Forestluv

Yea, I think I've had similar feelings. Part of me wants to hang out with them, another wants to be alone. Is there a middle ground. Perhaps do something simple for an hour or so and still have time to be alone? I found doses of social interactions can be beneficial. If I focus too much on myself and spend too much time alone, I can start to get into my own little world. Sometimes some limited social interaction is healthy for me (even if it also feels uncomfortable). I also learned I need to set up boundaries without over-doing it. One of my concerns is that if I hang out with someone, there will be a bunch of expectations and I will be obligated to spend more time with them and I will lose my independence and alone time. Like what if this new friend starts texting me each day and wants to get together a lot, chat on the phone, etc? I had to learn how to have limited social contact and set up boundaries without being a jerk about it.

Yes!! This is right up my alley! For example, integrating some of Dr. Amen's work with neurofeedback with Reiki masters. This is an area I'd like to explore more. I'm going to see if I can get a grant for a quality EEG machine to use with students at my college.

Yes indeed. I think it's *high* time I shut of Mr. neuroscience and go out to appreciate the natural beauty of the birds. . .

Some fish and birds react to stimuli within communities faster than their individual nervous system can respond. For example fish swarms and bird murmurations. This opens the door into communal consciousness which I also find really interesting. . .

Well someone's gonna be the first, right? My gf is a Reiki master and I have neuroscience training. The other day, she was describing how "energy" guides her to "places" in the body in which there are blocks. Then she uses energy to "massage" out blocks. To me, it sounded like a low-resolution, ambiguous energy guides her to a low-resolution place in the body. It occurred to me that her "map" was low resolution. I asked her, "what if you had a high resolution map of energy and body locations?". What if while you are practicing, we could create a high-resolution holographic image of a brain for you to use as a map? You would have a detailed map of high resolution energy and locations of blocks, so you could precisely go in there and "massage" the block away by guiding energy? Her eyes opened up and she gleefully said "That would be amazing!! Yes, yes, yes!! Can you do that for me?" Now consider this scenario. . . Her son is partially blind and she has been using Reiki on him and some of his vision may be restored. She is looking into stem cell therapy. I have the map of what happens at the cellular level with the stem cells. I have the map where the stem cells need to go and what they need to do. She has the map of the energetic dynamics. What if we could combine these together? What if the stem cells could be implanted and she could use energy to help the stem cells, reach the desire location, differentiate properly and function properly? What if she could use energy to signal to the stem cells "Over here guys!!! C'mon over here!! The problem you need to fix is here". Perhaps she could help guide these stem cells. Unfortunately, Reiki masters and neuroscientists are in two different camps and don't communicate. This is what gave me the idea of being a Reiki neuroscientist. If he does the stem cell treatment, I am going to try and draw her a map of what needs to happen at the cellular level to help her focus her Reiki energy. I only know of one prominent scientist that would take this seriously: Deepak Chopra. And he has been marginalized from the scientific community. . .

Indeed, it's surprisingly slow to me. I suppose evolution selected for higher processing speeds and it's good enough for us. Now I'm curious which organism has the fastest processing speed. I would imagine hawks have very rapid visual processing speeds since visual timing is so critical to their survival.

Neuroscientists have. For example, even the best world-class sprinters need about 0.2 seconds to respond to the sound of the starter gun (yet the subjective experience is that the sound and muscle response or both "Now". And that is humans that have devoted their life to lower this reaction time. These races are often won in thousandths of seconds, so improving this reaction time is major emphasis for sprinters. . . The visual system is slower than the auditory system. And coordinating it all together to give an illusion that it is all synced together takes time. It's pretty straightforward to measure each individual sensory system, harder to measure the time lag to synchronize them all. I haven't read the original research on that, yet an average of 0.5 sec. seems reasonable. I could see highly trained and efficient brains getting down to 0.3 or 0.4 seconds. Yet I can't see below 0.3 being feasible. Now you are getting down to only one or two sensory systems. Simple reflex arcs in the PNS are much faster, because there is no CNS processing. For example, touching a hot stove and pulling your hand away does not involve the CNS, just a simple PNS reflex arc.

There isn't even a "present moment". That is also part of the illusion. The brain's visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile and motor systems all work at different rates. For example, the visual system is slower than the auditory system, since the visual system is more complex. The various systems are out of sync, yet create an illusion that it's all happening in one "now" - this has practical value to help the human function within the illusion. All that coordination takes about 0.5 seconds, so what you perceive as "now" actually is already in the past. "Now" happened a half second ago. . .

