7thLetter

@Joseph Maynor Exactly, which is one reason why I would ask this question

@DrMobius I mean I’m asking the question to figure out where the depression came from. I was also overworked at that job and had issues with co-workers so that could’ve been a huge contributer to the depression. I don’t know a whole lot about psychedelics but I think it depends. Maybe someone could have a bad trip and then they get depressed, maybe they took it and became conscious of their inner demons or the harsh truth of reality and then they get depressed. A lot of possibilities out there. No matter if they’re “normally healthy” or not. But I do believe “bad trips” are a reflection of someone who is going through something or maybe even just in a bad mood.

@Outer To experiment, and to further my inner development.

@Outer Saw some video bout some guy talking about the benefits of mico-dosing. He mentioned it was good for his performance in his physical activity, etc. So I went and experimented with that and took it before the gym which didn’t help at all. Made me pretty anxious and felt like everyone in the gym was staring at me

@fabriciom Its not that I don’t understand what you’re talking about, its just that you made some typos so it wasn’t clear. I haven’t read a book that focuses mainly on the ego itself, but I do have some understanding of the whole thing based on my own experiences, other people and many videos. So I do understand that my complex analysis tends to be my own mental projection. It could be because of my interest in psychology and philosphy. It could be my personality, the current paradigm I live in, also it could be that its entertaining to me. Its fun so why not? I like being able to understand reality and other people. Didn’t say you can’t participate in the forums if you don’t watch the videos. Just asking how could you be here without watching the videos. Sure I will take that suggestion from now on. Although I did make a post replying to the OP if you didn’t see that one above, and he hasn’t replied so, oh well.

Some slaves don’t know that they are slaves. It takes consciousness to be able to see and understand that. Also it is very easy to try and justify being a slave rather than to accept the harsh cold truths. “Yeah passive income is great but its difficult, therefore I won’t work towards it. Besides, I love my job anyway!” I think the whole point of the video is that, you have no time to work on personal development workinrg 9-5. “But I’ve had some spiritual experiences in my office!” Good job, but if you created passive income for yourself then you could take the inner work even DEEPER. I’m not judging in any way though. I’m going to be honest, I just started working a full-time 9-5 job last month for the first time. I’m 22. But my goal is to leave as soon as I’ve built enough wealth for myself to even do so through side projects. But I’m going to be honest with myself, I know that I’m a slave, a sheep, because I’ve been working hourly jobs for a couple years now. And who am I working for? Not myself but for someone else who is creating their own financial freedom for themselves. We are just tiny investments for him/her to be able to do so. All we get is little crumbs of bread. That is the first step, understand and accept that you are a slave. That way you won’t try to justify it and then you can start to work on something even greater.

If your life is 100% perfect the way it is right now and you are completely happy then so be it. But the fact that you are here and watching all those videos tells me that you’re seeking something more, and seeking help.

Try sitting in your bed literally doing nothing for 30 minutes then work your way up to an hour, 2 hours, and so on. No sleeping. Try doing this every single day for a month. If you fail you’re addicted. If you don’t, you have some self-control and you will be able to develop even more self-control in yourself by doing this process.

@fabriciom Nothing you said there was clear. Your sentences are not complete. But you are right about recognising something in someone else because you recognise it in yourself. That is true to some extent, but that doesn’t have to mean I CURRENTLY have that psychological dysfunction in myself. It could mean that I was that way in the past, I grew out of it and now I can see it in others. Ignorant people can’t really see the ignorance in others and themselves, they would have to grow out of their own ignorance to be able to see it around them. I have a feeling you are ignoring the importance of the psychological aspect of reality. Embodying the Spiritual practices are great but its good to understand and embody psychological practices as well. You will be lost if you only pursue one. So I would recommend you watch Leo’s videos and applying them. How could you be on Actualized.org forums without watching his videos?

@fabriciom I never said anything about anything being magical with unicorns and rainbows or walking on water. You’re making so many assumptions here. I ask those questions because there’s a lot of guys out there who tend to tend to have this “spiritual ego” where they tend to lie to themselves and create an identity around being enlightened only because they watch spiritual related videos and do psychedelics and read the power of now by eckhart tolle. So I’m just trying to make sure you’re not one of those guys. But the fact that you commented that “there is no such thing as your life” tells me that you don’t understand perspectives. You think that telling someone that will allow them to grow and to be like “oh! That gave me an epiphany about the meaning of reality now I’m enlightened thanks for your comment!” To most people that doesn’t make any sense and telling them won’t allow them to come to that realization. So that’s another reason why I question you, maybe you just finished watching Leo’s Enlightenment videos and suddenly you think you’re enlightened. But if you really did have some spiritual experiences and that is the place that you authentically come from then great, but telling everyone deep truths like that won’t help them suddenly grow out of nowhere.

Social conditioning. Why do people talk with accents? Strong chinese accents? British accents? American accents? Australian accents? Because they got that from other people. Think about it, if you look at someone who was born in Australia and developed a strong AUSSIE accent, they developed that accent because of the people around them. But if you took that same exact person and let them be born and grow up in Seattle, Washington, and in an American family, they would have an American accent. Tell me, why the heck do asians from Sydney, Australia have such strong aussie accents? Why do people go to School to get a degree so they can get a stable job and work 9-5? Cause everyone around them is doing that shit. Why is there higher crime rates in other cities and countries compared to others? Social conditioning. They've all been exposed to someone stealing their shit, getting jumped, seeing other people's shit get stolen, seeing it on the news, so now they're gonna take that as the norm and do it to other people. Lower crime rate cities? They haven't been exposed to crime as much so that's a main reason why it doesn't happen as often. Why are there more "celebrities" in Hollywood? Cause they have been exposed to others seeing success, so if they can do it then anyone can do it. At the same time why are there so many hobos around Sunset and Vine? Because psychologically dysfunctional people hang out with other dysfunctional people and do drugs together or other shit and end up there. Also the fact that there's so many hobos in that area, causes other people to walk by and get subconsciously affected by those hobos and 2 years later they turn into a hobo. Its also said that there's a lot of materialistic fake people in Hollywood so that affects other people to be fake to other people in order to gain more money for themselves. Ever heard the term "clout chasers"? People often use other people in order to gain fame for themselves, and other people turn into clout chasers and it all becomes a whole mess. "Well what's wrong with it???" How did you get to where you are at now? Because you grew up in the environment that you were born into, and interacted with specific people for several years. And the social conditioning hasn't even ended until your life is over. It's still going to happen subconsciously when you wake up the next morning and go to work or school or whatever you do, and interact with more people and see what is happening around you. There is nothing "wrong" with it, but in order to create a more fulfilling and a self-actualized life then not depending on society is pretty much necessary for that. There is nothing "wrong" about anything, it just all depends on your perspective. From a rapist's perspective there is nothing wrong with rape, but from another person's perspective they might think that's wrong. From the average human being's perspective, there is nothing wrong at all about depending on society cause they've been doing that shit their whole life. From a much more 'evolved' perspective so to speak, that wouldn't be the best way to live your life. You wouldn't be able to think for yourself, you're just letting other people think for you and live your life for you. You might as well just hand your life over to society, so all you have control over is your eyes so you can see your life being controlled by other people.

Crazy how people who make these jokes probably actually make these excuses and objections. I had a good friend from highschool who was into Leo's videos as well and he made a joke about staying in the village when you should be on a hero's journey. I was like, "you gotta be on the hero's journey." My friend was like "no, just stay in the village." Btw Leo talks about the "Hero's Journey" in his Life Purpose course for anyone who doesn't get the reference. Based on recent conversations with him, I'm sure he only cares about staying in the village. Although he does watch Leo's videos, but for entertainment.

@fabriciom Are you saying that because you discovered some amazing theory that you heard through a video? Or did you actually go through several mystical and spiritual experiences for yourself?

