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Hi @Alien . I don't see any conflict between photography and Self Actualization work. Photography, as any other form of art, can be done from a place of high consciousness, love, curiosity and intelligence. It becomes a distraction only if you do it for the wrong reasons.

infj laundry list. I acquired a recent obsession with MBTI. Taking this personality test three separate times, I got the same result over and over: INFJ. The rarest, most misunderstood personality type in the world. INFJ males apparently make up 0.4% of the population. Straight INFJ males, probably less. #imaspecialsnowflake #egotrip Why didn't I learn this earlier...?!?! It would have saved me years of misery. Learning about the INFJ personality feels like a spiritual awakening. Looking at my life through this lens explains almost everything about me. It explains why: I feel like an alien Very few people understand me I feel like a walking contradiction I often feel at war with myself due to conflicting desires I am a people pleaser and social chameleon, always have been I can connect with anyone but have very few true friends I used to be addicted to video games I had binge eating issues half a year ago I feel disconnected from my body, ungrounded I've had chronic health issues for years People often mistake me for an extrovert I am often confused because I can envision a million different futures and see the opportunity costs My mind travels a million miles per minute I often get analysis paralysis I love mental masturbation I often get deja vu Life feels dream-like I am highly sensitive to others' feelings and can intuit underlying moods I often know when someone is lying I try not to rock the boat, because saying "no" may hurt the others' feelings, and I have to feel their hurt Until I was eight years old, I cried every day Growing up, my Dad and brother would tell me to "stop crying," or "stop being a little girl," or "grow a pair" As a sensate extrovert, my brother says, "just do it", "stop thinking so much", "what are you so afraid of?" People often criticize me for being "too deep" I feel like my body doesn't cooperate with me I live "upstairs," meaning that most of my "me"-ness resides in the third eye and forehead I am quasi-autistic in front of the opposite sex, because my body feels threatened for its life and shuts down When I finally trust someone, I jump off the deep-end and bear it all, which often scares them away I tend to get severely anxious and severely depressed I gravitate towards nihilism When I say I'll do something, I'll do it I'm extremely disciplined I was a straight-A student in school, without needing to study until college I use lots of metaphors and enjoy puns I gravitate towards holistic systems thinking I like using bullet points I have difficulty expressing myself I've nearly thought myself to death I'm sometimes envious of people like Cypher, who are okay with being ignorant I can't hold a day job for more than six months without going slightly crazy I don't get why people my age go straight into a 9-to-5 career without questioning if they really want to do it or whether it will make them happy I feel like "the system" is not made for my personality I think the conventional route - get a job, get married, have kids, retire - is inherently empty and comes with false promises I feel incapable of providing for a family I want to be like yoda when I grow up I have a hard time being present (1.5 years of daily meditation, and I still can't seem to get in the zone) I am extremely future-oriented I value personal growth highly I quit facebook a year ago I'm overstimulated by bright lights, loud noises, and crowds I hate being the center of attention I can't stand small talk I need time to recharge after social interactions If an activity doesn't align with my higher-consciousness values, I eventually stop doing it People often come to me with their problems People often accuse me of playing the psychologist People often share their deepest secrets with me - even people I barely know Whenever something bad happens in any relationship, I immediately blame myself first I see the potential of a person more than I see the actual person I have a strong urge to help others I am a raging perfectionist who sets unrealistically high standards for myself I am self-aware and admit when I'm wrong I often disappear from the face of the earth for extended periods of time (like right now) I have terrible situational awareness At the same time, I find myself crying of gratitude every other day because of the overwhelming beauty of life I am hell-bent on answering the deep existential questions I feel extreme, tender, compassionate puppy-love towards people and things ever since balancing my fourth chakra I make laundry lists like this, hoping that maybe someone out there will understand, while expecting that the reader will either think "WTF?" or "Too much, man..."

@Alien do what makes you feel happy. Your only on this planet once. I’m sure taking some photos isn’t going to be the end of the world!

@Alien Write two columns on a piece of paper; belief and experienced. Write everything you could ever have any question about in one of those columns. It works well if we are absolutely honest.

@Alien It’s the idea of “you” that is at the root of this. Idea’s are one thing, “I literally don’t exist” is a bucket of minduckery. ?

