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In the past few months I have observed a significant but subtle change in my perspective on the substance of reality. It seems to me that it is a truer way of looking and understanding the world, or maybe a more accurate way, a more conscious way? It is like seeing the actuality of experience, leading to an intellectual framework that incorporates the nature of existence itself into language. Whereas most operate in terms of objecthood and processes, it seems that both of these are nothing but Nessness. Nessness is another word for being, for actuality or existence. I find it very fitting, because it points to what everything truly is, everything is itselfness. Red is redness, love is loveness, beauty is beautyness. Appending the word "ness" to all fascets of being, to formulize the recognition that these fascets are being itself. I feel like there is a great confusion in the general population of what consciousness is, it is like people are lost within the content but cannot see the substance of the content. Consciousness is not merely experience, experienced by an experiencer. The essential nature of consciousness is being, it is existence itself. Beingness is consciousness. What we call the material world is equally as much beingness as the "experience" of the color red is beingness. They are what reality is, they are not within reality, they are not projected upon a ground of existence. They are that which is realness, isness, beingness, existenceness. What I have not yet investigated is the connectiveness of all substance. It seems to me like all aspects of reality are intimiately connected, colorness with soundness, soundness with feelingness, feelingness with thoughtness. And these connections do not seem to be rational or logical, or coherent. These connections seem to be impossible. Impossibilityness is an integral part of them, yet I find impossibility not to be a perfectly fitting word. It is beyond impossible, it implies a Power so great and full that it is beyond all measures of power, a Power so great it exceeds greatness, it exceeds all categories, it exceeds all limitations. Understanding itself is an impossibility, yet it is there. The absurdity of the connectivity of reality seems to be divinity. Divinity being the connectedness of all fascets of realness, the impersonal Intimacy. Intimacy seems to be a very fitting word, the intimacy of realness. There is no depth to realness, it has only one layer, one layer that is itself. It cannot get closer to itself than it is. "I am". The fundamental nature of the Self is not Iness, but Amness. Amness is the same as Isness, or Beness. It is existence itself. Amness is completely impersonal, meaning it is not Iness but includes Iness. Yet Amness is Intimacy. It is not merely including Intimacy, it is the nature of Intimacy. Amness and Intimacy are one and the same (I have to note that what I mean by intimacy does not fit into the individuated category of intimacy, as a feeling). It seems to me like the category of mind is false. It implies an inherent seperation from reality, as if consciousness was unreal and our abstract thoughts of reality were true. Yet the inverse is true, or not really the inverse, because even the abstract thoughts are beingness. Consciousness is not a mind, it is existence. It is being. It is all there is, it is Isness. Everything that exists must be consciousness, existence itself is consciousness. We might as well throw out these concepts altogether. Consciousness, existence, reality. It's all the same thing. It is Ness-ness, or Nessness. That to me describes it very well, because it is itself as itself, and not just that. It is the isness of itself. Any other word would imply some sort of seperation. Or, it would not be inclusive enough. Nessness not only includes Isness, but also Nothingness. It includes absence and presence. It includes All Ness, because Ness is the nature of reality, Ness is reality, Ness is existing. Nessness is itself as all that can be and not be, all that Nesses. And all must Ness. This is Nessness cognition, where, within our usages of language and thought, the substance of objects merges with itself, where the Isness of all becomes itself, or is revealed as itself. It could be no other way, it is always this way, it Nesses. I have not yet seen the groundless ground. I am curious if it can be found in the Isness. I don't know if deconstruction exists. It does not seem like there could be anything to be deconstructed. Isness seems to be final, it seems to be untouchable. There is nothing to deconstruct it, as it is deconstructionness itself. Right now it seems to me like I can sense a veil, a sense of a source of Isness so to speak. This is the sense I get when I see the Impossibility of existence and all of it's fascets (like the impossiblity of any aspect of reality, whether it is redness or straightness, or softness) It's like the Isness is a subtle trail, it's truly magical or Absurd nature has an implication. Not an intellectual implication, not even an emotional implication. I would almost call it a metaphysical implication. That seems to be a fitting word. Metaphysical not in the sense of philosophy, but in the sense of being itself. Denying it would bé like denying consciousness/Nessness, it is not possible because denial itself is Nessness. I can't see it, I can't sense it really. It is like an aura? That does not seem to be a good word for it. All I can call it for now is incomprehensible.

Oh there is a You inside. Not personal not impersonal rather Total. Forever expanding infinite Absolute.

can you guys please stop posting this impersonal bullshit in my journal. stop projecting teal swan unto me. of course ego is her best friend!

When speaking to yourself, do you use first or second person? Is one better than the other? I’ve found that I currently lean strongly towards the second person. I think I trained myself to do this a while back in an early effort to separate my egoic self from the higher Self. It was constructive for a time, but now I’ve encountered a new challenge. This impersonal approach has created somewhat of a distance/ dissociation in myself, and I think I neglected to build an entirely loving connection there. In proceeding towards practices of self-love, I’m unsure whether to remain in a second person dialogue, or whether to reestablish the first person in order to nurture the sense of oneness? I would love to hear input and advice!

Hey guys, my first post here I'm not religious, in fact, ATM I'm practicing meditation and yoga and am huge into personal development. One thing , however, that I've noticed after lots and lots of research is what I like to call the "New Age to Jesus phenomena". I've encountered lots and lots of testimonies (some of them I've attached below) of people converting from New Age spirituality (meditation, yoga, astral projection,...) to Jesus (Holy Spirit). What I found interesting is that these experiences and testimonies seem very heartfelt, touching and compelling. I guess what I'm trying to ask is, is there anyone who has any clue as to what this means? Are these experiences just something we can't really explain? Why do people in the Christian faith deem everything that's not Christian demonic? What is the correlation between Kundalini energy and the Holy Spirit? I'm praying for the first time in my life, I guess I'm conducting a sort of an experiment, trying to figure out whether Jesus is real or not. Please, do not view me as a Fundamentalist/Stage Blue person. I'm extremely open-minded and I've had an awakening experience about a year ago, brought on by LSD... so it's not like I was raised Christian. Not at all. I was an atheist since I can remember. I also find it interesting that the New Age philosophy is "You are God"/"Everything is God" whereas the Christian philosophy is "We are separate from God". Could BOTH be true? Could God be impersonal or personal? Thanks in advance.

Yes, it is a religion. But what's wrong with religion? If you think religion is bad, wrong, or evil, then that has automatically become your religion. You see? Although it's good to be aware of it, but if you want true liberation, you won't give a damn about other people and their ideas. Not everyone has the time and ability to sit down and meditate for decades only to come to the same conclusions that everyone else has come to before them. Actual spiritual realisation is not superior to religion! Direct experience is just a belief! Notice that direct experience will become a memory after the experience is gone. A memory is merely a thought, and a thought taken seriously will become a belief. You see how this thing goes full-circle? You can't escape belief, even a direct experience of God becomes a belief in the ordinary state of consciousness. So, I prefer calling the direct experience of God a personal belief, whereas the belief that is learned from teachers I would call it an impersonal belief. To conclude, everything is perfect as it is, whether Actualized.org is a religion or not. WE ONLY LIVE ONCE. If you care about finding God, then go find God. If you care about happiness, then go find happiness. If you care about success, then go find success, etc... Total freedom, do whatever you want. Anyway, from a more practical point of view, the only thing that we can agree is a real problem with religion is its politics. If we have a religion with politics of equality and fairness, etc... Then there wouldn't be a problem at all. But that won't happen by a long shot, so the struggle will keep going.. (this post is not directed at the OP per se).

