My hand cannot grasp itself because it is itself. To grasp is to assume a duality between what is grasped and the thing the grasps. The hand itself cannot grasp itself in the same way that you cannot bite your own teeth.
But here is the interesting paradox. If the hand cannot grasp itself, then how can God create/grasp itself? Can a hand create itself into existence if it cannot be grasped? If that is the case, then God cannot grasp its own self.
This is what I argue that Enlightenment/Awakening is imaginary. It is impossible to awaken to God or realize God because God cannot grasp itself because it is itself. It is Infinity! Being is prior to knowing. The hand exists prior to being grasped.  
These are my initial thoughts, but I will contemplate this deeper.

I’m not a conservative, and 9/10 I would disagree with this Victor Davis Hansen, but with the extreme progressive and stage green policies in many of our cities, Victor makes a good point about how American society is on the down fall. Now obviously he is biased, always in favor of the conservative point of view, but I think as people who want to live in a safe society, the breakdown of order and of basic rule of law affects all of us. If you support these hyper liberal policies in some of our cities, ask yourself this: are you really okay with walking over homeless people with your children? Are you okay with being a possible victim of robbery? And not getting justice? We need to stop worrying about this culture war shit, and see that things are going bad right under our noses!
 

Steps from most fundamental and metaphysical to concrete and practical:

 
Being (connect with reality):
Tell the truth Accept yourself Contemplate Meditate Meaning (what should be happening in reality?): pursue what is meaningful.
Abstract principles and virtues (what is meaningful?): goal-oriented movement functionality health balance holism integration
  Concrete domains (what is meaningful?): Systemic: commit to long-term goals and daily habits; write lists, plans, journals; do yearly, biyearly, monthly evaluations of progress. Bio - psycho - social (Engel); also, id - ego - superego (Freud); reptilian brain - neocortex - limbic system (MacLean); competence - autonomy - belonging (Deci & Ryan); monster - man - lion (Plato). Bio: diet, exercise, pleasures, hobbies. Psycho: knowledge, wisdom, self-insight, values, self-esteem. Social: friends, family, partner, community.  
Summarized, you should connect with reality and pursue what is meaningful in reality; in alignment with abstract principles and virtues; using systemic techniques, habits, goals and practices; while covering all of the three bio-psycho-social domains.
To illustrate with one example of each (not at all exhaustive): you should meditate, balance all aspects of your life, work for a set period every day, while going to the gym, expanding your knowledge base and hanging out with your friends.
Another version: you should tell the truth, pursue health, write down everything your mind tells you is important to do or remember, engage in some short-term pleasures if you so desire, act in accordance with your inner values and keep up with your family members.

As a side note, this map shows what happens when things work as they should. It's not a given that things will work as they should, and in those cases, you need to fix yourself. Often, fixing yourself is not a matter of knowledge or will, but of untangling unconscious mechanisms and trauma. For that, conventional therapy, energy work and even psychedelics might be useful. In other cases, it may boil down to medical problems, which require medical solutions. Even though the map will fall short of addressing certain pathology, it does lay the foundation of health (in my opinion), and it's therefore relevant to everybody.

There is something wrong with what @Leo Gura said but is still right in some way. I acknoledge that analogies are not perfect but in his snowman analogy, the snowman melting turns it back into nothing and back into indescriminate Oneness but the snowman should have turned into a puddle of water instead.
Anyways, an object can be zoomed in on forever and therefore absolute nothingess is infinitely at rock bottom. This is why no object can reach this state of emptiness even when it turns to dust and that the dust itself would break down into particles. However, infinite intelligence can still work efficiently from the top down because created the structure of objects are uneccessary to God but looking at existence from the bottom up allows you to see nothingness in everything and that everything includes nothingness in everything; that there is a full nothing and that reality and existence are absolutes and the ultimate miracle ever. If you count nothingness as non-existence, then nothingness does not exist because non-existence does not exist because it is the negation of existence but the non-existence of the non-existence means that non-existence exists. Could this mean that everything is dreamed up by consciousness because of the existence of non-existence and the illusory nature of existence? If there is only existence, then non-existence must exist too paradoxically. The only way for something to cease to exist completely is if God were to uncreate it because that is how it was brought forth in the first place and therefore matter is always conserved scientifically.

"The same as the light," Lakshmi repeated. "And yet it's all dark again."
"It's dark because you're trying too hard," said Susila. "Dark because
you want it to be light. Remember what you used to tell me when I was a
little girl. 'Lightly, child, lightly. You've got to learn to do everything lightly.
Think lightly, act lightly, feel lightly. Yes, feel lightly, even though you're
feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.' I
was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig.
Lightly, lightly—it was the best advice ever given me. Well, now I'm going to
say the same thing to you, Lakshmi . . . Lightly, my darling, lightly. Even
when it comes to dying. Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic. No
rhetoric, no tremolos, no self-conscious persona putting on its celebrated
imitation of Christ or Goethe or Little Nell. And, of course, no theology, no
metaphysics. Just the fact of dying and the fact of the Clear Light. So throw
away all your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you,
sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That's why you must walk so
lightly. Lightly, my darling. On tiptoes; and no luggage, not even a sponge
bag. Completely unencumbered." - Aldous Huxley, Island.
 
In 'Island', this is a dialogue between a woman on her deathbed and her husband guiding her through it. The entire scene is much longer, but this passage distills the essence of it.

This is what it's like to easily get lost in the mind time and time again. To jailbreak the mind and to untangle it would be awakening.