Sometimes I often find myself looking at the lives of human beings from an outside perspective. From the perspective of a human being, its so meaningless for us to see thousands of ants die in front of our lives under some magnifying glass or in some water. Its also pretty meaningless to us when we see those bee exterminators on Youtube destroy the hell out of a huge beehive, the bees get angry, the exterminator vacuums the bees into some liquid that causes them to die, takes their honey, and kills the queen and all the eggs. To the bees that must be some devastating shit. To us, it's like who cares those bees created a huge beehive on my fucking property, kill them all. Because from our perspective, all we care about is ourselves. So what about mass shootings? What happened in Vegas? In the schools? That shit is terrifying for us. But what about from the outside perspective? Meaningless. If reality is infinite, and science hasn't discovered all the planets due to a lack of resources, then imagine what is out there. There could be a planet much bigger than Earth with humans 2.0 who learn 2x faster, grow muscles 2x faster, 80% of them are psychologically healthy, their overall environment is healthy, with insects and animals 2.0 with fucking nature 2.0. Expand your imagination even further, humans 3.0 on planet Earth X. Our Earth must just be a spec of sand you find on the beach. I also think of huge events, concerts, sporting events, and raves. They're as meaningless as those thousands of huge ants with wings flying around in the spring and summer time. What about materialistic things? To us its all great, but its not different than an ant discovering a tiny piece of sugar and bringing it to his little ant hole to share with his little ant friends

This video helped me a lot. I used to eat wholewheat sandwiches that contained eggs, mayo, processed turkey bacon, and hashbrowns every single day for YEARS. I thought that was being healthy but it wasn't. A lot of the time we are unaware of what is in our food, so this video will really open your mind up to what is good and what is not. Here's what I usually eat on a daily basis Breakfast: Oatmeal with some brown sugar, one or two egg whites, peanut butter made with 100% peanuts, organic chocolate almond milk, and a sliced banana. All in one bowl. These days I'm choosing to buy organic oatmeal. In the video Leo mentions gluten-free oatmeal which I might look to buy as well. Lunch: I will usually eat chicken thighs with added flavoring + rice. Not the healthiest thing but for me I'm in the gym 5 days a week so this meal is a good source of protein and carbs, plus its filling, juicier than chicken breast, and taste amazing. Sometimes I will also make some pasta, but again looking to get as much protein and carbs as possible. My pasta would usually contain brown rice pasta, broccoli, chickpeas, turkey hotdogs, angus beef meatballs, marinara sauce, some mayo, and black pepper to top it off. Then another regular lunch I would have is a piece of juicy salmon which should have some squeezed lemon over it, topped off with some pepper and baked in the oven. And I would eat that with some broccoli and rice. Mayo for the flavor. Dinner: I'd usually eat the same salmon dinner, and same chicken thigh dinner. Then I'd also eat some homemade japanese style beef curry along with some rice. Snacks: Sometimes I'd have a couple snacks throughout the day. Larabars are a good protein bar for me, they also don't contain that many ingredients which is good. A bowl of blueberries, banana, and mango. Sometimes I'd have some more of my oatmeal. And sometimes I'd buy a small wholewheat burger from A&W. This is my diet, not incredibly the healthiest diet but better than most. I do my best to look to eat healthy but this is just what I eat because I mainly look for good sources of protein and carbs because that's what is important for me in order to build my muscles and performance in the gym. And I'd rarely eat any junk food these days.

That is right, you could have been born blind, born in the worst part of Africa or China, born physically disabled, born without any senses, etc. Life is too beautiful to dwell on your personal problems. I have a similar story as well, quiet and socially awkward throughout elementary and highschool, but those struggles lead me to learn to improve my life in every way possible. I'd definitely say it all was a blessing in disguise. I honestly don't think I would work to improve my life as much if I was born in a rich family, naturally great with girls, etc.

