Emerald

Thank you

The issue is that people who have prejudices against gay people, trans people, racial minorities, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, etc. are easily weaponized to divide the working class. And those straight working class white males will easily have their ire turned away from the powerful and towards these scapegoat groups... to divide the working class populace so that there's infighting instead of a united front. So, while you might see a focus towards gay rights or trans rights as being the thing that divides the left and the working class... it is actually the prejudice against gay and trans people (and religious and ethnic minorities) that does that. You can't have transphobia in your working class movement any more than you can have gender equality in your ethnostate. If you want some elements of the far right (like rejection of the focus toward gay and trans people), you take everything that comes with it. So, if you don't want authoritarianism, you have to learn to accept people's differences. And if you reject people differences, the more you usher in Fascism. Gay and trans people exist. It's not an ideology... it's a fact of the world. Just deal with that fact... and don't be the weak link that divides the working classes with foolish prejudices and infighting... as that only plays into the hands of the powerful.

There are different approaches to determine relative and absolute truths of things. Determining relative truth is about accurate thorough observation and insights derived from observation. Like, the Scientific Method is a good example of this. This only works with things that are actually observable. But with absolute truth, we cannot know it as human beings. We can only experience it. And the more valuable thing is to recognize the limits of the mind to peal away beliefs and assumptions from the reality itself. This enables us to subtract the mind's projections from the experience and observation of reality... which allows more room for insight and a clearer perception of reality. "To gain knowledge, add things every day. To gain wisdom, remove things every day." - Lao Tzu

The reason why I come to this forum is to debate and spar because that's what this context is mostly geared towards. So, yes. It helps me sharpen my own sword to push back against misconceptions because I don't have intellectual debates in other contexts. In other contexts, I mostly ask questions and listen. But in this context, I get to spar.

My own

Sharpening the sword

These questions are very useful in the sense that they can show you you're projecting beliefs onto reality that aren't actually reflective of something that exists outside of your own mind. And these questions can illuminate to you the difference between an empirically observed reality and a foundationless belief that only exists in your own mind. But I don't bring up flaws in your logic because the issue that I"m pointing out doesn't have to do with flaws in your logic. The problem happens WAY before logic can even be applied. A person could project a perfectly logical belief onto reality that just isn't reflective of that reality and is based purely in assumption. Logic just mean "premise (therefore) conclusion"... so is "If this thing is true, then it makes good sense that this other thing would be true." And my issue is with your assumption of foundationless premises to be reflective of truth... not with your logic or conclusions that are built upon those premises. If I project onto reality the premise that, "God is made of marshmallows" then it makes good sense to come to the conclusion "People should avoid eating marshmallows to avoid blaspheming." Or even "If the world is flat, then it makes good sense that you could sail off the edge of it." It's a perfectly logical belief as the conclusion makes sense if we assume the premise to be true. The logic is not flawed. The premise is just made up and untrue. So, my issue is that you're assuming premises that you're making up in your own mind to be true and stating them as such as though God told you himself that this is the way that reality operates and the way that God thinks. And my issue is with you assuming your premises to be true when they're just contrivances of your own mind... not that the logic you use is flawed.

There's a lot of assumption in this. You seem to view being trans either purely as a genetic issue or as ideological group think. But you have no solid evidence that either of these interpretations is true or false. It's not like they test trans people for genetic issues to determine if their gender dysphoria is "real" or "fake". Can you not see any other possibilities beyond those two options? Here's a thought-provoking video by Contrapoints about this very topic where she plays a "trans-trender" and another more conservative trans person who sees it only as a genetic disorder who judges the "trans-trender"....

It doesn't work the same way in the inverse. If I say "God thinks we should all paint ourselves blue and dance around on Fridays. And then people ask "Is that God who thinks that? Or is that just you?" Then I answer, "Who said I'm wrong? God? Or your own mind?" I hope that makes it clear that it doesn't lend any credence at all to my own idea that God wants us to paint ourselves blue and dance around on Fridays. The burden of proof that God thinks that is on you. And if you're honest with yourself, you'll see that your notion that God allows everything to change in appearance but not in terms of other things is just a notion you made up in your own mind... no better or more rooted in the truth of what God thinks than the "paint yourself blue on Fridays" ideas.

Who made that rule? Is it God? Or is it just your own mind?

