PsychedelicEagle

I've always thought of myself as very well self-regulated while tripping, until I had some experiences that blew me away. If you do psychedelics long enough, eventually you will have trips that shake you out of normal behavior.

I'd love to see new episodes touching base on the 9 Stages of Ego Development. I feel like we used and related to Spiral Dynamics quite a lot, but not many examples and references leveraged the other developmental model. Or, perhaps, the introduction of yet another developmental model. 😍 Also: more content on systems thinking. PS: Suggestions coming from personal bias as I explore more of Stage Yellow myself. 💛

Experientially, not much difference. Mentally I prefer without — once toothpaste is in my mouth I feel compelled to rinse everything out to avoid ingesting undesired stuff, which would ironically defeat the fluoride, if any, anyway. There's some mechanistic reason to think ingredients could have small systemic effects (oral microbiome seeds the gut) — see the Triclosan case. Current ingredients seem speculative and minor compared to diet, but still, who knows. I prefer to be conservative and expose my microbiota to as little artificial stuff as possible. Better safe than sorry.

The Sun is controlling Earth. We gotta free ourselves from the Sun.

Surfactants are helpful indeed, but shampoo often comes with so much extra and unnecessary chemical stuff. Also, I only soap a couple times per week. Most showers are bare water. Personal preference. Another thing to consider is the skin microbiota. Some soap makes the skin pH alkaline, which could mess up with the bacteria. Who knows, but I'm a frugal guy so I minimize soap usage

Borrowing from The Landmark Forum:

One of the key insights related to the video OP posted is to realize that we ourselves create all meaning. We — humans — are meaning-making machines. Reality is meaningless in that it has no inherent meaning aside from the meaning we project ourselves. Realizing this frees you up to create any meaning you want — yet take it lightly. So your life now can not only have any meaning you want, but you're also able to let go of your created meanings when appropriate.

It depends on hair level. For bald folks even once is conformist 😛

I just use nothing. Brush the teeth as you normally would, without toothpaste. Ideally brush it 3x/day; also floss; and optional tongue scraper. I did some research and I realized there is not enough science to back the use of toothpaste. If you look deep, you'll see that the only thing that could justify toothpaste would be (i) fluoride and (ii) abrasive stuff — silica or calcium carbonate. (i) For people who develop caries, fluoride can help. I never had a carie in my life, meaning that my mouth is populated by bacteria unlikely to cause it. So probably I will never have one, despite not using fluoride. This is individual of course. Notice you don't need toothpaste to deliver fluoride into your mouth either. (ii) The evidence for abrasives in toothpaste is extremely weak. Some research showed no difference. And, notice there are risks with the abrasives, e.g., possibly wearing out dentin and enamel. Lastly, I go to the dentist every 6 months and they have reported nothing different in their assessment. Of course I don't tell them I'm not using toothpaste anymore, otherwise they'd be biased to find something.

Would would be the best way to consume Ralston's and Wilber's work — books, website, what? Can someone please share links/references?

💯; also full of PFAS depending on how it's packaged.

Ultimately only you can answer this. If you outsource this decision, you open room to feel betrayed, because it was ultimately not you who chose what is acceptable or not. It requires deep connection with your own emotions, assertiveness, courage to deal with the consequences of enforcing your boundaries. A key paradigm in assertiveness is that you are responsible for how you feel, and that has higher priority than trying to manage how others feel. So focus on how you feel first and foremost. You are not responsible for how other people feel or to manage their expectations. Let people reach out to you and only help when it makes you feel good. Over time that will help to stop seeing yourself as a victim and open room for less-resentful connections. Ultimately social connections are about survival. So everyone is interacting with other people for selfish reasons — that is fine. That's the reason why I'm in this forum btw: to learn something from other people, and to share what I know because that makes ME feel good. If someone asks something from you: Ask yourself: do I truly feel like helping at this moment? Think it through — take time to reply. If you feel pressured, just say straight up: I need time to evaluate if I can help here. If they keep pressuring you, the default is to not help. Whether helping or not, communicate clearly what it is that you can or can't contribute with respectfully and assertively. TIP: The smoother and the more respectfully you enforce your boundaries, the easier it is to hold them long term. If you overreact (e.g., angry response due to accumulated feelings), you may feel guilty and tend to downcompensate next time you interact with the person, which makes it harder for them to understand your needs and where you're coming from. The nice thing is when you openly and clearly communicate your needs you'll see that more often than not people are willing to help. If they aren't, then it's a red flag.

