The best way that I can describe this book is that it's "an adventure."
Definitely one of my favourite books that I've read so far, I would recommend it to anyone who has the patience to actually try and understand the analogies and metaphors that this entire book consists of.
There is occasionally some difficult language but I firmly believe that anyone can understand this book if they read slowly enough and take the necessary time to think about what they have read every few pages.
Overview: Kastrup details the logical flaws of materialism.  Then he presents the alternative, idealism.  Then he uses idealism to explain everything from paranormal phenomena to elves to UFOs to psychedelics to the ego.  He literally explains everything using the metaphor of idealism EXCEPT for how reality BEGAN.  I am very unsatisfied with his version of the creation story but it is only a small paragraph out of an otherwise exemplary book!
Read this book if:
- you like learning about the brain
- you like metaphysics
- you are interested in spirituality and would like to see an almost scientific and logical description of the nature of reality
- you are skeptical about the credibility of modern science
- you like psychedelics 
- you want to experience  a very sound description of why mystical and non-local experiences occur
 
This book is extremely profound and you will have deep insights at every single page if you take the time to contemplate the reading. Worth your time! 
 

I received a lot of messages about the story I shared regarding collapsing the duality of self actualization & spirituality, and using the dream board, so I thought I’d make a post and add the responses here as a resource for anyone interested. Give it a try, & have fun with it! That’s the point & the ‘juice’ that makes it work - create your dream life!
 
Edit: If you’re looking at this thread you’ll probably find some insights in my videos, so I thought I’d start adding them here.
 

(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

@RedLine Jesus this turned into a monster if a text hehe.
Pain is really negative emotion that you are not cognizing as emotion. It's good that you are cognizant of this pain and have some insight to it's nature, most people are too numb to even notice.
All emotions exist in the body. The placement of these emotion are mapped out by the chakra model.
The way to resolve all this is to fully go into the pain, get to know it and then transform it into the positive expression that it seeks to become. It's clogged up energy but it's still energy and thus has tremendous potential. It is seeking to go from its current solid form to a more moving and transforming form which is liquid form, and then to a blissful, spacious, liberated gas form.
This pain will not disappear into nothing but rather unfold into something positive, something you have been seeking for a long time, like grounding, power, self-assertion and self-expression.
This is an intuitive, gentle and intimate process. Using hard shit for this kind of healing is the wrong paradigm. Psychedelics could aid this intimate process, a low dose of something like lsd that doesn't give you hallucinations could be a good aid, but any crazy psychedelics seem unfit for you right now. You can fix all of this sober. With the right understanding, wisdom and techniques you have that power. 
 
