Tim R

In 1962, Alan Watts and a bunch of his friends recorded this album. It's "glorious nonsense" as he'd say. Thought I'd share this discovery, I think it's really cool.

Do I have to state the obvious?

@nistake Damn that's a beautiful description, thanks for sharing!

I'm not very schooled in economy, but I just had this thought and I'd like to know whether it's a reasonable idea or not: If our economy wouldn't be so heavily capitalistic and our society less fond of mass consumption in the spirit of commodity fetishism, the (ensuing) recession caused by the pandemic wouldn't be as severe. (contrasted with say a more socialistic and less consumption-oriented society)

I can't stress enough how important this is becoming in our current political landscape - all over the western world, people have become more and more complacent, obedient and left without a properly developed mind to question authority or truth, whilst on the other side of this coin, (corrupt and selfish) politicians and corporations are using the ever increasing polarity among their societies to gain power and control. We must not further succumb to the idea of "someone will take care of it all - as long as I get my monthly paycheck, I don't care". History teaches us that people are most obedient (and thus dangerous) when times are tough - in 1920s and 30s Germany, people were desperate for a strong leader and they were so goddamn thrilled when Hitler came on stage that they turned the whole country into one obedient, unquestioning, and following entity, obsessed with ideology. Now times are tough as well - I don't know about the rules in the U.S., but in Germany, this Wednesday, our 2nd "hard Lockdown" begins. Our politicians told us, that we won't have such a "hard Lockdown" again - as you can imagine, there's people who blindly follow the rules and on the other side, people who blindly disregard the rules. To disobey creates those who obey and vice versa.

Sounds interesting. What exactly do you mean with

@Flowerfaeiry Cuz you can't make money with healthy people - what do you think big pharma is interested in? Heard of lobbying? Dead people? No, gotta keep 'em alive. But not healthy, or you won't have any customers left. 4 among the 10 largest companies in the US (by revenue) are in the healthcare/pharmaceutical industry. This is the way it always works, not only with corona,

Well yeah, in the end it's basically always and everywhere about consciousness.

I'm mostly a Yellow person (mostly yellow, a good chunk of turquoise and some leftover green/orange that I'm still trying to "fix") As you guys know, being Yellow includes being pretty alone (as a person). Now, I'm not lonely - because I don't perceive myself as an individual anymore, so that's not exactly an issue. But what I would like to have more of in my life are Yellow thinkers, because I'm very much in love with the mind (not "my" mind, but the mind). So far I know only one (half) Yellow (the other half Green and some Turquoise) person, and, surprise surprise, he's my best friend. So... yeah. I really like the Yellow game but it would be cool to play it with other people, too. Where do I find Yellow thinkers in real life? And when I say irl, I don't mean the internet?

I just found this guy by accident, his ability to improvise just blew me away! This s what real creativity looks like: He just improvises for 3 hours straight... This is the video I found, go check out his channel, there are many, many live streams where he creates some pretty decent (and crazy/funny) music off the top of his head.

@Carl-Richard I don't dislike blue values at all, I understand why stage blue is the way it is - same goes for orange and green. There is something true to be found in all those stages and they all hinge upon each other. Imo, this test isn't a very good predictor for your SD stage, for various reasons. It's an indicator at best, because it's too unidimensional (integrative VS traditional aren't enough variables). I'm not sure if this line of reasoning is actually viable. "Reacting negatively".. Hmm. That's not the same as "not identifying with". Yellow tends to be frustrated/"triggered" by the "ignorance" of Tier 1 (I'm putting ignorance in quotes because we're talking about ignorance in relation to different stages, so it's not just ignorance but potentially more awareness). In any case I wouldn't use any test (and certainly not that test) as a bouncer for whatever group I might set up.

I just took the test.. Hmm. Not quite sure if this is an appropriate evaluation method. Worldview you identify with most: Integrative (16) Worldview you identify with least: Traditional (-10) Let's say somebody takes the test and is less integrative than some arbitrarily chosen value of integrative/traditional thinking - then what? If somebody wants to join, let them join. If they don't feel like it's their intellectual cup of tea, they can leave whenever they want to.

Yes, I already thought about founding something along those line at my university. The friend I mentioned has actually founded a Zen Group at his university (he's an ordained Bodhisattva in Soto Zen), which kinda inspired me to do something similar. His approach is more Green tho and so are (most of) the people who go there, so I'm not sure if this will get the results I seek.