That is because the word dimension is important. I'll give you an example. 
2D stands for 2 dimension. Height and width
3 D stands for 3 dimension height, width, and length.
Do you understand that baseline enlightenment....allows you to enter a 5 dimension in which....distance, and time is removed?
For example....let's say you watch a video of Leo....as a regular human it is just some video on Youtube
For an enlightened person....they are in the same room as Leo, Leo is just them talking to themselves for the FIRST TIME EVER, and.... it is realized that Leo is imaginary, and is YOU telling yourself a story about their experiences. Oh and also...his body is felt at your body.
You realize that the screen of your phone, tablet, or laptop is imaginary so Leo isn't in the screen, he is within you.
You see? You open up another dimension of experience that you previously couldn't access. What you don't realize is LOGIC, creates walls of dimensions. You only experience a 3D reality because you believe reality to be 3D. I don't live in a 3-D reality...my experience is NOT 3 D. Or 4D. My experience of reality is 5-D. 
Most psychedelic users are in 4D. They glimpse 5 D but it scares them because that is the perceived reality as being imaginary. Also 5-D is nothing....if I can drop my attachment to being human enough....I will be able to transcend 5-D and go even beyond that. Going beyond 5-D removes physicality completely. Now is when you start entering creator mode, but that state currently would feel like pure insanity...for most humans 5-D is pure insanity LOL. Hell most can't even handle 4-D.
Consider that biology and technology are the same....consider that what you call nature....is the same as technology. Consider that maybe the biological human body...is really just a virtual reality suit that can be modified and upgraded and depending how you do that...changes the subjective experience of said reality.
Ever consider that?
Also....as technology and science change their models due to true understanding of Consciousness, you are going to hear more about dimensions. One of the issues with the Spiritual Community I have learned is you all's bias against logic and thinking. Guess what? Silence and sound are the same. Thought and the lack of thought are the same.
For example...to think...is to meditate on thoughts!!! Some people think meditation is standing still, but concentration is a form of meditation and you can do that MOVING!!! The key to greater understanding is to remove your bias!! Your bias will restrict your ability to make sense of things and will get you paradigm locked!!! You don't know how many traps I had to avoid because of all this traditional human bias.
Traditional human bias is BULLSHIT!!! Instead of blindly believing....TEST things!!! There is nothing wrong with 5-D it does a good job of explaining this video Leo made in the past....
https://www.actualized.org/insights/sherlock-holmes-brain
Leo uses the word "orthogonal"
https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=567835797&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS991US992&sxsrf=AM9HkKlHDCl0cS1XlAwV1B9Uhisb-mQdwA:1695469294877&q=orthogonal&si=ALGXSlbK6dNKc3P-z0hratVoTzWIsDxAZ1lLU7x9N1xOd-XH0vxhagLClTpkSqWeYCXy0OhNVqLKLhKPYNos1rx46VeUD2DvRWRbfuCjB_d0rw-sEZyNdUg%3D&expnd=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiLyLGo08CBAxWeJUQIHUPQAAwQ2v4IegQIHRAT&biw=1422&bih=678&dpr=1.35
Sometimes brainy math nerds like Leo confuse people talking like this. In this example the word dimension...can be used.
Consider that Enlightenment....might be the ability...to perceive dimensions....that are outside of the normal experience of those in a 3-D reality.
Your senses limit your dimensional experience. 
 

To transcend is a relational concept, and it is finite. So yes it can be transdimensional because it can take you from one dimension to another. 
For example if you draw a square...then you turn that square into a cube it has gone transdimensional and reached a new dimension from 2-D to 3-D. Right now...your mind is in denial mode. Denial mode is okay, but you need to learn to switch it to unity mode. Instead of looking for differences...look for connections. What you don't understand is logic/division can carve up for eternity, for infinity. To discover answers....you need to look for connections, for unity. THIS is how you gain more awareness. The world is in the fight for division. Very few look for unity.
Also with the color example...all terms have limitations, but you can always change the definition/expand it to include something like color. For example you could call color/light...and say light is the first dimension because you cannot perceive 3-Dimensional space as a visual space without light. So that first line...would also be the introduction of color because for a line to be perceived you need contrast, so the first dimension would be EQUAL to light/color. See? It just got accounted for.
If you want to include things like sound, and all the other things...someone again could count all those things as the first dimension. Why? Because to have sound you need it to have a contrast....silence. So you can say color, taste, etc...and then someone will respond to you that there would have to be a zero dimension before the introduction of the first dimension....and now we get into what we call NOTHING and the origins of everything.
Look just admit...you don't like the model....but if you don't like the 5-D model you don't like the 3-D model because all it does..is build off it. Right now...humans are not awake enough to communicate directly. What do I mean? When you awaken you discover that consciousness does not need language to communicate. I'll give an example. You know how you can smell something and you don't need language to know that it stinks? You can intuit from the experience of the smell that it stinks? Well one day humans will be able to communicate through their consciousness without the medium of language. 
As of now we have not developed that capacity so we have to use language and language has limitations and language is bound by models, because language is itself a model.
 
