FlyingLotus

-This episode is 🤯 whoa . It feels like a gypsy curse has been lifted from my psyche. -The following is the condensed version of the summary. It has about half the examples and fewer explanations. External links were selected by me, for better or worse . _______________________________________________ 481. Summary: How Your Mind Interprets Reality “There are no facts, only interpretations." —Frederick Nietzsche -The full version of this summary can be found here in the forum. -Interpretation is core to how you make sense of the world. It’s going to take you a good ten years to fathom the significance of that. This is a foundational epistemic episode. -Every situation has multiple interpretations. People fall into the trap of treating situations as though there are only one or two interpretations. -Seeing Only One Interpretation. The worst case scenario. If you only have one interpretation it becomes your reality. It’s absolute truth. It’s not even an interpretation; it's taken as fact. This is what most people are doing. -Seeing Two Interpretations. You get a taste that interpretation is going on, that the mind is not just receiving “raw facts.” But, now you get caught up in this tug of war, duality, tribalism, partisanship. You see reality in a black and white way. This is all part of a larger theme of Self-Deception. -You have to think very deeply about anything you call a fact. Your mind doesn’t question “facts” so they become your reality. You think a “fact” is something objective that exists independent of you, but they’re actually constructed by your interpretations. It’s important to notice that what most people call facts are actually interpretations. By people I mean you. Facts alone have no value and no meaning. They don’t tell you what's worthwhile or what you should do. That requires interpretation. So, the set of facts you choose to focus on is highly biased. You cherry-pick facts to bolster your sense of reality, to confirm your worldview and to advance your survival. The tricky thing is there's always more than one way to make sense of facts, but people like to act like there’s only one way or “the right way.” Epistemic blunders mostly lie in how you interpret facts and which facts you focus on, not in the facts themselves. Going Meta -This is an important concept. Going meta means to step outside the frame of a thing and observe it. To go one level higher in abstraction. (clip: Going Meta (8 min) ep: What it Means to Go Meta). -Don’t get lost in the content of these examples. The examples are here to make the concepts concrete. (ep: Content vs Structure) The danger here is that you’ll focus on which of these interpretations is the “correct one,” but that's missing the point. Leo’s trying to communicate something meta to you. Be aware if you’re getting stuck in the content of the interpretations and failing to go meta. The larger, meta point with these examples is that there are multiple interpretations. The need to have one right and the rest wrong is part of the problem. See the structure, stay meta. Why did the United States invade Iraq? 1st POV: to defend against terrorism. 2nd POV: because of greedy executives running giant military companies and defense contractors and oil companies for whom this war was beneficial. 3rd POV: because Dick Cheney was a war criminal and George W Bush was an idiot who was easy to manipulate. 4th POV: it was a collective psychic backlash to 911, a fear response. 5th POV: there were weapons of mass destruction or at least that's what people believed at the time. -That’s five very different interpretations. In politics, most people pick one interpretation and act as if it represents the situation in it entirety. If someone believes that Dick Cheney is a war criminal and George W Bush is an idiot they don't see it as an interpretation, but as reality. They don't see deeper levels of interpretation, like with the 4th and 5th options. There are different levels of quality to interpretations. They're not all equal. Some of them are very simplistic, some profound, some even go to a spiritual degree of understanding. eg: The idea of “a collective psychic backlash to 911” is a very powerful interpretation. Instead of looking at the US government as a group of evil people, you see the situation from a more compassionate, understanding and conscious place. Fear tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you fear terrorism, invading the Middle East with a poorly thought out war leads to a destabilization of the region that creates more terrorism. -With the 2nd POV, if you believe the US invasion was because of some greedy executives who wanted contracts, that’s a whole way of seeing the world. It's an adversarial “they’re evil and corrupt and not good like us normal people. They're manipulating us, those damn globalists…” That way of looking at the world leads to certain consequences. It leads to you feeling and acting a certain way. If you think the world is run by a cabals of globalists does that make you feel empowered or like a victim? Is that motivating you to be constructive, creative, and follow your life purpose? Or does it make you feel you're being exploited and manipulated? Ultimately you don’t care about facts. You care about how you feel. -Start to see the whole situation in a multi-perspective, multi-faceted way with multiple interpretations, seeing that each interpretation captures some element of the situation, but not the total thing. -Even more importantly, you want to see how your mind is constructing these interpretations. Become aware of which interpretations you're missing. There are different qualities of interpretation. Saying some group of people does evil because they're monsters or idiots is one of the lowest quality kinds of interpretations. -Even though there are low quality and high quality interpretations, we shouldn’t squeeze out all the lower quality povs. Every interpretation contains some sort of partial truth even though it might be very twisted and distorted. Also, if many people are suffering from low quality misinterpretations, you need to understand that pov to address it effectively. Their opinions might not be accurate, but they could be valid. (eg: Just because there are a lot of Q-Anon people doesn’t mean their ideas are true. However, the rise of so many angry people is important to know about and understand.) Ideally, you want a compound perspective of interconnected and intersecting interpretations. Religion exists because… a) it's a holdover from superstitious ancestors who weren't scientifically rigorous. b) it’s a tool to control the masses. c) it’s not scientifically or literally true, but these myths contain deep psychological lessons without which you can go astray in life. d) it points to absolute truth which is incommunicable because it's infinite and therefore it can never be articulated in a literal scientific sense. -Do you see how different these interpretations are? Notice the last two are more nuanced than just saying “all religion is bullshit.” You’re going to react to religion and religious people differently depending on which pov you believe. -Remember, we’re not interested in which interpretation is “right.” We’re interested in the meta point of seeing how many different ways there are to interpret what religion could be. Islam is… a) the highest religion and truth. b) evil barbaric and violent. c) used in both constructive and destructive ways. How it’s used depends on how it’s read and who cherry picks which parts. d) contains profound truths that are more advanced than science. However, its truths are corrupted by being taken too literally. It also uses many archaic cultural customs from fifteen thousand years ago. -a) is a devout Muslim interpretation. This perspective probably thinks it’s “reality” instead of just a perspective. -b) many Conservatives and Christians in the US feel this way. They’re fearful and uneducated about Islam. Also notice they don't hold that as an interpretation, but as reality. -Notice that c) & d) are more nuanced perspectives. Donald Trump is… a) is a true patriot, a secret genius. A secret systems thinker who acts buffoonish to subvert the elite globalist media. b) an opportunistic grifter and con artist. c) actually God acting out of the highest good and love from his point of view. All his actions are the seeking of love. -Notice how radically different each perspective is. How you frame Trump and how you behave politically depends on which of these interpretations you take. Psychedelics are… a) drugs, which are bad and dangerous. b) just creating hallucinations in the brain. If you experience some mystical truths they don’t mean anything. c) great for expanding consciousness and seeing higher truths. d) an immature shortcut. Fake spirituality because it’s not permanent. e) the future of spiritual work. They haven't caught on because they've been so stigmatized. -Notice how some of these interpretations will exclude you from exploring psychedelics. That's how powerful interpretation can be. Also contentious issues often cause people to get close-minded and stuck in one interpretation. Actualize.org is… a) a cult. b) not a cult, but self-deceived and teaches misinformation. d) offers some advanced perspectives and insights about the nature of reality, but is still partial. It's not a complete picture. e) seems like a cult because it’s teaching advanced things that most of mankind finds threatening. Therefore the most convenient thing for the ego-mind to do is just to call it a cult. f) it’s a communication from God. g) it’s you teaching your own self how to awaken. It’s also the universe teaching itself how to awaken. Quine’s Gavagai Example -Imagine an American explorer finds a remote tribe that has never made contact with the outside world. He tries to learn the tribe’s language. No prob, right? Actually, Quine says this problem is much deeper than it seems. How would this actually play out? Let’s say you’re sitting with a tribesman around the campfire and then a rabbit runs across the field. The tribesman says, “gavagai gavagai” and points at it. What does the tribesman mean? What is “gavagai”? a) a furry, living animal with long ears. b) the name of this particular bunny who is the tribe pet. c) God manifesting itself as the rabbit. d) a hallucination of a rabbit, which means the psychedelics at the campfire are working. e) a rabbit’s foot, which the rabbit’s using to wave hello, awwww…. f) a rabbit’s foot, which the tribe thinks is the most delicious part ?. g) a safe, timid brown bunny, as opposed to those demonic white bunnies, thank goodness. -If you think, “Leo, this is a silly problem. What’s the difference?” Quine’s point here was very deep. Your notion of rabbit will be defined by your entire sense of reality. There is a significant difference between seeing that rabbit as food, as a biological creature, or as consciousness. eg: Buffalo Wasn’t Just Food(2min) Native American tribes view Buffalo differently than…many people today view cute buffalo at the zoo…or bison at the butcher shop. Your notion of anything is metaphysically and epistemically loaded. You’re not conscious of those frameworks, but they shape how you relate to that rabbit. So, your mind's way of holding the concept of “rabbit” is not the same as the tribesman’s or Leo’s or Alice in Wonderland’s or anyone else’s. -The gavagai example shows that most situations in life are deeply ambiguous. Quine’s point is that we will never fully resolve this problem within language. We're basically guaranteed to have different ways of interpreting that rabbit because of the underdetermination problem. eg: an episode of Star Trek:TNG demonstrates this: Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra (1 to 6 mins) The Underdetermination Problem -The Underdetermination problem says: evidence available to us, at a given time, may be insufficient to determine what beliefs we should hold in response to it. Our way of interpreting and seeing the facts go way beyond what is merely there. “Under determination refers to (Willard Van Orman) Quine's assessment that evidence alone does not dictate the choice of a scientific theory, as different theories —observationally equivalent— may be able to explain the same facts.” —Wikipedia -We can also look at the same “facts” and perceive different things because of biology. eg: Yanny or Laurel. The White and Gold Dress pic. Science is Subjective -Quine's point is that there is no such thing as scientific, because how you define “scientific” is part of the problem. (ep: What is the Nature of Science) Science is full of interpretation. It’s not an objective, singular thing. Can you use science to find the right interpretation of what science is? That’s like a heart surgeon performing surgery on himself. This is a meta-scientific problem. Many atheists and materialists don't grasp the depth of the epistemic problem here. Stop naively mistaking the constructions of your mind as reality itself. For each piece of data you gather you can come up with multiple alternative theories. You can never have one theory that perfectly matches all the facts because every theory is underdetermined. So this creates a an open-ended, infinite problem for science. (This doesn’t even include invalidated theories that comfort your ego.) eg: Seven of Nine uses the same facts to accuse Cpt. Janeway and Chakotay of crimes that contradict each other. Just a Word Game? -“But Leo, isn’t this just a word game? There's no difference between seeing a rabbit through a materialist lens versus an idealist lens.” That's wrong. There are ways to decide between them, but not at your current level of consciousness and not using materialist methods. An idealist will consider something like direct experience of absolute truth as possible. The materialist is shut off to this because it doesn’t validate his worldview. So it’s not just a “word game.” Those words carry a lot of unquestioned baggage. -The lesson here is that most situations in life are deeply ambiguous. So, increase your capacity for handling ambiguity and a variety of perspectives. Profound self-deceptions can be life-threatening. It's not just empty philosophy. We could destroy civilization if we don't get this right. Your mind wants reality to be one particular way that serves your survival. The mind abhors a vacuum because it’s threatening. Leaving things open-ended is a lot of work for the mind. -With all these examples keep asking yourself: how would you know the difference between these interpretations? Notice how many different povs fit the same “facts.” Also, Leo’s not trying to justify any action here, so don’t get lost in the content of the interpretations. Focus on the larger, meta point: seeing each situation from multiple perspectives. These examples show how ubiquitous the problem of interpretation is and how many real world implications there are. (49:20) Situations & Multiple Interpretations What is God? a) God is a fiction created by irrational people who don’t or historically didn’t know about evolution. b) God is a state of higher consciousness. What is Mysticism? a) Mystics are wishful-thinking, loose-minded fools who just don't want to face death. b) Mystics have figured out how to access higher dimensions of reality. -When you’re presented with these different interpretations, seriously consider this one as being possible and then seriously consider this other one as being possible. If you can do that it will open your mind (ep: How Openmindedness Works). None of this work works if you don't understand radical open-mindedness. Science is…? a) truth. b) a set of mental constructions that help people manipulate reality for survival. -How would you decide the difference between the two? After all, if what you care about is survival and nothing else, you could easily conflate survival with truth, which of course you do. Senator _____ won't vote for gun reform because…? a) he’s corrupted by the NRA gun lobby who bribed him. b) he believes gun rights are important and guaranteed by the constitution. -A lot of liberals and progressives make this mistake. They accuse certain senators or politicians of not supporting their policies because they've been corrupted, bribed or influenced. That’s definitely true in many situations, but that's not the only reason. Progressives overlook how many senators and politicians genuinely believe the Conservative worldview. Many Conservatives grew up with the gun culture. The NRA wouldn’t be so popular if a significant number of people didn’t love guns. -If you want to be a good progressive you should care about getting this right. There’s so much partisan polarization because each side strawman’s the other instead of stepping outside their own interpretation to truly understand a different pov. That's the meta problem. Also, our financial interests are always deeply entangled with our worldview, our metaphysics, our values, our epistemology. There’s never a clean division of these two things. (Which is why it’s important to get money out of politics.) Money is the distillation of survival. Your world view is your world view because it helps you to survive. (ep: Survival I, Survival II) Bill Gates is trying to…? a) control the population and get rich via vaccines. b) help humanity in the best way he knows how, but those ideas aren’t good. c) help humanity using good ideas, but his ideas aren't perfect because of limited knowledge and the complexity of humanity’s problems. -Truly put yourself in Bill’s situation. What’s the best way to help humanity if you had billions of dollars? It's hard to help everyone in a way they agree with. Everyone has different ideas of what kind of help they need or want. The help you need is probably different from the help someone in Africa or Norway might need. Person x is…? a) insane. b) understands something you don’t. -It’s easy to demonize someone who understands something that’s not popular in mainstream culture. Then again, there are some people who are truly insane. So how do you distinguish these two things? You have to deeply study epistemology and do contemplation for years, decades. If you don’t do the research you won’t figure it out. (1:00:00) Hitler was…? a) evil. b) trying to do good, but because his worldview and consciousness was so low he ended up doing a lot of bad. Person X is…? a) evil. b) doing things for a greater good, using her higher vision that you are too narrow-minded to see. -Mystics, sages and saints operate on such a high playing field that it’s easier for mainstream society to demonize them than understand them. Some of the wisest, most conscious geniuses were put to death, jailed, tortured or crucified. (Christ, Socrates, Gandhi, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther King Jr, Giordano Bruno, and so forth.) Someone who criticizes science… a) is unscientific and likely a religious nutcase. b) might be religious, but is definitely deluded and attacking from below because science is truth. c) could be criticizing science from above in a meta-scientific way that’s more epistemically rigorous than science itself. -Science often refuses to do epistemology and metaphysics. They’re so attached to science they don't think there's anything above it. (The pre/trans fallacy by Ken Wilber) However, there are things in reality which are meta-scientific, which science cannot understand or access. People who talk about God… a) are dumb, superstitious ideologues. b) could have had direct experiences of God that are more genuine than science. -That’s a radically different interpretation because most materialistic and atheistic people are not open to the possibility of having a direct experience of God. To them, all experiences of God are just hallucinations in the brain. So they are forever cut off from truly mystical experiences unless they open their mind. Other people… a) exist. b) don’t exist because this is all a dream, like the people in my dreams at night. -How would you know the difference? Remember, Leo’s not trying to justify any action here. He’s just trying to get you to see the meta in the situation. Love is… a) a mammalian emotion produced by the brain with no metaphysical significance. b) a core metaphysical aspect of universal mind and consciousness. Evolution is… a) solid proof that God doesn’t exist. b) the process by which God creates. Cop X… a) is racist because he did so and so. b) is not racist, but his actions appear that way because he's acting under extreme pressure. c) could be racist. Although the entire police system is affected by culture and both explicit and implicit racism, and being a cop is difficult in ways that cannot be appreciated by people who aren’t cops. The Buddha didn't talk about love… a) so love can't be the truth because the Buddha taught the truth. b) because he realized that love is truth, and what he called truth was actually love. c) because the Buddha's nirvana is actually metaphysical, existential love. Not just emptiness. Obama's drone strikes… a) were evil war crimes. b) saved ground troops from going in, thus saving many American soldiers. c) were ugly but necessary. They killed 90 civilians but also killed 10 hard core terrorists who were planning to kill 1000 American civilians. d) were still evil because 1000 hypothetical Americans don’t outweigh 90 Somalis and Yemenis. e) well, they do if you’re the American