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Returning home from overseas travels in my 20's with no money after a lot of partying, my parents sent me to a week long transformation workshop. One of the processes caused a proper kundalini awakening. During the break i went to sit outside on the grass in the sun. My whole body was vibrating, like i had taken ecstacy or something. And every time i blinked my eyes i literally experienced myself creating the universe anew. Sold. I was in.

Close to 4 hours with this one! Great work @Leo Gura Some of the most important insights from the video i took notes on: Nature of Existence and Falsifiability: Existence trumps whatever logical proof that explain away some aspect of existence There is no difference what is defined as rational vs irrational in that they both occur in Existence. Giant assumption by science: What is considered true should be falsifiable via empirical testing Science holding the delusion that Existence itself can be falsified by empirical testing Some notes on Intelligence Intelligence as a function of Consciousness (what is Intelligent is High on the Consciousness Spectrum). Intelligence as something acquired by particular minds who have gone through deep transformation A human grasping a particular proof is often contingent upon their level of ego development, spiritual cognition (not IQ). Defining God Science assumes that if God were real, it should be identified in material existence (ex: black holes). Misses that material existence (including science/logical proofs), are second order Proof of God lies in the Field of Consciousness that is all of Existence (that is first order-even deeper than first order). God is like an orgasm-you cant prove it, one has to have a direct consciousness/experience of it Subjectivity vs. Objectivity (Relativity) Science assumes objectivity is more fundamental than subjectivity Objective vs. Subjective is colored with human cultural bias, social consensus (science does not acknowledge this) What is considered objective is actually subjective-scientific dogma fails to be sufficiently relativistic Proof itself as relativistic- context dependent, conceptual, socially constructed, linguistic Absolute Subjectivity as a pointer to God, transcends empiricism and logical proof More Assumptions of Science Reality is Bottom Up (Not Top Down) Death is an objective fact of life That physical objects exists outside of subjective experience Everything that is true about reality should have an explanation that can be validated by science That anything in Reality is impossible at all (places artificial limits on what is possible for Consciousness). That the laws of physics apply to God That you are not God ! (this one tickles me).

This is post will be about the second principle: intention. The previous post was about presence. Let's remind ourselves what the 5 principles are: Presence Intention Collaboration frame Entitlement Self-entertainment This, I believe, is the second most vital principle—deeply intertwined with presence. For consciousness is the fertile soil where intentions take root. Here it goes: --- **Long Summary: The Clarity of Intention ** The **Clarity of Intention ** revolves around aligning one’s energy, presence, and actions with a focused, purposeful mindset rooted in the present moment. This principle emphasizes the interplay between **cause and effect**, **power vs. force**, and the necessity of **presence** as foundational to manifesting outcomes. Below is a synthesized breakdown of the core ideas, catalysts, and practical applications: --- ### **Core Principles** 1. **Presence Precedes Intention** - To set intentions effectively, one must first cultivate **presence** (being fully grounded in the "now"). Presence silences the survival brain (neocortex) and activates the midbrain (emotional/social center), enabling collaborative energy. - Presence acts as an antidote to social conditioning and resistance. Practices like mantras (e.g., "Ohm"), Eckhart Tolle’s "bell" exercise, or shouting "Hey!" recalibrate focus to the present. - Mirror Neurons: Your emotional state (e.g., confidence) triggers mirrored responses in others. - Strengthens prefrontal regulation, reducing amygdala hijacks (fear responses). - Neuroplasticity: Daily intent-setting rewires neural pathways from survival-mode to creation-mode. 2. **Cause vs. Effect** - **Cause**: Focus on **process** (actions within your control) rather than outcomes (effects). This aligns with Stoic philosophy, where wisdom lies in directing energy toward what you can influence (your thoughts, emotions, actions). - **Effect**: Fixating on results (e.g., approval, validation) surrenders power to external forces, breeding fear or attachment. - **Power vs. Force**: - **Power (LOC500+)** arises from collaborative, giving energy—sharing emotions without expectation (e.g., humor, joy). It operates from love (LOC540) and acceptance(LOC350). - **Force** stems from fear-based intentions (shame, guilt, control) and competitive energy, trapping individuals in lower Levels of Consciousness (LOC < 200). 3. **Intentions Shape Reality** - Intentions set in the present moment act as causes that ripple into effects. For example: - A clear intent to "share energy" (vs. "impress") shifts interactions from logic to emotional resonance. - Ambiguous intentions create confusion; clarity (e.g., "I want connection") magnetizes aligned outcomes. - **Feminine Energy Analogy**: Like the universe, women respond to clear, unattached intent. Express desire, then release attachment to how it manifests. 4. **Emotional Uncoupling** - Separate **emotions** from **content**: What you say matters less than the energy behind it. Girls prioritize emotional resonance (playfulness, confidence) over logical content. - Train the "inner child" to prioritize silliness, spontaneity, and emotional flow over structured conversation. --- ### **Catalysts for Alignment** 1. **Be the Cause, Not the Effect** - **Exercise**: Shout "Hi, I’m in your head!" to silence overthinking and project outward energy. This shifts focus from self-doubt (effect) to assertive presence (cause). - **Having an intention is being at the cause, not the effect of life. Steps: Shout "Hey!" internally or externally to silence mental chatter. Transition to a soft, grounded tone: "I’m sharing with you." Feel energy flow outward—visualize a laser beam connecting your heart to theirs. 2. **Congruence** - Align words, thoughts, and actions with intent. Inconsistency breeds distrust; congruence builds authenticity and respect. - Example: Leading in relationships/sex requires embodying masculine archetypes (Lover, Warrior, King, Magician) with unwavering intent. - **Physical Grounding: Feel your feet on the earth, breathe deeply into the diaphragm, and visualize roots extending from your body into the ground. 3. **Letting Go of Attachment/Resistance** - Release subconscious blocks (e.g., fear of judgment, past trauma) that sabotage intent. Use visualization or affirmations to "put gas on, brakes off." - **Sensory Overload Reset: Shout "Hey!" or clap loudly to shock the mind into the present. This disrupts the neocortex’s overanalysis, forcing a shift to instinctual awareness. Subconscious Block Removal Shadow Work: Journal about hidden fears (e.g., "I’m unworthy of love") and reframe them as empowering truths ("I am enough"). Gas-On, Brakes-Off Visualization: Imagine driving toward a goal with no obstacles—feel the freedom of full-throttle intent. --- ### **Practical Applications** 1. **Social Dynamics & Relationships** - **Internal Metrics**: Measure success by confidence, genuine interest, and self-amusement—not external validation. - **Communication Keys**: - Eye contact, physical proximity, playful tonality (30% louder than normal), and light touch. - Lead interactions by projecting high-LOC energy (e.g., humor, curiosity). 2. **Overcoming Procrastination & Fear** - **Subconscious Blocks**: Address hidden resistance (e.g., "I don’t want a GF because she’ll judge my living situation"). Replace avoidance with **strong intent**. - **Mirror Neurons**: Your internal state influences others. Enter interactions with the energy you wish to receive (e.g., confidence → reciprocated attraction). 3. **Stoic Alignment** - **Dichotomy of Control**: Focus on intentions/actions (within control) rather than outcomes (outside control). This builds resilience and reduces anxiety. --- ### **Exercises for Mastery** 1. **Intention Anchoring** - Use "Ohm" or deep breathing to achieve presence. Follow with the "Hey!" exercise to project energy outward. 2. **Emotional Flow Practice** - Describe mundane activities (e.g., driving) with exaggerated emotion to uncouple words from feelings. 3. **Promotion vs. Prevention Orientation** - Frame intentions as "moving toward" (e.g., "I want joy") rather than "avoiding" (e.g., "I don’t want rejection"). --- ### **Integration with Broader Philosophies** - **Joe Dispenza’s Heart-Brain Connection**: Clear intention paired with elevated emotion (self-amusement) accelerates manifestation. - **Stoic Virtues**: Wisdom (recognizing controllable vs. uncontrollable) and courage (acting despite fear) underpin effective intention-setting. - **Power vs. Force (David Hawkins)**: Ascending from lower LOCs (shame, apathy) to higher states (love, joy) requires releasing survival-brain dominance. --- II. The Architecture of Power vs. Force 1. Power (LOC500+): Collaborative Energy Power is the art of giving without expectation. It flows from: Self-Amusement: Playfulness detached from outcomes (e.g., teasing without fear of rejection). Group Alpha Waves: Synchronizing with collective energy (e.g., leading a group laugh). Masculine Archetypes: Embodying the King (leadership), Warrior (boundaries), Lover (passion), and Magician (transformation). 2. Force (LOC<200): Competitive Energy Force is fear masked as action. It manifests as: Neediness: Over-investing in others’ opinions (e.g., altering behavior to impress). Survival Brain Hijacks: Fight/flight responses (e.g., aggression or withdrawal during rejection). Attachment to Results: Obsessing over "winning" a date vs. enjoying the interaction. 3. Ascending the LOC Scale Release Lower LOCs: Let go of shame (LOC20), guilt (LOC30), and apathy (LOC50) through forgiveness rituals. Anchor Higher LOCs: Practice gratitude (LOC540) and unconditional love (LOC500) via daily journaling or meditation. --- 1. Social Mastery: The Keys to Magnetic Communication Eye Contact & Smiling: "Windows to the soul"—hold gaze 70% of the time to project confidence. Proximity: Stand within half a meter to build intimacy without crowding. Tonality: Speak 30% louder than normal; infuse warmth into your voice. Verbal Flirtation: Use playful statements ("You’re trouble, aren’t you?") to signal interest. Touch: Light, intentional contact (e.g., hand graze) to escalate connection. 2. Sexual Leadership: Embodying the Masculine Cause Pre-Sex Framing: Set intent verbally ("I want to explore us") and non-verbally (dominant eye contact). During Sex: Lead rhythmically—sync breath, movement, and energy. Avoid asking ("Is this okay?") and instead observe her responses. Post-Sex Integration: Cuddle with presence; avoid post-achievement detachment. 3. Overcoming Procrastination: The Power of Strong Intent Fear vs. Vision: Fear-Based Loop: "If I fail, I’ll be rejected" → paralysis. Vision-Based Loop: "I’ll grow regardless" → action. --- ### **Final Takeaway** Clarity of intention is the linchpin of personal power. By anchoring in presence, uncoupling emotions from outcomes, and aligning actions with collaborative energy (not force), individuals transcend survival-mode patterns. Whether in social dynamics, relationships, or self-mastery, **being the cause**—rooted in the now—unlocks flow, authenticity, and magnetism. As Owen Cook emphasizes: "Don’t give energy to effects; radiate it from your cause."

@integral I don’t remember the exact prompts but I just played around with it, feeding it the spiral dynamics model and getting it to craft a poetic song about a man navigating through each of the stages. I wanted it to feel like a journey of transformation. I also got the colors to reflect through the environment for a more realistic touch, like an orange sun, green hills, and turquoise waves. The style was intended to mirror the lyrics, starting intense and chaotic, then gradually shifting to a more peaceful and harmonious tone as the character progresses. The genres are all stated in the SoundCloud, for this song its a blend of lyrical folk, spoken word poetry, and existential ballad, with ambient poetics.

Spirituality in (New) Assassin’s Creed: Shadows Assassin’s Creed Shadows integrates spiritual undertones, particularly in the interaction between Christianity and Buddhism, through its two protagonists, Yasuke and Naoe. Their contrasting worldviews influence the game’s themes of duty, wisdom, and morality. 1. Yasuke and Naoe: Christian Samurai & Buddhist Assassin Yasuke: A powerful black samurai, historically inspired, who represents Christian ideals of duty and justice. Naoe: A stealth-focused ninja whose worldview is shaped by Buddhist influences like detachment and adaptability. Contrasting Philosophies: Their interactions highlight different approaches to morality and selfhood, reflecting a blend of Eastern and Western spiritual principles. 2. Spiritual Themes and Virtues The Self & Identity: The game explores personal transformation through the characters’ choices. Wisdom & Integrity: Yasuke’s direct approach contrasts with Naoe’s introspective and strategic mindset. Benevolence & Duty: The narrative presents moral dilemmas where characters must balance mercy and justice. 3. Religious Symbolism & Setting Temples and Shrines: The world features Buddhist temples and other spiritual sites. Sacred Texts & Teachings: Side quests involve historical artifacts and knowledge. Philosophical Dialogue: Conversations reflect on honor, fate, and the nature of power. While Assassin’s Creed Shadows does not explicitly merge Christianity and Buddhism, it presents their coexistence through its characters and world, encouraging players to consider different perspectives on morality and purpose, which I think is pretty dope. ...sliiiiiiightly tempted to buy it.