@zambize Yes, I think my pendulum swung from hard-core logic to hard-core "woo woo" and then started to become balanced. Yesterday, a student entered my office to "talk". His girlfriend is sensitive/empathic and seems to have some paranormal abilities, yet she occassionally drifts into places in which sinister beings and demons arise that try to possess her. Last week she had a traumatic incident and ended up in the hospital. He didn't know if all this was "real" or not. I didn't know whether she was in touch with other realms or whether this was psychosis and schizophrenic symptoms. We explored this together for three hours. At one point he said, "I can talk to people that are immersed in mysticism and I can talk to people immersed in science. Yet, you are the only one I know grounded in both mysticism and science". That made me smile. (yet I didn't spill the beans and show they are the same thing. . . ) Lately I've been thinking about training to become a Reiki Neuroscientist master. . .

The human experience of emotion and timing. . . Last month, a student entered my office. I immediately could tell she was in turmoil. A mixture of self-doubt and frustration. She had failed the first two exams, yet was putting in a lot of effort. She pulled out notebooks full of notes - color-coded with many colors. She was spending hours a day studying was still failing. She didn't know whether to drop the course, change her career or what. She oscillated back and forth between frustration and tears. We decided to have private tutoring, just the two of us. My role was to tailor-fit teaching to her optimal learning style. And to recognize any blocks she had. Her role was to show up every week on time and be fully present (she has ADD issues). We both played our roles. Last Friday was the next exam and . . . drumroll. . . she scored a 96%!!!! I have never seen a turn-around like that in my teaching career. This morning she came to my office to pick up her exam. I had been looking forward to giving it to her. She was super nervous. Whether or not she would drop this course came down to this exam. The stakes were high and I knew the result. I couldn't resist letting the suspense grow (since I already knew she aced the last exam), so I played it cool and took an extra minute or two to find the exam to let the anticipation build. . . As I handed her the exam, she reached out and I noticed her hand shaking as she reached for the exam. It was like she was radiating nervous energy. As I handed it to her, I smiled - a little bit at first then a big smile. She looked at her grade and there was a complete energy shift. . . there was a wave of relief and joy. I loved watching this. There was a moment in which there was no "her", there was no "exam", no "career", no "being good enough", no "what this means". There was a moment of nonduality in which simply joy existed. A few seconds past and then I blew it. . . I said "see what you are capable of?". Now, I meant this in the most empowering, loving, supportive way possible - yet it pulled her out of that beautiful nondual moment of pure joy into the story of "her". She popped back into the story line and the energy completely changed. I knew right away, that I spoke to soon. . . What I learned was to let that nondual magic just be. Flow with it. Let it swirl around the room like beautiful colors. Wait until her character reappears - and it would have. Eventually she would have popped back into character and said something like "Does this mean I could get a "B" in the course?" Or something like that. Then, I can play my role again and be supportive and empowering to her.

@zambize The underlying fuel was a yearning. A yearning for a "something" that I didn't quite know what is was or how to get it. Other people could see that yearning in me. Once I started getting a "taste" of that deeper emotional experience and connection, it became solidified. To do so, I had to relax the mind and surrender thought control of the narrative.

Once *knowing* reality = illusion, the "me" dissolves. There is nothing to anchor the "me". It's one thing the cognitively think it, it's another to embody it.

@Raphael I would trust your underlying feelings. If you genuinely want to solitary time, go for it. I'm more introverted and I often tell people "no thanks". One can do it gracefully like "I appreciate the invite, yet I won't be able to". People don't get offended when I phrase it lightly and after a while, stop asking. For some things, there is more of an obligation and I have to weigh the pros and cons. For example, if my co-workers are going out for drinks after work, it's easy for me to say "no, thanks". Yet if a close friend invited me to her wedding, that would be a different situation. I would likely be somewhat uncomfortable, yet I would go because I value our friendship and it would be a very important event for her.

@Cody_Atzori Below is a fun video you might find interesting. Even at the level of the brain, that "me" is a complete illusion from nothingness. Reality = Illusion.

You betcha. You may want to try some yin yoga - it's perfect to reach these deeper states of mind-body relaxation through stretching. And it will likely take you somewhere. I like YT videos of Aprille Walker at the Ranger Station in this area.