To me he has a certain look that gives him that guru look. That makes him sort of naturally interesting. He looks like an alien. He's so weird looking he must be wise eh? That's what I think is happening subconsciously with people and why he is as popular as he is. And his personality is strange too.

I recently did a guided meditation that was very reminiscent of that image @Alien . It involved breathing in the positive symbol, and breathing out that negative symbol. It seemed rather silly at first, and then I realized how deeply we are connected to these symbols... and how obvious their meaning is to all. In retrospect, from a non-dual perspective, I guess it's a rather fucked up exercise...but that doesn't negate the fact that I felt great afterwards...lol...

I never even knew Bashar has paid content until you mentioned it. The free content is enough to get the wisdom. Judge the content, not where it's coming from.. Bashar isn't supposed to need money, sure, but the argument is invalid, because it's not Bashar who gets the money, it's Darryl Anka, who is not the supposed alien. Goes to show that you are simply with an agenda to try to discredit the guy. Nothing personal, but that's just how I see it. I can't speak about the crystal's functionality, because I haven't tried it. I can't judge something as correct or incorrect if I haven't tried it. Recently I am led to believe that the world is much more magical than I realise, especially when geometry is concerned. Btw thanks for showing me this vid. I already have attempted to re-draw it, so now I have a permission slip hanging on my wall - for free! I'll keep you updated if something happens

@Alien

@AleksM probably, but when it comes to information, it is the same... When we learn physics or chemistry, we learn information and facts... Whatever that alien entity says is probably a bunch of information.. Whether it is true or not is a different thing. But regardless of the truth of that information, it is still some information... That is why I am saying that it is all bit off-topic for people whose main priority is spiritual enlightenment... They have other forums to discuss these things.. :) Anyway, the image is just a joke.. Making sure that the discussion doesn't get serious...

Ok.. then wait! I am hoping that by 2040 or before, we can get an alien being right here on the earth to teach you how to get enlightened.. If it doesn't happen until 2040, there is still hope, so don't worry.. It will be a great way to postpone enlightenment because people can wait for eternity for an alien being to show up and teach them something profound, in such a way that no human being has taught them before...And the probability of that one random alien being to be enlightened being is so unimaginably high!

Yes.. I think we probably need a 'Paranormal' subforum and a 'Mental masturbation' subforum...Even though these two topics have got nothing to do with enlightenment, a lot of people are more attached to these things... But it will be good if 'spiritual enlightenment' subforum is locked for people who post in 'Paranormal' subforum and the 'Mental masturbation' subforum; these two subforums should be locked for people who like to use the 'spiritual enlightenment' subforum. Also, alien life doesn't have to be categorized as 'paranormal' but still, as @blazed said, it is not the purpose of this forum... Here is the bottom-line: Neither the curiosity about paranormal stuff nor any kind of mental masturbation has got anything to do with the spiritual path or spiritual enlightenment. Usually, they are distractions..

@Alien It's normal on the path. You WILL fall off track a lot so just be patient and keep going regardless. The reason why you're so upset is because you're not thinking long term.

@Alien Sounds like the purging process. It's ultimately a good thing, but it can be a complete bitch when you're going through it. Important thing is just to keep coming back to center. This too shall pass and all that.

@Mighty Mouse How do you know if I am being fooled by this? I just found it entertaining when I watched it 2 years ago and felt like posting it here, if I believe if this is true or not couldn't be less relevant in either case. What speaks for his case is that there was a video of him up on turrents that showed him briefing some high ranked military people and also the many videos of people using his alien communication device/app or whatever it was seemed to show results, would be hard to fake that with so many different people in different places, but who knows, I have been looking around for those videos for like half an hour and they didn't seem to end I don't know how many got deleted by now though. There is also much stuff that speaks against him, although if you buy his story it would be logical that there is.

@Alien No.. the lady is not speaking anything absurd.. She is simply saying how science works... First of all, don't confuse between the absolute and relative truth.. Absolute truth is self-evident... It is the basis of your existence.. There is no need of any external evidence for absolute truth... It is who you are.. people are just identified with things in the relative domain that they forget who they are.. But everything you use in the relative world belongs to relative truth. Don't hold any grudge against science and don't think that scientists are ignorant or arrogant. A true scientist is a humble person, more humble than people who would want to believe in anything... People create some stereotyping that doesn't make sense.. Science is neither in competition with spiritual path nor it is against the spiritual path. It is just a careful method works based on verifiable evidence. It is because of science and technology I am writing this message here and you are reading it. There is a lot of misunderstanding about how science works.. Everyone uses the scientific method to some extent unknowingly.. It is similar to how police investigate to find the person who committed a murder.. The first man who learned to use the fire obviously did it by scientific method unknowingly.. He must have noticed some fire while rubbing two stones... He formed a hypothesis that rubbing two stones caused a fire. He experimented with it, again and again, to make sure that the friction between two stones is actually what is causing the fire... This is pretty much the gist of the scientific method. The scientific method used in modern days is just a refined way, which makes sure that there are no errors. Also, don't indulge in the game of discussing who is ignorant, who is unconscious, who is speaking absurd etc... That is taking a backward step, it is a trap. Just because a person is meditating or doing a self-inquiry, he is not superior to anyone else.

@Alien I went on a single day meditation retreat and that problem of "mechanism" was completely gone. this process is not supposed to be done intellectually, but intuitively! that's why in zen they give koans to participants to tire the intellectual mind and use the intuitive mind. long sessions of meditation help immensely with this. you become so intuitive and answers just flow to you.

@Alien I have these sessions too, where these questions are being asked mechanically. It can be really frustrating sometimes. So what's important to do is first get in touch with this feeling of self you have. Where does I reside? What is actually 'you' in your direct experience? Then when you have this feeling- or thought, label, etc-- start inquiring and asking questions. Are you really me? Am I only a mental image? Am I only a sensation? Go on like this. Keep focus on this 'I' feeling and bring yourself back every time you go into monkey-mind. Watch Leo's video on how to get enlightened if you haven't already, it helped me a ton with this issue.

the symptom of loneliness has to do with neglect. i found neglect is one of the most undermined forms of abuse. we all have experienced what it feels like to be in someone's presence yet not feel understood or practically invisible like we're an alien who don't belong on this planet and in society. for someone to accept us and have value for us, they first have to have personal value and accept themselves. we all just reflect back to each other what's going on at the subconscious level, so we can learn and grow by seeing ourselves from different perspectives. we're all alone/lonely to different degrees but together share this personal individual experience, since we're all going through it throughout our lives.

@Alien I think from the perspective of the one who dies it's exactly the same, though after you "die" you cant compare it with physical death because people who died cant tell us how it was.

Here it comes again - huge resistance in my body and mind. I can't sit still for longer than 10 minutes, I feel really tense, which is always the case after a state of clearity and bliss. Most of my life I thought I knew stuff and the last year, upon hearing various spiritual teachers it's beneficial to not know anything , I adopted that attitude. I did exactly what one shouldn't - i pretended I didn't know anything while I thought to myself : yeah I might be wrong about some little things, but really, I have it all figured out. What a joke! Now that I've really started to question everything, I see how horrifying it really is. Is anything really real? Is Trump an alien? Am I living on flat Earth? Is scientology the answer to life's questions? Is wheat evil? Does global warming exist? What is death? What is anything? Do other people exist? I just DON'T KNOW And I can finally accept it

@Alien Your thoughts, emotions and physical appearance is not who you are at the deepest level, at the deepest level you are eternal, timeless and one with everything, and at the same time - nothing. (Leo articulate this better then most I think) This is the most radical thing a human being can be aware of. You and everything that exists (and not exists) are already God and beyond perfection but the illusion of you as a separate entity is very hard to break. With Self inquiry you can eventually break through the illusion. The illusion goes on and is supported by culture, thoughts, your appearance, emotions and everything you consider to be real, that goes in a circle. The Matrix.

@Alien the question already imposed a separation.

@Alien I used a bunch, then listened to Leo on OneNote. Been using it for a couple months, it is superior. Free for IPad too. Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. -Buddha https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/buddha_104025 I feel you on the anger man. I grew up in an angry environment. I smashed someone’s face through the drywall, and their front teeth stuck in a two by four. I later felt so bad about it, I started learning about anger. Not proud of this of course, just sharing. I think a lot of guys, especially around 17-23, just reach their limit of not knowing how to handle things, and either fuck up their life, or find spirituality.

@Alien Hey man if you have a bunch of suppressed anger and your mediating daily then watch out, it's all going to resurface and it might be more overwhelming to deal with than you might realize, you've only been meditating for a month. This is coming from someone who suppressed a bunch of anger throughout their life.