That one takes a lot of work to develop. It's pretty hardcore.
Look at it this way: if the spinal breathing works well for you after 6 months, you can add any other advanced techniques onto of it later. In fact you will be motivated to do so. But it's really hard to motivate yourself to learn all the advanced stuff if you are just starting off with zero results. That requires epic faith and self-discipline to pull off. Personally I never had that level of faith in yoga. So I babystepped it. 1hr of spinal breathing per day is a good starting point and will give you a taste for yoga.
It's very easy to get overwhemled by that book and quit.

I should clarify something for you guys so you don't fool yourselves: psychedelics will not produce a permanent high state of consciousness nor a permanent blissed out state. If that's something you expect or want, look for other means. You cannot use psychedelics to magically avoid training for those things which require training. For example, being a kind, gentle human being requires training. You can't get that behavior without training.

This is just a speculation so take everything I write here with a healthy dose of scepticism. I don't know your situation and only know what I've read and what you told me that one time we spoke. But from the sound of everything and from seeing that this approach has been helping, part of the answer might be that you need to make yourself a bit...well, tougher..I think that is the right word. I've given similar advice to a guy with long-covid recently
...and I'll give it to you as well here: 
There is a few things in your report that could serve as evidence that making yourself stronger from inside out and outside in might be part of the answer, perhaps even the entire answer. 
you've been introducing exercise - swimming is an incredible HIIT that basically engages all skeletal muscles in your body. It is a metabolic furnace for your mitochondria - and it seems to be helping  the supplement stock you are doing seems to be helping - many of those products can act to strenghten cellular antioxidant defences  Maybe 80% of the true benefits of the supplement stock comes down to 20% of those supplements (that's how it usually is) - the ones that are starting to plug holes in previous deficiencies. Anyone who is long-term deficient will feel like flying once those deficiencies are restored.  if you can handle 200g of oats and 750 grams of lentils per day, your gut IS NOT wrecked. I repeat - if you can tolerate this level of fibre onslaught, there is probably no point in thinking that this is coming from antinutrients, fibre intolerance or any of that stuff. Your gut is probably quite healthy.  What I honestly think is that you have been ruminating on this for so long that you have prevented yourself from taking action through mental paralysis - that was also the impression I had when we spoke. To a point that taking any action has become anxiety provoking. And now, embarking on this new protocol (above) is actually making you stronger and it is slowly working.  
I have been taking this type of approach with numerous clients now, and people actually benefit from it. Almost all my guys who come with chronic fatigue, brain fog, mood issues and inability to focus benefit from getting stronger (physically, mentally and emotionally) - some don't of course, nothing works for everyone. 
This includes
Diet (inside-out) - aiming toward more anabolic protocol. Forget cleansing, detoxes and green juices (maybe later but not now) - that stuff is just making you weaker. Start focusing on rebuilding yourself - bump your calories to 2,200-2,400 - add more protein (are you vegan/vegetarian) and add even more starchy carbohydrates like sweet potatoes, regular potatoes,  teff, amaranth, millet, barley etc. You don't need more fat, i think there is enough already. Alongside that, keep loading on vegetables, berries and other high polyphenolic compounds - that stuff is doing wonders for you on the cellular level. Enrich your diet with an abundance of exotic spices and green herbal spices - each of them is adding something extra. Also think more food variety - more different legumes, add soy products, more veggie types, more fruits, more grains - I might even add some low fat dairy like kefirs, Greek yoghurts, and cottage cheese. If you are not vegetarian you might benefit from addiiton of small fatty fish, the ones that are low on heavy metal and PCB spectra like sardines and mackerel or haddock.  Activity (outside-in)  continue being active as much as you can. Challenge yourself to be active in new ways - carry your groceries, take the steps instead elevator, get a standing desk, go hiking or wild swimming. Get off the bus earlier and walk the rest of the destination.  If you have the energy - I would HIGHLY encourage some form of resistance exercise. Lifting weights that are challenging every muscle fibre literally injects your body with growth hormones and anabolic hormones - those have PROFOUND impact on your mental health, your neuroplasticity and your cognitive health. In that manner, a session of barbell squats is superior to cardio. Make sure to get a PT the first couple times if you're a gym newbie  Habits - Reading the book "atomic habits" might help, but basically what you want is to become a little bit strategic. Building micro habits one at a time so that your day has a sense of structure and organisation. The human brain loves order, and we thrive in order. It gives us a sense of purpose. Meaning when you wake up, there should be a set of steps you take that help you wake up and get going.  Night time - without proper sleep, your body will never regenerate. I don't know how good your sleep is at the moment but if not good, keep working on it. There are lots of strategies. If you're stressed at night, you need to be meditating more and reflecting on your fears and traumas. If you are physically unable to fall asleep, it might be more mechanical (too much screen time, too hot, too cold, too noisy, too many video games late at night, bad pillow hardness, hard mattress etc)  Education - reading books is like looking inside other people's brains. You get the creative juices that others had to crack their heads for years to produce. You're getting the absolute best of someone's brain dump and the highlights of years of them going down certain rabbit holes. =Most writers want to give you their absolute best (although there are plenty of shit books out there) Books help you expose yourself to tremendous ideas, practices, strategies and information. In particular, I think you would benefit from reading Peter Attia's - Outlive, he describes a beautiful protocol for becoming strong, resilient, agile, focused and sharp, basically all the things you struggle with. The other one I think you would benefit from is Richard Schwartz's No Bad Parts - I think there is a lot of deeply rooted stuff that needs to be resolved, at least from reading the way you describe yourself and your situation.  Passion - and finally, maybe this is for later. If you have time and energy, you might think about what is meaningful for you. What would make you charge against spears and swords - metaphorically speaking (1:40). What is, for you, worth fighting for every day? What is worth defending when coming under undeserved attack (also metaphorical) - what do you want to see more of our there. What is something that is effortless to study & researach on Friday evening while your peers are binging on Pizza, drinking cocktails and talking shit.  Maybe you disagree with all above - totally cool, in that case ignore this comment. 
All the best !
 