This is the first principle/pillar of the five pillars. First principle is presence/being in the now. In my opinion the most important pillar for social interactions aka being able to be present and not flip into unconscious behavior or being in a derp state. Disclaimer: these notes include my own insights and it is mashed up with other theory. ___________ ### **I. The Science and Philosophy of Presence** 1. **Defining Presence: Beyond the Buzzword** - **Neurological Basis**: Presence correlates with alpha brain waves (relaxed focus) and reduced activity in the default mode network (responsible for self-referential thought). Studies link mindfulness to increased gray matter density in the prefrontal cortex. - **Philosophical Roots**: Echoes Buddhist "Sati" (mindfulness), Stoic "Amor Fati" (love of fate), and Heidegger’s "Being-in-the-World." 2. **Levels of Consciousness (LOC): A Hierarchical Map** - **LOC 0-100 (Shame/Guilt)**: Survival-driven, external blame. *Example*: Chronic self-criticism after social mishaps. - **LOC 200-300 (Courage/Neutrality)**: Action-oriented but outcome-dependent. *Example*: Networking to "get" contacts vs. connecting authentically. - **LOC 400-600 (Love/Joy)**: Process-focused, intrinsically motivated. *Example*: Creating art for self-expression, not applause. - **LOC 700+ (Enlightenment)**: Egoless flow, unity with the present. *Example*: Athletes in "the zone," mystic meditators. 3. **The Paradox of Time** - **Past Trauma**: Stored as somatic imprints (e.g., tightened shoulders from childhood stress). Release via body scans or bioenergetic exercises. - **Future Anxiety**: Counteract with "Future Self Journaling"—write letters from your 80-year-old self advising gratitude for the present. --- ### **II. Letting Go: From Theory to Embodied Practice** 1. **The Four Layers of Release** - **Physical**: Shaking practices (e.g., Qigong tremors) to discharge stored tension. - **Emotional**: "Voice Dialogue" therapy—role-play suppressed emotions (e.g., anger as a roaring lion). - **Mental**: Cognitive defusion techniques (e.g., labeling thoughts as "just stories"). - **Spiritual**: Surrender rituals (e.g., burning written fears in a ceremonial fire). 2. **Case Study: Overcoming Social Anxiety** - **Symptom**: Overthinking conversations, fearing judgment. - **Prescription**: - *Pre-Interaction*: 5-minute "box breathing" (4-4-4-4) to anchor in the body. - *Mid-Interaction*: Focus on the other person’s left eye (reduces self-monitoring). - *Post-Interaction*: Write down three things you appreciated about the exchange. 3. **The Art of Non-Attachment in Relationships** - **Taoist Wisdom**: "A tight grip spills water; an open palm holds it." - **Modern Application**: - *Dating*: Plan dates around activities you’d enjoy alone (e.g., hiking, painting). - *Conflict*: Use "And/Also" language instead of "But" (e.g., "I hear you, *and* I feel…"). --- ### **III. Frame Mastery: Architecting Your Reality** 1. **The Four Pillars of Unbreakable Frame** - **1. Self-Validation**: Daily affirmations rooted in core values (e.g., "I am enough because I choose growth over comfort"). - **2. Boundary Enforcement**: The "3-Strike Rule"—politely exit interactions that drain energy after three red flags. - **3. Energy Sovereignty**: Visualize an energy shield (e.g., golden light) during stressful encounters. - **4. Contextual Flexibility**: Adapt frames situationally (e.g., playful with friends, assertive in negotiations). 2. **Historical Frames: Lessons from Leaders** - **Nelson Mandela**: Framed prison as a "masterclass in patience," transforming victimhood into legacy. - **Frida Kahlo**: Turned physical pain into artistic power, owning her uniqueness unapologetically. 3. **The Dark Side of Frame** - **Narcissism vs. Healthy Frame**: - *Narcissism*: Demands others’ submission; fragile ego. - *Healthy Frame*: Invites collaboration; secure self-worth. --- ### **IV. Social Alchemy: Transforming Interactions into Gold** 1. **The Charisma Spectrum** - **Type 1: Warmth** - *Tactic*: Mirroring body language + active listening cues ("Tell me more"). - **Type 2: Authority** - *Tactic*: Strategic pauses + downward palm gestures during speeches. - **Type 3: Playfulness** - *Tactic*: Absurd hypotheticals (e.g., "If you were a pizza topping, what would you be?"). 2. **The Social Hierarchy Reimagined** - **Old Paradigm**: Linear status (wealth, looks, titles). - **New Paradigm**: Radial influence (authenticity, empathy, vision). *Example*: Greta Thunberg’s climate activism. 3. **Advanced Flirting Dynamics** - **Psychological Looping**: - *Step 1*: Reflect their emotion ("You seem curious about…"). - *Step 2*: Add playful intrigue ("Most people miss that, but you…"). - *Step 3*: Release tension with humor ("…though I might be making this up!"). --- ### **V. Spiritual Engineering: Merging Science and Soul** 1. **Kundalini and LOC Synergy** - **Energetic Anatomy**: - *Root Chakra (LOC 200)*: Safety rituals (e.g., grounding barefoot on earth). - *Heart Chakra (LOC 500)*: Loving-kindness meditations for strangers. - **Awakening Safely**: Combine breathwork (Wim Hof) with trauma-informed therapy. 2. **The God Paradox** - **Atheist Approach**: "God" as a metaphor for the universe’s self-organizing intelligence. - **Theist Practice**: Daily "cosmic gratitude" (thanking stardust in your body). 3. **Death as the Ultimate Teacher** - **Mortality Practices**: - *Obituary Drafting*: Write your ideal legacy, then reverse-engineer daily habits. - *Graveyard Walks*: Reflect on ephemerality to prioritize meaningful action. --- ### **VI. Systems for Lifelong Mastery** 1. **The 12-Week Transformation Cycle** - **Weeks 1-4**: Presence Foundations (meditation, breathwork, journaling). - **Weeks 5-8**: Frame Construction (boundary drills, value clarification). - **Weeks 9-12**: Social Integration (authentic networking, conflict role-plays). 2. **Tech-Enhanced Growth** - **Apps**: - *Focus*: Forest (anti-procrastination). - *Emotional Tracking*: Daylio (mood-LOC correlation analysis). - **Biofeedback**: Muse headbands for real-time meditation metrics. 3. **Nutritional Consciousness** - **LOC-Boosting Foods**: - *High LOC*: Dark chocolate (joy), turmeric (anti-inflammatory clarity). - *Low LOC Triggers*: Processed sugar (energy crashes), alcohol (false confidence). --- ### **VII. The Shadow Work Companion** 1. **Confronting the "Dark Self"** - **Jungian Integration**: - *Step 1*: Identify recurring shadows (e.g., jealousy as unexpressed ambition). - *Step 2*: Dialogue via journaling ("Dear Jealousy, what do you need?"). - *Step 3*: Alchemize into strength (e.g., competitive sports for jealousy). 2. **Addiction Alchemy** - **Pattern Interrupts**: Replace cravings with "upward spiral" actions (e.g., push-ups for dopamine). - **Sacred Vice Redefinition**: Reframe "vices" as rituals (e.g., mindful coffee sipping vs. frantic chugging). 3. **The Forgiveness Protocol** - **Ho’oponopoo Ritual**: Hawaiian practice of repeating, "I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you," to self and others. --- ### **VIII. The Legacy Blueprint** 1. **Mentorship Dynamics** - **Finding Mentors**: Offer value first (e.g., research assistance, social media promotion). - **Being a Mentor**: Teach via Socratic questioning ("What’s one step you’re avoiding?"). 2. **Artistic Immortality** - **Create Timeless Work**: Balance trend-awareness with eternal themes (love, death, growth). - **The 100-Year Test**: Ask, "Will this matter in a century?" to filter trivial pursuits. 3. **Ecological Consciousness** - **LOC for the Planet**: - *Individual*: Reduce waste, support regenerative agriculture. - *Collective*: Advocate for policies merging economic and ecological logic. --- ### **IX. Frequently Contemplated Questions (FCQs)** 1. **"What if I relapse into old patterns?"** - **Answer**: Progress isn’t linear. Use relapses as data points—note triggers (e.g., stress, fatigue) and adjust systems. 2. **"How to handle toxic people without guilt?"** - **Answer**: Set boundaries compassionately. Example script: "I care about you, but I need space to honor my growth." 3. **"Can wealth and spirituality coexist?"** - **Answer**: Yes—if wealth fuels purpose (e.g., funding charities) and doesn’t dilute presence (e.g., mindful spending). --- ### **X. The Grand Synthesis: Living as a Modern Sage** 1. **Daily Rituals of the Masters** - **5 AM Protocol**: Hydration → Breathwork → Gratitude → Cold Shower → Deep Work. - **Digital Sunset**: Screen-free hour before bed with candlelit reading. 2. **The 10-Year Vision** - **Physical**: Vitality through functional fitness (e.g., yoga, primal movement). - **Mental**: Multidisciplinary mastery (learn one new language/skill annually). - **Spiritual**: Annual vision quests (solo wilderness retreats). 3. **Final Invitation** - **Become a Legacy Architect**: Every choice today is a brick in the monument of your life. - **Mantra for Eternity**: *"I am not a drop in the ocean—* *I am the ocean in a drop."* — Rumi, remixed for the modern seeker. --- VII. The Ultimate Mindset Shifts From Scarcity to Abundance False Abundance: Find richness in the present (e.g., savor small joys). True Abundance: Trust that releasing attachment creates a "vacuum" for opportunities. Death as Liberation Memento Mori: Let mortality fuel urgency—"Die for your dreams" rather than selling out for comfort. Hell as Purification: Embrace pain as a forge for spiritual growth. The Winner Effect Self-Fulfilling Cycle: Small wins build confidence, attracting larger successes. Exercise: "Shoot joy" into your body daily (e.g., dance, affirmations). --- To become an "alphamale" (or aligned individual): Anchor in Presence: Master the now through breath, body, and meditation. Radiate Energy: Be the sun, not a black hole—give without need. Own Your Frame: Lead with authenticity, screen for mutual growth, and let go of control. Embrace the Journey: Life is a dance of paradoxes—surrender to thrive, release to gain, die to live. Final Mantra: "Your cup runneth over when you stop trying to fill it."