If the pain in your chest comes from fear then I would guess that its strongest in your solar plexus and emanates from there. This is a minor chakra that's between the naval and the heart chakra and can negativity impact both when closed. In its open state it's tranquil and serene, in its closed state it's anxious. This functionality is closely related to the root chakra which is in your perineum, near your anus. In its closed state it's fearful and uncomfortable and in it's open state it's grounded, secure and comfortable. For this I recommend the protective bubble technique, it will sooth both chakras.
Protective bubble technique 
Imagine that you are inside a bubble with the diameter of roughly your length. The ball is about 4 inches thick and made out of a transparant material that is glowing with beautiful light. The bubble should be felt as an intelligent energy, rather than dead materia.
Inside this bubble you feel completely safe, embraced, tranquil, joyful and loved. Both feel these qualities emanate from within you and feel like you are receiving this from the bubble.
The walls of the bubble are semi permeable, good energy such as love and joy flow freely through the walls. But negative energy such as domination, suppression, unloving expectations or anything that is less than completely loving and accepting, is kept out by the walls. I’m talking about negative energy both from people and our thoughts, perhaps the idea of our mother or father.
This bubble subconsciously symbolizes your boundaries.
If negative energy gets through the walls against you will, it might be a sign that you need to set and articulate boundaries in relation to the negative entity. This is a function of the throat chakra. In your head, talk to the intruding entity, be intuitive. Ask it what it wants and establish boundaries with it. Listen to what the entity wants but don't comprise with it. Try to articulate why it's wrong. Let love be the mediator here.
If the bubble feels limiting in any way that means that you are not letting good energy flow through it. Let go of the limiting feeling but keep the healthy boundaries.
The visualization itself is only a tool to get in touch with the subtle sense of how your boundaries should be. Keep the subtle sense and the attitude throughout the day.
The point of this is to cultivate healthy boundaries and the attitude that we won’t tolerate negative energy, boundary violations or threats from the outside. There is absolutely no good reason to ever be affected by other people’s unloving, negative energy. There is no good reason to not be fully happy right now! It’s about allowing yourself a level of happiness that is unwisely seen as unacceptable by others and our culture.
When you have established a health bubble, just sit and bask is self-love, self-acceptance and happiness, while protected by the bubble.
You can stay an bask in this wellbeing or you can continue into the other techniques.
The contracting of the throat is the throat chakra. As you know, it's repressed stuff. You have things that you want to say and it remedy is to say it.
Self-expression technique - can be done after establishing the protective bubble or by itself.
In your head, say the things that you hold back or anything that pop into your mind. Some key words here are "I feel ...", "I want ..." And "I like ...".
Example: "When this person did that I felt unloved and betrayed. I want him to apologize and I feel resentful that he hasn't."
Like this you articulate in your mind clearly whatever you are thinking. Let it be a stream. Really get into it. 
As you keep going you might want say things aloud. Let the process evolve naturally. Whatever works for you is the right way to do it. When you really get into it you might want to scream and shake and go crazy as your energy gets unstuck. That is progress you don't have to verbalize your screaming but definitely flow with the energy and don't suppress it energetically. When you have purified your emotions you will eventually find that these emotions have clouded a profound gratitude that will reveal itself. Don't force it. Express good things if it comes naturally.
Pay extra attention to your throat while doing this. You can try to incorporate the breath into this by breathing deeply and relaxing your throat and do the self expression on the out-breath.
Start with this exercise as it will begin to purify your other stuck energy, not only your throat chakra.
I'm guessing the reason you have become accustomed to suppressing yourself is because your parents suppressed your will and your expression of that will as a child. A suppressed will is an angry will. So some of your anger might be directly liked to this suppression and might be remedied by the self-expression technique.
 
The bubble and the expression technique should dissolve some of your blockages but probably not all of it. For that you should get into the chakra and open it to it's happy state.
Overview of chakra system, find more precise placement of chakras on google:
Chakra name Solid, closed, repressed state, passive Liquid, closed but active and transforming state, has a will to seek catharsis in gas state Gas, open, happy, blissful, cathartic Element(the solid, liquid, gas form of energy is only metaphorical and not related to element which is a deep aspect of our psyche and cognition) Root  Ungrounded Fearful Grounded, secure Earth/physicality Sacral Alienated, lonely Horny, approval seeking Embracing, passionate, lively, connected, orgasm Water/movement Navel Submissive, victim complex Angry Joyful, benevolent power Sun/warmth, change, vitality Solar plexus(minor chakra) Withdrawn Anxiety Tranquility, serenity None Wish tree (minor chakra, located right under heart chakra and is connected to it and it's love. Many think these are one and the same chakra and they almost are, so you can see this as an aspect of love) Nihilistic Longing Fulfilled, purposeful None Heart Apathic Hatred Loving, healing Air/spaciousness, sky Throat - doesn't have an emotion in itself but is rather a conduit for previous chakras Suppressing  Expressing discontent Expressing content, gratitude Ether - irrelevant Head - also doesn't have an emotion in itself. Is the ego itself, the master chakra. All other chakras are mirrored here as thoughts and are controlled from here.  Unconscious Dualistic, ego awareness, closed-mindedness, dissociation Non-dual, boundless awareness, happiness, open-mindedness None Crown - melting together with the cosmos - irrelevant in this context All chakras influence the others and all are effected by physical conditions like lack of sleep or poor nutrition. So your healing won't take as long for every chakra as when you open one you positively impact the others. The heart chakra has the biggest impact on the overall system as it's the healing chakra. So you want to fist focus on the heart chakra to then use its love in healing the other chakras.
 
