A list of some of the top degree programs relating to Consciousness/Spirituality/Transpersonal Psychology for our college/university aged members. Hopefully others can help find more than I currently have researched:
The Alef Trust's Masters in Consciousness, Spirituality & Transpersonal Psychology Sofia University's Masters of Arts in Transpersonal Psychology The California Institute of Integral Studies' Online PHD in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology (Among others they offer) Ubiquity University's Integral Transpersonal Psychology – Foundations Course (Among other high quality courses they offer) Life University's Master of Science in Positive Psychology  
Please, this is not an area to discuss whether someone should/shouldn't go to college/university, these are simply the better courses that exist currently. If you have one to add please comment below or DM me the link
 

Masterclass Notes: Chris Voss | Mirroring

A negotiation is not necessarily just based on the hard data or facts. What it boils down to is finding out what's possible and engaging others on what their thoughts are, and consequently feel like they're part of the processes and ultimately want the deal to happen.

So Mirroring is a tactic you can use to make them feel engaged, involved, and tease out the information you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. So it's the art of letting the other person think they're having their way-- when it was actually your own idea.
Mirroring is typically saying the last 1-3 words that somebody said and making them feel understood by it. When you get good at mirroring you can basically pick any words and make them feel what you want them to feel. 
  When you mirror properly it makes them feel listened to- and what it really does is say to the person- I heard everything you said, word for word, but it's not enough- I still don't get it. And when they don't get it, they'll change their words.
  People think the words they select are perfect- but the images you put in their head might not be the same picture you have in your head- if you say NOTEBOOK people might think of a Mead black and white journal notebook, or a 3 ring binder.
  So mirroring is remarkable because it gently allows people the space to better articulate their idea in a way that makes them feel understood
  People love to be mirrored- interesting people are interested. If you mirror you will be ridiculously interesting to other people because they feel that you yourself are interested.
   An example is like somebody says to you-- I really enjoy being at this yoga retreat-- and you say-- At this yoga retreat??! And they say yeah you know it's a great place... I'm eating really healthy-- You're eating really healthy??! Lot of care with food?? And that's all it is- and if you're genuinely curious and interested in learning from them- you're positive about it- you're not judgemental you just have genuine curiosity and its a great trigger to get people interested.
  In a business setting they might say confrontationally- YOUR PRICE IS TOO HIGH!! You might say... Our price is too high?..... And they say YEAH WE CANT PAY THAT WERE ON A LIMITED BUDGET... You got a limited budget?? We have other things we have to accomplish!!! And they're going to go on an elaborate and give you real context-- But by kind of curving people this way, they're going to feel like you're working with them... and that's very important... They aren't going to feel like you're fighting... you're turning a wrestling match into a dance. And the fight turns into a collaboration almost immediately.
  The critical issue after mirroring is dynamic silence- A lot of people have issues with going silence because they attribute silence to anger. But after a use of a great skill, go silent, and let them speak so you can get the intended effect.
  If these tools make you feel awkward or counter intuitive - awesome- it means you're learning a new skill.

I can say from first hand experience that I got into mirroring back in about 2010 and it felt awkward as fucking shit to me, but nowadays I do it completely unconsiously-- sometimes consciously if people are extremely confrontational just because it grabs so much of my attention... but I will say I'm an expert at this and it's totally worth it- believe me.

I spent so much of my teens taking in garbage resources. So I would probably recommend myself reading these 3 books:
"Mind is a myth" by U.G. Krishnamurti
"The Tao of Fully Feeling" by Pete Walker
"Power vs. Force" by David R. Hawkins
These books were not just good, but absolutely life-changing for me in each their own way.
"Mind is a myth" helped me get rid of dogma and get in touch with my inner guru. "The Tao of Fully Feeling" opened me up to unconditional love. "Power vs. Force" helped me see the power of truthful alignment.

You only want to improve and be better because you are delusional
 
 
You would give 0 fucks about anything at all, improvement, self-betterment, family, friends, evolution, desires, wants, trying to imagine different things, using your mind to think all the time if you were aware of what you truly are.
 
 
If you were aware of what you truly are, you would not need anything else. We can say throughout our whole lives that we want X and we want Y but these are just thoughts coming and going, clouds, to identify as them is ignorance, you believe this is what will satisfy you because you do not know better.
 
 
Because of this misidentification we let thoughts appear to have power over reality, chasing money, chasing sex, chasing whatever thought wants because the ego/thought already gave up on true love. Ego gave up on true bliss. Ego gave up on peace. Ego does not know these things, so whenever there is even a slight desire for this truth in your heart, it will say anything but words of encouragement to follow this hearts desire. Ego literally despises this true bliss, joy, love and peace. He gives 0 fucks about it. It only cares being comfortable in its limited personal identity. That is not what you are though. It is wasting your time/life.
 
 
And when you are asked "if you could just be your self without having to do anything, would you accept?" ego/thought says: "No, I want to improve. This is our purpose. We have to get better. We have to improve ourselves. It is all about the journey, not the destination "Who the fuck are you kidding? Absolutely fucking LOL, your true nature is ALL there is, and awareness is all the fulfillment, contentment and everything that is true and pure. Everything else is BULLSHIT and you know it in your heart but might not be aware of it because of identification with thought.
 
 
Come on love, its time to wake up. It is time to abandon this fearful ego that denies true love, stop following him and instead follow the awareness which is the true nature. Our true nature knows what is best. Awareness. Awareness is the one thing that if you are aware of, you literally do not want anything else. It is pure bliss, pure contentment, pure fulfillment, purer than pure. Be honest with your self, if you had GOD right beside you in this moment, would you go after superficial things, chasing highs, chasing money, chasing fame, chasing acceptance from other people who you give no flying fucks about?
 
 
You would sit still, sit silent, completely at the feet of god, humbled forever and you would give up your fucking life for this presence to be with you at all times till the moment this body dies and after. Be aware of the awareness as it IS all you are ever seeking for. You are this. You are your own beloved. Next time someone tells you "you are doing nothing? you are not trying to improve the world? you lazy fuck!" it is obvious this person is speaking from ego/thought and therefore only projecting his own ignorance. There is no need to believe such nonsense.
 
 
If people knew of love, true love, not this fake romance "love" that was created by the ego in order to satisfy its lowly desires which are actually just attachments, I am talking about the impersonal love of the true nature, nobody would mind ANYTHING AT ALL instead of simply being aware of the true nature, being the awareness. Be aware of that which is aware of the present moment. Discover what you truly are. When you are aware of what you truly are, you are already perfect and in harmony and synchronicity with the universe, there is nothing to be done by a separate doer, just be aware of that which is aware of the present moment.
 