Chapter 3: The Crisis and Expansion of Reality Itself SECTION 7 Neo-Platonism — the Synthesis of Greek and Eastern Traditions Neoplatonism is a philosophical system that emerged in the 3rd century CE, building upon the teachings of Plato and integrating elements from various traditions, including Aristotelianism, Stoicism, and Eastern philosophies. It represents a significant development in the history of Western thought, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of the universe, the nature of reality, and the human soul's place within it. The central Neo-Platonic philosophers, beginning with Plotinus, sought to provide a detailed account of the cosmos — explaining its origin, its unfolding or development, and its eventual end. Core Principles of Neoplatonism At the heart of Neoplatonism lies the concept of a single, ultimate source of all existence, often referred to as "the One" or "the Good." This principle is characterized by absolute simplicity and transcendence, existing beyond all categories of being and non-being. From the One emanates the rest of reality in a hierarchical order: The One (The Good): The highest, ineffable source of all existence, beyond comprehension and description. Nous (Divine Mind or Intellect): The first emanation from the One, representing divine intelligence and containing the perfect forms or archetypes of all things. World Soul: Emanating from the Nous, the World Soul is the animating principle of the universe, giving rise to individual souls and the material world. Material World: The lowest level of reality, where forms are instantiated in matter, often seen as a shadow or imitation of the higher, intelligible realms. This hierarchical structure explains the process of creation and the relationship between the immaterial and material aspects of the universe. The Human Soul and Its Ascent Neoplatonism places significant emphasis on the human soul's journey. According to this philosophy, souls originate from the higher, intelligible realm but become entangled in the material world. The ultimate goal of human life is to achieve henosis, or union with the One, which involves a process of purification and intellectual contemplation. By transcending the distractions of the material world and turning inward, individuals can ascend through the levels of reality, reconnecting with their divine source. Bridging the Western and Eastern Conceptual Divide One of the most significant ways in which Neoplatonism contributes to the expansion of the concept of reality itself is through its synthesis of Western philosophical traditions with Eastern mystical thought. This blending of traditions does not merely merge two different systems, but it redefines and expands the scope of reality to encompass both rational, structured forms of understanding and mystical, experiential paths to ultimate knowledge. In its synthesis, Neoplatonism takes the Greek rationality of Plato, which emphasized the existence of a hierarchical system of being with the Forms at its core, and integrates it with Eastern philosophies, particularly the mystical traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, where the ultimate goal is the union of the individual soul with the divine. This fusion is not just an intellectual exercise but a transformation of the way reality is understood. The synthesis of Eastern and Western thought further expands the concept of reality by integrating experiential and mystical paths with rational, intellectual structures. Eastern traditions, such as those found in Hinduism and Buddhism, emphasize a direct, personal connection with the divine and the journey of the soul toward ultimate unity. In Hinduism, for instance, the idea of moksha (liberation) represents the soul’s return to the ultimate reality — Brahman. Similarly, Buddhism teaches the transcendence of the individual self to achieve union with nirvana, a state beyond ordinary perception. Neoplatonism takes this mystical ascent and blends it with Greek philosophy’s focus on the intellectual pursuit of the good and the true. Plotinus, for example, speaks of an ascent of the soul that begins in the material world and progresses through intellectual contemplation of the Forms, culminating in an intuitive union with the One. This ascent mirrors the Eastern idea of the soul's return to the divine, but within a framework that also values intellectual discipline and philosophical reasoning. In this way, Neoplatonism expands the scope of reality by merging rational knowledge with mystical experience and by framing the journey of the soul in both philosophical and spiritual terms. The integration of intellectual and mystical elements allows the concept of reality to be larger and more inclusive — not simply an intellectual exercise about what is real, but also a spiritual practice of becoming one with reality itself. Expanding the Concept of Knowledge and the Divine The integration of these traditions also expands our understanding of knowledge and the divine. Where earlier Greek thought, particularly in the work of Plato, focused on the intellectual ascent to the Forms (ideal, unchanging truths), Neoplatonism places greater emphasis on the unity between the intellect and the mystical. By combining Plato’s rationalism with Eastern mysticism, Neoplatonism argues that the true knowledge of reality comes not only through intellectual analysis and reasoning, but through direct experience with the divine, a knowledge that transcends both the material world and rational thought. This expansion of the concept of knowledge is seen in how Neoplatonists view the process of illumination — a term frequently used in mystical traditions. In Neoplatonism, the philosopher must undergo a direct mystical union with the divine, which allows them to perceive reality in its purest form, bypassing the limitations of sensory perception and rational thought. By introducing this dual approach to knowledge, Neoplatonism suggests that reality itself is best understood not as something to be studied externally, but as a personal and transcendent experience, one that transcends the mere intellectual grasp of reality and embraces a deeper, spiritual understanding.

In every moment of your life there is one fundamental decision we consistently make. People think it's, how will I use my time? No. It's how will I use my energy against time? Energy is the fundamental currency. From the CIA figuring out how to harvest the energy of people being addicted to big events like Christmas or energy concentration points whether in the negative or positive, like Elon Musk, so they can use it for one of their controlled wacky experiments or an old lady crossing the road with her little pug (breed of dog) in the safest way in the midst of heavy traffic without getting rattled... Regardless, life throws us curve balls and that's going to put us on edge. In those moments, we need to decide right then and there if it's a challenge we can get out of because it does not serve our life goals, or choose it, and act like we choose it, so that our decision-making power remains in our hands, rather than with the thing that's thrown us the curveball. Because that's likely what it wants. Whether you're dodging existential collapse or navigating systems rigged against you as what it feels like for you right now. Sometimes the most high-value move is not to resist the system head-on but to move quietly through its blindspots, calm on the outside, radical in your direction empowered by your decision to OWN the challenge at hand so it does not own you. You don’t need approval. You need trajectory. Externally, opportunities will come and opportunities will go in our life. In every moment though, the decision remains the same. Internally, we are continually given the opportunity to determine, how will we use our energy? Will our ego use it? Our mental addictions to negativity? Our addictions to false positives and false negatives, or just patterns of unproductive thinking? And what will be the "legal clauses" governing that allocation of energy? To the extent we are not choosing our challenges, our challenges will be a struggle, instead of us having the opportunity to bring the struggle to the challenge, thereby changing the power differential. Sometimes, that struggle looks like building a new identity shell. Sometimes, it’s about masking transformation with “normalcy,” walking toward a new country, a new system, a new self, while remaining energetically untouchable. There's been a PSYOP on saying that power is 'evil' or that power 'corrupts' (rather than noticing that its just corrupt people that get drawn into those positions externally) and that's trickled down into deluding self-conceptions of power on the internal level. Many people have lost the truth that our energy is to be treated as literal power that to the extent we cannot intelligently order in our alignment with the universe, we will get unintelligent results. Look around you. It explains... Absolutely everything from the Sistine Chapel to people torching Tesla factories and Tesla trucks along with Germany saying "Up-Yours" to Elon as they make a strategic geopolitical stance (Germany previously was the biggest producer of Tesla vehicles by the way through Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, that's now I guess just... a Byte or less?). Pattern = Giving your power away here ironically, gives your power away to structures that likely do not serve your interest. Where it is not truly connective, genuinely well thought through altruism is the only place that deserves this sentiment from you or any one of us. Even if the struggle is to our bodies, it's not about hating our bodies or being in opposition to them. Your goal may be as simple as fighting a negative impulse you have through your heart with a more resilient loving energy. That energy becomes your exit strategy, your invisibility cloak, your defiance without destruction. Because what starts to happen if you don't go inside your awareness and rearrange the intelligent order of your 'I' in the context of the differential between present power (internal (includes control) /external), energy and challenge? You'll start to dissociate from your 'I', what do you think happens when most people go through traumatic experiences? Dissociation. Depersonalisation. There's a pattern here. We don't want that for you, you must affirm to yourself in your own way the challenges you're going to own fully and intelligently. Stay in complete contact with your truest 'I'. And mean it as if everything that will be important to you in the future, relied upon this moment in your life right now and the intelligent decisions you will make from here in alignment with that reality. Which it will and it does. Make choice your power and you will make power, your choice. Choose your challenge, whether I'm on a deserted island or I've been thrown out of a plane in high altitude, that's the dignity that'll preserve your sovereignty and what will be your own imperturbability. Good luck is good will. Feel free to openly converse @Never_give_up, as they say the power is within, however in this breath that's better understood as the power within is only as good as we're using it to define the struggle we choose to bring the challenges in the external. Get your pen and paper out, figuratively/literally.

Hi forum people. Took me way more time to bounce back from & make sense of what happened to me than I was expecting. I am still piecing this together actually. Anyhow, I’ll break down my report in 3 parts: Retreat, Post-retreat ego backlash & snapping out of ego backlash. Retreat: It was pretty difficult. Extra difficult. In fact I wasn’t able to do the full 7 days. I did 4 days. First two days I was only playing pretend. I thought I was doing serious work but I wasn’t. I was being intellectual. Trying to formulate what it is I was seeking into linguistic constructs. That was valuable in a way but I still felt lacking & fundamentally unsatisfied with what my mind was coming up with. I went over my values & solidified them. That was good. Day one felt like good old rest & recovery more than deep inner work. I had small clues where I would get inspired by one of my intellectualisations & where I would crack a tear but my mind was so dense that I wasn’t able to go into it fully & get a good taste of it. Ex. I started balling when I asked myself “what do I want?” & came up with “I want to see beauty everywhere, all the time.” Which made me realize how far from that vision I am. How much I am not embodying it at all in my day to day. That was sad but fleeting. Day 3 I started to experience pretty intense withdrawal symptoms & suffering. I started to get kundalini activations at night & I had a very hard time to handle them. As soon as I laid down it would explode & get stuck in the gut, heart, throat & forehead. I tried to let go & allow it to happen but I wasn’t able to. The only way I could manage it is either shake like I am having a seizure or squeeze every muscle I know while flooding my system with rage. Didn’t sleep more than 40min at a time that night. I was thinking of my insights from the first two days & realized it’s all stuff I was already thinking. Thoughts I’ve been thinking for a long time. Thoughts that formed in light of change of consciousness using psychedelics. Thoughts that point to an actual change in state. Thoughts that are not that state. I felt like a rat spinning in a hamster wheel. See what I really want is transformation at the level of state but it feels like there’s a gigantic mountain of suffering in front of it. Becoming that means that the way I am right now will cease to be & I am terrified to let it go. Day 4 I suffered more & had a low dose mushrooms trip. At this point I pretty much stopped trying to inquire & contemplate. I was suffering. My mind was just spewing nonsense so I just decided to do absolutely nothing about it. I would cry & then close my apathetic shell again. Took the mushrooms pretty early I had periods of inspiration where all my visions of this fully alive being I would be if I dropped all of my pretending were right here & were me. But then I would close up, look back up on it from memory & feel like I was still faking & pretending because I am not like this. I am a dysfunctional, addicted, unwise, flawed human. My mind just would not be satisfied. It all felt pointless. I wasn’t resolving anything. Too much suffering. I gave up. I needed something to stand in the way. A distraction. A numbing agent. A vice. That’s the retreat part. It sounds pretty awful when I read it back but there is a silver lining. I’ll write it later in the rest of my report. I have a school assignment due in 2 hrs I gotta go.

Chapter 2: The Origin and Evolution of the Concept — REALITY ITSELF SECTION 8 Empedocles and the Shift to Pluralism As philosophy’s inquiry into Reality Itself continued to evolve, a significant transformation took place — moving from the search for a single fundamental principle to the recognition that reality might consist of multiple interacting elements. This transition is best exemplified in the thought of Empedocles, whose philosophy serves as a synthesis of the perspectives that preceded him. From Singular Arche to Pluralistic Reality The earliest Greek philosophers, particularly the Milesians, sought to reduce reality to a single arche — water (Thales), the apeiron (Anaximander), or air (Anaximenes). Even Heraclitus, who emphasized flux, saw fire as the fundamental element, while Parmenides and the Eleatics rejected change altogether, insisting that reality was singular, unchanging, and eternal. Empedocles, however, introduced a pluralistic framework, arguing that reality could not be reduced to a single principle but instead consisted of four eternal and unchangeable elements — earth, water, air, and fire. This marks a crucial step in the evolution of Reality Itself as a philosophical concept. No longer was reality understood in terms of a singular, underlying unity; rather, it was now conceived as a structured interplay of multiple, coexisting principles. Bridging the Divide Between Change and Permanence Empedocles' theory also addressed a major philosophical divide — the problem of change: The Eleatics (especially Parmenides) denied the possibility of real change, arguing that all change is an illusion. The Heracliteans, on the other hand, saw change as fundamental, claiming that nothing remains the same. Empedocles found a middle ground: while the four elements themselves remain eternal, the world we perceive is in a constant state of recombination due to two opposing cosmic forces — Love and Strife. Love brings elements together, creating harmony, while Strife drives them apart, leading to decay and transformation. This explanation preserved the unchanging nature of the fundamental elements while still allowing for observable change in the world of appearances. This contribution was monumental in the development of the concept of Reality Itself. Instead of viewing reality as either absolute unity or endless flux, Empedocles demonstrated that reality could have both stable and dynamic components. A New Philosophical Approach: Process and Structure Empedocles’ work also reflects a shift in philosophical focus. Whereas the Milesians were primarily concerned with identifying what reality is made of, Empedocles broadened the inquiry to include how reality functions. This move — from substance to process — would later influence thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle, who sought to explain both the structure of reality and the mechanisms governing it. Empedocles stands at a critical juncture in the history of philosophy. His pluralistic model expanded the philosophical investigation of reality by: Challenging monistic views and proposing a multi-element framework. Reframing the problem of change — recognizing that change is real but governed by structured forces. Shifting philosophy from a focus on substance to a focus on process, setting the stage for later metaphysical developments. The Expanding Complexity of Reality Itself With Empedocles, the concept of Reality Itself grew more complex. No longer was reality viewed as a singular entity or an unknowable flux; instead, it became a structured yet dynamic system, shaped by multiple eternal elements and governed by universal principles. His philosophy represents an important stage in the broader intellectual journey — one that moves further away from reality as a fact and deeper into the conceptual exploration of Reality Itself.

