Emerald

Why did you post my video?

At least it's a polite ego that doesn't spend hours a day hi-jacking forum threads and throwing random polemic arguments at people. I certainly am identified with ego though. I've never claimed otherwise. I know by contrast with my past experiences that I'm not enlightened. But if you really want to continue this swashbuckling match, feel free to PM me. Otherwise, don't waste my time and respectfully refrain from hi-jacking other people's threads.

I thought we agreed not to exchange words because it's a waste of time and energy. I've got nothing to share with you that you don't already know. I've been keeping my end of the agreement. But you may want to reread my comment in context as I wasn't actually talking about the third eye. I was commenting on what I believed the original comment was referring to.

I don't think he was referring to the third eye. In one of Leo's videos, he talked about us having this deeply ingrained but false idea that there is a "self" located behind the eyes or inside of the head. I've experienced this illusion too. So, the inquiry process recommends looking for a "self" there so that it can be noticed that there is no point there that could be labeled a "self."

It sounds like you're on the right track with your self-inquiry practice. The issue may be that you're used to 'knowing' how to do self-inquiry and that the process has become automatic. Also, if you hit a brick wall and get silence from your mind, this is what's supposed to happen. A really good litmus test for how effective a practice is, is if it brings you to a place where your mind can't make sense of anything. So, it sounds like you're on track but have gotten used to the process and your understanding of what "should" be happening. Continue with the process, but try approaching it with fresh eyes by getting in touch with what you expect to happen if you were being "successful" with your self-inquiry, then empty your cup of those expectations. The thing that's telling you "it's not working right." is the mind and thoughts which are not you and don't originate for you. It is trying to throw you off track, by discouraging you. It's how the "ego" preserves itself.

Look into Yin qualities. This will give you a much wider and deeper definition of femininity than our social caricature of femininity. Our social idea of femininity which is really two dimensional has more to do with how a man views femininity in a woman when looking for a mate, and not how a woman experiences her own femininity. If you want to highlight your femininity to be attractive to men, there are many resources to look into for that. Make-up tutorials and how to act like a feminine woman are great search terms for this. But the experience of femininity is so much more than about sexual attractiveness. It's about being, receptivity, natural cycles, mystery, the unconscious, the a-rational, darkness, emotions, the instinctual nature, the present moment, beauty, respect for the Earth and its creatures, unconditional love, non-heirarchical thinking, stillness, cooperation, and many other things that aren't quite celebrated in our society or even recognized as feminine. These are the things that must come up in power in order for us to solve most of our world's big problems. The masculine counterparts to these (respectively) are doing, communication, goals, clarity, the conscious, the rational, light, thought, the conditioned nature, the past and future, utility, prioritizing society and economy, conditional admiration, hierarchical thinking, movement, and competition. These can be wonderful qualities, but our culture is quite obsessed with them. So, most everyone in our society values these traits more and prioritizes them over their feminine counterparts. Boys and girls are conditioned from a young age to develop their masculine side, but are often unaware of or neglectful of developing their feminine side. But this imbalance is what causes a lot of problems on the global scale. Having said this, human beings are highly androgynous creatures. No one has only masculine or only feminine traits. All people contain a unique ratio of these traits. So, there are men who are more feminine than masculine and women who are more masculine than feminine. So, be sure to be authentic. Don't read the traits and try to fit into only the feminine mold because femininity and masculinity are pre-conditioned states. You can't really change your orientation that much. But you can choose to highlight the femininity that's already there. So, my recommendation is to read through my list of feminine qualities and find the ones that you genuinely embody, then find ways to develop and highlight those traits further.

Thank you! I was really interested in Lucid Dreaming about 12 years ago. I read a book about it and practiced a bit at some of the techniques, and was successful at have a good handful of lucid dreams. I still occasionally have them, maybe once every couple months. So, it's in my realm of experience and I do find it interesting, so I'll cover some videos on the topic in the future, but it isn't my main focus. It's similar to how OBE is for me. I've been getting them for about 14 years, so I have a bunch of experience with it... but I'm by no means an expert. I still have trouble with it sometimes. So, I put it in my videos because I know that a lot of people are interested in having an OBE and it's definitely enriched my life. That said, it's also not my primary focus right now.

