It is different to see that reality is a bottomless hole than to be a bottomless hole. the second is total liberation. For me the game right now is to achieve that for a moment each day, and it is not something that is achieved easily, it is a kind of mental sport. something like floating in a viscous fluid that moves and having to put several pieces in perfect balance, then that's a key and the door opens. Done, you are the unlimited, eureka, completely free. but then the movement makes some pieces move, they fall and you're out. sometimes I throw them intentionally, because it's too strange to have nothing to hold on to, it's enough with some minutes of freedom, I miss the jail, that means that the self is still there. but then you want freedom again. This work takes effort, but in a given moment has to be done

When we perceive the world from the ego lense then the ego is a subject and the world is an object. 

When we transcend the ego depending on the technique, words, tradition, our conditioning we are either left with the feeling of 
1. I am Consciousness, and Everything is Consciousness, so I am Everything - everything becomes a subject and there are no objects left.
2. There is no Self, there is only reality happening. So everything becomes an object and subject disappears. 

So the whole discussion really just comes down to acknowledging both sides and dropping them both and being left in pure _____. 

Exactly, be enlightened doesn't mean that you know anything. If fact I'd say that "know" must be removed. Same than understand. Is to open now to what is, and realize that it's what you are. Simply that. then you can remove the circumstance from what you are, all the meaning, and discard it as a mental illusion, and be left with the bottomless present that is. totally empty of any content, without meaning, sense, purpose, cause, finality. It's only now, bottomless.
but there is also something else. There is a strange, powerful, living revelation. If you penetrate into the bottomless now and open yourself to it, the force of what lives opens in you, it is like a source of unlimited energy, of creation. intelligence of a power that blinds, that destroys your mind and disintegrates all your structures to manifest its magnitude and its absolute reality. It is the cosmos that lives, monstrously alive. Is that an illusion? I don't think so, seems absolutely real, is the infinite manifestation, as absolute than the empty being. what do you think? Deceived?

Yes but this is still structured knowledge. The way I see it is that the first thing you have to achieve easily is to get out of the mind, that is, from the meaning, the projection to the future and the past. Expand yourself in the now and be able to erase the timeline that gives meaning. Without time there is no meaning, and you could say that time and meaning are imaginary, they are mental constructions with a purpose, to function as a human.
Once you can get out of that and get into the empty present completely, you can go deeper into it. It still remains limited. It is unlimited in the longitudinal sense, it does not pass, it is always now, changing but now. but it is limited in the deep sense, you are a bubble of reality, you can be stuck in the now but the bubble limits the depth. This can be expanded, it can be opened to what this experience is, how it is flowing and what its let's say matter is, seeing fluid intelligence. and something else. What I have come to sense is an immeasurable immensity, a perfect synchrony that is manifested and can be seen. not to understand conceptually but to see how you see a sunrise, to perceive what it is at a deep level.

That is just the beginning reaction of ego. It's web of useless meaning has been shaken.
But that is just a perspective.
Yes it's colors and sensations in nothingness. But it's no JUST. Its the most beautiful, inteligent, breathtaking design of those colours possible. Its a perfect illusion. There is full of meaning in just appreciating this illusion, this inteligence, the freaking immesurable beauty of your own dreamed up body.
When you sleep at night and realize its just a dream you can sit there and be sad about it. Which is kinda lame if you ask me. You can become lucid and now marvel at your own mind, at the beauty and joy of dreaming, exploring and having fun with shit and being loving.
Cheers mate 
 

I am always sitting here in the room called "Now, Here". Or rather Sitting is happening in the room "Now, Here". Or rather rather there's just "Now, Here".

And a bunch of constructs just happen to flow through this room "Now, Here". Construct of a street being out there. Construct of other forum members that are going to read this. Constructs are just intelligent firework shows of sensations. A bunch of bodily sensations coupled with mental sensations make up a Construct of Me.
All of this firework show constructing a story, a context for The Absolute to experience itself. Always Here Now. My life, your life, Leo's life are all happening in the same room -> "Here, Now" one after another. One set of firework show of sensations after another. All mental/feeling/visual constructs.

