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@krazzer I'll be damned! Thanks for sharing that. I didn't know he used to be an acadmeic.

@ctro That's a good idea! I amn't strict with it, but I do rarely watch TV or go seeking out news.

@xeeky4 Look further into that urge. It could be very revealing, if you're really honest. Why do you want it? Is it because it seems like the right path, the only path? Is it because you want to escape your life in this existence? Is it because somebody told you it's the ultimate state of bliss and you can use this to escape your family and depression? Even if this is a legit urge, you should do some deep, deep inner work before thinking about going down the spiritual route, I think going to therapy to sort out your emotional problems and family problems is a good first step. You need to get your garden looking tidy first - by that I mean your basic everyday level of happiness, productivity, self-esteem, etc. Depression is incredibly debilitating from my experience and a person experiencing it shouldn't even consider looking for enlightenment. It may be a message from your psyche that you need to change shit around in your life, it certainly was for me, looking back. Yield to that message and make basic positive changes which seem right to you - hobbies, relationships, diet etc. Over time, along with therapy, this will cleanse you. It's good that you're starting from scratch in this way - you can ditch a lot of the junk in your life without the old ties to it. Keep your meditation habit, this will help you to build up mindfulness over your depressive emotions and thoughts and could also act as a soother, a salve for you depending on the technique. I would ditch the contemplation for now, that's probably not going to help you. Most of all, remember that anyone's advice on here is just one person's opinion on your life, a complete stranger giving you advice based on very little information. Follow your inner drives first and foremost. There is a drive in you that will pull you out of all this, if you allow it.

@Surrealist I would advise abandoning spirituality for now, I can't see it being effective. This includes meditation. Even things like basic PD won't do much to help you. I think you need to go straight to eliminating those patterns of thinking and slowly begin to purge it all. You may have already tried this in your life but I would highly, highly suggest you go to a psychiatrist/psychologist, they can help you to really unearth all this. I don't know your daily routine or obligations you have, but let me tell you that emotional well-being should be number 1 to you - if that means leaving your job going to a mental home, fine. If that means expensive therapy, fine. Put it first and foremost for now.

@bworkman708 That's true, I think there probably is that knowledge to an extent. I just don't think these people - even down to the cameramen - realise the effect of such negative information on themselves and the world. If they did, something within them would click and they'd feel morally unaligned. In my opinion.

@Leo Gura Thanks, I'll have a closer look into that. I have come to realise just how unhealthy most of society really is for our human machine. It's difficult to reconcile - a lot of spiritual teachers emphasis pure love and acceptance, but when I look at this stuff, it's so obviously born from a place of ignorance and of cultural patterns and conditioning that it's hard to love and accept. I don't feel emotionally triggered by it per se but I feel disillusioned and something within me knows it's all a farce.

@DoubleYou That's not quite Do Nothing meditation. There's nothing in the Do Nothing technique that says you need to be aware or conscious of anything. You don't even need to be aware that you're meditating. The technique is about surrendering entirely. This includes surrending the need to be a good meditator. Sometimes during Do Nothing I forget that I'm even alive, let alone remaining aware of resistance or body sensations etc. @spicy_pickles I do recommend the Do Nothing technique for your purposes. Use Shinzen Young's or Leo's YouTube video for instructions.

@Joseph Maynor If you trip with an intention of investigating your beliefs, and the shrooms respond in kind, you will probably realise that most, if not all of them, are not actually true in any way. For example, I used to really love maths and science. On shrooms I saw that these things can't even come close to explaining reality, and that ALL the theory was ultimately groundless. Even the times tables. Shrooms unceremoniously ripped away my emotional investment in these subjects.

This is an old video from Leo, so he may not think it's one of his best! I disagree however. This is one of Leo's best videos. I keep revisiting it every few months just to keep myself grounded and always aware of my own faults. As you grow on this journey, you will almost encounter somebody everywhere you go that is breaking the habits you use and the theory you know and have applied. You will actually first hand see how people are destroying their lives. It's incredible. The message of this video is to continually turn back inward when you see people like this. Instead of trying to change them, you realise this is like trying to make concrete float, and use their behaviour to grow yourself. If you can start to pick up on all of the bad habits and patterns people around you have, you will have MANY opportunities to introspect. You won't even need to independently determine your own flaws, this technique provides you will almost all of them! You are probably still behaving like these people to an extent unless you're a PD God. Go check out the video, it's extremely powerful. And I thank you for it @Leo Gura

