Tim R

@Javfly33 All you have to understand is that time isn't real. The moment you realize that, "you" vanish. That's why small children are so puzzled when they walk though snow for the first time and suddenly see their footprints. They don't know at first that those are their footprints because the child knows neither of a past nor of a self that is going along through the course of time. Your memories are like these footprints. The child looks at the footprints and starts to think that there is a past. There, the footprints are the evidence! And exactly like that you are looking at your memories and start to think that there is a past. There, the memories are the evidence! Hold up your finger in front of your face. Move it from left to right. Now tell me, where is its trail?

@Vida Lives Now Hello and welcome to the forum The way we deal with mental health in our society is a catastrophe in my estimation. Not only are we doing a terrible job at maintaining a reasonable level of mental hygiene and health, but we're also screwing up concerning the way we deal with mental health problems once we're confronted with them. It's like an invisible epidemic of some sort. Common mental health issues like depression or anxiety are often being stigmatized, misunderstood and discounted by a vast portion of our societies. People are ignorant about these problems; sometimes and to a certain degree even deliberately. This leads to a belittlement of the issue at hand - and belittlement leads to more ignorance and a deepening of the hole that we've dug ourselves. It's no surprise to me that the rates of depression and anxiety are growing, most shocking of which are the rates among young adults and teenagers. These five rules are alright for raising public awareness, but I think when it really comes down to a serious talk about mental health, it's a bit more complicated and there's more than five rules. The pandemic makes all of this even worse, depending on where you live. I live in Germany and we're currently in our second Lockdown, almost 3 months in as for today. People are lonely, many lost their job or family business, they are suffocating under a mountain of debt they can't lift anymore, while sitting at home all day doing nothing cause there's nothing left to do. Our politicians seem to actively deny us every spark of hope, always prolonging the Lockdown for two or three more weeks. This takes a toll on mental health. I think we're going to have to deal with the consequences of this in the future. Not quite sure what it's gonna look like a couple of months down the road, but probably not very peachy. Here's some statistical resources for you to dig your way through. https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health

Yes, but intention isn't necessarily the same as a question.

Existence/Reality is one. There might be multiple space-time-continua but it's all part of one reality.

I wouldn't go into my first trip with any question or expectation in mind. Just let the substance introduce itself and find out how you react to it.

@Someone here What is the objection?

@Husseinisdoingfine What about people like Bernie? Isn't he somewhat socialistic?

@Husseinisdoingfine Haha that's cool, did you create it?

Oh my god if the SPD were to rule Germany we'd be so damn lost they're not socialistic at all, they used to be a true people's party, but that was waaay back in the beginning... and unfortunately that's like 150 years ago lol. Nowadays they're just like every other lobbyist party with no interest in flattening social inequalities.

@Yali Grab some object nearby. Look at it. Let's say you took a cup. Realize, that you only call this thing "cup". Actually, it isn't a cup, you only call it "cup". What is it? Is it a "thing"? No. because "thing" is also just an idea. You just call it "thing". Whatever "it" is - it's neither a "cup" nor a "thing". Can you realize that whatever "it" is, it is not an idea? "Cup" is an idea. "Thing" is an idea. Whatever you're holding in your hand right now is not an idea. Same goes for male and female. It's just an idea.

@Yali No, male or female are even less than a social construct. They are ideas. Ideas are of the same "degree" of reality as for example the constellations of the stars. The constellation of the stars doesn't actually exist in the night sky, it's only a construct of the mind which we then project onto reality. Equally, male and female are just ideas. They are symbols, abstractions that we have created just like every other idea/symbol in order to help us navigate the world.

The dynamite is 5-MeO for sure

@StarStruck I don't understand the question. What sort of "components" are you talking about?

Many people get nauseous from eating that much mushroom. I heard truffles don't taste very pleasant either. I'd rather go for normal cubensis or some other strain that contains a lot of Psilocybin The less you have in your stomach the better.

@intotheblack Haha I live in Germany too!! I've tried mushrooms (normal dosing and microdosing) but no truffles, not yet.

Yeah there's a few mushrooms of which the sclerotia contains psilocyin and psilocybin. They're basically normal "truffles" which you can buy in headshops in the Netherlands (I only know of the Netherlands, no idea how the legal situation is in the US or Canada) Microdosing is probably the best thing to do with these because they don't contain as much psilocybin per gram of dry mass, which is why you'd have to take a lot for a full blown trip. There's no "sclerotia truffle" as some different species of truffles btw a "sclerotium" is just a different form of mycelium

@Leo Gura Maybe it will be a similar development like with computing capacity? 99% of the time not very much going on much, and then, bam! Spiritual technology sounds fancy and futuristic

Yes, true. It isn't in your control. And yes, you can grow yourself to a place where a strike is more likely to happen, but don't think for one moment that this is in your control either. Abandon the notions of control and randomness, because neither is the case. Easier said than done, right? Yeah.. Have you ever experienced in meditation your breath becoming both happening and doing at the same time? Where what you felt "your doing" became the same as "happening to you"? Where your breath melted into the process that is the same process as everything that's going on? The one process?

Although it is true that you can't do anything about it, I agree with Leo on this point: Because nothing is random, not really. Of course, it may seem to be random, depending on your perspective; if you think that you are the one who can bring about enlightenment, it will seem random. What do you mean when you say "random"? That's the real question here Nothing is random, but equally, nothing is "chosen" and you are therefore not able to bring about enlightenment. There's nothing you can do about it, only when you think you can, it will (or won't) happen "randomly".

Lionel Messi, is that you?

@Preety_India I've spent many years in trying to understand enlightenment, and the first and last rule is: your desire to become enlightened is the impediment to enlightenment. Of course in the beginning you really have to want it and to work extremely hard to reach it, but after a certain point, you will realize that you are in a trap which no amount of work will ever resolve. Therefore the last step to become enlightened is the step of letting go the desire of becoming enlightened - and that step simply cannot be taken, by no method, no teaching, no understanding, no 5-MeO, nothing will lead you there. It won't happen by anything you could ever set out to do. That's way too simplistic and dismisses my whole perspective. Not very sophisticated of you. You follow Leo blindly.

@Preety_India How can you be liberated if you feel the need to do something?

As I said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with raising consciousness. That's not the point of my post. Yes, that's more in the direction of my thought. The attempt of raising consciousness in order to - what? Become enlightened? - that attempt itself can become dogmatic and ideological to the point where it becomes an impediment on the way of liberation. Liberation includes letting go of the need of raising consciousness.

@Preety_India Yes, all of that is true. I'm not taking some "anti-consciousness" perspective and I'm not saying that the pursuit of higher consciousness is bad, my post was intended to be exaggerated in order to get a point across. And that point is don't get sucked into consciousness as an ideology. Because that's what I see is happening for some people. Hence the quotes at the beginning. Some people seem to have such an aversion against what they call "low consciousness" and are so eager to reach "higher and higher" stages that they have completely missed the point of spiritual work. "Low" consciousness must be loved and accepted, too. "Low consciousness" behavior mustn't be condemned. That doesn't mean that I promote or accept let's say criminal, egotistical behavior. I think that should be fairly obvious. This whole game around "becoming more conscious" is nothing but (more or less) advanced one-upmanship. Mostly you're trying to one-up yourself, and sometimes even others (take the quarrel between Leo and Frank Y. as an example). SD comes in very handy for doing that, but that doesn't mean that there's something wrong with the model, there isn't. And really in the end, if you think you're gonna get somewhere by becoming more conscious, you haven't understood the first thing about enlightenment.