okulele

https://www.actualized.org/start

Check out Douglas Harding. He was all about that.

@starsofclay I used to play some affirmations downloaded from youtube and followed it with BrainSync subliminals for lucid dreaming. Usually I feel asleep during the first few minuets and BrainSync was playing while I was sleeping. I can't find the exact youtube affirmations right now, but something like this should work:

Leo! Your impact is huge! Congratulations. Just look at this forum, you are producing an army of awoken people!

I use subliminal affirmations while falling asleep. I really like this method, as it doesn't require you to spend any of your waking time. You just put your earphones as you go to sleep and get your mind rewired. As you are falling asleep, your brain gets to a state where it is supposed to take in everything it receives effortlessly. For 3 months, while falling asleep, I listed to subliminal affirmations concerning Lucid Dreaming for 3 months. I spontaneously get lucid dreams almost every night without using any techniques now. I am starting with health-oriented affirmations now. We will see how it goes.

After seeing all the hype about yoga, I remembered playing around with a similar practice in the past - Neidan. Neidan is the Chinese/Taoist Yoga. I read a book by Mantak Chia, which got me into it. Although I did not stick to it for too long, I did see some progress in Chi manipulation and overall energy levels. Has anyone practiced this before? Do you think that these Taoist practices are as promising as the Indian ones? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neidan

Taking 200mcg of 1P-LSD a couple of hours after stumbling upon Alan Watts. I directly realized that since I am perceiving reality I have to be creating it too. Nothing was the same afterwards.

@Soulbass Yes! I agree completely. Just do some useless stuff. No need to plan ahead or choose a THING you will do in order to relax. Just let yourself relax in any spontaneous way you find relaxing in that particular moment. Just let loose a little and do what feels fun and pleasant.

https://www.holybooks.com/ This one has tons of free books on spirituality.

Nice! Check out this one.

An interesting side effect, that meditation has on me is HD vision. It is as if I can see the shapes and colors more clearly. Everything is bright and shiny in a way. Everything I look at is beautiful. Anyone experiencing similar things? How much further can this go? What other changes like this can I expect?

Health - How to Eat Move and Be Healthy by Paul Chek (diet, excercise, meditation... basically all you need) Consciousness - The Book of Not Knowing by Peter Ralston (check it out. Mind blowing stuff) Biographies - Autobiography of a Yogi by Parmahansa Yogananda (he shows what is actually possible with the yogic lifestyle) Sex - Enlightened Sex by David Deida (good stuff)

I have been working with LSD for years now. In the early days of our relationship, it was all about fun, play and hallucinating. However, as I started learning about enlightenment I started experiencing something I would call - ego deaths. What I mean by ego death in this case is, my usual character - me - would disappear. I could still remember my name and my personal history, but it was plain that it was absolute fiction. This would leave me somehow open, and I would "host" many, many other Characters changing one by one inside of me, or AS me. These Characters would have their own habits, ways of handling the body, patterns of thinking. It is as though they have lived entire lives developing these traits and then coming inside me. These Characters usually change every couple of minutes. Character expamples: The homeless man - Of course, I don't know if he was homeless. I knew nothing of his personal story. But that's what I thought of this Character by watching his - my - traits. He was very heavy in his body, he smelled bad to himself, there was a clear victim attitude. The priest - Again, I don't know if he was a priest. I don't know his story. He was highly conscious. I called him the priest, because I prayed to someone, when in this Character, in a way I have never knew that was possible. I was basically sending love to a picture of a person in my mind, clearly knowing that the actual person is receiving it. The shaman - Probably the highest consciousness Character I stumbled upon. I was sitting cross-legged, when this one "came onto me" - when I became him. I had a feeling a was something between I man and a monkey. There was a very strong grounding sensation, connection to the nature. My body was filled with consciousness, I could sense every "meridian" very clearly. Non-Character examples: Sometimes, when I would disidentify with the body, I would experience the world not as a person, but as an object. The torn bird - I was having the experience of being a dead bird, or one on the verge of dying. The right side of my body was torn open (probably by a predator) and I was in great pain. Every sensation was very intimate, just as if my own body was in that state. The teddy bear - This was the strangest one and by far the most unpleasant. My "body" was dead. Not that it died, but there was no life inside of it. I just felt the cloth I was made of. The button that was there instead of my eye, made me think I am a teddy bear. A dead object. I would get many more animal experiences, when not identified with the body. Mostly experiences of great suffering and pain. Butchery and car accidents. The Pattern There is a pattern that I noticed about the Character appearance. The level of consciousness that I was at, at the moment of the Character Switch, determined what level of consciousness Character I would host. This means, that in order to get a more conscious Character the next time, the old Character had to become more conscious himself! That proved to be tricky sometimes. The less conscious the Character, the more difficult for him/her to remember "how to be conscious". In this way, these kinds of trips make me climb the ladder of consciousness while seeing how the Characters develop accordingly. I am not really sure how the Non-Characters come about. Lessons It is very easy to overlook our own characters, that is ourselves, because we are the only ones we know. This experiences showed me that there are other possible ways of thinking, acting and feeling. For example, we do not usually see that our thoughts have a very specific pattern only unique to us, as does our handling of the body. Having seen the other possibilities, makes it easier to see my own character patters when they are back and going. Also I have seen, just what the self really is. It is patterns. Patterns of thinking, feeling masculine/feminine energy, handling the body, holding tensions in the body, and so on. There is really not as much substance to it as I thought Thank you for reading! I would love to hear your opinions or comments on this!