Just thought this would be interesting to share, maybe to anyone who is thinking about trying to 'change' any friends or family around them. So I've been friends with this guy for a couple years now, I met him through MLM or Network-Marketing, or a pyramid scheme, whatever you want to call it. At first we didn't talk much, but then some time flew by and we both quit the business. Then several months later, coincidentally I bumped into him at an RSD pickup seminar with RSD Todd as the guest speaker. Long story short we started gaming together for a while, then eventually I didn't go out as much because I didn't see the value in pickup anymore. During this time I've always been meditating and listening to all of Leo's videos. Since I stopped gaming, I haven't been hanging out with this friend as often. But then recently we linked up again and went out to the club for a couple nights. I've always had the idea of starting a podcast and needed someone to do it with me so I asked him. At first I thought he was only going to do one podcast with me talking about his pickup journey, but then we ended up talking about several personal development topics. My vision for the podcast was for me to pretty much talk about the things that Leo talks about but from my perspective. So I was a bit hesitant about starting the podcast with this friend of mine because I had a feeling he won't be open to the ideas that I wanted to talk about. So we recorded a couple videos on basic personal development topics once a week with us just having a conversation on a topic, it was going pretty well. But then as the weeks went by my intuition kept telling me not to continue but we just continued anyways. Then one day, I mentioned big picture understanding and that I wanted to cover it in another video, so I did. And in that video on big picture understanding, I went really deep into it because that's the content that I wanted to have for our channel. But of course I asked him if he was ok with talking about deeper topics and he was like "yeah sure I'm down for anything." In the video I did my best to explain what I meant by big picture understanding but he didn't seem to get it. Then I kind of confused him even more by talking about Spiral Dynamics and the different stages on the model. I tried to make him understand it by giving him many examples of people who live with these certain paradigms, such as people in the pickup community or in MLM, in order for him to understand stage Orange. We went over a couple of these perspectives and later on I could see the disinterest in him so we didn't cover the whole entire model. I then asked him how he felt about the topic, and we ended the podcast a bit early. After the camera was shut off he started asking me so many questions like, "where did you get those paradigms from?" and then with all those questions, he then started to overreact. He started saying things like, "it sounds esoteric" "that stuff is toxic" "where is your research?" "it sounds ignorant" "that's the stuff RSD talks about, that's why I stopped watching them!" etc. I didn't argue with him and start throwing more ideas at him, but instead I just told him, "I knew you would act this way." and I also said, "whatever you think about an idea or any thing is based on your perspective." He agreed on that and told me he would stop judging. So at this point he calmed down and was open to feedback. I gave him some feedback and then I started packing my stuff and headed out. At this point I already told him I couldn't do the videos anymore, mainly cause of other things. So we don't have the channel up anymore if anyone is wondering. I probably made a huge mistake of going from 0 to 100 by talking about a deeper topic but I just wanted to show him a different perspective because he just always seemed to have a very strong materialistic paradigm. But I knew I can't change someone in one day by giving them some fancy ideas. I've tried to change several friends in the past too with these ideas but it doesn't work so I've learned my lesson. Also I wouldn't say that I was trying to change him but it was mainly just to discuss deep interesting topics for the podcast/videos.

@Leo Gura Hmm I definitely can see that RSD as a community will have a tough time evolving beyond Orange but personally I think that the individual instructors could evolve past Orange themselves and leave RSD to do their own thing possibly. Actualized.org definitely became something a lot more extraordinary than what RSD is

@Leo Gura I sort of thought he would be at least a little bit open to it and find it somewhat interesting since there are several similarities between Stage Yellow and Orange but I guess not. I did listen to one of your videos with you warning your audience not to try to explain Yellow to a Stage Orange person though. Although it definitely wasn't a huge mistake for me because I've learned a lot through this, and I've learned a lot more about his perspective and my own perspective. Sometimes I have a hard time trying to figure out which side I lean towards more, Yellow or Orange? So it really taught me a lot to figure out where he comes from and sort of compare it to where I come from. He definitely seems to be a pure Orange to me. I just love how accurate the model is. Reality is just so complex that its amazing how there's already an explanation for a lot of human behavior out there. By the way I'm not sure if you have been keeping up with RSD these days but I often feel like they are moving away from the stage Orange paradigm and moving towards something more evolved. Owen and Julien specifically have been talking about spirituality and more esoteric topics. I think Julien also has stopped teaching pickup and focuses more on teaching and improving the inner psychology of human beings. Which funny enough, caused my pure Orange pickup friend to stop watching RSD.