President. -Leo’s not trying to justify drone strikes. The meta point is to try on each perspective and appreciate the complexity of the situation. (BTW, numbers in option c) and d) were made up to illustrate a point) The calculus is very complicated and so hairy that most people at the Pentagon probably don’t even know the answers definitively. Most people take this simplistic attitude that drone strikes were evil war crimes. You're not considering the greater evil of sending cruise missiles or even a nuclear weapon. How many civilians are acceptable to kill with drone strikes in order to prevent destabilizing the region, or even nuclear war? This also shows the Underdetermination theory at play. Leo’s not justifying Obama’s actions, just pointing out there are no easy or good choices. Absolute truth is… a) impossible to access even if it exists. b) possible to access. You simply haven’t done enough work to access it. -If you haven’t done the work it’s easy to confuse your personal laziness with something being impossible. Liberals… a) have a mental disorder, like the bumper sticker says. b) are more conscious than you. -Whenever you think you're more conscious than someone else, always consider that they're more conscious than you. Maybe you're just projecting your unconsciousness onto them? Conservatives are… a) racists. b) more prone to fear, survival and xenophobia than Progressives because of their neurology. Capitalism… a) exploits workers. b) is not yet sustainable in an ethical way because humans aren't selfless and conscious enough to not exploit each other. -Do you see how different a) is from b) It changes your whole orientation towards capitalism. Because animals suffer… a) I must not eat animals. b) it has no relevance to what I eat. -The following are common views within the pickup community: Women are… a) gold diggers who only want Chads with money. b) attracted to your money because you have nothing else to offer them but money. c) not attracted to you because your personality sucks and you’re too lazy to develop yourself. d) not attracted to you and aren’t even attracted to your money because you have none. e) attracted to qualities you could develop within yourself that have nothing to do with money, but you can’t see that. Women are… a) cheaters. b) called cheaters by PUAs because they’re projecting their own lack of integrity onto women. They expect women to cheat because PUAs are themselves cheaters. Women are… a) selfish for not giving me sex b) not selfish. You are selfish because you think women owe you sex and blame them because they have free will. -Remember, how would you know the difference? Really try on all options here. Stay meta. Life has no meaning so I… a) should kill myself because meaninglessness sucks. b) could construct whatever meaning I want. This paradoxically gives life the deepest meaning possible. c) I am free from death because if life has no meaning, death has no meaning. Those who reject Christianity are… a) working for the devil. b) rejecting Christianity because it was co-opted thousands of years ago and corrupted so that now Christianity is literally devilry. -How would you know the difference? Remember, don’t get lost in the content of the interpretations. Notice how there are multiple ways of looking at a situation. To be happy I need… a) lots of money b) to find a new mode for happiness -Think about how this changes your entire approach to life. Needing lots of money (or success, or babes, or validation) to be happy is not a fact, but an interpretation that you could change. It’s a lot easier to change interpretations than facts. That would be the wiser course. Life sucks because… a) life is unfair. b) because you haven't been living by the right principles. c) life actually is fair. It’s fair to those who follow the principles. There's natural consequences and suffering which is what you're experiencing and then you call that unfair. -Maybe life sucking is just a consequence of following the wrong principles. It’s like when an idiot hits his toe with a hammer and then experiences excruciating pain, he blames that on the hammer and God and other people. He doesn't take responsibility for his own decisions. The Middle East is… a) less developed than the West because the people there are savages with an inferior culture. b) less developed because the Middle East was a harsher environment to survive in. So historically those people have required more time to develop than those civilizations that arose in Europe and elsewhere. -They will eventually develop to the standards of Western culture and beyond. So it’s not some inherent, genetic inferiority or some cultural problem. (“Guns, Germs and Steel” by Jared Diamond) Women have vaginas and Men have penises… a) it’s a scientific fact. b) it’s not always the case. The idea of penises, vaginas, men and women are abstract categories created beyond and outside of empirical science. Logic is… a) what reveals truth. b) a rationalization mechanism co-opted by the ego-mind for the purposes of your survival. The Constitution must be… a) followed because it’s the Constitution. b) updated. It was written over 230 years ago and contains outdated ideas which need to fit with modern times, otherwise the nation will stagnate and perhaps even collapse. I can't get laid because… a) I don't have a square jaw and a big dick. b) I don't understand female attraction, have cripplingly low self-esteem and don't socialize. -If you've never seriously tried to fix yourself how can you know your dick and jaw size are holding you back instead of self-esteem issues, fear of socializing and ignorance about female attraction? Feminism is… a) the reason I can't get laid. b) a scapegoat you invented because of your unwillingness to take responsibility for your results. People think Jordan Peterson is a fascist because… a) his haters are snowflake SJWs who are threatened by manly greatness!! Hail ?!! b) his detractors are attached to the Progressive worldview. They don’t look at his work with nuance because they misunderstand the Conservative mind and feel attacked by stage blue. -Remember, how would you know the difference? Really try on all options here. Stay meta. Person X is a… a) lying hypocrite grifter. b) is just weak. Like all of us are. He failed up to live up to his own ideals and has been corrupted by money. Slavery is… a) evil. b) only evil relative to today's cultural norms and level of development. -Remember, how would you know the difference? Really try on all options here. Walls are… a) real, because I can't walk through them, which proves their reality. b) might be real, or I could be imagining walls that can't be walked through. The number of stars and galaxies in the universe means that… a) life is very common. b) life is extremely rare. -See how significantly different that interpretation is. It just flips the whole thing on its head. If the paranormal was real… a) science would say so, but science doesn’t so it can't be real. b) science would discredit the studies and outcast any scientist who dares to prove it. God… a) will punish you for your sins. b) will not punish you for your sins. c) will love your sins as much as your goodness. However, sins naturally produce their own suffering by disconnecting you from loving consciousness. e) sinning against another is just you punishing yourself. Stage green socialism is… a) dangerous. b) being conflated with stage red and blue communism, which are not the same things at all. Government regulation is… a) socialism. b) necessary for the harmonious balance of a society. You can’t have a government without regulations. Taxation is… a) theft b) makes the military, the courts, infrastructure and many other things you enjoy in a democracy possible. Democrats want illegal immigration because… a) it gives them more voters. b) Democrats are more compassionate and less fearful because they actually care about the suffering of immigrants and don’t think it will destroy the country. -To most Conservatives that interpretation doesn't even enter into their mind. When you can't compute that possibility the only alternative is to come up with some idea that Democrats are doing it for their own selfish gain. Communism was a… a) failure b) success that led to the greatest growth in living standards in the 20th century both in Russia and in China. -If you actually look at the GDP growth and rise in living standards percentage-wise in Russia and China over the last century, it rose way more than in non-communist countries. Leo’s not saying communism is good. There are many problems with communism. He’s just showing how these interpretations are much trickier than they seem. Guru X… a) is a rapist and an abuser. b) had consensual sex with a bunch of groupies and one of the groupies got mad because the guru wouldn’t marry her. c) took advantage of his role as a teacher and confidant and used that to abuse and coerce girls who wouldn’t otherwise date him. -This is a very common problem in spiritual communities. Guru X is a rapist therefore… a) he cannot be enlightened. b) he could still be enlightened because who says enlightened people can’t be rapists? -Remember, how would you know the difference? Really try on all options here. People voted for Trump because… a) they were racist. b) he appealed to their spiral dynamic stage blue and orange value set, which is the majority of the US. The miracles of Jesus…? a) are myths and exaggerated fairytales to tell to children. b) are real because Jesus was so exceptionally conscious that he actually had those powers. Disputes between spiritual teachers… a) are just differences in word and style, not in substance. They’re basically word games. b) are differences in underlying substance, and consciousness. Some teachers are actually more awake than others. c) are a blend of a) and b) -Remember, how would you know the difference? Really try on all options here. Stay meta. There is no proof of paranormal phenomena because… a) it's all bullshit. b) the methods of proof you're using are too limited for measuring paranormal phenomena. After all, your method determines what you're going to get back. I’m bad with women because… a) I'm short. b) I’m insecure about being short. -You might spend your entire life thinking you're bad with women because of something you can’t change (your height) when the true cause is something you can change (your insecurity). One of the best guys Leo knew from pickup was a 5’5 Pakistani guy. He would crush it. He would do better than a six foot tall white guy. At the club he was one of the most secure, brash and confident guys, the exact opposite of insecure, and his results reflected that. Examples from Leo’s Life Leo said something in a video that I also said, which means… a) he stole my work and didn't give me credit for it. b) that people can develop insights independently and still overlap with other people’s insights. Not all ideas have one origin point. c) deep universal truths can be discovered by many people. d) he totally stole from you, and got away with it too!! The backdrop of Leo’s apartment means… a) Leo’s purposely sending secret Illuminati messages to his followers who 100% carry out his every command (unless those commands include mediating, exercising, reading or delousing the clutter in their mind) b) Leo’s bad at decorating his apartment. The symbol of 666 is… a) deeply significant. b) completely meaningless. c) the molar mass of the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7, which makes it satanic. Youtube/Influencer fame is… a) the most profound and fulfilling experience a human soul can have. b) a stream of babes and compliments, with maybe one troll every five years. c) a nonstop flood of people projecting their egos at you. -Leo has experienced constant projection on a daily basis for the past decade. It’s especially difficult because he stays open to feedback and valid constructive criticism. However, it’s difficult to distinguish that from people’s projections. It underscores how everyone is projecting all the time and of course Leo does it to others too. When you experience other people’s projections so strongly it makes you more aware of your own projections. (It also shows fame ain’t all it’s cracked up to be) Youtube’s spam filter is… a) proof it’s part of a globalist conspiracy to suppress free speech. b) trying to counteract bots and spammers that would make websites like youtube unrunnable. Leo filters out comments based on…. a) opinions he disagrees with. Critiques of his work. b) slander, racism, extreme vulgarity, disinformation, conspiracy theories, spam, and so on. Leo’s work is… a) a copy of other spiritual traditions and presented as his own truth. b) a result of discovering these insights independently on his own. c) triggering to people who are attached to their particular lineage or guru as the source of truth. d) fun to play in the background while you’re cooking. -If that original yogi or mystic could discover the truth for himself, why can’t other people discover the truth for themselves too? Leo doesn't want to debate others because… a) he’s afraid of being exposed as a fraud. b) he has become too conscious to be interested in debating anyone. c) he’d rather spend that time making videos for us ?! Leo denies he is leading a cult because… a) he isn’t leading a cult. b) denying you're a cult leader is exactly what a cult leader would do, which proves Leo’s leading a cult! -That’s circular logic. I can play this game on you. I can call you a cult leader and as soon as you deny it I'll say, “Ah ha! According to your logic if you deny your cult leader that's exactly what makes you a cult leader!” (Speaking of which, Kanye West says his greatest accomplishment is that he is the greatest) That spiritual teacher… a) worked really hard to become enlightened. b) didn't have to work that hard because he was born with exceptional spiritual talent. Leo didn't respond to my email (or my awesome LoA question ) because… a) he doesn't like me . b) he didn’t see my email. He gets tons of them -Using the Spiral Dynamics model… Trump is… a) stage orange with a bit of red. b) stage red with a veneer of orange. Jordan Peterson is… a) stage yellow with a green shadow. b) stage orange with some yellow capacities. -Spiral dynamics has very interesting interpretive problems because it also suffers from the underdetermination problem. (ep: Spiral Dynamics) It takes a lot of experience, study and application of spiral dynamics to be able to start to distinguish between these things. Even the developers of spiral dynamics suffer from this problem. Don Beck and Ken Wilber… a) are right about pushing towards stage yellow because we’ve already exhausted stage green. b) are seriously overestimating how evolved politics and culture are. -In the US, green is only prevalent in advanced universities. The majority of society is still in blue and orange, even in developed countries. We've got to move through green for many years before we can get to yellow. We don't even have a green economic or political system. Spider Dynamics is an interpretation that you're projecting onto reality. It can be difficult to know which interpretation to apply, which one is more accurate. Clip: Spiral Dynamics (11 min) People who believe in ufos… a) are idiots. b) aren’t necessarily idiots. Scientists and skeptics are simply too close-minded. c) watched too much X-Files growing up. d) are right. UFOs are hidden because there’s a conspiracy! e) are right. UFOs are hidden because the government and people studying them can’t explain them properly. It doesn't fit their worldview. All spiritual teachings… a) are just different paths up the same mountaintop, leading to the same peak. b) are not different paths leading to the same peak. There are lower and higher places along the mountain and it's not a single mountain. It's a mountain range with many different peaks and not all paths lead to the same peak. In a relationship, you could say… a) your partner is the problem. b) you are actually the problem. c) the two of you are not a good fit. d) one or both of you is wrong and evil. All men… a) are shallow cheating pigs. b) aren’t shallow cheating pigs. You just end up with pigs because of your low self-esteem problems. The existence of evil in the world means… a) God is not good. b) God cannot exist because he wouldn't create evil. c) that “evil” is just an illusion created by your selfish biases. You don't see the world’s perfection because your vision isn't perfect. Consciousness is… a) impossible to know. b) possible to know because you are consciousness and consciousness is infinite, but you don't understand that yet because you haven't become conscious of it. Leo is… a) wrong, because he hasn't considered whatever point I want him to consider. b) maybe right. Maybe Leo has already taken that point into account and seen beyond it to points you have yet to consider. c) not perfect, but his epistemology is better than most people's epistemologies. He’s spent decades doing the work. Can the same be said for you? -The notion of raw facts is a naive myth. Your mind does so much interpretation and confirmation bias that your relationship to reality is less than one percent. Your interpretations are are deeply distorted by your survival needs and insecurities. -Key point: Notice your interpretations. Even deeper, notice yourself denying that your interpretation is an interpretation. How are you trying to retcon your interpretations as fact or science or “just the way it is”? Also notice how rash and unconscious interpretations lead to self-deception and misunderstanding the world. -Be aware that most knowledge, opinions and reporting you see in culture and media is actually an interpretation, but you’re not treating it as such. You unconsciously swallow culture and media and their implicit frames which leads to deep self-deception in your life. -The meta point here is notice all possible interpretations of a situation, rather than looking for the “right one” and defending it. Tips for Application 1) There’s always dozens of interpretations. If you can only see one or two, you’re being epistemically irresponsible. That's your clue you're not being mentally flexible and curious enough, that you’re just fooling yourself. 2) Realize that your first interpretation is usually the worst. The more contemplation you do of epistemology and metaphysics, the better your interpretations will get. Overcome your self-deceptions. Notice the ego games and the blaming in your mind (ep: Self-Deception I). 3) Get in the habit of looking for alternative interpretations. Make it a little game you play with yourself. This requires exploring multiple perspectives with an open-mind, without bias. 4) Seek more nuanced, high quality interpretations. The examples above have both crude and nuanced interpretations. Notice the differences between them. 5) Generate novel interpretations for all sorts of situations. For your relationships, your children, love life, sexuality, views about men, women, the government, and so forth. 6) Reinterpret your own self. You have tons of negative interpretations of your capacities that you consider facts. How compassionate and empowering are your interpretations about yourself? 7) Seek more charitable and loving interpretations. Some interpretations are very fear-based, us versus them, tribalistic and polarizing. Other interpretations are more compassionate, more inclusive. Steel man other interpretations instead of straw manning them. 8) Seek interpretations that understand and can accommodate other perspectives. 9) Question and discard fear-based interpretations. 10) Question and discard toxic, disempowering interpretations and victim mentality. When you start to interpret yourself as a victim it becomes your reality. Notice how conspiracy theories and incel ideology use fear, hatred and judgment to make you feel like you're being empowered by the theory, but you’re actually not. Their epistemology is very poor. How is interpretation different from Recontextualization? It's a difference of degree. (ep: Recontextualization). Recontextualizations are pretty rare, happening maybe once a month or once a year. Interpretation is similar, but happening on a much more fine grained level. Interpretations are always going on in your mind. Be careful about how you interpret these teachings There can be double, triple meanings to the words Leo uses. Also, the more advanced a teaching is, the easier it is to misinterpret. Leo’s concept of, say, ego death isn’t the same as your concept of ego death in your mind. Leo’s 3 hr episode about Relative truth means… a) Life is subjective, relative and full of interpretation, therefore Absolute truth does not exist. b) misunderstanding Relative truth causes a lot of suffering, and it co-exists with Absolute truth ?! What you think he said might be the opposite of what he actually intended to say. So be very careful when listening to these videos. -Epistemology is at the core of all of your problems in life. When you don’t take that seriously you misinterpret everything, everywhere. The finite thing you believe you are is itself a gross misinterpretation of what you actually are. -The real work is correcting the misinterpretations in your mind. Fixing your epistemology fixes the foundation for your life. The sturdier the foundation, the higher you can build your skyscraper.