The higher self and lower self is a false dichotomy because all is one. However, it is a great metaphor. The lower self is the ego self that you think you are right now. The higher self is what you are existentially. It is the self that you realize that you've always been when you are enlightened which already knows everything that you need to know as a human being. It is infinite. You live in tune with the higher self, when you see through the illusion of the separate self an no longer need to obscure and block out parts of reality to protect this false self. So, the higher self is already what you are, just remove the illusions created by the ego and it is what you are. When fear of harm to the self dissipates, clarity is what's left. The lower self isn't even an entity... it's just the illusion that you aren't already the higher self.

Teal Swan and I are similar in the understanding emotions, shadow work, and spiritual maps category, but different in that she is extra-sensory (I am not) and focuses mainly on manifesting from the law of attraction and the 'healing from negative events' aspect of self-help. My channel touches a bit on these things, but is more about general truth seeking and liberation from the illusion of ego, than healing and manifestation. But Teal Swan has been a big inspiration for me. I have really benefited from her work in the past. Elliot Hulse, I've only watched a few videos of his. I consider his channel similar to Leo's in many ways, but his seems to be more focused on cultivating alpha male status, dating/relationships/sexuality, career/goal orientedness, and more external things. But if I recall, he was also into bio-energetics which I find quite interesting. So, his channel is similar in the psychology aspect and energetic aspect but mostly different from mine. But I do suspect that we have some crossover as well between our audiences. I'll definitely work on leaving some comments on their videos that are most relevant.

Thank you! I do still want to venture elsewhere to market though. Leo and I definitely have a lot of cross-over audience for our channels, but we also diverge in some ways as well. So, I would need to promote elsewhere as well. Leo's channel is about self-actualization, so his channel offers advice about external concerns as well as internal, where the internal serves the external. My channel is about self-exploration, so my channel is almost solely about the internal world. So, his topis are different in that he has business advice, career, entrepreneurship, dating, etc. and is oriented toward the Hero's Journey. My channel has a more internal leaning where I explore archetypes, spiritual maps, altered states of consciousness (OBE, Lucid Dreaming, etc.), shadow work, and depth psychology. So, my channel is more about descent. So, we're different but share the crossover elements of understanding emotions, enlightenment, and generally living your best life. But thank you for the advice and the words of encouragement.

Here is my most recent video that should help with the reintegration/healing process. But awareness of the sensations that come up in the body is the most important part of the method. So, it's definitely a good thing that you're getting awareness on where the pain is located and meditating on that pain. But getting the mind in the right place is important too, and I talk about that too. I call that time "delicious" because all of the purging of old patterns and dysfunctional things in my life was unpleasant, but it opened up so many new possibilities and new emotions. It was like the darkness and negativity of that time gave birth to a lot of positive emotions and life took on a very interesting charge.

I relate to the hating that I'm loving it feeling. When I was in college, I had a year where everything got turned around for me. My life basically fell apart in the worst ways that I could have imagined, and chaos ensued and put salt on all of my deepest wounds. It popped a bubble inside of me and all the demons previously trapped there, ran amok. But there was a freshness there that was really 'delicious' is the only word I can think to describe it. Life had a bit of magic to it, that it didn't used to have. It was like the other side of the pillow... but it was also hell. Now, I have settled into a new norm which is quite a bit healthier. But I still have a lot more purging to do. So, definitely keep pushing your awareness of the emotions. But don't use any other techniques to mitigate their effects unless you're in a public situation or some place less than ideal to express the emotions. When you're alone though, just let them hit you without distracting yourself from them or attempting to dull them out. Cheers!