It is the same as Leo saying All is Imaginary. But for my mind saying all is Constructs of Sensations seems more visceral, I actually feel the "construction" happening, where imagination is more difficult to actually feel. 

@Breakingthewall @Leo Gura @Inliytened1 @Bazooka Jesus 

This is a dangerous teaching. This life is meaningless. And that's a beautiful thing. This is Freedom. And you will keep on dreaming forever. Sorry your ego does not like it. 
 
You have all the time in the Universe. You are Consciousness. Sorry to take away the illusion of Urgency. There is none. 
 
Your argument is like: I don't like the idea that there's no death therefore truth is there is death. 

Unconsciousness is something that you imagine. 
You never experienced being asleep.
You never experienced Non-Existence.
Because You always Are. Eternally. 
You just imagine there was some sort of "time jump" or unconscious moment in order to create the illusion of Non-Existence being possible, and therefore to create the Illusion of DEATH which makes this dream feel so real and juicy.

It's too low consciousness for me to want to read.
The most conscious people are the most selfless and therefore least interested in fighting or manipulating.
In a sense, consciousness makes you disinterested in struggling for survival. So the most conscious people are often the first to die. The most egotistical people are often the last to die because their entire existence revolves around avoiding death. Which is the whole function of the ego.
The power of high consciousness is not in that it gives you extra powers to avoid death, but rather the ultimate power: not being worried about death because you know it's an illusion.
If you are going to evaluate higher consciousness from the standpoint of survival, you are missing the point. Higher consciousness is an escape hatch from the game of survival.
In the domain of politics the most ruthless and power-hungry end up winning, because they are willing to crack any number of skulls to get what their ego desires. But in the end, all these people end up down-falling. Just look at Trump as a prime example. His massive ego allowed him to win, and also caused him to lose. That's precisely the trade-off with selfishness and deception. It works, but it only works in the short-term.
Precisely because women sleep with men who need sex the least.
Pickup guys, since they get so much sex, end up needing it the least. At least they need no girl in particular. And this ironically makes them the most attractive to girls.
Pickup guys are often addicted to sex, but the key difference is that they are not attached to sex with any one particular girl. Which makes them appear highly attractive from any one girl's POV. It works this way in sales too. The more options you have the more sales you will make and higher the price you can charge for your product.

Reality is nothing but imagined differences. If you become conscious enough all the differences become irrelevant as you realize you are dreaming them up.
Imagination of difference is not the same thing as belief. Imagination happens at a much deeper, physical and even metaphysical level. Which is why changing your beliefs will not remove the difference between pleasure and pain. But there actually is no difference between anything. Period. If you think or feel there is, that is you dreaming and constructing "reality."
The construction I am speaking of is absolute. That means you, as God, make it manifest by dreaming it.
Since you are God, whatever you imagine is literally reality. Right now you are imagining you are human. And an important part of being human is imagining that pain and pleasure are really different.
You actually have to be insane to think that anything is different from anything else. But since humans are all insane together, this creates a false sense that you are sane.