 
 

I don't disagree. It's a very valid post. 
The only thing I'm not too clear on is to what degree these are imlicated in the disease outcomes. I think when it comes to read meat, it is harmful regardless of processing type because its real harm to the human body comes from ApoB binding inside tunica intima, not from hydrocarbons. But hydrocarbons might be aggrevating the damage that's for sure. 
Interestingly for fish, the literature is clear on their beneficial effects despite the fact that half the fish in the world is probably consumed grilled...which makes me think that the impact of PCBs and HCAs can be mitigated by other beneficial factors in the foods such as PUFA, Vitamin E content and polyphenol content of vegetable served alongside it...maybe...maybe not. 
Diabetes is caused by energy excess in the first place - diabetes can be caused by any diet as long as the person is constantly gaining weight. And the only reliable "cure" for it is weight loss. 
The literature on cancer is a bit of an enigma for me - no idea how much hydrocarbons are implicated. I think when I was reviewing the bowel cancer literature, the impact of hydrocarbons was not conclusive 
When it comes to neurodegeneration the research is inconclusive but I would side towards them being quit harmful. 
That being said it is probably preferable to always cook meat on lower temperatures. Grilling and flaming is just stupid and completely unnecessary practice. I don't care if it tastes good. 
One of the reasons these things are so hard to study is that hydrocarbon exposure is a proxy for a bad lifestyle overall such as eating a lot of junk, being inactive, smoking, drinking etc. And because studying PBC exposure in clinical setting is unethical, the epidemiology is what we have and it is a mess. My personal take is that they are probably quite harmful and should be minimised on individual level. I'm more worried about burned meat than I'm worried about grilled sweet potatoes tho.
But i wouldn't make a bridge saying "PCB" causes cancer or heart disease - that would be taking it too far
Overall I think this is a great post bringing lot of awareness @LSD-Rumi 

lol, Ralston is not a materialist of course.
Conciousness as absolute truth is the main tenet of his teaching. 