More generally: the sterilization paradigm of the 20th century. The more-functional, less-conformist approach would be microbial ecology rather than microbial warfare.

Also: tattoos.

Using toothpaste Using deodorant with fragrances Using hair gel Btw, funny story: when I was 10 I realized that toothpaste was able to hold my hair in place better than most hair gels, so I started using it. I said this once in the classroom and a guy also having quiff hair made fun of me. Next day I spot him with a long solidified white mark on his quiff — it was toothpaste.

For me, the key has been to leverage psychedelics on top of a strong spiritual, epistemological, and psychological foundation. The Actualized.org channel gave me many of those pillars, which is what let me use psychedelics relatively safely (there are always risks) for trauma healing and for personal and spiritual growth. That said, content alone isn't enough — you still have to do the personal work yourself. On the personal-growth side specifically, psychedelics let me take insights I already understood rationally and bring them down to the level of feeling and emotion, which is where behavior actually comes from. That's what makes them such a profound tool for change. I quit drinking, reshaped my relationship with my parents, moved into new jobs, and became more authentic — all of it catalyzed by psychedelic work. And there's still so much more to explore and learn.

Strong income depends on you being So Good They Can't Ignore You. Software, data and/or AI engineering pays well nowadays, I work in the field. I also like the idea that you can bridge your passion for music with it. But you gotta find projects and goals that keep you motivated so you can maintain deliberate practive over years. To really become good at something — even if at a narrow field within the broader field of CS — probably finding muscial projects or ways in which software supports music, and learning the hell out of it — all the bits and pieces that are required for whatever intersection between software and music you find meaningful. When you enter a new field, expect it to take 10y to develop complete mastery over it; only by then you'll have acquired the skills to give you great perks career and compensation wise. There are no shortcuts. If you work hard you can shorten that time a bit, but 10y is a realistic timeframe. I did. When I was 24 I quit my job and started working as a web programmer and I only started a masters in CS when I was 26. I had a deep passion for AI and cognitive sciences and I pursued it. I'm now 10y down the road and I will never regret making that move, as it opened so many opportunities: moving to Europe, working at different and interesting companies, doing something I enjoy. I'm now at the point where I want to focus more on stage green projects and deepen my spirituality, but the past 10y have been the foundation for what's next. Sounds like a good approach. The skills you acquire will be valuable down the road. Cal Newport was def onto something when he wrote that book.

I'd only use minimalistic and PFAS-free perfumes. Currently I use no perfumes and still get dates so I'm not using it. But I appreciate most people care about the smell only and that's it. What type of perfume maker would you be?

Great perspective. However, I want to make the point that, developmentally, maturity is required for wisdom. So we can frame your example as (internal) maturity leading to the wisdom that spontaneity and adopting externally-looking immature behavior is the appropriate action on the right time and circumstances. Wdyt?

I've been using Obsidian for a while and happy with it. The seamless integration across phone (obsidian app on ios/android) and computer was what made me stick to it. When I'm traveling I just pull up my phone and boom — all notes in there. I'm also an Emacs user so I can edit Obsidian notes in Emacs when on the computer. Which allows me to leverage all the advanced text-editing shortcuts, Markdown formatting commands, etc.

Haha, I read the first pages and ditched it away. Bryan's epistemology is child-like. And this comes from a non-hater.

Depends on your goals. Are you planning on adding milk to your diet only to hit Ca levels? Or, do you have additional goals?

Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet. Cut off all processed junk, including all refined foods (white rice, white bread, butter and nut butters, cheese, etc., can all be seen as refined foods). Only consume foods in their closest-to-original form.

Great recommendation. Also always great to use the minimally-effective dose, weigh the substance appropriately, and make sure it's pure. The last time I did it was more a year ago, a single 100mg of MDMA, and that was WOW. I probably could have gotten away with even less, perhaps 80mg. Mescaline is also very similar to MDMA for me and without neurotoxicity concerns. Something to look into.

Great video, one of the few I don't remember seeing before. That is the type of mindset required to build something like Actualized.org.