Hi,
Trip report of my first ever awakening experience. I am a newbie, don't shoot me. I hope to continue and deepen this in future.
200mg N,N-DMT Fumarate taken orally. This is a high dose and I do not recommend it. As you will see it was an intense (but not traumatic (don't worry I am ok)) experience. 
In fairness I have done this dose before. This is my third trip attempt. My first two trips were incomplete (I was under the impression I was resistant to this dosage). I made a small change to how I prepare the MAOI and this sent me into another world. 
The below report contains some original notes I wrote as I was tripping (to try and capture the moment), otherwise this is me recalling the experience after things have calmed down. 
Naturally, the most detailed parts are in the lead up to the peak. At the peak I was completely incapacitated. 
The entire trip lasted around 120 minutes, I start counting from when visuals started to the end where I regained a 'normal' sense of consciousness. I estimate the awakening was around 30 minutes from start. Peak was around 75 mins from start (lasted for around 30-45 mins) with a wind down of around 30 mins before I felt like I could function normally again. 
Also thanks @Leo Gura (I have been following you for like 10 years) this was an experience like no other
Hope this is educational and enjoy!
Trip report
Visuals start
The first thing I notice is feeling light headed, about 45 mins after taking DMT fumarate.  My whole body feels very light, as if it was going to be uploaded as a datastream or into some UFO (like in the movies where they de-serialize your body and beam it up). Everything seemed lighter, as if it was about to be de-serialized. This is a similar experience I had on my first (incomplete) trip you can read on here.
As I wave my hand in front of me, it feels like it is moving in slow motion. But it's not that it is moving slowly, rather it feels like I am able to take in so much more information from each frame. I still have good mental cognition. I start to notice my hand has as very slight 'tail' on it when I move. Similar to when you change your computer mouse to have a trailing tail which follows it. The effect is subtle so I am not completely under, but I notice it.
For the first time I start to see more visuals on DMT. To get visual effects I have to pick a spot in the room and focus on it. I look at the shadow, I notice it looks like it is waving and morphing slightly (in stereotypical 'trippy' fashion'). The movement is not just sideways, but also longitudinal (like you are zooming in and out slightly).
I look at the picture on the wall, I notice the frame size is changing and moving. It is getting slightly larger and then smaller.
Then I look around the room and notice the room is starting to feel kinda warpy. I think this is pretty cool, how I imagined psychedelics to be like (trippy visuals).
I notice the colour purple is very prevalent. There is like a purple 'net' or 'web' overlay which seems to be onto of everything in a kind of fractcal/snowflake/water stain pattern. I am not sure why purple though I felt like I saw some similar colour before when I tried to (unsuccessfully) vaporize DMT.
I watch the roof morphing and moving with this purple overlay on top of it. I feel love that I cannot explain.
Visuals intensify, feeling immense love
As I am watching the roof these thoughts are going through my head 'it is love it’s all good, brother it’s all good'.
This is trippy as hell, it feels good and fun to watch the visuals.
I feel deep intense feelings of love. This love is deeper than anything I have felt in my normal life. 
At this point I start to get a sense of oneness. This love I feel it is not 'contained' within my body. Rather the entire room and my body felt as one unit. The love I was feeling was not contained 'within' my body but rather it was being reflected everywhere and contained within the entire room itself. The expression I have written down as I was tripping is 'A love contained within itself. A self reflecting love of oneness'
I notice I am literally crying (my breathing is normal, but there are streams of tears coming out of my eyes) however I do not feel sad. I am in awe of the love I am feeling within. I am crying at the beauty.
The purpose of this trip is to help me with my fear in normal life. I try to think of issues that I have anxieties about. I have the notes written down as I was tripping  'All your fears and worries it’s all part of the play my love. Just love it all experience it cherish it' (btw I NEVER use words like 'my love', 'my dear' in my normal life. I was feeling some intense emotion here)
For the first time in my life, I said 'I love you' out loud and I genuinely meant it with all my heart. That moved me a lot.
You may be thinking 'who were you talking to?'
I was talking to myself, but 'I' was no longer my brain. I was the Universe. It was the Universe talking to itself.
I thought of my gf. I realized the same intelligence I am admiring right now, is the same intelligence contained within her. Her entire ‘construction’ is that same intelligence I am admiring right now. For all the flaws in her I like to pick out, I realize she is a representation of  universal love and intelligence. It made me love and appreciate her more.