The Teachings of the Tsan-tung-chi — The Triplex Unity The Tsan-tung-chi’s view of the universe is similar to that of classical Taoism. It regards the Tao as the origin of all things and the primordial energy of the Tao as the source of life. As nature renews itself by following the principles of the Tao, mortals, too, can renew themselves and attain immortality by living in accordance with these principles. The most important principle in the process of creation and renewal is the copulation of yin and yang. The concrete manifestation of yin and yang is water and fire; thus, knowing how to use fire and water and when to apply heat and when to cool are crucial to cultivating energy and renewing life. Life is renewed when impurities in the body are purged. Similarly, a pill or elixir of immortality is created when the appropriate substances are refined and compounded. Tempered by heat and purified by the rising vapor of water exposed to fire, the alchemist is said to be reborn in the cauldron and embraced by the Breath of the Tao. Success in the alchemical endeavor depends on the quality of the furnace, the bellows, and the cauldron. A good furnace is needed to provide fires that are hot enough for tempering the ingredients; efficient bellows are required to produce accurate temperatures at different stages of refining; and a leak-proof cauldron is needed to contain the substances after they have been purified. In external alchemy, these items refer to laboratory equipment, but in internal alchemy, furnace, bellows, and cauldron have physiological equivalents. The furnace generates yang fire, or vital energy, and it is driven by the yin power of water or generative energy. Using the bellows is applying the breath to fan the inner fire to produce the heat necessary for transforming vital energy into vapor (ch’i). The cauldron is the location in the body where energy is refined and collected. When the impurities are burned off, the golden pill, or the elixir of immortality, emerges. In Taoist alchemy, the elixir is also called the sacred fetus, because, like a fetus in a womb, to mature it has to be incubated for a period of time. Thus, when the Tsan-tung-chi speaks of water and fire, heating and cooling, building the furnace, positioning the cauldron, and applying the bellows, it is simultaneously describing the processes of external and internal alchemy. The early alchemists did not neglect the importance of stilling the mind and dissolving desire. Parts of the Tsan-tung-chi describe meditation-like techniques. For example, it states, “Nourish yourself internally. In peace, stillness, and complete emptiness, the hidden light of the origin will glow to illuminate the entire body.” The Tsan-tung-chi also contains references suggesting that sexual techniques might have been used, together with nonsexual methods, in the gathering and transformation of internal energy. Consider the following statements: “When ch’ien [sky, or male] moves, it becomes erect. The vapor spreads as the generative energy flows. When k’un [earth, or female] is still, it contracts, becoming the furnace in the lodge of the Tao. Apply firmness, then withdraw. Transform it into softness to provide stimulation.” It is therefore not surprising that the Tsan-tung-chi is considered by Taoists to be the ancestor of all alchemical texts. Internal and external alchemy, sexual and nonsexual techniques, are all presented together in this alchemical classic, suggesting that the early alchemists saw no conflict in these methods of seeking immortality.

Here what i've come to in my contemplation of these two minds: Features of the atheist materialist mind: turning outwards, believing in a external objective reality, scientific worldview, authority to science, believes the universe is physical, no God, only believes in what science has demonstrated to be the case, believes himself to be a human, believes in rigid categories of evil vs good, man vs woman, man vs machine, human vs animal, mind vs matter..., sees progress in terms of technological innovation, believes that religion, spirituality and mysticism to be non sense and unscientific fairy tales, sees animals as inferior to human beings and deserving of exploitation for the betterment of mankind, sees the universe as static, physical and independent of the mind, the world seems cold and foreign, this mind is very much alienated from the world, represses emotions, sees nature as a tool for exploitation, promote mastery over the world through science and technology. Features of the mystical psychedelic mind: turning inwards, grounded in direct experience and consciousness, conscious that the physical universe is God's imagination, takes epistemology and metaphysics seriously, questioning and deconstructing of one's mind, conscious of the self as God, non dual, sees science as a dream, sees animals as unique expressions of God's divine beauty and consciousness with a rich inner world and experience, sees reality as a fluid field of consciousness where the boundary between physical and mental or imaginary is broken down, and whatever one is conscious of is what's true, and where one merge in absolute bliss and ecstasy, experience emotions with mindfulness and mastery, embedded in nature, sees nature as a vehicle for higher emotions, consciousness and truths, nature mysticism, sees imagination as reality, promote inner wisdom and transformation, takes not knowing seriously.

I don't really get involved with suicidals anymore, especially in severe cases. I have seen through that too. I will be careful with what I say here on the topic because I don't want to offend anyone and who knows who's reading this. What I see is an energy transformation. Everything depends on the situation at hand. On the story behind it. Most of the times it just needs a release. Expression. Somewhere to go; it's compressed. When a person is really suicidal, they really don't talk about it. There's usually nothing to really say. Most suicidals want to live, they just don't know how. I can read or hear the story behind it and notice how they respond and tell how severe the issue is. Most times it's not and is just a way of expressing feelings and that alone may help with the situation in and of itself. When I say severe, I mean how severe the energy is compressed or contracted or how severe the feeling. If the story is mostly of comparison and comparing theirs to others and mostly about whose is more severe and who is suffering more and how no one knows what they're going through and mine is worse than yours and you just can't imaging the pain I'm going through and all that, that's the energy relieving itself. It was so compressed and had nowhere to go but to self-nihilate. Ever tried to open a jar. When you hit the bottom it released air within the bottle and makes it easier to open and when you open it, you hear the pressure releasing and it makes a pop. Something like that. No sense in trying to talk that person out of it or make suggestions because it's already doing it for itself or doing it on it's own by telling the stories. When there are no stories present and there are just feelings expressed, then it's a bit more in the infancy stage. I'll stop here and these are just my own analyses. Take everyone seriously and try to show compassion. I've seen how this can turn around once relieved and things turn out to be even better than before. They definitely don't need any non-dual teachings at this point or in these stages because non-duality cannot be applied and is not a reward system for someone to gain something from; if anything it's a loss.

I love your style Leo, it's like being pinned down or whipped with a stick. Maybe I'm a spiritual masochist, but suffering, transformation and hard work is welcomed and sometimes induced to an infrequent extreme amount. The suffering and hard work is surrendered too

@Adrian colby Amazing share ✨️ I didn't think I could contribute any criticism so I asked ChatGPT. I agree with points 1, 2, 3, and 5, and it lets me reflect how I am seeing things unholistic: This essay presents a well-structured critique of conspirituality and the so-called “Great Awakening,” but it has several blind spots that weaken its argument. Here are the key areas that need more scrutiny: 1. Oversimplification of the Demographics Involved The essay correctly identifies that marginalised and disillusioned individuals are particularly vulnerable to conspiracy movements, but it implies that their participation is largely due to a lack of education, critical thinking skills, and psychological stability. This overlooks the fact that many educated, middle-class, and even elite individuals have also been drawn into conspirituality. Intellectuals, doctors, and entrepreneurs have embraced these narratives, sometimes due to cognitive biases rather than pure ignorance. A deeper exploration of why educated individuals fall into these traps would strengthen the argument. 2. Reduction of Conspirituality to Psychological Deficiencies The essay heavily focuses on trauma, victim mentality, and a lack of psychological stability as key reasons why people embrace conspiracy-based spirituality. While these are contributing factors, it overlooks the larger existential crisis that modernity has created. The rapid technological, cultural, and economic changes in the world have destabilized traditional meaning structures, leaving people grasping for certainty. Many turn to conspirituality not just because of trauma but because they seek coherence in a chaotic world. This broader sociological perspective is missing. 3. Dismissing Political and Economic Factors Too Quickly Although the essay acknowledges political manipulation, it primarily attributes the rise of conspirituality to psychological and cognitive failings. However, many conspiritualists are responding to real issues—corporate overreach, governmental corruption, media manipulation, and global inequality. While their interpretations may be misguided, their underlying concerns are often valid. By failing to recognize this, the essay risks alienating readers who may resonate with aspects of the Great Awakening movement but disagree with its conclusions. 4. Lack of Self-Reflection on the Writer’s Own Biases The essay presents itself as a neutral, enlightened perspective but does not acknowledge its own position within the spectrum of spiritual discourse. While critiquing dualistic thinking, it subtly engages in it by positioning conspirituality as purely misguided while portraying its own structured awakening model as the correct path. A more balanced approach would acknowledge that all perspectives, including the writer’s own, are filtered through subjective experience. 5. No Concrete Solutions Beyond Individual Awakening The essay’s proposed solution is personal awakening through self-inquiry, mental deconstruction, and dissolving conditioned beliefs. While this is valuable, it does not address the larger systemic forces that contribute to conspirituality—economic instability, media propaganda, the role of social media algorithms, and the decline of traditional community structures. Without addressing these, individual transformation alone is unlikely to dismantle these movements on a large scale. 6. Overemphasis on “Transcending Belief” Without Acknowledging the Role of Belief While the essay emphasizes dissolving belief systems, it does not fully explore the human need for belief and meaning. Even those who claim to transcend belief still operate within mental models and narratives. A more nuanced approach would recognize that belief itself is not the problem—it’s unexamined belief that leads to manipulation. Conclusion The essay provides a strong critique of the Great Awakening movement but falls into the trap of reducing complex phenomena to psychological deficiencies rather than addressing the broader sociopolitical and existential factors at play. A more holistic approach would integrate perspectives from sociology, philosophy, and political theory, rather than relying primarily on spiritual psychology.