- Sebastian Key

This practice will destroy all delusions, lies, falsehood, personhood so only god/awareness is present
When ego is playing its games and it appears that it is overpowering you, notice it is only overpowering who you think you are, not the consciousness in which it all appears.
There is still some belief in ego lingering around deep inside, and at some point, it just comes out no matter what, and this is good. You really want to get all of the false outside of your being and presence.
Let me assure you that it is completely natural and these are birthing pains, you are truly birthing the infinite in a way therefore you are aware of experiencing this pain and seemingly burping out all the things stored up inside your being that are not original to your nature. All that is not true is dissolving and it appears like backlash in the mind, and you are perceiving a surge of thoughts, emotions and sensations, but there is an awareness of all of this. Stay in the place in which you are aware of that which is aware of this taking place.
So you had a few days of amazing clarity and now it seems like you are completely lost, no idea where you are and you have completely lost your self. What do we do?
These are just thoughts. The only clarity there is, is when the attention is resting on the awareness which is aware of the present moment. A thought says "I am lost, no idea where I am, lost my self" etc. Your self is always right here. It is that which is aware of all these thoughts taking place. The clarity is simply seeing that you are one with that in which it all appears.
Observe. Anything that comes up, observe. These days you might be feeling like you are extremely aware of the ego and you have a voice there that says "Wow fuck you ego, this is all because of you, because of you I am suffering right now, go to hell, I will kill you!". You might not be aware but this one is actually ego too. If you are to transcend this illusion of suffering, you should be observing with detachment this voice that is appearing to be 2. You should be completely silent and cocooned in your being, simply watching this play going on instead of talking back to the ego and saying how he is to blame, that is his strategy actually. To lure you back into fighting with him, and therefore into identification with him; inevitably suffering appears also.
No matter what kind of thoughts, emotions or sensations are appearing inside consciousness, do not fight back. Simply observe. Once you observe them with detachment (by being aware of that which is aware of the present moment) they naturally dissolve and go like the cloud they are. If you fight back or give importance to thoughts, emotions and sensations then that is perpetuating them and will cause them to stay longer than they originally should, momentary. Instead, simply be aware of that which is aware of the present moment. This is your true nature.
Identify the ego. You might be feeling extremely insecure, anxious, confused and suffering these days, and the most effective thing you can do is ask your self at these times: "Who is insecure/anxious/confused/suffering" once you actually ask this question, and LOOK in the present moment instead of giving an automatic answer out of habit "me", you will SEE that actually there is nothing happening at all. Once you see that this sufferer, this insecure identity, this anxious identity does not actually exist and is not a real thing in the present moment, it completely loses its power. You already KNOW that spirit can't suffer. The only thing that can suffer is the projections of the identity you are believing yourself to be. Instead, know yourself to be the spirit by being aware of that which is aware of the present moment.
So, if you are feeling insecure, and you KNOW that consciousness/awareness/Brahman/self CAN'T feel insecure, you can simply ask the question "who is feeling insecure?" and suddenly you will see that you are completely detaching your self from this insecurity, and you are able to see clearly that it is not you. Once you see it is not you, it means that you stop identifying with it. If you do not identify with insecurity, you are not insecure, nor are you suffering.The same thing you do for every other emotion or thought that comes up. Now, do not get cocky and use this for only the negative emotions. You might get through the negative emotions/thoughts stage and the ego will now try another strategy, a strategy of trying to make you feel good. He might start using pride and other "positive" egoic traits.
So once pride comes up, do not feed it! Then and there, once you notice this happening ask "Who is the one prideful?" and LOOK. If you simply ignore this pride because it makes you feel good, it is the egos play to make you attached to this pride and then he will be able to comeback with its other techniques of insecurity, anxiety, etc. The only way to completely transcend the ego is not to feed none of its negative thoughts/emotions and none of its positive thoughts/emotions. You are to stay completely neutral, observing it all, aware of it all. You are not here to play games and to have some kind of positive ego or to feel good about your self. You are here to overcome this vicious cycle of illusions and suffering completely, and if you slip on one of the stages it will take you back a few steps, so do not bother.
The ego WILL definitely make thoughts doubt your self. Whenever these appear, notice simply it is the ego trying to bring doubt in you; do not perpetuate it, redirect the attention towards that which is aware of the present moment. Be aware of that which is aware of the present moment. Here all doubt, fear and falsehoods are rapidly dissolving so that only pure awareness is left. This awareness which is your true nature has the perfume of joy, love, peace and compassion naturally, it is fearless and effortless, this is your true life, everything else is just the mind-realm, that you must transcend as soon as possible. Be aware of that which is aware of the present moment. Don't waste your time on thoughts.
- Sebastian Key

@Rilles  I think I understand what you mean. My dad has been like that since I was a kid, he never changed. I wouldn't say I have completely fixed this issue in the sense that we still engage in conflict sometimes, but his personality has taught me many things about myself and about love. Later on in my life I realized this issue probably has roots in him being previously married to a schizophrenic/DID person and I guess this problem is so deep in his mind and I haven't even uncovered most of it, but consider that the person you are talking about has also gone through something really tough. I realized how hard it must be for him and stopped expecting him to change, instead I started to look at what he is pointing at in my personality. Sometimes anger can point out so many things you should work on for your own well-being and maturity. And I guess he began to respect my opinions more as I grew up and matured in this way.  

How to Unlock Hercleian Focus and Kick Procrastination's Ass for Good

So I don't think I've ever just flat out made one post combining literally everything I know about focus into one post. So that's the goal of today. I want to talk about focus from every angle I'm aware of, and how to optimize for it so you truly can have as something that doesn't evade you, but something you have a restraint over. 

Understand this too, you should not be limited by the idea of focus... so I want to create some key heuristics or ways of thinking that you run almost algorithmically to get the highest impact results for your life. I've produced millions online (for my clients) for the last 3.5 years at this point so although I'm not like some of these Spartan warrior types of people that I know that absolutely eat my numbers alive- it's something that I've clearly optimized for, and something I'm constantly iterating on and improving. So let this guide serve more as a signpost with varying degrees of relevancy depending on where you're at in this process IF.