He is at worst a dual-aspect monist. 
"Psychodelics working on brain chemistry" is just the conveyance of a proposition which could potentially work under any ontology.
 

In case someone has further interest in this, we have another 3 threads discussing Ralston's stance on psychedelics:
Just throwing it out there. 

1) Not forced per se but just having your options limited is actually very good for happiness. There's a whole book written about this phenomenon called The Paradox Of Choice.
2) Religious conservatives are less likely to get divorced than secular liberals. They are also less likely to sleep around.
As an example, it can be easier to be happy as a religious conservative because your worldview is simple and you don't have to go through the existential crises of nihilism or loss of spirituality, or the confusion of picking a spiritual path. Which is why most people gravitate towards a conservative worldview. There is comfort and security in just going to church every Sunday and doing what you are told like a sheep. Being a sheep can certainly generate happiness. If you try to get very serious about spirituality you will suffer a lot, which is why most people never do it.
There is a kind of suffering that comes from doing too little and another kind of suffering from doing too much. If you are very ambitious you will suffer a lot more than a sheep.

@Optimized Life Cool.
I’m actually reading a book called “The Direct Daygame Bible by Sasha Daygame”.
Good stuff.

You are stuck in a cycle of apathy, depression, and inaction. Its basically impossible for you to make the jump right to a meaningful career. You must first get angry at where you are at and then use that energy to propel you forward to something you actually want to do. Work an actual job where you have some sort of impact for at least a few days. In my personal experience, I worked at a grocery store for 3 days and hated it so much that I quit and then worked even harder at finding a real purpose.

I've never really made songs in any serious fashion, but I have the same thoughts when learning a song on guitar. The moment I've mastered it, it loses its specialness in a way, indeed because I've had to hear it so many times. On the other hand, you also become much more immersed in the song when you listen to it onwards, which makes it more special in another way.
One thing about songwriting I do sometimes think about is that you'll have no way to know how a listener truly experiences a song from their perspective, exactly because of this myopia of focusing very hard on the details and how things fit together, as well as having conceived it through your instruments (or vocals). In other words, your relationship to your own creation is inescapably so very different from the listener, and it's a bit sad that you will never be able to hear it from their perspective.

You are worrying about what consciousness should and shouldn't be. Wanting it to be some way you need it to be.
The nature of consciousness is whatever it is. Whether it's worth anything to you is irrelevant.

Give it time. Guide her so that she knows how you like it. If she has not been giving oral sex to another guy before, she won't really know how - its the same with guys doing oral to girls - it takes a bit of a practice to figure out where the "soft spots" are.
Also if you find it too sensitive, maybe she needs to be more gentle and also avoid touching the gland (the head) with her hand. Some days, the penis can be so sensitive that oral is just not an option. If you are not circumcised and most of the time wear your foreskin over the glans, you'll be waaay more sensitive than guys who have the skin cut or glans always exposed. 
Don't make too much of it  - you'll figure it all out, and the longer you stay together, the better the intimacy gets 

It's supposed to give people an experience of what it can be, similar to a psychdelic just with science. I am curious if it can just aid getting to deeper states etc. I doubt it's god-realization any of this mostly the classic buddhist path to non-duality, but actualy non-duality no the b.s that is claimed as non-duality and is just stream entry and other stages. It also depends which psychdelic I highly doubt that it can emulate a NN-DMT and or 5-MeO-DMT experience, and Shinzen could be aware. He did deity yoga type practices & people come with all type of questions from traditions&pratices to him. 