@Truth Addict thank you. Interesting, I haven't thought about "personal experience vs. impersonal theories" duality. They should be transcended, but maybe this topic is too deep for this post. I can learn how electrons were discovered, I don't want to repeat the same experiment with a vacuum tube. But to read reports on psychedelics and have own experience of psychedelics is a completely different story. I can't grasp the essence of experience just by reading reports.

Direct experience is a way of being, learning and becoming. It is a key to both personal growth and personal transcendence. Yet experience can also become a thought story that the mind and body becomes attached to. The ego loves to take ownership of an experience and personalize it. “Wow, I just had an amazing no dual experience. I am making great progress. I am at a higher level than that person now. This is what my mystical experience means. . . What my friend needs is a nondual experience like mine to help wake him up. My experience was more mystical than his experience.” . . . And on and on and on. . . I would say attachments / identification to personal experience is deeper than attachment / identification to impersonal theories. Yet they are inter-related.

I have tried all the typical advice (barefoot, nature, physical exercise, eating heavy foods, even crystals etc) but nothing seems to work. This has been a problem for me for far too long, it is a bottleneck in my personal development, if i meditate or contemplate or use psychedelics (for spiritual development), or even read, plan, use the computer/smartphone, clean up my diet (trying to be a fruitarian), i simply get TOO ungrounded, almost like losing touch with reality. The feeling is like seeing life by looking through binoculars, reality seems impersonal, detached, like it isn't even happening to me. At first it was super scary, i thought i was losing my mind (i have lots of mental disorders history in my family), now i got kind of used to it but i feel too disconnected with the world, it is hard to relate with anyone, it is hard to commit to anything, super hard to focus, be disciplined, decide what to do with my life, it feels extremely overwhelming. I live constantly spaced out, "airy", distracted. I have to say that i have a comfortable life, live by myself, unemployed (my family pays for everything), no schedule or obligations, no challenges that i don't impose to myself. I feel that this aggravates the problem, i am in the Limbo phase, trying to develop a vision of my life purpose and follow it. This is my whole focus right now, following my life purpose and make a career out of it, super bold life changes, i am considering to sell everything and travel by my own, put myself in challenging situations in order to ground myself, force myself to keep engaged in life. In the Life Purpose Course Leo talks about how a life purpose can ground oneself to reality and i believe him, i get the concepts but it is all too overwhelming, i am having lots of trouble in planning and being strategic with it, i am too in my head all the time. ps: I have noticed that some of my family members diagnosticated with mental disorders are, in fact, extremely ungrounded, too much in their heads, losing touch with "reality".

Some people treat feelings as a barometer of the group's well being. These people treat them as means to connect with others and understand them by 'becoming' them (empathizing), or 'influencing' them (harmonizing). On the other hand, some people are driven by feelings and become individualistic. Paradoxically, this individualism can be a bonding factor, but this bond is expressed through giving space. When you love yourself and your interests diverge with another person's, then this divergence is not laced with hate but with compassion. You understand that the other person loves himself too and only does this because he has to. We don't choose what we feel towards others, so in this sense, we're all victims of this disagreement. This conflict becomes impersonal in the sense that it is not about me, but about each of us trying to cope with harshness of the world to the best of our abilities. If we're fortunate enough, our abilities let us solve problems through cooperation, or compromise and violence becomes the last resort. If I truly love myself and am able to connect with others, the interest of the group becomes a factor in my well being, so it's only natural that I care about them as well. Loving yourself is just as valid in spirituality as loving others.

I’m not talking about more analysis and and constructing more complex understanding. I agree that inner work is unique to an individual, yet empathic understanding can reduce the restriction of the uniqueness to the individual. If I wanted to learn to play the guitar and arrived to the first lesson and noticed a dog training session going on, it probably won’t be very helpful. They tell me “you need to do Inner Work with your relationship with your pet dog to form a deep connection with your dog”. That is all fine and dandy, yet I don’t even have a dog and I’m looking to learn to play the guitar. I would realize that I went to the wrong room, politely end the conversation and then continue to look for the guitar lesson room. If I go to the next room over and find the guitar master he might tell me “You need to do some Inner Work with your relationship to the guitar and limiting beliefs that you can’t play the guitar”. Now that Inner Work would be helpful. My comments were not directed at you. They were general, impersonal comments. What you raise about belief systems and anti-belief systems is interesting to me. It’s a form of a duality that is great for exploration. I will likely ponder that as the day goes on ?

@CreamCat I don't know what exactly self-actualization contains without making up a definition. I listened to the .... original audiobook from Maslow sometime ago and the pyramid is explained everywhere. The point is with... spiral dynamics at stage yellow it is a different kind of political anger, it is more of intense indignation about the political situation(which is more impersonal it's not an anger which involves ones idea of one self for instance imo), values etc. It's not a psychological rant to reduce stress by cursing. The whole point about devilry is that that a devil in zen is everything that stands in your practice so theoretically, everything is a devil. My homework assignments, my schedule, my family, my cat, social media, internet, ted talks etc. Yet, it is also practice in a sense that if ones want ultimately to become the ... ultimate atman, brahman or god then it has to be in daily life and every second to some degree, otherwise it's fragmented. No way, that is going to happen. That is why I disliked church I grew up agnostic/Catholic. Then I read in a book that going to a church or religious event let's say increase serotonin and oxytocin, so bla bla you feel more bonded to others. Singing in a group and doing group activities. No, it's not self-actualization in the sense of becoming a greater version of one's self. Personal growth, fulfillment, success, happiness, health, wealth, inner freedom, luxury w/e. The point I want to make is, that I would not understand what you would regard as proper knowledge for self-actualization. Yet, I am highly curious. Because I've been listening to mostly advanced teachings and have to get the fundamentals in place, in order to grow more. What I've been doing or started doing only this year more. For instance financial situation, yet there are just things I can't do poop about, so I want to work on other parts.

Yes, but Green is still not thinking about it systemically. Green is mostly doing it from her heart. That's all great, but it is not the kind of full-bore systemic thinking I described. Green is still looking at the situation from a personal agenda level, it just so happens that saving the Earth is now part of her personal agenda. Yellow and above is more impersonal. And yet still very personal! Tier 2 is more detached.

There is an underlying dynamic here your mind-body doesn't seem open to observing. On a personal level, I think the storyline your mind is immersed in has a point and value. Yet your awareness won't expand if it stays contracted within that storyline. This is an impersonal observation. If it is helpful, great. If not, ditch it.

