nexusoflife

@JustinS That sounds intense. What was your experience like? If you don't mind me asking. Did you have a unitive experience?

@Nahm Indeed it was. High quality cannabis, meditation and completely letting go are what I think helped me to cultivate this experience.

@Leo Gura I actually have heard of an Indian brew called bhang in which the main ingredient used is cannabis. It has been used in religious ceremonies in Hinduism for thousands of years. I have not tried to make any of it yet but I am open to taking it in the future when I have more experience with psychedelics.

@nightrider1435 Thanks for the advice. I will definitely incorporate cannabis into my life and continue to use it exclusively for consciousness work. It was definitely an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. Its great to know that one can go relatively deep with this plant.

This experience occurred after roughly 2 ½ years of meditating almost every day. I was driving home from work when it happened. All morning I was in a meditative and contemplative state of mind. I was about 3 or 4 miles from home. In my mind I was thinking of the incomprehensible number of universes and the incomprehensible number of different “me’s” in existence. I thought about what would happen if they all met. Many of them would be similar and many of them would be vastly different. Some of them would look identical and others would look vastly different. Then everything stopped. I had felt stillness before but this was infinitely deeper than anything I had felt before. The moment I realized that all of the different possibilities of the form which constitutes “me” could look the same and others would look completely different something profound in my mind snapped. In an instant and outside of space and time I was all life. My entire perception of reality was cleaned. I was all life on earth, in the universe and in all of existence. I did not feel connected to all life. Thomas Roger did not exist anymore. There was just awareness in a body and that’s it. There was only life and it’s happening. I watched in sheer amazement at all of the people who drove by me and each person I saw was also myself. It doesn’t even make any sense that something like this is even possible but it happened. My mind did not judge or comment on the people I saw. I was simply in utter amazement at the sheer beauty of the life that was happening. (All of this happened while I was at a red light.) When the red light turned green I had no idea how I was driving, how I was seeing or anything. I returned home in a state of utter amazement, bliss and gratitude. It felt like all existence felt this way too. I know that doesn’t make any sense but it did. When I entered the driveway and emerged from the car and saw the world from outside the windows I almost cried. The air was so crisp. It was an overcast day but it was so profoundly beautiful. I walked in front of my house and said this. “I had never really seen reality before. This is the first time I have truly seen life.” I began to be overwhelmed with happiness. Every tree, every person, every blade of grass, every insect all life was one. I completely disappeared and was all life. I was all life. I walked up to some flowers in front of my house and looked at a bee walking along one of them. This made me especially happy. I began to laugh. I smiled so hard. I was the bee and the bee was me. All life was one. I walked into my house and went into my brother’s room he was sleeping. When I saw him I became even happier as I was also one with him. I began to laugh even more. I realized that the same consciousness that he was experiencing was the same consciousness that I was experiencing. That I am experiencing. That we all are experiencing. All life is experiencing the same consciousness. The medium through which it is experienced may be vastly different but the consciousness, the awareness is the same. I needed to get something to take to my college so I picked that up and went back out to the car still in sheer amazement and happiness. As I drove the car I also realized that the same consciousness that mom experienced I too experienced at that very moment and my whole life. ( My mother passed away when I was 16 years old.) At this point my mind couldn’t take it anymore. I pulled over less than a mile from home and broke down and cried at the sheer incomprehensible, profound and breathtaking beauty of existence. After about five minutes of crying in sheer awe and gratitude I sat there for about another minute and continued my day. This lasted for about two hours then I slowly came back as a tiny individuated ego. However there was still a great residual after effect from what I just experienced. (to call this an experience is limiting, it is a state of being) This was by far the most magical day of my life as of august 1st 2016.

I have been vegan for three years and raw vegan for two years and I can honestly say that doing so has been the second best decision of my life next to meditating every day. The documentaries that I watched which helped me to transition were, Forks over Knives (for the health aspect), Earthlings (for the ethical aspect) and Cowspiracy ( for the ecological aspect). There is also a great website called https://nutritionfacts.org/ which cites thousands of studies on plant based nutrition and the innumerable benefits that it has for human physiology. Here is the trailer for Forks over Knives. There are also ethical end ecological benefits to consider as well. Over 56 billion animals are killed every year in the animal agriculture industries. This is the full documentary of Earthlings. Eating animal products(meat, dairy, eggs) supports this Additionally animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, species extinction and greenhouse gas emissions via methane. Overall animal agriculture is a massive threat to the ecological integrity of the biosphere. By eating a plant based diet you are not contributing to any of that. Here is an excerpt from the documentary of Cowspiracy detailing the destructive impact that animal agriculture has on the ecology of our planet A word of advice to anyone that reads this. In truth what you eat does not dictate your ability to realize enlightenment or self actualize. However it would be logically consistent to refrain from animal products because of the massive amount of suffering that animal agriculture inflicts on life on our planet. Best of luck to everyone on their journey. A great thing to include with enlightenment is ecological synergism with the life that we share this planet with. Hope that this helps.