I highly value Ralston and Shinzen, I can go pretty deep with his techniques although they cause kriyas for me. It's very good practice that is extremely affordable, though when you can do it solo it does not matter as much. His techniques have a lot of variety and depth to it, as due to the nature of it beign many and having mixed traditions. It's also very exhausting. Yet it's not god-realization. I don't even know what that is even when watching the videos, and I still prefer to verify instead of spreading doubt. I use Shinzens techniques, they are effective for me as well as zen meditation, especially choiceless-awareness and self-inquiry these 3 things work the best for me, I use currently his "metta-paradigm" of being good, and give my best to dovetail it with Ralston insights, as I have no idea what the guy  teaches besides his books. As I talked to Shinzen and visited his home practice and life practice program. In his book he clarifies a lot of mystecism from a buddhist perspective historically and he did a shit ton of practice. 

I'd still say he is highly underrated, yet his techniques are not so good for people with trauma/shadows, as far as I know and talked to one other person online. The expansion and contraction paradigm is super sweet for meditating and also his ideas of wisdom function and creative work etc. I had some benefits to this for studying. I like it as he is not agains thinking and just shutting down the mind, although the techniques can do that. 

If I can have a 30-20 minute taste with a device like this, without only doing psyches, and ground myself in different states. That'd be pretty dope. 

He can be a little rigid, so I dunno. This is my impression of the device. He did LSD and Cannabis as far as I know as psychdelic no idea if he did other stuff, yet he is pretty open, I usually would love to check back with him even doing psyches as he is pretty open, and can just honestly tell me if I went beyond smth. and or not, relatively honestly. 

@Tenebroso I appreciate your insights on the interview.
What I get from Zan is this:
He’s speaking about a spirit/vibration that you’re coming from regarding women/life. (As woo-woo as it seems) He’s not teaching it just to men get laid, it’s different, it’s about loving women/feminine energy without agenda at first place.
If you get laid, enter relationships because of the spirit he’s talking about, great! It will just amplify your love. And to be honest, it’s not a book just about dating, relationships and women.
It’s a book about aliveness, love, creativity, metaphysical relating, poetry, appreciation.
It’s a book about healing and to the end, you will end up loving reality entirely.
So, it’s a spiritual way of living, appreciating yourself and women, beautiful communion, authentic communication and relating.
 
 

I just tested out Google Bard’s new Google Lens integration. Yes, you can now Bard analyze pictures for you!:
 
 

@mr_engineer Now I’m understanding the “engineer” in your nickname.
Are you an engineer?
If so, dude, I’m on STEM also. (Computer Scientist)
You have a map of reality so rigid about women and you believe it fucking hard.
You wouldn’t believe how hard-working/intelligent girls I’ve met on clubs.
Architects, Engineers, Designers, Nurses.
I’m talking about stunning woman. (Search for @provocateurpoa on Instagram).
You don’t need to go to a club.
Question your map of reality.
I encourage you to read:
The Book of Not Knowing - Peter Ralston The Alabaster Girl - Zan Perrion Final question:
Do you know where your type of woman live? Generalization is fucking dangerous.

Some models that I find interesting:
Levels of Consciousness by Frederick Dodson. Meta-States Model by Michael Hall. Matrix Model by Michael Hall.

Since Ken Wilber was brought up, Stage Theories just like any other dialectical model are best thought of as 'orienting generalizations'. In that they can be quite helpful for understanding the broad strokes of a particular domain, but run into trouble when they get Absolutized into an iron law of Reality.
This is of course also true of postmodernism (where critiques of Stage Theory come from), in that it's true in some important ways but is also a very partial understanding of Reality.
For my own part, my experience has been that Stage Theories are useful for thier ability to contextualize some of the dynamics of a given domain, but become problematic when used as the primary lens one uses to understand Reality, in that Stage Models are especially susceptible to being used as a form of epistemic bypassing.
When not used with care they can tempt us into thinking that we understand far more about Reality than we actually do; which is why it's important to cultivate epistemic humility, especially when one is using dialectical models.

@mr_engineer Real the book, Integral Relationships. 