Trip date: 3/29/19 Substance: 105 mg LSD (1 tab) Time of ingestion: 10:20 AM Location: Golden Gate Park, Lindley Meadow Duration: roughly 6 hours on an empty stomach I’m going to start by saying this... This was both the best day of my life and also being one of the most difficult. Fortunately, that was expected as a possibility... sort of. I want to note that I don’t advocate the setting and circumstances I was in to anyone else. This setting for this trip was what it was due to my current living situation and life circumstances. I went into this trip pretty nervous. However, after a call from a great friend (that I made on this forum), I felt a lot more relaxed. By the time I took the tab I let go of my expectations and intent for some super deep metaphysical trip. I actually went in wanting to have a very pleasant “ego-trip” and just go around Golden Gate Park and have a great time... Surprisingy, the opposite happened. I took an Uber down to Golden Gate Park near Polo Field, took the tab and then began walking around. Being that this was my first psychedelic trip and I personally have a notoriously low tolerance for pretty much everything (I’ve had a pretty solid Kundalini awakening and 3rd eye opening off 1 hit of a THC vape pen - don’t ask me how. I don’t know) I was definitely in that mindset of ‘waiting for something to happen’. It was a beautiful day, sun was finally out after weeks of rain and I found a log to sit by. I placed my bag down At about the 30 min mark I started noticing my natural curiosity was starting to come more online. I remember looking at the trees across from me in the distance and just looking at them. I noticed I became more curious each passing moment to the point of laughter. ‘Why this laughter?’ I wondered. Well, because I was become more authentic. My filter that keeps my natural curiosity down and depressed was starting to melt away. I then remember saying (and this became a phrase I continued to utter through the duration of the trip), “It’s just an amplification of what’s already so.” As soon as I said that, everything started to take off from there. This was the start of a massive buildup (for me relative to my ordinary consciousness and all other “glimpses”). As this trip progressed in the early stages I became so authentic and free from my normal character that I’m used to living in I felt like I imagine a lot of gay people do when they finally own their sexuality and live it. It was pure freedom. I honesty can say I’ve never had a more honest and authentic experience of what was truly so for me in my entire life. I realized that what honesty is is simply reporting what already so and authenticity is expressing what’s truly so. In order to truly own authenticity though, you have to know what it is that’s being repressed and also have overcome the massive filter I constantly have on... and that’s no simple matter. It took a whole tab of LSD to melt that filter to get out of jail. It was a feeling of “finally! You’re finally being real! You’re finally telling the truth! There you are!” I realized that one of the biggest obstacles towards true authenticity is fear. Simply fear. Fear of being disloyal to the facade because that facade was necessary and also has a lot of memories you are attached to... however... they’re not true and in order to be free you have to shed that armor and be vulnerable. It’s fear of being judged by others. I was looking at other people like a total spastic goofball but didn’t have an ounce of fear because what I was experiencing was what was true and that I could now love myself. I realized that you can only love when you truly accept and live what’s true. As my experience became more deeply authentic, I noticed found I was finding myself more and more in bi-lateral symmetry, something Martin Ball is known for truly emphasizing as a rule of thumb when taking entheogens (psychedelics) and embodying the nondual energy. I found that I literally couldn’t “violate” this symmetry so long as I wanted to stay authentic as I noticed that when I entered a-symmetries I wouldn’t enter into a dualistic point of view of subject-object relationship. When I broke bi-lateral symmetry, duality no longer was a concept, it became an inauthentic experience. I noticed the difference in the quality and state of mind between staying in bi-lateral symmetry as opposed to going into a-symmetry so I continued to sit down and stay in bi-lateral symmetry. The longer I stayed in bi-lateral symmetry the more I noticed a process of breaking down this “inauthentic energy” I was finding in my (subtle) body... checkout Martin Ball’s video on YouTube “Fractal Energetic Yoga” to know what I’m talking about and to see a little bit of what I was doing (whoever came up with that title needs to go into marketing). At the peak of purging my authenticity I started noticing something rather odd... the feminine in me came up. This promiscuous feminine aspect of my self cane up and boy did it come out. It wasn’t like some repressed gay side cams out but I feel flourishing of feminine side came out. It was such a release. I had both no idea that was there in yet at the same time it felt like something I was waiting to burst out all along. It was just some feminine aspect of my self it had a whole feminine sexuality to it too. At one point I just blurted out “God is soooooo sexy!” Lol After a plentiful amount of time processing and shedding my inauthentic character, I suddenly reached this weird and then staggering realization while laying on the ground... “it’s Infinite... it’s Infinite... I’M Infinite!” Tears came out. Tears of Love. Tears of Truth. Tears of fear. Tears. This realization was impersonal, personal, and transpersonal all that same time. It was a conflict because all 3 of those felt equally true at different moments. I started to truly realize what the word “yoga” or “union” really meant. It was hilarious. My mind was not dissolved at all though which, looking book 3+ weeks now, is kinda blizzare... at least to me. Rather, my conceptual mind was starting to became a visual interpreter for every realization even though these realizations were totally beyond the domain of mind. I started realizing the nature of perspective. I started to realize I was the cause of all the evil in the world, all the beauty in the world, the infinite creative potential of God. I realize the vital role of creation. I started to see that duality is the design and that it’s a necessary feature such that the results we have in this relative world are all necessary towards the next creation. I started to realize just the “out of control” function of cosmic creation moment-moment to the point I was both laughing with bliss and also felt my mind was going to explode because of the magnitude.I realize my Top (7) Values: Truth/Wisdom Love Consciousness Creativity Learning/Knowledge/Understanding Authenticity Beauty As these insights started to slow down I became much quieter to the point where I was totally still. I was started to reach the beginning of the come down and I was taking in what I had just realized. It dawned on me the responsibility that comes with the realizations I just had. Responsibility with a capital “R”. Not as a moral responsibility laid down my ego or some “other” but rather what it means and entails to truly live at the highest alititude of consciousness and what the required in terms of living in Truth, making life choices based off of the Truth, etc. I realized deep down I can’t just reject the world of form if I’m going to eventually live from the highest place of Truth and highest state of Consciousness. To deny the world is to deny myself because I literally am the world and everybody else. To deny Love of others is to deny Love of myself and to do so would be a lie and would be creating a shadow and would mean living in falsehood. I realized why sages do what they do and why they feel they “have to.” It’s not becaue they have some egotistical moral obligation. It’s out of Love of Truth and ironically, out of self-acceptance. Their identity is so cosmic that helping society and the world is no different than helping themselves. Feeding a starving boy in a sense feels the same as feeding themselves if they were starving. To not do so would be hurting themselves. I sat there stunned honestly nervous and asking funnily “Can I do this?” And then I remember a quote from Ralston when @Leo Gura asked him about the possibility of enlightenment, “who else could do it?” At that point I got up and started walking only to then realize that my phone was dead. I still was nowhere near sober but I was starting to really come down. This brought slight anxiety but nothing big. I decided it was best to find a coffee shop with an outlet where I could charge my phone. As I walked though, the more I felt other people. I felt all the staring from other people. I felt the hostile energy of cars racing and honking. I could feel the hate of so many other people. I started becoming ever increasingly self-conscious of how weird I probably seemed. As the LSD came down, the more I noticed how much I taint and ruin everything. I was aware of the more I felt worse, the more I projected onto other people. I felt like I was going crazy and going schizophrenic. I felt shame every time someone looked at me. I knew what was going on and that I was projecting and I was realizing that this is what a shadow is as it was happening. Though I knew what was happening I struggled keeping it together. I eventually found my way into a coffee shop which by that point I felt like I was truly losing my mind and to cap it off, the shop was full and no outlets were to be found. The emotional energy of everybody was so overwhelming I just kept projecting it out (internally - didn’t say anything). More frustration amounted. I just wanted to go home and call someone but couldn’t. I was trying to comfort myself but it was so hard. I realized just how much I ruin everything for myself. The hard part was that my mind was just getting more and more amplified the more the LSD wore off to a shocking degree. The distortion of thought was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I began walking for the next 4ish miles to the next coffee shop I thought of. It was rough. I was trying so hard to console myself without shitting on myself. The sad part was, this was what I was already doing inside of me. I just was never aware of it. I would have my hands on my knees I was feeling so overwhelmed exhausted by mind. I decided to keep trudging and stop feeling sorry for myself. I realized that this was par for the course and that yes, this wasn’t ideal. This is what I do but goddamnit I’m going to be fine. I can keep going. I even laughed a little bit about how distorted this same trip I got a taste of God as a bad trip. The more I kept going, the more I calmed down. I sat down, bought a sandwich, charged my phone, gave another friend on here a call and started feeling better. I learned a lot this trip. This was a truly full spectrum trip in every sense for me. I’m very happy I did a lot of listening and homework before ever doing psychedelics because having that frame alone for what was happening when it went South really was a big help in ways I can’t even put into words. Having in back of my mind that this was all perfectly normal really was the safety banklet I used to allow me to console myself that this was okay and I would be totally fine. I remember Leo said in the 10 Ox-Herding Pictures video when you first get a glimpse of the ox there’s thought of “we’re going to need a bigger boat...” And man is that fucking true. I realize a big part of that “bigger boat” for me is self-esteem and self-acceptance and development of my ego. My ego is fragile that I could see that the main reason my trip went south is because my ego is frail and fragile, as ironic as that might sound for so many people. Leo once used a lightbulb analogy that I think suits this experience well where it’s like you’re a puny little bulb being plugged into this ginormous high voltage wall socket and the moment you’re put in you burst. How true. I hate, deny, and am so ashamed of myself so much that my puny ego can’t actually tolerate and handle that amount of Love and Truth that I as God am. This has been a long post so I’ll wrap it up here. Thank you to @Robby for the pre-trip call, thank you @Sahil Pandit for being available to talk to as I came down, and thank you Leo. Thank you for everything. You’ve helped me find what I truly want out of life and show me a path of who I can truly be, avenues of potential I didn’t think were humanly possible, and showing me a path to find who I’ve always been. You can’t put a price on that. I don’t know you but I hope one day I get the opportunity in my life purpose to give you credit. And thanks to those of you on this forum who are genuine and have shared kind words of support in my past posts. To seekers: God is real... Trust me... I used to be a huge Marilyn Manson and Sam Harris fanatic LOL. As far as right now I am back in my ordinary ego. I’m about to embark in less than a month on a 4 month hardcore sales gig where I can earn up to $60k this summer which I’m currently preparing for. I’m currently doing self-esteem sentence completion work but still don’t feel any real difference despite having finished this first week of daily sentence completions. Self-esteem is hands down my biggest obstacle right now. My confidence, integrity, self-accepetance, work ethic is still extremely low. Still screw ups and mix ups in my day still set me off on huge emotional rampages internally where I tear myself apart and lose all hope. I’m trying hard to cultivate hope. I hope after this 4 month gig I will have enough money to not only move out for this first time (which is terrifying enough for me as it is) but can then go to some workshops and seminars to really work on building my self-esteem, get clearer on my life purpose, and also go to a full workshop with Ralston in the Fall. Despite all the inner turmoil, the faith is still there. I’m still here and I’m still standing. Thank God ❤️