@Nivsch If there are only two options, I would support the higher conscious candidate. I want the highest conscious people to have more power to control the narrative and make decisions that affect public policy. This will stabilize and normalize the higher conscious level in society. If orange-green becomes stabilized and normalized as the average conscious level, those at blue-orange will get pulled up. With orange-green in power, there will be resistance to evolving to high green/yellow, but the average conscious is much closer than if blue-orange was in power. With orange-green in power, mature solid green has a better chance to emerge, imo

I've vaped freebase with a standard vape at 428 degrees F. I'm not sure if it is the optimal temperature, yet it's as high as my vape goes. I have gotten good results (good for me anyway). Yet I have not reached breakthrough levels vaping. For me, vaping gives more management control - almost like a dial of intensity. It kicks in so fast. I can have mild intensity on 2 inhales or moderate intensity on 5 inhales. It's easy peasy and smooth. It takes out the anxiety aspect for me because nothing "takes over" or is possessive. Imo, it is by far the best roa for newbies getting their feet wet. Plus, you just need a couple mg of freebase. Plugging is more like a wave. Once it's in there, the wave takes over. . .

@Scholar Thanks for your take of the video. I find it an insightful view of a psychological dynamic that I had not realized before.

@FredFred That creates a dualism. Absolute truth vs. Absolute falsehood. Absolute includes everything. There is no escape.

I think there could be value in a certain context. For example a psychologist might find value and ask if this individual is engaged in a particular psychological dynamic that leads to misinterpretation and blocks him from a deeper understanding. What might that be? Perhaps learning about what is fueling his underlying thought story, how that story serves him and how it prevents expansion can allow us to develop methods to help people in a similar situation (that want help). For example, we might be able to form more efficient methods of deconstruction and disidentification. This could be helpful to others. From this perspective, his perspective and underlying psychological dynamics would have value. (This of course assumes he is contracted within a psychological self dynamic - which I think he is. Others may see him differently).

It's like looking for my glasses and suddenly realizing they were on my face the whole time. . .

Whoa, let's slow our roll here for a second. . . What I'm seeing is conflation between relative and absolute as well as extrapolating personal experience. Notice how the mind thinks "I had it very similar to his situation". And then uses that assumption to establish truth for subsequent statements. In this case "amazing insights that don't stick". The mind does this again when it says "Again, very similar to Leo's situation". Notice how the mind is again using an assumption to make a statement as if it was true - in this case that psychedelics have caused another person frustration, expectations and demotivation. . . .That is the relative experience of your mind-body. Be careful assuming that it is the experience of another mind-body. This is a filter that creates distortion within the mind. It is a major distraction, ime. . . . As well. . . I'm not saying this is your intention, yet assumptions can also be a sneaky way for the mind to discredit another's direct experience and elevate their own direct experience / beliefs. In this case, using assumptions to label another's experience as having expectations, frustrations and demotivation. I'm more curious about your direct experience with 5-meo-dmt. If I may ask a few more questions. . . If you are willing to answer my questions please don't refer to Leo and focus on your 5-meo usage. You say that you were not able to integrate amazing 5-meo insights into your daily life. I am trying to develop methods that can help people that are unable to integrate their 5-meo insights. I've been working to develop methods in my own experience and value the experience of others. 1. How many times have you tried 5-meo? What were your dosages and roa? (This can have a big impact on the 5-meo experience.) 2. You said you had "amazing 5-meo insights". Could you describe these "amazing insights"? What would you say was your most amazing 5-meo-induced insight? 3. After 5-meo trips with amazing insights, what practices/activities (if any) did you do to specifically integrate the insights? How long after the trips did you engage in the practices and how much time did you invest? 4. Looking back on your 5-meo trips, what is one practice/activity you think you could have done to help integrate your amazing 5-meo insights into your ongoing life? To me, it sounds like you are saying 5-meo yields amazing insights, yet you were unable to integrate them. I'm really curious why you were unable to integrate them. Integration can be a challenge for some people and I think it would be awesome to develop methods to help such people.

Ok, if there is no identification, that would change your post to something like below. . . "The mind-body referred to as "me" is experiencing extreme discomfort from overly sensitivity. There are some people out there, whos energies are so low that "my" mind-body just feels down and worthless all the time. "My" mind-body can't really live like that anymore...it hurts deeply. "My" mind-body can somehow feel their sadness and depression which causes a lot of depression sensations in "my" mind-body." That's certainly better than identifying with the discomfort and suffering. Yet, even if we remove the identification to the mind-body, the mind-body is still experiencing all that crap. Why live with that? Why not deconstruct it, heal and set up healthy boundaries at the personal level so that the mind-body is not experiencing pain and discomfort? "My" mind-body kinda likes the experiences of love, joy, wholeness, laughter, wonder, awe, connection etc. Enlightenment exists whether the mind-body is being loved or trashed. Why not take care of the mind-body with love? Why drink sewer water if we can drink fresh mountain spring water?

@DrewNows This is a great video on understanding healthy personal boundaries for those with sensitive/empathic tendencies. Thanks for sharing it.

@David Hammond I love that video