@Shodburrito To be fair, it is your handwriting, just AI-assisted calligraphy. And ironically, it's you who bypassed the philosophical content. My positions were laid out plainly. Would you like me to enumerate them, scientifically and systematically? I can, however let's not pretend you’re prepared for an actual lesson in disciplined reflection. My time, unlike your arguments, is invested, not outsourced. You’ve conflated tool usage with intellectual lineage. Philosophers refined each other’s thoughts through dialectic, discipline, and depth. You? You hit "submit." That’s not synthesis, that’s automation. You’ve outsourced the metabolic burn of actual cognition, but want the gains. And if effort is the gym of the mind, your intellectual waistline's showing. I’m not mocking, I’m inviting you to join the fight. I’m in the ring. Are you? Is emotional authenticity now taboo when it’s backed by reason and scientific basis? If your AI can't parse nuance in what I’m saying, maybe it’s not advanced, maybe it’s just parroting your projections. Real thinking integrates emotion, logic, and embodiment. You're using tech as a filter to mute discomfort, I use discomfort as fuel for insight. Yes, it is threatening. Not to my ego, rather to the arc of human potential. We’re watching civilization trend toward mass intellectual outsourcing, replacing effort with illusion. When someone starts worshipping AI’s output as their own, it’s not just lazy, it’s ontologically irresponsible. If that makes me a criminal in this era of synthetic cognition, then label me proudly guilty of philosophical rebellion. My insights were forged, not gifted. I didn’t stumble onto thought; I constructed it, brick by cognitive brick, under the weight of self-imposed challenge. I wasn’t born a genius. I architected myself into one. And I’d still take that over someone whose “thinking” was pre-chewed by a language model. Ironically, you’re arguing against a point I never made then feeding it into AI for emotional reinforcement. That’s not philosophy, that’s algorithmic ventriloquism. Real dialogue is self-reflective. Try feeding your own blindspots into the system and see what happens. If you used AI as a truth mirror rather than a digital echo chamber, you might find it disagrees with you, violently. This discussion is the perfect showcase of cognitive bypass. You didn’t just take the easy way, you paved over the difficult one with borrowed articulation. I’m not shaming that. I’m illuminating it. Because every shortcut taken at the level of effort becomes a longcut at the level of depth. Again, a projection. No one here is glorifying suffering, I’m differentiating between positive stress (growth-aligned tension) and negative stress (ego-fragmentation). The difference? Self-awareness. Which, ironically, is exactly what your AI usage circumvents. Your whole critique reads like a defense mechanism dressed in pseudo-insight. We’ve moved past the phase where your “post” even qualifies as a foundation for serious inquiry. This wasn’t a debate, it was a philosophical correction. My motives are clear. Not to win, rather, to build. And, Intervoidism+ (click here for introduction) is the structure. If that demands stress and discipline, then so be it. Comfort is not consciousness. The irony is as thick as the projection behind your critique. I'm not attached to suffering, I’m attached to what it reveals. I'm committed to truth, and truth, by nature, burns. You mistake my intensity for identity defense. It’s actually identity evolution forged through fire, not filtered through AI. Listen up, in today's world, there's a seductive narrative that personal growth should be seamless and devoid of struggle. This perspective, while comforting, overlooks the fundamental truth that meaningful development often arises from facing and overcoming challenges that most people don't even perceive until its too late. I don't want that for people, I want to see people on the forum seeing their challenges ahead and fighting them with the power I know they have and not clothing themselves in egoic delusions out of comfort and fear; self-empathic courage is what I want to see not towards me, I'm not the winner here, towards themselves as I'm invested in seeing others win. It's not about glorifying suffering it's about recognizing that discomfort can be a catalyst for profound transformation; and I don't need to recount all of my accomplishments to show myself as some kind of hero in reflection of that because the truth is, I wasn't always this way, I forged the carving I am and I want to be only endorsing of people's capacities to achieve the same level of self-authoring and even beyond to show what's possible with the human spirit. By shying away from these challenges shodburrito there is too much of a risk of stagnation, this isn't "outdated truisms at work", its scientific reasoning at its simplest. Proven by the way, following the very basic physics that's compounded the American astronauts deterioriation that have only recently come back to Earth after having spent 286 days stranded out in space. These four astronauts, Nick Hague, Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore and Alexsandr Gorbunov now are all going through an extensive rehabilitation process for the impacts of prolonged exposure to the microgravity while in outer-space. Impacts which include but are not limited to, neurological impacts from disorientation to dizziness to poor coordination that leads to walking and spatial awareness difficulties with the vestibular system being thrown off, muscular and skeletal effects from muscle atrophy, bone density loss, joint instability, psychological effects from mild mental fatigue post-landing and the struggles of adapting to earth's stress and more, like they'll even have increased eye strain, blurry vision and more sensitive skin. That’s the wake-up call shodburrito, life has a physics. Whether it’s Newtonian, quantum, or existential, the framework doesn’t change, input determines outcome. You can’t escape the gravitational pull of effort. Just like those astronauts, even with all their intelligence, tech, and preparation had to pay the price of prolonged microgravity with their own bodies. Philosophy that ignores this principle isn’t wisdom, it’s ego-dressed laziness. And ego has no seat in real philosophy. Only physics does. I am only on the side of physics which doesn't exclude analyzing the long term impacts of disjointed egoic personal opinions that keeps people trapped in Plato's cave while preaching they're somehow on the same level of Aristotle and Einstein for using AI to construct and digitally send through their manifesto on sadly, what is their own personal neurosis. Which, very interestingly shodburitto, is simply AI being used to self-satisfy your own personal echo chamber there respectively, rather than enabling your personal development which only drives home my points that people should refrain from using AI at the very least on a personal development forum outside of ideation and enabling the positive direction of others. Look, while AI can process information and provide data-driven suggestions, it lacks the nuanced understanding that comes from lived experience. True wisdom emerges from personal reflection, critical thinking, and the courage to confront our own limitations, elements that cannot be outsourced to machines. Our identities shape how we perceive and react to the world around us and being aware of this influence can help us engage more objectively in discussions, reducing the likelihood of taking differing opinions as personal affronts, to this end I recommend the reader to engage in their life experiences for the meta-discernment of their belief in one direction over another. It'll only encourage a self-awareness which fosters more meaningful and less confrontational dialogues. A forum that needs drama is one that lacks substance, introspective ability needs to advance to the next level in this space, respectively, translating for the exchange of ideas without the interference of ego. Life's complexities rarely fit into binary categories so the notion that growth requires suffering or that ease equates to a lack of development presents a false dichotomy; there's a fundamental physics here that I stressed in my first comment which reflects this nuance. Embracing attention to detail to our perspectives will be the difference to having dysfunctional nuclear weapons for personal growth versus being a trained sniper that just gets the job done on identifying our own spaces for advancement. Balance needs to the church of prayer when it comes to philosophy where its emboldened by the physics that complements this emotional integration that follows, only resulting in an adaptability and open-mindedness that facilitates the creativity for all members to better proactively respond to the fastly changing modern world. In a time as well where empathy is being replaced by a victimhood that capitalism and 'technological progress' profits from being incentivised to encourage cultural norms that make people, groups, cultures, societies and even entire countries (aka TikTok psyop) weaker rather than stronger by responding to not only the physics of reality but being mentally developed enough to self-experiment on reality where they come to their own self-understanding of these realities, rather than having to be told on a random personal development forum. If this forum ever wants to earn the depth of my respect, and I’ve said this for years, it has to stop avoiding the real work and start building systems that respond to the actual social physics at play. Not theories. Not abstractions. Real, grounded feedback loops that mirror the truth of its users lived experience. What I keep seeing instead is either full-blown denial or the more insidious kind, polite dismissal disguised as maturity to downright delusion. That’s not growth. That’s avoidance with better posture. And the problems in this thread, sorry Shodburrito, aren’t isolated, they’re symptomatic of a deeper fracture running through the culture here. I’ll keep contributing, because I care more than I probably should. But I won’t pretend it’s my smartest investment. Whether this place evolves or decays will be up to how well it honors one thing, the immutable law that effort and integrity always obey the physics of life. Time will show whether this forum does too.

Son_Of_god is a Greek small streamer, X professional player of CS:GO that had a sudden turn to spirituality. But it seems more like a psychotic breakdown , so i took interest on his case because it is extremely uncommon to see something like that in my country. If anybody is interested in analyzing this and giving his opinion feel free to do so. How much of it is awakening and spiritual, and how much of it just psychological meltdown and other mental health issues. I trust the people of this Forum to provide usefull info and their opinion on this topic, this is just my curiosity, i do not know him personally or anything, but his transformation is indeed insane and u rarely see a person changing this much. So this is only for people who just might for whatever reason be curious about this and want to spend some time investigating, and if you do so tell me what you believe, i will provide a text note with me using chat gpt to try and find out what is going on with this person by tellin the AI every information i have , but warning, its extremely large. https://www.twitch.tv/the_holy_trinity123 This is his Twitch account were he goes live every night for 20-30 people preaching for hours, and has some interesting clips , and you can find links for his other media were u can see bizzare stuff, like his TIK TOK were maybe there are more videos uploaded than stars in the Universe. Son Of God.txt

try game transformation by Austin Summers and the ace formula

I'm copying a lot of this text from my personal trip reports, which is why it's framed as me talking to myself. Yesterday I was feeling really awful, in a lot of pain, and I was really suicidal. I made the decision that I’ve had enough. I can’t live this life anymore. This has gone too far and gotten absolutely ridiculous. I cannot keep putting myself through this hell of a life. It’s cruel, it’s awful, it doesn’t end - I’m done. I’m going to give up on this life, and do whatever I can to make myself kill myself. If the universe wants me to stay alive and do something with my life, then it can make that happen. It’s had plenty of opportunities to do that, but it still won’t. So I am going to kill myself, get rid of this life, and if the universe doesn’t stop me and change something about my life, then it’s not my fault. I’ve done everything I can. I decided to take MDMA. I usually only use it with other psychedelics for healing purposes, and I wouldn't let myself use it for any other reason because it can be addictive, but I didn't care at this point, I was planning on killing myself later that day, so I took it just for my own enjoyment. Noticing my fear of killing myself I plugged the MDMA, it came on gradually and reached its peak after about an hour. During this time I felt SO good. I was journalling on my laptop, listening to music, and I felt amazing. It made me think again that it’s so stupid that I have to live this life and suffer so much for so long, when I could just be in a state like this, feel so good and not be in any pain. I started to think about what I was going to do after this trip. I knew this good feeling wouldn’t last and eventually I was going to go back to being in a lot of pain, and I needed to kill myself. I was really afraid to do that though. I really wanted to kill myself, but the thought of actually doing it is so scary. I don’t know if leaving this life is the right decision, I don’t know how I’ll feel after I die and where I will go, I was so afraid of it all. Eventually I realized that all of this fear I have only hurts me. I really don’t need to be so afraid, not just of killing myself but of life in general. I could see that this fear is an illusion and it’s something I could let go of. You need to have the courage to lose your life. I am so afraid of suicide, of dying, of losing control, moving into the unknown, etc. You need to see that there is really nothing to fear, you will be okay. Giving up my control I realized that I needed to get to the edge of suicide and seriously consider killing myself, right then and there, to really confront my fear of death. I saw that if I had the courage to let go and let myself die, that the universe would take control. If I totally surrender and give up all control of my life, the universe/my higher self will be able to come through me and live my life for me, and Tristan won’t be here anymore to suffer from this life, so I won’t have to physically kill myself to get the relief that I want. See that you can totally give up control to the universe, totally surrender, totally let go, and you no longer need to think about what you need to do to heal and move forwards in your life. That’s not your problem anymore. By totally giving up control over my life, you let the universe come through you and take over. This is exactly what I want, because I am absolutely exhausted from trying to make things work in my life. Just give up and relax. Your only objective at this point is to fully let go of control, and do whatever feels good to you. The thought of healing, moving forwards with my life, starting to work and make money, all of these problems in my life, they don’t matter to me anymore. Forget about all of them. If you get into a position where your back is against the wall and you are forced to do something you don’t like (such as running out of money and being forced to work when I don’t want to) then you kill yourself, no questions asked. You’ve been through enough pain in your life, you’ve suffered enough, it’s not your responsibility to try to make things work anymore. You need to trust that if you fully let go, the universe will take care of you. I’ve been so deeply suicidal for so long, and tried so hard to kill myself, yet I am still here. I am not going to get into a situation where I actually end up killing myself, even if I totally give up control and don’t care about doing anything to make my life any better. What I need to do moving forwards At this point, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, because it is no longer your responsibility to move your life forwards and make things work for yourself. Do whatever makes you feel good and whatever you feel like doing at all times. If you get into a situation where your back is against the wall, then you can kill yourself. Don’t force yourself to keep going through pain and living this life if you don’t want to. If the universe wants things to work out for you, then it will make that happen. Stop worrying about the problems in your life, stop trying to make things work for yourself, because that is not my problem anymore, and it only causes me more suffering to keep stressing about my problems and trying to figure them out. Give up on your life as if you were going to kill yourself, focus on making yourself feel good, and let that help you surrender control more and more, until Tristan is gone and the universe/my higher self has fully taken over me. There is nothing else you have to do. How it feels surrendering to my higher self As I surrender more, the universe will be able to enter my being more. I noticed that as my higher self starts to enter me, it cannot co-exist in my being with all of the emotional issues I have. I can feel a lot of emotional pain coming to the surface to be released as my higher self enters me. I’m sure as I surrender more and more, this will give me the opportunity to heal, and maybe this was the way I was always meant to heal, and this is why healing has never worked for me in the past. I can feel that once all of my emotional pain gets released, I will naturally start to feel like working and moving forwards with my life, but I won’t be forcing myself to do that, and Tristan won’t be the one doing it at all. I can feel that as my higher self really starts to take control, and Tristan falls away, my entire life will be directed by it. Tristan won’t be the one teaching about emotional healing and helping people. The universe will be living through me, helping people directly, and Tristan will be gone. When I surrender and allow my higher self to take control, I can feel myself entering an altered state of consciousness. Life doesn’t feel like a physical reality anymore, it feels like I am walking around in a dream, in an imagination, a mind. I also feel like I am more intelligent and insightful than I was before. Insight comes to me much more easily. I can feel myself being pushed to stop thinking so much and start to feel a lot more. Feeling is how I access my higher self and get direction from it. I can feel a lot of my neurosis and dysfunctional behaviours falling away. My higher self is not weak or afraid, it will not let people push it around, and I can feel a lot of my neurosis being corrected just as a result of my higher self entering me. I really feel like my healing will come from establishing my connection to my higher self, and as I surrender to it, I will receive the love I need to help me heal. . . . My objective now after that trip is to keep working on getting to a point where I can fully surrender and let my higher self take over. I have a lot of fear and resistance within me that prevents me from surrendering, so it will take work to get to the point where I can fully let go. This morning, I went to take a shower, and I was thinking about everything that happened yesterday, thinking about how crazy it is that my higher self is starting to take over me, along with how connected I've felt to existential love lately, such as the episodes of craziness I've had recently after touching existential love. Thinking about all of this together made me really see how obvious that I am awakening and moving towards existential love. As I was thinking about this, I starting crying, and I started acting crazy again and getting into an altered state of consciousness. It was deeper than usual. It felt similar to a state I would get into on a psychedelic, even though I was fully sober. It was a lot more clear, stable and lucid than psychedelics, and it didn't have the blurry headspace they often have. I felt dis-identified with myself, and everything felt so beautiful and amazing. I kept crying and acting crazy, and later I played music and it was absolutely mesmerizing. I was was also looking at pictures of beautiful girls, and was in absolute awe of their beauty - it was just radiating off of them. After I got out of the shower, I plugged 5-MeO-DMT. I was already planning to do it earlier that day. It was a low dose as usual, but I got into quite a high consciousness state from it. My intention was to surrender as much as possible, because that's what I need to be working on, and I left human life quite a lot by doing that. Here's what I got from the trip: You keep thinking that when you take 5-MeO-DMT and awaken, that this is just some state you get into, but your normal human life is what’s real. That’s not the case at all. The awakened state is what’s real, and you’re fooling yourself if you think that it’s not. You think that you can take 5-MeO-DMT and awaken to God, Leo can do that, other people on this forum can do that, and that is just some state you get into, and then you come back to this normal human life and that is what’s real. You’re fooling yourself. There is nobody else to awaken to God but you. This is your dream, you are only imagining that other people exist. Because of this you need to stop giving other people so much authority. You’re giving away your power to an illusion. The only thing that matters is that I awaken and realize the truth of what I am. You think that Leo has this life purpose where he teaches people how to awaken on YouTube, and he has this forum where you can go and talk to other people about awakening, and get advice, but all of this is a massive bullshit story you are creating. There is no Leo, there is no “Leo’s life’s life purpose”, there is no forum, there is no other people to talk to about awakening. All of this is something you’re creating yourself to lead you to awakening. It’s all me. See how foolish it is to give all of it so much authority, when it’s not real, and I’m the one creating it. It’s fine if you want to go back to the forum and live your human life like normal, but you need to stop giving Leo/the forum/people on the forum so much authority. You’re being an idiot by doing this. My relationship with God/the universe/my higher self is the only thing that matters, it’s the only thing that is real, so I need to follow that and obey that no matter what anyone else says. Otherwise, you are giving your power away to an illusion, and you won’t awaken by doing that. (This really helps me to trust what I experienced on MDMA yesterday, that totally surrendering myself and letting my higher self take over is absolutely the right thing to do) I started to surrender deeper, and I could feel myself connecting deeper with this higher consciousness state. I started to cry really hard, and I realized that God is what I have always wanted. Like Leo said: “when you want x, what you really want is God”. However you will only experience God once you completely, 100% surrender, which is something I am still working towards. . . . I'm currently doing better and not feeling suicidal. What I experienced yesterday with MDMA really made me feel a lot better. It's clear that I am headed to some sort of awakening, that my human self is going to fall away and my higher self will take over. I have developed such a deep hatred towards human life because of how much pain I've gone through, and I want to leave this life so badly, but it seems like if I just surrender myself and let go, my higher self will take over, and Tristan won't have to be here living this life anymore. It's also nice to know that it's no longer my responsibility to solve my problems or direct my life in any way. I am so exhausted from doing that, because I try so hard to change my life and it never works, and it causes so much frustration and suffering. Knowing that I don't have to do anything anymore, that I can just let go and let my human self die without physically killing myself, this is a huge relief. This both gives me a reason to stay alive, and it shows me that I will likely undergo a huge transformation over the next few months, and it will result in my higher self living through me, living my life, and Tristan will no longer be here. I'm sure that's what all of this pain I've been going through for years has been leading me to. I'm sharing this post only because all of this makes me really happy, and I love sharing it with other people who are into spiritual work

