Omni

You genuinely think Bashar has people coming here for advertisement? - I've not heard of him since until a few weeks ago, being on this website. But why would you assume Leo should ban people based on posting videos for guidance from other teachers? Honestly that sounds like nonsense considering Leo is always talking about exploring other styles of belief systems, going more in depth to alternatives to conscious/spiritual development, experiencing things first-hand. All personal growth content is welcome here, clearly. If there is something he deems that wouldn't be beneficial to the collective growth of the forums; I'm sure he or the mods filter these out fairly quickly.

This is probably single-handedly the worst advice I've ever witnessed someone give for psychedelics. But that's my opinion. _______________________________________________________________ @Ilya, I don't know you or what you need or what stuff you are getting, but I'd start with a 1.5 - 2.5g dose and gauge that trip from there. My first trip was 4G because my psyche is stable in regards to substance use. (this isn't an ego-stroke, because I'm not stable in every facet by any means - just substances specifically, considering I'm technically underweight I should usually experience the opposite effect.) Remember: there is never a certainty with anything you consume unless you know from start to finish where the substances originated to entering your system. Keep all possibilities open - don't expect a "good" trip because that's not always what you need to be shown. The truth can be overwhelming, painful and just scary at times. But you must keep in mind even in your worst of trips that like everything in this realm, it is only temporary. - Now this also does NOT mean you should go into the trip fearful of the end result; because that is setting yourself up for disaster as well, this has a lot to do with mentality, intention, perspective and mood going into it. Focus on the positives and have a strong willingness to LEARN. Because that is what this is about, it is experiencing and learning from these experiences completely - anything that is shown to you within this trip is necessary for your growth; good or bad.

Great to hear and thanks for your response! - My immune system is impeccable naturally, so I wonder if it will do the opposite for me lol Either way I will be conditioning myself throughout the next few weeks to be able to really withstand the cold - so I appreciate your information.

Titlebaited but not really, it's a good way to convince people to do a form of a more 'intense' meditation. Figured some people here may find this useful.

If it was out of your control; then there's not much you can do but accept the situation as it is and work around it. If you need to reschedule and she needs to revise all her plans, then let her know sooner rather than later so she can start planning - granted you also can't predict the way she will take it, though chances are you are simply overthinking the situation.

Unfortunately I'm going to give you an absolute answer though you'd like to not hear one. This is all you will gain, it will be another 'un-filtering' of what you are inputting into your psyche. You will not gain any friendships from this, in fact it will likely dampen whatever connections you do have in person currently. - If they want to contact you, more traditional means would be a better way to go. Don't fall into the trap - as this has no beneficial value to you whatsoever, you will only be strengthening your weaknesses and ultimately adding another addiction to your life that you don't need.

It's not 100%, nor is it even 50%. Facts don't change opinions. That's as simple as it gets, self delusion and paradigm lock prevent this completely. You can try to logically explain to someone why they should calm down from an overreaction, but the logic doesn't click. You need to have people feel it emotionally, which is difficult to do - because we all have an opinion on something and it varies immensely. This is why religion and politics sells so well, is because it is fueled by emotion, not logic.

Facts/Evidence means nothing, people don't 'open up' with evidence

Lose the idea that you need someone else to obtain that feeling. It's years of conditioning and culture that has put you in the position, realize that you can and will be less socially dependent by simply looking inwards and finding appreciation for the being and existence that you occupy.

Disclaimer: I'm not speaking from an enlightened perspective, nor can I say for sure I'm speaking with enough experience, but here's my take. There is no 'prior' or a one that surpasses the other, with one simply follows the other. Matter/Energy/"reality" is a derivative of consciousness; and vise-versa. You need one to reflect the other for these 'frames of reference' or 'existence' to take place. Otherwise you are what? Nothing. But that's the funny thing, is that either way the end result still thrives, you are nothing experiencing something. But hey, I'm probably just jerking off my brain right now - back to the confines of my mind.

Secondly, not an instrumental band - but Artificial Language is definitely on to something. These kids are clearly beyond their years musically. The generalized sound that this band hits is completely insane. The work that was put into their first album was absolutely astounding. (They're currently working on a new album!) - They blend effortlessly together, every harmonization between each instrument is incredible. This isn't even all to mention that their concept album 'The Observer' is about first & third person perspectives via an entity that is locked in it's own perpetual 'Hell' experiencing ALL of life's tragedies through first person, then after in third person - Agonizing the mistakes it had made. Why do I suggest Artificial Language? Aside from the consciousness-perspective topic, this band packs a punch in multiple ways. Their delivery and story telling behind the concept is profound and honestly it's worth getting into the lyrical aspect of this band if you really want to do some serious contemplation while listening. 'Mazes' or 'Fortune Teller' displays their performance and musicianship probably better than any other songs on their album, but that's not to say the rest of it is not listening to by any means.

