What Am I

Actually, that is an interesting parallel to Leo's recent blog post where he mentioned drawing blood due to the intensity of awakening. Martin also cuts his nose in this one.

This is a follow-up episode to the last. In this one, Martin takes a ride using my favorite ROA.

Whatever works for you is great. Radical non-duality isn't my first choice, but maybe that's a fault on my part in not having enough faith in the obviousness of the truth.

Good deal, I've heard of something similar. It's almost as if our success is dependent on the purity of our intention rather than our specific methods. It's very mysterious how the process can be approached from different angles. For all my talk about it, I don't meditate in the strict sense either. For me, it's all about a continuous paying of attention in the moment to "what is," which creates a very subtle sensation of presence. If one can just lock in and develop that, the rest seems to fall in place all by itself.

No problem. Right, it's good to keep in context that when using psychedelics, the molecules being ingested are either analogs of endogenous neurotransmitters, or in the case of DMT and 5-MeO-DMT, they're endogenous neurotransmitters themselves. There are many stories of dedicated sober meditation practitioners who experience morphing multicolored geometric shapes along with all other manner of psychedelia. If you can make a significant amount of progress without a psychedelic, then I salute you.

5-MeO-DMT is radically different from DMT in my experience. Much more classically cosmic and less bizarrely strange. My favorite ROA has been subcutaneous injection. The effects and duration are nearly identical to plugging. Both are great ROAs for this chemical.

If you're a little hesitant about psychedelics, ayahuasca may scare the holy shit out of you, lol. It's so unbelievably crazy, with its weirdness being beyond what you could ever imagine. Give that 5-MeO-DMT another thought. And make sure your dose is reasonable and not excessive. It's worlds apart from DMT. Almost like a different class of psychedelic altogether.

If you do use psychedelics again, try getting your hands on 5-MeO-DMT. Despite it producing the most intense effects, it's also often the least scary, especially at sub-breakthrough doses. This particular psychedelic has way less of a propensity to produce that terrifying "evil" effect that they're sometimes known for. Rather, it's just raw intensity. As a confidence booster, it could also be wise to have a trip killer on hand, like a small dose of a benzodiazepine.

I can see what you're saying, in the sense that mysterious phenomena such as higher states of consciousness are fertile ground for people to make up their own mythologies around their experiences. I'm sure it happens all the time, and I'm sure their assumptions are often inaccurate. I guess I can't pretend to be excluded from this affliction either. My most profound insights, which were induced from direct experience via psychedelics and meditation, fall in line with those from all the consciousness-based traditions. On a breakthrough dose of 5-MeO-DMT, you have an ego death and are transported to a blinding hyperdimensional white light where it's experienced that you're both everything and nothing, and the singular omnipresent being in all of existence. I would call that the most profound, but there are plenty of others that are of a lower order. I'm of the opinion that the entities and dimensions experienced on a DMT breakthrough have an independent existence. An obscene amount of knowledge is seemingly crammed into your mind when in those states, but similar to a dream, it's as if it's difficult to retain it upon returning to ordinary bodily existence.

Nice, not bad. I was just trying to figure out what compelled you to post on the forum over 5,000 times, but it does sound like you at least have an interest in reality, even if you're currently convinced it's a pretty shallow reality. Did the hyperdimensional nature of your psychedelic trips ever make you question whether you may be witnessing something beyond just an experience occurring in your brain? Experiences of that type are so unbelievably intense, it can sometimes be a doorway into more uncommon beliefs.

@PurpleTree What would you say are your most profound insights?

Yeah agreed, when you get right down to it, this is what I believe as well.

For sure, but as I mentioned in my post right before this one, I think the mechanisms for all these highly advanced phenomena exist within the dream as well. So it'd almost make more sense to consider it a form of science rather than magic. Just that it's a highly esoteric form of science. And when you get down to the raw level, it is also truly just all consciousness. So it's kind of a case of both being true at once in my mind. With its contradictory nature being possible simply because God deems it so.

Ultimately, it would seem you're correct about it all being consciousness. And that's a concept I fully subscribe to as well. But there's also something to be said for the illusion's importance, including all of its intricacies. It's easy to say it's all consciousness and sort of leave it there, but that might miss a whole range of phenomena that's between gross (material) and causal (God). That middle level is often referred to as the subtle (soul). It's in that zone where a shitload of extraordinary stuff becomes possible. Also, to be clear, I'm a believer in something along the lines of allowing your own transcendent energy to actively take over the revitalization of the body in place of the breath. There was a previous thread where someone asked the question, and I go in-depth into my views there. In fact, I believe much more is possible than just not breathing. But at the same time, I'm empathetic to someone like PurpleTree who's inclined to not believe it.

Yeah, no doubt on the notion of people being born with varying levels of innate access to this kind of thing. With everything I've seen, I wouldn't be surprised to find out the talent also comes from something that transcends materiality, in addition to having a genetic component.

I have mild-to-moderate skill in meditation, but my most hardcore experiences so far have been from psychedelics. Many from both DMT and 5-MeO-DMT, as well as others. I'm a little hesitant to say I've had a full 100% awakening, but even if I haven't woken up and experienced the true fullness of consciousness, my eyes have definitely fluttered, so to speak. 5-MeO-DMT has a strong tendency to rip away your individuality and thrust you into the crown jewel of reality. It's so strong that it causes physiological changes and makes it easier to meditate sober, which has given it a unique place in my practice, even compared to other psychedelics. If I remember correctly, your skill has all been via sober meditation. I find that highly respectable. After all my experience exploring multiple layers of reality and beyond from psychedelic use, I've come to realize that the one state that offers the highest potential is full sobriety with a strong body and mind. It seems to be the perfect launching platform, assuming you have the guts to take advantage of it.

I hear you, and while I agree there's a bunch of trap-like subjects in spiritual teachings that can counterintuitively prevent further growth, I also think a lot of those details matter in developing a fuller understanding of how this all works. Taking the breath thing for example. There's some very relevant truth to the way your breathing modifies in higher states of consciousness, with a large acute reduction in need being something you can expect as you continue to gain in skill. It's not dissimilar to when you go to sleep, where your heart rate and respiration slowly decrease as you sink into dreaming and then dreamless states of sleep.

That's a fair response. If you're agnostic on spirituality in general, I can't fault you for being skeptical about something that appears highly dubious, such as an ability like the one mentioned in this thread.

@PurpleTree I'm not really familiar with your beliefs. Do you have any experience with profoundly altered states? Either through meditation or psychedelics? If so, do you think they have a component of non-locality, or would you say it's just abnormal conscious activity generated by your brain?

It looks like we're strapped in for the ride either way, so we'll just have to see what comes of it. If it's good, then the fruits should become apparent. And if it's bad, well, that would sure suck.

This episode of Rogan was interesting. Andreessen goes into detail about various factors that led himself and many other leaders in tech to defect into Trump's camp. And he goes on about it for a very long time—all the way from the middle of the episode to the end. It's quite a tale, involving supposed debanking and other underhanded maneuvers by the federal government to keep tight control over tech doings. In my opinion, he's either straight up lying or there really is some extremely concerning overreach going on.

Right on, you're not crazy for being suspicious if even I feel the same way. Yes, and she's much prettier as well.

Oh wow, I just gave it a look. I can't believe such a podcast exists, lol. Thanks, I'll check it out to get a feel for their interactions.

lol, maybe so. It could just be such a strong aligning of incentives that it allows their scam to appear so "hand in glove." I'm not convinced yet either way of what's going on, but I am thankful for the feedback from the forum to keep me honest.