You wrote that the chest pain also is anger which I would guess is actually felt strongest lower down around your navel area and parallel vertebrae. You wrote that you also experience anger in your head. This is a missing of the anger in your navel chakra. All lower chakras are mirrored in our head as thoughts. If the energy is stuck in our head tho I would think it means the anger is combined with dissociation from the anger. This is healed by going into the anger and resolving it instead of avoiding it. Own up to the anger instead of casting it to the shadow.
Use this technique to open the remaining chakras (although use the previous technique for the throat chakra):
Chakra catharsis release technique - can be done after establishing protective bubble or by itself
Choose a chakra to work on, this can be changed after a while i you like. Find where in this area you feel the most energy, either in solid, painful form or in liquid form.
Take a deep breath. On the in-breath, bring up the liquid form of the chakra you are working on the most energy-dense point. Feel the energy radiate outwards from this point and don't restrict the energy to this point at all. Make it as intense as possible, the intenser the liquid form, the more solid energy is transformed to liquid, and the stronger the eventual catharsis. 
On the out-breath transform the liquid form into its cathartic gas form. The liquid form has a seed of the gas form in it. Find that positive crenel in the liquid form and go into it while letting go of the negative aspects of the liquid form.
There are two additions to add to the out-breath step that you can add when you got the hang of the basic technique:
Combine the positive expression of the chakra with love. This turns root chakra comfort and security to flourishing, sacral chakra pleasure into loving embrace, naval chakra joy into generous nourishing, and head chakra awareness into loving surrender. On the out-breath also tune in to the chakras element. Root chakra: tune in to the physicality of earth, the space you are in and your body sitting on earth, feel grounded. Sacral chakra: tune in to the water element, it's a warm and embracing water, feel it all around. Feel the density of the water. The world is in constant cyclical movement like ebb and flow. Flow with the world, breath with that flow and feel your stomach and chest expand and contract. The water element is what connects us with the world. Feel that connection with nature as you breath with the world. Just like nature ebbs, flows, turns from night to day your body ebbs and flows with the breath. Like Bruce Lee said: Be like water my friend. Naval chakra: feel a sun in your belly, radiating your powerful love outwards, warming and nourishing the entire world with it's blindingly bright light.  Heart chakra: tune in to spaciousness. The spaciousness of the room you are in, of your body and lungs. Imagine your body being hollow. Breath the spaciousness, breath love and feel how spacious love is. Feel how still and how peaceful it is. Breath deeply. Feel that spaciousness expand infinitely. It's soothing. It's indestructible.  Let's use the navel chakra as an example, on the in-breath feel a powerful anger radiating from your gut. On the out-breath find the kernel of joy and benevolent power in the anger and go into the happiness of that while letting go of the painful negative aspects of the anger. As you breath out you radiate that cathartic, powerful joy.
Hold the out-breath for as long as comfortable and just bask in the bliss of the positive expression(gas form) of the chakra.
Once you have gotten in to the positive open gas form of the energy, stay with that on the in-breath too and forget about the liquid form if it feels right.
It can be a bit tricky to get this technique right, there are many subtle distinctions to make and you have to experiment a bit to get this all right. Take this process in your own hands and follow your intuition. Whatever feels right to you is what you should do.
Be a little careful with going into the power of the navel chakra as it can increase your overall prana and make the painful chakras even more painful. If you feel this happening, then focus more on the blissful joy side of the chakra and less so on the power side of the chakra. Or switch your focus entirely to dissolve other pain or focus more on the heart chakra.
For more information on these techniques and more complementary techniques, I highly recommend 5-Minute Miracle by Tara Springett.
Pro tip: make the last meal before doing these exercises only fruit, preferably water rich fruit. Fruits are the most prana rich foods on the planet and will get your energies moving. I myself am enjoying good vibes and high energy on an entirely fruitarian diet.
I'm glad you reached out with this because everything is healable and everyone deserves healing. Hope all this is insightful and helps. Let me know how these techniques work for you or if they don't, or if you have any questions. 
Lastly here is a great song about life and healing: https://youtu.be/sg209CadVQM
 