The problem with Christianity is that the process of inner transformation (contemplative practices) is not widespread and is limited to monastics and students of monastics and their organizations like Contemplative Outreach and Center for Action and contemplation etc. Buddhism doesn't have that problem so the Buddhists are more "conscious" in that sense. These are just my opinions and I am willing to change them.

Chapter 2: The Origin and Evolution of the Concept — REALITY ITSELF SECTION 7 Heraclitus: Reality as Flux and the Primacy of Change As our inquiry into the evolution of Reality Itself progresses, we encounter a striking divergence from the preceding philosophical traditions. While the Ionian thinkers and Eleatics sought to identify a single underlying substance or unchanging principle behind all things, Heraclitus takes a radically different approach. He abandons the search for a stable foundation and instead asserts that Reality Itself is not a fixed essence but a dynamic, ever-changing process. This shift represents a crucial turning point in philosophical thought, as it challenges the notion that ultimate reality must be something static or permanent. Breaking from the Ionian Tradition: Reality as Process, Not Substance Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes each proposed a fundamental element — water, the infinite (apeiron), and air, respectively — as the arche, the underlying source of all things. Their inquiries aimed at identifying what reality was made of, implicitly assuming that Reality Itself must have a fundamental substance. Even the Eleatics, despite rejecting sensory experience as deceptive, still held onto the idea that true Being is one, unchanging, and eternal. Heraclitus rejects this framework entirely. Instead of searching for a primary substance, he asserts that the nature of reality is continuous change. He encapsulates this with the phrase “everything flows” (panta rhei), arguing that all things are in a constant state of becoming, never truly remaining the same. Where the earlier thinkers saw reality as something that is, Heraclitus insists that it is something that is always becoming. The Principle of Change and the Unity of Opposites Heraclitus’ vision of Reality Itself is structured around a dynamic interplay of opposites. Unlike the Eleatics, who denied change outright, he argues that opposing forces are not contradictions but essential aspects of reality’s structure: Day turns into night, and night into day. Life gives way to death, yet death is necessary for new life. Stability and instability, harmony and discord — all are bound together. In this view, Reality Itself is not a fixed entity but a constant process of transformation. This dialectical understanding of existence means that nothing can be fully grasped in isolation; every state of being is defined by its relation to its opposite. Fire as the Symbol of Reality Rather than identifying a fixed element like water or air as the ultimate principle, Heraclitus chooses fire as his symbol for reality. Fire is unique because it never maintains a single form — it constantly consumes, transforms, and renews. This makes it a fitting metaphor for a universe that is fundamentally in flux, where stability is only an illusion created by the persistence of transformation itself. This perspective sharply contrasts with the previous views of Reality Itself: The Milesians sought a stable foundation. The Pythagoreans who saw eternal mathematical harmony. The Eleatics denied change altogether. Heraclitus, however, asserts that change is the only constant. The Implications of Heraclitus’ Vision Heraclitus’ shift from substance to process challenges philosophy to reconsider the very nature of Reality Itself. If reality is in constant motion, how can we ever claim to know it? If no single state of existence is permanent, is there even such a thing as an ultimate reality, or is Reality Itself just the name we give to the process of continual transformation? With Heraclitus, the concept of Reality Itself ceases to be a singular, unchanging truth and instead becomes a dynamic, unfolding process. This departure from previous thought pushes philosophy toward a new frontier, where reality is no longer something to be discovered as a fixed essence but rather something to be understood in its ceaseless becoming.

Chapter 2: The Origin and Evolution of the Concept — REALITY ITSELF SECTION 6 The Eleatics: Reality as Eternal Being With the rise of the Eleatic school of philosophy, the inquiry into the nature of reality took a decisive turn. While their predecessors, the Ionian philosophers and Pythagoreans, sought to identify a fundamental substance or principle underlying the world of experience, the Eleatics introduced a radically different perspective. Rather than attempting to explain the changing, observable world, they rejected the reality of change altogether. They argued that true reality — Reality Itself — must be eternal, unchanging, and indivisible, in direct opposition to the fleeting world of appearances. Parmenides and the Unity of Being The central figure of the Eleatic school, Parmenides, developed what is arguably one of the most profound and controversial ideas in early Greek philosophy: "Only Being is." In his poem On Nature, Parmenides asserts that reality must be a single, unchanging entity. He reasons that non-being is impossible, for to speak of non-being is to give it some form of existence, which is a contradiction. From this, he concludes that change and multiplicity are illusions, mere distortions of the truth imposed by human perception. If reality were to change, it would have to transition from being to non-being or vice versa — but since non-being is fundamentally impossible, true change cannot exist. The consequence of this argument is striking: the world of sensory experience, with its apparent movement and transformation, must be deceptive. What we take as real — birth, death, movement, and variety — is nothing but illusion. True reality, Reality Itself, is a single, eternal, and indivisible Being that never changes. Zeno’s Paradoxes: The Challenge to Sensory Reality Parmenides’ student, Zeno of Elea, sought to defend this radical notion through a series of paradoxes, the most famous of which challenge the very possibility of motion. His Achilles and the Tortoise paradox argues that a faster runner (Achilles) can never overtake a slower one (the Tortoise) if the latter is given a head start because each time Achilles reaches where the Tortoise was, the Tortoise has moved slightly ahead. Similarly, his Dichotomy Paradox contends that movement is impossible because one must always reach a halfway point before reaching any destination, leading to an infinite number of steps that can never be completed. Zeno’s paradoxes serve a crucial function: they force us to question the validity of sensory experience. If motion and change are indeed illusions, then the world of appearances is inherently unreliable. By showing that our perception of movement leads to logical contradictions, Zeno strengthens the Eleatic position that Reality Itself must be something fundamentally different from the world we perceive. The Eleatic Legacy: The Shift to Conceptualizing Reality Itself With the Eleatics, the focus of philosophy fully shifts from reality as a fact to the problem of Reality Itself. Earlier thinkers like Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes sought a rational explanation for the material world, but they did not yet challenge the assumption that the world of appearances is reality. Even the Pythagoreans, who viewed numbers as the ultimate principle, still accepted that reality was in some way accessible through the senses. The Eleatics, however, break from this tradition completely. By declaring that the true nature of reality is hidden beneath appearances, they introduce a dualistic tension that will dominate Western philosophy: the division between the world as it appears and the world as it truly is. This conceptual shift makes the inquiry into Reality Itself a fundamental concern, rather than simply an extension of natural philosophy. The Eleatic Influence on Later Philosophers The Eleatic doctrine of an unchanging Reality Itself will profoundly influence later thinkers, particularly Plato, who seeks to reconcile the Eleatic rejection of change with the undeniable reality of multiplicity and transformation. Plato will take the Eleatic notion of an eternal, unchanging reality and formalize it into his Theory of Forms, offering an alternative explanation for why the world of appearances seems real despite being fundamentally distinct from true Being. The Eleatics thus represent the turning point where philosophy fully commits to the question of Reality Itself rather than merely describing reality. Their bold rejection of the senses forces philosophy to grapple with a central dilemma: if the world of experience is not truly real, then what is?