 

@Razard86 But it's still a dimension, do I understand that right? So it's not some "transcendental", "trans-dimensional" state of being, where you completely break free from all "constraints", but rather, a finite expression of the infinite? The term "3-D" for example doesn't fully capture the physical realm, it only describes the 3 spacial dimensions, but you can't use it to describe other physical phenomena like color. It merely serves as a frame work to describe how photons move through the 3 dimensions, into your eyes.
I understand that when you're saying "3D", you're not strictly referring to the 3 spacial dimensions, you're using it in a broader way to describe the concept of "physicality" as a whole, I'm just using this as an example to illustrate the limits of the notion of "dimension". We could arbitrarily assign an infinite dimensions to reality, because there are infinite dimensions to reality! We could assign a dimension to color, sound, human height, country size, income, etc. and it wouldn't be more or less 'real' than the spatial dimensions that are being perceived.
My basic point is that you can raise your consciousness to high levels without thinking about it in terms of dimensions. It can still act as a valuable frame wok for spiritual growth, similarly to how the 3 spatial dimensions still have a practical purpose even though they can't capture the whole of reality. So I understand where you're coming from. Everything is a projection of our current state of consciousness. If you can see clearly, you'll see everything as God and Consciousness. I was watching a documentary about the Inca the other day, and I sat down with the purpose to "listen to god". You could described what I perceived as the "language of god". God was talking to me, through the documentary. It felt like the entire documentary was crafted by myself, for myself. This random ass documentary about a topic that I'm don't really care about, somehow ended up being a valuable source of insight into myself, because I was conscious enough in that moment to recognize that everything is god playing with itself. So you can find meaning even in concepts that weren't even designed to communicate any "spiritual truths".
I don't doubt that this is of value for some. For others it'd rather act as distraction. Once you put spiritual realizations into language, a lot gets lost. Calling it a dimension might make it more tangible to comprehend on a human level, but it won't get you to realize what is being said. The same goes for concepts such as "chakra", "kundulin", "third eye", etc. All these ideas point to deeper truths, but how many times have you heard someone claim to have opened their "third eye" without having any idea about the actual meaning/implications behind those words?
Humans can get stuck in these spiritual fantasies (again, not calling what is being pointed to a fantasy, but the description of it). Focus and clarity are important. Will thinking of reality in terms of dimensions keep you from seeing clearly? Not inherently. It might though. That's the angel I'm speaking up for. My bias if you will.

Hello everyone, I took a quiz saying that I am at stage yellow but I don't really know how much I tested or had the opportunitiy to test my systems thinking to change the world. I have yet to create a vision on that. I wonder if it is possibe for me to be moving too quickly unintentionally in spiral dynamics. I also notice that stage coral may not even be acknoledged from time to time probably because of how difficult it is to understand in the same way that Leo's video on stage turquoise needed to be replaced by someone else. If it is true that stage coral would say that awakening is relative, that would put Leo at stage turquoise/coral by teachng the different levels of awakening. Also, what is the difference between awakening and enlightenment and is awakening capitalized? It's probably the case that such awakenings cannot be communicated in any model but I was wondering the states of consciousness in each stage since consciousness increases with each stage and that there are infinite states of consciousness. Would a state of consciousness be different from a level of consciousness that determines the depth of that state? Also, if I cannot explain my own state of consciousness or level of development, it  probably means that I don't have free will and I want to acknoledge that stage turquoise has a much more nuanced way of thinking about free will instead of saying that it doesn't exist by having it depend on identity just like with what Leo said on what will is. I would like to know why I am at stage yellow or if there is even an explanation for it not that this is bad or anything, but just curious. Could it be because of Leo and that it still just takes time for me to transition into stage turquoise?
Test – Spiral Dynamics Quiz (Stage Yellow Result).pdf

This summer I have gone about transcribing Actualized.org episodes into text, so I can print and read them. 
My main motivation was to turn them into a form that survives power black-outs or potential crisis resulting in the collapse of the internet 
Yeah, that sounds very unlikely, but I really value Leo's talks, so I want to preserve them in that manner.
For this purpose I want to transcribe only the most profound episodes.

Now I want to share them with my fellow actualizers 
The texts are great if you really want to get the information in or you learn better by reading stuff.

Anyhow I used a program that did a good job transcribing.
I edited the introduction and ending of the episode, as well as filler words and slips out.

If you want to read the original transcripts as produced by the program, I add them here as well. But these are full of errors by the program that I had to edit.

I'm hope these have a lot of value for you. Enjoy!
 

What Is Ego
What Is Ego.pdf
 
What Is Ego (original).pdf

Hello Actualized community. I used to be an active poster here a while back, and I’ve come back here in two occasions. 
 
First, I appreciate Leo’s work and this is not me saying you should get off the forum because he is not truthful, nothing like that. Leo’s videos are some of the most advanced teachings on consciousness available online. 
However, I am extremely concerned about the posts saturating this forum.
 
I was just like you. I thought I knew all the answers and I would post here my conclusions, parroting them to all hell. I had mystical experiences, a near death experience, etc, etc. It made me come to conclusions that I thought were the truth. I posted extensively on this forum for a whole year, thinking I knew it all and had the conviction in my beliefs as the experiences I had were so mind blowing that I was sure this was it. However, I was wrong. 
 
Dear one, for your own sake, if your plan is to find the answers on a digital propert, please get off this forum and get back to life, and come back when you are more mature.
One skim through the recent posts here has been quite sad and concerning to me.
 