The love gets deeper and I have the expression written down as I was tripping 'Love melts, it just melts everything away'. Love is dissolving, like being dropped in a VAT of acid and just disappearing in all directions.
This sensation of love feels very familiar.... I get a thought in my head 'I have finally come home. I have finally arrived'  (this hit like a tonne of bricks, more tears, holy shit)
Awakening and the cosmic joke
I notice at this point there is a very strong sense of 'ME'. Except ME is not I (the ego). ME is the UNIVERSE. 
I start to laugh and giggle. The Universe is literally laughing at itself! The Universe is admiring its own intelligence! Its own genius!
This moment, this VERY moment of awakening has all been orchestrated by ME (the Universe). Literally everything leading up to this moment was planned and designed with intelligence. What did I find at the end? It was all ME (the Universe) all along!
Everything was ME (the Universe), ME invented everything, ME set-up everything, everything was LITERALLY ME ALL ALONG!
ME (the Universe) distinctly remembers laughing and being in awe of MY (the Universe) own intelligence.
I (the Universe) set-everything up and played a prank on myself! It is only now the prank is unfolding and I realize it was ME (the Universe) all along!
It's that feeling you get when you are having a really bad day, and then its like 'don't worry bro it was just a prank!' and you start laughing and giggling. Then you appreciate the planning and set-up that all lead to this moment. Genius and fun!
It’s like playing hide and seek, and you finally found it, but you realize it was you hiding all along! You are the hider and the seeker! It’s so unexpected and funny! What a genius, mischievous, cheeky, naughty, little loopy-prank to play on yourself! Ta-daa! Surprise! Peek-a-boo! 
The following excerpt is original words as I was typing on my phone during this experience
'Everything is the universe
It’s just living and reacting to itself 
Everything you see and experience is just the universe reacting to itself
I am the universe
Wiping away my own tears
Hahahaha
It’s just a joke
A prank the Universe see is pulling on itself 
Just in awe of itself 
I made it all! 
Not I as me the body
But I as in the universe 
I orchestrated it all hahahah
I made it all up! 
I as in the universe 
I imagined it all! 
It was all a cosmic joke!! 
It’s all meeee (the universe) 
Look at this! 
The universe is just delighting in itself 
Yea taking notes is just a joke
What is this hahahah
The universe just delighting in itself 
That’s all it is
Just having fun wooop 
Having fun with itself hahahha
It’s just a joke hahhahahaha
I create all the fear
But what is behind all that fear? It’s really all just me all along! 
Hahaha '
There is the realization EVERYTHING and everyone IS ME (the Universe).
I (the Universe) created everything! This realization is beyond doubt, since doubt is second order. There is no doubt here because you realize that even doubt is something you (the Universe) created! Chemicals and hallucinations in the brain is something you created! It is like baking a cake, there is a knowing you created it, but it is only doubt which comes in AFTER the cake is created and can doubt itself. Doubt and brain does not give rise to the cake!
Everything you have ever done, all the interactions you will ever have. At the root of it there is only ME (the Universe)!
I (the Universe) created everything and there only ever was ME (the Universe) all along!
I (the Universe) is all that really exists. After all the charades and all the facades..... there was only ever me (the Universe) all along 
There is literally nothing to be afraid of, because everything was always ME (the Universe) all along! I was just in different guises 
I will never forget that sense of ME (the Universe), the Universe is conscious of itself.
I get mindfucked. I start to panic
This starts to happen around 75 mins after the initial dose. I an unable to walk properly, I sit and cuddle my toy doggy. I am unable to type at this point, if I try really hard I can try to focus and bring myself back to 'reality' for a few seconds, but I quickly get overpowered again by the intense visuals. 
I am not used to this level of stimulation. Part of me wants this to end because it is quite overpowering. I was ready to go back to reality at this point. Fear increases as the trip deepens (how deep does this go? I'm done already)
I close my eyes because opening my eyes the visuals are just too much.
However even as I close my eyes there are still very strong visuals appearing in my head. There is nowhere to run, you cannot escape yourself.
I start to get afraid because I don't really know where this is going at this point, how much more intense is this going to get? Fuck only a few mins have passed? feels like forever. Shit how do I stop this? Fuck I can't stop it. Where is the reset button? I want to go back to normal life. It’s going to last a few hours? FUUUCCKKK. I have seriously messed up.
I keep reminding myself I need to surrender to the experience, but part of me is still afraid of fully letting go.