(Here's all of Leo's recordings from the blog. I'll update as more come up. Enjoy !!) Actualized.org Blog Videos: Society & Politics [] Inside The Mind Of Trump [] My Political Awakening [] Rethinking Human History [] My Critique Of Zizek's Critique Of Buddhism [] The Big Picture Of Global Politics [] Why The Media Is Corrupt [] Why Bernie Sanders Lost [] Deconstructing Property Rights [] Conscious Capitalism BS [] Life Lessons From "Life Below Zero" Epistemology [] Why Are My Videos So Long? [] Metaphysics vs Epistemology [] Understanding Better Than Academics [] Changing Perspectives Destroys Reality [] All Understanding Is Metaphoric [] All Understanding Is Metaphoric - Part 2 [] Skepticism & Nonduality [] How To Test For Self-Bias [] Learning From Partially False Perspectives [] Sherlock Holmes' Brain [] Why Debates Don't Work Enlightenment [] Absolute Infinity Demo [] Explaining God For Dummies [] Total Omniscience Awakening [] Infinite Love Awakening [] Ego-Collapse Awakening [] Tapping Into Collective Consciousness [] Miracle Awakening [] Sense Organs Are Imaginary [] DPT: The Other God Molecule [] What It's Like To Smoke Salvia Divinorum Life Purpose [] Why Get Rich Quick Schemes Don't Work [] How I Started My First Business [] Requisite Variety & Creative Laziness [] Guerilla Business Advice Health [] Don't Half-Ass Yoga [] Sitting Posture For Yoga & Meditation Leo’s Health & Life [] Do I Doubt Myself? [] My Health Situation [] Back From 2 Month Break, Updates [] 14 Day Water Fast [] Water Fast Ends, Carnivore Diet Begins [] Things I’ve Been Wrong About [] Fat Leo (I had to add this because it’s adorable) Retreats [] Solo Retreat Videos & Insights [] Hawaii Solo Retreat Feb 2018 Videos [] Mindfucked In Hawaii [] Hawaii Retreat Intro [] Hawaii Late Night Insights [] May 2018 Solo Retreat - Part 1 [] May 2018 Solo Retreat - Part 2 [] May 2018 Solo Retreat - Part 3

I use plain old Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, the free one. When you're done highlighting, press the save button. Ctrl + S, or the button in the top left corner, looks like: ? A "Save As" window will pop up that asks you where you want the file to be saved, and then what you want to name it. If you keep the name of the file the same, you'll be asked if you want to replace your old file. You're basically making a new pdf file. Pdfs don't save the way doc files do, unfortunately.

"Gaia Awakens" on youtube has good summaries/read-throughs of The Law of One. You can check it out at the Law of One playlist.

@RobertZ You're welcome ? I'm actually working on the summary for that video right now, so maybe that will help too.

You may want to check out this blog video. It's super short and shows a good metaphor for how reality/non-duality/consciousness/infinity and the structure of the universe works. Not bad for 10 mins! Absolute Infinity Demo

I read your entire post. Holy winning at life N92! I know you’re at a confusing crossroad, but you’re insanely ahead of the pack (in case you didn’t know). There’s lots of excellent advice in this thread already, but here’s my two cents. Read “Open” by Andre Agassi. He became a world class tennis player despite hating tennis. He was driven by wanting to prove his dad wrong and a genuine love for competition, but not a love for tennis. The autobiography doesn’t hold back. A lot of high performer types say it’s one of their fav books. I’m not saying that’s your exact situation, but it might hold a mirror to what you’re going through. It also sounds like you have black or white thinking going on. Is it really true you can’t take a year long break, or is it just suboptimal to take a break? It’s not like you’re in ballet, pro sports or modelling (I don’t know your industry). It seems like you know you can do lots of other stuff with world class skills. Saying “quit” violin rather than “take a break” seems like a black or white cognitive distortion (research cognitive distortions). Would you really be “miserable” if you pursed violin, or would you have some challenges and make some pivots and detours to truly figure out what you want? It sounds like time is your main concern in your decision. Time is on your side. You’re nine-freaking-teen. Doing a program for a year that gets you world class at something isn’t a waste of time. Playing video games on your moms couch and being high for a full year is. Even if you did a ps4-potsmoking-sabbatical you could still bounce back from that, especially at your age. The logic side of me says stick it out for a year if it will give you access to unique opportunities or money you wouldn’t have access to otherwise. Are there other areas of the industry you could go into? Do you have to be a pro violinist, or could you teach or work on the business side? Could you be a composer? (again, I don’t know anything about your industry) World class skills are pretty damn rare and valuable. You sound like a perfectionist. That’s great, I’m one too! It’s freaking awesome! A lot of people would kill to be a perfectionist, to have excellence be their default. The thing with perfectionism is it has to be channelled and managed properly to not become destructive. You should check out “Pursuit of Perfect” by Tal Ben Shahar. There are good summaries on youtube, but the book is 100% worth checking out if you’re a perfectionist or tend to attach your self worth to accomplishment. Also, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying success and accomplishment (unless you’re a murderer ). Success is freaking great! Enjoying something is different than attaching your self worth to it. It sounds like you have a true love for music, but you could be burned out. It’s possible your burn out, perfectionism and black and white thinking is tainting that passion for music. I personally think if you do therapy and focus on mental health or optimizing your psychology, you’ll discover you actually do love music. You don’t have to quit violin to do that. Leo's book list has books that could help you with that. Therapy can help too if you can afford it. I don’t know you of course. I’m just some stranger on the internet, so you have to reflect on that yourself. Also, get Leo’s Life Purpose course. It’s worth every penny, especially at your age and situation. Yes, investigate what else you could be interested within the music industry and outside of it. You can do all that without sacrificing your goals.

Leo’s video mostly takes examples from social sciences, but it’s also brilliant as a form of cognitive behavioural therapy and looking at defining, difficult events from your life. (The answer to the Evans question is A btw )

Expose yourself to a variety of viewpoints and people from different backgrounds. What someone wants and values will frame how they view something. Do self-inquiry. Get in touch with how you feel, and even how different parts of you feel about a subject. Your higher self will have a different opinion than your lower self. I’ll give you two examples. One silly, one serious: Why didn’t my mother love me growing up? a) She could sense I was fundamentally, hopelessly worthless and undeserving of love. b) She’s a bitch. c) She grew up in an abusive environment where any show of vulnerability was attacked, and as a result she transferred that trauma onto me. It wasn’t personal. d) She did love me, she just didn’t know how to be loving. e) The universe selected her as my mother so that I could develop unique qualities to fuel my life purpose and contribute to the world. Why is Chris Evans perceived as handsome? a) He’s healthy stage green, which automatically bumps any man up to 8 or above. b) His face fits Aristotle’s Golden Ratio of beauty. c) He’s rich and famous, but facially average. He looks like any other dude at Dunkin' Donuts. d) His beauty, talent and wit is placed on a pedestal and marvelled at because people disown their own beauty, talent and wit. They cannot see those qualities in themselves so they project those disowned parts onto others. e) He’s the product of a Hollywood machine that propagates Western standards of beauty which put white men at the top of the attractiveness food chain.

@Preety_India Good advice! @SageModeAustin Dealing with hecklers. Joke writing tips.

Congrats, that's a huge feat! There's lots of good advice in this thread. Given that belief systems are just scaffolding to get to the truth, if Ra super charges you to embody love/light, go for it! There’s certainly worse things than helping the planet evolve, being service to others and embodying 4th density. I went down the RA-bbit hole over a year ago. Even though most of it is stuff that can’t be proven, there’s some stuff in it that actually could be verified. Law of One was written in the early 80 and made claims that weren't provable then, but a few bits have since been verified based on recent studies. -Venus was actually habitable for 2 billion years, during a timeframe that fits the Law of One. Nasa based this on research that was conducted after the Law of One was written. Nasa and Venus -Ra said there’s a 9th planet in our solar system, but it’s too far away to be detected. In 2016 that theory was validated. Caltech 9th planet -All the stuff about the pyramids being created by aliens. (Graham Hancock has interesting stuff about this) -In 2018 the FBI released classified documents about Tesla in which he explicitly said he was an alien from Venus working on UFOs. Those documents were classified until 2018. Then again maybe there were rumours floating around about him like there are about Elon Musk I’m definitely, definitely, definitely not saying I totally believe The Law of One (A broken clock is right twice a day). There’s a lot of crazy stuff in it. That big foot and lizard people are real and alive, that cattle mutilations are because of 2nd density thought forms. Genghis Khan was reincarnated as a file clerk in the negatively polarized Orion system. It's just fun to think about and I tried fact checking stuff that's potentially discoverable. Half the surface of Mars is supposedly different than the other half because it was damaged in a war or something (can't remember exactly). Space debris in the Milky Way are remnants of a galactic war or explosion or something. Couldn't find evidence for either, but I couldn't find any studies on that at all. Then again I didn't do a ton of research. Also, supposedly the Ark of the Covenant is still around but it was written on a scroll instead of tablets (or it was still around in the 80s). Law of One is entertaining and reads like lore for a sci-fi universe, but it’s also a nice parable for the evolution of the universe. Aaron Abke’s vids on it are great and practical (his Mindscience series is a must watch too).

Thanks! That’s a relief. I'd say the video refers to people whose people pleasing or approval seeking is hurting their life. Healthy people are more than capable of wanting the best for others in a non-attached way, but that’s not who the video is really talking about. You can also genuinely value goodness and want to be seen as a good, noble person. It’s more of a both/and rather than an either/or.

Haha! Sparknotes, the bane of english teachers everywhere. You could also call this: Leo’s “I hope they don’t misrepresent my work thread!"

“You wouldn't care so much about what people thought of you if you knew how little they did” — Dr. Phil 165. Summary: "How to Stop Caring What People Think of You" -Why do we give so much power to other people? Why do we allow other people to have so much control over the way that we live our lives? It's because you’re trying to maintain your self-image (clip: Self-image). The Noble Do-Gooder -People pleasers have a self-image of being a noble, good and caring. “I’m a good, nice guy. I’m not some jerk who hurts other people’s feelings.” -The problem with any self-image is you want it reflected and validated. You want evidence that your idealized self-image is accurate. You want people to validate your caring goodness (mom, dad, boss, gf/bf, siblings, clients, random strangers, strangers named Chris Evans). You want to be approved of and you want to be loved. -You are working very hard to maintain this noble, good self-image. That’s difficult to architect and destined to fail. No Disconfirming Evidence -You’re designing your life so that people give you the most approval possible, all to uphold your self-image. You’re also avoiding any disconfirming evidence. -Here’s a fundamental problem, you’re a living breathing organism who’s survival depends on a certain amount of selfishness. It’s very deep-set by evolution. You’re not even in control of how selfish you could be if something important were at stake. -Putting yourself last puts you in an adversarial relationship with your yourself and with own nature. Your true nature is going to fight back. So, being empathetic can be a trap. Maybe it’ll take a few years, but resentment starts to build up, same with anger, tension, feeling unfulfilled, feeling inauthentic. All that prevents you from building your dream life. The Middle Way “But Leo, I don’t want to be an asshole. I want to be the good guy. I want to be the white knight. I want to be empathetic. I’m going to make sure I do things well.” -Don’t let your brain bully you. Don’t let your brain engage in black and white thinking. “I can be a goody goody or I can be an asshole.” -There’s a middle way. It’s being completely independent of the good or bad opinions of others. Be grounded in your own values. Those values are good and those values are right and that’s the end of it. Whatever opinions are out there, it doesn’t matter because there is a path you’re walking and no one is going to derail you. -This is the path that you’re going to have to take if you want an extraordinary life, the kind of life where you’re doing big things. Your Dreams Get Sidelined -People pleasing is not a sustainable life strategy. You’re not doing the greatest good. You’re putting your own values and dreams off to the side. Those dreams could be how you do the most actual good in the world. -Here’s a paradigm shift. What’s an opinion, really? It’s a thought in somebody else’s head. You’re letting a figment of someone else’s imagination control your life. (Also, you don't actually know what they're thinking. So it's your thoughts about someone hypothetical thoughts that are making you anxious.) -It’s one thing to be influenced by somebody you really respect or who’s important to you, but most people are concerned with the opinions of complete strangers. Like a customer you met once, an audience of mostly strangers, some random gal/dude from Tinder. You’re letting this dictate how your life progresses. Can you realize how ridiculous that is? You’re Giving All The Power To Someone Else -No one should have that kind of power over you but you. You need to get grounded in your own values, what you think is right, and not care about the opinion of others. When you know what you want in life, you go straight for it. That’s a powerful, awesome way to live. -Every single person has their own agenda and values. They don’t know your vision, they don’t know your dreams, they don’t know what’s right and wrong for you. How are you going to move forward if you’re constantly distracted by them? What About Feedback? “But Leo, what about feedback? If I’m making art, or music don’t I need to know if it’s good or bad?” -If you’ve got your own values by which to guide yourself then you can take feedback. There’s no reason why you can’t listen to people telling you things. It can be a good source of information. -The problem isn’t feedback. The problem with you is a lot more emotional and neurotic. You’re don’t really want feedback. You want validation and approval. You want to avoid criticism because you want to preserve that beautiful image of your ideal self. -That’s ego mania, very subtle ego mania. Be careful about your ego telling you that you’re selfless. When your ego is telling you you’re selfless that’s usually when you’re being the most selfish so really watch out for that. “But Leo, these people in my life they keep me on course. Maybe I’m doing something wrong and I won’t even realize it.” -Sometimes it’s good to have people to hold you accountable, to do some sanity checks on your decisions. But you don’t want that to become a way of life. You need to install your own internal guidance system. Praise is also Problematic “But Leo, what’s wrong with getting praise?” -The problem is you’re neurotic about it. You need it. You’re desperate for it. You desperately need it to prop up this beautiful ideal self-image that you’ve got which is a total fiction. -Maybe you’re that kind of artist who’s not very confident until someone compliments you. You can’t rely on that because you will not always get the praise you want. If you’re neurotic about needing praise, if you’re desperate, then not getting that praise makes you resentful, bitter. You start to doubt yourself. You judge that person too. “Why didn’t they give me the praise I deserve? How could they be so insensitive? How could they be so cold and heartless?” The Paradigm Shift -You need to come to a realization right now. You need to admit, right now, that the current mode of seeking approval for your self-image is a shitty strategy. It’s time to drop it. -This means when people praise you, you can take the praise, but it won’t change your trajectory. You’re not desperate for it. It also means if people criticize you or have a negative image of you, that’s also okay. You’re not going to be triggered by it. -The game that you’re playing right now – this upholding of an ideal self-image – it’s a game that can’t be won. It can’t be won because you’re trying to control other people’s imagination. You Can’t Control Other People -Opinions are very random in nature, very capricious. A lot of times what people think about you says very little about you. It says a lot more about them. (ep: Why People Seem Crazy) -When someone criticizes you it might not have anything to do with your art, or work, looks, personality or value as a human being. (clip: Understanding Meaning, Purpose, & Value) Maybe they’re tired. Maybe they just had a bad breakup. There could be a million different reasons for why they said what they said. Maybe they don’t have a good sense of art so their opinion isn’t worth as much as you think. -Do you want to put your dreams and life vision into the hands of randomness? Into the imaginations of hypothetical people, many of whom you don’t even know or even respect? Why are you taking their opinions so seriously? Your life is probably a lot less than it could have been if you hadn’t been such a people pleaser for so long. Are You Getting True Value From Any Of It? -Ask yourself, how much fulfillment am I getting from this praise? From this review? From this this nice comment or thumbs up?” All that stuff is good, but if you’re a people pleaser you have to ask, “What’s the value in all this? Can another person give me something that’s truly valuable?” “Of course Leo, other people give me value all the time. Someone gave me money, or sex or love or a marriage, or….” -Think about it a little bit deeper. Really, there’s nothing that another human being can offer you of true value. Sure they can give you some stuff, but will that really fulfill you? -This game of upholding your self-image will never fulfill you. You get a nice compliment, but then a day or two passes, a month passes and you don’t even remember it. It was just a nice little hit. -What’s more fulfilling is honouring your values, your vision, to be living your full potential in life. To champion those. What’s really fulfilling is creating your dream life, not these little compliments that you get here and there. It’s Okay To Be The Odd One Out -You have to trick yourself because this feels unnatural. Tell yourself, “It’s okay to challenge people. It’s okay to hold an unpopular opinion. It’s okay to not fit in all the time. It’s okay to be abnormal.” -If you get out there and experience more rejection, more criticism, you start to build a tougher skin. You realize, “It just doesn’t matter that much. I’m going to be dead someday. There’s more important stuff than the figments of someone else’s imagination.” You’re Going To Clash With People -If you’re building a big life, you’ll have to impose yourself on the world. Maybe you’re challenging the status quo, or clashing with people sometimes. As a people pleaser you want everything to be nice, proper and prim. That’s not going to happen. -If you’re building a business, or a relationship, there’s going to be tension between people. Tension comes from authenticity. -It may feel uncomfortable, but the other person doesn’t mind it so much. What other people really don’t like is you being fake. When you’re fake it’s hard to be attractive because it makes you so bland. You’re hiding behind this vanilla mask and stuffing down anything that’s unique and special. Self-expression is probably one of the biggest things that you’re sacrificing as a people pleaser. Which Would You Rather Have? -You have to decide between upholding some shiny self-image in your head, or building a beautiful dream life, doing something powerful with your life. Which would you rather have, because there’s definitely conflict between the two. -Assignment: For the next ninety days, for five straight minutes, you’re going to close your eyes and affirm to yourself… “I am completely independent of the good and bad opinions of others.” -You don’t presently realize how powerful this statement is. Just repeat it over and over. That’s going to reprogram your sub-conscious mind which, currently, doesn’t believe this at all. You’ll be surprised at what a powerful effect this can have on your psyche. You Need A Little ‘Asshole’ In You -Don’t worry, you're not going to become some evil monster. People aren’t going to hate you. In fact, people will start to respect you because you’ve found your spine and you have some sense of direction. Remember, even if you play this game perfectly there’s still going to be people that criticize you. Realize how much of a losing game you’re playing. -In fact the more you accomplish big things, the more attention you’re going to draw. As you’re drawing more attention, just by the law of averages, at least one person in a hundred is going to hate you. -They’ll hate you for the most random of reasons (your looks, your sound, your ideas, your philosophy, your friends, your cat, your ongoing references to Chris Evans). So, the more successful you become the tougher your skin needs to be. That’s okay because that need to maintain your self-image is a fairytale you don’t need anymore. The Final Exercise -Become very aware of all the areas in your life where you’re being fake. As a people pleaser your pendulum’s at one extreme end. You need to swing it back to center. -Assignment: Line up at Starbucks and when it’s your turn to order just stand there and look at the menu for a bit. Feel the people behind you getting antsy. Stand there for a couple of minutes. It’s ok if people tell you to hurry up. Stand there and get used to taking that kind of pressure. (Bonus points if you do this in New York) ☕️

124. Summary: The Secret - The Truth They Didn't Tell You -This episode goes hand in hand with the episode The Law Of Attraction - How It Really Works & How To Use It. Summary can be found here. -The Law of Attraction is an amazing, powerful tool to advance your life, career, relationships and personal development. (Leo does LOA visualizations like a religious zealot for 30 mins every single morning.) -The Secret is a personal development movie that’s really about the Law of Attraction. The movie is popular but somewhat controversial. Leo rewatched it expecting to react negatively. However, the movie was so powerful and resonant he had to admit that the overall gist of the movie was completely true. (He even teared up watching it!) -The Law of Attraction says whatever you focus on you will get more of, whether negative or positive. So, instead of focusing on things you don’t want, shift your focus to what you do want. Visualize and focus on what could go right instead of agonizing over what could go wrong. Your attitude is a self fulfilling prophecy. When you expect catastrophe you get anxious, insecure and fearful. When you act from a disempowered state your actions are feeble. When you constantly worry about your problems, they get bigger. Consistent positive focus improves the quality of your thoughts, which elevates your attitude, which energizes your actions and creates awesome results in your life. Criticisms of The Secret 1) It focuses too much on materialism. The Secret shows people using LOA to manifest money, cars, diamonds, a wicked faberge egg collection and so forth. That's actually the least useful way to apply Law of Attraction. LOA is best used for developing inner qualities, not manifesting material goods. Visualize being more confident, having a strong work ethic, a healthy body, a charismatic personality and more energy to fulfill your life purpose. That raises your overall experience of life much more than having a bunch of stuff. Building up skills and inner qualities is more powerful because it affects all other areas of your life. High energy will affect your career, your hobbies, your exercise regime, your love life and relationships. Don’t pray for things. Pray for yourself to become better to acquire those things. Don’t pray for a million dollars. Pray to become someone who thinks like a millionaire, then the money will flow naturally. Don’t pray for a hot witch gf or a Chris Evans lookalike. Pray to become someone who’s happy, confident and irresistible to a coven of hot witches (who preferably aren't psycho). 2) It says LOA should feel easy and effortless. That’s VERY misleading. The Secret says “the universe will rearrange itself for you” and things will "magically show up." That's not going to happen. You need to take action. (Besides, if the universe responds so strongly to thought, wouldn’t it respond even more to action?) They say the process should always feel super good, or else you're "out of alignment and not doing it right." That’s totally untrue. To setup that kind of expectation is to create failure. Even if you're a very grounded, very solid executor in life and totally on your life's purpose, you're still going to face a lot of challenge and hardship. If you want to become a millionaire, you're going to have to start a business, or climb the corporate ladder, or invest in something, or create multiple projects. So visualize the goal, desire the goal, but realize it's gonna be a long process. Sometimes it'll feel effortless and nice, but a lot of times it's going to be mundane brute force work. So LOA and visualizing energizes you towards taking all those actions. Wishful thinking is not a sound life strategy. 3) It says LOA is caused by “paranormal forces.” The Secret uses metaphysics as a marketing gimmick. It says there are thought waves blasting through the universe and out of your head and it pulls money to you magnetically. Ordinary mechanical laws are enough to create and attract what you want. You interact with the world mechanically through your mind and body. That's the only way you’ve ever interacted with the world and that's enough. 4) It gets quantum mechanics wrong. The Secret says LOA has been proven scientifically, which is nonsense. There's a tendency to quote quantum mechanics because it sounds very official. The leading consensus from scientists is that there are no quantum effects going on in the mind. You don't need a quantum connection. Mechanical laws and Newtonian physics are enough. Personal development happens on the level of psychology, not quantum mechanics. You’re better off talking to a psychologist about personal development than a quantum physicist. 5) It says The Secret has been held back from the masses. The Secret isn’t really a secret. The Secret blames the elites for holding back LOA from the little guy. In fact, it's been publicly available through books and various religions for thousands of years. The only person withholding The Secret from you, is you. It’s you not believing the power of visualization or positive thinking. It’s you not taking responsibility for your own life. It’s you who’s constantly worrying about problems and attracting more of them into your life. -After studying hundreds of books and hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal development material, Leo says the real secret to personal development is discipline. Ultimately you need incredible discipline and control of your mind to totally transform your life and fully align with the Law of Attraction. It’s not effortless, but it is one of the most powerful tools to get everything you want. _____________________________________________________________________________________

The most recent list of Summaries & Episodes is here 📜 Leo's Blog: Table of Contents 📜 ▶️ Blog Videos, Summaries & Interviews ▶️ 🍄 Actualized.org on Psychedelics 🍄 (has all resources on psychedelics) Leo’s "20 Dream Killers" article. There’s an Actualized.org Textbook. It was assembled by @Cepzeu and others. Summaries in the Textbook (v2) will say: (book pg XXX). You can also check out Leo’s Personal Development Blueprint. It covers over 100 concepts in personal development. Actualized.org Youtube Episodes: The first 200 episodes have transcripts in the video section of Actualized.org If you want to contribute to this thread, select one of the episodes that still needs a summary and post it here Episodes: 1 - 300 Episodes: 301 - 537

If this metaphor were made today you wouldn't want 72 virgins. You'd want 8 or 9 pros ?.

Thanks @Leo Gura Glad you enjoy it. To be honest, I didn't think you'd read this thread because it's so long and it's just your work being said back to you ! ♾️

(This came from glecko_o and uzamaki32 on youtube’s comments section) 381. Summary: Nootropics - Top Supplements For Increasing Mental Performance -Caveat, this is not complete, but it should allow for guiding towards further research. -Substances affect everyone differently. Your personal experience with nootropics is what’s most important. Do research and observe your experience. * Don’t combine a whole bunch of these. Substances can have harmful synergistic effects. Gradually build up your stack * - DO RESEARCH. Use forums/communities. Read reviews. - Don’t do Nootropics unless you’re willing to do the research. Self-experiment in a responsible way. Start gradually. - think about spending 500$ on testing stuff. Long term potential can offset the initial cost. - do an annual blood test. W A R N I N G S -Don’t combine nootropics with psychedelics or medication. -Don’t take on an empty stomach. -Do not use substances that are addictive. (Psychedelics, however, aren’t habit forming) -Nootropics are no replacement for… • poor diet • poor lifestyle • bad sleep or lack of sleep • workaholism • personal development • shadow work • bad study habits • spiritual practices like yoga or meditation -Nootropics should make you more motivated to do personal development work. List of Nootropics 1) Modafinil (10:10). Actual pharmaceutical - Creativity - Focus - Energy - Connecting the dots - subtle effects - Better memory - A synergy of brain functioning - Take early in the day so it doesn’t interfere with sleep 2) Armodafinil (17:22). (analog of modafinil) - Basically same as modafinil, but: - more potent - Fewer side effects - Do research to understand the difference and why it works better than modafinil even though it uses fewer chemicals, which is one reason it has fewer side effects - Take early in the day so it doesn’t interfere with sleep 3) Lions Mane Mushrooms (29:09). Neurogenesis - Energy - Focus - Clears brain fog - Reduces depression & anxiety - Memory and cognition 4) L-Theanine (30:05). Relaxant - Increases alpha and theta brain waves similar to meditation - Neuro growth factor - Mood booster - Gabba/ serotonin/ Dopamine 5) Huperzine A (32:02). Increased short-term memory - Long-term brain health - Vivid dreams; helps with lucid dreaming 6) Alpha GPC (33:15). Choline source > Memory > building block/fuel for the brain - Mood - Mental energy - Neuro growth factor 7) Pterostilbene (33:59). Neurogenesis - Neuroplasticity - Memory - Dopamine - Memory - Mood - Dopamine - Improves cognition - Reduces anxiety - Neuroprotectant - Anti-aging effects 8) 5-HTP (34:35). Reduces anxiety, stress, and depression - precursor of serotonin - Don’t take it with other anti-depressants! 9) Sulbutiamine (35:21). Attention spawn - Focus - Increased vocabulary - Sociability - Quick tolerance - derivate of B1 10) Vinpocetine (36:31). Blood flow to the brain - Focus - Memory - Helps with brain fog - Neuroplasticity - Anti-inflammatory - Helps regenerate stroke damage or other types of brain damage 11) n-acetylcysteine / NALT (42:21). Improves cognition - Memory - Helps with ADHD/ADD - Since it has tyrosine I suppose it gives the brain building blocks for neurotransmitters like dopamine 12) Phosphatidylserine (43:16). Helps with learning new skills - Stronger myelin sheet (important for learning skills, since myelin sheets help with chunking actions) - Promotes neutron growth - Helps with changing habits - Brain health - Reduce ADHD/ADD - Brainwave reduction 13) Bacopa Monnieri/Brahmi (44:42). (Indian herb) translates to Brahmi similar to Brahman. - Improve memory - Natural Adderall (analogy) - Focus - Helps with ADHD/ADD - Reduces anxiety in the short-term - Increases memory for long-term e.g. after stopping memory benefits can last up to months. 14) NAC, or N-Acetyl L-Cysteine (48:31). Natural amino acid - Regulates Dopamine - Precursor of glutathione - Helps with colds - Neuroprotectant - Helps with depression - Repairs brain injuries 15) PQQ (52:03). Antioxidant - The growth of new mitochondria - Energy - Increases nerve growth factor - Improves memory - Improves cognition - Neuroprotectant - Can take up to a month to work 16) CoQ10 (53:06). Effective for older folks - Energy for mitochondria - Protects brain cells - Reduces fatigue and depression - Anti-aging effects on the cardiac system - Energy - Mental clarity 17) Uridine (53:52). Boost release of dopamine - Improves mood with fish oil - Neuroprotectant - Anti-depressant effects when paired with fish oil - Cognition and memory 18) Gingko Biloba (54:30). Increases blood circulation in the brain - Attention - Focus - Boosts mood - Cognition and learning - Reduces stress - Helps repair brain cells - Requires several weeks before it works ————————————————————————————————— 19) Krill fish oil (55:08). Important vitamin, not necessarily a nootropic. 20) Vitamin D3 A very important vitamin that a lot of people lack due to that they work inside. Needs to be taken over time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Good stacks: - SAL Butherine - Alpha GPC - Uridine - Fish Oil - Meditation + Kriya Yoga + Self Inquiry + Nootropics = makes you happy, hyper alert and conscious. Substances to Avoid (1:00:00): -Adrafinil. Causes liver damage. Need prescription. -Racetams. Class of nootropics. Feels unhealthy. Heart palpitations. -Antidepressants. Addictive. Strong & broad side effects. Erectile dysfunction. Address root issues of depression so you can ween yourself off them. -Stimulants, Caffeine, Weed, Alcohol. Unsustainable. Becomes a crutch. Once in awhile is okay. There are better substance for enlightenment.

Awesome work! ?@Ismael Thank you ? @Loving Radiance

“Your focus determines your reality.” —Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn 77. Summary: The Law Of Attraction - How It Really Works & How To Use It -The Law of Attraction (LOA) states that whatever you think about expands, whether negative or positive. -You create an emotional vibration with your focus. This is not some new age concept. If your thoughts are soaked with negativity, that attitude colors your actions and results in life. The same happens with a positive attitude. It’s actually a very freaky phenomenon of human psychology. Your attitude becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, for better or worse. When you constantly worry about all your problems, you attract more of them. -Most of us aren’t using LOA properly. We spend our days worrying, expecting catastrophe and planning against it. That makes you anxious, insecure and fearful. When you act from that disempowered position your actions are feeble. -So, instead of focusing on things you don’t want, shift your focus to the things you do want. Instead of worrying in the negative, wonder about the positive. Ask “what if” in an empowering way. • “What if my business fails. What if my ideas suck?” vs. “What if my business succeeds and I get to enjoy work and contribute meaningfully to the world?” • “What if the client hates my ideas?” vs. “What if I do a great job because I'm super prepared and the client refers me to other clients?” • “What if the party’s lame and nobody likes me” vs. “What if the party’s fun and I meet some really cool people?” • “What if I buy a gym membership but I don't go and waste money because I'm doomed to be fat?” vs. “What if I push through the discomfort, get in great shape, start looking like I took the super soldier serum, and girls start checking me out and throwing their bras at my head--ouch!!” Notice how different each statement feels? -There’s a difference between acknowledging problems and catastrophizing about problems. Catastrophizing is just spinning your wheels into negativity. Acknowledging problems lets you figure out a solution so you can focus on executing that solution. Also, if you fixate on the flaws of a situation and ignore the good, the flaws can end up crowding out the good. Like, if your partner has one bad habit and you zoom in on that you could overlook how the rest of the relationship is actually pretty great. -You’ve got to recondition yourself to focus on what could go right and what you want to create. This leads to an elevated, empowered mood. It’s really powerful. LOA is one of the best ways to work on your subconscious. You end up projecting positive images of what could happen into your psyche. Applying LOA 1) Really commit and buy into it for a month or two. See what happens! Constantly focus on the things you want to create instead of the things you typically worry about. Apply it with faith, confidence and consistency. “I’ve worried about my problems long enough. I’m gonna try this LOA stuff because I have nothing to lose.” 2) You’ll find that LOA really works. Not because of new age mumbo-jumbo, but because you become confident. You have faith in your actions. You're not insecure anymore. You're excited about what you're doing because you have positive visions of what you want to create. You start to impose your reality on the world rather than the world's reality mesmerizing you. You start to feel really good and you're able to go out there, work on your goals and take action. You're not procrastinating anymore. 3) You have to be very persistent with it. It takes lots of exposure to LOA to understand it on a profound level and activate it in your life. 4) The more you commit to LOA, the more your subconscious will resonate with that feeling of confidence and joy. When you create from a sense that everything's okay, you don't have those fears holding you back. You can take bolder action. Your inner resistance goes down. You’re less drained and not grinding or struggling as much. You develop a good mood and become more cheerful. “I own my life. I'm in control. I can direct my life because I'm creating a positive vision.” 5) Your actions become smoother and seem more effortless. Things will start to click, almost like magic. With all that goodness happening how could you not attract the things you want? That’s why LOA is described as this metaphysical thing where your thoughts manifest and magnetize things into your life. (Some new agers discount the importance of action, but manifestations don’t just come out of thin air) Consistent positive focus improves the quality of your thoughts, which elevates your attitude, which energizes your actions and creates awesome results in your life. -This LOA positive focus works for everything (wealth, health, relationships, business, etc). You can attract anything you want by simply focusing on wanting and creating it rather than not having it.

@peqkno Haha. Who knew Leo had such strong opinions about the most superior Chris? By “Leo” I mean the part of Leo that is me amusing myself. Leo sometimes talks about beautiful women so I thought I’d add examples for people who don’t respond to beautiful women. I also like Chris Evans because he’s healthy stage green, which makes up for his uggo face

163. Summary: ”Self Discipline vs Freedom - How to Create More Freedom in Your Life” “The more you sweat in training the less you bleed in war.” --Sun Tzu -A lot of people see developing self-discipline as a drag, or a pain. eg: “Leo, all this self mastery stuff is so strict and rigid. I have to exercise, eat healthy, journal, introspect, maybe get therapy, have difficult conversations with my loved ones, and meditate for hours. It’s like you want me to be a monk!! But, I want to be free. I don’t want to work all the time. Massive action sounds strict and boring. I want an exciting adventurous life! How do I get that Leo?” -Don’t think that by shunning discipline you're somehow creating more freedom for yourself. That is a big trap. The problem is, what you currently think of as freedom isn't true freedom. Wanton pursuit of short term pleasure is actually slavery. It’s a life of being enslaved to your impulses and unhealthy desires, to your lower self. -Discipline lets you invest in yourself. It lets you build skills, habits and relationships. Discipline is used to create options in your life, which creates freedom. So, freedom is discipline. They're both closely interconnected. Don't think that you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energies towards the light. Without the discipline to practice them you will tumble constantly backward into darkness. — Lao Tzu -Healthy practices are your only vehicle towards developing true freedom. It's very naive to assume otherwise. -You can't create the kind of life you want when you're always running away from pain. Surrender to the emotional labor of developing discipline. Notice that if your self-discipline muscles were already developed you’d love it. ”A lazy man does twice the work” -Most people look for a shortcut. They want money, fun, profit, a hot witch gf and big muscles up front and without working for it. They assume the shortcut is the easiest route, but it’s not. The easy actually turns hard. -People without discipline have very, very limited options in life. They feel very stuck. Sitting at home, playing video games, smoking pot and eating pizza all day might sound fun. That might be easy for now, but how long is it going to stay easy? How fulfilling is it even now? Even if it’s sorta fulfilling that's not going to last. That's a little bit of ease and comfort now relative to a huge amount of pain and cost later. So it’s a short-term gratification thing. You're not thinking far ahead. -You have to admit to yourself that you're a slave. If you can’t discipline yourself it means you can’t control your desires. Your desires control you. Your desires have you by the balls and they’re extorting you everyday. You're a slave to your neurotic thoughts, your impulses, your emotions, your mood, your horrible habits. You’re a slave to short term gratification. (ep: Stop Being a Victim) -So start creating consciously instead of a consuming unconsciously and calling it “freedom.” The gift of self-discipline is that it has the power to take you beyond the reasoning of temporary emotion to freedom. Think of how empowered you felt on occasions when you haven't gone into the “I don't feel like it” syndrome and you honored your commitments to yourself. What does “not feeling like it” really have to do with anything? The combination of love for something with the willingness to do it, to do what it takes to practice it —discipline— results in freedom. — Michael Beckwith from “Spiritual Liberation” -The more disciplined you are the more free you feel. You also worry less because you know you’re taking massive action to accomplish your goals. -You’re investing in yourself, building inner capital, and appreciating like a stock. If you do that, five, ten years down the road it will feel very very rewarding. You can multiply your skills, good habits, relationships and circumstances by tenfold. That makes you feel awesome. -True freedom is about expanding the number of options you have in life by developing yourself. eg: In relationships. How plentiful are your dating options, whether short-term flings or a long-term relationship? Have you developed your charisma, communication skills, emotional fitness, physique, career, friendships, etc? Do you have an attractive lifestyle? If you haven't really worked on yourself then you probably can't attract that partner you truly want. If you had some real options, would you exercise them? -Options tend to be limited by default. It takes work and discipline to create an abundance of options. If you don’t have that you may settle for something you don't really want. That gets frustrating. If you’re an unskilled newb at work, your boss won’t automatically give you tons of freedom and access to the best projects. Similarly, most people don’t jump on their first dating app and lose their virginity to a supermodel or to the most superior Chris. -Ironically, the dread of doing a task takes up more time and energy than just starting the task itself. The more good habits you install in your life the sooner you can get on that straight narrow path to your goals. Second guessing yourself and avoiding the pain of work is draining. -So you need to cultivate an attitude of self-discipline, but not in a harsh self-critical sort of way. This journey is also done with curiosity, passion, life purpose and playfulness. This path becomes very fulfilling. -Overtime discipline turns into Blissipline where doing what’s best for you is what you most enjoy doing. (That concept comes from Michael Beckwith’s book “Spiritual Liberation” which was Leo’s inspiration for this video.) “How much better to pursue a straight course and eventually reach that destination where the things that are pleasant and the things that are honourable finally become, for you, the same.” — Seneca “Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”