This... This right here is your problem - nothing else within your lines of text will be more of an self-explanatory answer than this sentence right here. Find what you LOVE. Not just something that you enjoy doing as a meaningless side hobby, but you must fully immerse yourself with a task - whatever it may be and completely lose your sense of self whilst doing so. Find that one thing, build a habit out of it, make it your bedrock/foundation. Build from that and let 'hard work and doing meaningless tasks' only be a reminder of why you want to do what you love. If you put yourself in uncomfortable positions, you will acclimate yourself - This being said, bask in all of it. The good, the bad, the worst. It's all apart of life and you are experiencing it all. Your desire to be 'comfortable' and 'saving the suffering that comes with life' is in your mind, that is YOUR frame of reference. Now Imagine how many people would kill to have the opportunity in which you sit and almost be able to seemingly make gold out of nothing with the things that you take for granted on an hourly basis. You must first humble yourself and understand true suffering. Not just the monotony that you feel is suffering.

That actually makes a lot of sense.. Going to be experimenting with this in mind - Thank you, brother

I had a good chuckle at this one, basically the same way that it has boiled down for me - People simply will not understand, the closest friends and family of mine have seen a disconnect in daily activities from my side, lack of ability to communicate and overall just mutual enjoyment. It's hard because you start rejecting offers of all the things you used to say 'fuck it, why not?' and start making choices that seemingly have no logic to people who are so low consciousness that they don't even ponder on WHY you might be changing, but never really understanding that it's your improvement that veers you away from socialization. What I've been trying to do is just accepting it, I've tried numerous ways of communicating with people that the videos that Leo puts out are life-altering in every positive way. The change is noticeable, even others say that it's very apparent - but even PROOF isn't enough my friend. This is where I'm trying to fit the model of Spiral Dynamics into my time. To maybe help articulate in such a way that it really digs deep into the mind of lower-consciousness people and really points a spotlight on the issue at hand.

You came a bit late to the party.

I'm notorious for hating the cold - I'm the guy who throws 75 on the thermostat while wearing sweatpants and a hoodie in spring. I've been doing cold showers more recently as well as going outside without a shirt on for a few minutes (yeah I know - such a bad ass right? Lol.) Anyways.. yesterday I was sitting on the sun porch while it's probably 10-20 degrees with my sweatpants rolled up to my knees - and no shirt on. - I read 3-5 pages of this book i'm currently reading which took around 10-15 minutes to get through, while trying to maintain a deep breath, read properly and keeping a straight back to undo my terrible posture - By the end of it I was feeling extremities of 'anxiety-induced' constriction that I feel mildly while meditating for a certain period of time. But here my hands became almost completely non-functional, my mouth had clenched shut (not my jaw) - It would be hard for me to talk, and my left eye was twitching badly to the point where I could barely keep it open to read. To me, this didn't feel like typical 'shivering because i'm cold' and it felt like much more than that, but I'm not a physician and I recovered after about 10 minutes of being inside room temperature - Not sure what your take is on this experience but i'm interested. I probably won't be doing a lake-dive in the winter any time soon, as I don't feel I'm ready by any means, but I'll certainly be working towards that point.

Same to you, though you'd like to admit to yourself you're further than where you are at in this WORK- I'd like to let you know you're still down here with the rest of us. No high horse needed, brother.

You're completely right; no one can answer these types of questions for another being. - However that's exactly what you did in your own form of doing so. You're speaking with too much conviction and vagaries and playing it off as 'higher-self talk'. When in reality these things you speak of you don't realize how ignorant you are to them (probably just as much as Ilya or I, or even could be a worse case)- but are willing to go off and spew these things to promote your ego while missing this as a fundamental concept. This IS work, and life IS work - There is nothing else. You must work your ass off to survive (well, not anymore.), you must work your ass off to thrive, you must work your ass off to become more aware and conscious or even self inquiry for that matter. This is all WORK - whatever term you'd like to apply to it, when it comes down to the realities of the situation, it's HARD WORK at that. Lastly, no one is accepting or projecting authority - This was an open ended question that which was to receive advice/tips on a specific part of self actualization, seemingly nothing more.

