SeaMonster

Yup, it's basically a combination of working memory and abstract reasoning capacity. The best way to increase it that I've discovered and tested on myself is regular intense physical exercise, especially team sports like soccer or basketball. Meditation may help, but it's nowhere close to aerobic sports which simulate the early ancestral environment, such as the group hunt (which sports sort of do.) Of course, there is a genetic baseline. IQ is mostly genetics, but you can maximize it through sports.

But that's not what's projected to happen. If trends continue, below replacement fertility will become the norm and at some point the total global population will decrease. Now, let me say that what's projected to happen is not necessarily what WILL and MUST happen. There may be some unforeseen spiritual awakening and cultural shift that reverses this. But strategic planners in great powers don't strategize on the basis of what may happen if we luck out, they strategize on the basis of what is most likely to happen given what we know now. Let me answer both of these in one part. There are immediate and short-term goals and there are strategic goals. If you're not addressing strategic goals, satisfying your immediate goals won't matter at some point. Russia's population is on track to decline. Their demographers have been ringing the alarm. Putin is aware of this and the idea pains him greatly. This is an open secret. What happens when your population declines and your technological progress is insufficient? Your economy contracts, there's a smaller workforce, your population is older, so more of your economy has to go towards supporting the elderly in pensions and healthcare, etc. Less young people for your armed forces. Quality of life goes down. You are vulnerable for picking by your more fertile or growing neighbors (Russia has a huge land mass.) Difference between Russia and The West: (1) can't compete with the West for immigrants - less attractive destination; (2) not as technologically capable of compensating economically. You need to automate at a level where you are compensating for the lost labor force. This cannot be done solely by importing technology. You need to produce some of your own technology. So to sum up, it is the primary strategic i.e long term goal. Are there shorter term goals that may fold into it? Sure. But any action has to address the strategic goal. Otherwise you are self-sabotaging. And the cherry on top, just to prove that I haven't been pulling stuff out of my ass: 400,000 Ukrainians Forcibly Moved to Russia, Ukraine Says | Time https://time.com/6160765/ukrainians-taken-to-russia/ Literally stealing people.

Well, it's a supposition but an easy one to make, considering what China has done on Hong Kong and their stated policy on Taiwan. You're not going out on a limb there. But they HAVE adopted those policies to the extent they can afford to. It worked for a year and then reverted back. They are seeing that it's not working and there is panic in those capitals. The truth is, once your population is relatively wealthy and educated, fertility drops below replacement and it's very hard to avoid a population death spiral without major immigration. The only country that has been able to do that is Israel (perhaps a special situation because of a sharpened sense of do-or-die.) What experience is showing is that it's a hell of a lot easier to get people to have less kids than more kids, once they get used to the less sacrificing lifestyle. They get spoiled. You have to understand the desperation involved, and then it all makes sense. What choices do they have? Russia and China's tragic flaw is an extreme sense of self-importance - of national greatness. China is the "middle kingdom" between heaven and earth. Russia is the empire of old, of Peter The Great and Soviet Union. Their national psyche is ill-suited to acceptance of being some backwater. So this puts them in a position of desperate and counterproductive moves. Now Russia is considerably more reckless than China, but the ultimate result is the same. China cannot accept immigrants to the same degree as the West, for many reasons. Sure, they can pick off some South Asian or North Korean brides for their men, but it's not close to the West. And their people are not responding to "have 3 kids if you want." They are like "waaaaah too xpensive." So what would you do? Now maybe they will simply not do anything for now, like I said. They are a cautious people. Maybe they think they can outcompete the West on technology and so they can avoid the worst consequences of a population decline. (Certainly Russia has no chance of doing that.) But whatever the solution, this issue of fertility is very much a major driver of all strategic choices going forward - rest assured.

The bigger European countries like France and Germany have had a massive influx of foreigners (North Africa/Middle East) over the last few decades, if you follow the news, and some of the smaller ones like Poland have not, but also they do not have pretensions of being a superpower like Russia or China so it's not as pressing an issue for them yet. They don't have to make those strategic calls yet. Russia does. (Why do you think the EU is harassing the smaller countries like Poland and Hungary to accept refugees? It ain't humanitarianism. They have access to the same demographic data that we all do. A shrinking EU reduces the power of the bureaucrats in Brussels.) As far as China -- Hong Kong down, Taiwan next, if the West allows them. They are looking at what the world is doing on Russia. Also, the pickings are simply not as easy, geographically or culturally (It's not like they can invade India, e.g.) So when you say "you don't see them attacking anyone" -- well, maybe the Russia debacle has put them off Taiwan, or maybe they will merely wait and make sure they have their ducks in order before they do it in a year or two. But it's not as if they don't need to.

It's not about Russia's security interests, unless you define that so broadly as to have it be meaningless. It's about Russian demographics -- Russia is dying, its population is expected to shrink in the coming decades (fertility below replacement and not a super-attractive immigrant destination compared to the West.) The only solution is to reabsorb the population of former Soviet Republics (including the more fertile Central Asian ones, like Kazakhstan.) Of course good old Russian incompetence and corruption have made this war a clusterfuck for them, and they've only accelerated their decline. It's a freakin' humiliation. Putin looks like a complete buffoon, lied to by his underlings and loathed by more and more of the world due to the typically Russian war brutality. Quite a bit of their educated class will move to the West now. But that's Russia for you, par for the course. I see a lot of people trying super-hard to push the New! Global! Order! narrative, but Russia has really fucked itself with this misadventure.

