AION

Todd is so uncanny. There is always something off about him. Probably it is his autism that gives this uncanny vibe. From what I got from Owen is that it is not Owen who has a problem with Todd but that Chinese partner of Owen who coincidentally also has autism. It is just two autists going at it battle royale style.

Introduction: Grounded Enlightenment Summary: Peter Ralston begins with a personal account of a shift in perception, where his sense of identity dissolved into a broader field of awareness. He uses this as a starting point to challenge secondhand spirituality and promote direct, personal inquiry into consciousness. He emphasizes that understanding does not come from thinking about ideas, but from first-hand exploration. The book encourages an experimental approach to reality rather than relying on belief or inherited knowledge. Part I: Questioning the Obvious Chapter One: A Powerful Openness Summary: Powerful Openness is a way of being alert and receptive without grasping at thoughts, identities, or outcomes. It supports honest perception and inquiry. This is contrasted with Seeker Mind, a habitual stance that filters reality through desires, memories, and assumptions. Seeker Mind wants answers, and this very need obscures direct perception. The Witness is introduced as the ability to observe thoughts and sensations without getting caught in them. It helps make experience clearer and less reactive. The chapter highlights how most people live through stories that limit what they can perceive. A beginner's mind—curious and unguarded—is more likely to notice what is actually happening. Powerful Openness is not passive or vague; it’s attentive and honest. It is in this condition that deeper shifts can occur. Exercises: Open Attention Practice: Sit quietly for five minutes. Let attention rest across all sensory input—sounds, sensations, light—without focusing narrowly. When attention contracts, gently expand it again. Raw Sound Listening: Close your eyes and notice three different sounds. Don’t label them—listen to their raw qualities like rhythm or tone. This builds the habit of perceiving without filtering. Chapter Two: Moving Beyond Belief Summary: Beliefs help us make quick sense of things but often distort what’s actually there. Ralston encourages noticing how beliefs shape perception and can become substitutes for experience. Language itself carries assumptions—phrases like “I am a failure” contain built-in conclusions we often don’t question. The chapter invites readers to treat all thoughts and beliefs as temporary and open to revision. Beliefs offer comfort by making things feel certain, but this security blocks discovery. Many beliefs are inherited and rarely examined. They tend to reinforce themselves and create closed loops of meaning. Exercises: Empty Your Cup: Choose one personal belief and observe it closely—its emotional weight, its effect on perception—without defending or rejecting it. Echo Exercise: Repeat a neutral word (e.g., “light”) for a minute. As repetition continues, the word loses its meaning. This shows how interpretation is added by the mind, not inherent in the word. Chapter Three: The Cultural Matrix Summary: Our thoughts and values are shaped from birth by culture—family, education, media. Ralston suggests that much of what we think is “ours” is learned automatically and never questioned. Without seeing these influences clearly, we end up acting from social scripts rather than choice. Norms and expectations define what seems “normal,” and questioning them often feels uncomfortable. Becoming aware of this conditioning is not about rejecting culture, but about seeing its role clearly and choosing consciously. Exercises: Cultural Assumptions Inventory: Write down five values or beliefs learned from your environment. Sit with each one and ask: Does this feel real to me, or is it just expected? What happens in my body when I question it? Chapter Four: An Experience of Not-Knowing Summary: Differentiates conceptual not-knowing from experiential not-knowing. The former is mental; the latter is a suspension of knowing altogether. Experiential not-knowing is the space in which perception becomes clearer because nothing is being imposed on the moment. Though unfamiliar and sometimes unsettling, this openness allows genuine insights to arise. Even self-improvement can be a way of clinging to identity. Real change happens when we let go of the need to know who we are. Exercises: Pause Between Thoughts: Sit for 8–10 minutes. When you notice a gap between thoughts, rest there without trying to extend it. This builds sensitivity to awareness itself, not just its contents. Chapter Five: The Principles of Discovery Summary: Ralston outlines four principles that support inquiry: Authentic Experience: Rely on direct perception over ideas or secondhand knowledge. Honesty: Speak and act in alignment with what you actually see and feel. Avoid self-deception. Grounded Openness: Stay open, but keep attention on what’s happening now. Question Everything: Treat every assumption—including your own thoughts—as provisional. These are not moral rules but tools that help make perception clearer. Exercises: Integrity Check: When you hear yourself telling a familiar story (e.g., “I’m bad at this”), pause and ask: Is this absolutely true right now? Paradox Embrace: Hold two conflicting self-descriptions (e.g., “I’m confident” and “I’m unsure”) without resolving them. This helps loosen rigid identities and opens space for deeper self-understanding. (Chapters Six through Twenty-One will continue with similar focus and tone.) Let me know if you’d like the same revision style applied to future chapters or if you'd like any further reduction in tone or language.

It is all fun and games until a refugee is shitting in your front lawn.

Uh I didn’t say you were against sleeping. It was just my addition to your already great post. 😮‍💨

That age are your prime years. You need to get on top of your shit in terms of sleep, health, nutrition and work out. Because it goes downhill very fast if you slack. You should be lucky you are a guy so you still have the best years under your buckle. I would listen to your instincts and spread the seed.

@Miguel1 sleeping is key for recovery and longevity. It is as important as nutrition and work out. Personally I believe too much psychedelics create too much oxidative stress and causes people to age faster vis-à-vis people who sleep not enough.