I have been vegan for three years and raw vegan for two years. My motivation is very simple. I want the highest level of health that a human can experience in life just as I want the highest level of truth that a human can experience in life. I only spend 60 to 80 dollars each week on my food. For the first month after I went vegan it was a bit difficult as I was not used to it but after a month it became very easy as I became used to it. About one year later I decided to switch to raw vegan and I failed twice. However after lots of patience and experimenting after two months I was eating raw vegan. I actually eat a much wider variety of foods now as a raw vegan than I ever did before. Tips from experience that I can give are as follows. Shop at Farmers Markets and Asian stores they typically have good quality fruits and vegetables and have very good prices. Make smoothies a part of your life. They are an easy way to get in calories and keep your day moving. Additionally there are literally thousands of plant foods that can be eaten raw. Durian, jackfruit, rambutan, chard kale, chempadak, papaya I could keep going. Variety is key. If you are looking to go raw vegan then make sure that you are consuming vitamin B12 for the health of your nervous system. I usually eat nutritional yeast in my avocado salads every day. Hope this helps.

I have been vegan for three years and raw vegan for two years, eating mostly fruit and I completely agree. I think that you would really enjoy the book Return to the Brain of Eden: Restoring the Connection between Neurochemistry and Consciousness by Tony Wright and Grahm Gynn. It is a great book detailing how frugivory assisted in the neural development of the human species. Here is a link to the author's YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/tonywrightuk/videos Hope this helps.

I have been vegan for three years and raw vegan for two years and I can honestly say that doing so has been the second best decision of my life next to meditating every day. The documentaries that I watched which helped me to transition were, Forks over Knives (for the health aspect), Earthlings (for the ethical aspect) and Cowspiracy ( for the ecological aspect). There is also a great website called nutritionfacts.org which cites thousands of studies on plant based nutrition and the innumerable benefits that it has for human physiology. I have only gotten sick twice in the three years that I have been vegan and each time lasted no longer than three days. I got rid of my asthma, cluster migraines, eczema and digestive problems from eating low fat raw vegan. It was difficult for the first month but after that it was very easy to do and your body will thank you for making the change. There are also ethical end ecological benefits to consider as well. Over 56 billion animals are killed every year in the animal agriculture industries. Additionally animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, species extinction and greenhouse gas emissions via methane. Overall animal agriculture is a massive threat to the ecological integrity of the biosphere. By eating a plant based diet you are not contributing to any of that.

@Leo Gura I have continued my daily meditation and contemplation and have had another unitive experience since then. It occurred in march 2017. This one happened after four 20 minute to 1 hour meditation sessions that day. At the end of the day I decided to listen to some calm music and ,for some reason and I can’t explain why, while I was listening to this music the sense of unity and absence of self surged to an all-time high. I had a unitive peak experience. I went from quietly listening to this music to crying uncontrollably at the sheer profundity of simply existing. It started slowly and I lost track of time but it was so profoundly beautiful. I have no words for this. Here is what I can say. We are God. All is ONE. We have forgotten our true existential nature and have become lost and confused. We are beautiful. All life on this planet and in all of existence is unified. Every subatomic particle that makes up existence is ONE. Unity is all. There is no self in the way that we think of it. There is only awareness and experience for an organism. By the time I got up roughly three hours had passed. For hours afterward I was still shaking from just how powerful, profound and beautiful it is. I now know the true weight of that statement "Oh my god". Besides the peak experiences that I have had my sense of self has been greatly diminished compared to what it was three years ago when I started in meditation. I am not strongly identified with my life story anymore and a name is simply a social label to me. I see Thomas-Roger as a collection of thoughts, concepts and beliefs. The more I look at it this way the more I realize that the ego structure is only to be used as a tool for practical purposes. My demeanor has changed greatly in that I am a much calmer and quieter person than I was. Additionally whilst I have always had a love for nature nowadays I find myself stopping at some point every day and just being in breathtaking awe at beauty of the earth and existence in general, regardless of the weather or my circumstances. It is a very strange yet visceral and compassionate feeling to experience these changes that have occurred in my mind and life.