You're welcome @Shin. Thanks for doing those Holon summaries @Ismael

(List and timestamps came from Kevin Godin in youtube’s comments section . The notes and details on policies came from me. Enjoy!) 412. Summary and Timestamps: Conscious Politics - Part 4 - 100+ Specific Policy Proposals ”In a barbaric and selfish society, humane solutions seem radical, leftist, and utopian.” ”It’s the corruption, stupid.” • This is where conscious politics becomes very practical and not just utopian philosophy. • This list is mostly for America, but the proposals are very applicable globally. Some ideas can be implemented today, but some will require 50 or 100 years. Government is about incremental improvements, not perfection. • Leo’s not ideological about these proposals. They seem like they would work, but if they backfire they should be changed. • List is in no particular order, except the first item which is the most important. Policy Proposal List and Timestamps: • Criminalization of Money in Politics, and Corporate Lobbying (4:07) America is a system of legalized bribery where corporations and rich donors can use their money to influence elections and manipulate the system towards their advantage. How free are you when corporations have bought out your entire government using billions of dollars of lobbying money? Pass a constitutional amendment that bans all money in politics and reinforces one person one vote. • Abolition of Gerrymandering (9:34) Redraw all district lines across the country so that they are unbiased, fair and roughly equal. • Abolish the Electoral College (11:04) George W. Bush and Donald Trump didn't win the popular vote. In the last few election cycles the things the electoral college was supposed to protect us from actually did the exact opposite. • Make Voting more Accessible (12:27) Make it a federal holiday. Shorter lines. It should only take 15 mins to vote. • Eliminate Closed Primaries and Caucuses (13:01) Closed primaries and caucuses limit the accessibility of voting. We need stronger primaries. The general elections aren’t good enough. • Implement a Multi-Party System w/ Rank choice voting (14:36) The two-party system becomes very stale and very partisan. Voting for third parties is basically impossible; you're just wasting your vote. (Imagine if the 2016 Presidential election was between Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders, and not just Trump and Clinton…) • Federal Level Propositions (15:45) In America, Congress is so gridlocked they don't bring popular issues to vote in the senate or the house. There are lots of issues that need to be resolved, that have support from the majority of Americans, that could be quickly resolved through federal propositions. (sensible gun regulation, legalize marijuana, etc) • Ban Lobbyist holding Public Office (17:48) Corporate lobbyists earn millions by lobbying the government, they corrupt government by doing this. They also get appointed by the politicians and get appointed to various regulatory positions (EPA, Energy Department, Education, etc). They will undermine those departments and do corporate lobbying while serving public office. Once their term is over they go back to the same industry and the same corporation they were lobbying for. They use all the contacts they developed in office to further grease the wheels and do even more corporate lobbying, and now they get paid even more. • Higher Taxation on Extreme Wealth (19:41) Stop the erosion of the middle class and the gap between rich and poor. Society is not improved by having one percent of millionaires and billionaires who have all the power and all the wealth. That money needs to be put towards elevating other people and improving society. • Giant-Corporation Taxation (23:56) Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc hoard tens of billions of dollars in cash. They lobby the government. They make various kinds of tax schemes, buyouts and monopolies which all contribute to the problems we have in society. • Capital Gains Tax, and Passive Income Tax (26:42) Currently, hard manual labor is taxed the most yet manipulation of the economy (stock market) and passive income where you don't work at all is hardly taxed at all. • Eliminate Tax Loopholes and Safe havens (28:13) • High Taxes on Luxury Goods (29:05) • High Taxes on Secondary/Tertiary Homes (30:05) • Taxpayers choose where some of their Tax dollars Go (31:46) • Stronger Penalties for Corruption/White Collar Crime (34:16) Blue collar crime doesn't pose a significant systemic problem to society compared to white collar crime. White collar criminals just get fined for, say, polluting the environment. There are no criminal liabilities for them. Let them do hard jail time. • Publicly Disclose everyone's Income (38:17) • Profit Margin's Accessible to Consumer (41:11) • Transparency throughout All of Government (42:48) • Protection and Compensation for Whistle blowers (43:14) • Transparency on Government Contracts are Awarded (44:30) These extremely lucrative billion dollar contracts are oftentimes given in secret. We need a public marketplace where every time there's a a new government contract any corporation can bid on it. Introduce competition. • Black Ops Programs and Budgets (45:41) In America our military is ten times bigger and more advanced than any other military on earth. We don't need these black ops programs, torture programs, secret spying programs, secret assassination programs. None of this is necessary. It’s pure devilry. • Reduce American Military Budget and Selling Weapons (47:30) Cut back on ridiculous, excessive wasteful technologies that are totally unnecessary and overpowered like new nuclear weapons and new jet fighters That money needs to go towards building infrastructure internally in the country. • Denuclearization (50:15) • Increase Funding to Police/First Responders (50:38) Need much better training on racial sensitivity, much better training on negotiating and de-escalating situations rather than just using physical force. Also, higher salaries for all of them so they're less corruptible. • War Crimes Enforcement and Transparency (52:16) • Illegal to Torture Globally (52:58) • Workers have a stronger say in Corporations (54:09) • Right to Unionize (56:09) • Raise the Minimum Wage (56:47) • Strict Regulation of Predatory Industries (1:02:35) • Enforce Anti-Trust Regulation and Company Competition (1:07:59) • Special Regulations on Billion Dollar Companies (1:10:47) • Shorter Limits on Copyrights (1:12:09) Giant corporations are leeching off of past creative work for hundreds of years because the copyrights keep getting extended longer and longer. • Prison Corruption and Rethinking How Prisons Should Work (1:13:09) Needs to be thought of more as a rehabilitation centre the way prison is treated in Scandinavian countries. • Compassion for Refugees and Immigrants (1:16:16) • Eliminate Poverty, Hunger, Homelessness (1:18:48) • Environmental Regulation and Ecology (1:19:10) • A Government Department for Testing Toxicity in Consumables (1:21:40) • Mental Health Funding - Free Therapy/Life Coaching (1:24:58) • Fund Organic Farms and Regulate Factory Farms (1:26:56) • Massive Funding for Infrastructure (1:28:04) • Massive Funding of Arts/Science. Corruption of Science (1:34:14) • Equal Rights for Minorities (1:37:06) • Reforming the Supreme Court (1:37:41) Direct voting or elections of supreme court nominees. Term limits of around 12 to 20 years. • Term Limits for Elect Government Positions (1:38:34) • Free Birth Control/Condoms/Feminine Hygiene (1:39:19) The cost of these things are so negligible, and not having access to condoms, birth control and feminine hygiene products can ruin so many people's lives. • Mandatory Paid Family Leave (1:39:58) • Need Subsidies for Day cares (1:40:17) • 30 hour Work Week and Work Ceiling (1:40:21) If we don't change the structure of how the corporation is organized all the value and efficiency gains will just go to a very rich one percent of managers and everybody else will still be worked to death. • Regulate Crunching (1:43:00) • A Massive Overhaul on Education (1:45:32) You should be tested for consciousness, love, development and emotional iq. No private schools. Just public schools and make them really good. If millionaires and billionaires were sending their children to public schools, because that was the only option, they would be very concerned about improving the quality of those schools. • Change How We Teach in Schools (1:51:47) Make discovery, understanding and passion more important than memorizing. By the time you leave high school every student has found their life purpose and knows what they want to do career-wise. • Teach Conscious Relationships, Communication Skills, Marriage Skills (1:54:25) • Teach Masculinity and Femininity (1:54:49) Prevents demonizing the other sex. Helps with lgbtq issues because a lot of that has to do with finding your balance on the masculine feminine spectrum. Helps self esteem issues. • Parenting Skills need to be taught (1:55:42) • Conscious Politics, Sex Education, Drug Education, Study Abroad (1:56:11) • Education on Spiral Dynamics, Developmental Psychology, Life Purpose (1:57:10) • Free Universities (1:58:59) • Change How National Success Is Measured (2:01:45) • End the Drug War, Promote Psychedelic Treatment Centers (2:02:19) • Massive Funding for Small Business, Entrepreneurship (2:04:06) Take away the subsidies for large corporations that don't need them. Young, budding entrepreneurs have ideas for exciting new inventions and technologies • Massive Funding for Objective Journalism (2:04:24) The lack of serious, objective journalism in mainstream media is seriously harming the entire society and all of our political discourse. Journalists need to be protected so they can report without being persecuted. • Broadband Internet for Rural Areas (2:05:11) • Increase Budget for Space Exploration (2:05:15) It's inspirational. The human race needs something beyond itself to work towards. The technological innovations will trickle down to the rest of society. • Fund Meteor Defense System (2:06:45) • Better funding for National Parks, Museums, Monuments (2:07:22) • Massively Fund for a Stronger Consumer Protection Agency (2:07:25) • Free Health Care for All (2:08:15) • Cheap Government-Produced Generics for drugs (2:08:35) • Preventative Care, Holistic Medicine, and Education (2:09:04) • Free Gym Access to All (2:09:45) • Technology Safety Testing Center, Cloning, Social Media, Chemicals (2:09:57) • Funding for National Emergencies, Natural Disasters (2:11:09) • Give Humanitarian Aid to terrorist Countries (2:11:26) • Help Elevate Other Nations without Exploiting for Profit (2:11:59) • Not Engage in the Overthrow of Foreign Governments (2:12:50) • More Amendments, Right to Alter Ones Consciousness, Privacy rights (2:13:44) • Social Media/Search Engines to be Treated as Public Utility (2:14:47) • Seriously Fund Research on Mysticism, Spirituality, Meditation, etc.. (2:15:55) • Recycling Programs, Ban Nuclear Power (2:17:01) • Having Balanced Budgets (2:17:29) • Fines for Breaking Laws Should be scaled to your Income Level (2:18:52) When you’re wealthy enough fines no longer serve as a disincentive because you’re so rich. That means you can break laws and act like a jerk with impunity. • Have Proper Gun Background Checks, Gun Safety Checks (2:21:46) • Make U.S. Territories States (2:23:21) • Companies Outsourcing Jobs will not get Subsidies (2:23:45) • Free Kindergarten, Pre-K (2:24:13) • Equalize Taxes on Online vs. Brick-and-Mortar Stores (2:24:19) • Regulate AI, Facial Recognition, Genetic Engineering (2:24:38) • Public Forum for Serious Policy Discussion (2:25:02) • Regulation on Predatory Advertisement (2:25:44) • Implement Government Department on Empirical Testing of Policy (2:27:44) • Universal Basic Income + A Robust Welfare System (2:31:00) • Overview, World Government, One World Military (2:31:52) We want to get to a point where we have a global military force. Where the individual forces of individual nations are abolished. This will save an enormous amount of waste. Right now countries waste hundreds of billions of dollars every single year on useless weapons of mass destruction, just for their own personal defense. Imagine if we're able to eliminate war between different nations in the same way that we have eliminated war between different cities. That money can be used internally, to improve the infrastructure of each country. Additional Notes(2:37:08) -Right now, the structure of our economy, society and government incentivizes manipulation and exploitation of human resources rather than original creativity providing value. -All these policies will raise taxes on people, especially the rich, but also the middle class. However, in the long term, we're going to end up having lower taxes in total because the funds will be used effectively. -The goal of government is to make strategic decisions to unrig the system and create an environment where everyone can flourish. Right now many people in America are stuck in crippling poverty or wage slavery because of conditions beyond their control. (medical bills, no childcare, no health care, no educational or vocational prospects, etc) -The purpose of all of these policies is to increase freedom. It’s not some oppressive world government which rules and dominates you. To truly create freedom you need strategic careful limitations. Appreciate the complexity of freedom. -None of the above is yet proper socialism. We have to acknowledge what happens when corporatism becomes excessive and starts to corrupt the whole system. -The proper definition of socialism is public ownership of the means of production. In this system the majority of industries are going to be privately run. It’s only the giant businesses that are being heavily regulated as they should be. A business wants to eliminate all competitors and rig the system. That is not healthy capitalism. Even Adam Smith talked about this. -Resources are always being redistributed. The question is what's the most healthy, harmonious, conscious way of distributing resources? Making it harder to be a millionaire and a billionaire is a good thing. That makes it easier for working-class people to be in the middle class. There's bigger problems in the world than billionaires and millionaires being inconvenienced. -Many of these changes require significant cultural change. This annoys many people, especially conservatives and traditional people. Thus the culture wars, gender wars, racism, the SJWs, hyper-masculinity, etc. However, these policies would actually be helpful to many conservatives. Their reactions aren’t against particular policies, but challenges to their identity, which is a separate thing. Thing is, what is the evolution of a culture or society but the surrendering of various collective identities that people are attached to? Objection: what will people do once government provides all their survival needs? These people will self-actualize. You can’t truly do that until your survival needs are met. Life then becomes about a sense of life purpose, helping your community. Then ultimately it becomes about self-transcendence, spirituality, enlightenment and radiating pure love. Living out of fear and scarcity could motivate you, but that's a very crude barbaric animal form of motivation. Objection: if government is corrupt doesn't that mean we need less of it? This is a misunderstanding of the problem. If you eliminate government corruption is not going away. You're just removing that balance of power such that all the corruption will now be unchecked in the corporate sector. The corporate sector is totally corrupt. Government is a check on that, even if the government is corrupt it's still a check on the much larger corruption within the corporate environment. Government needs to be as big as it needs to be to manage the complexity of the society. Be careful not to conflate corruption with government. These are two different things. Objection: isn’t taxation theft? Taxation is not theft because the notion of theft and property rights does not exist without a government. What libertarians don't understand is that there's no such thing as property rights in the natural world, in the animal kingdom. In the animal kingdom might is right. Anyone can overpower and enslave you. The whole point of government is to mollify that and make it more manageable. If you’re living by yourself in the jungle, I can point a gun at your head and say, “I now own your shelter. I drink your milkshake.” That's how total freedom really works. Property rights are enforced because of government. Taxation is the cost you pay for property rights that the government secures for you. It’s a tradeoff between a bit of taxation for the safety and security that government provides. You're completely ignoring all the benefits that government provides to you such as roads, bridges, military protections, postal services, natural disaster relief, and so forth. Objection: With high taxation what will motivate the millionaires and the billionaires to work? They’ll stop creating jobs! These millionaires and billionaires already have enough money that they're not doing it for the money. These people were driven by a desire for power, maybe a desire for fame, for success, for creativity, for artistry, for entrepreneurship, for the challenge of it, for a sense of life purpose. If it was just money they would have quit their jobs decades ago. The payoff for a human is the psychic payoff that you get from the work. There's only so much food you can eat at an all-you-can-eat buffet. At some point it becomes sickening and you wonder what's next. Then you discover creativity, art, beauty, philosophy, science, life purpose, love, consciousness, spirituality, God and that's when your life really becomes amazing. Objection: This sounds so utopian. This is a long term, big picture vision, with a 100 to 500 year time frame. So, if your time frame is 10 years then it sounds utopian. Also, many of these things are achievable even in the short term. Evolution cannot be stopped. It's moving towards higher love and consciousness. It's just a question of time Objection: Communism failed in North Korea, the Soviet Union, Venezuela, etc. Those countries were grossly underdeveloped, extremely corrupt, at stage red of spiral dynamics. These policies can only be implemented in a post-orange society. That doesn't mean we completely eradicate capitalism, but we exhaust capitalism to its limits. Become conscious of the limits of capitalism. Many of these ideas will work, especially in Northern Europe and America because we are already at orange. It’s been tried, and has worked, in Scandinavian countries, Canada, and certain progressive cities and states in America (California, Washington, New York). It’s not an accident that Washington state, NY state, and California state are some of the wealthiest states in the in the country. Objection: Are You Advocating for Equality of Outcome or Equality of Opportunity? This is a silly Jordan Peterson talking point, as if any reasonable person would argue for total equality of outcome. That’s a straw man. We're talking about equality of opportunity. Looking at the outcomes shows you where the system is rigged, so that you can change the system to then produce more equal opportunity. How are African-Americans doing relative to white people? Rich relative to the poor? Inner city relative to private school kids? There's a fantasy amongst libertarians and conservatives that we've already solved equality of opportunity and now all these SJWs want equality of outcome. What a social justice warrior wants is a more fair, equal society, that's less rigged towards the wealthiest at the top and towards those who have traditionally had a lot of power which was white men. Social justice warriors fighting for social justice has been the cause of basically all political movements since the dawn of time. eg: Jews rebelling against the Egyptian pharaoh in the bible. Spartacus’ gladiator revolt against the Roman Empire. Jesus standing up to the Roman Empire. Martin Luther King, Gandhi, the Protestant Reformation, etc. What is political history, human history, but standing up against gross injustices? Standing up against slavery, against various kinds of apartheid, segregation, Jim Crow, oppression of women, Nazi’s, the Holocaust, and so forth. Objection: Aren't some people just doomed to be failures and screwups? I'm not saying that we can fix everybody, that everyone's going to be enlightened and loving. The point is not to fix everybody, but to create a system of regulations, rules and infrastructure to make it easy for the majority of people to evolve. Lifting oneself up by one's bootstraps doesn't solve all collective problems. The government is going to provide you the boots and the knowledge you need to pull yourself up. Objection: Won't all this be resisted by the status quo and impossible to implement? (3:29:27) There's always resistance to change, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to change. It's a fight. Some lose, some win, but in overall scheme things are improving, getting more complex and becoming more whole and more unified at higher levels. Objection: This is more radical than the SJWs and typical leftists. The issue isn’t whether it's radical or not. The issue is what's right. What's going to lead to higher consciousness and more love? When you're stuck in a shithole greatness seems radical. When you're barely able to make ends meet some vision of being a millionaire seems radical, seems impossible. Greatness is a radical thing. That's why vision is one of the most important things. Now, how do you take all this information and make it something tangible? 1) Stop blaming and demonizing others for the problems of society. Accept responsibility for collective issues. Go beyond shallow partisan debates. Notice that all ideologies are inadequate and partial. 2) Educate yourself so you can go beyond shallow partisan debates. Read books, watch videos, study history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, spirituality, social science, economics, developmental psychology. Have a sense of history to understand the complex topics brought forth in these last four episodes. 3) Find high quality sources of news and journalism . Don't just skim through youtube or facebook. Subscribe to high quality newspapers, magazines. They need you to support them. Right now journalism is under attack. 4) Make sure you vote! That's probably the most important practical thing you can do after you've educated yourself. Go vote, but not just for president, but in the primary elections. Do research not just on presidential candidates in the primaries, but also on representatives, congressmen, elected judges, and other various kinds of minor roles that most people don’t know about. But, who should I vote for? Vote for who you perceive as the most loving, conscious, selfless and the most spirally developed. Nothing else really matters. Their policies are somewhat important, but what matters is their level of development and consciousness. Study spiral dynamics to understand what development levels look like. Also, step outside of your ideology and personal preferences. 5) Donate to the most conscious candidates and politicians . Not just at the federal level, but also the local level. 6) Consider volunteering or even running for office. This can be a sense of life purpose, helping to perpetuate conscious government and conscious politics. Trump's victory in 2016 awoke people to how complacent we’ve gotten about our politics. We just expect politicians to do everything for us. So we don't volunteer, we don't donate, we don't follow the news, we say that's someone else's problem. But democracy doesn't work that way. If you want that kind of government then what you want is a dictatorship. 7) Check out Leo’s book list. There are many books in the politics and the systems thinking subcategories. 8) Purify yourself of your own devilry, selfishness and corruption. Corruption isn't just some force that exists out there perpetuated by some evil globalists. Corruption starts with you. How do you expect government to be conscious if we never talk about spirituality and politics together? -You’re part of this larger super organism. You have some larger responsibilities and this is not a drag. It's an exciting opportunity for your life purpose, and ultimately for your spiritual purpose, which is to be an example of consciousness and love.