I suggest that you contemplate gratitude. Contemplate the way Leo teaches in his contemplation video. Sit down and ask "What is gratitude?". Catch the moments of gratitude through the day and ask "What is this feeling?". When something good happens to you, acknowledge it and get interested in the feeling it makes. When you are about to have a good meal, see how lucky you are and again, get interested in that feeling. The more you inspect the feeling, the more familiar you will be with it, the easier it is to reproduce. If you are a dreamer, I suggest intending to have a dream about gratitude. Before going to sleep, think about having a dream that reveals more about gratitude to you. While falling asleep repeat the question "What is gratitude?". Really believe that a dream will come, that makes you understand. Maybe not the first night or the second, but if you really want to know and keep asking, you will get it! I wish you a lot of gratitude!

I watched a Leo's video called "How I Do Research & Develop Big Picture Understanding". Leo made a VERY important point there, that I was thinking about lately more and more. What I mean is the concept of Meta Sources. As he put it: "other people who have studied hundrets of perspectives and sources". Clearly a source like that is invaluable. Let's just take Leo, I guess our favorite Meta Source around, and see how powerful his content is for an eager to learn person. I don't claim to have watched all Leo's videos. There are still many ones that are a must watch for me, and I want to get to them in the future. Having said that, I see that it may not be wise to get my information only from him. It is not only about the information, but also about the presentation, the sources he is getting it from and many more factors. You get what I mean? I love Actualized.org videos, the Ultimate Life Purpose Course, and I am sure the book list will greatly benefit me, when I get it. But it all comes from Leo, one person, one style, one energy. What is my point? Help me find other Meta Sources! What are the criteria? Quite simple. A Meta Source: Has a vast knowledge in many fields. Is a high consciousness person, talking about high consciousness stuff. Has his teachings reasonably accessible. What are some of my Meta Sources? Paul Chek a holistic coach talking mostly about health and fitness, but also a ton of stuff about spirituality, personal development and other. https://www.youtube.com/user/PaulChekLive Joe Rogan a comedian with his podcast and amazing guests discussing interesting topics. https://www.youtube.com/user/PowerfulJRE Aubrey Marcus another man leading a podcast discussing health, psychedelics, sexuality, self-improvment and so on. https://www.youtube.com/user/PowerfulJRE I hope some of you will catch on and share a few of your Meta Sources! Thanks for reading!

@Speedscarlet I have something more for you. Ram Dass talks about his devotion "technique" in this lecture. He basically says, that you can make an imaginary friend, give him all the best qualities you can think of, and basically hang out with him in your mind all day. He talks about it somewhere in the middle of this lecture. As for Yogananda, what I am concluding from his autobiography is, that he was big on worshiping the Divine Mother even before seriously practicing Kriya Yoga.

I would recommend studying the bhakti path of yoga. I haven't seen the video, but I assume that this is what Leo meant. From Wikipedia: Bhakti (Sanskrit: भक्ति) literally means "attachment, participation, fondness for, homage, faith, love, devotion, worship, piety". In Hinduism, it refers to devotion to, and love for, a personal god or a representational god by a devotee. An example I know of is Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. An Indian saint, who was communicating with what he called the Divine Mother and she was sending samadhi experiences onto him. "The Gospel of Ramakrishna" is an interesting book if you are interested. I have also seen similar concepts in shamanism. The shamanic practitioner communicates with Spirit Guides and Power Animals. Check out Paul Chek's video about the topic, if you are interested. I might also add, that these paths are a big trap that you can get caught into, if you start believing unconditionally what you are experiencing. Watch out!

@YaMayka oh yes! I read Witkacy's book. His descriptions of his peyote experiences are truly amazing!