@Kosmos You're absolutely right, I gave him the cold harsh truths and he wasn't open to accepting it. I mentioned I already knew he wouldn't be open to it based on several conversations with him in the past and knowing what type of person he is, but I wanted to share it anyway. Also he has said a couple things in the past about me that has bothered me, that I felt the need to prove him wrong. Things that was said about my ideas, and how I read too many books and don't take any action. Really its just the assumptions that people make that really bother me. He also comes from a place of manipulation since he does sales and pickup, so he would always say things in a very condescending and manipulative way, but at the same time very subtle. And with all that, that kept giving me different video ideas in order to indirectly teach him another perspective and in order to correct those things in his psychology, in a sense. But then I often find it hard to be around him because of those things so that's why I decided to give up on the podcast. And yeah I want more friends who have the same interests as me but its very difficult to find people like that. So these days I just do my own thing and I actually don't have anyone I can call my close friend these days, but I'm not upset I actually love my solitude. Reminds me of what was said between me and my friend in this same situation with the whole podcast topic and after he overreacted. My friend started saying things like, "How bout we let (Someone's name) listen to this podcast and see what he thinks?" I told him that we might get the same reaction because he could be at the same level of development as my friend. Then as a rhetorical question he said, "So we would get the same thing too if we uploaded it on Youtube? People will start hating on it." Then I told him even if a million people hated on it, that doesn't prove that its wrong. He did btw come to some realization that he being closed-minded in this situation.

@Leo Gura Thought so. This was definitely the answer I was looking for. For me personally I would say I sometimes am unsure of what is a result of doing inner work, or a result of being hurt emotionally/psychologically that would cause some sort of dysfunctional behavior in me. Not saying I live a life with a ton of psychological trauma, but I'm talking about some very small things like failing so many times to attract a girl that I like, that sometimes it would hurt me emotionally. Which is why I would question my detachment, because these days I wouldn't say I pursue women as often as I used to. But am I detached from a place of fear? Or am I coming from a place of self-love? I mean that's for myself to understand because no one else knows exactly what goes on in my life but writing this really makes me think deeply about my situation. And also I often read the signs and symptoms of several mental disorders like PTSD, Schizophrenia, etc. and it would often mention a social detachment from friends and family. So it often gets me questioning about myself. But sometimes I would also question if some doctor or psychologist would diagnose a socially detached sage or monk with some mental disorder since it's so out of the ordinary for the doctors or psychologists? Okay now my post here is getting a bit ridiculous now. @Nahm It could just be the current paradigm that I am living in at the moment. I honestly just don't see the value in associating myself too much with others who don't have the same values as me. I just have a very strong belief in social conditioning. Where we are today mentally, is a result of our upbringing, who we surrounded ourselves with, what we did, etc. I mean I don't do it in some neurotic way and avoid everyone, but I will socialize with people mainly when I have the desire to. My previous workplaces were very social environments and I wouldn't say I had a lot of trouble getting along with people. Although all of that is within the workplace itself but when it comes to hanging out with people it can be difficult if we don't have a lot in common. Back to what I was saying about social conditioning, if someone talks in a condescending manner, talks crap about other people, then I don't find any value in that and of course I wouldn't want to hang out with that type of person. So I don't have too much understanding with finding love with everything and everyone. I have some understanding of what it means to accept everyone for who they are, but that doesn't mean you have to hang out with anyone. And for example if you understand and accept a girl for who she is that doesn't mean you have to be her boyfriend. There would need to be some attraction between the two. So for me to hang out with other people, I would have to find value in becoming their friend, and connect on a deep level. And if they're someone who always talks crap, great I understand how they were mentally conditioned to get to that point and its not really they're fault, I wouldn't want to be around them. @aurum Well I guess its all a matter of perspective. Leo just recently uploaded a video about that. Some will see the differences in things and some will see the similarities. I see the differences. The things Tony Robbins and Tai Lopez talks about is mainly about acquiring more externally. How to get more money and this and that. But when we look at the more spiritual esoteric teachings, that stuff won't necessarily help you achieve a whole lot externally. I often think it provides you with the opposite but with a whole lot internally. So basically Tai Lopez = external results, Leo = Internal results. I got into personal development in the first place from a place of ego. I wanted to sleep with hot girls, be more confident, get more money. But when I found Leo's channel 4 years ago and watched all his videos and applied most of it, I'd say I now value those things less and value being a whole lot more. But of course it does not get rid of external problems so we have to work jobs or do business and all that. And btw Leo himself answered my question and to me that pretty much confirms what I was talking about with you in those previous posts.