Like I know this is ME (the Universe) but the depth is terrifying. I am not sure if it is something my brain can handle, or if I want to experience all this right now. 
In the end, I accept that part of me which is afraid to let go, I close my eyes, cuddle my big toy doggy and hope to wait it out. 
The following is all described as I shut my eyes. 
The visuals are like something out of a fever dream. Extremely bright colours, nothing makes logical sense. It’s like a crazy blur of noise, shapes and colour. Tesseracts, fractals, all interconnected and giving birth to one another, I have no idea what I am looking at or how to make sense of it. I just want it to be over. I am getting tossed around like a ragdoll.
Everything is like a Russian doll, you see something and then it splits and goes into more pieces, and then those pieces split again. My theme seemed to be very 'Aztec' for some reason, kept seeing Aztec cats and stuff idk. 
At this point I realized I am totally not in control, this trip is taking me wherever it wants to.  It's kinda like being on a rollercoaster, you know you will be fine at the end of it but between the start and end... well that's not up to you. 
You are afraid and want to surrender? Nah you're on this ride now whether you like it or not. Like there was nothing I could do. I was holding on for dear life lol. 
This part of the trip wasn’t particularly pleasant, it was very overstimulating and overpowering. Those guys weren’t joking, this stuff is intense. How much did I take? I can’t remember, I can't open my eyes, I can’t focus or think straight ohhh fuckkkkk
There is no coherent thought at this point, everything is like WTF! if you try to structure logic or thought, it immediately gets obliterated. You start to realize how limiting structure really is. You can't contain this information in structure or limitation of any form. It's just too much. Trying to logic this and structure it in some coherent form is like watching a building getting obliterated by a nuclear bomb. It just immediately gets blown away like pffft. 
Am I still breathing? Am I going to die?
I also start to become wary I am may not be breathing properly.  I feel my lungs empty, but are they filling again or am I holding my breath? I’m not sure.
Remember to keep breathing, don't die here bro.
I catch myself hyperventilating at one point because with all this information going on I am afraid I will forget to breath (so I overcompensate by breathing too much). But then there comes a knowing that everything will work itself out (everything is taken care of, there is nothing to fear, even my own death)
In Biology/physics I think your lungs are designed so when it runs out of air it automatically pulls it in. You 'think' you are in control of your breathing when really it is involuntary. I start to lean on this as my saving grace, that if I forget to keep consciously keep breathing I have an involuntary response which will keep me alive.
I start to mentally play a game of countdown the clock, I keep telling myself that I know I am in a safe place and this will all be over. I just have to remember to keep breathing so I'm not dead by the end of it lol. 
As I start to contemplate my own death, even that surrenders. Does it even matter if I die here? death doesn't make sense. Death is imaginary. Death is imagined. At this point life and death do not make sense. I also started to notice collapsing of inner/outer duality, inner/outer really its the same thing, both are imagined.
I am trying to retain some sense of normal consciousness so I can focus on staying alive, however it is like bringing a weebly dandelion to a shitstorm hurricane sharknado and hoping this little 'control' the ego has will keep you alive somehow. But of course it just gets completely annihilated.  Life/Death is the main priority for an ego, but this is on another scale. Life/Death is nothing here (scalewise).
It becomes more obvious to me that the ego is not really in control of anything, it just likes to think it is in control.  The ego is telling me I need to keep breathing, when really the Universe already has that all sorted out. There is nothing I need to do, it will all work itself out.  Ultimately everything is the Universe imagination, the ego likes to think it is in control, but really it is not. It is similar to my body breathing involuntarily, but then the ego says 'Don't worry bro I remembered to keep you breathing', the ego takes ownership for stuff it hasn't really done. 
At this point I realize the Universe has it all figured out. There is nothing to resist. For sure you can resist, and for sure I was still afraid. But ultimately, the takeaway I got is everything works itself out. It doesn't even matter if I die, the Universe has it all handled its way, everything it all takes care of itself. There is nothing to fear (although I do remember still being shit scared).
This lasted for about 30 mins.
Wind down
After this I started to come down (thank God). 
I have some more insights on the tail end, but this pretty much takes me from the start up to the peak.
There is a wind down phase with some insights I will write up later. 
Thanks everyone.
 