Owen is still spot on with the current state of dating and the shift of the collective frame of women and what they expect from men. Women expected a provider protector back in the day and now they just expect a guy with charisma/swagger who is fun. His videos are still good but it is soaked with culture war. I don’t want his videos anymore. I let AI make summaries.

Owen Cook still has to receive your karma. In my opinion karma doesn't exist. It is just the mind believing karma exist and that creates a self fulfilling prophecy of karma being true. Even if there is some build-in karma in the mind, it is possible to jailbreak it.

Todd is a shady guy too. I wouldn't believe this uncanny looking mofo with his uncanny behavior. I remember Owen saying that he wanted a bigger cut and he giving it to him and then he asking more and more. Owen takes care of his big partners but his low tier employees are basically dogged around.

Most people do some form of look maxxing unconsciously for themselves. It is a way to prove themselves they are worthy but most of the time they could just skip the practice (i.e getting muscled) and just flat out believe they are enough, because just cuz. Most of the time look maxxing, losing weight, gaining muscle and shit don't 't even work to fix their insecurity even if they get so far to that falsely believed holy grail. It is just cloaks up their insecurity and pushes down the turd of insecurity even deeper. I noticed that getting approval from the group/clan is so powerful for our brains. I tried to replicate that state of consciousness without external approval, but just with the power of my mind, and it is very difficult. Getting approval from a group unlocks new parts of the mind. That is what people want. It is not a superficial activity. Only to the feeble mind it might seem that way.

Drink from the holy grail

If you always tell the truth you will have no friends and no acquaintances left. We all tell these white lies which aren’t lies. They are just a way to “dress” the truth. In the same way you wear clothes and don’t walk around naked because that is the truth. No you wear clothes. I think this is the right way to look at truth. Truth should’nt be anti social or anti life. For example if somebody is suicidal you could tell him the ugly truth of his life choices and you would be in line with the value of truth but it would be anti life. Every person and community has their dogmas or their shadow ego. Even this forum, one only has to touch a little bit of their unconscious material and they will have the same reaction as a Christian zealot. I found out it is very rude to confront people with their unconsciousness. It is not my job to do that. I’m not Prometheus aka the light bearer. I’m only responsible for my life and my individuation. Most people are not worthy to hear the truth. And if that means I have to coax by “dressing” the truth so be it I’m working with new clients and some of them are so stupid. It is ok to just coax them through things without lying to them but also not telling things which might activate their primitive brain. This is what good salesman do. They never lie. They walk on the line.

@Schizophonia Putting so much pressure on children will fuck them up. I hope you are just joking but knowing you you aren’t. They should be allowed to grow and blossom according to who they are.

With AI there is good money to make. And all you need is a pc. Mindset is worth money. The job is just the activity.

There is great truth in the Siren mythology. All these stories contain great wisdom but people want to reinvent the wheel and think they are a smart ass.

It is interesting you used the word desperation. It is a paradigm lock.

Hyper masculine guys are usually not even good at sports. Only at lifting weights. I’m doing martial arts and those hyper masculine guys are the easiest to beat.

@Xonas Pitfall that is only for men who build themselves up since those perks of status, money, lifestyle and so on is not a given

I’m not watching any red pill nor do I need it. I watched Andrew Tate for a while but not for dating advice but for motivation. And I started a business thanks to him. As for anecdotes, where I live there are tons of cat ladies who failed with love exactly for the reasons I told you. Black pill is not only for men. Women can take the black pill too. And there is a dating crises, not just a man’s loneliness crises. And that is because men don’t have inherent value and nobody tells them. If you are a woman you can have the alphas run a train on you in your 20’ies and still find a nice guy at 30 to marry you and bite the bullet and let him put up with all the emotional baggage. You make it sounds like men and women are doing a race against each other. The path of individuation is different between men and women. I know couple of woman through my hobby and when I first saw them they were with this beta guy and I could just feel their resentment towards them. And now these ladies are all single but I already knew at first glance. Women can’t fake chemistry. Those women ate “steak” all of their life and now they have to downgrade to a “McDonald’s bun”. It creates a lot of anger and resentment. It can be clearly sensed with these women.

Perhaps in some cases. Doesn’t change the ordeal of women who punch above their weight and trying to get a prize they can’t get. Most women overvalue what they have to offer and demand too much. It is not a good deal for men. Men don’t have a biological clock so we can wait it out.

When I see a girl with a beta, I can sense she knows she is with a beta and she is deeply resentful. And just puts up with him because this guy sticks around because all the studs he dated ran a train on her and left. So yes women date these soft guys but they are not happy. It is either that or becoming a cat lady.

I’m a Puer Aeternus and the women I attract are usually the female version. Personally I don’t think age and maturity are always in synch. I haven’t dated in my early 20’ies so I’m catching up. And I’m neurodivergent too so that adds another twist. My emotional development takes more time. Mostly because I avoided relationships for such a long time.

Leo did another good job picking a good mod. It is becoming a pattern.

Maturity is not solely related to age. Some people go through a lot and mentally mature faster than others. With mature I didn’t mean physical maturity or age. I noticed that for some reason mentally mature women are always drawn to me although I want to 20 year old baby doll. It is very frustrating but probably there is something about me or perhaps these older women are just easier since as they get older that have this time pressure to land a deal.

Emerald is advocating a type relationship that would work with her and her type of women. Age plays a role too. Dating mature women is very different than dating a 20 something year old.