SeaMonster

Is the criticism correct and/or useful (in other words are there changes I need to make?) Then you welcome the criticism, make changes and PROFIT. Is it not correct/fair/constructive? Ignore it. "Self-image" is beside the point. There is what's true and what isn't.

It's a function of choosing (not consciously, but by virtue of innate and developmental factors) one end of a polarity over another. This is how the ego is formed. None of this is a conscious choice, because the ego is formed in childhood. It's just a response to one's environment with one's resources.

Popular entertainment is bullshit. If you want to "touch women" you need nonverbal indications that they would be receptive to that AND you need to escalate that in very small, brief, incremental steps of touching. In other words, there is a whole level of subtlety you need to master to try that kind of approach.

The problem with this idea is that you think "efficiency" and "fairness" aren't emotional concepts, but they are. You necessarily have to inject your subjective values and opinions of what is fair into the equation. According to Aristotle, fairness (or justice) is "just deserts." According to communists it's "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." RBE sounds like high tech communism, which is why any attempts to implement it would fail. You can convince a 20 year old of anything, but then they turn 30, 35, 40 and realize you sold them a bunch of crap. This is just endless cycles of utopian thought, despite your protestations to the contrary.

Leo could have an IQ of 200 and it doesn't mean the diet he keeps would be right for you. Do you understand the basic idea that the right diet for you may not be the same as for him because you have different responses to different foods?

I would say you don't even need "thinking" or consciously believing something -- we're just creatures of habit, meatsack robots if you will. It's autopilot living if you will. Yes, it's the conscious mind level, which is just bullshit anyway. The true self is the balancing act between the conscious and unconscious mind, the ego and the shadow. You want to be 50/50 with that; if you're much above let's say 65/35, you're probably in really bad shape as a person.

Wait...wut? I would suggest you make some real friends first...unless I am misinterpreting this. Either you have friends or you don't, you can't be disrespected by nonexisting friends.

I keep reading these posts about "you must approach 1000 girls" and "it's a numbers game" etc. It has finally dawned on me what's wrong with this kind of thinking/approach. People are just unrealistic about male psychology to suggest this. The kind of guy who would brute-force approach many girls in the way you're suggesting is most certainly high in Cluster B traits, like psychopathy or narcissism. You have to completely not give a shit about the kind of reaction you would get, over and over, or really enjoy any kind of attention, even negative. I don't think you're high in Cluster B traits, you seem a bit neurotic/obsessive. While it sounds good in theory, I don't think you could literally do this without it affecting you emotionally and quitting, as is true for most guys. So for a certain type of guy it could work, I don't think you're that guy (and neither are most guys.) The average guy needs a smart, efficient game, and good inner game to begin with. The kind of highly inefficient, high emotional toll strategy you're suggesting would unlikely work for most guys.

The usefulness of AI as a therapist is VERY VERY limited. Good therapists are good at creating and maintaining rapport, using intuition to guess what is likely to work with any particular client, reading people nonverbally; these elements is currently missing and I don't know whether they could ever be replicated.

That would never happen because human beings don't live according to optimization algorithms; you simply can't exclude emotional motivations from the equation. This is just another iteration of the utopian dream; even if it's not as absurd as socialism or communism (or technocracy of old) it still has its own unavoidable problems. Anyone who thinks otherwise does not understand human nature. To reduce human life to high standards of living, resource management and leisure is just not thinking seriously. Wealthy people torture and persecute each other in the West for status brownie points (virtue signaling/social justice.) Human beings always have a choice to live up to their worst tendencies and wealth and leisure does not ameliorate these tendencies. We already have almost death spiral demography in the wealthier countries closest to this RIGHT NOW -- you can imagine what it would be like under conditions of provision and leisure. (Yes, the wealthier the society, the less kids -- unless there is some existential, in other words meaningful reason otherwise.) You would literally have a full-blown rebellion/revolution on your hands in 20 years if you tried something like that. You can 100% bank that. I remember how 20 years ago you had these super-optimistic predictions how the Internet was going to usher in the utopia too. They seem silly in retrospect.

If you're harboring some idea that you could have "saved him", don't. Addicts are on their own journey and the grip of addiction is usually more powerful than love and friendship. In fact, it is more likely that the more you tried to save him, the more he would have dragged you down with him. This is not pleasant to hear about people we love, but it's sadly true in some cases. I lost a relative over the holidays. She wasn't an addict, but she neglected her health for years. Some people are sadly on a journey of slow self-destruction - they don't want to be here. You can't save them.

