wingsofwax

I too am a Schopenhauer fan, but I have to ask; how do you feel about his thoughts on women? Read "On Women" if you haven't I couldn't help but notice that your screen name includes a Ms.

I think I know what you're saying. But as the Buddha pointed out, you must develop great concentration, great insight (wisdom) and great morality. It is true that no test will help you improve concentration or wisdom, but it just might help you develop a better sense of morality. And that's the focus of this test. I think we have to be careful about having a nihilistic approach. Sure, in the end, nothing matters - but if you can choose between being a good person or the opposite, choosing the latter seems the more evolved choice. But that's just me.

I'd like to hear about your experience with this test. I've had several friends take it, and I have to say, the test really can reveal stuff about yourself that you need to know. If you don't know your weak areas, how can you possibly work on them? So it's not really about making you feel bad about your flaws. It's about seeing your potential. Please, share your insights.

By the way, you should take the long 90-item questionnaire to see what areas you need to work on when it comes to moral development. If you only take the 30-item version, you will only get an overall estimation of your Dark Factor, which isn't really that helpful.

This personality test will probably be of interest to anyone seeking moral development. I've taken the test, and it is reminiscent of the Big Five (5 factor OCEAN test)-personality test and seems to be of equal quality. The test is free. (The following is copy-pasted from https://qst.darkfactor.org/) Determine your Dark Factor Ethically, morally, and socially questionable behavior is part of everyday life. Psychologists use the umbrella term "dark traits" to subsume personality traits that are linked to these classes of behavior — most prominently, Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy (among many others). The Dark Factor of Personality (D) specifies what all dark traits have in common, i.e., their common core. D is defined as the tendency to maximize one's individual utility — disregarding, accepting, or malevolently provoking disutility for others —, accompanied by beliefs that serve as justifications. Put simply, individuals high in D will ruthlessly pursue their own interests, even when it negatively affects others (or even for the sake of it), while having beliefs that justify these behaviors. https://qst.darkfactor.org/

Thank you all. Can you say something about which psychedelic will be most helpful considering my situation? Do they all create the same result?

I've been wondering about my next step is in my spiritual development. My current plan is simply to continue my current regimen, but if anyone has any suggestions, I am open to them. I'm thinking that psychedelics might be a good idea for me. Let me describe my situation. I've been meditating daily (1 hour minimum) for close to 2 years now and have developed a good level of concentration. I'm doing concentration meditation with intermittent bouts of insight meditation. I'm also doing yoga on a daily basis - simple poses like those described by Gary Weber. I'm reading a lot. Maybe half of Leo's book list. Currently reading Daniel Ingram's Mastering the core teachings of the Buddha, and it is amazing. Perfect for me at this point. I've had some spiritual experiences (6 months of kriyas), but no real direct experience of non-duality. So what other parameters are important when figuring out if psychedelics are right for me?

Thank you all for your input. It was indeed helpful. I do believe that Leo is right; what I was experiencing were kriyas. If nothing else, the experience provided me with a curiosity that will probably ensure that I will meditate for the rest of my life. The next step for me will be to experience non-duality directly. I understand it intellectually - as much as that is possible - but I have yet to have a direct experience of it. I wonder if psychedelics is the way to go.

Like many other meditators, I've had some weird experiences, but there is one in particular that I'd like to get your opinion on. I'm not claiming that what happened to me is unique in any way, but it is sufficiently strange that I can't really find much information about it online. Maybe there's someone on this forum that can either relate or shed some light on the subject. I'm tryinog to keep this relatively short. I began a daily one-hour meditation in the beginning of last year, and after about a month, something very odd happened to me. During a session, my head began to move on its own, or at least, that is how it felt to me. It was a very curious sensation, and while I was able to stop the movement, it required intense resistance, so I simply let the movements happen. They began to increase in intensity, and soon I was rolling around on the floor doing what I later realized were spontaneous yoga poses. My body was moving, but I wasn't really in control. This lasted for maybe 2 hours, and there was a sense of wonder but also disbelief and a little fear, because I had no idea what was going on. I decided to keep my head cold and simply explore what was happening. The next day, it happened again during meditation, and I found out that I could access this state simply by kneeling on the carpet and just letting go of control. My body would take over and go into stretches and poses. I began experimenting with letting go of control this way. It turns out that when you let the body do whatever it wants, it apparently wants to sit around and do nothing most of the time. This continued for maybe 6 months, and then the intensity of the experience began to fade, and i began focusing more on my regular meditation practice. I've left out much in the interest of brevity, but I hope this gives you a general picture. Has anyone heard about this sort of experience before? The closest phenomenon I've read about seems to be a kundalini awakening, and those spontaneous yoga poses might have been kriya yoga, but really, I have no clue. Any information will be appreciated.

There are currently 3 books under the systems thinking section on Leo's list, and only one deals with spiral dynamics as personal development directly, as far as I can tell. Leo did mention he would add more soon, though. However, I think I found a book on the list that fits the bill. I won't mention the title, but I did find the following 1+ hour youtube video that deals directly with the topic:

Having read Don Beck's Spiral Dynamics Integral, it seems obvious that there is a lot of potential for personal development, but the book doesn't focus on the personal growth stuff as much as I'd like. So I've been looking for books or long-form resources that deal with this topic. Unfortunately, I've been unable to find any that deal specifically with it. Ken Wilber has written a ton of books that refer to SD. Can anyone recommend one that goes into detail on moving from one "stage" to the next? I'm particularly interested in yellow and its neighbors. Thanks in advance.

Thank you, I will give that a go, although I don't remember it from the list. Any other recommendations? Thanks!

Hi, I love the video Leo did about being an emotional superconductor, and I want to read more about it. I bought the book list, but there's a lot of books, and it isn't clear which one deals directly with this topic. I looked at the books under emotional mastery, but couldn't tell which one the information came from. I know we have to keep the titles hidden, so maybe just refer to book number X under section Y. Other book recommendations are welcome, naturally. Thanks in advance.

Thanks, Seeker_of_truth, that was helpful. I knew I couldn't be the only one having this kind of issue with the breath. Focusing on other objects than the breath does help, although it is a temporary measure, since the breath is such a powerful object to meditate on. I did some pulse counting, which was very powerful, and also some "egg timer metronome"-meditation, where I was counting the ticks of an egg timer. That took me out of my head and away from the breath quite effectively, but it didn't really work that well for anything else. I think the solution is simply to accept the discomfort and associated worry and integrate it into the meditation. Hopefully it will resolve itself soon. The yoga exercise was the sun salutation - done badly by an eager amateur (me)

I've been meditating daily for some months now and have developed some issues with my breathing during meditation. I did some yoga exercises that caused some ribcage muscle pain (intercostal muscle pain), which caused breathing to be painful. This made my breathing during meditation erratic, since the body would try to avoid expanding the painful parts of the ribcage. The pain has almost gone now, but I am left with a breath that is irregular. I went through a period where I couldn't help try to control the breath instead of simply watching it, which is still an issue that needs work. I still tend to focus to intensely on the breathing instead of simply being aware of it. My plan is to let it be and simply let the breathing correct itself over time, but I wanted to hear if anyone else have had this problem, and if there are some tips that could help me. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks.