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Psychedelics can be a powerful tool in healing and awakenings. I recommend integrating psychedelics into a holistic spiritual life that also includes things like meditation, yoga, spiritual readings, nonduality, creativity and time in nature. Also give yourself plenty of time to integrate the sights of psychedelics and be mindful about chasing experiences. The same can be said about meditation and yoga. They also alter neurotransmitter levels. Do an fMRI while I’m in a yin yoga zone and it will be waaay ‘out there‘. Substances and spiritual practices aren’t limited to chasing feel good experiences. That is just scratching the surface. As well, there are bigger fish to fry than searching for “permanent everlasting peace and happiness”.

Even nonduality teacher Paul Hedderman quotes from A Course in Miracles in his new video:

@lmfao The idea of there being two paths in a sense comes to mind. That of desire being a nature of fear, and that of desire being a nature of love. I suspect you inherently, profoundly know the latter, and yet are ‘dipping your toes’ in the prior. I wouldn’t do that. You are the light and the joy. The appearance of you & your world are what creativity is. I think you’re pigeonholing the best, most beautiful aspects of your being, as something which ‘needs to die’. That perspective is mundane, and that doesn’t resonate. So “mundane” ‘ain’t it’. You’re it. The best of you is “it”, always has been, and always will be. You’re naturally lighthearted, loving & sincere. It almost feels as if you’re expecting the best of you to die. Perhaps there is a calling for more nuance in life direction, a clearer picture of what you want to commit to and create. Maybe while you could be looking at that in a light & easy going way which is actually natural for you...maybe you’ve picked up some beliefs from other people that this life & nonduality stuff must have a serious stage, a loss stage, a ‘dying of reality’ stage, etc. I’m betting it’s clear to you in your heart and in your bones that is all nonsense.

I’m saying this to try to help, not to be critical...none of the stuff above (I kind of drew out the highlights) is anything more than perspectives which don’t resonate because they aren’t accurate. This is ‘listening’ to thought, rather than ‘listening’ to feeling, and thereby swiftly knowing “that ain’t it”. We ‘wrestle the ox’, yes, that happens apparently, but we don’t give it a place in existence. It is to be seen through, not assumed & believed to be an adversary. Imo, what is accurate, is this is an initial noticing, a consideration & contemplation of actuality, but is a superimposing of fears upon the actuality still yet glimpsed. An initial emptying out of falsities, but they are being focused on, held, believed, over-scrutinized...when they could be known to be false by how the perspectives feel, and as such, simply let go. It is the narrative in spite of feeling, rather than in accord with it. It’s worrying about actuality, it is not inspecting, understanding, nor experiencing the actuality. It could be said there is ‘up side’ and ‘down side’ to this forum and discussing nonduality, but this unfortunately exemplifies the later. It is a joke, in the sense “it” is not serious. The “punchline” is that which you are worried about, and crediting fear, anxiety, uncertainty and potential loss to - is already actually you, and therefore all such perspective is absolute unjustifiable. Working through the concerns, perspectives, and understanding feeling, the experience of it, all completely valid and justifiable. Crediting this to “a separate source”, aka awakening, enlightenment, actuality, etc, is not valid, which is why sincerity feels different than seriousness. There isn’t any ‘thing’ to ‘take serious’. Sorry for The Good News. ?? I hope it’s taken as such. It could only be misconstrued as serious in the believing there is a potential loss, which there is not. A case can not genuinely be made, on a nonduality forum, that nonduality is a bad thing happening to you, with an implication it is happening to you beyond your control or focus, or attentiveness in feeling. Listen to feeling, let it slap you accross the face, that such thought fall out. When the movie of purification plays, should you be so lucky - just relax and breath. Don’t continue believing the movie. Arguably the roughest trap, is feeling the knowing of what you don’t want - and rather than deducing and implementing what you do want - in life - .....projecting the feeling which is the knowing of what is not wanted, onto spirituality, via the narratives.

You keeping doing salvia and you're gonna get burned. Salvia is not a good tool for this work because it's too twisted. Be careful using psychedelics which can show you nonduality but also twist up your mind.

Last week I had tremendous ego backlash. I decided to go on a date with a western girl, for some reason thought it was a good idea. She was into me, and invited me to her place the next day. I went, thought it would just be a good time and maybe a hook up, but it turns out we had nothing in common and then in got awkward when she wanted me to leave, it was so sudden. She'd been talking about all the things she wanted to do with me ("I'll take you here next week, I'll go with you there", bla bla) and then out of the blue she says "I don't feel a connection". I really don't want to believe these things, but my life experience just shows me over and over again that I can't trust women. What they say means nothing. It's one of those beliefs that can only be dropped once I'm shown evidence to the contrary, and that certainly hasn't happened for me yet. They either lie or they suddenly change their mind without hesitation. But how can you have a relationship with such a creature? I once read on some astrological reading that I will meet a woman in the second half of my life that will teach me how to trust. No bullshit, I read it, and I hope it's true. Another thing I've noticed is that most times when I get intimate with a woman these days I end up talking about nonduality, which is utterly silly. Nobody ever gets what I'm talking about, the conversation always takes a turn for the worse. But it just happens, it's a major part of my life in the last two years, if I'm asked about myself in the last two years and I don't talk about it I'm just denying myself. But I want to stop it, this need to talk about it is just that, a craving as any other. Which needs to be dropped. I realized after this situation that I'm still very much identified with my life story, at least most of the time. I'm identified with being good with women, and when I get rejected, for whatever reason, I feel inadequate. I'm identified with the belief that I can never have an intimate relationship with a woman, because I don't trust them. So the thought comes up often that I'll always be alone, and that thought is also identified with. I'm also identified with not wanting to be seen. It's a major component of the character, and I think part of me has been postponing the conclusion of the EP because there's the fear of being seen. And judged. Which means that I'm identified with the character. I'm not in a place where I can just let anything happen. I'm not free. All of this led to more procrastination, I even binged on porn, which I hadn't watched in months. The good part is that through all of this there wasn't much suffering. There was acceptance of what was happening. And a sense that there was absolutely no control over it. There was no charge to it, it was happening and it was being seen. Even now, as I write these things, there isn't much charge. I know it's all bullshit. All of this is just stories. Right now, in this moment, all is perfectly well. And this moment is all there is.

