Paradoxed

I'm sure you know more than Biden's own advisors.

You are overestimating the incumbency advantage. Biden was not going to beat Trump. Kamala is a better option at this point

Kamala will surely win and save America

Fear is likely to happen whether it makes sense for it to happen or not.

In a sense, the trap was developing a spiritual pursuit in the first place.

I feel this, you aren't alone. I just remind myself I don't know shit. I am not enlightened or awakened. I want to also humble myself if that's okay. I find myself being a Zen devil and it's worrisome. Spiritual understanding can be a massive trap. For example, I would often look externally at the world and judge specific people in my life for their unawareness or "level of consciousness". I would judge them for their unwillingness to entertain/understand spiritual or philosophical topics, or work on themselves in this way. I judged certain behaviors. I judged specific things they'd do which they didn't realize were harmful, towards themselves and others. I judged them for being so judgemental, lol.. So much labeling as "low consciousness behavior" from people that I felt weren't "doing the work" in their lives. Internally I said to myself "I'm doing more work than others to understand the nature of reality" yadadada. Ha. What a bunch of crap. I mean really. What a sick, disgusting, gross narrative I was feeding myself. I felt more disconnected from other people than ever, very isolated. That is my spiritual ego and devilry. I was creating a bunch of divisions and separations of myself and others in my mind- while simultaneously knowing and understanding we are all one, and reality is non-dual through direct experience. But do you really understand this if you can't embody it? If you aren't aware this can be a huge problem. I still fall for this trap but It's most important to turn inward- now when I catch myself judging someone, I notice it, forgive myself for the judgement, then turn that observation inwards, to acknowledge exactly how I am also guilty of behaving in that same way. I tell myself how could I possible judge them for this, when I do that same thing. It does take a level of mindfulness and awareness to catch yourself judging others, then redirect that on yourself. If you're judging others for something you feel you wouldn't do (often the case), you are lacking understanding. Acknowledge the multitude of factors at play in a person decision making without judgement (the level of awareness every individual has, the inherent self bias and survival mechanisms at play, the history and upbringing of this person and how that has affected their sense of self and worldview, etc). All of this has affected the individuals behavior and decision making. Most people have no idea the path they are on, and you aren't perfect either. I still struggle with this. But my life has gotten a lot better with bringing awareness to the nature of these thoughts, catching myself and shifting inward. I just don't have these thoughts as often. Good vs. evil are not real on an existential level. But the purpose of the understanding is to train yourself to not fall for the trap of running around trying to fight evils of the world, thinking you are the good guy. There is a paradoxical trap there. Trying to do good in the world can sometimes contribute to divisions. The lesson is not that going out and doing evil shit is okay, or just over indulgence in whatever habit is okay... it may not be evil in an eternal, existential sense, and it may not matter in an ultimate sense, but it is deeply out of alignment with you and your true nature. The worst part about traps is that sometimes you are aware of them, but still fall for them. It's a pitfall of taking lessons from Leo (or other teachers) without coming to the conclusions naturally on your own. Sometimes you think you fully understand the lesson when you really don't. Laziness is also a factor here. It's up to the listener to be introspective on whatever topic in their own time. Some of these are pretty deep understandings. You may know reality is non-dual. You may know whatever spiritual truth. But if you only know it because someone told it to you, it doesn't matter. No spiritual understanding matters unless you try to embody it every day and know it to your core. And some things might be way more important than understanding the deepest spiritual truths- more basic practices. Just practical, basic self-help stuff is what is often needed most (exercise, eating healthy, dealing with emotions, self-confidence, self-forgiveness, mindfulness practice, developing a healthy yoga and meditation practice, and many many more) The more I meditate, the better I am at being aware and fixing these tendencies, and not falling for traps. But I am often astonished by the nature of ego and its tricks. I wonder if I have some ego problem, or if this is just how most people are. Basic healthy practices, practicing love, and being selfless is going to be more beneficial for me than incredibly deep understandings. This was a big realization for me. Sometimes we forget about the basic stuff as we spend a lot of time trying to put into words, conceptualize, and understand the ineffable. Forgive yourself brother, we know you have good intentions.

I would say stop blaming weed and start blaming yourself for not having the things you want to have. If you think it's clouding your mind that much, you could try slowing down and re prioritizing it or just stopping. You don't know what being sober is like anymore. Sobriety could bring clarity for you (it's not guaranteed). If you are motivated and see a reason in stopping, it will be easier to stop. If you don't know if it's even a problem for you, then it'll be much harder to stop. If you have this deep intuition it is hurting your life somehow then it's probably is. If you think you are not successful by societal standards, you need to ask yourself how important conventional success is, and weigh being conventionally successful vs. having a weed habit and being more creative musically. I believe if you stopped smoking weed and fully quit you'd still be creative. That being said a really motivated individual can smoke weed and still be successful. Why do you label yourself as unsuccessful? Are you not living exactly the way you want to? If there is something you want that you don't have, try to manifest that reality for yourself. Imagine having the wife or the car. Really put yourself there and ask yourself what that would look like. What would you be doing? Are you doing everything you could to create this reality for yourself?

What do you mean by psychological torturer? Sub-0 individual? Are you talking about a human or some entity?

Once you understand what God is and who you are it makes no sense to fear God. It makes no sense to fear anything.

Who do you think the democratic party will get behind Leo? Kamala Harris?