If you already have experience with fasting I would definitely kickstart the practice by not eating for the first few days.
I just meditate on my bed, without backsupport, in a cross legged position. At least most days. 
If someone else is home I usually just spend 4 hours during the day + 4 hours during the night meditating. I still work on clients projects even during retreats so I only get about 4 hours of sleep. Which is not a problem because mindfulness => meditation => wakefulness.
On the days where I dont waterfast I do IF.
I drink water whenever I am thirsty. Ideally there should be a period before and after food where you dont drink (1 hour is enough) to aid digestion.
Mostly kasina. Mixed with weed and sometimes holotropic breathing. Tonight I did a LSA, HHC and holotropic breathing trip while meditating from 21:00 to 3:00 AM. I am not even on retreat, just had some spare time. 
Also, if your concentration is already strong enough you should listen to dharma stuff in the background as a peripheral object that gives you transmission at the same time.
Yeah, I talk to people.
I am used to having very intense experiences often, so I do not really take many precautions. Just feel it out and adjust as I go.
I do about two of these for 1 - 4 weeks per year. 

PASSIVELY WATCH
Any effort to solve a problem keeps it going. The next time you have a crisis, here’s what to do. Find a nice quiet place all alone. Relax. Passively watch what’s going through your mind. When you are watching passively, seeing these thoughts, have no concern as to what they are. You need not be concerned. You are standing aside watching them. Now you know who the devil is, what temptation is.
The devil is running thoughts through your mind, telling you to get up, go somewhere, to another room, for example. If we do, he’s got us. The temptation is to slouch, get depressed, get agitated, and forget what you are supposed to do. What we’re supposed to do is to watch. The passive watcher has no problems at all, but we want to fight, dramatize everything.

Some resources to become a Maker/Inventor:
Hackaday - https://hackaday.com/ Hackster - https://www.hackster.io/ Instructables - https://www.instructables.com/projects  Adafruit Industries - https://www.adafruit.com/ Make - https://makezine.com/ Arduino - https://www.arduino.cc/ Raspberry Pi - https://www.raspberrypi.com/

Nice story, thanks for sharing. Don't worry, you're in a good place for only 25. You got plenty of time to make those needed adjustments to your career and lifestyle. Don't try to do everything at once. Spend a few years getting your career in order. Spend a few years doing pickup. Spend a few years on your health and fitness. And spend a few years on spirituality and awakening. Then 10 years from now it will all come together in a beautiful way for you.
Yes, developing financial independence is a huge foundational step that enables everything else. So give yourself a few years to work on that. Be patient. It will be worth the investment.

@Harman I'd say work on taking a growth mindset. Everything you do towards a goal is an experiment. There is no winning or failure, only feedback.
Its feedback and reflecting on the feedback that is really valuable.
I'd recommend focusing on valuing getting feedback over achieving a positive result. This is called being process-oriented rather than results oriented. For example, if your goal was to practice your tennis swing you could approach it in a process-oriented or results-oriented manner.
The results-oriented manner would be that you set the goal of achieving a certain result in the world, i.e. hitting the ball over the net 60% of your shots. You therefore reward yourself when you get the specific certain result. 
The process-oriented manner would be that you set the goal of just taking certain actions, i.e. hitting 20 shots, and each 5 shots reflecting on one effective thing you think you are doing, and one ineffective thing. You therefore reward yourself when you take a certain action.
The results-oriented approach is destined to be less sustainable than the process-oriented approach in my opinion. Because you will have lots of emotional ups and downs because whether you hit your goal will change day to day. And you will have a tougher time dealing with frustration. The key issue is that you don't have total control over whether you hit your goal. So your metric of success is something you don't have full control over.
With the process-oriented approach, you have total control over whether you meet your goal each time. You will have less emotional ups and downs because your goal is just to practice effectively, rather than to achieve a certain external outcome. And, all you need to do is practice effectively and results will come.
So, in my recommendation, the key is to focus your goals on the process.
-------
A book recommendation is 'Atomic habits' by James Clear.

To school, I bring an apple, a little container of nuts/seeds, a spring mix salad with peeled carrots, pepper, and sprouted greens on top, and a thermos full of either chickpeas or lentils (that I put on top of my salad).