 
 
 
 

No, awakening is total openess to the now, and for that you have to break the attachment to the mental structures, but not only this, you have to drop the self into the void
The separation come from the self, that is the... feeling? Idea? Of a center of perception, created by the configuration of reality within you and outside of you. If they hit you it hurts, if you don't eat you are hungry, etc. This closes reality, by dividing it in two,  then, as a tool for survival, the human mind with its constant flow of thought creates a capsule that encloses you, like a bubble in which reality is constantly interpreted, named, grabbed.This activity is necessary by the nature of human life, we are part of a hive entity, and we are subject to it. This keeps us in what we call a sleeping state, prisoners inside the mental bubble, trying to get out of it with more mental flow, which does not work.
You have to let the self fall, open to the now. It is not stopping thinking, it is a positive action, and when doing it the self, the center of the experience, disappears. reality remains without limit or structure. You can do this at first for a few moments, usually with psychedelics, then longer and deeper, and the idea is to get used to it so that it becomes easier each time. At first it is like putting two equal magnets together, there is an irresistible tendency to separate, to move away from there, even though the glory of existence is manifesting . That's because we need to survive, and for that we need to be on control. 
 

Awakening is opening yourself to the present moment. It doesn't matter anything else, any structure, knowing if there are others, if there is reincarnation, if this is a dream... it is completely irrelevant.
It is only the present, now, deep, alive, limitless, real and wonderful, full of life, of joy for existing. Everything else are just histories

That's not what Consciousness is about. You want a nice life, but Consciousness doesn't care about that. Consciousness will strip you of all your human fantasies, stories, desires, and ideas. The deeper you go, the less human you will become.

A state where there is only infinite depth and the depth smiles at you, and you realize that you are the smile and it is not a smile, it is pure joy without limit, it is infinite reality, and it is too good to be true because it is bottomless glory 
Quite addictive, indeed. 

The mistake is seeking happiness at all.
Rather than seeking happiness, just live the kind of life you find most meaningful and deep, and stop worrying happiness. Happiness will come and go like clouds in the sky.
Spiritual and self-help teachers have sold you a happiness wild goose chase. Just do the things in life that interest you the most, which you are passionate about.
What you're after is not happiness but more like a challenging, meaningful life. A meaningful life is not easy -- it will come with suffering and frustrations. But it will be rewarding.
You need to be very careful with these spiritual fantasies of happiness that you've been sold. They will ruin your life.

@Shodburrito You are looking at all this very selfishly. Your human concerns are irrelevant to God.
God is an Infinite Consciousness. It's only concern is to dream, not your petty personal problems.
God is busy figuring out how to dreaming the Holocaust and you are sitting here whining.

Wait till you realize there are ways to input anything into the imagination you explore in higher states and then when you get down to a normal state of consciousness it will still affect your life. 
Imagination consciousness gains are like magickal sprinkles that you can spend on your desire when you learn how to shape it :)))))
I do not know whether the method I use to do that would work for many people though. 
a) lower the amount of thoughts massively you have via Shamatha meditation
b) [thought about the way you want to manipulate reality] * 1000 000 = cloud your mind (won´t tell you how, it is related to affirmations though) 
Combine with intent (learn what is intent via using magick to become better at magick)
= replace all the space you freed via concentration by new ways to shape reality
This will make you extremely tired.
c) raise consciousness via psychedelic = clear your mind & charge the thought mush you created
The thoughts will get fueled, fullfiled and energized
d) continue with b) -> THIS WILL KILL THE WHOLE TRIP in a matter of minutes
e) redose / repeat again as many times as possible
f) week without magick -> the effects in reality will be many, many times stronger than with any magickal working you have done before 
Being able to do a) & b) is why it wont work for most of you ;-)
[FULL, UGLY, NORMAL MIND] -> [EMPTY, ZEN MIND] -> [THOUGHTS ABOUT _ * 1000 000] -> PSYCHEDELIC -> [THOUGHTS ABOUT _ * 1000 000] * INFINITE IMAGINATION -> [NORMAL SOBER MIND, changed by what just happened] -> REPEAT
This is not a theory, I am just describing accurately my new experiences.