@Faceless - You're free to do what you do, But I'd advise not just simply throwing half-assed riddles towards people truly looking for more direct-approached answers in this field. Relapse is simply a backslide, or a RETURNING of lesser-state. Not implying a false sense of anything - improvement is in action as long as you are aware and persistently working towards your life's fulfillment. This only leads to more confusion and frustration, be direct, and articulate yourself. Leo does this in his videos purposefully @Ilya - I'm not sure if you can't NOT backslide. It may just be inherent with this kind of work. It's like pulling a heavy-duty rubber band to it's threshold and releasing, the backfire is dramatic. But the next time pull it again, it becomes that much easier because you're more acquainted to the resistance - and because you were previously on a path, you now just have to realign yourself with that path once again. Giving you some sort of framework to go by the next time - this time you should know and have contemplated the error/situation that caused the backslide and will avoid that trap next time. Expect the backslides and expect the worst - but bare in mind that if you've gone so many steps back, that means you know which steps you must take to get back to the same position you had slid from - and once you get to that point again you will KNOW you can push further than you did the last time.

Would you give me some more depth on some cold submersion that you've done - maybe even some reactions you've had to the cold? I've been recently exposing myself to the cold elements a lot more recently for more intensified awareness practices, but I'd like to hear your results on it.

Completely agree, don't get personal otherwise it will become a world of regrets. It may be a good challenge for you to try to notice yourself in this situation and stay unbiased at all times. It's harder than it seems, obviously. So either way, your choice is yours and I hope it goes well.

You're certainly right about the definition of intelligence being skewed, I'm not debating that. But you pick and choose your debates in fraction rather than seeing a larger picture, otherwise you will only be discussing what the ego wants to discuss and rejecting everything else in the equation.

So this is just a under-developed theory I've had for some time and will be building on, and if this is the wrong section please let me know. - I don't claim ownership of this theory, as I'm positive I'm not the first with this idea, and certainly won't be the last, but I don't think I've encountered any discussion or theory on this, personally. When I say AIU (Artificial Intelligent Universe) - I'm not saying the universe is artificial or constructed by some entity - but simply takes on characteristics of what we know to be artificial intelligent learning. - in fact this observation might be what initially inspired the idea for AI Learning. Many things here may or may not contradict teachings of Leo, and I am not here to state any of this as fact, rather than a simple observation/correlation. Additionally: Leo! I would absolutely LOVE to see you do a video on AI/Neural Networks/Deep Learning (if he has a video on it, I've yet to find it.) - as someone who is currently learning Java, I have an interest in how computer programming has translated into your own personal development, because I can say for (almost) a fact it has in one way or another. HOW is a different story. To give an example of what I'm going to be discussing, this video might be a good basis to start with: As you notice with deep learning and neural networking, you can see each generation learns from the prior, giving more insight and direction to the last (or they can learn from the same generation's mistakes if they are still "alive" to continue. - this is true for all Deep learning. But what is astounding to me is how relatable this in the real world - people and biology in general has shown time and time again to do many 'nonsensical' things on a daily basis. You'll see animals walk off cliffs, people in specific situations act unnatural as a response to stimulus. Curiosity sometimes takes hold and leads whatever thing with that curiosity to their demise. It's easy to question the actions of these scenarios as high-functioning cognitive beings, but if you think about it, seeing someone else get hurt from whatever action they make, and without having to test this idea ourselves, know the outcome of that action. Hypothesis: Could this explain why the universe is constantly expanding? - Consciousness perpetually acquires new information, and that information is stored within the fabric of itself? A few specific questions to you guys: - does the idea of non-duality negate the possibility of this all being a deliberate simulation? - If we ever become technologically advanced to the point of being able to simulate such a universe as this - what would that make us? - The learning rate compared to any biological creature is exponentially faster, therefore could that render us obsolete in all facets including consciousness? - If AI DID acquire self-awareness, would it become enlightened because of it's ability to learn at such a fast rate? Really curious to hear your guys' thoughts on the matter.

You're defining my terms narrowly - I'm simply using these words to articulate and allow everyone to understand the concepts I'm talking about without me simply saying one or the other and throwing the reader off. But since you ask, I think there might be a fine line to both. Intelligence - The ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience granted this is only a dictionary definition and we all know how limited our languages are, and even that definition is ego-driven it's certainly a nuance to be thoroughly investigated. edit: this theory also does not rule out the possibility that this entire universe is a simulation under an AI process to learn in it's own 'world'.