Why, do you have the same physiology as Leo? What works for him won't necessarily work for you. Just try cutting out or minimizing processed carbs, added sugars, and whatever you seem to have a negative reaction to. That goes a long way.

In order to understand what's going, you need to see the pattern with all the details filled in. E.g, it almost sounds like you fall in love very quickly or superficially (if you use words like "heartbroken.") Is this really love, though, or are you investing your emotions into a fantasy or compulsion of some type? How would you know if these women are WORTH loving if you're not even in a REAL relationship with them? The problem with rejection is the problem of perception. When you ask a girl out, you're asking to get to know her better. That's all it is. You shouldn't be investing all kinds of emotions into an object of fantasy.

What exactly is your actual problem with how you handle money? Do you spend too freely, do you lend people money, do you not make enough money? Do you feel that in order to earn serious money you'd have to do things you wouldn't enjoy? Just coming from poverty doesn't tell me anything. Different people coming from poverty handle things differently. Some are miserly no matter how rich they get, and some bling out when start earning serious money. It's going to depend on your particular personality and issues around money. Ultimately, it's about your personal psychology more than anything.

It's hard to say because you may not be saying or doing off-putting stuff every time you're with a girl. If you were, that would be easy -- I would say, sure, if the girls freak 20% of the time, it's on her. If they freak every time, it's definitely you. I wouldn't overthink it, though. You don't want to focus too much on what you're doing because then you're not observing the girl. The most important thing is to be in your senses, not in your head. You have to develop an intuition at some point and you need experience for that. In some ways, having the internet can be a hindrance because you are going to ask questions every time something bad (or good) happens and overanalyze. You just need to suspend judgment about the issue until you have enough experience, otherwise you'll drive yourself crazy.

I'm glad he changed you, just don't mistake his approach as something healthy. Forget about all the stuff about him being a potential pimp/rapist, whatever -- I'm going to put that off to the side. It's irrelevant to the issue at hand. He's clearly a depressed person coping hard through compulsive behavior. Like some extroverts he's not particularly self-reflective, he just feels bad and "more gainz...more fame...more money...more cars...more women." That kind of thing may appeal to a teenage boy, but any psychologically savvy person sees his misery. Just because you have the physical and mental gifts to pull off that kind of coping doesn't mean it's healthy or sustainable/not self-destructive. If he goes to jail, this will become more obvious to more people (that he's basically a self-destructive person.) In essence, he will have done himself in because he didn't know when to quit.

How would you go about doing that if they did perceive you in that manner?

I can't imagine microdosing iboga to go out; it's not a pleasant experience at all. Even in small doses I would just lie down and do a mini-session of asking questions. Iboga is extraordinarily valuable for insight, but it makes me feel like shit physically, it's like pins and needles all over your body. I would say just play sports several hours before going out and peak on an endorphin rush.

I don't understand under what circumstances you're getting heartbroken; you'd have to explain in more detail. What is the sequence in those cases?

Just realize that nothing is black or white. Women aren't either The Virgin Mary or The Whore of Babylon. You don't want to idealize women; you don't want to hate or fear women. You want to be REALISTIC about women, as close to the truth as possible. That means seeing all sides of them (and how they form a whole.)

OK, "my dude." Will see if you're still "hugging and cuddling" yourself in a few years. Some people need to learn the hard way. Would responding "bitch, you're high" not be overthinking it?

"Huge assumptions" = well-known effects on brain chemistry after a trip. You're not some special case. The point of my post is that the effects fade, so you better capitalize on making changes while they haven't. You're not the first person to experiment with psychedelics, so don't lash out just because you're insufficiently realistic about what can be expected from trips. If my tone is negative (in general on this forum) it's to balance all the unrealistic mf'ers here.

Sorry to say, but it does sound like you're blissed out. I experienced the same thing upto 6 months after iboga. Real self-love is reflected in changes in behavior toward oneself. It has to be a sustainable thing, because eventually the neurochemical effects from the trip wear off. All the trip is really good for is giving you a window to make these changes, the period of neuroplasticity is limited.

That I get too curious (read too much) and too cocky and whenever I overindulge those parts of myself I take mini L's in my life as compensation ( as injury, illness, losing possessions or sleep disturbances.) In other words the unconscious compensates by creating "negative" events externally/physically: whenever something "bad" happens to me, it's completely my doing and responsibility. I believe this is generalizable to everyone, it's just that many people don't see it or don't want to see it.

Pew Research, August 2020. It's actually 69% -- but when you look at men ages 18 to 29, it's 53%. And I doubt it's gotten better over the last 3 years, so it's safe to say roughly HALF the young men.