——
 
As I work remotely, I have spent the past few months in Chiapas, Mexico, where I was born. I’ve been helping my sister set up a foundation to help the economic mobility of the indigenous communities that have been forgotten by their government.
These people have REAL wisdom. They are direct descendants of the Mayans. The place is mystical, magical, in a way that cannot be described.
They have taught me, and shown me, that all my beliefs about Reality being a “dream”, or me being God, or knowing what consciousness is, or  Solipsism, etc, etc. were completely wrong.
As someone that has gone full circle, this is what I can offer you for wisdom: be humble. A lot of the posts on this forum are titled things like “I am awake” “solipsism is true” “I am god” etc etc. 
It is painfully obvious to me, that a lot of you out there are young people understanding Leo’s concepts logically and thinking they have it figured out, trying to impart non existing wisdom.
These are spiritual platitudes without a basis in truth.
I encourage you to stop posting on this forum IF your intention is to simply parrot your half cooked ideas on reality, which will change over time.
These native people I’ve met in Mexico have the most elegant, succinct, humble, loving, and simple explanation for life.
Before I go into these, please do not reply with more platitudes. I know them all. God is you, reality is a dream there is no self blah blah.
I can guarantee you. You do not hold the truth. I thought so too! I was SURE! It all made sense to me. I was wrong. You can find more truth by involving yourself in living a life with meaning, with an appreciation for it all, gratefulness for your existence, and by not misappropriating the teachings of in this case, Leo, to justify your musings about Solipsism and other extremely damaging concepts to your well being.
What is more concerning here, is that it is also painfully obvious that some folks here are finding their lives to be meaningless. You know who you are. 
 
Consider for a second, and I just want to plant the seed in your mind, that Leo does not hold the truth. I am not saying he does or he doesn’t. Just consider that for a second. 
Consider for a second that Solipsism, the idea that you are God, that reality is a dream, that you are talking to yourself…. That all of those are falsehoods.
Consider the following:
• That you in fact are a human being. One amongst many. And that you are not God. The self righteousness in simply believing that after having a mystical experience is foolish at best, dangerous at worst.
• That no matter how long you try to “awaken” - you never will. Because you believe there is something to awaken from. Instead of appreciating the reality that is all around you and the fact that your mere existence is what your gift is.
• That the point of life is not to be a probe for “God” and that you are just that and are also God giving himself a “colonoscopy”. That concept is so incredibly misinformed and self asserting - and is produced by false conclusions the psyche makes after mystical experiences.  And that the point of life is in fact, to enjoy the gift you were given by being born. That you aren’t a probe for “God”, but that you are a separate, limited being and you are different and distinct from “God”, and that THAT is the beauty of being you. You don’t need to worry about these horrible and misinformed ideas because life is much more simple than that. There is no need to awaken, no need to figure out any of these questions that are self constructed, etc.
• That we will never know if there is a God. I Can list 15 other theories for how reality works that are just as convincing. 
 
• That you have been deluding yourself and loving In fear or nihilism over a false belief. 
 
• That these concepts such as “god” “infinity of gods” “awakening” are just inventions.
• That “mystical” experiences brought on by 5MEO-DMT are not true mystical experiences, but self deception. I have consumed 5MEO and ayuhuasca. Please steer clear of these substances.
—///
i won’t tell you what the truth of the universe is. I don’t know! And anyone that tells you they do is lying. 
 
I am simply making you consider that you are wrong.

I will not finish this post by parroting my own beliefs on this subject. Because it is pointless and self serving.
But all I will encourage you to do, is to be humble. To realize you do not have the answers., and never will! 
 
Instead, recognize you will never know, and to instead live your life with VIRTUE, seeking beauty, imparting love to others, helping your fellow human being, and relishing in the mystery.
The truth is unknowable. By everyone. No one will ever know the truth. Some might think they have the truth. They don’t. This is another trap.
Liberate yourself from this pointless exercise and seek your happiness.
This is all real. You are real. Make it count.
This from someone that has been through the motions here, and who achieved happiness when I started living my life with gratefulness, mystery, and a deep sense of who you are and what you can offer the world. 
 
This community has SO much potential. But there needs to be a shift here. This is crossing into harmful territory.
You all deserve happiness. I sincerely wish you nothing but that in spades
 
I wish you love, and I wish you peace in your mind.

Hmmm yes that's true.
I know my view on turquoise is quite different from the mainstream one. But the mainstream one just sounds so boring.
But yeah I'm essentially changing spiral dynamics into what I consider a more accurate model of human development. 
But then I should probably just stop calling it spiral dynamics and call it something else, because it has nothing to do anymore with the original model.

You are seriously confusing Turquoise and Spiral Dynamics with mysticism and nonduality. That's not how the model works.

This is my view on coral.
My view on turquoise and coral differes from the mainstream view, but I think it makes more sense lol. It is based on research, contemplations on and what I've been noticing in myself and others. 
 
 Stage Turquoise  So first about turquoise, it is mainly about enlightenment imo.
It's about dissolving the seperate sense of self and realizing your true nature and thus oneness with everything. 
All of that is turquoise:
the self doesn't exist No free will Nothing to do Nothing matters No one to become enlightened Teaching enlightenment is pointless  Everything is perfect  Everything is love Everything is one Infinity You are God  And attitudes are:
Being in flow and alignment with life No resistance Accepting what is Bowing down to reality Surrender Being rather than doing Passive, saintly, feminine, harmonious The more awake you are, the deeper you are into turquoise. And here is a major crossroad. Some decide to go deeper and deeper into turquoise and become more and more enlightened until they do mahasamadhi and merge with God. The other option is to go to the next stage, which is coral. 
So coral is not about becoming more enlightened (that is turquoise) but about human evolution post awakening.
 
