DefinitelyNotARobot

@Raptorsin7 That's good to know! Thank you!

I should probably add that I am from Germany too! The Netherlands have a lot of good coffeeshops that sell different kinds of magic truffles. Mushrooms themselves are not being sold since they've made them illegal. The shops usually give you advise on how to consume them, which type of truffle to take for your first time tripping etc. They don't sell them dried (I think they don't sell dried ones), but they sell them for quiet a fair price. They have different "levels" of truffles. Some are stronger, some are weaker. I started with Psilocybe tampanensis aka. the philosopher's stones because that is the one they recommended to me. The trip changed my life forever! I can highly recommend them IF you respect them!

The only psychedelic I've tried were magic truffles. I think they are a good start IF you are prepared. I am not sure about doing them solo though. I had been smoking weed regularly prior to my first trip, so I can't tell whether it helped me handle the trip (probably not, I underestimated them and they overwhelmed the shit out of me), but I'd say that it is not required! They are two different things! (I like smoking weed on the comedown though). I'd say that magic truffles are probably the easiest drug to acquire depending on how far from the Netherlands you live. @Arzola I can confirm that weed can make you psychologically depended, so I'd be VERY careful with that. I know a lot of people who have a weed problem. That's why I'd tell you to stay away from it, there is really no benefit unless you REALLY want to try.

I have a few questions about dreaming as a spiritual practice. This includes normal dreaming, lucid dreaming and hypnagogia if you are familiar with that! What is the true power of our dreams? Can you dream with intention? Are there any practices regarding dreams? Can you intentionally gain insights from dreaming? Can you work on yourself within your dreams (Like within lucid dreams)? Can you use your dreams to communicate with your higher self? How can we make the most out of our dreams? Are there any oneironauts here, that can give me a few tips on how to get into dream traveling? I love dreaming, but I never thought about using my dreams in a more practical way. We spend a lot of time dreaming. Imagine what you could do if you'd use that time! I believe that dreams are an underrated superpower! And I would like to take this superpower more seriously! I'd like to learn a little bit about how dreams can be used! I also often experience hypnagogia if you are familiar with that term. Does anybody have any experience with this? It seems like a powerful state of consciousness and I would like to see if it can be used in any way. I really want to get into the whole oneironautic stuff. I am not sure if there are any "spiritual" ways of dreaming, but I'd like to find out!