I am excited to be writing my first post on this forum! I have been a passive visitor for a long time, but today I had an interesting insight, that I thought would be worth sharing. Here I go then, wish me luck! It was about 9 PM, when I took 200mcg of LSD. I seated myself in my armchair, made myself comfortable and cozy and waited for the show to start. It took about 30 minutes, for things to start changing. I was pleasantly present as the observer, letting all the energy and visions pass by me. Everything was in a flow and going very smoothly. I decided to lie down and open up even more. Still, a constant movement of energy, very enjoyable... Aaaaand, STOP! It all stopped in a flash. I was very confused, not knowing what is going on. My body, just a second ago full of emotion and vibration, was now completely life-less and blank. I did not feel bad or unpleasant, I was simply cut of from experience. After taking a seat again, I consciously started putting attention back into my body, starting at the feet. Immediately I felt energy coming back in, without which my life was like a dead thing. My attention stopped somewhere in my lower part of the body. A huge obstacle was uncovered there, but once seen was easily focused on and released. I am guessing that is what some would call The Second Chakra. With the release came an intense feeling of energy, stemming from the ground and above all from the area around my testicles. Where there was no life just a moment ago, now it was overflowing with an unimaginable richness to it. My vision got sharp and I could easily distinguish objects in the dim room. I grabbed a notebook lying just beside me feeling a deep need to create and express this glorious energy. I started drawing. This was a different kind of drawing than I have ever done before. It felt like energy from my testicles was going directly through my arm into the pen and was itself creating this masterpiece. Again, I was comfortable situated as the observer, seeing my body creating this beauty. I came up with this: Art = Fun = Freeing of sexual energy = Unknown This equation perfectly sums up a moments insight that was revealed to me, meaning: Art is just having fun, which comes as a result of letting your sexual energy go wild and do its thing. The person doesn't have the central role in this process, he just stays in the zone - Unknown. Open, curious and willing to let anything happen. A simple process for creating art, having fun and staying healthy by letting your energies flow, that I came up with: Connect to your sexual energy. feel your balls (or the female sexual organs I guess) Have a piece of paper in front of you. Channel this energy through your body into any form it likes. TIP! Believe, that amazing things can come out of you. In this energy free-flow state ideas and art come. I think, this is also the way to do proper contemplation. I think, this is what Leo meant by sitting down and doing nothing - letting the energies flow. I thought I understood this simple process, but until this day I actually did not. I clearly see now, how many of the principles shared by Leo are only grasped on the surface level of my mind So my call to all of you, dear fellow Actualizers, is: Drop your control and desires from time to time! Go, be bored! Have fun, do silly things, let your spontaneity take care of life for a minute! And this way, make room for new ideas and perspectives. Have fun in this process of self-improvement.

Some amazing gurus that come to mind and have not been mentioned: Ramana Maharshi “Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.” According to me, the most in-depth and advanced non-duality teacher out there. He was teaching mostly through silence. When that was not enough for someone, he spoke, pointed to the Self, in many cases advised Self-Inquiry. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa "He is born in vain who, having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realize God in this very life." Another mind-blowing Indian saint. This one went the devotional way. I think he is very valuable to study for us, Leo's followers, as there is so little said about bhakti (devotion) on this forum. Thomas W. Campbell “The smaller your reality, the more convinced you are that you know everything.” A living enlightenment teacher. This one is a westerner, a scientist. Amazing teachings, very comprehensive for us logic-based people. Often compares our reality with a virtual reality or a video game. Check out his YouTube channel, it is well worth it! Thích Nhất Hạnh “For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.” A Buddhist monk. His teachings are very simple, poetic and gentle. He is all about mindfulness. Dalai Lama “Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.” I am sure you heard of this one. Another Buddhist monk. He is a very wise, old man. Funny and easy to assimilate. Lao-Tzu “The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.” An ancient Chinese philosopher. I think he is the founder of Taoist philosophy. His amazing work Tao Te Ching speaks for itself.

I also had a couple of freaky strange loop dreams. One in particular was very interesting. Here it is: There was an insane guy wrecking havock near my house. It was getting out of control and I called the police, so that they come and get him. As I was calling, I remembered how I ended up in my family. I was not born there. Before, I was a crazy guy destroying stuff near a random family's house until the police came and arrested me. I was cured of my mental illness and afterwords the family, that lived in that house adopted me. I started living with them until one day I had to call the police because of a crazy guy... It was me. I called the police to get my past self, and that's how I got to the place where I could call them When I got it, the dream reality just broke down. It could not work any more and I woke up!

Check out Osho Dynamic Meditation. It's a practice designed to safely get emotion and all the stuff out of your body. 1. You pump yourself up with fast breathing 2. You exploooode with all that you have got. Spontaneity is important. 3. You ground yourself. 4. You let go... (do nothing) 5. You celebrate, dance! This really helped me, when my kundalini was shifting and I was experiencing similar stuff that you are explaining. It might be difficult and you may encounter resistance, but it is well worth it