Treat Google like a guide.
Every place the human mind has ever gone to, every minutiae of existence and the lack of it can be found on Google.
An exemplar of this:
Reading a book is like conversing with another human; the human who has written a book has spent a considerable time of their life putting their thoughts into it, through research, practice, contemplation, or any other means. So, it is like living the life of another human in a couple of hours/days.
Now imagine, every thought that has come into our life has been spoken about by another person, or at least on those lines. 
Now imagine how many people have been on Earth, and how they have expressed themselves.
Still, there are many things that we, in our limited capacities, have not stumbled across. 
Still though, we have at least some speculative data.
So, now let us put this together:
Everything known, everything vague, everything speculated is on Google. 
Google is an extension of you, and you are yet to realize that. 
Moreover, every new thing is added by the second. 
So, basically Google is the human-meta that there is for the most expansive knowledge there is, or perhaps ever will be.
.
So, how do you go about it?
The answer is simple ---how do you go about life? That is the manner. 
Lead the kind of life you have imagined for yourself, and make Google your guide in that process.
Google is there to help you, and you are there to help Google. 
Google will contribute to you, and you in turn, through your life will contribute to Google.
@LeoX8
 

Hello people!
My name is Denis, I'm from Romania and I want to share my story about my life purpose.
This month I celebrate one year since I found my life purpose and this is the path that lead me to it. (My purose in life is about mathematics)
It all began with my ex girlfriend. We met a year ago when I was 17 and I thought that she is gonna be the love of my life (we broke up after a month, so she wasn't :)) ) and everything was nice and beautiful untill we started arguing about something she thought i did but I didn't.
While my girlfriend and I were together I also started learning more. And that was because of her. She was very into learning and I didn't know how she could learnd that much, read that much and all this stuff. I remember when I said to myself "If she can do that I should be able to do that too" and I started wondering what would be the best topic that will help me if i'll go learn about it. And suddently, I do not know how math came into my mind, so I decided to give it a shot. I was struggling so much with it because I almost knew nothing about it. I was asking her how to do this and that problem and I started to improve my skills and go better with it. My colleagues were coming at my home to learn math (we had exams in that period) and I stood out. They started questioning me about their exercices and when I saw that I had some insights, I asked myself "have I really got it, I mean they think I know what I'm doing. Did I really learn something about it? Maybe I'm not that bad. I think this fits for me". This was just the beginning.
In the end me and my girlfriend knew we cannot be with each other anymore. She started telling me that I'm immature and that I behave like a clild. I was so frustrated cause I knew that everything she said was true. So I made a commitment, from that day on, I said to myself that I have to change my life and all of this has to stop. I wanted to become more wise and especially more mature. I wanted to show her that I can do it and I can do anything. I wanted to show that she is wrong.
And now it has pased a year and I continue to study math from 4 to sometime 10 hours everyday. I 've also read like 30 books since then and got into self development, got involved in calisthenics and learning many other things.
I think I grow immensely in last year, but this is just the beginning of the story.
It was I think the best decision I've done with my life. I found my life purpose and I love it. For me it is the most fascinating thing in the world. I'm planning to go learning deeper fields and topics about math when I'll go to university.
And now my question for you is how did you find your life purpose and what is it?
I'm so curious to see your stories!