Ah yes, that might explain why I stopped being lucid. I tried doing regular meditation. Thanks for the tip! Sounds like an interesting change of perspective! I guess I still have quiet some work to do, until I see any results. For me personally DILD is easier to pull off, but WILD is more powerful. You probably already know these things, but let me elaborate in case somebody is interested: Little side note: Meditation is an important tool for lucid dreaming! It will make lucid dreaming easier and you'll remember more dreams. You will still have to do other things like contemplating dreams, having a journal, etc. DILD: As I said, it is easier to achieve. All you need is a general awareness of your dreams. You can use a dream journal, it helps a lot!. But it take up a lot of time! What I also like to do is just think about the dreams I can remember. I like to make up a little story for them and connect different dreams with each other! The more you think about your dreams, the more aware you become. Reality checks are also pretty important! My favorite reality check is counting fingers! It works pretty well. Count them once, look away/close your eyes, look again and count them once more. Most of the time when you are dreaming, you will see the right amount of fingers the first time you count them, but the second time you count them you will have more/less fingers! A little anxiety can help too! You are less likely to check, if you are in a dream, if you are having a great time. WILD: Again, very powerful, but harder to pull off! The reason it's more powerful is because you have a higher awareness while in this state. But it also takes longer to fall asleep that way. I try to meditate 10 for minutes before going to sleep. I then try to stay in this meditative state while laying in bed. The hard part is staying aware! I do that by... a) ... concentrating on all the sensations in my body. I just try to be aware of the body. BUT you need to really focus! If you loose your focus just once, you can fall asleep! b) ... visualizing my body laying in bed! I like to visualize myself floating outside of my body, looking down on it, like I am in a out of body experience. Do both of these things at the same time! There are a few more hurdles that come your way though. Hallucinations: One problem is hypnagogia while being in sleep-paralysis. Basically the different parts of your brain fall asleep at different paces. Only a few people experience this while being awake (Including me which makes mediating when being tired really difficult), but a lot of people (about 1/5-1/3 of all people) experience this while falling asleep! - "Sleep paralysis may include hypnagogic hallucinations, such as a supernatural creature suffocating or terrifying the individual, accompanied by a feeling of pressure on one's chest and difficulty breathing. Another example of a hallucination involves a menacing shadowy figure entering one's room or lurking outside one's window, while the subject is paralyzed." And that is the problem! You can start hearing sounds, or seeing images WHILE your mind falls asleep! They might be pretty harmless: Hearing somebody say your name, hearing somebody yell a random word ("CHEESE!"), seeing a random image of a house, etc. But they might get a little intense too! I once had a shadow figure stand over my bed, grinning at me with it's sharp teeth. Kinda looked like this one. It then started screaming at me a few times. Yesterday, when I tried to enter a dream, a little man came through my door. He kept running around in my room. He stopped and just stood there, looking at me. He then ran towards me and just said "BOO!", waking me out of my sleep-paralysis. These things easily distract/confuse you! Explosive Head Syndrome: Another irritating problem is EHS. This is pretty rare and it isn't something that everybody experiences, but it can happen! Especially when trying to enter a waking dream. Imagine laying in bed. Suddenly a small light appears. This light gets brighter and brighter until it literally blinds you! Suddenly your entire body starts shaking violently, almost like a seizure! (This "phenomena" is related to epilepsy, but it's not dangerous, it also has nothing to do with chronic epilepsy, so don't worry). Your heart starts beating real fast, and the bright light, which for me tends to be a turquoise-ish, golden light, is flowing through every fiber of your body! Adrenaline will start pumping through your veins and all of the air in your lungs will get "pushed" out. It's called "explosive head syndrome" because it's usually accompanied by a loud sound, but I personally never get that. It's different for everybody. The problem with this is that it's incredibly overwhelming! Staying focused while this is happening is incredibly difficult! It won't happen to everybody, but if it happens try not to get distracted by the experience. I personally call it the "light-tunnel" because it feels like being shot through a tunnel of pure, bright light at a really high speed! You can guess that's it's pretty hard to navigate! -- You might also get lucky and have non of these. When the dream approaches I'll usually start seeing a vague image. I will try to stay aware of that image, without concentrating too much. The image will get bigger and bigger, while also becoming more vivid. I will eventually "enter" the image and the image will turn into a dream! Again it takes a lot of mindfulness and a lot of concentration. On top of that falling asleep while concentrating on something can take quiet a while! Do this only when you have some time to spare! If you manage to do it brace yourself for a weird experience! You will STILL be aware of your body! You will be aware of all the sensations from the outside. It will feel like being awake. Only difference being that you are ALSO aware of the dream! Pretty weird. It feels like tripping! The good thing is that you will be VERY aware of your dream! You will recall most of the things you do! But set an intention! If you go in without an intention, you'll drift into a normal dream very easily. I hope this was helpful for anybody reading this! Keep in mind that it works differently for everybody! You'll have to find your own way.

