying to build some meta skills lately. Currently I'm interested in learning about learning. I was wondering if there are any interesting models/systems for learning more efficiently. I asked Google, but most of what I found was rather shallow. I'm looking for something more holistic. Anybody here got any models worth sharing?

Damn that's deep... I know that I don't truly understand just how deep this goes, but my intuition is telling me that this is like really really important. Thank you for sharing this beautiful insight!

@Tyler Robinson And that's where you're wrong. Men don't feel the same about women as women feel about men. I'm not sure what your average woman would think of two attractive guys kissing, but I can tell you that your average man would find two attractive women kissing hot. The emphasis is on attractive. The thing with Ellen Degeneres is that... well she just isn't conventionally attractive. Guys don't find her unattractive because of her sexuality, but because of her just not being attractive to them. That's all there is to it. As long as the women are attractive the guy will like it. It's like watching femininity dance by itself, with itself. It's very beautiful. Not all guys think like that, but most of the outliers had to be conditioned into their positions in the first place. For them it could be about sexual shame, repressed homosexuality, religious reasons, being raised in a conservative household or whatever. But even they can be inconsistent with their views when they're horny.

@Tyler Robinson I'm not sure how that had anything to do with what I said. All I said was that your question of whether a guy would find a lesbian attractive is funny. Also I don't give a shit about what your fucking ex said. I'm a man myself. I don't need to hear about what some third party once told you in order to know how guys think. He could've been an exception, he could've lied to you or whatever. Lesbian porn isn't one of the most popular categories for men for no reason. Maybe you should've tried making out with another girl in front of him and see whether he would've still hated it. ?

That's so funny. Most guys would probably think that's hot af to be honest. I know guys who're really homophobic (religious reasons) and even they'd forget about their homophobia the moment two lesbians wanted a threesome.

@Bobby_2021 His presentation wasn't perfect. There were a lot of moments where I cringed, because I could see the value of his message, but knew exactly that people where going to misunderstand him because of how he was presenting the points. It has nothing to do with people not being tough enough. It has to do with the fact that his communication had obvious flaws in it which are going to loose progressives who listen to this. This is inevitable, as communication is limited, but there is still value in pointing this out. I am a progressive, but I've been contemplating the limits of progressivism for a while, so it wasn't difficult for me to open myself up to the message he was trying to get across. If I put myself into the shoes of someone a little more defensive while watching this episode I can clearly start to see the limits of his communication. There were a few bits of unnecessary straw manning and a couple of points where I felt like he was focusing on an overly specific strain of progressive, which might make him seem disconnected from your everyday progressive, just to give an example.