What is Duality – Part 1 Leo's smile and laugh are beautiful! I don't think he cut for the whole 2.40 minutes of that lecture . . . Not my work. Copied and pasted from a Youtube User's efforts by the name of Ask Questions --- All human cognition is dualistic, which has enormous implications for all intellectual work, including science, philosophy, and culture. This two-part mini-series presents a detailed list of over 250 of the most common dualities and how they ultimately break down. “Every stick has 2 ends” 3 major groups Common dualities , scientific dualities , existential dualities. 250 common dualities All thinking is dualistic any intellectual activity is creating duality, we create dualities unconsciously Your own mind is creating these dualitistic opposing relative notions. What is the distinction between mind and world but a duality. We build our lives and societies and cultures on certain unquestionable duality which is very threatening to the ego. All science is dualistic, reality is dualistic. Your own mind defines and created these dualities and are not absolute where all dualities collapse. You're using your mind to create boundaries. Reality arises from denial of duality which itself is a category Dualities Up vs down Left vs right East vs west Soft vs big Forward vs backward Clockwise vs counterclockwise Long vs short Hot vs cold Weak vs strong Slow vs fast Smooth vs roof Odd vs even (is 0 even or odd , is 3.14...even or odd) Easy vs hard Empty vs full High vs low Decrease vs increase Heads vs tails Shallow vs deep Narrow vs broad Good vs evil White vs black True vs false Love vs hate Positive vs negative Should vs shouldn’t Right vs wrong Moral vs immoral Worst vs best *how much time spent debating Sad vs happy* you can’t have happiness without sadness Old vs new Young vs old success vs failure* how do you know something failed ? Reality vs fantasy Life vs death Good vs bad Science vs religion Man vs women Human vs machine Progress vs regress Pain vs suffering Thoughts vs feelings Foreground vs background Useful vs useless* if you didn't need to survive nothing would be useful you wouldn’t even need uselessness when things become useful other things become useless Essential vs not essential Inefficient vs efficient Boring vs exiting Here vs there Near vs far Rich vs poor Normal vs weird Xx vs Xy* means nothing what is a chromosome? Why should we give importance to certain chromosomes? Wow. White vs black (race) Flawed vs perfect (absolute perfect) Straight vs curve Dark vs light Dirty vs clean Wild vs tamed Simple vs complex Wet vs dry Common vs rare\ Pro vs cons Up sides vs down sides Fair vs unfair (absolute fair how much do you complain about unfair? One being through all permutations * Winning vs losing Gain vs loss Fake vs genuine* Fiction vs nonfiction fearful/Cowardness vs bravery Slave vs master Superficial vs profound Abstract vs concrete General vs specific Growth vs decay * how much do you chase never ending growth whatever goes up must come down Agitated vs calm Arrogance vs humility* humble people were once very arrogant usually when you were young, you becoming humbled by your arrogance from self reflecting and get sick of your own arrogance War vs peace Violence vs peace * it's only possible to have peace through war and violence (long term design is absolute and absolute peace striving for greater unity Personal vs impersonal* both Innocent vs guilty Past vs future* Happened vs will happen Confused vs clear Capitalism vs socialism vs communism Conservative vs liberal Legal vs illegal Criminal vs non criminal Criminal vs police Terrorist vs not terrorist* who can say who is and who isn't a terrorist Hero vs villain Journey vs destination Ruler vs ruled Ugly vs beautiful Masturbation vs sex Art vs non art Discord vs harmony Student vs teacher Child vs adult Healthy vs unhealthy Product development vs marketing Biology vs chemistry Civilized vs uncivilized Spirituality vs politics Church vs state Important vs unimportant Mother vs father Democracy vs tyranny Sober vs intoxicated Beginning vs end Needs vs wants Pain vs pleasure Individualism vs collectivism Primary vs secondary Thought vs feeling Theism vs atheism Consistent vs inconsistent Extreme vs moderate attraction vs repulsion Contraction vs expansion Dominant vs submissive Popular vs unpopular Mainstream vs niche Gross vs subtle Incremental change vs revolutionary change Status quo vs change Stable vs unstable Temporary vs eternal * Addition vs subtraction Addiction vs non attached (added my own) Work vs play Content vs context Closed vs open Local vs global Minimum vs maximum Lender vs borrower Buyer vs seller Entrance vs exit Like vs dislike Ignorance vs wisdom Emotional vs rational Functional vs dysfunctional Employee vs employer Sexual vs nonsexual Leader vs follower Victim vs abuser a lot of times the victim is an abuser somewhere else Predator prey Us vs them People vs corporations Private vs public Competition vs cooperation Safety vs danger Drugs vs psychedelics Mediocre vs excellent Implicit vs explicit Culture vs cults Ordinary vs extraordinary Serious vs playful Cat vs dog Scientific dualities Mind vs brain Energy vs matter You can distinguish these things but just realize you are the one creating these distinguishes Existential duality Existential duality are dualities most people don't want to question Fundamental law of epistemology All dualities are fundamentally untenable and temporary all dualities are relative and must eventually collapse. Corollary; dualities only holds when they are not deeply explored the deeper you explore any duality to its ultimate route what you will discover is that the further away you get from the edges of this duality you will see it collapse and the edges will bleed and circle back around in a unity and the entire time the duality was defined in terms of one another. Authenticity is absolute start self reflecting be weird ,stop looking in the mirror, and stop laughing at people. move yourself into integration