@Serotoninluv Thank you for sharing your story! I assume that I am above average when it comes to dreaming? I'm not sure actually. I had lucid dreams since I was 4. I know of people who didn't have them until they were in their 20's, so I guess I can work with that! I know that feeling! Here is a few experiences I had: I always had sleep paralysis. But the nature and frequency of these experience changed when I started meditating! I often wake up seeing weird stuff. Entities running around in my room (some of them are very scary), my ceiling being made out of water, etc. On one occasion, where I was pretty tired and high, I actually managed to fall asleep with my eyes wide open. I was looking at my hand and my hand merged with my imagination. My fingers suddenly had smiley faces and little hats. They also had instruments and where playing a jazz song like a little jazz band! It was pretty funny. I then snapped out of it being really confused. Sometimes I can't even differentiate between a "real" memory and a dream memory. Sometimes when I remember something, I am not sure whether it had really happened. Sometimes I remember something, that happened in a dream, as having REALLY happened. Sometimes it's the opposite. Sometimes my dreams get so real that I am genuinely shocked when I wake up, realizing that I had just been dreaming! Sometimes the "real" world influences my dreams. For example: I once dreamed that I had a pineapple farm. My alarm went off, but I didn't wake up. Instead I thought that the alarm came from inside the dream, indicating that the pineapples were ready... for harvest. So I spend my morning harvesting pineapples instead of going to school... These are just a few weird examples. But I think I can probably do it if I just take it seriously! As you said; It's large investment of work. But I am willing to put in the work! I am not sure, but I think I had one of those once! Kind of. It was about 10 - 12 years ago. I dreamed that I was sitting in a train. Suddenly, the rails broke and the train ended up derailing, causing a lot of people to die. I woke up not thinking anything about it. I turned on the TV and what I saw shocked me! A train had derailed costing a lot of people to loose their lives! IT WAS EVEN THE SAME TRAIN! I was so shocked! But I had a theory. I noticed that I could hear the neighbors TV through the walls. I also could also hear, that they were watching the same channel. My theory is that I could hear the news of the train derailing within my dream (similar to the pineapple story) and that it had influenced my dream. But I am not sure... To this date... Anyways, I'd like to ask you if you saw any changes within your waking life? Did you perceive reality differently? Did you gain some insights from the experience that helped you in your life? Would you say that it was worth it, all in all? Again, thanks for sharing your story! I gained a few good insights from it! I'm even more determined to take lucid dreaming more seriously!

Be careful not to fall into a trap. I am not saying that you are wrong. I'm just asking you to be careful. Don't let anybodies opinion persuade you into believing their conspiracy. Do the research for yourself. Research the history of the singular eye. Research different cultures, meanings etc. Research the companies that use the singular eye. Research the Illuminati independently. Don't believe YouTube videos even if they claim to have the "truth", because even a lie can become the truth when enough people believe in it. You can find eyes literally anywhere. The singular eye is an ever-present archetype. It's a very significant part of not only life in general, but many spiritual and cultural traditions. A single eye can stand for a lot of things. Research all the different meanings for yourself. Also: There are a lot of conspiracy theorists today. Be careful, not only about what you believe, but also about what kind of information you spread! Claiming that somebody is part of an oppressive, elitist, lobbyistic society is a big accusation. It might not be doing much right now, but everything you do will eventually have consequences. This isn't a movie. This is life. And those consequences can range from being unimportant to being very serious. Please think about what you are doing, You are talking about other people here. You wouldn't want anybody to accuse you for stuff like that, wouldn't you? Just because you can't trust the media, the news, the politicians, doesn't mean that you should believe everybody opposing them. The media might have malicious intents, but so could all the conspiracy theorists that claim that the media is evil. Trust only your own research, your own knowledge and your own experience. Again, I'm not saying that you are wrong, but knowledge holds a lot of power. And knowledge can be false. False knowledge can damage the world in significant ways. Please be responsible when sharing "knowledge", or "truth".

@luckieluuke I never thought about it that way! Most of the time when I become lucid I get distracted by doing fun stuff. Interesting perspective! I tried meditating in my dreams 3 times now. It went like this: I start to meditate. I suddenly start floating. I forget that I'm in a dream. I'm confused about how I'm floating. I spend the rest of the dream floating around. I can't seem to stay aware of the fact that I'm dreaming when trying to meditate. Do I just have to practice being aware of my dreams? Sound very interesting! I'll check that technique out! @Petals @herghly Thanks for the suggestions!

Okay, but what is happiness?