Stage Coral - Awakening is relative 
In my opinion, the main cause for the progression into coral is the realisation that most insights from awakening are not absolute but relative. A lot of you will disagree about that. I'm just giving my perspective based on my awakenings and contemplations.
At turquoise you reach states of consciousness where it is seen that realisations of no-self, love,... are absolute, but in my opinion they are not.
Let's take the example of love. Love is regarded as absolute because it is seen that even pain and evil is actually love. 
And that is true RELATIVE to very high states of consciousness. 
But relative to other states of consciousness that is not true. 
If a tortured person doesn't regard torture as love, then love can't be absolute, because if it were absolute, pain and evil would be regarded as love from every perspective. 
Love not being absolute is also in alignment with "truth is what is". If in one perspective evil doesn't feel like love, then evil is not love in that perspective, and that is truth (because that is what is).
Another argument for love being absolute is "everything is made out of love (and even you feeling love as evil is still love) and the only reason why you can't see it is because you are biased and selfish"
That is again true relative to that state of consciousness. 
Infinity has infinitely many states of consciousness, and includes all possible states of consciousness. 
Some of these states are infinite consciousness and are love and it is seen that everything (even evil) is actually love.
BUT there are also states that are infinite consciousness and are evilness and it is seen that everything (even love) is actually evilness.
That's just a consequence of Infinity. Both of these opposite states of consciousness essentially cancel each other out, so they are only true relative to themselves.
So we are left with everything is what it is, love is love and evil is evil.
Enligtenment is true relative to high states of consciousness.
(I think the only absolutes are: Reality is Infinite, Truth is what is, and Reality/everything is Consciousness)
And things like evil exist, things matter, the self exists, the self is important ... are true relative to other states of consciousness. 
Nothing is inherently more or less true.
So when all that is realised, that all these things that were previously considered illusonary are indeed real, then an interest for all these things once again arises and that is the step into coral.
 
- Self Centered 
During hardcore turquoise all personal desires were neglected or dissolved. It was an extreme into ego-unimportance. So in coral there is a natural desire to indulge in a lot of ego pelasures. Almost an extreme into ego pleasures in order to compensate for the previous extreme.
Coral is tier 2 stage red, and red is ego centric, so that behavior makes sense from that perspective too.
But coral is also very different from red, because it is far more evolved, it contains all the wisdom from previous stages and in most cases also an increased and nondual state of consciousness from turquoise, so it is a more evolved form of red, without all the negatives of red. So while personal pleasures are important, pleasures of others are also important. That means personal well being is pursued but in a way that it doesn't take from others well being.
At coral it is important for you to increase the wellbeing of others and you take action towards that, but your own wellbeing is likely even more important, so you spend more effort on that (because you got so depleted during turquoise). So that is the flavor of stage red again.
 
- Spiritual Teacher
Someone at turquoise is unlikely to teach about enlightenment because nothing matters anyway and all is already perfect.
At coral you have a different view, and teaching becomes very reasonable. 
If someone decides to be a teacher then the teaching style might be arrogant and agressive (the flavor of stage red again).
Leo seems to be at coral. And that is reflected in his teaching style:
Saying that any methods apart from psychedelics will most likely never awaken you Saying he is one of the most conscious humans ever Saying that other teachers are not awake Saying that religions and other spiritual teachings are inferior and mostly useless for awakening and that all that stuff should just be thrown away Being blatant, direct, and using more aggresive language (I don't know whether he said these things like that, I just wrote what I think he would say)
 
- State of Consciousness 
At coral you are most likely enlightened, you don't lose your baseline from turquoise.
But it also doesn't mean that because you are coral that you now are more enlightened. You could, but turquoise people could easily be more enlightened. The most enlightened people are probably at turquoise (and going for mahasamadhi).
So at coral, you are still conscious of God, Oneness, no-self,... 
A hardcore turquoise person has dissolved the illusonary sense of self to a very large degree.
It is possible to continue in coral with this dissolved sense of self, with this depersonalization, but I think for most people it is more likely that they again form an illusonary sense of self. They will have both. A strong sense of self, of being a human, that person, and at the same time the awareness that this is an illusion. 
Relative to nondual consciousness the self is an illusion. Relative to ego consciousness the self is real.
Now at coral, both of these awarenesses can co-exist. So relative to that state of consciousness at coral, it is true that the self is an illusion and it is true that the self is no illusion at the same time, simultaneously.
At least that's my current baseline state, and I think this might be similiar to others. When I put my attention on nondualness I'm very conscious that the sense of self is an illusion, not just knowing but actually being is that state of consciousness. And when I put my attention on being a human self, then that becomes real.
The sense of self is made of appearance, but these appearances are real, they exist and form a self, so focusing on them I can experience a strong  sense of self, and at the same time I can be fully conscious of how I am consciousness and these appearances are illusionary. I'm essentially in an altered state of consciousness (both in terms of void dimension and pure consciousness dimension), in a state where most people would have only a very small sense of self, even when focusing on these illusonary appearances of the self, but I've reconstructed the solidity and realness of the sense of self that you usually have in ego consciousness, but that solidity doesn't decrease my altered state of consciousness. So in a weird way I'm having both at once.
Based on my understanding of coral, you can have such a co-existing awareness, but if you prefer, you can maintain the dissolved no self from turquoise. But I think most people at coral prefer that co-existing awareness.
 