Bernie, Trump, and Biden are all similar in age. It's more Biden's obvious dementia than age I think

That's sorta what happened with Biden in 2020, the democratic candidates all dropped out and coalesced in support of Biden after seeing Bernie had such a good chance... that was too much of a real threat to power. Joe Biden was always just such a terrible option, most people saw this from a mile away. Bernie should come out of his trance and run against Trump last minute . But I bet dumb liberals would still think he's too radical. He's closer to the cult of personality you would need, someone similar to Trump in that way but with a much higher level of awareness. Once I have this degree, I'm going to look into getting a work visa and moving to Canada.

Allowing money to get so deeply entrenched in our political system and healthcare system in the US Creating these systems to enslave ourselves

I was with my girlfriend when I did it. Regular DMT is pretty safe to do alone, but be very careful doing 5meo DMT alone. My girlfriend didn't go too deep. She said she melted into the bed. I'd have to ask her more in depth about any introspective thoughts. She isn't into psychedelics like me so she kept it gentle and was just feeling the strange effects on the body.

They're trying to get young black voters.

The death of my Mom at 19. I feel like I instantly had to develop maturity and it felt like "the good times of my life were over". Waking up to harsh realities of life.

Pretty sure it's technically illegal federally but things like marijuana and shrooms are decriminalized. I've heard this extends to ayahuasca and mescaline as well, and I think it's the same philosophy on DMT in DC. Look up DC Initiative 81- it's not full legalization of psychedelics, but it re-categorized as “the lowest level police enforcement priority.” DC is one of the leading cities in the US to work towards legalization and decriminalization of psychedelics behind places like Denver. DC is the first city on the East Coast to do this. I actually am not even sure if marijuana is legalized in DC yet. I believe it is only decriminalized. For awhile, it was legal to grow marijuana but illegal to sell it, but there was a loophole in the law, where it was legal to gift the marijuana to a friend. So shops were established around you coming in, buying a t-shirt or a sticker, and them "gifting" you the weed order you want (you pay the price of the weed for the sticker). This is still how many shops operate in DC. Those same shops also typically sell shrooms, but I haven't seen many shops selling DMT pens now. Even less shops are selling pure nn-DMT, and even less are selling 5meo-DMT. So I wouldn't say it was legal to buy this pen, still illegal, but almost decriminalized, but not fully.

Yeah, its a laughable hypothetical, its called a joke. The fact that Trump would never do this is the joke itself

I don't think it's fair to say LSD is bad for you. If it's good for you depends on the person. I have been doing LSD for like 15 years, from small to large doses. I don't understand why people act like you can't complete tasks. If you're at a really high dose or the peak of a trip yeah I guess not. You can do stuff on LSD. Think the Grateful Dead on stage performing or Silicon Valley tech bros. Have you had sex on LSD? I become great at everything when I'm on LSD. But if I am on a higher dose I will have to turn inward usually. I have also received headaches from LSD, tense jaw, body aches, etc. It's worth mentioning but there are no real long term effects on your brain or body. You could have psychotic thought patterns, thought-loops, manic episodes, etc. If you don't know the art of surrendering in those moments it can be "bad" (is it really a bad trip if you learned something?) If you are mentally ungrounded you could end up in the psych ward if you're not careful. I have seen it happen to some of the most experienced psychonauts I've known. So I'm not going to run around pretending like it's universally good. Is it healthy? It depends on the person. Is it bad for your body? Not really. Is it good for your body? Not really but maybe for your mind depending on the user. It's really about how you define good/bad or healthy/unhealthy.

If Trump campaigned to legalize all psychedelics would you vote for him?

Well, you can do LSD and go outside and go about your daily life, go outside on a hike, go to concerts, have fun, etc. It doesn't always have to be you meditating in your bedroom. I wouldn't classify the thinking as compulsive I was doing, just normal. When your on LSD your brain is being incredibly active. So to do that too often or to overdo that may be unhealthy. It also depends on the dose, a high dose is going to be more on your mind and body. Whether you choose to meditate while tripping and surrender deeply in that way is up to the user. In the particular experience, I happened to not be doing that. I was doing some task at my computer that I was attempting to figure out while tripping. Shit happens. And just because cocaine and porn seem like opposite to true psychedelics to you doesn't mean they are. Obviously the experiences feel opposite but the euphoria you feel is similar. LSD is a partial agonist to D2 receptors in your brain so it also plays off your dopamine system along with serotonin. To overdo that could have negative effects on your body. Obviously they are psychologically healing for us. For other people they could have a psychological breakdown. So to have nuance you can't blanket statement psychedelics as healthy. They may be good for us on the forum but they're not for everyone, really. And just because it is psychologically healing for you doesn't mean it's "healthy", in the sense that if you did LSD every day it would take some tole on your body. You could develop HPPD or serotonin syndrome also. PS. It's not weird to "think hard" on psychedelics. Sometimes you are deep in introspection or trying to conceptualize some metaphysical truth or experience you are having.

Yeah, I don't want this sentiment getting too popular. It's like people are choosing to find good things he did because they like him as a personality or feel emboldened after he got shot and wanna ride that emotional wave.

As a persona Trump wins over Biden every time.

I don't want him killed, but I also wouldn't vote for him. Are people here really getting behind Trump because he got shot?

I expected an assassination attempt on Trump much sooner.