I often would think so. Constant meditation and contemplation sort of requires you to have some alone time to be able to do these things, especially to take them to an even deeper level. And the more you self-actualize, the more you increase your level of consciousness meaning the more people won't be able to understand you and your thoughts? I mean you don't necessarily have to share your deep thoughts to everyone but, sometimes it could be a little bit difficult to connect with people at an intellectually stimulating level. You can have small talk with others for the fun of it but at the same time the small talk just seems so shallow and so meaningless. Isolation seems to open up the opportunity for more introspection, while keeping your life busy on the outside would cause a whole lot of distraction. Makes me think about Leo's video "Lifestyle Minimalism". In that video he mentions that we need to slow down our life and do less. People are so focused on doing things that they don't have any time to self-reflect. Lately I've been a lot more socially withdrawn, I mean I've started seeing this in my life 1-2 years ago actually. Though I was always the introverted quiet type in elementary and high-school and rarely hung out with anyone during lunch. But I would say I always did have 1-5 close friends throughout my life. Nowadays, I've reached a point in my life where I wouldn't consider anyone my close friend. All the friends that I've had just had completely different ways of thinking than me that I sort of had to limit my interactions with them. I just think that I've been growing a whole lot internally and that its difficult to hang out with people who don't have the same values as me and share the same ideas as me. I often feel so hyper aware of people's psychological dysfunctions in their lives. I'm constantly analyzing people and what they say. Not so much to be judgemental of them but I tend to be a bit sensitive and it bothers me a whole lot when people talk in a condescending manner. But then I would also say that it bothers me when people don't have the vision and the understanding to see what I see. Cause its actually pretty rare to find anyone who has grown internally to a deeper level. I mean the best thing I've ever found in person, are entrepreneurs who do a lot of traditional self-help and tell themselves they've grown so much just because they've earned a lot of money for themselves. Anyways, asking this question because I've been a lot more socially withdrawn, that could be a sign of growth but at the same time I looked it up and it says that social withdrawal is a symptom of someone who is depressed? I wouldn't say I'm depressed though. I'm actually happy with myself and my isolation. I often go out in nature and I love sitting by the water by myself contemplating life and very deep ideas. I don't often study what monks do but my general understanding of them is that they are sort of this way too. How they would dedicate their whole lives for meditation and live in a cave or meditate at the top of a mountain. Relationships, drugs, food, sex, fun, all that stuff just seems like a complete distraction. I'm sure several other people in the self-actualization community would agree as with that as well. From my understanding, the result of self-actualization seems to help you focus on the being aspect of life rather than having and doing more. Meaning you can sit in a dark corner your whole life with nothing at all and be happy. Also meaning that as a result of all the inner work would mean you sort of have less and less, in a good way. Because less is more.

@floresflowerscgf You're definitely right, maybe I haven't given enough time for people to get into the deeper stuff. Maybe I don't ask the right questions for people to get into it. Though the questions I usually ask are me trying to figure out what they are interested in. Usually by asking them what they do on their free time or what they watch on Youtube. That usually gives it away but I would think that if they actually did have a deep interest in philosophical and psychological topics then maybe they would hide it, like me. I am rarely open about my interests with self-actualization so I would usually talk about an artist's new album or anything that a lot of people can relate to which I would also have an interest in but isn't as meaningful to me. But yeah, I guess I come from the assumption that its rare for people to pursue spirituality or self-actualization so that means almost no one around me would know about it so I bother not to ask.