I experience a curious aspect within these highly liquid realms: a curiosity of creation. With an underlying awareness of construct awareness, there can be a sense of being the creator of the dragons. Perhaps akin to the "Magician" level within Cook-Greuter's "Construct-Aware" stage. There is a sense of "me" creating, yet if that "me" tries to take more control, the creation is usually lost. I've discovered a few dynamics at play:
1) Complete dissolving of self and emergence of Creation that is appearing.
2) A sense of "Co-creation" in which there is a sense of self, yet also a Higher Self. This would be similar to a lucid dream in which the self realizes it's dreaming and begins co-creating with a Higher Dreamer. Yet there is a very fine balance. If the self tries to take too much control, the Co-creation is lost. 
3) A sense of full control over the dream. As an example, one time I was doing Yin Yoga (long hold stretches) and went into the "Co-creation" realm. I noticed that I could start transforming the pain of the stretch into different forms. At first, the "I" surrendered into what was transforming and allowed it to happen. Yet the "I" gained the ability of limited control - as if it was a magic wand. Yet it wasn't something I could intentionally do, it was more of a gift / grace / higher wisdom. I then had full control and able to do whatever I wanted with the pain sensations. I transformed them into the texture and taste of chocolate. I transformed them to flairs emanating from my joints. I could make them chilly snowflakes or a warm whirlpool. . . When I eventually snapped out of it, I realized I held that posture for about an hour and went way too far. I was in severe pain and I must have strained tendons / ligaments / muscles - I was in pain for about a week. . . I'm convinced that I could have been naked under a pile of snow and felt no discomfort as I was creating. In this case, the saying "Don't forget the body" rings true.

The higher degree of consciousness you reach, the more physical reality will melt before your eyes into a liquid mindscape.
Higher consciousness is liquid, lower consciousness is solid.
If you become conscious enough, your couch can literally melt into a talking dragon. This is a good example of what I mean by "higher consciousness".
You ain't really conscious until you start seeing dragons.
One time I became so conscious I started seeing dragons and demons crawling between the gaps in empty space. That's when things get interesting. That's when you really start to understand CONSCIOUSNESS.

@Breakingthewall Imaginary doesn't mean unreal, imaginary = reality.
Your hands are imaginary. You are dreaming them. And that is reality. A mind is imagining a world around itself.
Physical objects are just a denser kind of imagination than the images in your head. Don't forget, the images in your head are real. So don't hold imagination as something unreal. Imagination is real. The way a human imagines a picture in his mind is directly analogous to how God imagines the physical walls of your house.
This is what is being pointed to. Practically what this means is that if you become conscious enough your couch can turn into a dragon. Because the couch was always imaginary. Very few humans understand that this is possible. Even "enlightened" people may not understand this point. So the question is, do you understand that your couch is imaginary?

God is not merely a thing you learn. God is the dream itself.
You cannot treat God as just one more piece of content within consciousness. God is consciousness itself.
Of course your ideas about God are content within consciousness. But even so, those ideas can still be valid and useful so there's nothing technically wrong with that. As long as you don't lose track of God itself. Ideas can either help you keep track of God or lose track of God. So not all ideas are equal in that regard.