- Masculine Energy
A natural side effect of becoming enligtened at turquoise was that you become passive, feminie, selfless, submissive, accepting, ...
This went very far into an extreme, so there is now a need to go into the other extreme to compensate for the extreme of turquoise.
So there is a tendency to be active, masculine, results oriented, direct, blatant, productive, efficient,.... so that's the stage red flavour again.
At stage red you disliked your suffering and took aggressive actions to combat that.
At coral you dislike the suffering of yourself AND all other beings and take aggressive actions to combat that.
At turquoise you had the attitude of surrendering and bowing down to reality.
At coral you might even become angry at reality (particularly if you had awakenings into Infinity at turquoise and realized the consequences of that, like that there exists infinite suffering in some realms). Rather than bowing down to reality you want to dominate it, almost like wanting to play god, a better god than the unbiased Infinity god (which allows suffering because it is unbiased), and to bring happiness and wellbeing to all.
And to actualize that, you are very active, results oriented and a go-getter. 
Essentially, in order to actualize that goal, you take whatever approach is most effective, and that means you take the energy, power and force from red, the productiveness and results orientedness from orange, the empathy from green, the systems thinking from yellow and the awareness of oneness from turquoise.
 
- Happiness
At turquoise most have attached detachment. At coral you have detached attachment.
Attachment because you very much care about things. But it's different from pre-awakening, because you have the awareness and maturity and detachment skills from turquoise, therefore it is detached attachment. 
You are attached to things, but ideally (if you fully integrated turquoise) your happiness doesn't (fully) depend on your attachments being fulfilled. 
So at coral you get both, the unconditional happiness from turquoise (being happy independ of your life situation) and at the same time the conditional happiness from orange and green (having your desires fulfilled).
 
 
Stage Blue 2 The stage after coral is 2nd tier stage blue, so I'm just gonna call it blue 2.
- Focus on Others
After sometime your desires got largely fulfilled and the extreme lack of that at turquoise could be compensated, at that point you naturally progress to blue 2.
At coral the wellbeing of others was important for you, and you took action towards that, but your own wellbeing was more important (because you got so depleted during turquoise). 
At blue 2 it's the other way around. Your own wellbeing is still important (unlike at hardcore turquoise) but the wellbeing of others becomes more inportant, so the focus is on others.
So from being focused on the individual (coral) you again focus on the collective. 
Turquoise and coral were very extreme, now blue 2 is a progression that takes the best of both.
Here you again might become saintly and feminine (but without neglecting your own wellbeing).
 
- Spiritual teacher 
Somone who became a teacher at coral, had an agressive teaching style and dismissed less effective spiritual teachings.
At blue 2 it is recognized that a more inclusive approach is better. For example, rather than a fundamentalist christian that all his dogma is bs and he should forget all that, you try to awaken such people with the inclusion of their dogma. So a fundamental christian might be guided towards mystical christian dogma (and people like Meister Eckart, Francis of Assisi,...) or gnosticism and to awaken through that. 
So blue 2 is an inclusion of dogma, which shows a paralell to blue 1, because in blue1 dogma is important (blue 2 uses dogma in a more conscious way).
So spiritual teaching styles evolved from new agey teaching (green), to conceptual teaching (yellow), to no teaching (turquoise), to agressive teaching (coral), to inclusive teaching (blue 2).
 

WELCOME TO CONTEMPLATION SERVER! <3
The thread is not meant to be about me, but I'll share a story of why I made this thread in the first place to make some sense to it.
My whole life purpose IS to gather as expansive intellectual knowledge of different aspects of reality and human life as possible. That being said the scope here is massive and I really want unique content that you've REALLY thought for yourself. I need more inspiration, because I have already thought of so many different things and I've reached some type of wall for 10th time or something in my life. Also as an another motivator for starting this communication between Actualized.org members is because it seems that the content here lately hasn't been evolving and I see higher potentiality for us.
So to the point.
We're basically trying to make team contemplation here. There's 2 type of ways to engage with the thread.
1. Contemplate something new for 30min - 1 hour or whatever you need to write something unique.

a) Take out paper and pen.
b) Make correct mood for contemplation with being alone and maybe by listening to some relaxing playlist.
c) If you have and want you could take a little amount of psychedelics to get thoughts flying and creativity to shine.
d) Write a word or thought on paper that you want to contemplate and set a timer and sit for the whole time.
e) Post DEM results here.

2. Analyze someone's contemplation and push it further with new points and use the same method as in step (1.)

Aim to surprise me and other actualizers and try to make every post pure, valuable and deep.

Here is an example of a type of post I am looking for. (It's my own contemplation that I've done in the past)
How to think Part 1
- If there is perspective outside of yours then you're wrong
- Try to find how you're wrong to get thinking process to start
- Define different words and write essays of them
- Have hard discussions with people that stimulates your mind
- Combine differnet worldviews
- Understand that there's always some intension and that shapes thinking radically
- Argue everything for yourself and don't take information blindly in
- Learn to think in structures
- Make thinking your hobby so it doesn't feel like work
- You'll face lot of things that sound absurd, but learn that ABSURD =/= WRONG
- Watch out for conflicts in your logic
- Upgrade your patience so you can sit long enough front of a topic to find juicy perspectives to it
- Thinking is like scanning your mind and topics to find irrationality to fix
- Fuels of thinking are curiosity, information and want to grow as a person
- In order to really upgrade thinking one has to be ready to change themself
- Make it as enjoyable as possible to really have motivation to do it
- Stop judging other perspectives, because it blocks you from integrating it to be part of larger worldview of yours.
I hope this will not be a problem in this thread, but if there's extremely low quality of a post that doesn't add anything or somehow I don't like I'll ask a moderator to delete it, because as I said already, I am aiming to build something SPECTACULARLY MAGNIFICENT and I want it to go to direction that I saw in my vision.