Step 1: Identify Your Sleep Chronograph and Optimize Your Sleep in General

So this is a very odd way to start this off but I think the most important thing to handle straight away is a sleep schedule. I will start off by saying you should not feel guilty about yourself if you fuck up your sleep schedule but just be aware that sleep is a vessel that you need to take prudent care of. Science shows the more routine your sleep is, the better you recover physically and the deeper sleep you get. 

So I recommend people starting off by identifying your sleep chronotype. Now there are tests online that diagnose you, but most of the time these aren't dialed in properly to your sleep chronotype- it's not like the Hexaco personality test which has years of documentation and iteratition to get a very defined answered- any test for chronotypes online is more like the Myers-Brigg test which is something you typically are told to take 3-4 times and average out your answers until you get your actual result.

So what a sleep chronotype is, is a science identifying what genetic makeup you have that motivates you to sleep at certain times. So based on when you're most motivated to sleep and wake up, your focus will actually typically follow this as well.

The four types are named after animals so you can easily remember them

Bear, Dolphin, Lion, Wolf- lets explain

Bear: This is 55% of the general population. This means, you prefer not waking up too late, but you don't like to work too early... this is basically people that get their actual motivation somewhere around 10am. Jeff Bezos is the best example of a bear... he literally lies in bed for 1-2 hours a day when he wakes up, just to pull himself together and gets to work around 10-10:30am. If you're a person who is ready to tackle the day about 2-4 hours after waking up you're a bear.

Dolphin: Dolphins are people that seem to have focus either in the morning or at night depending on their levels of stress. This is 15% of the population. So sometimes they're very motivated to work in the morning, other times they're very motivated to work at night. One of my best friends is a Dolphin, he has a job making 70k a year, and two side businesses that he's made hundreds of thousands with. Just making the point that you don't need to be limited by these factors at all, but just be aware that if you seem like some days you're hyper-focused in the morning, or some days you just seem hyper-focused at night... this is because neurologically you're probably a dolphin.

Lion: Lions are morning people. A lot of highly successful people are these 3,4,5 AM'rs. Waking up early doesn't make you successful but it DOES make you sacrifice having a social life.... which is a distracting factor to success. So causation is not correlation in this scenario, but just be aware if you are a morning person that within 1-2 hours of waking up early you're ready to just start smashing the day until about midday, you're most likely a lion. 15% of population

Wolf: I myself am a Wolf. Elon Musk is a Wolf, there's a ton of people that are Wolfs- (15%). You should now see the trend here that it doesn't matter what chronotype you actually have, its just that you aren't distracted. Wolfs are people who actually get the most energy as your day progresses... so when I wake up, I basically don't want to do anything focus related something I'll expand upon later since I'm writing this guide from only my perspective. Wolf's are typically at peak focus at 7pm-9pm. 

The reason why genetics seem to dictate these behaviors is because you actually ostensibly need this variety for safety reasons back in the day of the cavemen. Bears would be the people that basically consistently work and push the development of society as a whole. Lions would make sure everything is as it should be in the morning, and that the day can run consistently. Wolfs would keep order over the night. Dolphins would be flexible should there be a reason why more people are needed in the morning, or more people are needed at night.

Optimizing Your Sleep

Next is understanding how to get the very most out of your sleep. I'll keep this section very short and leave it to you guys to fact check- but just be aware there's a lot of fake news on sleep. Some of this fake news is using Oura rings, are putting amythyst pads that shoot UV waves into your body as you sleep- and frankly this stuff is like from 1980's. I am so beyond this now I actually sleep in an Oura water hyperbaric tank the same one Luke Skywalkers used in The Empire Strikes back to put you in a natural sleep that perfectly aligns with your perfect circadian rhythm, and perfectly grounds out all electrons in a perfect way while perfectly saturating your body with magnesium.......

Look here's all you need to really know. Sleeping is NOT HARD if you just get the basic things right. Don't fall in love with complication.... theres literally only 4-5 things you need to do.

1) Stop stressing about sleep...
When you start stressing about sleep your sleep is going to get worse.... stop stressing about over-complication.