Hopefully I look better in dream than I do in pixels You're telling me some of your life, but not all. One thing you have to remember is to not talk too much about your own life or direct experience and to stick to just repeating what you heard from the last video you watched. It is called impersonal development after all

There are a lot of different usages of the term enlightenment and I generally try to avoid that term because people have so many preconceived ideas about it. Regarding spiral dynamics, this would be within Turquoise. As more beings evolve into Turquoise, more distinctions within Turquoise will be drawn. There will be various levels within Turquoise. This could also be considered different levels of awakening. At the trans-personal level, there is impersonal awareness of the personality structure. I'd say generally a person reaches this stage within themself. Then, there is realization that this applies to other beings as well. I'd say this is currently a very high level of consciousness. In the future, it may be an average level of consciousness. The next one higher is even rarer. Imagine there is trans-personal awareness in a mind-body. That awareness may be detached from the personality impulses that arise in the mind. Through that mind-body there may be lots of ideas about what enlightenment is. There is no person to be attached to it or take ownership of it. This can arise at times on the forum. Yet it is still at the human level of consciousness. There is still human attachment and human identification. All those profound ideas are contextualized at the human level. There is a subconscious assumption at the level of the human mind. For any description of enlightenment, go explain it to a frog or a rock and see how it goes. Can a frog or rock be enlightened? That is a question that challenges the human level of consciousness. . . This also illustrates how low of a level the intellect, thoughts and language is. There is no way a human could explain any form of enlightenment to a frog or rock. Yet what about higher modes of being? Let's expand our idea of empathy, intuition and energetic modes. Is there a way that an essence of enlightenment could be expressed between human and frog via some type of empathetic or intuitive channel? Hmmm, here I'm no so sure. Now we are entering trans-human levels. At the trans-personal level the idea "that person is enlightened" no longer applies (since we are one level higher than the person) At the trans-human level the idea "that human mind-body is enlightened" no longer applies (since we are one level higher than the human). I'm not saying implying one level is "right" or "better" than another. It is just different levels. For example, we could look at the level of an individual basketball player, the level of the basketball team, the level of the basketball conference, the level of the national NCAA basketball organization etc. No level is "right" or "better". The problem arises when there is lack of awareness of levels and people start believing things like "that player is basketball". No, that player is within the sport of basketball. The sport of basketball includes that player, yet it also includes basketball teams and conferences. Similarly, I would say enlightenment includes the trans-personal level, yet also the trans-human level as well as higher levels. At this point, there is awareness and beingness at the trans-human level beginning to flow through my mind-body. I don't have any solid direct experience with any higher levels, maybe a glimpse - yet my baseline level is only high enough to integrate entry-level trans-human awareness and I have only scratched the surface at this level.

In Talks on Beelzebub's Tales, Bennett distinguishes four types of suffering - Unnecessary Suffering, Unavoidable Suffering, Voluntary Suffering and Intentional Suffering. The first is Unnecessary Suffering. This would be the type of suffering that we incur because of our unreasonable attitudes and expectations towards others, from our ill-will, hatred and rejection of others, from doubt, possessiveness, arrogance and self pity. In other words, suffering arising from our self-importance. The second is Unavoidable Suffering. This would be the type of suffering that comes to us by accident or from events beyond our control, such as interpersonal conflicts, war, disaster, disease or death. Third, we have Voluntary Suffering. This would be the type of suffering that we take upon ourselves in order to accomplish a personal aim, such as an athlete who disciplines himself to win a race, or a student who labours to get good grades. And finally we have Intentional Suffering. According to Bennett, this would be the kind of suffering that we take upon ourselves in order to accomplish an impersonal or altruistic goal, one that is directed more towards service to others or to the Work, and not for any personal gain. Bennett assumes that this is what Gurdjieff meant by Intentional Suffering.

