WonderSeeker

Simplicity = Beauty , my friend Yeah exactly. I think the main point is to conform consciously.

First of all Leo, thank you for the most comprehensive explanation of this almost universal human pattern I've ever seen. It's so pervasive, it's akin to breathing air. To pay back the value, I want to briefly share my recent experience with conformity in my own life on this sub-forum. 3 weeks ago I moved from the U.S. to South Korea. Immediately I saw my mind picking up on gross and subtle signs of what this culture values and how it behaves. I laughed at your example of the Japanese handing others items with both hands instead of just one, because that's also a common custom here. Although, it's more the old generation that cares about such things, showing that the culture is evolving with time (albeit from one conformist habit to another!) In my own experience I took note of the insane beauty standards and fashion trends here. In some of the busiest parts of the city I'm living in, Daegu ( 대구), 1 in 4 people there (especially the ladies) look like they could be magazine models. Since moving here I've already spent 180,000₩ ($125) on new clothing. Granted, the clothing I replaced was 3-6 years old and starting to wear. But still I see the effect the culture has had on my mind to some degree and my desire to fit-in/embrace it, depending on which lens you use. In any case, I'll give myswlf the benefit of the doubt. My decision to go out and update my wardrobe was at least 70% conscious as I wasn't in a crazy hurry to do so. I still haven't watched K-pop or K-drama yet and don't really care if people think my style is out there (after taking Julien Blanc's TM Mentoring recently I've become much more confident and care-free in my skin). Anyways, if you've read through I'm curious... in what ways have you confirmed in recent days, weeks, or months? Cheers!

Wow dude you have tons of sexual experience. Pat on the back for that! I've had like 6 at age 27 (missed out on another 5 or so due to the "demi" factor for sure. But of course, body count is a stupid human game. Depth matters as much, if not more. So, my 6 feels like 30; and whenever I am with a new partner it's like I get the experience of 5 lays in 1 hahaha. Being an HSP has its perks (because, intensity). Anyways, it sounds like you've made quite a transformation. I too value having a beautiful space, though I've never fully actualized one as I'm constantly moving cities (I value geographic novelty pretty hardcore being in my 20s still). Now I understand why the pool feels so limited for you. There aren't many out there who value beauty. Or, they over-value overstimulation, hype, materialism, and consumerism. (Having just moved to the 3rd largest city in Korea I've noticed a huge materialist culture. So finding my ladies here will be quite a fun challenge, haha.) P.S. - The reason I call my demi-sexuality more innate is because, over the years I've taken girls home or gone to their places on several occasions and either sex didn't cross my mind, or it did, but I got confused about why my body wasn't feeling it alongside the mind. Happened when I brought a girl home from high school (parents not home). Happened after clubs in Miami (went up elevator with 2 Latinas, but lost attraction after they got in a cat-fight). Happened after a homemade dinner date with college chick at her place... sat in her bed and we looked at each other and my brain said 'yes', but my body was like "no, even though idk why." And another time in college... same thing. P.S.S. - Yeah there's a ton of watchers on here. They watch the videos as fans (or even read the forum in the same way), but don't like actually self-reflecting and sharing for some reason.

Yes, actually did some research into it the other day. I think I've had it for a long time tho. What signs are you seeing in yourself?

I've been following Julien's content deeply for 3 years. I can tell you he's distanced himself from Owen quite a bit. He actually disagrees with him often (though not by name). I had a friend go to a Julien event last year and he thanked Julien for his pickup stuff from 2012. Julien said "Glad it helped" and walked away. He has moved on from the punk he was. But MOST IMPORTANTLY, I went through Julien's 8-week Transformation Mastery (TM) program recently. It's somatic release combined with weekly calls to ask questions about trauma and the releases. I got to talk to him live on Zoom calls every week. I've talked to lots of people at SMC (formerly RSD). And by far, in terms of overall awareness, Julien is the most advanced. Owen is a loud-mouth, but also a genius in his own right (but not necessarily conscious!) What I like about Julien is he's actually done the hard work of smoothing himself out in a such a way that I'd call him high green, MAYBE Tier II. He openly allows blue, orange, and green topics to be discussed on his calls. He gives advice from many different perspectives. He also uses a scale of emotional development based off of David Hawkin's work (see attached photo). It works similar to a developmental psychology model where you go from a lower vibrational, competitive, destructive state, to more embracing, loving, conscious state. In his own work Julien cites perspectives from people of all age ranges. He is genuine on the calls and I sense no bullshit or games with him whatsoever. Whereas in the more pickup side of SMC, I've met Owen in person several times and his other coaches too. They are more salesy, sleezy, and it feels like there's some BS hiding underneath them. They weren't as lucky as Julien was to get gut-punched into green (and possibly Tier II). One of the only things that is holding him back from Tier II, is he hasn't gone into military-grade deep spiritual territory. Otherwise it does appear like he's building out conscious systems, with TM as the foundation (happiness), Purpose Process (wealth), and High-Vibe Communication (relationships). He doesn't have much to say about health, education, spirituality, or psychedelics though. He doesn't cover every base but he goes really deep with what he does know and is therefore a pretty healthy green/orange (maybe some Tier II) nonetheless. My 2 cents.