You said ducks didn't get enough "upgrades" to be crocodiles. So, yes... clearly you see crocodiles as better than ducks and are projecting some kind of hierarchical understanding that isn't actually there in nature. You have a lot of assumptions about reality that are getting in the way of you accepting human expressions that deviate from these assumptions and that mess with your belief framework. But just like the "crocodiles are better than ducks" assumption... it doesn't have anything to do with actual reality. It's just a reflection of your own belief framework. If you want to see the truth, then you're going to need to question your beliefs about reality and to accept what actually exists there.

As someone who is a big fan of Teal Swan's work who has been helped tremendously by it, I notice a few things that keep her stuck. And I can see how that would create a blindspot where someone could really screw her over (which did happen). She is very attached to an identity of being exceptional and different... and she LOVES being showered with praise and being idealized. And she really likes to be the tall poppy. This whole dynamic itself is why she attracts a lot of controversy because she is always trying to be the special one and has 'main character' syndrome... and it does cause her to be open to people who are looking for a cult leader... which gives her the reputation as such. And she also attracts the exact opposite (which are just the inverse of the cult follower) which is the conspiratorial type that sees her as the devil on Earth. So, it's a bunch of people who see her as either and good alien or a bad alien... and she's very attached to people seeing her as the good alien without realizing that's why she attracts so many that see her as the bad alien. And deep down she wants fame and attention most of all... she just has very mixed feelings when she gets it because she wants the positive without negative. I've gone to her shows every time she's come to Florida... which is 3 times. And you can really see her glow and get a twinkle in her eyes at applause. There seems to be something there that means a lot to her. And I could see someone really exploiting that craving... by buttering her up and praising her and reinforcing her identity while plotting against her in plain sight.

Thank you for sharing your story.

It means dropping resistance to the archetypal Masculine and Feminine within yourself and allowing whatever is to be there. This produces the Divine Child of new potentials in you that are similar to, different from, and greater than your Masculine or Feminine side alone. But it's not about losing your sexual polarity. With that logic, it would be like "If I wanted to have a Masculine son, then he has to only have a father and no mother." The integration of your inner opposites can only ever make you a more potent version of yourself.

Here are some Masculine and Feminine principled aspects of people and reality at large... (written Masculine first, Feminine second) Doing vs being Hierarchical thinking vs lateral thinking Abstract vs concrete Loftiness vs groundedness Knowledge vs wisdom Geometric vs organic Clear vs mysterious Truth vs illusion Individuality vs collectivism Expansion vs contraction Infinite vs finite Spiritual vs Earthly Mental vs material Order vs chaos Intellect vs body Utility vs beauty Emptiness vs meaning Extraordinariness vs ordinariness Difference vs sameness Logic vs intuition Automation vs spontaneity Purification vs integration Unlimitedness vs limitation Spring/Summer vs Fall/Winter Light vs darkness Perfection vs imperfection Immortality vs mortality Trajectory vs cycles Giving vs receiving Fight vs surrender

This personality awareness game sets up the premise that there is an 8-person orgy that happened in a specific place that led to the creation of you. Who are the 8 beings that had an orgy to conceive you? And where did it happen? I'll share mine below... Enid from Ghost World Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter books Mother Augra from The Dark Crystal Christine Daaé from The Phantom of the Opera Velma from Scooby Doo Salvador Dali Alan Watts A nerdy guy who's very fixated on his special interests And it happened in the weird psychedelic looking night club in the movie Monkeybone that Brendan Fraser's character visits when he's in a coma. Here's the scene...