2) Get your electrolytes and minerals right...
You don't need to be a super scientist to know this stuff. You can literally have 1-2 avocados a day, and a $12 magnesium glycinate supplement that will last you like 3 months... and you'll be fine. You need to just make sure you have salt, magnesium, and potassium... that's it. And you don't even need to worry about salt because most diets already have enough of that.

3) Stop working 3-4 hours before going to bed. It's extremely basic. I have an app on my laptop and phone that makes the screen get rid of blue lights. Blue lights stimulate your mind to stay awake, this is why truckers have them at the top of their cabin sometimes when they drive. You can literally just watch netflix on your laptop before bed with flux on... or if you're SUPER advance like me... you'll have a pair of blue light blocking glasses that you put on 3-4 hours before sleep. Ideally, when you're about 2 hours out before sleep, don't watch or read anything educational... you need to watch things or do things that are simple and dumb.... why because you need to slow down and stop thinking. If you're in mastermind mode, you wont be able to go to sleep.

4) Go to sleep at the same exact time every night. You don't need to sleep in a vampire coffin... just make sure no light is coming in. And aim to go to bed along the same time every night. I shoot for 9 hours of sleep a night, because I know I'm only going to get about 7.5. But make a point to try to get to bed around the same exact time.

If you still have issues with sleep... look at your diet... Keto is probably keeping you awake (note 95%+ of every bodybuilder you ever see eat carbs and sleep well)... just sleep like a normal person. I don't care about you biohackers who are going to scream bloody mary at this... what result are you looking for? Just because sleep is important doesn't mean it has to be complicated.

Optimizing Your Day for Success

The first thing I want to stress is that you don't want to copy my routine. 

You want to create your own that works with your chronotype.

So when I wake up in the morning my day is pretty simple. From 9:30-11:30 I'm just waking up. My focus is really not even there at all. I'm having coffee, I'm having vitamins, I'm talking to friends, I'm answering emails... this time block for me is really just chatty time. 

Why because, I don't feel like focusing. So whats the easiest thing for me to do... communicate. It's easy just talk, chat, answer clients, answer emails, check some stats within my business, that sort of thing. I usually get to the gym by 10:30am, I keep my workouts under 45 minutes (but I do warm up for about 30 minutes) then I go to the attached sauna.

I'm usually back in front of my computer by 12:00pm and now I'm ready to work. My diet is essentially a low inflammation diet that hits my protein macros, and that's it. It's just like Kale, Spinach, Pea and Hemp Protein, I take some vitamins like Vitamin K, Vitamin B, Vitamin D, a few other things that I'll make a post on... it's not rocket science. I split up my meals into 4 time blocks, but I don't even really stress about my meals that much. I just make sure I get enough protein and stay consistent with it, because I know that if I want to keep the engine running at optimal levels, I need consistency even when I'm in the zone and don't feel like making a protein shake that takes 2 seconds I do that.

I have like 7 alarms on my phone- wake up, gym, work, eat meal 1-4.

I finish work around 9 then I just do whatever it is I want to do. I'll take a shower, I meditate, I do skin care, I'll review my day, study languages, and then I'm usually shutting down completely around 11pm. And try to get to sleep around 1am.

That's it.

Review Your Day 

There are three tools I use to review my day- my blog posts are one of them. As you can see the format, this is something I got from a consulting course.

Next I use a spreadsheet to see how consistent I'm actually being with my goals:



You can make a copy here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GK-iLcITNMdQYVLZN8_Bito2Ts8pUhW1G66KcAThH1k/edit?usp=sharing

Lastly I do a Green Board. a Green board is a board used by the military. What you do is write all your priorities at the top of the board. And you assign a color to it daily, red, yellow, or green. 

Your first priority is to get the most crucial things to green. Then you improve the rest of the system. 

Once everything is green. You then reset the system to all red, and try to take everything to an even higher level. You start looking at your current standard as the new problem.

You can make a copy here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mm1XWYrmUg4X2K-3CRW4rgHSW5NRk8ANGuvbNseygko/edit?usp=sharing

Affirmations

You should read your affirmations when you wake up and when you go to sleep. Your affirmations should be colorful with a lot of metaphors and exciting. Aim very big with your affirmations. Your affirmations do actually come true.

And that's it.

All people are me! 
We are awesome aren't we?  Me and you?   When you look deep into your loved one's eyes.. What do you feel?  You feel lost in them. You lose your identity into them and you become one when them.  That's the final goal.  The aim of all my seeking . Is to merge into you and become one with you. 
Whoever reading these words right now.. Is me.   The awareness.  There is apparent separate persons though.  But what "you" are is not a person. You are the background that is observing.  And I am that.  Therefore I am you.  You understand?  You are literally physically actually accurately me.. Now we can fall in love with each other. We can focus on what seperates us though and that's equally true.. You are not me =you are me.. Makes no difference .. But I choose that you are me because that's more attractive. Truth doesn't have to always make sense.  Nothing makes sense  anyways.  
That's right man (or woman).. You are me.. If anyone out there is reading this .. Do you realize the significance of what I'm saying..?  Oh yeah?  You heard that before plenty ?  But do you realize the significance of what the fuck is being said here?  If you did how come you are able to not fall in love with me? 

We don't know!! 
Why are we afraid of not knowing?  It is the truth. When you don't know anything you know everything. 
People really need to understand that they don't know.   They think that they know but they don't actually know.  "Everything  is figured out.". They think. And nothing is further from the truth.  And it doesn't matter if you  Appeal to science or to religion.. For both are faced with the same epistemological problem:::.. What is the foundation for knowledge?  How do we know anything?  .   
We give labels to objects and actions.. We write mathematical equations to describe certain patterns in nature.. We think we know this stuff.. But we actually don't.  We don't know what an apple is or what a tree is or what a color is or what a sound is or what a feeling is or what a thought is or what  a human is or what any thing is.. Existence is pure undefined magic.. Therefore it is mystical and divine.. It is godly.. But most people are missing the divine nature of existence because they constantly keep lying to themselves that they actually know anything at all.  We don't see God because we think we know. God is not knowing. 

The concept of self-actualization comes to us from the humanistic psychologist, Abraham Maslow. Maslow defined the self-actualizing human being as follows.
Self-actualization is the expression of your true self, your fullest potential, and your great capacities. Self-actualizing people exhibit the following traits:
Have a superior perception of reality — they see things in an objective, accepting way without intruding themselves upon what is being perceived. Have an increased acceptance of self, others, and nature. Have increased spontaneity in behavior — they can be unpredictable and outrageous. Are more focused on the problem than themselves. Have increased detachment and desire for privacy. Have increased autonomy and sense of individuality — take full responsibility for how their lives unfold. Are resistant to social conditioning. World-citizens not beholden to any one culture. Pick and choose what they like from culture. Are comfortable being themselves even if that means being unpopular. Have a good sense of what is real and unreal. Value truth and facts over beliefs. Have great freshness of appreciation and richness of emotional reaction. Have higher frequency of peak experiences. Being in flow state more often. Have an increased identification with the human species. Have improved interpersonal relationships. Have a more democratic character structure. Have greatly increased creativeness. Have a deep knowledge of themselves. Are constantly moving toward unity and integration of their personality and world view. Are actively nurturing their talents. Place great value on truth, beauty, goodness, uniqueness, wholeness, justice, simplicity, richness, effortlessness, and playfulness. Are driven by positive, intrinsic motivation, not by lack. Generally enjoy most aspects of life, not just achievement, triumph, or peak experiences. Take pleasure in functioning at their prime. Take a non-valuing, non-judging, non-interfering, non-condemning attitude towards others. Are more loving. They need love less but are able to give love more. Embrace conceptual dichotomies, polarities, and conflicts by fusing, transcending, or resolving. Are comfortable with paradox, contradiction, and not knowing. Have desires and impulses that correlate with what's good for them. Have solid psychological health. Live on purpose with a sense of mission. Work is a precious cause. Involved in improving the world. Willing to admit and correct mistakes. Have an easy self-discipline which comes hard to average people. Duty and pleasure are the same. Gratify themselves moderately rather than abstaining through harsh self-discipline. Express impulses more yet use less control. Controls are less rigid or anxiety-driven. Are able to express their aggression in a healthier way, as a sort of righteous indignation rather than a lashing out. Have a different, new set of concerns: being-challenges vs needs-challenges. Live to experience joy rather than avoid pain. Live in the present moment. Make more conscious decisions.  
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: