caspex

I do not dispute that it is better for Bryan to accept his death, he would be a lot more happier in life once he knows what death really is. But, my concern isn't with the well being of Bryan, it is with the well being of humanity. It was often people like Bryan that advanced humanity forward. I would argue that anti-aging is better for humanity than not. This technology will come with a few wars and a lot of tragedies but in the long run it will be good regardless, as humanity learns. Sure it is madness but in the process of preventing this made up idea of death, he ultimately benefits humanity. That's how I see it. Running on fear is not necessarily a bad thing. Fear of suffering and death gave birth to the entire medical field. Moreover, who are we to say what he gets to post? Who are we to call him posting about eating his wife out 'crazy'? If he is okay with it, his wife is okay with it, what's the issue here? Fuck, he could start talking about his arse microbiome and I won't care because the man is doing good research. This is biased. A human being could also be a mech to defend the universe. There is no obligation to go back to Earth. Regardless of what you do, you would go back to the universe though. I could live 500 years and finally die and dissolve on mars, doesn't make a difference.

"I Leove your content, will you be my Gura?"

The only issue I see is the elites and government officials living on forever while the poor stay mortal. That is a genuine issue I get that. However, you need to understand that if it wasn't for Bryan Johnson it would be somebody else doing this and probably behind closed doors where the public have no idea. That is so much worse. I think you are overly afraid, humanity always pulls through. With the internet, media and politics the only way to get more enslaved is probably just physical detainment. If they could do that they would already have. If you argue that's what they are working towards with all the drones and AI then you should really be worried about those guys and not Bryan Johnson; because they would create anti-aging anyways if we go by your worldview. This position is so hypocritical though. Aren't you trying to prevent your death every moment too? You don't go around entering dark alleyways at night because you don't want to get stabbed. You don't just jump off your balcony because you'd rather not die. You stay away from venomous snakes. You are stopping your death ALL the time. Just because you have made peace with the idea of natural death doesn't mean you want to die. It doesn't mean Bryan Johnson has to be okay with natural death either.

He is the manifestation of humanity's drive to achieve freedom. In this case it is the freedom to choose whether you want to die. "Don't Die" doesn't mean 'Don't return to God'. Observe the context around it, it's a short catchy slogan to get the point across in as little words as possible; but if you read a little bit it is quite obvious what he wants is there to be a choice to living on or dying rather than forcing you to live. Are you envisioning the future from "I have no mouth and I must scream" where AM forces you to be immortal? I doubt that is what he wants. Yeah he is scared of death, but that's completely natural.

"When kidney transplants began succeeding in the 1950s, some critics argued: humans were extending life beyond what God intended tampering with organs violated sacred bodily wholeness using organs from the dead desecrated corpses There were also secular fears: “Frankenstein medicine” fear of surgeons experimenting on humans suspicion that the poor would be harvested for organs" Do you see what I am getting at?

To be honest, I am grateful for Bryan Johnson. If he was conscious and more mentally healthy he wouldn't be doing what he is right now. If he doesn't do it, who will? He can single-handedly advance this field very fast. He is fulfilling a role which only a person with a very specific cocktail of fears and values can fill. I really don't see why people hate on this guy. Yeah he's got problems, but that is exactly why he will benefit society. It's a better use of his money than whatever Epstein was doing.

Pride is self-referential and Vainglory is audience-referential. See if you can find the difference: "Will this confirm my superiority?" "Will this earn approval of my superiority?" In one the Jury is internal, in another it is external.

Courage is acting despite fear. Diligence is finding comfort in the right things.

I studied well today in the sense I did not waste as much time as I would. I worked fast with all the others chores I had, and instead of getting frustrated that they were eating up my study time, I simply let it go. I don't want wrath have its way now do I? Studying is different from working out because you may be studying something you may not find particularly enjoying but you need to anyways. How do you find comfort in that? I think the key is to build security and certainty. - Being mindful of how good it feels to not procrastinate. After suffering so much at the hands of my sloth, studying for once actually feels quite nice. One needs to be aware of the sense of security they feel when they are actually working towards their goals. There's a comfort in knowing that you are progressing even if little by little. You can choose to focus on whether or not you are progressing fast enough but that's a later observation. One needs to first be mindful of and take comfort in the sense of security in progress. If you set a schedule, and maybe use a technique like Pomodoro, it will introduce sufficient certainty in the mix. However, there's a trap; It's actually easy to start anticipating the end of the session but that anticipation is a sneaky trap which breeds sloth. When you anticipate the end of the session you are admitting to yourself you are currently uncomfortable. What you should instead focus on is finishing the task at hand within the session. Maybe finishing a chapter of revision in the given session. It's a goal which is possible within the time frame but not too easy. It's sufficient challenge. At least that is enough to shift my focus from anticipation of the end to almost dreading the end because I want to finish a clean target within the time frame. If I can't, there is always the next session. Remember, the goal was never to finish a task within the session, the goal was to just distract yourself. I am still figuring this out but that's all I know so far. Really, I will know I am diligent once I am able to be consistent with not just my studies but also my working out. I am starting to get little inklings of what my benchmark should be for determining when I have become sufficiently courageous and diligent to move on to other compulsions. The benchmark for courage could be something related to repeated failures and the ability to get back up and try again. It could be related to one's ability to hold on to hope. The benchmark for diligence can be something related to consistency or one's ability to put in effort regardless of reward. Testing one's principle of doing a job well. How seriously you take your task. Again, these are just inklings-- vague ideas, you could say. Might be completely wrong. -- I bought some weights because it's much less resistance than having to visit the gym. Is it the most optimal way to get fit? No, absolutely not. I am not remotely close to any sort of optimal health plan or diet. However, that's not my goal. My goal isn't achieving a healthy body, it's achieving a diligent mind that acts towards meaningful targets. A healthy body is just one of those targets. As my mind becomes diligent and brave, it will leave more room to optimize my working out, diet and studies.

As an Indian I genuinely find it hard to believe you guys have such a clown for a president. How does a guy like that get into power? One for the history books.

any gut-focused teachers?

I agree with @zurew here, he points to a lot of problems I have seen with Leo. The thread has gotten lost into understanding what it means to define stuff when in reality this is the real issue at hand. This is what needs to be discussed. I would appreciate a more thorough response from @Leo Gura on this than a simple 'you're wrong because you aren't conscious enough'. Just this once. As for the definitions. Here's my two cents - Clearly there is something there when you try to define a cult. You wouldn't define a cult as 'a red ball' because it's clearly not that. There is some elephant everybody is trying describe from their perspective. I don't know what a cult is, but I know what a cult is not: Being able to openly criticize the leader and having no bars to leaving the community, not even epistemic. (Example: You'll go to hell if you leave!) Actualized.org allows for both open criticism of Leo and puts no epistemic, financial or physical restrains on you to stay. There's no peer pressure on you to stay within the community either. If you criticize Leo there is no crazy backlash either. This is enough to show me Actualized.org is not a cult. But as things are progressing, I do feel the community is becoming a little less conscious and with those retreats coming up I am very curious to see how Leo prevents this place from becoming more cult-like.

I was too slothful today. I didn't study at all. But I know I wasn't a coward. The reason I didn't study was because of comfort, not fear. I did exercise though. I really don't get how to overcome this bondage to comfort. With cowardice you just act despite the fear, that is courage after all. With sloth do you just forsake the comfort? Let me look up the definition for diligence: "careful work or great effort" "the quality of working carefully and with a lot of effort" The idea at least sounds quite stressful. Me holding on to that comfort might be causing the stress. Hm. . . After some thinking I don't think you must 'forsake' comfort. Comfort is akin to the feeling of security and certainty. I doubt anybody who can act consistently and diligently can do so for long without feeling some sort of comfort in what they are doing. Definition of comfort: "a pleasant feeling of being relaxed and free from pain" Yeah, it'd be pretty hard to be consistent in the gym if you feel pain every time you exercise. Every person I have seen that has been consistent in the gym for years has found the gym a quite comforting place. They found some sort of comfort in the exercise and place. I also remember that when I was consistent in my studying last year just before one of my exams, I found this strange comfort in the subject I was studying. It was as if that book was my home. Studying the chapters so many times gave me a sense of familiarity. Flipping the pages felt like walking through streets you're too familiar with. So the the way to solve cowardice is acting despite fear, and the way to solve sloth is finding comfort in what needs to be done? . . This gives me a lead to work off on. I will try to find comfort i.e. security and certainty within my studies tomorrow. When I wrote the above sentence I felt a physical reaction in my body. It recoiled at the idea of ever finding comfort in those books. This is VERY interesting. Yeah, fuck the fear. I am doing it. I am brave. Let's try this tomorrow and see what happens.

I don't think I could focus on the teaching if Leo looked like that

For me Sankalpa is a very formal process I do when undertaking an anushthana or would when I do a purushcharana. Water, Rice and Flowers held in one hand as you state your name, address and other identifiers. You say what you are setting an intention for and offer what's in your hand to the earth. I take care doing this though. Every time you complete a difficult sankalpa the power of your will increases. Until you reach a point where it's psychologically impossible for you to not carry through the sankalpa. Once you take a sankalpa it has to be done. This is why this is a powerful practice because you need this kind of will to complete Purushcharanas. Failing a sankalpa does more damage to your will power than succeeding one helps it.

Yesterday I powered through the fear and sat down to study again. All in all I was less of a coward yesterday, which is what counts. There was a point in time where I understood how to study for 8 hours a day and did it for a week, but the problem was never the logistics or my approach. It really was my mindset. Something bad happened and that caused me to completely give up until yesterday. It's because I was a coward who couldn't get back up due to the fear of failure. I was so sick and tired of failing and I still am. But I have to keep going. It's hard to even say "I'll do my best" because I am so uncertain about my future actions. I am afraid that once I say that, I won't really do my best. That emotional labor is grueling. But I have decided to be brave. I am gonna study more today, and finally pick up some dumbbells. I'll do my best. More thoughts about the 11C: Gluttony occurs in Over-Stimulation; Boredom occurs in Under-Stimulation. Dissolving Gluttony means not chasing stimulation beyond needed, dissolving Boredom means finding stillness in under-stimulation. Easy to confuse the two.

Honestly if a critic actually used this forum for a year they would realize Leo isn't even mentioned most of the time. There are no signs of Actualized.org being a cult beyond the radical claims. To use deaths associated with this forum to call it a cult is in Bad Faith. Many deaths are associated even with science and the scientific method, is science a cult? No because it actually works and encourages asking questions. Maybe you'd think there's no comparing science to this forum, that's alright, but it's important to see the context in which those tragedies took place. As for the asking questions part, that's the same with this community. Nobody asks you to obey Leo, I don't even think about Leo when I use this forum. The nature of this work is such that some people will fuck up badly despite all the warnings, it doesn't matter if Leo is managing it or anybody else for that matter. Psychedelics do work and there is apt research going on at such. Just because science hasn't caught up doesn't mean it's not true. Besides, there's a whole 1hour33min video specifically about the dangers of psychedelics; on top of various other videos about the traps of spiritual work. The work is dangerous and maybe the biggest mistake is for this to be as openly available as it is in the first place. But if you make it a more closed system you're even more of a cult in the eyes of critics. There's no appealing to critics. If the reader of this message is somebody who's coming in from that video or a critic, know that unlike a cult, nobody is asking you to join and obey Leo, or even do this work for that matter. It's in your will to come in here and judge for yourself. I only ask you to judge fairly and in good faith.

Touché

Just because zero equals infinity doesn't mean there aren't numbers in between.

I was wondering how instant gratification applied to this forum. It's definitely not as bad as other platforms and can actually be a good source of delayed gratification. But this forum can certainly be used that way. When I read a good insight I assume it gives me a dopamine hit because I want to read more. This is how I felt reading your post. What I don't get is, does taking 3-5 minutes out to read your post and receiving a hit instant or delayed gratification? How much delay is there needed for something to be qualified as delayed gratification?

This is a really great post. I read this last night and thought about it for a while. For me the insight "instant gratification is a Red-stage operating system running inside a person who has the capacity for Orange and beyond." was the best one here. This explains a lot for me. I really enjoy the approach of looking at it from many perspectives. It helps define the problem a lot. I also enjoy how your explanation naturally explains the phenomena of increasing Nihilism in the world. Here's a shower thought, instant gratification mode is like hunting for prey in the savannahs. When you are doomscrolling you are searching for that dopamine hit. It's a complete hijack of our animal brains. I really enjoyed the perspective from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Our needs are being met artificially so well, why would we want to do actual work? This made me think; Humanity's goal in all of this development was never to increase love, happiness, consciousness or anything else, it was so meeting these needs became easier. In that sense, Humanity has succeeded tremendously. You don't even need to leave your bed now to feel secure, a sense of belonging, sexual climax, satisfaction of hunger(food delivery) etc. Humanity misunderstands how to achieve happiness and self-actualization. Removing restrictions actually helps compulsions take over, it extinguishes your free will and makes you a robot. I now know why early massive civilizations could be so philosophically advanced(Looking at Upanishads). It was because they actually had it easier despite the lack of technology, with the abundance of resources to go around (for at least the upper class) and the lack of technology which would otherwise trap you in instant gratification, it actually fed into philosophical inquiry and insight. Humanity lost the plot somewhere along the way.

I think what you might be sensing is the vainglory involved with Online Journaling. Actually most online journals I see are motivated by vainglory. Is there anything wrong with vainglory? Well, it's a compulsion that drives you to do things you otherwise wouldn't. It's your choice to do what you will with that. I remember I started a few journals (not here) which I ultimately dropped because I realized I wasn't producing anything of value aside from looking for validation. If not for the public aspect of it, I wouldn't have a journal at all. The whole point was that others would read it. I am not free from vainglory and it's a sneaky compulsion just like envy. I have two active journals right now, both of which I started due to vainglory. But now I only post in them when I think I am actually producing something of value. This way at least I am compelled to create stuff I consider valuable. You could also start an online journal for the purposes of public accountability. I think if you are having fun it's alright but it's important to be conscious of where all of that is coming from. Vainglory makes you sit hours in front of the screen just like lust would. Thankfully it's possible to make it constructive rather than destructive.

This is a follow up on my older post about Plasmism. Here's the goal of Plasmism: Mold reality into a version better aligned with our desires. Because we understand that it is all influences influencing influences, and we also understand that while individual will is illusory we must act as if it is not. So the question becomes, how can we use this understanding of the world to solve our problems and create the life we want? The answer is to first mold ourselves by controlling these influences. Before we can answer HOW to mold, we must answer WHAT to mold ourselves into and mold ourselves out of, There are many influences but first you must eliminate certain influences on your psyche/actions to make your (illusory) will FEEL much freer. The further ahead you are in ridding yourself of these compulsions the 'freer' your ability to influence becomes. How are we making 'illusory will' experientially freer? Think of it as a character in a movie show. It's all scripted, and the character may know it, but from their perspective they can't help but act from a POV of individual will. They may even see the movie screen and realize each word is scripted no matter what they do, but they still act as if they have free will. Within the movie they can do things to make their illusory will 'feel' freer like breaking themselves out of prison or such. --- After some thinking and careful consideration I have compiled a list of 11 compulsions which restrain our (illusory) will. These are all internal. While the ideal is to free oneself of all of these, this list serves also as a checklist to see whether in any given moment your thinking or actions are being INFLUENCED by any of these. The Eleven Compulsions & Their Counterparts Pride / Humility Vainglory / Authenticity Greed / Charity Lust / Chastity Wrath / Patience Envy / Respect Gluttony / Temperance Sloth / Diligence Cowardice / Courage Raga / Vairagya Boredom / Peace This list incorporates heavily from 'The 7 Deadly Sins and Virtues'; 'Shadripu'; 'Stoic Passions'; and Vedanta. The difference lies in the GOAL for this list's existence. The goal is to list 'COMPULSIONS THAT RESTRAIN ONE'S WILL'. The goal of the 7 deadly sins is moral purification. The goal of shadripu is broadly speaking to define enemies of spiritual development, not maximizing free will. The goal of Stoic Passions is indeed to reach the state of apatheia (freedom from disordered passions) which is akin to maximizing one's will but the Stoic Passions are 'reason-centric' asking "Does this distort rational judgement?" while the 11 Compulsions are freedom-centric asking "Does this compulsively restrict the will?" Pride: Bondage through superiority, self-elevation, and egoic self-importance. Vainglory: Bondage to external validation, recognition, admiration, and image. Greed: Bondage to acquisition, possession, accumulation, and ownership. Lust: Bondage to sensual and sexual craving. Wrath: Bondage to forcefulness, hostility, and compulsive resistance against obstruction or opposition. Envy: Bondage to comparison, resentment, and disturbance at the excellence, success, or possession of others. Gluttony: Bondage through consumption, and excess stimulation through intake. Sloth: Bondage to inertia, comfort, stagnation, and resistance to necessary change or exertion. Cowardice: Bondage to fear-driven avoidance and retreat from consciously recognized necessity, value, or duty. Raga: Bondage through worldly attachment, emotional clinging, and dependence on impermanent forms for inner stability. Boredom: Bondage to stimulation and inability to remain at peace within understimulated existence. Pride is distinct from Vainglory. Pride is the internal, arrogant belief in one's superiority, and vainglory is the external, desperate desire for applause and recognition. Now contrary to popular opinion, Vainglory can arise apart from Pride. One may actually feel and believe oneself to be quite inferior which is definitely