@Leo Gura The Fundamental Contradictions in Your Approach Reading your responses, I'm struck by several profound contradictions that reveal the limitations in your framework. I'm going to challenge these directly, not because I want to attack you personally, but because these contradictions expose something important about all developmental hierarchies. The Fetishization of Suffering You've created an entire identity around suffering as the necessary path to awakening. "If you knew the amount I have suffered on this path..." "The cost of Awakening is like getting mauled by a bear." "It's basically self-torture." Have you ever considered the possibility that this suffering might be unnecessary? That the idea that awakening requires suffering might itself be a limitation you've created? There's something almost masochistic in how you glorify your own pain. More importantly, there's a closed logical loop: you define true awakening as requiring suffering, then use your suffering as proof of true awakening. Potential counterpoint: "Without suffering, there's no transformation. The ego doesn't surrender without resistance." Response: This assumes transformation must occur through resistance rather than acceptance. Many profound insights throughout history have come through openness, curiosity, or playfulness—not through self-torture. Your insistence on suffering reveals more about your specific path than about consciousness itself. The Creation of New Masters You reject conventional social hierarchies only to create new ones. "God," "Truth," "The Good" become new masters to serve. You've escaped society's limitations only to create your own prison with different walls. When you say "Being God is more meaningful than any human meaning," you've simply created a new purpose-driven framework, positioning one experience as objectively superior to others. This directly contradicts the freedom you claim to have found. Potential counterpoint: "I'm not creating masters, I'm recognizing what objectively is." Response: The moment you declare any experience "objectively better" or "more meaningful," you've imposed a value hierarchy that isn't inherent to consciousness itself. These are values you've created, not discovered. The Truth Economy You've Created You've established a perfect "truth economy" where: Awakening is positioned as a scarce resource Suffering is the currency required to obtain it You control the exchange rate ("200 hours of meditation in two weeks") You position yourself as having special access to this market "Suffering is just the ticket price to God's Disneyland" is perhaps the most revealing statement. You've literally monetized access to consciousness, creating artificial scarcity where none needs to exist. Potential counterpoint: "I'm just describing reality, not creating a system." Response: You're describing your experience filtered through your created framework. There's nothing objective about the equation "X hours of meditation = Y level of awakening." That's a model you've created, not a universal law. The Arrogance of Purpose There's a profound arrogance in declaring your path superior to others. When you position "The Good" as objectively true, you're essentially saying: "I know what's best for consciousness, and anyone who chooses differently is wrong." This creates a hierarchy where you stand above the "children" and "beasts" who haven't chosen your specific path. But what makes your experience of "God" inherently better than another's experience of family, creativity, or service? Potential counterpoint: "It's not arrogance if it's true. Some perspectives are more developed than others." Response: The very concept of "development" as linear progression toward a specific goal is itself a created framework, not an objective reality. Your certainty that your path is "higher" reveals more about your attachment to hierarchy than about consciousness itself. The Heart of the Matter What's most revealing is how you've constructed an entire ego identity around being "the one who suffered for awakening." You've positioned yourself as more awakened and connected to God than others precisely because you've suffered more. Your suffering has become your badge of authority, your proof of legitimacy in the spiritual marketplace. This creates a psychological trap where you need others to suffer too. If they could reach the same insights without the pain, what would that say about your journey? Your entire narrative would collapse. The years of meditation, the emotional torture, the clawing your "way up God's asshole" - all potentially unnecessary. I wonder what emotional state this possibility would trigger in you. Genuine rage? Deep depression? Existential crisis? If someone with minimal meditation practice, who hasn't tortured themselves for two weeks straight, could have equally profound insights about consciousness and reality - what would that do to your sense of identity and achievement? This isn't just about being wrong intellectually. It's about the emotional investment in a narrative where suffering equals depth. You've created a spiritual economy where those who haven't suffered "like being mauled by a bear" are automatically disqualified from the deeper insights you claim to have. There's something almost desperate in how you emphasize your suffering - as if you're trying to convince yourself as much as others that it was all worth it, that it couldn't possibly have been avoided, that there's no other way to reach these insights. If your entire identity is built around "I suffered tremendously to reach this understanding," you've created a psychological framework where you simply cannot accept that the suffering was optional without experiencing a total collapse of meaning. This isn't about whether your experiences are valid—they clearly are for you. It's about claiming your specific path as universal or necessary, and using suffering as the metric by which you judge who is worthy of "God's Disneyland." The Question Worth Asking Why do you need to position your experience of "God" as superior to other experiences? Why not simply say "This is the path I've chosen, and I'm trying to share it with others who may find it valuable" rather than claiming it's objectively better? There's a freedom in recognizing that all frameworks, including spiritual hierarchies, are created rather than discovered. This doesn't diminish your experiences but contextualizes them as one possible way consciousness can experience itself—not the only or best way. The true liberation might not be in "knowing God" but in recognizing that consciousness creates its own truth rather than discovering it—including the truth you've created about the necessity of suffering for awakening.

Watching things unfold over the last few years within the spiritual community I noticed an infiltration of bizarre ideology. I’ve been trying to protect my retreats from it and I seem to be getting through to most wayward clients and guiding them back to introspection . There are some who are so blinded by their rage, there’s no getting through to them. I decided to sit down and write an essay I might do an audio recording of. I’d be grateful for feedback and constructive criticism. -edit- audio file now up for listening The Great Awakening: The Rise of Conspirituality In the past eight years, a narrative known as “The Great Awakening" has taken root, presenting itself as a collective spiritual ascension. The movement quickly gained traction within New Age circles and spiritual communities, as many seekers latched onto it as evidence of a global shift in consciousness. However, the origins of this movement were not spiritual. It did not emerge from deep introspection, self-inquiry, or authentic personal transformation. Instead, it arose from conspiracy narratives, political manipulation, and a reactionary response to global instability. It created a new category of ideology now known as “conspirituality”. A new religion. During this period, the Great Awakening movement became intertwined with conspiracy theories, particularly those surrounding: COVID-19 and mass vaccination (The belief that an elite-controlled oligarchy was using the pandemic to enforce population control.) The "Satanic elite" narrative (Accusations that global leaders, billionaires, and institutions were engaged in child trafficking, ritual abuse, and demonic worship.) The demonisation of progressivism (A reactionary push against cultural and political shifts, reframed as a "battle of good vs. evil.”) This movement capitalised on the fears of vulnerable individuals, particularly those already disillusioned with institutions. Donald Trump and his allies deliberately mobilised this demographic, using psychological tactics to target specific audiences via social media. He hired a Company called Cambridge Analytica prior to the 2016 election to identify an audience that could be easily manipulated. this company was quickly dissolved after the election was won. Troll farms (allegedly Russian) were used to infiltrate religious and spiritual groups to spread misinformation and manipulate the communities by preying on a believers tendency to emotional reaction instead of critical thinking.turning them against political opponents, societal minorities and anyone who could be utilised to induce fear, anger hatred to be perceived as an enemy. A significant portion of the demographic targeted by the rise of conspirituality comes from marginalised, economically disadvantaged, and socially stigmatised backgrounds. Many of these individuals have faced poverty, lack of education, and limited access to opportunities, leaving them feeling disenfranchised and unheard. The psychological effects of chronic instability, generational trauma, and systemic neglect create an environment where victim mentality becomes a deeply ingrained survival mechanism. These individuals are not just lacking material wealth (they have also been deprived of the critical thinking skills, self-worth, and psychological stability needed to break free from disempowering narratives.) Historically, such groups have been easy prey for religious institutions, charismatic leaders, and ideological movements that offer them a sense of belonging, moral clarity, and purpose. When exposed to conspiratorial and pseudo-spiritual narratives, they become particularly susceptible(not necessarily because they are unintelligent, but because their distrust of authority, compounded with a desperate need for meaning, makes them seek refuge in belief systems that validate their suffering. These movements provide them with a sense of identity and community, often offering simplistic answers to complex systemic issues. Rather than addressing their internalised victimhood and disempowerment, they are encouraged to see themselves as warriors in a larger battle against unseen forces, whether that be the government, science, global elites, or even abstract spiritual enemies like “Satanic forces.” This reinforces their mind traps, further entrenching them in a belief system that gives them comfort but ultimately keeps them disempowered. and its not just contained to this demographic. as a movement like this takes hold and builds momentum, individuals from all classes, achedemia and governance, jump on board whether the narrative supports their pre conceived beliefs or if they simply succumb to a herd mentality. but as a movement like this is not based on solid foundation it begins to consume itself and ultimately falls apart under its own corruption. How It Started Two key players stand out in the rise of the current Great Awakening conspiracy, though many other factors contributed to its development. This is not the first time in history that a "Great Awakening" has been proclaimed. From the mid-1700s to the early 20th century, various Great Awakenings emerged, each attempting to reshape society through moral absolutism and all of them based in religious dogma. While these movements led to some positive reforms such as the abolition of slavery and greater calls for equality, they ultimately failed because moral absolutism does not work in complex societies. Instead of addressing the root causes of social issues, they demonised the symptoms, leading to increased crime, social unrest, and forcing morality through law without understanding human behaviour leading to unintended consequences. This pattern has reemerged in the digital age, where movements like QAnon and the Cult of Kek have revived the same black-and-white moral narratives but adapted them to the internet age, using memetic warfare, online radicalisation, and conspiracy rhetoric to spread their ideology. The "Cult of Kek" emerged on the dark web forum 4CHAN in 2015, a notorious breeding ground for alt-right extremism, fascism, and bigotry. Originally, “Kek” was a slang term used as an alternative to “LOL”, but it soon took on a deeper, symbolic meaning. Users discovered that Kek was also the name of an Egyptian frog god associated with chaos and darkness, which they ironically embraced as a representation of their movement. During Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, this frog-god symbolism was fused with Trump’s persona, portraying him as a chaotic saviour destined to dismantle the establishment and usher in a resurgence of alt-right ideology. This online subculture developed a loosely organised occult-style psychological operation, using memes, digital propaganda, and absurdist humour to shape belief narratives and manipulate public discourse. The internet meme Pepe the Frog, originally an innocent cartoon, was co-opted into this movement as a powerful sigil of “meme magic”, a concept rooted in the belief that repeated symbols and ideas can manifest reality. While the Cult of Kek was a chaotic, decentralised internet movement, it laid the groundwork for an even more organised belief system: QAnon. In 2017, an anonymous figure known as “Q” appeared on 4CHAN, spinning an elaborate conspiracy narrative that co-opted the language of awakening, spiritual transformation, and divine battle, all in service of pushing a right-wing authoritarian agenda. What many fail to recognise is that this entire movement (Kek-QAnon-Trumpism) was never a grassroots spiritual awakening. It was, and remains, a political and psychological power grab, disguised as divine revelation. In fact, it is the very epitome of "false light" (a deception masquerading as spiritual enlightenment.) The greatest irony is that the very people claiming to fight against "demonic forces" are, in practice, using the exact same techniques they denounce. A traditional Christian group would never engage in sigil work, "meme magic," or occult symbolism (as they would consider such practices inherently demonic) And yet, this movement openly embraced these methods while weaponising religious fear against their perceived enemies. This begs the question of who they really are. Ultimately, the Cult of Kek, QAnon, and Trump are not a battle against darkness—they are an extension of it, using the very tools of manipulation they claim to be resisting. What Went Wrong? How Did This Happen? as of 2025 an alt-right authoritarian presence dominates America and the global geopolitical landscape, many former Trump voters are experiencing disillusionment. The very policies they voted for—believing they would restore economic stability, traditional values, or "freedom"—are now directly harming them, leaving many regretting their decision. For those from the spiritual community that followed believing they were participating in a Great spiritual awakening… What happened? How did so many get swept into a movement that promised liberation but delivered oppression? The answer lies in a fundamental misunderstanding of spirituality, consciousness, and the mechanisms of belief. The Pre/Trans Fallacy and the Danger of Misinterpreted Spirituality At the heart of this phenomenon is the "Pre/Trans Fallacy," a concept developed by Ken Wilber. This fallacy occurs when pre-rational belief systems (rooted in superstition, emotion, and blind faith) are mistaken for trans-rational wisdom (genuine spiritual insight that transcends and includes rationality). This means that: People who have not yet developed critical thinking, scientific reasoning, or rational self-inquiry, Mistake their emotional reactions, gut feelings, and conspiracy-driven beliefs for higher spiritual insight. This is not a progress toward enlightenment—it’s regression. spiritual awakening is not about clinging to external beliefs but about dismantling one’s conditioned mind and experiencing direct awareness beyond ideology. However, when belief-based individuals misunderstand metaphorical spiritual concepts, they project those symbols onto external enemies, repeating a pattern that religious institutions have used for centuries to maintain control. This critical confusion has allowed authoritarian figures, conspiracy movements, and manipulative leaders to hijack spirituality itself—turning what should be a path to freedom into a tool for oppression and control. It has slowly infiltrated into the new age, plant medicine, personal development and spiritual community. Esoteric Truths vs. Exoteric Corruptions The irony of the Great Awakening movement is that everything it demonises (esoteric teachings, ancient wisdom, occult traditions) is the foundation of its own religious roots. Ancient mystery schools, Hermeticism, and Platonic, buddhist, taoist, vedantic traditions were centred on deep self-inquiry and the understanding of consciousness. This wisdom was later encoded into metaphorical spiritual texts but misunderstood by later followers, leading to the formation of rigid dogma, misinterpretation, and power-seeking institutions. Religions were originally symbolic representations of deeper truths, but over time, people mistook the symbols for literal reality. That is to put it another way, that trying to describe an ineffable experience from outside reality using metaphors and analogies from within known reality are not meant to be interpreted literally! Rather than turning inward and getting to know the functions, processes and mechanisms of their own minds, followers projected spiritual struggles outward onto demons, devils, and external enemies.(ironically demons, devils, angels and gods are all symbology for different facets and levels of the mind, consciousness and awareness. not actual literal objective entities) This is exactly what we see happening today with conspiratorial narratives co-opting spirituality. The "Satanic elite" narrative is a modern version of the medieval witch hunts The "global cabal" is a recycled anti-Semitic trope from centuries past The fight against "woke ideology" is a refusal to embrace an evolving, more nuanced worldview The entire movement isn’t about spiritual awakening—it’s a desperate attempt by those stuck in lower stages of development to cling to an outdated worldview because change, growth and understanding threatens their very identity as a person. What we are seeing now is not a great awakening, but an egoic backlash against the natural progression of human consciousness. The world is evolving toward inclusivity, diversity, and a more fluid, interconnected understanding of reality. Those stuck in rigid belief structures and black-and-white thinking feel threatened by this shift. Their reaction? A violent, fear-based resistance, misinterpreted as a spiritual battle. This is not about left vs. right, science vs. religion, or tradition vs. progress. It is about awareness in contrast to unconscious reaction. The ascension is about going from unconscious conditioned reaction to conscious aware and thoughtful response. This requires stepping outside the confines of a conditioned mind and gaining some recognition and mastery over it. Those who refuse to examine their own beliefs and subconscious fears are ripe for manipulation. They become tools for political agendas, religious fundamentalism, and regressive ideologies (all while believing they are "free thinkers" and "awakened souls.”) nothing could be further from the truth and the best way to spot them is their emotional reaction particularly fear and anger. Its also not just about the pre/trans fallacy. While individuals exist at varying stages of cognitive, social, cultural, and spiritual development, there has also been a breakdown in how spiritual truths are taught and realised. Including the reasons why people seek out spirituality in the first place. Are Secret Societies Evil for Hiding Spiritual Truths? Many assume that esoteric spiritual wisdom has been deliberately hidden out of elitism or control. However, the mystery schools safeguarded these teachings for a reason—much like how medical students are not immediately allowed to practice without extensive training. You wouldn’t let an unqualified individual perform surgery, and the same applies to higher spiritual knowledge. Not everyone is ready, nor does everyone have a genuine interest in understanding these truths beyond their own biases and desires for validation. Initiates of advanced spiritual knowledge were not exposed to such ideas until they had undergone deep psychological purification, developed mental stability, and demonstrated mastery over their own mind. Without this groundwork, exposure to existential spiritual truths can lead to existential terror, psychosis, or delusional belief. Simply listening to spiritual teachings does not equate to understandingthem, and those who attempt to force profound realisations onto themselves or others often end up distorting the message entirely. The foundational truth of spirituality is that consciousness is fundamental, and the experienced reality is a product of an infinite mind—a dream of sorts. A person’s perception of reality is not objective but filtered through their mind’s mechanisms. If their mind is primarily subconscious, conditioned, and reactionary, they are unaware of how their own thoughts and emotions shape their experience. Being exposed to spiritual truths without first mastering one's own mind can lead to complete misunderstanding or even psychological harm. The Modern Spiritual Crisis: Healing vs. Belief Attachment Most people do not enter spirituality through truth-seeking. They enter it searching for healing, purpose, or meaning because they are in pain, lost, or disillusioned. Rather than using spirituality to transcend their mind, they use it to reinforce their existing mental structures—attaching to new beliefs, identities, and ideological battles rather than dismantling them. This is why modern spirituality is filled with individuals clinging to conspiratorial thinking, manifestation culture, and spiritual bypassing, mistaking these distractions for genuine awakening. Real awakening does not reinforce identity—it dissolves it. However, many people turn spirituality into another ideological safety net rather than a means of deep transformation. This is why advanced spirituality can be dangerous for an unprepared mind. A person still carrying emotional wounds and unresolved trauma will only experience existential truths as either profound terror or a fragile new belief to defend at all costs. Historically, mysticism was reserved for those who had already undergone self-refinement. The mystery schools weren’t gatekeeping knowledge out of greed or elitism—they were safeguarding people from themselves. In contrast, the modern world has completely broken this structure. People are thrown into psychedelic awakenings before they’ve done any groundwork, latch onto spiritual ideas without deconstructing their own biases, and mistake intellectual concepts for direct experience. Worse, they become militant about their newfound beliefs—failing to realise they’ve merely swapped one illusion for another. The Path Forward: From Psychological Stability to True Awakening Rather than exposing unprepared individuals to higher spiritual truths, I shifted my focus to foundational mental and emotional work. Before anyone can truly awaken, they first need psychological stability. They must recognise how their mind was shaped, identify their emotional reactions, and understand that they are trapped in a self-created feedback loop. A Structured Approach to Awakening: Compassionate Inquiry → Tracing trauma and emotional conditioning back to their origins. Mental Deconstruction → Understanding how the mind constructs reality and identifying conditioned patterns. Dissolving & Reprogramming → Breaking automatic responses and self-imposed limitations. Creation & Expansion → Learning to consciously work with awareness rather than being blown like a leaf in the wind. Complete Awakening → Dissolving all attachment and becoming lucid within the dream of existence. Each step builds upon the last. Skipping steps leads to delusion. Most people want enlightenment without self-inquiry, awakening without psychological stability, and ego death without understanding what the ego even is. But awakening isn’t something you believe in—it happens when belief itself dissolves. The American "Great Awakening" Is Not Spiritual Awakening What is happening in America and the broader global conspiratorial movement is not a Great Awakening—it is a collective distraction. A true awakening is the turning inward of awareness to awaken from the dream of narratives and illusions. The so-called "American Great Awakening" is the opposite—it is an obsession with external enemies, fabricated stories, and ideological warfare. If you find yourself caught in this movement, it is not too late to step back and question: What drew me to spirituality in the first place? Was I looking for healing and understanding, or did I get lost in narratives? Have I been distracted by conspiracies and external enemies instead of facing myself? Am I truly seeking truth, or am I just looking for something new to believe in to justify how I already am? You don’t need to be “healing” forever. You don’t need to form an identity around spirituality. Spirituality was never meant to be a belief system—it was always meant to be about direct experience and awareness. If you came to spirituality because you were suffering, go back to that original moment. Before you got caught in conspiracies, past lives, crystals, spells, aliens, and endless mental distractions—what were you really looking for? That’s where you need to return. That’s where the real path begins. If you are still fighting, demonising, and labelling others as evil, you are not awakened—you are trapped in duality. Are we lost in the current situation? If more people operated from genuine awareness rather than reactionary belief systems, our entire social and spiritual landscape would look radically different. We wouldn’t see power structures built on fear, division, and ignorance—we would cultivate systems that enhance consciousness, self-awareness, and authentic exploration of reality. However, right now, we are witnessing the last desperate gasps of fear-based control systems clinging to existence. Those who see the larger pattern often feel isolated, disconnected, or frustrated by the world around them. It’s like being lucid in a dream while everyone else remains convinced the illusion is real. The worst part? Many of those still trapped in their conditioned mind structures believe they are the ones who are “awake.” But there is hope. The fact that I can see and name these patterns means that the shift is already in progress. Human consciousness is evolving. The backlash is strong, but it only happens because the shift is working. The old world wouldn’t be screaming so loudly if it weren’t losing its grip. A true Great Awakening does not involve external battles—it is the quiet, profound realisation that everything, including the illusion itself, is part of the same consciousness. The way forward is not found in more stories but in transcending the need for stories altogether. When belief falls away, awareness remains.