My advice is to let the emotions hit you like a bus. It might be overwhelming, but it's what your mind-body complex needs to heal itself. The psyche, like the skin, is self-healing. It already does what it needs to heal itself without the conscious mind needing to get involved. Just like breathing and heartbeats, it happens no matter what as long as nothing is getting in its way. So, you have to get out of its way. You have habitual thought patterns that act as shields which numb out emotions but don't allow them to be resolved completely. So, the main thing is to be non-interventional, accepting, and aware of all the emotions that are coming up. You have a deeply ingrained habit of ignoring emotions and resisting them at all costs and hiding from them or sugar-coating them or finding ways to make yourself feel better. Be mindful and aware enough to stop doing these things, and allow whatever wants to come up, no matter how painful or embarrassing. Let the emotions get you, and be the observer.

Thanks. I signed up.

I have done the posing on other Youtube channels thing before. It's definitely been pretty effective, and I plan to do more of it. Thank you for the recommendations. That's good advice. I haven't thought of Reddit before, but I do know that they get a lot of traffic. Thanks!

The way to access things that you're unconscious to is to put your awareness on things that you have a pattern of ignoring. For example, if an uncomfortable emotion comes up that you might want to ignore, don't ignore it. Put your full attention and awareness on the sensation that the emotion brings up in your body. Observe it with no judgement. You want to think about it like 'checking your emotional email.' Once you've read it, it no longer needs to be there. The psyche is a self-correcting mechanism. It gives you whatever you need right now to bring yourself back into alignment, as long as you can give it your undivided attention. So, just release resistance to whichever thoughts and emotions come up and allow yourself to observe them with complete honesty, acceptance, and non-intervention.

Life purpose is much more extensive than a single goal. It has a lot more to do with what you have to give throughout your entire life, than establishing a particular lifestyle or meeting a particular goal. This is too narrow a scope. Your life purpose is only completed upon your death, unlike a single goal which is more like a single component of your life. Your main idea should be "What impact do I want to have on the world which fits with my values?"

I am a very competitive person. (There can only be one highlander!!!!) I normally don't consciously feel this in relation to enlightenment and seeking, as I'm the only person in my life who is interested in these pursuits. But seeing so many people thinking in the same direction, ignites my competitive spirit and feels somewhat disempowering like a weird aftertaste to an otherwise delicious food. Anyone else having these little flashes of egoic bitterness? If so, it's probably normal, so don't get discouraged. Press on.

This definitely falls in the Philosophy section. But I would imagine that, as our society evolves, systems that are out of alignment will naturally crumble as they will no longer be creating benefit to humanity or universal expansion. At one point in time, Capitalism was an evolution on what was before, and at some point in time we will likely move past it. But society doesn't seem ripe for it quite yet. But this is speculation, and doesn't really relate to consciousness work as much as it does theory and social change.

I don't have much experience with this. But from what I understand, if a person has sex or masturbates without climaxing, this can build sexual energy which will then take shape and manifest from the higher chakras relating to expression, intuition, and spirituality as opposed to the lower chakras which relate to reproduction, connection, and self. So, the idea is to build sexual energy but not to release, so that it can be transmuted to the children of your mind instead of the children of your loins. This practice has been used a ritual in Tantra as well as Alchemy. There is a group of guys who are involved in a thing called NOFAP where they abstain from masturbation. But I'm not sure if this is geared toward this sort of transmutation of energy or if it's more about breaking an addiction.

Thank you for this.

I had two "enlightenment experiences" when I was 20. Prior to that, my main objective in life was to grow myself in order to both self-actualize and pursue my career. I wanted to add value to my identity, which I thought would bring me fulfillment. When the second experience happened, I realized that this adornment of self and trying to add value to myself was what was keeping me from the profound sanity and happiness that was inherent to these experiences. The thing that I was doing to fulfill myself was sending me in the opposite direction of fulfillment. Prior to those experiences, life was simple. Anything that added value to my self-concept and brought me closer to success, was good and worth pursuing. Anything that took away value from my self concepts and kept me from success, was bad and not worth pursuing. After that experience, I felt conflicted no matter which direction that I went in. I either felt bad that I was pursuing success or bad that I wasn't pursuing success. Then sometimes, I'd feel proud of myself or good about an accomplishment, only to quickly remind myself that this was the reason why I'm suffering which made me feel bad. So, I spend years stagnating, pulling my punches, not growing myself, and trying to be a non-person. It was hell. But this came from lack of understanding and lack of awareness. My experiences were catalyzed artificially through use of an entheogen. So, it temporarily enabled me to extend my awareness into things that I would normally resist and make myself unconscious to. So, the insight that my identity and goals were keeping me from happiness, became abstract once I was back to my normal awareness level. I wasn't wise enough to understand it yet. So, my recommendation is to continue growing yourself without any resistance. Let the ego do what it does. If you're able to allow anything that comes up and shine your awareness on it, your internal wisdom will let you know what is worth pursuing and what is not. I have come to the conclusion that some of my goals that I had were inauthentic but other goals that I have are authentic. It's just radical open-ness and awareness that allows you to see what's right to pursue. Never force yourself to quit pursuing anything that you're passionate about... but be mindful and aware of your internal state and motivations as you pursue it.

My recommendation is to try out the pickup. I think your avoidance of pick-up (as well as putting yourself in a position where sleeping with a woman won't happen) is the result of fear of rejection and likely has a lot to do with unconscious attitudes of feeling like women hold all the cards in sex. You may fear being rejected by women because you think it means something intrinsically about your worth, when it doesn't. Women can have any number of reasons to say yes or no, most of which have nothing to do with the asker's worth or her opinion of the asker. The media often portrays women as being the gatekeepers of sex and holding all the power in the attraction dynamic, but this isn't true. When a woman is interested in you, she likely has a ton of self-doubt as well unless she's fairly promiscuous and is a kind of pick up artist herself. As a woman, if I were single and I were socially expected to be the approacher, I would have a ton of trouble doing it even with the knowledge that guys would be more likely to say yes. So, I would learn a few techniques, go out to the club once or twice a week and try it out. Don't let it consume your life, or anything. Once you get past your fear of rejection and see that women are not all-powerful in the field of relationships and sexuality, your problems in this area will be part of the past. You just have to tear it off all in one go like a band-aid. Once you do, reality will replace illusion and the fear of rejection and sexual incompetence will go away naturally. But you have to make the jump. You'll be glad that you did. But don't worry about being rejected at the club, read up on signs of attraction in women. Approach a woman (by herself and NOT in a group) in a more platonic way at first. Ask for a dance if you're at the club or if she'd like a drink or something like that. She'll get that you're interested in her because of the nature of the club. She'll know what you want because that's what clubs are for, for the most part. So, if she says yes, then dance with her or buy her a drink. If she says no, find someone else. You'll eventually get a taker. As you're dancing, touch her in a platonic place (shoulders, hands, brush her hair from her face). If she seems okay with it and moves closer, move your hands to her hips or waist. With every step you make, read her reaction. If she meets your advance then raise her one. Eventually, ask her if she wants to go some place quieter where you can talk. If she says yes, she undoubtedly already knows what you want and chances are she'll get physical with you to some degree if not go all the way. If she says no, ask her for a rain check and her phone number. So, basically you want to put yourself in a situation where you never have to be rejected in a painful way by easing your way into your advance. It isn't a binary thing where you walk up to a woman and her friends the loudly shout "WILL YOU HAVE SEX WITH ME!" then she shouts back "NEVER! YOU CREEP!" Then her and all of her girlfriends make fun of you and throw rotten tomatoes at you. It's more like you reading her reactions to see what she wants or doesn't want you to do. It's not about her wanting you or not wanting you, it's about her wanting you to do something or not wanting you to do something. So, instead of having to think 'She doesn't want me' it becomes 'I don't think she wanted her hips touched, that's okay.' or 'She didn't want a drink, that's okay.' So, doing it this way takes the pressure off. But even if she says no to you, also know that women are often quite flattered by being approached (appropriately/not cat-calling) by a man. This method will work in a more platonic environment too... but you have to start out much more platonic and the arc of your 'game' will take a bit longer because it will have more steps to it. At a club, you can cut to the chase a bit quicker.

My husband is from Hungary... Szekesfehervar to be specific. What is the name of your village?

I have a very colorful friend who is a flight attendant in Dubai.