Being a Human Being and Still Being the Absolute The development of consciousness has to do with living in this life from the perspective of the Absolute. The Personal Essence, the Pearl Beyond Price, has to do with being a human being and still being the Absolute. If you’re just the Absolute, you are not a human being. But you live in this world, you have a physical body and a mind, you have work and relationships. You need the Personal Essence in order to be able to live personally as a human being and still be the Absolute. So the development of the personal aspect has to do with integrating all of these things that are important for our life into the various levels of consciousness, and then into the Absolute. This is an actual process that has to do with the metabolism of the Absolute into the Personal Essence. Although it is rarely mentioned in spiritual literature, the integration of the person into the Absolute is vital because we live in the world and not in a monastery or cave. Integrating the person into the Absolute is more difficult than experiencing the Absolute. Integration requires that you deal with and metabolize your unconscious and your personal history. You have to really let all of the unconscious come out, to face all of your specific issues and areas of conflict and ignorance. Many traditions don’t care about integration but strive only to reach the Absolute. They don’t care about the personal life. The point for them is to know the Absolute and leave. In other traditions, and in our work, the point is to know the Absolute and live in the world as an expression of it. So how can you live a human life from the perspective of absence? That is the realm of development, change, and transformation within consciousness. Diamond Heart Book Five, pg. 145 Development of Essence from Being Impersonal to Being Personal Unlike other aspects of Essence, this personal aspect (the pearl) goes through a process of development, growth, and expansion. Here the concepts of development and growth can be seen in their true and literal meaning. This true personality of the being is born, fed and nourished. It grows, expands, and develops in a very specific sense. It is really the development of Essence from being impersonal to being personal. Others might call it God becoming a human person, an individual. Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 163 Experiencing the Pearl Beyond Price The pearl beyond price, the incomparable pearl, the personal aspect of Essence is central for many important reasons. It is actually the true essential personality. It is the person. It is experienced as oneself. When the individual finally perceives it, the contented expression often is "but this is me!" The sense is of oneself as a precious being. There is then a fullness, a completeness, and a contentment. It is as if the individual feels full and complete, realized. Nothing is lacking. No more search, no desire or wanting anything else. The person feels "now I have myself. I am a complete individual. I am full. I am fullness. I am complete. I want nothing else." Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 161 It is Possible to Experience Egoless Beingness Thus it is possible to experience egoless beingness, to be, as a substantial presence that is not a mental construct, and still live a human, personal life, in which love, work, knowledge, creativity and accomplishment make sense, a human sense. This true existence, this presence, this being beyond time that makes sense of human and personal life, is the Personal Essence. It is the reality of which ego is only a reflection. It is the truly integrated and developed human being. This is the beautiful presence that the traditional literature of work schools calls the “pearl beyond price.” The experience of universal impersonality of ultimate reality occurs when the separate individuality is transcended, when the separate individuality is seen not to be our true self. But this is the result of transcending the personality in its totality. Something different happens when we investigate the personality’s manifestations in more detail, exploring the hidden essential truth within it. The ego is a reflection of this true element of Being, the Personal Essence, and exploring the characteristics of the reflection can lead us to the reality being reflected. By isolating and understanding the elements of the false, we can begin to approach the elements of the real. Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 32 Knowledge of the Incomparable Pearl is Rare The knowledge of the Incomparable Pearl and the process of its development is rare even in the most complete spiritual teachings, and the traditions that know it do not speak much about it. This is why the overwhelming impression one gets from most spiritual teachings is that the goal of spiritual work is the realization of impersonal Being or the realization of the Soul’s relationship to it (as in the Christian tradition.) The literature regarding the Pearl is sparse, and when it can be found, it is usually couched in metaphorical and symbolic language. Sometimes the language is more direct and descriptive, but it appears metaphorical to most people, because they lack the direct experience. The story, “The Hymn of the Soul,” in Chapter Eight, is an example. There are very few direct references to the Personal Essence in the literature, and these are found mainly in old books not in circulation. In this chapter we will describe some of those references; although they are rare, they tend to confirm and support our own understanding of the importance of the development of the Pearl. Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 115 Relating Without Object Relations The Pearl beyond price can relate in a personal way without the need to activate past object relations. So its capacity is not only innate but also natural and spontaneous. Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 172 Station of the Pearl The station of the pearl beyond price is so significant because it is not a matter of a state of consciousness or a state of being; it is rather the condition of the actualization of one's realization in one's life. Being becomes personal being, a complete human being living fully the life of objective truth. Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 166 The Essential Structure that the Soul Develops as She Metabolizes and Transcends her Ego Structure The pearl can also be seen as the essential structure that the soul develops as she metabolizes and transcends her ego structure. Ego structure gives the ego-self the sense of being an autonomous and unique individual. But this structure is constructed through fixed mental impressions in the soul; hence it both dissociates her from her essential ground and limits her development because of its rigidity and fixation. The essential pearl provides the soul with a sense of individuality and personhood that does not depend on fixed impressions, but on spontaneously arising forms of essential presence that structure her experience of herself and give her the capacity to function as a person. The soul matures and transforms into a person of essence. However, the qualities and actions of this person are quite fluid and flexible and are objective responses resonant to the needs and inputs of the environment. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 223 The Pearl is an Ontological Presence The pearl is the real, complete, balanced, and rounded personality that psychologists believe they are talking about when they are discussing the ego. We must remember that the ego is a structure, or structured process, whereas the pearl is Essence, which means the pearl is an ontological Presence. We call it the Personal Essence because among all the essential aspects it alone is personal. It is experienced as having a personal flavor to it, in contradistinction to impersonal. All aspects of Essence, even love and kindness, are impersonal. But the pearl is personal. And this is its miraculous quality, totally unexpected and unfathomable. Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 162 The Pearl is the Actualized Individuation of Your Soul When you are who you are, when you are just precisely yourself, you are your “point.” Just that. This has nothing to do with any qualities, functions, capacities, and skills you may have. It has nothing to do with your status in the world, and nothing to do with living this life in a body or not in a body. It is your nature. The Pearl Beyond Price is the connection between this genuine center and all the capacities, skills, and understanding that are a part of your growth as a human being. It allows your capacities, functions and accomplishments to develop in a genuine way as an outgrowth of your spontaneous unfoldment. It is the result of living in the moment, living in a way that is true to who you are. This is your genuine personal life, your own development, your own growth. The pearl is the actualized individuation of your Soul. So the personal essence is connected with your unique function, your unique work in this life. To actualize your particular unique work in this life means to be your personal essence. It is the essence of all that you have developed and integrated in your soul as you live a real life. Everyone is born with the true self, with the point. Although we feel that the point is unique in each of us, the quality of the point is universal. Then how do people become so different in their personal lives? This is due to the particular development of their personal essence. Diamond Heart Book Three, pg. 66 note: Almaas refers to the soul with the feminine pronoun 'she'.

I think you are giving too much weight to the intellect. I see being as one integrated system, including the intellect. Yet if I had to separate the modes of being, I would give roughly equal weight to each mode - empathetic, emotional, intuitive, intellectual etc. However, I think most personality constructs identify most strongly with the intellectual mode, followed by the emotional mode. I would say thoughts and feelings are integrated. When the intellect and emotional modes are at odds, mind-conflict tensions and neurosis can arise. It seems like your intellect wants to be in charge and wants to run the show. Nothing wrong with that, yet it doesn't need to be that way. There have been studies showing how the intellect can influence the body. For example, thinking of positive experiences in stressful environments can reduce stress hormone levels. Yet there are limits. if a body is being burned alive in a fire, thinking it isn't real won't do much imo. As I've said many times, I think beingness is an integration of many modes of being - including the thinking intellect. So I would say most beings are in ignorance of the dream realization due to dynamics within the intellectual (thinking), emotional (feeling), empathetic modes etc. Becoming aware of the delusions of the intellect is the first level. In consciousness work, nearly every human body first has awakenings within the intellectual system because this is the system most identified with. Many will stop here. Once the intellect is transcended, the next level of exploration is generally within the emotional modes of being, which in part includes experiences. Imo, this is much more advanced. Most mind-bodies will want to stay immersed exploring the intellectual mode, which is of no surprise since they identify most strongly with the intellectual mode. I'd estimate only about 2% of conscious seekers that have mostly transcended the intellectual mode have also transcended the emotion/heart mode. A good example would be Ken Wilber. As a minor point of clarity: rather than saying I am at a high level - I think it would be more accurate to say that the self construct in my mind body has dissolved to a great degree. I'd estimate about 70% or so. The personality still re-appears and there are delusions - especially when interacting with other personalities. Self dissolution can be both beneficial and problematic when trying to relate to other beings without immersion in the self. As you said, sometimes I see someone immersed in a common personality dynamic and I have to think back and remember what that was like. So at the personal level, I think you are right. There are times when there is a disconnect - I am viewing things at a trans-personal level, while they are at a personal level. For example, I often express observations that are completely impersonal that people take personally. For example, I may express an observation of an insecurity dynamic occurring in someone. This would be no different than expressing an observation that an ant is crawling on their arm. Yet often humans will take the insecurity observation personally and get all defensive. I have to think back when I used to do that. These days, that only happens in my mind-body about once a month. I don't believe every physical or mental illness or disorder is due to past traumas. Yet I do think past traumas are one variable that contributes to many mental/physical disorders. This gets into some complex integration of the timeline, the Now, the individual mind-body and the collective mind-body. I don't think one can separate each of those components. Can something arise independent of one of those features? Perhaps, yet that gets into some deep metaphyscial realms that go beyond the intellect. Here, I think we need to be careful with a phrase like "no apparent reason". Quite often something arises. To the human, it may seem like "no apparent reason", yet that might just mean we are not aware of underlying mechanics that give rise to that appearance. Again, I'm saying trauma is one variable in an integrated system. There can be many variables. For some conditions certain variables are huge risk factors, for other conditions each variable is a minor risk factor. For example, a mutant allele for the Huntington gene will lead to a neurological disease. That is the only variable. If a mind-body has this mutant allele, there is a 100% chance they will have the disease. There has never been an exception. In contrast, we know of about 40 variables that contribute Schizophrenia. Each variable only slightly increases the chance of schizophrenia by about 1-10%. Some mental conditions involve few variables, others are complex. Disorders like OCD, ADD, anxiety disorder, PTSD are complex and have many variables. I agree here. There are physical conditions in which awareness doesn't help - at least not at our current understanding. For example, someone who has suffered a spinal cord injury and becomes paralyzed. Medical stem cell treatment can restore some function. Yet, awareness and meditation has no effect in curing paralysis - maybe in the 100-200 years it will. Other conditions, like neuroses and chronic headaches can be often be cured through awareness, meditation and self healing visualizations. Yet it's not either / or. Consider something like PTSD - I think this is a case where a combination of medical and awareness treatment is beneficial. Awareness of underlying psychological dynamics can release. Yet as I mentioned, PTSD is also a brain injury. The genetic architecture in the brain is restructured. At this point, it doesn't look like awareness can reverse the physical alterations. I think it has potential to do so, yet this is some VERY high level awareness in which awareness is entering the brain and physically altering the chemical properties of specific target DNA sequences. This is a higher level than Deepak Chopra. I've caught glimpses of this potential, yet I'd say we are at least 100 years away from this level of awareness therapy.