Chapter 2: The Origin and Evolution of the Concept — REALITY ITSELF SECTION 4 The Ionian School and the Birth of Reality Itself Before Thales, explanations of reality were mythological. The world was thought to be governed by gods, whose will shaped the natural order. Yet, with the rise of the Ionian philosophers, a crucial transformation took place — one that bridged the gap between mythos and logos (logic). Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes did not simply observe reality as it appeared. They sought to uncover the deeper principles governing it, asking: What is the fundamental substance or force behind everything? This marks the first move away from reality as fact and toward the concept of Reality Itself — the search for what lies beneath appearances. This shift can be described as a turning point: Instead of accepting the world as given, the Ionians asked: What is reality made of? Instead of viewing divine will as the source of natural order, they sought universal principles governing existence. This was the first philosophical move toward distinguishing between the world of experience and the reality that underlies it. Thales: The Bridge Between Mythos and Logos Thales (c. 624–546 BCE) is often credited as the first philosopher precisely because he redefined how reality should be understood. His claim that water is the fundamental substance (arche) of all things was not just a scientific hypothesis — it was an attempt to explain the unity behind the diversity of the world. Yet, Thales also stated that "all things are full of gods." This suggests a dual-layered perspective: Water is the material foundation — everything is ultimately one substance. The gods are the active forces — responsible for the variety and movement within reality. Thus, Thales represents the middle ground between mythological thought and rational inquiry. He preserved a divine element in his explanation, but he transformed it — making it part of a structured, rational worldview. In doing so, he made one of the earliest attempts to reconcile apparent reality (change, diversity) with Reality Itself (the fundamental unity of existence). Anaximander: The Infinite and the Birth of Abstraction Anaximander (c. 610–546 BCE), Thales’ successor, took a radical step forward. He rejected the idea that any single observable substance (like water) could be the true source of all things. Instead, he introduced the concept of the Apeiron — the infinite, indeterminate principle. This was the first fully abstract concept of Reality Itself. Unlike Thales, Anaximander argued that: The true nature of reality cannot be perceived by the senses. The universe is governed by a boundless, eternal principle that transcends physical elements. Change, creation, and destruction occur through the dynamic balance of opposites. By proposing an unseen, infinite principle as the foundation of existence, Anaximander took the search for Reality Itself beyond mere observation and into the realm of conceptual thought — an essential step toward later metaphysics. Anaximenes: A Return to Substance, But with a Mechanism Anaximenes (c. 585–528 BCE) sought to retain the idea of a fundamental substance while addressing a critical question: If all things come from one thing, how do we explain their differences? His answer: air is the fundamental principle, but its changes in density give rise to different forms of matter. This idea introduced: A mechanism for transformation (rarefaction and condensation). A single, underlying reality behind change (air). A rejection of divine intervention — natural laws explain differences in the world. Anaximenes' contribution refined the search for Reality Itself by attempting to describe how reality manifests in diverse forms without relying on mythology. The Ionian School: The First Step Toward Reality Itself What unites the Ionian thinkers is their rejection of mere appearances. They saw the changing world as an expression of something deeper, more fundamental. This school represents the first true philosophical movement toward distinguishing between: The world as it appears (changing, diverse, multiple). The reality beneath it (unified, foundational, unchanging). The shift from observing reality to exploring Reality Itself was now fully underway. The Broader Implications: From Ionia to Plato The Ionian School paved the way for a deeper philosophical realization — one that Plato would later formalize: The Problem of Change and Unity — The Ionians sought a single underlying principle beneath the apparent diversity of the world. This led later philosophers to question whether reality was ultimately one or many. The Limits of Sensory Perception — If true reality is not directly visible, how do we come to know it? Anaximander’s Apeiron introduced the idea that Reality Itself might be beyond experience, a notion that Plato would later refine with his Theory of Forms. The Need for Conceptual Explanation — The search for a deeper, unseen principle led philosophy beyond physical substance to the realm of abstract reasoning. This shift set the foundation for Plato’s division between the sensible world (appearances) and the intelligible world (true reality). The Ionians as the First Philosophers of Reality Itself The Ionian philosophers did not simply study nature — they transformed the very way reality was understood. Their efforts to explain the unity behind diversity and to distinguish between what is perceived and what truly is set the intellectual foundation for the exploration of Reality Itself. Their work was not yet metaphysical in the Platonic sense, but it was the first step in that direction. The next generation of philosophers would take this further — moving from searching for a fundamental substance to asking: "What is the nature of being itself?" It is this shift — from substance to existence — that would define the next phase of the evolution of Reality Itself.