With love your friend <3
-joNi-

Contemplation creates openness, the space to wonder and to question.

This is why I keep telling people to stop trying to avoid pain, and emotional discomfort. Not too be mean....but all this fear...is ego. 
1. You cannot desire to be nothing, everything, and then hope to go back to how things were before.
2. You cannot avoid emotional discomfort, when you do these substances they raise awareness and the judging part of you comes to the surface. You become MORE AWARE of your ego. Your ego is the part of you that judges, and emotes....so all emotional discomfort is due to the ego being messed with since it is the part of you that tries to retain HOMEOSTASIS, its the part that allows your reality to feel STABLE. So taking these substances messes with the comfort you feel of feeling like YOU, which is just the normal experience of this baseline. 
Notice you said you are afraid of damaging your brain...your brain....is imaginary. So notice you are worried about shedding the normal perceptual reality you have...but also...you want to experience something drastically different? You have a fear of going insane....what is insanity? Living from a perceptual reality that is DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT.
Notice everything you have shared with us....was attempts to do this work....and remain COMFORTABLE. If you seriously want to go deeper in this work....you have to drop this. Here is a WARNING....insanity...is the inability to accept what is. What would happen....if you woke up and your entire perceptual experience changed drastically, and you couldn't accept it? You would freak out!!
Now notice...is the perceptual experience what is insane? Or is it the refusal to accept it and the underlying terror and the expression of that terror what we call insanity? What you don't realize....is if you keep going down this rabbit hole you CAN and WILL ABSOLUTELY CHANGE YOUR PERCEPTION. What you don't even realize... is these come downs yall keep referring to....isn't the drug...its the body. Your body is capable of doing what these chemicals do as these chemicals are only catalysts. I learned this when I tripped for an ENTIRE MONTH and had to CONSCIOUSLY come down through an intention to go back to normal.
I learned through that experience....that the only thing that holds you back...is your concept of NORMAL. Your ego has an individualized definition of what is normal, and ANY deviation from that definition which is an INTUITIVE definition, a FELT definition will conjure up FEAR. So you got to ask yourself....how much do you want to FUCK UP YOUR LIFE, because you are going to do that if you continue. Why? Because prolonged use of these substances CHANGES YOUR D.N.A.
These changes WILL change permanently your experience of reality. Maybe you are able to hear better, smell better, maybe you feel emotions more intensely, maybe your depth perception changes, maybe you become permanently aware that everything is YOU. Are you prepared for this? If not? QUIT this work and go back to living as a regular human being. Because this work....ABSOLUTELY will include UPS AND DOWNS, and deep emotional pain because it is INNER WORK. I say this with deep compassion but your ego is not going to win this battle of trying to erect a wall of comfort if you continue. It WILL LOSE THIS BATTLE. Some people who do psychedelics.....go insane....and NEVER RECOVER. Why? Because they are too selfish to get their reality fucked with!!! If you are too attached to your life...then don't mess with this stuff. 

Can You Fall In Love With Those You Once Despised? If you can authentically fall in love with your enemies, your detractors, when you truly understand where they are coming from is when you are making true progress. If your life were to end with you holding the same opinion of denial of those who you disagree with, your life is a life not fully lived. 
Everyday pick someone you disagree with and seek to understand their perspective. If you can accomplish this, you will grow in knowledge and understanding. Always remember....all bias= stupidity. It's needed to hold an individual perspective, but it can become a prison. Ever wonder when you watch a movie sometimes why the main character acts stupid from your perspective when the author of the story makes you privy to information that the main character doesn't have?
As a kid I would get mad when the main character has a love interest but believes she doesn't like him, and acts in ways that stops him from getting what he wants. But notice he has a bias, a belief that she doesn't love him and thus even though its not true that is the lens that he views reality from and cannot get what he desires which is to connect with her. 
Understand that when you hold biases, your life is operating exactly the same. All bias distorts the reality of what is true. So learning to love those who mistreat you actually makes you see life clearer. It's sad that I'm cheating and giving you practical reasons to be more loving....but Love is practical, its pragmatic, its TRUE PRAGMATISM.

first and two video share similar perspective
 
third video has different perspective on coral that coral is another advanced intuitive thinker that deals with chaos x chaos, deconstructing "brutally" pathetic part of organisation and emerging it with others, Democracy as a structure becomes meaningless on higher state of consciousness, because, somehow, people are acting based on their fear and ego, which makes it easier to manipulate
Leto atreides 2 God-Emperor, darth vader, rocksfeller, putin's nuanced malicious attack on Ukraine and jeopardising
while turquoise is about harmony within chaos.

so, as a yellow centered metamodern system thinker dreaming and digging informations about coral stage from several years, I came into conclusion that it is about solipsism, hellish unstable state of consciousness, process of cleansing the mind, also peak state of 5meodmt/malt
 
after 5meodmt/malt, yellow centered person remains relatively on turquoise, but while on 5meodmt/malt, on my subjective experience often there is destabilisation of mind, dualistic conflict between absolute Love and Knowledge/understanding (this should be coral)
 
after trip, yellow centered person increases intution and love about 1 day still maintaining ego, which makes it construct-aware turquoise.
 