I made a post like this a few years back, but I wanted to update this even though there aren't too many women on this forum. Here's some dating advice... (Note: this is geared towards women who are interested in men.) Be unapologetically who you are and dress how you normally dress. You'll want to advertise your personality... which will turn away most men and attract in men that will actually prefer you. Come into the process of dating with the foregone conclusion that you are attractive and that you are a catch... and that any man would be lucky to have you. This is true regardless of how you look or what you have going for you. This will help put you in the frame of the Feminine Beloved and keep you from slipping into Masculine Lover mode where you're seeing him as the Feminine Beloved and trying win his affections. Understand that finding a partner as a woman is 10% attraction and 90% sorting. So, you must get really good at sorting men out who aren't compatible or possess dealbreakers that will drag down the quality of your life. And be sure to sort out spam attention. Keep your ears open for indicators and tells of anti-Feminine or misogynistic views. If you want to be able to be in your Feminine in a relationship, you must choose a man who isn't resistant to Femininity or women. Sort based off of the qualities that are the most important to you chemistry-wise, personality-wise, and life-style-wise. Ask yourself the questions "Could I be happy with this person long-term?" and "Would he be a good father?" If the answer is no to either of those questions, IMMEDIATELY sort him from consideration. Approach dating from a heart-centered place... but also bring your mind along to sort for deal-breakers and incompatibilities before deeper feelings set in. ALWAYS make relationship decisions from the stance of valuing "What do I want in a relationship?" over "Who do I most want to be with?" You have the capacity to fall in love with a guy who is terrible for you... or who isn't investing in you. So, instead of sacrificing the type of relationship dynamic you want in order to keep that guy... choose yourself over him, break it off, and seek out a more compatible man. This will be easier if you heed the next bit of advice. The man should be more into you than you are into him in the initial phases of courtship... as this is the stable foundation male/female relationships are built on. And you will feel anxious if he's not investing as much as you, which can feel exciting and bring up feelings of longing. Take that anxiety as an indicator that you've gone into Masculine Lover mode and to pull your energy and attention back from him and onto yourself and your own life. A non-invested man who you've put in the Beloved frame can stick around out of convenience and easy-going female companionship, but will quickly leave you if you are not his beloved once his actual beloved (or even just some other lady) comes around. So, there needs to be a dynamic where he's squarely in the Lover mode and sees you as the Beloved whose affections he must win. And you must have chemistry with him and see him as a suitable long-term partner but not be fully sold on him yet at the outset of the relationship. And if you are fully sold on him in the initial dating phase... you're probably in Masculine Lover mode and seeing him as your Feminine Beloved. So, pull your energy back from him and put it back on yourself. Abiding this bit of advice will give you a solid base for potentially creating a life together and having children together down the line.... which is not possible to do in a healthy way if you have all these chaotic anxious feelings about him because he's hot and cold about you. There is nothing you can do to persuade a man to love you if he doesn't already see you as his Beloved... so don't try. Just sort that man from consideration and focus on a man who does see you as the Beloved even if the chemistry is more moderate than with the guy who isn't as invested. This is difficult to do if you have deep feelings for him. But again, that crushy feeling is an indicator that you've shifted into Masculine Lover mode. Counterintuitively - anxiety and really crushy obsessive feelings are an indicator that he's not a good option. Instead, focus on feeling peaceful, safe, and at home as that settled feeling is an indicator that you feel safe with a man. You should have a clear sense that this guy is capable of being your rock.

This one is a common misconception about Red. A lot of times people think any kind of violence or ruthlessness is automatically Red. But this isn't true. You can find violence and ruthlessness in Stage Purple using magical thinking to justify human sacrifices. You can find violence and ruthlessness in Stage Blue using the religious dogmas and institutions of the time to crusade. You can find violence and ruthlessness in Stage Orange in child laborer's who die in a mine in Africa so that those in the first world can get a phone. You can find violence and ruthlessness in Stage Green in ways we haven't yet known because the phase is so new and has never been the paradigmatic center of society... but see a sliver of in the killing of the United Healthcare CEO. Stage Red specifically is Ghengis Kahn stuff where the strongest and most ruthless dominates through conquest. And say what you will about Ghengis Kahn... but he was eco-friendly! None of his shenanigans ever resulted in the breakdown of large ecological systems.

That's incorrect. Every single phase of development is deeply intertwined with survival concerns. They just approach them in a different way. Orange thinking doesn't mean "focusing on your subsistence". So, Stage Green values don't suddenly become Orange if it's practiced by a person who happens to belong to a demographic group that benefits from those Stage Green values. Orange means Capitalism, science, rationality, secularism, achievement orientation, etc. Green means focusing on ecological issues, Feminism, civil rights, global community, intersectionality, etc. Each of these are about survival. They just approach them in different ways.

100% Especially the parts I bolded. I noticed this tendency for people who are aware of Integral Theory to treat Green like a brief footnote in human evolution that must be skipped to get to Yellow. It describes a lot of guys on this forum. Like all the previous phases get 100+ years (thousands in earlier phase, because development is slower) to be the central paradigm of society. But Green is meant to be skipped over in 5 minutes to make way for Yellow. And what I see is that this desire to skip to Tier 2, is just a reflection of society's general resistance to leaving Orange and going to Green as the incoming phase.

