Forestluv

@seeking_brilliance Those are some good ideas and really interesting experiences. I’ve also had a few close calls where I couldn’t quite hold it. I’m going to try the sky hack ?

As well, there is no one who identified as a seeker. Correct?

Has anyone here used “reality checks” as training for lucid dreaming? I had mixed success with it.

That sounds like a bad trip! ?

Thanks for the heads up. Just a reminder to all: discussing sources is against forum guidelines.

It doesn’t need to be either / or. The man can have skills in some areas and lead, while the woman has skills in other areas and leads.

Yep. Lucid dreaming.

@Sven I had a couple deep resentments that had been eating at me for years. The part on forgiveness was the key that unlocked that trap and freed me and helped protect me from future resentments. I had a paradigm shift in this area.

Nice work Jonty!

The attachment to, and identification with, the anxiety will cease. Impulses may still arise in the mind-body - yet there isn't identification with it. The idea "I am anxious" won't make sense because there is no self to be anxious. For example, pain may still arise in the mind-body - yet the suffering of a self that identifies with the pain is gone. Activities I found helpful to reduce my anxiety included: running, music, yoga, meditation, journaling, psychotherapy and discussions with others.

@Sven The best guidance on forgiveness I've read. It helped me out so much during a stage of my life.

A nice expression of how unconditional Love transcends a relationship.

@Aquarius Those are solid Green values. Perhaps you could find a healthy Orange person to date. Many people centered in Orange are not dogmatic ideologues obsessed with materialism. Many are moderate Orange looking to improve themselves to achieve personal goals and meet their personal needs. When I was Orange-centered, I dated a Green-centered woman. As well, when I was Green-centered I dated and Orange-centered woman. So, I've experienced it from both sides. I would say a few sources of conflict in the relationship were: 1. One person being over-analytical and trying to "figure everything out" and "fix things". Other person, wanting to talk about feeling, emotionally connect. 2. One person placing higher value on material things. Other person placing higher value on personal experience and connection. 3. One person seeing the relationship as transactional - two people each trying to meet their own needs. The other person wanting to build a sense of "us". Shared purpose and meaning.

This was a sober experience. For me, psychedelics opened the door to mystical experiences. Then, I needed lower and lower doses for an effect- then, mild mystical sober experiences began to arise. Did your realization arise conceptually? Or was it an experience that arose and the mind tried to explain in conceptually?

This is a beautiful realization and state. Lately, I've had experiences in which the being of awareness is not centered in my head. It is centered outside of my mind-body. The mind-body is within a higher consciousness. Most importantly, it's not just an idea - it's the direct experience. It's almost like an out of body awareness. I think that is somewhat aligned with your realization. Fun stuff.

I'm trying to improve my teaching skills on "meeting people with where they are at". At times it seems creating a model that assumes rationality can be a helpful teaching tool. In the SD model: imagine an Orange-level person with attachment / identification that they are a "rational thinker" - they see everything outside of their rational framework as being irrational. If we allow that and call the Blue Stage "irrational", Orange "rational" and Yellow "post-rational", it can introduce to them a level of thinking/being beyond their delusional sense of rationalism. Once they open up and explore this possibility, they may get direct experience with a "post-rational" being (flow states, intuition, a glimpse of nonduality). This could loosen their attachment / identification to rational thinking. Then with more exploration, these three categories collapse. Or, do you think it's more effective to "cut straight to the chase" with an Orange level "rationalist"?

@Tony 845 For some it's like a long slog, for others it’s like getting struck by lightning

One can be ideological about atheism - which Sam Harris most certainly is. Harris is such an interesting mix of Orange, Green and Yellow.

I wish I was in the audience so I could have asked him that! ?

@SgtPepper Good one! I’ve actually done that with my glasses (they were on my face ?)

For sure, I recently saw a Tedtalk in which a neuro physicist said it is impossible to create Artificial Intelligence that can be creative. . . . Huh, reality can do whatever the heck it wants. And how did creative humans arise?

His self totally wants to control the narrative. I’ve been there ?

I was in Antigua Guatemala tripping on 4-Aco-Dmt. The center square was so beautiful. The water fountain. The colorful clothing. The trees. The sunset. My self dissolved and I was one with the environment. . . There was a military man standing at attention in the square to create a safe environment. He was heavily armored with a large machine gun and ribbons of bullets. The military man was absolutely stoic and stone-faced. He looked tough as nails. A true badass. Yet, I felt an overwhelming sense of love, appreciation and gratitude for him. I walked up to him and in my intermediate level Spanish, I told him I have traveled around the world and this was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The most beautiful people and community. I thanked him for standing here and giving me the opportunity to experience such beauty without fear. . . There was a pause. . . Then for a moment, he dropped his shoulders and turned his head to look at me. His eyes turned so soft. I saw him and he saw me. All of our loves, frustrations, insecurities, anxieties, joys. . . He smiled gently, said "Gracias", then turned back into character - standing stoically. One of the best moments of my life which stimulated an inner transformation within me.

@winterknight For some seekers, can low doses of psychoactive substances be used as a tool to bridge the gap between an egoic mindstate and the "I AM"?

I would imagine a materialist physicist would likely think that particles "obey" physical laws. Yet, I don't have much experience in this area. Perhaps our physicists @graded24 @Elisabeth can help answer this.