I am asking this, because I feel like I am getting this one wrong! Let's say I am sitting in meditation and a thought comes up. I notice the thought and I just want to let it pass without judging it. So I just bring my focus back to my breath. But to me it doesn't "feel" like I am letting the thought go. It feels like I am forcefully shutting it down! A better way of describing it is that the thought is "fighting back" like an animal trying to stay alive. Like that thought actually has a "will" to live. But what is the thought fighting back against? Another thought! That's where I get confused! Because the intention of letting a thought go, feels like just another thought! I say feels because it doesn't manifest itself as an image, a sentence or a sound. It manifests itself through an action! And that's my problem! Every time I try to let a thoughts go, it's just like another thought! It doesn't feel like a genuine letting go, but rather like a "I am letting this go because I am meditating and that's why I am doing this" which is yet another thought. Do you have any tips on that? How can you ever let go of a thought, if the letting go is a thought itself? I mean I can let go of a thought that has the form of a sentence, but how can I let go of a thought in form of an intention? Or better yet: How do I let go of the objectives of meditation?

@OmniYoga True! The problem with "objective" reality is that it's a believe! And people can make a believe come true! For example: God isn't true for you if you are an atheist. But god is true for you if you are a theist! Let's say you live in a country run by a theistic government. One day the government decides to make atheism illegal. Every atheist gets the death penalty! You, an atheist, claim that god isn't real, but how could something that is not real have real effects on your life? How could reality be changed by a something that isn't even real? See? It doesn't matter whether something is "real" or not! Human imagination is powerful enough to make it become real! All you need is people! You can turn "insanity" into "sanity" if you have enough backup! If you get enough people to believe you, you stop being "insane"! And that is my point! "Sanity". "Objectivity". All of these just mean the same: A lot of people believe in it. If a single person claims to be able to talk to ghosts... well... they'd probably be put on medication. But what if every third human being on earth claimed to be able to talk to ghosts? Would you call a third of the entire population "insane"? Probably not! Society would most likely believe them to a certain degree! That's why talking about objectivity is so complicated! You could be right, but are you telling the truth if nobody else believes you? Having a truth different from everybody else tends to be labeled "insane"...

@Aaron p So true! I used to have social anxiety, but I then realized that it was my attention that was feeding the anxiety. So I just let it be. I still get anxious from time to time, but the anxiety doesn't influence me anymore! I suppose thoughts work the same way. @Serotoninluv Thanks! ❤️ @WelcometoReality I'll try to become more aware of them as they arise! Those damn thoughts just REALLY like to sneak into my awareness without me even noticing!

@Bno I see how this could cause panic attacks! I observed the confusion I had and I could see that it was coming from a pretty anxious place. It felt like I was just "forcing" the meditation instead of just letting it happen. I think it was just the ego trying to stay in control! @Preetom Good tip! I tried observing the observer and it felt like I was moving into the right direction. It felt a little confusing, but it helped my mind be a little more peaceful! @WelcometoReality It's funny because it's relatively easy for me to not identify with the sensations in the body. It's the mind where it gets a little tricky for me! I intellectually understand that "I" am not the mind. I also do understand that "my" thoughts are simply thoughts and that I shouldn't identify with them. But I can't seem to get these things into my direct experience! I guess I still have a lot of meditation to do! @Litaken I like that! Reminds me of the saying: "Treat yourself like you'd treat a good friend!" I would feel pretty bad if I treated others the way that I treat myself from time to time... @Serotoninluv @Bluff These tips were pretty helpful! I saw how both, the sounds of the birds and the thoughts of the mind, arose out of pure nothingness! Just like waves arising out of an ocean! @SoonHei That's pretty accurate! I see the same thoughts/topics echo through the mind again and again! It's pretty draining, but I feel like I am on a good path now! @Matt23 Yeah I guess I was making it more complicated than I should have. My perfectionistic ego was just trying to meditate the "right" way... It was trying to force the meditation. It was trying to "get results". I guess I just have to be a little bit more patient with myself! I gotta "let whatever happens happen"! Oh and thank you for the video! I found it to be very helpful! @King Merk Good analogy! I guess I have to give myself some time and let the "letting go" become more natural. It will come with time! Thanks for all the answers, I appreciate all the help! Much love and peace! ✌️