@soos_mite_ah These are well-thought-out answers to the questions. I would answer many of them the same way if I were coming at this exercise from an intellect-based point of view. But the important thing about the contemplation is more about connecting to a deeply vulnerable and disempowered feeling state, rather than answering outright from the intellect and the current intellectual frameworks you operate through. Think of these questions more as a vehicle through which to enter the collective Feminine wound of powerlessness and being stripped of personal sovereignty than something to be answered with the intellect. Those mind-based answers will bring you up further into a state of relative empowerment and understanding... and a comfort zone in the status quo of your frame of mind. But deeper levels of Feminine integration and unearthing of the Feminine power comes from allowing yourself to descend into the powerlessness and a tonguing of the collective Feminine wounds... which requires a kind of self-negation within the exercise. Like, imagine yourself as a being that is designed to be oppressed and marginalized... and the feelings that evokes if you knew that to be true about yourself as a woman. And given that societies have historically been built from the sacrifice of women's individuation and power up until fairly recently, it doesn't seem to be a bug... but to be a feature at earlier phases in human development that society is built upon the foundation of TONS of human sacrifice, particularly with regard to female sovereignty. And there is nothing in nature that says nature won't screw over one sex over the other. Think of the male praying mantis. They just get eaten after sex. So, things are naturally imbalanced between the sexes in that case with that species. And perhaps, this is just part of our nature that women are marginalized into a state of disempowerment. To be clear, my view is the women's empowerment and Feminine integration is something very natural... but only possible with enough societal development. And before society develops enough, women's power, individuation, sovereignty, and sense of self were purely sacrificial lambs to make the society function. But in the exercise, it's about immersing yourself in the unprocessed powerlessness associated with womanhood and Femininity... and thousands of years of female and Feminine disempowerment and sacrifice of selfhood/subjecthood, which all people are hurting from at the deepest level. There are many ugly things are features of humanity.. which we are only very recently starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel from with the dawning of Stage Green. Hence why it's a safe zone... and why it's difficult to transcend for women. But it's also why many men (especially white heterosexual cisgendered men who have hierarchical viewpoints on human value) want to skip Green altogether, and they end up just stuck in Orange. So, this emotional exercise tests your limits and pries open the doorway to many Feminine individual and collective Shadows. Only then, can Feminine power actually be integrated into society.

I can definitely see that Stage Green and even some subtle elements of later phases would be reflected in the "Soft Life" influencers. I think there's definitely something there to be mined. But as someone who was raised fully in Orange and questioning all of this prior to recent trad wife internet trends and prior to soft life, there were very uncomfortable questions that I needed to ask myself to go deeper. Like 15 years ago, when I was 20 years old, I was pretty deep in Stage Orange but also had a smattering of Stage Green as it enabled by Stage Orange ambitions... where I saw Masculinity and Femininity as purely socially constructed. But ALL of my values were Masculine values. And I only saw value in the appearance of Femininity without valuing anything of the Feminine principle. And when I tried Ayahuasca for the first time, at age 20, it opened up my awareness to a deeper Femininity that didn't have very much to do with the social constructs around Femininity. It was just in the night and in the plants... and within myself. Then, when I was back in my usual frame of mind... I went back into the usual Masculine values. But I was trying to "get back" to the Feminine. But it brought me right directly into a lot of wounding that caused me to repress the Feminine in the first place... and that repression is collective. Progress has been made over the past 15 years, for sure. But there is still a collective repression of the Feminine... and a belief that the Feminine needs to be dominated and controlled... and suppressed. So, to access the Feminine... I needed to dive directly into my biggest fears and wounds around the Feminine. And that means with pure open-minded curiosity and asking questions like the following... Is it natural for women to be oppressed and disempowered? Is it bad for society if women are empowered? If so, why and under what circumstance? And if not, why and under what circumstances? Why do women tend to prefer being submissive in the bedroom? Is that an indicator of what women want in the societal sense? If women are designed to be oppressed, is my desire for agency and autonomy a reflection of trauma and societal illness? Why has the oppression of women been so widespread for so many millennia if it isn't the way that it's designed to be? Why are women built with weaker bodies and men with stronger bodies if it isn't female nature to be disempowered? It's these kinds of questions that I spent a lot of my twenties really deep in contemplation about... as it was these that were keeping me from opening my consciousness up to my own Feminine side. And given that these questions directly tongue the wounds of the Feminine, it helps to connect with that which has been rejected, repressed, and denied as soon as women can escape the old shackles. Once the feeling states are activated that these questions bring to the surface, that's where connection to the wounded Feminine can be found. And is by sinking into those wounds that you find the lost power that has been stripped from the Feminine for many millennia. So, it's really just asking the most potentially disempowering questions and playing a kind of internal devil's advocate with yourself to explore the wounds and get more clarity about where these patterns actually come from and to embrace what has been rejected and marginalized.