@zurew The mistake in all your logic is that God-Realization is completely unlike all other epistemic claims, beliefs, or worldviews. You are assuming that you can translate epistemic lessons from the relative domain into the absolute domain, which is wrong.
It is NOT a mistake that we cannot prove God to you beyond all your doubts. That's the fundamental issue here. Since you are God dreaming that you're human, you will invent all sorts of doubts and rationalizations for why no one should ever claim that they know for sure that God exists. This is the game you're playing. God is an Infinite Self-Deception. Your particular deception is to be lost in skepticism and uncertainly, forever waffling and doubting yourself.
Open your mind to the possibility that uncertainty, doubt, and epistemic humility become a mistake when it comes to God-Realization. You think you are preserving integrity and truth by being uncertain, but consider, what if that's actually the source of falsehood?
The funny thing about your position is that even if God himself appeared before you, you would tell him, "But how can you be sure you're God? What if you're just an arrogant, deluded, narcissistic madman?" To which the only response God could give is to sigh. You see? God himself cannot help you at that point.
What you really want to achieve here is to make God uncertain about itself, to confuse God into falling back asleep, to match your own level of asleepness. But of course God is not gonna do that. And when he doesn't, you get pissy about it and you invent rationalizations for why God is wrong and you are right.
THAT'S the game being played here. You need to muster enough intelligence to see it and cut through it. That's what is required for God-Realization to occur. Otherwise you stay asleep.
You are underestimating how tricky this God-Realization thing is. You think you're outsmarting God but God is outsmarting you. You should notice that the biggest mistake all scientists make is that they act too cautious out of fear of falling into falsehood, and ironically this becomes the very thing that lands them into falsehood. There is a time to be uncertain and there is a time to be certain. Facing the Absolute is not the time for uncertainty.

No. That's not what is happening when we speak of Awakening or God.
It's like you're being deliberately dense.
A fundamentalist is not raising his consciousness, he is just parroting dogma.
There is no possibility of Awakening being wrong.
How many years will it take you to understand that? If it could be wrong it wouldn't be worth anything and we wouldn't be talking about it.
The problem is that you are trying to maintain modesty and hedge your bets. You cannot do that when it comes to discovery of Absolute Truth. You are too meek to actually put your balls on the chopping block. You don't have the balls to recognize your own sovereignty as a MIND. And that's why you cannot see God. You will see God when you finally realize that your MIND is Sovereign. And not before.

This thread has stimulated my mind. Below I share some ideas, based on experience. The ideas are both true and false, depending on the perceptive lens of the mind. 
One mindspace dynamic is the mind trying to control the mental narrative. . .  Struggling for control during a trip and trying to regain control after a trip. . . Such as trying to control the narrative of what an experience ‘means’ in logical, reasonable sense-making. This can help with grounding the mind-body and lead to the creation of many constructs - often quite insightful.  Yet it is also a contracted mindstate and limits mind fluidity, exploration and being construct-aware. 
There are many rational / logical realms that are amazing. There is infinite exploration within those realms - yet they can also have “guardrails” inhibiting broader exploration - especially for minds that like control of creating intellectual, logical constructs of reality. Venturing to the edge can be a “stretch zone” , venturing beyond it can be a “panic zone”. Ime, the key to breaking through barriers is surrender - both during and after a trip. 
My first trip was solo with 5-aco-dmt. I wanted to do a light trip of 10mg, yet made a dosage error and took a mega 10X dose of 100mg. It went so far that that the  “I” that controls logical sense-making of what “real” is never came back. From a personal perspective, its had both pros and cons - the mind can have an extraordinary ability to be fluid, imaginative, transcendently aware and to constuct-deconstruct. There exists a fluid “co-creation” with self and Self. Yet it can also be very difficult to communicate and relate to most people. Its also allowed amazing connections with a few people. 
From a human perspective, highly intense trips can open breakthroughs, yet are more difficult to integrate and embody. They have the potential for unimaginable insight, expansion and neural plasticity- yet can also be very strenuous on the physical mind and body - in particular, the nervous system. Similar to exercise. . . Moderate exercise and occasional intense exercise is healthy stress on the body - yet too much intense exercise can cause injury and takes a toll on the body.
These days, my mind is so fluid that it can venture “way out there” on its own, with shamanic  breathing or a light-moderate psychedelic dose. Yet at times, I still need to remind myself “Don’t forget the body” when venturing beyond. 
Regarding trip sitting: Imo, if the biggest worry for two novices is how to stay calm and kill a trip if intense terror arises - they should drastically reduce the dosage. In many cases, novices should be cautious when wielding magic wands that have extraordinary power.