Thanks everybody! I appreciate your help! Peace! ✌️

I've always been kind of a loner, so thinking has been an integral part of my life. I was enjoying this very active mind of mine for most of my life! I didn't talk to a lot of people, so I focused my energy on my excessive day dreaming instead. Then I did magic truffles once... I saw how I didn't just have an "active mind". No, I was getting LOST in my thoughts! I saw how I was getting lost in a world of ideas, concepts and fantasies! It's not just my thoughts though. I always have a strong need to be doing something. Literally just anything. Sometimes I just sit there, watching mediocre videos about topics I don't really care about, because I always have the need to be doing something. I am running on low energy on default, so spending the energy the I DO have on this kind of bullshit is just a waste... But I have to start from somewhere. And I think the best place to start with is my mind. I am doing meditation already. It helped me a lot over the last few months, but I am still too focused on my mind! I've now stated a journal on top of my meditation practice and it helps a little, but I am STILL to focused on my mind! I sometimes just sit there day dreaming, being AWARE of myself day dreaming, but not being able to stop because it just feel so damn good! And that's the point! It's like an addiction! I WANT to stop, but it just feels so good that I can't! I have a VERY strong ego, so is it just my ego trying to survive? It feels like something is trying to keep me distracted! Most of my life has been built around those distractions, but I never assumed that there was anything wrong with it. I just wanted to have "fun"! I am now 22 years old. I realized that there was something wrong with the way I live just like 8 months ago. All of these things are a pretty big part of my ego and I can't see beyond my ego yet. That means that they are a big part of who I am, since I haven't experienced anything else but the ego! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How do I deal with all of this? How do I let go of my mind and my thoughts? How do I step out of my mind? And why do I resist letting go? Do I just keep meditating and writing my journal? Is there more to this kind of growth than just practice? Where does such understanding come from? Experience? Something higher than that? I feel a lot of confusion about these things. I've seen a lot of theories about the ego, the mind and all that other stuff. But all it has done is clutter my mind with even more concepts and ideas on how I SHOULD act. Do you have any tips for my situation? Or am I just being too impatient? Thanks in advance!

@Nahm Thanks, that was pretty insightful! Sounds interesting! I gotta try it out! @VeganAwake Thanks! Any specific Yoga style you would recommend me? inFlow already recommended Kriya Yoga, so I think I will try it out. I'd also like to know how your meditation/yoga schedule looks like! Do you do both? Everyday? Or do you mediate everyday while you do Yoga every other day? I currently meditate 30 minutes a day and I still have some time to spare. How much would you recommend to a beginner?

@luckieluuke I agree with this! I personally love to make music! Music is great and it frees me a lot! @Nahm I enjoyed your post! Pretty helpful! This one made me think... Hmm. Can I ask you what you mean when you say mind? What is that mind we are all sharing here? I am asking this because the scientific definition of mind describes a set of cognitive features. But that seems like a rather simplistic way of thinking about "mind". What would your definition of mind be? If it's definable that is. Makes sense. I once almost had an ego death, but something resisted. It felt like going insane. Letting go of the mind felt like letting go of the thing "that kept me safe". I felt like I was going to do something reckless for example. Something irrational and stupid. I only realized that I had nothing to worry about after the trip was over. Hmm. I can only think about one thing at a time, so thinking about something that creates unhappiness seems rather backwards. But are you saying that you should let go of "unwanted" thoughts to make room for wanted thought? Or shouldn't you believe thoughts at all? Not even a pleasant one? What is the best way to inspect a thought? Is it by contemplation, or is it by simple observation? Or is there a better technique? I find that writing a journal helps me see how fragile some thoughts really are. I sometimes write down a thought and immediately question the legitimacy of that thought. That usually doesn't happen when I'm just day dreaming, only when I write the journal. Thanks for the answers guys!

@inFlow Yeah I read a little bit about it. Also thanks for the links!

@inFlow I've been thinking about establishing a Yoga habit for a couple of weeks now, so this is pretty convenient! Thank you!