I've meditated for almost a year now and a lot of it is still worrying, being anxious, being judgemental etc. But the difference is that I do not let the thoughts bother me so much. Unless they are part of practical thinking, the content goes largely unnoticed. I almost laugh at them at times because I know that negative voice has a job. That's fine, it's trying to make a living. But you must keep it failing miserably at this job

@phoenix666 Yeah I do it, but don't get me wrong, I'm not a master at it by any means! I've got a long way to go. I think it's just from practising meditation a lot, I'm becoming more attuned to my thoughts and emotions with time. It's a natural consequence. Shinzen Young likes to use the analogy of driving a car: at first you can only drive a car on empty road, very slowly, with somebody instructing you, and it involves a lot of concentration and effort. But after years of driving you can drive for hours on end, at high speed, on busy roads, while talking and thinking about other things, with very little effort. The same goes for mindfulness. Eventually it becomes second nature. I guess I'm maybe leaving the empty road at this moment!! How long have you practised meditation? At the moment I only use it during times where there's negative emotions or words being exchanged, and use those moments to prepare the words I will say, but I speak less so that I don't fuel the fire. If it's general conversation I'm usually not too mindful unless there's judgements or gossip arising within me or through the words of other people, and I will slip into mindfulness quite a lot. The only way to truly know is to get there yourself!

@phoenix666 That's a very cool video, thanks! So intense presence is the order of the day. I find that I actually fall into meditation a lot when I'm around people arguing or angry, agitated people. I notice thoughts/emotions/sensations which invite me to get involved with that negativity, and am able to observe and watch them drift away. Something to practice and continue to practice.

Your appreciation of it will just keep growing and growing They very much are. You creative your own reality.

Hey guys Been doing some research in the past couple days - watching YouTube videos, reading articles, and I watched Forks Over Knives. There seems to be a lot of evidence that a WFPB diet is the healthiest diet one can have, and I think I've been convinced. My diet is pretty healthy (I don't live in the US) as it is, and I stay away from processed and refined food for the most part, but I do eat a fair amount of animal products. The research I did woke me up a bit. There are plenty of sources and research which say that we need meat, fish, some dairy, etc. But then there's other people that say if it crawled, had legs, could eat and walk around, don't touch it! So, unsurprisingly, I don't know what to believe! Has anyone here gone on a WFPB diet? What kind of benefits have you had? Have you had any health issues? Have you researched into it? Share your knowledge! @Leo Gura what are your thoughts on this? I get the impression from your videos that you don't eat many animal products.

@phoenix666 I guess, it's your fuel for your whole life! My diet now seems like yours was except perhaps a little bit better. On the surface I'd say yours was not a horrendous diet - a lot of people don't even eat fruit! Thanks for the advice. I think I'll give it a try for 4 weeks.

@Whoami3 This technique involves momentarily getting a taste of the item in a state of high concentration. You need to focus on what you've labelled for a good 5-7 seconds, and if your mind wanders during that, bring it back. You could intentionally not focus on each object and just label everything, but I'm not sure that would grow your concentration very much.

@phoenix666 That's very cool! Even above meditation (assuming you do)? What was your diet like before? I'm starting to prefer anecdotal evidence to hard studies because there are many, many other factors involved, and having done quantitative research myself I know how numbers can be twisted/interpreted in many ways. Also there is A LOT of disagreement on this subject, even amongst hardcore researchers. I thank you for the sources however The anecdotal evidence is strongly in favour of this diet. I am thinking of trying it for 4 weeks and then making a more permanent decision. Have you experienced any deficiencies with the diet? I've heard Vitamin B12 is a big issue, from some sources.

@Leo Gura Or Jupiter I've heard that potatoes are fine as long as they're cooked in a healthy way and not got all the additions like salt and butter in it. Reality is grey...

@randomancer If you don't feel comfortable doing 1.5g, that's fine and I wouldn't force yourself to do more than you are comfortable with. But with the amount of meditation you've done, your circumstances in life, and the preparation you're doing, I'd say it's very likely you're going to have a great time and have no problem with 1.5g. I'm not sure 1g will really do that much. 1.5g was my first dose, I wasn't tripping that hard, but man it was one of the most insightful experiences of my life. Check out my report, it might help you to decide:

@PukkaDanks In my humble opinion, if you'd stuck to around 4 core techniques and used one per session, you'd have experienced many, many more benefits by now and naturally be meditating more each day! However, I've only been meditating for 11 months so my viewpoint is limited. Occasionally I do just set the timer and don't intentionally do anything, which isn't even the Do Nothing technique - I just sit and experience whatever arises. But 99% of the time I choose a technique out of the 3/4 I enjoy and stick to it for the whole sit. It's worked well for me so far.