Perma-tripping, suffering, making loud clicking sounds with my mouth. Also, randomly, I can guess birthdays and ages insanely well

You must balance emptiness with fullness. You meditate to empty out bullshit and replace it with truth. But part of the truth is your human condition so you gotta satisfy that too. You said you visualized having a perfect girl, house, body, and job. But it made you miserable. Why? My guess is you might have set too many goals at once, without taking them one at a time. Or going all of them bit by bit slowly (my strategy). Another reason it might have failed is how do you know what's actually right for you? Have you experimented with different ways of living, dating, working, and so on? If so, great, you know what you want. Just some things to think about. You got this man~

@Leo Gura how will it be similar/different from this:

Hahaha bro, I get you on the dating end! I'm not attracted to most ladies even if they're physically "hot." It's the way they present themselves and act that turns me off. Honestly, I think it's best to pick one gem out of the dirt and keep it. No bother in chasing "hot" or "perfect."

Gut feeling. 3 years ago I stayed in Mongolia for 6 weeks, and not a day has gone by since without me dreaming of moving to east Asia. This part of the world is so fascinating and has so much potential for growth. Also my own growth is speeding up here, because I feel passionate about life again. That's why.

Paralysis by analysis. In my experience: hardcore early, gentle later. After about 4 years of grilling my ego, I feel there's little anxiety/shame left. I'm more confident in who I am and what works for me because I've experimented so much. 20+ psychedelic trips and 2 brutal awakenings. 400+ cold approaches (99% rejections). 2,100 doors knocked (sales, pure hell btw). Then ran a business so hard I burned out and became depressed (invested $8k, only made $1,700). Lived in a hostile climate for 3 years. After all of that I've earned my wings. I ain't perfect, but I know who I am as an ego now. From one being to another, I can appreciate where youre coming from. PM me if it feels right~

That guy's videos are trash. Jk... Life Advice for Young People (Parts 1 & 2) easily take the cake for me. I've rewatched it every year (5 years straight) and it makes me smile knowing how closely I'm following it and how goddamn wise it is. You seen it yet @Tudo?

Agree with @Zenterus . In addition, learn to enjoy your own company first, then share that vibe with your matches. And let the chips fall where they may. The end result is about connection. Btw, sounds like a cool event. Gonna see if my city has one... I just moved to Korea

Can't provide a clear answer. My LP has evolved a lot in the past few years. Part of my life's journey is finding the right place to post-up in. I chose not to accept the default state/country I grew up in. I just happen to value location and culture a lot. For you it might be more about posting up somewhere stable and getting a machine running (ie, your business).

I am blown away by how many wise, intelligent, thoughtful souls there are here relative to other corners of the Web. It's funny: I used to take this forum for granted, even labeling it as a distraction from doing real work. But what's cool about this place is it acts as a middle ground between learning and executing, theory and practice, studying and growing. This forum is like a giant psycho-socio-spiritual, crowd-sourced, collective science project of personal development. People come here to share how they're interacting with different facets of reality, different paradigms, and the different results they get. And you get to sit and read through raw case studies which you can compare/contrast with your own life experience. Or they can inspire you to be more ambitious, more disciplined, more counter-intuitive. Basically to live the different principles that are needed for building a great life. All for free. And because Actualized attracts a generally high quality audience you get to interact with people you otherwise would only have a 0.0001% chance of meeting and hitting it off with in real life. So, thank you Leo for building and fostering a wonderful ecosystem. We take it for granted 99% of the time and most of us would only realize its value the day after you pull the plug.