@inFlow Sounds interesting! I'll check it out! Do you have any good material for getting into Kriya Yoga? Maybe a YouTube video that helped you? Or a website that offers some information? @Ero True. It's not exclusive to me, but I just don't know anything else. So it feels kind of hard to get out of this state of mind. I tell myself a lot of those stories, even though I do understand that it's all just happening in my mind. But why? Where does that come from? Why does the mind keep telling itself all those stories? Is that just the nature of the ego? Also how do you know when you are ready for spiritual work? I suppose you just "know"?

These things are pretty undescriptive. Can you elaborate any further? What do you mean by the world feeling "different"? How did the world differ from what you are used to? What felt random? What was abnormal? I know it might be hard to describe this experience using words, but try your best! Did the world feel "alienish"? Like the world was the same, but different at the same time? Like you were in a dream, or watching a movie? Like you were observing the world from behind a window? Did you just get a different vibe from the world? I had a lot of weird experiences on weed! A few of them were beautiful, a few of them kinda scary! Weed can be a good tool for self-discovery! I used to be very antisocial (the "fuck all people, I don't need anyone but me" type), until I got really high and realized how I was just scared of other people hurting me! I used to get a lot of anxiety attacks in social situations, I also used to get pretty anxious/paranoid when smoking weed! I used the anxiety/paranoia I got from smoking weed, to learn how to cope with my anxiety in my everyday life! Weed can bring forth a lot of more "hidden" parts of yourself. It can show you the things that you are good with, it can show you the things you are bad with! But don't run from those things! Don't just label these experiences as "Oh man, I am having a bad high right now!", but try to observe and understand! Why did it feel awful? WHO thought it was awful? Was it your mind? Was it your intuition? Was it both? What exactly felt so awful? Was it the world? Was it the people? Was it the environment you was in? Weed can get your mind off of things! Some people use it to run away from their sorrows! But being really high makes the mind pretty effective at contemplation! Next time when you are high, and you think everything feels "weird" and "awful" try not to look at the thing that is awful and random, but try to look at the place this sense is coming from, aka. your mind! Why does the mind think that? What is going on in the mind while this is happening? But again, I can't make much of your initial post, it could mean a lot of things. These are just a few random thoughts that might help you!

Thanks, appreciate it!

Most reggae I know is probably in stage green. Sometimes I find reggae that shows some yellow tendencies, but it can also show orange and blue tendencies as well! Who are the yellowest reggae artists/songs you know? I am basically looking for some spiritual reggae. Something that is transcendental. Something that is enlightening and insightful. I am sure that there is some yellow reggae out there, but I don't know where to start! It doesn't have to be something like the "WOKEST REGGAE OF ALL TIME". I am just looking for something that speaks not to the ego, but to the heart. Reggae satsang too can be enjoyable but in this case I am talking about actual artists/original performances. Peace! ✌️

That's what I was looking for, thanks!

@onacloudynight I agree on this one! The mind uses distraction to cope with internal stress. When you get lost in your thoughts it happens because your thoughts are more pleasing than your emotions/the external stress factors you are dealing with. When you get lost in an activity (for example gaming) it happens because, again, the activity is more pleasing than the stuff you are dealing with. Like onacloudynight said: Try to do a dopamine fast for a week. No gaming, no going out with friends, but also no thinking. Just try to sit there for a week doing nothing. Just being present. It will be boring as HELL. But that is the point of it. Become aware of the boredom. Ask yourself why you are getting bored. What is that sensation of being bored? Why do you get bored? Why can't you just sit there enjoying the moment as it is? Why do you have to do stuff all the time. I don't have ADHD but instead ADD which is basically the same thing minus being hyperactive. (also known as Inattentive ADHD) So I can relate to your situation! I have recognized that I am addicted to distraction and boredom is just a withdrawal-like effect. Get rid of all your distractions and take a look inside. Take a look at what being you feels like. Being NOTHING but you. ADHD can be pretty difficult to deal with so I wish you best of luck!