The below comments are general impersonal comments about the idea presented above. The below comments are not directed at the OP. The misunderstanding is due to an idea of enlightenment on the personal level. In this idea, there is an association between enlightenment and the personality. The question above challenges that association and allows the opportunity to transcend a level, if the self can let go of it's attachment to its idea of enlightenment. The trap here is to try and answer the question on the same personal level it was asked. Yet to answer the question, we must venture to higher levels. . . Enlightenment is not at the level of the person. It even goes beyond trans-personal and trans-human. At the trans-personal level the question "If Osho was Enlightned why did he end up addicted to drugs?" is the same as asking "If Alan Watts was enlightened, why did Osho end up addicted to drugs?". What I did here was to break the association of enlightenment as being on the personal level. At the trans-personal level, the two questions are equal. However, the psychological self will have a very difficult time surrendering to this because the self wants to keep the idea of enlightenment at the personal level - because at this level it is something the self believes it can attain. For those of you with direct experience at the trans-personal level, let's venture up another level. . . Some human minds have become aware of the trans-personal, yet are still attached to humanism. That is, enlightenment is not attained by the illusory self, yet it is attained by the human mind-body. This is deceptively sneaky. At the trans-human level the question ""If Osho was Enlightned why did he end up addicted to drugs?" is the same as asking ""If Osho was Enlightened why did the 1989 San Andreas earthquake occur?". What I did here was to break the association of enlightenment as being on the human level. At the trans-human level, the two questions are equal. However, the human mind-body will have a very difficult time surrendering to this because the human mind-body wants to keep the idea of enlightenment at the human level (the psychological self also sneaks in to contribute to this dynamic). One more. . . let's break the idea that enlightenment is something that occurs within the timeline. . . Here, the question "If Osho was Enlightned why did he end up addicted to drugs?" is the same as the question"If Osho was Enlightened, why did my cell phone battery just die?". What I did here was break the association of enlightenment with the person, human and the timeline.

I know the question is very open ended. I'm not asking how you would change the specifics of your country's legal code. I'm asking how to improve people's sense of justice. How to improve forgiveness. How to reduce the tendency to hold grudges. How to change society from a rigid organization aimed at tyrannical efficiency, to an adaptable one that is based on improving people's lives and alleviating their actual grievances, rather than exacting impersonal revenge. Here's an example. One could reduce the number of superfluous laws by mandating a review for every law after every 5 years. If laws are not passed after this period, they would be automatically rejected. Another example, and this is hardly an novel idea. You can alter prisons in such a way, that when a person is released after having server their term, their overall livelihood would be improved. For example by teaching them practical skills, and turning their prison terms into paid but mandatory jobs.