I mean the fastest way to grow internally would be to do more inner work. Meaning if you want to get there as fast as possible then you would pretty much have to do the work 24/7. And the inner work means the contemplation, meditation, sitting in solitude, enjoying nature, etc. Same thing applies with everything else, if you want to get good at a sport then you would practice everyday and it helps to have a clean diet and to go to the gym. To get at pickup you have to be consistent with it and you'll get there faster if you come at it with the right approach and go out everyday and do day game + night game rather than just going out on the weekends. Let's look at Leo for example, we obviously don't know every single thing that he does in his life but personally I would imagine he tends to focus a whole lot on acquiring new insights so that he can share it on his channel and for his own personal interest and does a whole lot of meditation etc. And that takes a whole lot of work and time so I doubt that he spends time hanging out with friends and parties on the weekend. He mentioned in his videos he did pickup but I think that was dead a long time ago for him. But I guess what we do know is that he recently had a 30-day meditation retreat at home, where he basically did nothing but sit at home for 30-days. That's what you call real inner work. Now do that 24/7 and I'm pretty sure you will grow a lot quicker anyone else who isn't doing that. Course its not about talking about your favorite topic, but to have someone as a close friend I think that's pretty important. How boring would that be if you had a friend who doesn't know a thing about what you're interested in? You're basically just friends because you have the same haircut and walk the same way. Thought so. Also checked 1 or 2 of your videos and it seems to me like videos RSDJulien would make lol I mean I didn't really explain what I think what having attachments meant to me, I'd say I already have a decent understanding of what it means. But I was just trying to give you some feedback and I didn't want to be too blunt about it. So I randomly added "Wouldn't spiritual growth mean that you don't have any attachments?" Without explaining what I meant. I really hope you are open to what I think but since I get an RSD vibe off of you, I would think that you also come from a place of stage orange on the spiral dynamics model. Which is obviously not a bad thing, I would consider a huge part of me in stage orange as well, I love trading forex and pursuing money. But at the same time I want to understand self-actualization at the deepest level possible. I have my understandings, and you're coming from a different perspective so I'm trying to understand where you're coming from. But from what I've seen so far based on maybe 3-4 posts of yours, you seem to defend the things that you pursue externally. With pickup, business, friends, etc. Which is why I tried to mention detachment because I think detachment is about letting those external things go and prioritizing being. So I'm not too bought into what you are saying about how pursuing self-actualization or enlightenment wouldn't result in social withdrawal because I just feel like you're denying the harsh truth of it. And again not trying to be rude or judgemental here but just trying to understand the truth of self-actualization at its deepest level. There's surface level Tai Lopez, Tony Robbins, type personal development and then there's the deep stuff Leo talks about. I know you're a mod and all so take what I said with a grain of salt

@Serotoninluv Reminds me of what Leo said in one of his videos about how after taking some hardcore psychedelics, his results in the external world plummetted. With his business for example. I mean he seems to be very consistent with his work and his uploads so I don’t know when that ever actually happened. @aurum Well would you equate Enlightenment with becoming a hermit? I often would get Self-actualization and Enlightenment work mixed up. I usually assume people who do one would do both. Anyways, I’m not coming from a place of arrogance and thinking in the way you described with “oh I’m so conscious I can’t interact with you anymore.” I should have made that more clear because I had a feeling someone would bring something like that up. To make it simple, I guess for me personally its coming from more of a place of having difficulty finding interest in what people talk about and having the need to conserve my energy as an introvert (INTP). Who knows if its growth or not, maybe it is, maybe its not. But maybe it could just be that I’ve developed a deep interest in self-actualization topics over the years and that no other topic would be more interesting to me. If you know me personally you wouldn’t say I come from a place of arrogance and that I’m too conscious for everyone. In a workplace I would usually socialize with at least 10% of the people there daily. Only 10% cause I find it easier to talk to people who work the same position as me, and I’m not the type to make friends with everyone because of my personality. So I am friendly with most people, but I’m saying when it comes to hanging out with people, making close friends, and having deep relationships, that is not easy to come by. Also another thing about me is that I’ve worked in a lot of social settings my whole life in a ton of restaurants working the front of house. Plus I used to do pickup, so that means I used to value socialization because I’ve always wanted to improve my social skills and all that. This is just my mental projection, I honestly don’t know you personally and where you are at in your development, but I often get an RSD vibe off of you, with me being around these forums for a while. Maybe you do value the things you just listed with finding a dream partner, and all that but I feel like the even deeper work is in becoming a hermit? Wouldn’t spiritual growth mean that you don’t have any attachments? Obviously we’re all free to do whatever we want in life but I’m just here to try to understand the true inner work of self-actualization or enlightenment. Also, this is why I made this post because I truly want to understand what is going on with me. If maybe I am coming from a place of ego? Or depression? Or maybe it is a part of the self-actualization path? Stage Orange cold behavior? Maybe stage yellow cold, distant, and forgetting to connect with people because of their deep analytical thinking? Because I really don’t know.