Being a highly sensitive person (HSP): my experience + a question I didn't know I was one until it became an irrefutable fact after years of evidence piling up. Basically, everything from... caffeine blue light pesticides large crowds hot/cold weather fluorescent lights artificial chemicals environmental/pet/food allergens ...hits me much harder than it does most people. I used to think I was weak or dramatic, but after learning about this condition from Googling "WTF is wrong with my body?!" years ago, I learned that some people are just more sensitive. If you think you may be an HSP but aren't sure, I created this simple sensitivity survey you can check out here. Why I'm sharing this I live on the extreme end of the sensitivity scale and different self-ac practices have made me more sensitive. I believe that reading eye-opening books (30+ paradigm-shifters), doing spiritual work (TONS of meditation in 2020-21) and lots of psychedelics (20+ trips and already 5 this year) have increased the amount of sensory and perceptual data I take in. Plus, living in Phoenix for 3 summers (a city that routinely clears 110F in the summer) made me more painfully aware of my sensitivities as I'd crash out and become depressed every summer from a fried nervous system and brain. Couple nuances to add I don't mind being sensitive, nor actively having increased my sensitivity. In fact, I love it! I fully accept my condition and how it's forced me to adapt and grow in new ways in recent years. I believe being hyper-sensitive is where the world is headed if it is to heal. Not to say "everyone be like me", but I think desensitization is why you see so much gross unconsciousness everywhere from physical cruelty, to hostile club environments, to putting poison in our food supply, to lighting our gas stations and supermarkets with mercury-vapor lightbulbs. Ok. All of that said, here's where I am now I avoid environments that feel like an onslaught (eg, loud clubs) because my body no longer tolerates my mind overriding it I haven't smoked weed or drank alcohol in almost 2 years I'm combating internet use with sport and walks Also I just moved out of the desert in favor of a more humid-temperate climate again (big measure!) But as far as my day-to-day goes, I still have a lot of sensory overload (sometimes it's akin to existing as a 128 MB drive with 128.3 MB on it) and not all of the root causes are obvious. My question To other HSPs, what do you suggest for getting to the root of this data overload --- not just coping with the symptoms?

High quality post @Emerald , thanks for sharing. Since going ultra-deep with psychs in recent months, I've started to lose touch with my sense of purpose. That old bastard, infinity... he's such a double edged sword. It's so beautiful yet so cripplingly, unexplainably, get-wrenchingly terrifying.

He hasn't awoken to infinite crocodiles yet.

Yes

As a teacher, the friendly-mentor / firm-instructor duality is a fine-line. You wanna be friendly but also keep a distance. The key is this: 1) As you teach, you scan the room for feedback. Are they confused? Are they dozing off? Do they understand? Are they having fun? Are they distracted? Are they focused? Etc. 2) Accept the feedback & respond appropriately. Not sure how you do that with as you teach yourself tho... I personally like being friends with me. But standards are good too

Judging by the way your wrote this question, I'm gonna assume you're <20. Based on that... ^Invest in this^ Have a bold reason for doing so, and making that investment will excite the crap out of you. Once you've done that, I'd recommend saving up for travel. As I type this, I'm in the airport 1 hour away from flying back to east Asia (as an American). Zero regrets every time I do it. Cheers

I can see the gamer in you. But how ironic: the troller becomes the the mod!! 4chan precedes me. Back when I was a self-imprisoned, sad bedroom teen, I floated around on YourWorldOfText (thanks V-sauce). And, regretfully... LOTS and LOTS of Omegle. The 'conversations' I had on there would be illegal in today's world. Not a forum or place to 'talk' to people like civilized beings by any stretch of the imagination. I brought hell to many lives there. Well shit, thought it was just me. Time to wife-up before I become too weird and get kicked from the pool

I bolded the parts of your response that clicked the most for me. I mid-July I did an LSD trip just days after getting fired from my corporate job. All because I took 10 consecutive sick days due to the 115F Phoenix heat frying my nervous system. On the trip I realized something: I needed to get rid of EVERYTHING. Minimalism was a GREAT external first-step to feeling less bombarded by life. Social media deactivation is a more challenging one. Taking down my Facebook and Twitter soon. Instagram will be tolerated as it's good to have for dating. Turned off video watch history on YouTube so it doesn't recommend a string of auto-playing videos in your face the second you log on. Your result makes sense --- glad the survey helped! Damn, I think you got the high-score. Props for leaving your job just to take care of yourself. That's bold. And yeah, printed books are definitely the way. All that blue light is like consuming calories (they gotta be shat out somehow). Ahh, Vitamin D. Been slacking on that one. Thanks for sharing. Diet is SO key. P.S. I think you were just experiencing placebo

Ah, I know exactly what you're talking about. Used to go to bed and out of nowhere, an avalanche of ideas would unload and I'd throw a lamp on and write for 2 hours. Doesn't really happen anymore. It's mainly dealing with intense forms of sensory input that throws me off. One Red Bull is enough to take me out.

Oh, so 4chan then This space being marketed as a 'high-consciousness' forum makes banter more appealing somehow. But only because people assume the more conscious you are the less you disagree and argue with people. I usually force myself to disagree and be polarizing. Normally I don't because I'm conflict-avoidant and see truth in everything. If someone is being stupid I just leave and find a greener pasture.