If it is neuronal death, it's dead and irreversible. For example with spinal cord injuries or exposure to highly neurotoxic chemicals like methamphetamine. Neuronal damage can take many forms. The healing potential depends on the type of damage. For example, a neuron can suffer loss of neurites - these are neuronal extensions that communicate with other neurons. As well, there can be loss of neural plasticity - this is the ability of neural networks to rewire to allow learning and new perspectives. Neurotrophic factors stimulate the formation of new neurites and increase neuronal plasticity, yet we haven't developed effective ones that can cross the blood-brain barrier. Recently psychedelics have been shown to act a neurotrophic factors in cell culture and in mice. They are part of a new class of molecules referred to as psychoplastogens. . . As well, meditation has been shown to increase grey matter. For example, in a region of the brain associated with empathy. Even people that had never meditated in there life showed increased grey matter after eight weeks of a meditation program. This grey matter increase represents formation of neurite extensions and is reflective of enhanced abilities. For example, the new meditators showing increased grey matter would be correlated with an increased ability of empathy. Regarding the creation of new neuronal cells. . . Differentiated neuronal cells have exited the cell cycle and no longer divide. There are a very small number of adult neural stem cells that have the capacity to re-enter the cell cycle and create new neurons. Yet, we currently do not understand this mechanism. There has not been a lot of research regarding the effect of releasing emotional blockages on neural health. I think this is a wonderful area of research to explore. I believe this is an unexplored region for two reasons: First, releasing emotional blockages is still within the areas of psychological therapy, meditation, yoga, reiki etc. Neuroscience is still contracted within a reductionist and materialist paradigm. They are expanding, yet it is slow. Second, I believe science has become more and more influenced by corporations and capitalism. Most research funding is dominated by utility. What scientific gadget can we create and profit off of? What profitable new drugs can we develop? Even nonprofit academic research institutions are restrained by this. Studies involving the neuroscience of meditation, emotional blockage release, reiki etc. just aren't profitable and aren't funded. Hopefully as the collective consciousness increases, so will this type of funding. In particular from highly conscious wealthy donors. This would depend on our definition of "trauma" and "real". I am using the term trauma in a holistic perspective that includes both the immaterial energetic systems and material systems. To see if we are using the term "real" in the same context. . . Imagine a person is being chased by an aggressive dog. The person's mind is hyper alert. There body is breathing heavily and filled with hormones creating stress. Would you consider that heavy breathing and that hormonal stress response the body is experiencing as being "real". I do. And if we agree that it is real, then I see no way that one can conclude that traumatic experiences have real effects that can persist for years. I think we may be using different usages of the term trauma. If you could explain how you are using the term trauma it would help me. I am using the term to include both the immaterial, such as energetic systems (chakras, energetic blocks, meridians, intuition etc) as well as material biological systems (neurotransmitters, hormones etc). Together, they would yield mind-body sensations referred to as anxiety, panic, stress and terror. I think an integration of both immaterial and material is necessary for a holistic view of trauma and removing one would yield an incomplete perspective at the human mind-body level. I don't see "enlightenment" as a thing and I don't see a "you" in enlightenment. I don't see a path to "enlightenment" because there is no place for a path to lead to. The One Everything/Nothing does not have any separation. I see psychedelics as a powerful tool to expand one's consciousness. Imagine going from the conscious level of a mouse to that of a human. Psychedelics can greatly expand human consciousness beyond the ordinary state. Psychedelics can also produce whacky nonsense and I don't think they are effective for a mind-body until that mind-body has reached a certain conscious level. In particular, I think the mind-body needs to develop a grounded "observer + object" stage. If not, the psychedelic trip is often recontextualized in a way that is counter-productive to consciousness expansion. I would consider both sober experiences and psychedelic experiences to be enlightenment, since there is no escape from enlightenment. I think trying to manipulate with pills is a contracted view that is counter-productive. It is trying to isolate one component of an integrated system and manipulate that component. This is a highly limited view that does not consider the holistic view, including the energetic systems I mentioned above. If I was to develop research and treatment plans, I would only place about 5% of my resources in pill development and usage - and this would only be temporary to help allow more holistic healing. 95% of my focus would be outside of pills and medication. There are much richer and more productive areas to explore. Neuroscience is associated with pills and medications, yet it is beyond that. The strength of neuroscience is observation of the physical realm and how the nonphysical impacts the physical. For example, FMRIs and EEG brain scans can help us develop treatment plans for a person. A person could consider both their subjective experience of meditation, yoga, reiki etc. with brain scans revealing physical activity. I think a major deterrent in progress is separation. I see so many divided camps. There are the neuroscientists, reiki masters, yogis, exercise enthusiasts, psychologists etc that are all in their own camps defending their own views. It is all inter-related. It is holistic. Imagine a Reiki master of energetic systems that is also a neuroscience master. She does Reiki and uses real time feedback of intuition, empathy, energetic sensations and EEG feedback. Or a healer that integrates psychotherapy, Reiki, yoga, mediation and brain scans. Whatever tool is appropriate, or a combination of tools. I think it's a deterrent to categorize things as this and that and insist that my tool is better than yours. It's like a carpenter that will only use a hammer and is anti-screwdriver. Its absurd. There is awareness that my mind-body is being chased by an aggressive dog. There is awareness that the mind-body is running. There is awareness that the mind-body is experiencing stress and panic. Awareness does not remove the sensations of what is occurring in the mind-body. The mind-body is still running and experiencing stress and terror. Quite often, higher level awareness can help relax the mind-body and help dissolve anxiety, yet not necessarily. At a trans-personal level, there is an unconditional peace and stillness in that higher-order awareness. Yet that is independent of the mind-body sensations. The mind-body could be experiencing relaxation, joy or terror and that higher-order stillness is present. Yet, that is not what I am referring to as trauma. I am using the term trauma in both a metaphysical and mind-body context. There is a still presence even if the body is undergoing trauma. One could make a distinction here and say from a trans-personal level that the suffering of trauma is not real, yet the mind-body pain of trauma is real. Again, we are using relative terms. Sure, if we remove distinctions then joy and trauma is transcended. And so is love, anger, frustration - whatever. To me, that is a different conversation above the human level. An interesting one yet different. It seems here we are talking at the human level of consciousness of experience. I would say acute trauma is an integrated experience of thought, feelings and energetics. I don't think one can reduce it to thought. I knew an 8 yr. old boy that was forced to watch his mother being brutally stabbed to death by his father. At the human level, that experience had widespread effects on that child - including memories and thoughts. Yet, not limited to that. His whole limbic system and HPA system was altered. His energetic systems of intuition and empathy were altered. I could feel it just being around him. Even if he wasn't thinking about memories of the event. You could remove the thoughts and memories and there would still be after effects. I don't see it in these dualistic terms. I don't think one can separate a within and a without. They are an integrated whole. I think higher-order awareness is very helpful for the mind-body, yet the stillness of higher-order awareness does not necessarily relieve the mind-body of the experience. If a mind-body was being beaten, would trans-personal awareness remove the pain of the mind-body? This is at the human level. At a trans-human level there is a still presence that transcends the mind-body experience yet does not eliminate the mind-body experience. This awareness can be help alleviate symptoms of the mind-body, yet not necessarily. One mentality I see over and over is that there is some thing called "enlightenment" that will remove one's ills. Panic, depression etc. The One Everything/Nothing includes everything. The idea that there is a thing called enlightenment that will relieve one's experience of pain is highly dualistic and at the level of the personality. The trans-human level includes the human mind-body and beyond. It doesn't care about the wants and needs of the self. That energetic motivation is at the level of the self. At the trans-human level of consciousness it doesn't matter if the mind-body is experiencing joy, pain, love, terror or whatever. It is an unconditional freedom. When you say you overcame OCD, that is at the human level. When you say "OCD" I am assuming you are referring to mental and physical symptoms commonly called "OCD". The physiological symptoms of OCD dissolved. Yet that has nothing to do with the trans-human level of consciousness. With that said, I think it is very important to have a healthy mind-body at the human level - that includes the dissolution of sensations such as OCD, depression, panic etc. The trans-personal level of awareness can help immensely with alleviating the symptoms of various neurosis. Yet I would not agree to the statement that neuroses are not real at the human level. This level is highly subjective. Right now, my mind-body is experiencing neck and shoulder pain. There is a higher-order awareness of this pain that is detached from the pain and does not identify with the pain. Yet, the pain is still present. From your perspective, are you saying the pain in my shoulder's and neck is not real? I think awareness can help relieve blockages and many neuroses, yet there are also structural problems. Awareness of leg paralysis won’t do much to restore leg functionality. Thank you. My mind is highly in tune with psychological dynamics and likes to deconstruct psychological dynamics. I try to do it in an impersonal way. Yet, it can often come across as overly-assertive and personal. It is not my intention, yet often the impact. It is something I am working on to be a more effective communicator. I appreciate your openness. Your English is excellent as a second language. These types of conversations can be highly abstract and nuanced. They are at an a very advanced language level. I speak Spanish at an upper intermediate level and there is no way I could come close to having this type of conversation in Spanish. Your ideas regarding trauma has led me to contemplate this and gain some greater clarity. For that, I thank you.

Yes, I understand there is a personality dynamic that believes it is simply speaking from personal direct experience. Yet there is an extrapolation of personal direct experience into broader truths that apply to others. This is a conflation of the relative with the universal. Once this was revealed in the thread, there was a shift in tone and an expansion of consciousness. The comments offered here are impersonal. They are not directed at you personally. They are observations of what appears to me as a common contracted mind dynamic that when deconstructed can lead to consciousness expansion. No it wasn't at all. The below statements are broad statements of application that extend beyond one's personal direct experience onto others. These statements are not limited to a personal experience. They are universal statements. They literally describe what trauma means for other people. Observe how a personal direct experience is extrapolated to apply to others. I am revealing that that is a very limited and contracted view. The exact opposite of your relative direct experience may occur in someone else's direct experience. Or hundreds of different forms than that of your own. Lack of awareness and acceptance of this relativity will restrain a mind within one limited perspective. In terms of spiral dynamics this is an absolute key in evolving from the Orange level to the Yellow level. Trauma is highly complex in relative terms and there is no objective statements of trauma that can be universally applied. As described above, severe trauma effects the individual and collective in various ways. For one person, trauma may end after the event and recovery may simply be letting go of memories. For another, trauma may have widespread effects. Memory may be just one piece of the puzzle. Multiple physical and nonphysical systems may be effected and the traumatic effects may persist for years. The person may be re-traumatized repeatedly. Traumatic effects can even be passed on to children. . . I am intentionally using terms like "may be" and "can be" to reinforce that this is not always the case. What may be good advice for one person may be horrible advice for another person. In the big picture, both research and direct experience matter. Their integration forms a more holistic perspective.