@Delinkaaaa Thanks for the info. I've been quite hesitant to try lucid dreaming, what effects has it had on your life?

@phoenix666 It is a lot but man, the effects are phenomenal. A big week of meditation boosts your practice so much! On a retreat you should be looking to do at least 50 hours in a week. It's the perfect setting for it That's very cool, it seems like we've both had very similar experiences with dreams! Stuff from the past comes up during meditation too, particularly during Do Nothing. I don't take the thoughts or dream seriously, and it makes me happy to know that it might be that shit getting worked through. PS: Shinzen Young talks about the taste of purification that meditation gives you from working through the past in many of his sources. A quick Google is good

Oh yup. Last week I meditated for 25 hours and man my dreams the last couple of nights have been crazy! They are generally quite crazy due to my habit I think anyways. I've not done any research but my little idea is that it's digging up a lot of unconscious shit, especially memories. Your dreams are a reflection of this process. My reason for this belief is that A LOT of old stuff comes up in my dreams - people I used to be close with, old girlfriends, old activities, etc. We should get together and do a research project

@randomancer Good to see more people trying shrooms! Once you've taken them, your stigma of many drugs will disappear for good First of all, up the dosage. I know it's your first trip but you're well prepped for it. You seem mature and with good intentions. Go with 1.5g my man Don't eat for 6 hours before you eat the shrooms if you can. If you need a snack have something very small just to tide you over. Meditate for at least 1 hour during the day before you take them, and meditate after you've eaten them until you start tripping. A calm mind is very conducive to a good trip, and the mindfulness you've built up will help A LOT if you have negative thoughts during the trip No technology during the trip, except maybe listening to music. But you've only got 6 hours or so of possibly the biggest insights you've ever had in your life being fired at you. You will want to make it count - watching movies or TV is a HUGE distraction from these insights and remembering them for after the trip. I'm fairly sure that the feeling of boredom will not arise for you anyway if you're doing proper inner work. If you have spiritual experiences, it's tempting to watch spiritual videos to confirm what you're experiencing, but enjoy the raw experience and wait until after the trip to confirm etc. If going outside feels good and the right thing to do at the time, I'd do it. Might open up more insights for you. If I think of more I'll come back with it. I'd love to see a trip report!

The more I meditate; the more I get in touch with the basic fact I'm a human being; and the more I let go of my old ways, the more I see just how INCREDIBLY destracting our modern, "Western" lives are. Almost from morning until night it's just distraction, distraction, distraction. Distraction from what? The fact that we are human beings. We are just creatures. We only need the bare essentials. Our two main, most basic concerns are really survival and reproduction, and helping other humans and other animals to do so, without jeopardising our own needs. But when I look around me, when I'm sitting in my house even, that's not what I see. Our lives do not promote these basic needs; it masks them, denies them even. Let me discuss the most basic things, say food, water, clothing, shelter. A lot of the food sold in supermarkets is terribly bad for us, it weakens the quality and longevity of our survival, but we eat it anyway because we are lazy, and because we seek easy pleasure. Water - a lot of the water we drink is delivered in very unhealthy forms - fizzy juice, alcohol, juices with colouring and flavouring, you name it. All of that is distraction from why we must drink water- for survival. Modern clothing is a distraction. All the brands which go around, the newest trainers, the coolest snapback, the best suit. All distractions from our basic need to protect our body from the cold and from overheating. But what about shelter? We have great houses, they have everything we need, we get water delivered here, we can store food. No - houses have become a badge of honour, a place which we can hoard all our lovely, distracting belongings, where we can watch our TV, eat our crappy food, titillate ourselves, and we can use our house to judge others about their house. All we really need is a basic hut. I could go on, and on, and on. I'm not saying these are evil things we've created. Some of it is functionally effective. But man, once you see past them, you stop being a slave to them. You see through the delusion, the distraction from truly living a human life. I certainly used to be a slave, I still am, but I'm starting to see how much of a distraction it all is, and you can too. Peace