It sounds like a very front-loaded life purpose. By that I mean there is a ton of research that you'll need to do upfront to catch up on hundreds of years worth of philosophy before you can start contributing your own thoughts.
If you do shallow research and start writing too soon, there's a good chance that you'll end up just coming to the same conclusions as previous philosophers and not contributing anything unique. All of the basic ideas have already been considered and discussed ad nauseum. 
This is a life purpose where you're particularly going to need to have a strong vision or end goal in mind. Because you might be learning and processing massive amounts of information. But on paper, you're not going to actually have anything to show for it for years. Things like # of words written per day is not a good goal early in the process for your case. Instead you'll need to find something else like numbers of books read, or create your own arbitrary scales for how far you feel that you've come.
For some people, their life purpose is more like just throwing money at the problem and it starts functioning on day one like a McDonald's franchise. Other people need to go to school for years in a subject before they can even start working on it. You are in the second category. You need to look at this like a marathon and not a sprint.

Drop that belief. The resistance felt in feeling is with the thoughts, not the actions, nor the perception or experience. With that one belief you create the resistance in experience across the board.
There is no such things as resistance.  
Believe that. Be the One you are. 

If you increase your awareness really hard, then you'll see that the ego is just a misconception, it can't be killed because it does not even exist in the first place.
The ego is just the voice of the body from which you experience life + your beliefs/assumptions, nothing more.
BTW, who would want to kill the ego ? The ego ...

To start a business online you need to roll up your sleeves and start doing lots of research. Survey the marketplace and start eyeing a niche for yourself. As you do that, find answers to the following questions:
What kind of business do you want to have? What do you want it to accomplish? How do you want to run it? Who would you be competing against? How would you be attracting clients? What is the value you'd be offering to clients? What role do you want to play in the business? How many employees do you want to have? How much money do you want to make? How much money do you have to invest in the business to get it off the ground? What are your passions? What are your are your really good at already, or could become good at?

Hi Alex,
I also do not like the traditional 9-5 work week. I started my own business and work from home now. Some important questions to ask when considering starting a business are:
- Where are your expertise/ What are you good at?
-What is there a need for? 
- What is your experience? 
- How can you find a niche and stand out in an industry.
I will use my own personal experience for an example.
- I am good at understanding businesses  and marketing. I also did an internship and have a bachelors degree in marketing.
- In my particular area, there is a need for small business marketing. They are big enough to want to invest into some additional marketing, but can not yet afford to hire and in house full time marketing employee. 
- Once I realized that there was a large group of businesses who wanted to do things like social media or SEO but could not hire a full time employee to do so, I found my niche. They are my target audience. I keep my prices lower than traditional marketing companies, I do not offer "cookie cutter" marketing (each company has a slightly different focus and way for reaching their target audience), I am cheaper than hiring a full time employee, and I present data evidence monthly of a companies growth. 
 
I hope this helps! 

This is a really good example of someone running into a innovation out of their own need. He shifted away from his domain of mastery, which was wallet making because he got injured. This lead him to the idea of creating this product. Kind of similar to what Napoleon Hill describes in his audio about think and grow rich.
I've been pondering more about product innovation and ideas. I figured if you were looking for some inspiration for a business or product, then this is a great video. I highly recommend the watching the whole thing, 
 

@BlurryBoi Great Question! First, please understand that the ancient Stoics were pioneeringly deterministic. The dichotomy of control is deterministic philosophy. What must be differentiated between is external and internal causation. Externals are seen as completely out of one's control, completely deterministic. Internals are seen as deterministic but less so because a human mind can be prepared in advance by disciplining it to a virtuous character with wisdom, reason, ethics, and courage that will enable high quality responses to adversity rather than inflamed emotional reactions. There may be the appearance of contol of mental impressions and they may even be spoken of conventionally as controllable relative to externals, and while more controllable than externals, internals are still ultimately determined... except....
...The most advanced teaching on this subject is that in paradoxically giving up all illusions of control the divine Logos can express itself through the highest Nature of a human to grant a contol of Mind so powerful that nothing can disturb its peace.
Happy Stoic studies my friend