They're not tho Also I think the bilingualism isn't a consequence of the global distribution of the forum users but rather the fact that most users are from western countries, where you get taught (at least) two languages at school

Wow, I'm a bit surprised at how many bi- and multilingual people we have on this forum! For me it's German (first language), English, Russian (and a bit French). https://www.brainscape.com/academy/benefits-of-being-multilingual/ Man, I'd really like to create some statistics on the average forum user, don't wanna spam you guys with polls tho?

I just had this realization in the shower lol.. Existence is literally identical to Truth. Not truth in the relative sense of the word, as distinct from something false (like 1+1=2 and not 3), but absolute Truth. There couldn't exist something which is "not true" for its existence is literally "proof" (although this of course needs no proof and can't be proven) for its Truth. And there can't be anything but absolute Truth, ever. ("Obviously") I'm starting to understand Leo's idea of facets of awakening... Truth, Love, Existence, Consciousness, these are all identical. Question: how come then that @Leo Gura introduces this idea of facets in the first place? Isn't this distinction entirely unnecessary and in a sense illusory? Why do we realize facets? Are we still "deluded" in a sense?

@Forestluv How do your students response to your style of teaching? How much of psychology and mysticism can you embed in your teaching style before it gets "too much"?

@Forestluv Wow, nice!! Where do you teach? I mean, in what sort of institution do you teach?

Intuition is having an answer/solution to something without having taken any prior mental (deductive) steps. "I just know"

I don't understand.. Aren't the facets of awakening beyond the mind? Why would I need to "hold" them in my mind?

Well the concern would be that more and more people would start to get into spirituality and psychedelics way too fast, which could result in all kinds of delusions (of grandeur). Which is obviously not the point of spirituality. Just imagine what it would be like if a not so insignificant percentage of society would be like Connor. Wouldn't be too nice, would it? He doesn't keep his cool about being God/Enlightened, at all. A slightly more Zen-like attitude would be appropriate, as long as you watch out not become a Zen devil of course. @Preety_India I'm excited about the Psychedelic Renaissance of the 21st century, especially because I'd like to contribute to it as a biologist/biochemist who's (if I dare say so) equipped with a decent epistemological and philosophical knowledge structure, but I also think we have to be very, very careful and strategic about it. We can barely handle our current technologies without wrecking humanity and the planet - and psychedelics are way more powerful than anything we currently have.

Is it just me or... Is there actually a substantial risk in enlightenment becoming mainstream? I mean - the egoic inflation of someone who's deluded can grow to absolutely enormous sizes, no? Next step for our culture would theoretically be Stage Green. Which is the first Stage that really experiments with Psychedelics. Which is already happening more and more. We don't want thousands of Connors running around, do we? Can't we keep it cool? Do you guys think this might be something to be concerned of? (not seriously concerned, but, you know, sincerely)

No. Actually it's the contrary in my experience, since with a silent mind, your awareness for all occurring sensations is heightened. Oh but there's no difference between the breeze and nothing If the breeze is, then focus on the breeze. Try not to get too hung up on whatever it is that you call "nothingness".

Question above. When do you guys expect humanity will understand its unity with the Universe? Scientifically speaking, we could do it today already. We are still in the dark ages but our development is accelerating - are we going to develop quicker from Green to Yellow than from Orange to Green? Human history certainly suggests such a trend, I'd say. Supposing we won't blow ourselves up or wreck the planet - will we witness this new paradigm shift occur?

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this: Here in Germany, there is a fundamental law concerning the inviolability of your home, which means that nobody is allowed to enter someone else's home, not even the police, unless either you let them enter or they have a warrant granted by a judge. Since a couple of weeks, the infection rates in Germany have spiked to a new record. Today, one of our politicians proposed the following: "We find ourselves in a national emergency that could get worse than this spring. The inviolability of the home must no longer be an argument in favor of a lack of controls. When private celebrations in apartments and houses endanger public health and thus safety, the authorities must be able to intervene." Obviously you can't get a warrant for something which doesn't violate the law. Fortunately, the aforementioned politician is not in the government party and I'm certain this won't be implemented, however I find it somewhat concerning that such a proposal exists. It reminds me of Orwell's novel "1984". Do you think such an immense and obvious invasion of privacy which also violates the constitution (!) would be justified?