Sure. With Stage Green, there tends to be a very egalitarian focus... which is an improvement from the hegemony of the previous phases. And women especially are freed from a very narrow context and things that stand in the way of their individuation... which is suppressed on the level of gender in Blue and all phases before, and is suppressed on the level of Femininity in Orange and all phases before. So, with Stage Blue and before, (in most societal contexts) women are not thought of as fully sovereign individuals that should have power in the societal structure. And the Feminine itself is very Masculinity-washed stripped down to just what is necessary to keep society going. And traditional Femininity is a lot narrower than traditional Masculinity. Then, with Stage Orange... there is more of a sense of "Women can compete too"... as long as she strips herself of the narrow context of traditional Femininity... but without any awareness of a deeper Feminine energetic reality. And this Feminine stripping feels like relief because REAL Masculine individuation is on offer for women... which allows us to expand our horizons. But the only way to expand is to become Masculine and to get rid of the Feminine... which is partially true. If your only Femininity on offer is traditional Femininity, then you do have to strip yourself of it like a hermit crab that has outgrown its shell. And Stage Orange women tend to be very anti-Feminine in all ways but physical appearance... both anti trad Fem AND anti real Fem, because Femininity is ONLY seen as a limiter of potential from Stage Orange. With Stage Green, the superiority of Masculinity itself starts to be a questioned... though it still isn't aware of and doesn't embrace the deep Feminine. And there is more of a sense that gender is a construct (which is partially true)... and that there is no innate distinction between men and women. And it questions gender roles beyond the question of "Who can compete in the workplace?" And it opens up to more than one category of gender and more than one category of relationship preference or structure. And it is critical of all the patterns that have created so much oppression in the past... which is liberating and freeing for women. And it starts to unintentionally begin to incorporate some Feminine principled values without thinking of them as such... things like community, non-hierarchical thinking, inclusion, ecological focus, etc. So, it is like women, gay people, trans people, disabled people, and members of minority religious/ethnic communities (specifically who have transcended stage blue) find refuge from the collective wounds of millennia of oppression into the present day. And since Green arises VERY close to Orange and Blue, there is still this societal threat of going backwards and being shoved back in the trad Fem box... like a fish that's already grown too big for such a narrow fishtank. There is also a deeper conditioning from Blue and Orange to see Femininity and women as inferior AND to see Masculinity and men as superior, because they are from the vantage point of Blue and Orange. So, once a woman gets to Green, it's a sense of escaping and shutting the door forever on all the pain and Feminine wounding from past generations of women. But in order to get to Turquoise (which is quite Feminine), you have to use Yellow to start to question the reasons why women have been oppressed for many millennia. And a lot of uncomfortable questions have to be asked. And there is a need to integrate the Feminine and to recognize the general differences between men and women from a higher perspective.. while these differences have always been used to disempower women in generations past. And Stage Orange men who are resistant to Green and who want women to go back in the little box tend to make this exploration of the Feminine and the deep collective wounds of the Feminine feel even more threatening.

As another note on this, it's important to understand that people stay holding onto a stage of development because they feel like that stage will empower them more than the latter stages. It's not true. It's a mistake that people make. But moving beyond the current phase requires a deconstruction and a feeling of losing power to make that transition. And there is a need to grieve the loss of the story that each phase tells. But with women, very few Green women are truly attached to yoga and innocent hippiness. Most women are attached to the dream of world without oppression and injustice... and a world where women are not oppressed for our gender. The transition of women from Green to Yellow requires us to face into the wounds of disempowerment from earlier phases... and to sort the wheat from the chaff with regards to the Feminine. For men, it's about losing the idea of Masculine/male superiority and embracing the Feminine... which men have been told makes them a little bitch and not worthy of women or existence. So, men's transition from Orange to Green feels disempowering... and women's transition from Green to Yellow/Turquoise brings her right into the raw wounds of historical oppression and rape of the Feminine. For men, it reads as a loss of a power advantage and an evening of the playing field. For women, it feels like the loss of the newly gained even playing field and a descent into hell. But when you do let yourself descend into hell, you find a much deeper power than that which is in Green.