Jodistrict

I attended a Wim Hof day workshop. During the first half of the workshop you are taught the Wim Hof breathing technique. During the second part of the workshop, you are prepared for and then take a two minute ice bath. Before you get into the ice bath, the instructor tells you to clasp your hands in front of you, put your shoulders below the water, and breath deeply from the belly with a longer exhale. I got into the ice bath and the shock and pain was excruciating. My legs felt like they were frozen solid. I was breathing so fast that I was hyperventilating and starting to faint. I didn’t think I was going to make it. About half way through, I started to naturally breath with slower and deeper breaths. My body had found its rhythm. It started to become more bearable. The instructor was there all the time encouraging me else I wouldn’t have made it. After I got out, there was a tingly feeling in my arms and legs and I could barely walk. After you leave the ice bath, you go to the grass and perform an exercise that you are taught. The purpose of the exercise is to warm up the blood in your extremities, so that this cold blood mixes with the warmer blood in the interior of your body. If you go for a towel first, bad things can happen. In my opinion, the ice bath is a valuable tool for testing and training your mind. In two minutes, you are forced to confront a major shock to your body and you either relax and breath or you panic. Wim Hof says that the cold is our teacher and instructs the body how to breath. I found this to be true because after the initial shock and panic, my body finally found its natural breathing rhythm and I could relax and deal with the intense body feelings. This is a the website. https://www.wimhofmethod.com/ To find a workshop. https://www.wimhofmethod.com/activities?category=fundamentals-workshop

When I took sapito, I immediately entered into a state of samadhi. The voice inside the head that is the ego stopped. There was complete silence. I thought I was dying. However, since there was nothing, I am not sure why I remember it. The dosage was determined by an experienced shaman. Maybe a higher dosage shuts down further areas of the brain including the memory system.

Why do they offer the “multiverse theory” as a scientific theory invalidating the need for a “God” when the multiverse theory itself is equally unprovable (and more complex) ?

I have done the Goenka Vipassana 10 day retreat. The group help maintain discipline and one’s enthusiasm. Years ago, I did meditation retreats with Shinzen Young, which was nice because he was informal and would give Dharma talks. I have done some Zen retreats, and they expect you to maintain a perfect posture.

Spiral dynamics seems to make more sense if you view it as a model of large scale cultural development, and not pertaining to individuals or even groups of individuals. Any individual could move in any direction over a course of time. What's to stop him? Personally, I favor purple. From a cultural perspective, before the 60s, America was solid blue with the orange business class supporting the blues. Today, the culture is a split between green and blue, creating a culture war, with the greens winning and largely supported by the orange technologists.

Set and Setting are more important than the drug. I saw a YouTube video of some Westerners having a 5-MEO-DMT ceremony and it sounded more like a beer keg party. Garbage in garbage out. That’s why I only take psychedelic medicines in Mexico, outside of the poisonous American culture.

Sacha makes a career of lampooning blues, and I hate the “Borat” character. However, this was pretty funny and reminded me more of Candid Camera.

Salt increases your water weight. We already have too much salt in our diet contained in all the processed food. I never put extra salt on anything.

I have found that the best way to manage food craving is not to eat and drink water. In my last diet, I would eat only one meal at night. I ate less than 700 calories a day. It sounds difficult, but it wasn’t that difficult because I had no craving for food. The more you eat, the more you crave. Some of that is because of sugar. When you eat something sugary, the sugar does not satisfy your hunger, but creates more hunger. Fat is actually better than sugar, because fat can satisfy hunger.

I took two six week courses online with IFS. The course included practicing with others during the week. The first course was on the protectors. The protectors are subpersonalities that we develop when we are children in order to protect us in the environment we were in. The second course was on the exiles. The exiles are what some call the inner child. But in IFS, you can have more than one inner child. You need to know the protectors first, because the protectors will not let you see the exiles (whom they protect) until they gain your trust. Once you contact an exile, you can unburden it, i.e. release it from its extreme views and pain. Once the exile is unburdened, the protector can be updated to perform more constructive strategies in your adult world. Also, the IFS model has the “self” which is compassionate and creative. The goal is to have the “self” be in control of the inner family system. https://personal-growth-programs.com/ifs-courses/

Has there ever been a conspiracy theory that was created by a woman?

An interesting example is the post modern philosopher “Giorgio Agamben” who states a conspiracy theory from the left. “He downplayed the severity of the disease as nothing worse than the seasonal flu, naively cited flawed government resources claiming there was no epidemic in Italy, and even engaged in speculation in conspiracy theory about the disease being “invented” as a pretext for the exceptional measures to replace the threat of terrorism in the new governing paradigm.” https://medium.com/@olesandberg/corona-is-a-crisis-also-for-political-philosophy-9b4b2477ed5f https://medium.com/@canalikaya/covid-19-state-of-exception-and-agamben-edf9d5bfd21c https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/3/29/covid-19-and-the-neoliberal-state-of-exception/ https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2020/04/08/agamben-vs-zizek-how-their-debate-reflects-the-social-reality-of-covid-19/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Agamben

The electoral college is a consensus system where the entire country, including urban and rural, comes to a consensus on one candidate. The rural areas are given a voice. There is nothing sacred about the popular vote. And in a month, Biden looks like he will win the electoral college, although I am not predicting anything.

Obama won the electoral college twice, so in itself it is not a big barrier. I saw an interview with Chomsky where he thought the problem was the democratic party’s focus on identity politics which alienated large groups of people, and that the democrats should refocus on the class system and the gross inequality of wealth.

Trump’s key to success was being able to convince bankers to loan him money. He had to master the art of appearing successful and talking like a winner (as would be perceived by a banker). That is why he brags about being the king of debt. He used the same persona to win the election, i.e. “I’m a rich billionaire who has everything and now wants to serve you the people with no ulterior motive”. Trump’s talent was being able to project an illusion of success. Of course, as recently revealed in past tax returns, Trump may actually be broke. What I find interesting is that the Democrats project their hatred onto Trump but they never ask themselves where they fell down in order to be defeated by someone they have no respect for. After all, they had the demographic advantage and should have easily won the election. Trump was able to perceive a discontent that they totally missed and take advantage of it. Their lack of ability to introspect is as noteworthy as Trump’s ability to deceive. The more they blame it on Trump, the less likely they will learn from their mistakes and correct their behavior.

The Shaman I go to is fairly conservative. He says the plant teacher downloads your homework and the real work begins after the ceremony. If you don’t do your homework, you might not get anything the next time you take it. It is also better to able to learn more using less medicine. I am currently integrating with a healer who understands the medicine.

Good point. If Trump really gets sick, the election could become even more uncertain. What if Pence had to take over? I don’t see why progressives are celebrating this. As of yesterday, Biden was going to win. Now there is an October surprise with the possibility of changing the dynamics.

Trump is old, obese, and never exercises. But yet he has mild symptoms. Maybe this shows that the governments of the world have grossly overreacted to a mild virus, which has created massive damage and suffering for billions of people.

Below is the best breathing video I have come across and have used it dozens of times. It has five rounds of rapid deep breathing. At the end of each round there is a 1st gong, after which you fully breath all your air out and hold it. This is called a bahya kumbhaka, or breath retention on the out breath, and is where you reach your deepest state of meditation. You have more carbon dioxide than oxygen creating a temporary state of hypoxia. At the second gong you breath in and hold the breath for 15 seconds until the third gong, which continues to the next round. The rounds get progressively more intense. At the final round the breath retention is the longest. Just follow along with the breathing in the video. The whole production is pure genius, including the breathing and spacey music during the breath retention. I use this with cannabis which puts me into some of the deepest states I have ever gone with breathwork. However, it is designed to be used without any drug assist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EztidI9kJM&t=361s

If you want a sense for how far America has declined in civility and intelligence compare the debates last night to the Kennedy-Nixon debates. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbrcRKqLSRw

Sweden is the only country even trying to take a holistic approach, with their conscious effort to have every person in society change their behavior to support a reasonable collective solution which is sustainable over a long period of time. Lockdowns are for the short term. There are no statistics gathered on the deaths and suffering caused by long-term lockdowns – depression, suicides, the increase in poverty, hunger, homelessness, etc. People are punished for seeking human connection, a natural healthy impulse. The full brutality of long-term lockdowns is hidden from view, so it can be promoted as a “compassionate” approach. Not having all the information doesn’t allow policies which balance all the interests.

After I did Holotropic breathwork, the facilitator told me that I might start to notice synchronicities. Since then it has happened a few times. It’s like I manifest a goal in my mind and then it feels like the universe is working with me making it effortless.

One problem with psychedelics is that the visions quickly fade from memory. I had a huge experience nine months ago with 5-meo-DMT. It changed me from someone who thought scientific materialism was obvious, to someone who can’t believe he was so naïve. I had contact with divinity but I can no longer recall the full force of it. There is no magic bullet. Spiritual techniques are still necessary to stabilize the mind so that whatever state you achieve, you can make it permanent.

I don’t have any feelings about Trump or any other politician. Things are happening just the way they are suppose too. Nothing moves in a straight line. There is a dialectic process happening in America with two conflicting forces battling each other, that will have some resolution. Maybe it’s time for the empire to end. Similarly, the corona virus is a result of man’s abuse of the earth, and what is happening is a natural process.

I took Sadhguru’s Inner Engineering course. As for money, I thing the touchstone is "what is reasonable?" At one end of the spectrum you have Scientology that will literally take everything you own and the institutional churches will say one tenth. How can you tell if someone is enlightened or not? Even in the Bible, there were plenty of people who talked to Jesus and didn’t think he was anything special. Any maybe they were right.