not prideful, but also seek external validation in hopes of curing their feelings of inferiority, This is why I put Vainglory distinct from Pride. Gluttony deals not only with food but excess consumption in general. Example: Doomscrolling. Wrath is that anger which binds one's will. You can be angry not only at others but at life itself. Example: Frustration. Wrath internally is the mind's attempt to force reality to conform because it cannot get what it wants. It's basically emotional violence. This is why Patience is the perfect counterpart to wrath. In the 7 deadly sins and virtues model the opposite of Envy is either Kindness or Gratitude. Here it is intentionally made 'RESPECT'. This is because the goal of this list is different. Envy and Respect are two sides of the same coin. The only difference between the two is believing whether the person you are envious of DESERVES the thing in question or not. Seeing yourself do the same stuff everyday, even though you know you need to change, knowing full well what you are doing is wrong and doing it anyways, is an example of SLOTH. Another example: Doing the same job for 35 years because you are too comfortable in your existing job even though you know making a change will be a much better choice. I chose the word Cowardice intentionally. There are two types of fears in the context of this list; Fear which restrains your freedom and fear which enables your freedom. Example: Being afraid of falling off a cliff while walking on the ledge prevents dying which enables freer will because if not for this fear you might have actually jumped off the cliff due to the influence of any of the other compulsions. Cowardice refers specifically to the kind of fear which restrains your will. Example: Not trying again because you are afraid of failure. Not starting a new habit because you are afraid of giving up again. Cowardice is distinct from Sloth. Cowardice related to fear while Sloth related to comfort. Both can sometimes lead to the same action. 'Not wanting to change your job because you are too comfortable/scared even though you know the change is better' Raga is the very specific kind of attachment that is attachment to worldly objects like your wealth and relationships. If you can't develop Vairagya all the worldly objects will restrain your will. Example: You want to achieve Enlightenment but you are too attached to your Bugatti. Example 2: You want to open up your heart chakra but you're too hung up over your ex. Boredom is a big one. The key word here is stimulation. Can you be peaceful when you are under stimulated; and for how long? When somebody comes up to you and starts talking about something you are not interested in, you get bored. I am not telling you to force yourself into taking interest; you can tell them you are uninterested or space out without focusing on the topic; but can you stay peaceful without getting bored? "But what about Ignorance? It should have made the list!" Ignorance DOES restrict will of a person but ignorance is not a compulsion, it's the condition of existing as a limited being. At any point you necessarily are ignorant about something or the other, so Ignorance and it's downstream functions like Hypocrisy don't qualify to be on the list. Vanity didn't make it because it collapses into Vainglory ultimately. I like vainglory more because it is 'empty glory'. Fear and Attachment are too broad to be on the list for what function it serves. Hatred is not on the list because it's a composite of the other compulsions. Same goes with Cruelty and Sadism. Acedia mixes too many concepts together for which the list isn't intended.

I read through the 10 chapters. The chapters don't open on your website by the way, I am on firefox. I think some stuff is good, I found the part on synchronicity helpful. I think the biggest issue here is the forced use of mathematical expressions. I actually think it makes the idea way harder to understand than it actually is. I think the use of mathematical expression is unnecessary. Also, there's just too much fluff. I think if you wrote it yourself you could get the same stuff across in maybe 5-6 chapters. The constant 'Not X, instead Y' or 'It's not X, it's Y!" pattern is really throwing me off. Also I genuinely did not understand what 'Illumination' even means. There's no clear definition, and the mathematical expression you give for it is wayyy under-explained than it should be. Having read through 10 chapters I have very little idea of what you are talking about making available to the masses. There's just too much emphasis on pleasing to critiques, I need you to explain the core idea first and its goal with sufficient examples before you can move onto dealing with expected critiques of your idea. I don't even get what your idea is. You explain what Viking Illumination is and what it's goal is, but you don't talk about Illumination or its goal in the first place. It's very hard to interpret from the chapters, which is counterproductive to your goal of making your idea simple to understand for the masses. I hope you understand I am not trying to be harsh, I am just sharing my genuine difficulty with understanding your model.