Integrated AI: Endgame (slow pace, Spiral Dynamics, evolution) 
Dr Alan D. Thompson
 
this screenshot below shows how each stage sees AI, yellow has a systemic perspective about AI, and turquoise also increases it's complexity further, then in coral, complexity drops, Love pushes in and cleanses all logic. this would be same as well, in middle of 5meodmt, it forces me to shut up and surrender to love, love, and I resist it cause I like these knowledges.

@OBElerWell, I know that they would because of how extraordinary they are. You should know what they are by now and I won't be getting into that here.
I have a younger friend of mine who doesn't want to show his parents the website that has the life purpose because of the blog that disagrees with their religious views on God, their political views, etc. He showed me a-work-around and wants to be listened to by me because he doesn't feel that way from anyone else and he said that he had to download a torrent file of the life purpose course because of his concern. He also stole his parents credit card to buy the booklist because he thought that the topics would go against his parent's beliefs. He was thinking about joining the forum because of these issues but I have to ask you this important question:
Would this friend of mine be banned for doing these things if he were to be on the forum and if so, should I tell him that he shouldn't join the forum? I'll leave as anonymous and he can always make up a name on the forum anyways.
I find these problems very relatable to me that relates to your question except I didn't do the things he did. Although what he did was illegal, I don't really think it's his fault, something has to be done. Was it actually wrong for him to do these things? I found out about stealing his parents credit card because he was talking buying Leo's future course on Awakening and telling me what Leo would say because he knew that I was open to it which caused him to get in trouble for what he did because his parents read his text messages. I told him that I cannot get a job in Russia without a college degree and that I rely on my parents moneyhttps://poe.com/s/uYMqxbVs6v0GFL8S81TV. They said that it's a VISA situation that they cannot control otherwise I wouldn't have to leave the country every six months. What advice would you give him? 
 

Developing a Mature Mind
Developing a mature mind and relationship to reality is essential to living a good life. In fact, I have learned that the ability for us to be successful is directly correlated with how mature our mind is.
Essentially, if from birth you magically had the maturity of someone with massive life experience... someone who self reflected, learned, self actualized you would easily ace life. But, because we are born in ignorance we have to go through the trials and tribulations of developing wisdom. In my case, this has been the trial of developing wisdom through massive failure. I have tried, and failed so many times in my life. But, at the same time I think one think I had that was special is that I have tried a lot of things in life and do my best to expose myself to lots of different information and experiences. I think to the degree that I am wise is because of all these experiences and my open minded approach to learning. However, I do not consider myself wise to the depths and completion that I hope to one day be. In many ways I am foolish.
I think it's important to discuss that there are key areas that make up our lives. They are:
Relationships Finances Career/Business Hobbies Spirituality Health and Fitness Education Each of these areas requires foundation levels of study, and direct experience to begin developing wisdom in them. It can take years to develop wisdom in these areas. I think it's important that if you are reading this, and you are interested in becoming wise that you make the commitment today that you will develop a mature, wise understanding and relationship to these areas of human life. 
Some examples:
1. A wise person in relationships understands enough about human relationships both theoretically and experientially that they are able to go about building relationships in a healthy conscious way. They know when to let people into their lives and when to have healthy boundaries. They are wise in the way of relationships and cultivate healthy relationships in their lives.
2. A person who is wise in finances knows the difference between foolish financial practice and wise financial practice. The wise person saves money, invests, builds wealth and uses money to free themselves from meaningless work, or better yet wage slavery. The wise person realizes the importances of studying healthy financial habits, wealth creation and investing.  A wise person is also aware of how scams work and can easily spot and avoid them. 
3. A wise person in the area of business is realistic about the amount of work that is required with building a business. They know that building a business is challenging, takes time, takes money, has risks, and requires a lot of emotional labour for it to become a reality. They go about business is a way that is thinking, 5, 10, 15 years down the road. Generally a wise person is thinking long term. 
4. A wise person realizes the importance of developing hobbies as they add to the enjoyment of life. They also realize what types of things are better off a hobby, than what is better pursued as a career.
5. The wise person goes about spirituality in a slow, deliberate manner. They know when it's the right or wrong time to pursue spirituality. For example, if you are young then spirituality needs to be done in the context that you also have many other goals, pursuits and karma to burn through. They are careful with psychedelics, and do all things in moderation. They are wise to avoid cults, religions, and ideologies. They root their spirituality in wisdom, and balanced, healthy epistemology. 
6. The wise person realizes the importance of proper nutrition and exercise and invests in that from a young age. They realize that if they want to be able to afford healthy foods, gym memberships etc then they must find a way to earn enough to make that a reality. They only eat junk food in moderation if at all. They use food and fitness to elevate their happiness. 
7.  A wise person realizes that their education, intelligence and understanding of reality that is embodied is the deciding factor on their happiness and ability to enjoy life.
I personally think I am in the early phases of understanding what Wisdom is, and implementing the principles of wise living in my life. I have a lot to learn, and many challenges to overcome that I created simply due to being unwise with many of the above categories. Wisdom, is really the key to all human problems. Wisdom grounded in a deeply profound self love. 
I have a lot of work to do. I need more discipline. I need more planning. I need more long term thinking. I need more experience. I need more money. I need more success. I need more relationships. So much to work on. 
A wise person, I think.. see life as a game. They know it's a passing dream. But, they realize they want to honour it and enjoy the time they have here on earth despite so many challenges that humans face... or create for themselves simply due to their own foolishness or the foolishness of others.
Become Wise.