This. Pretty much what it all boils down to -- allowing your pain to process without resorting to negative coping mechanisms. The rest pretty much IS a negative coping mechanism -- including spiritual "knowledge" (i.e. conceptualizing spirituality instead of actually being present.) If you're never allowing your pain to surface and witnessing it without turning to unhealthy distractions, there will be limited to no progress. Look, it's all simple. Either you're present or you're in your head, contemplating this abstract notion of "spirituality" or "higher consciousness", etc. When you're thinking about spirituality you're NOT BEING SPIRITUAL. The reason you're not present is because you're turning away from the pain.

"Waking up" is another story to let go of. Anything anyone tells you is another story. It's stories all the way down.

Now your patrons have all left you in the red Your low rent friends are dead This life can be very strange All those Day-Glo freaks who used to paint the face They've joined the human race Some things will never change Kid Charlemagne by Steely Dan, 1976 Some things will never change.

But nobody actually wants "the truth" even if they say or think otherwise. People don't want their reality bubbles completely popped - just expanded to the degree they are comfortable with at any given time. How would they even function otherwise? Truth is more than a theory or an explanation or model. It implies a need for a complete revolution in personal cognition, feeling and behavior. Are you actually ready for that, or do you just like hearing explanations?

Those two are not mutually exclusive as I understand. It's just one dimension of inner conflict. It's virtually impossible not to have some psychic conflict or complex relating to one's parents even if on the whole the relationship is great. The parent and the child are rarely perfectly in sync as far as temperament, needs, wants, interests, etc. In worst cases, the parent does not accept the child and tries to remake it into its own image. I don't know if it rises to a level of diagnosable condition because it's pretty common and by itself doesn't mean the person is seriously maladjusted. It's sort of like that scene at the beginning of Enter The Dragon with Bruce Lee. "How do you FEEL?!" "Let me think..." (Slaps him over the head.) The two are not effortlessly in sync.

Exercise is itself a relaxation technique. That's what I would do when the procrastination begins. Flood brain with endorphins, relax, and hopefully begin to study.

Some people have these conflicts in their psyches due to upbringing. Often it has to do with child-mother communication, feeling misunderstood, etc.

The thing is, he has already offered everything you need to know to have a much better life. Unless you have already implemented all the basics you have no business complaining about some one video he has pulled. And I guarantee that many here people have not implemented all the basics, and some haven't implemented shit.

Taking down the video sounds like the right decision. I don't know why some people couldn't respect it. If it spreads, it's the same as leaving it up. Clearly, there is some percentage of people, even if a small one, that can't handle that kind of material. This entails serious consequences. There is also such a thing as "need to know" in my personal opinion. Most seekers need to focus on the basics to get their lives in order.

To me, the problem isn't so much the fiscal power of individual billionaires. The problem is when billionaires collude to push an agenda that's very much against the will and interest of the people. If they are pushing an agenda very much counter to the majority of the public. If they are using "the poor" to attack the interests of the average/middle class. If billionaires oppose each other, there's nothing wrong with that. So the thing to do is to keep an eye on possible collusion/monopolies/trusts/cartels, whether economic, political or social. Really, short of vigilance and an informed public, there's not much you can do that isn't heavy-handed and has serious costs of its own. Like you said, the slippery slope is real in such cases. I don't think so. You don't evolve consciousness by making things EASIER. Evolution is a response to struggle and obstacles/challenges in nature. Making things easier just creates domesticated pets who are only responsive to their masters at snack time.

Identity is not an issue for me. It's not a subject I contemplate at all. I honestly don't understand the concept very well. I mean, I'm just "me" -- not something definable. Like, what do people mean when they say "my identity"? A profession or job, a main hobby or interest, belonging to an ethnic or religious group or some other social group? I have those but they are not my identity. They are just various ways to categorize myself as far as certain aspects or dimensions of life. I'm not sure I need an identity or that I'm missing anything by not contemplating it, but I could be wrong, I guess.

There's some trigger that causes you to (I assume) go on a gambling site and gamble. Maybe in that moment you're hungry or tired or lonely. If you're lonely, socializing or dating is actually a way to break the gambling habit. So you shouldn't worry about being "good enough" to date, you should think of it as a way to get your mind right, as a way to meet your needs.

You have to put them at ease, they have to trust you not to judge them, and this is something that can take quite awhile. In short, the answer is, you have to build a real relationship with them.

No-one can answer that question but you. So you need to do some self-reflection. It's right for some people and wrong for others. Depends on where your personal growth and fulfillment lies.

Gratitude and all those kind of positive mindset things are fine, and even essential. But ultimately one has to meet one's needs, and that's what you came across. Self-love is treating oneself as someone deserving of love, i.e. taking care of one's needs, both basic and advanced. And this very much means seriously reducing activities that are bad for you (like Internet/electronics) and replacing them with good ones. So you're right in your conclusions.

I would say at least 25, or when you are more or less self-sufficient or in a position to make life changes based on psychedelic insights. At best, psychedelics will offer greater self-knowledge, i.e. this is what's dysfunctional in my life and this is how I need to change it. And sure, spiritual insights can be a part of that, because how you view reality will have an impact on every aspect of your life. But you still have to make actual life changes in order to benefit. In short, psychedelics are not a magic bullet, but an aid, a tool to facilitate change.