Yes, or you could say it's the only thing that is in one sense "real". You could say your "real" life is a dream, or you could say Santa Claus and your imaginary childhood friend is real. Yes, I was referring more to throwing away the pointer of nonduality itself, the pointer is the second thorn. You apparently have conditioning, you believe certain things about having been born and having a brain, etc, so by bringing in new beliefs and new conditioning ("you were never born, you don't have a brain", "you are God" etc) you can remove and destroy the old ones. In the end none should remain. There was a point in time over a year ago that I really believed nonduality was this thing separate from duality. I wasn't conscious of it. All my new conditioning I'd spend hours learning from Eckhart Tolle with great progress in my life suddenly stopped working, and the new conditioning got thrown away as new insights flooded in. I'm still working through the same pattern by considering and testing new beliefs against old ones, and throwing them away.

nonduality doesn't exist anymore than a non-apple

The only way you can talk about nonduality is by making distinctions. There's an analogy of using a thorn to remove the thorn that's stuck under the skin, then throwing thorns both away.

You see.. The same mistake you are repeating. "forms exist exactly as they are right now". But then you go on to say "all forms are identical". Again why do you need to say that?. And regardless that's just pure falsehood. You just said " me.. You.. Chair.. Table". You just stated different forms! You just did! How can you say they are identical? They aren't!, that's just plain falsehood. Open your eyes and look how these objects are undeniabley distinct and nonidentical. how can you make sense of the concept of "sameness" without the concept of "differences"? How can you make sense of nonduality without duality? How can anything exist without it's opposite??. All your statements "nothing but aware" "nothing but everything but aware but X but Y but Z" are meaninglessness statements. They don't explain anything because they explain everything!

What Leo mentioned about egos pulling in different directions preventing progress, that I believe also is what causes the ego tensions in body and mind! We literally carry around the ego structure of the whole world within us. And in ego consciousness we believe that we ARE those tensions. My new approach is to combine that idea with the test of the nonduality claim that reality is automatic and predetermined. I think it will work! The ego tensions and the belief in accidents and in being a separate entity are one.

@Trickyp Thanks bro, I'm fine now, quite happy that I'm not in psychiatry and completely sober again Glad I didn't cut off my penis @Lyubov Thank you! It's good to know I may not be a complete idiot I will trip a lot more carefull next time!!! And yeah, I probably should trip with other people rather than alone, though I know no one who is deep into nonduality/mysticism/awakening/enlightenment.. I think it's good to feel some shame for a while but you're right, I should leave the story behind and look into the future with strengthened self-worth I'm glad living in germany, where the cops are quite careful compared to most other countries. I probably would have gone to jail or psychiatry in some other country. But I don't know what comes, here they love to search through your house and impose heavy fines.. But I'm back again, healthy and smarter than before

Reduce the dose, don’t add in alcohol or weed. The wee prior to the trip, get grounded with things like meditation. Contemplate the questions and desires you would like to explore. Create a safe, peaceful setting for the trip. Afterwards, give your mind and body time and space to process, integrate and embody the realizations. This can be done in many ways: spending time in nature, contemplating, journaling, creating. . . It can also be helpful to communicate with experienced people that you resonate with. For example, my early trips revealed aspects of nonduality that I couldn’t make sense of. My mind was making up all sorts of stories to make sense of it. It felt unstable. One thing that helped was to watch nonduality speakers that had a lot of experience. As well, going in nature and just observing without all the figuring it out. Yet that’s just me. Someone else may have revelations about creativity during a trip and resonate with an experienced artist that explains how to unlock inner creativity. To me, it sounds like you have some intuition, feelings and a calling arising. I would get in touch with that and try not to get distracted by the background thinking noise. Thoughts can be insightful, yet they can also be noise of distraction.

Yep, that's nonduality. But I think that nonduality can also be experienced while being aware of everything. That's the eye of God that sees everything with no judgement and explores itself to infinity.

Hey guys, it's been a while since i posted here... the forum has always intimidated me slightly, but I really have nowhere else to turn when it comes to these kinds of topics. Before I get into anything I do want to mention that I am on medication and seeing a therapist so I am seeking professional help for the tangible issues. That being said, there's a layer to this i feel like I need to address here on the forums. This is very off the cuff so I apologize if i stray from the point and ramble, there is just a lot behind this but hopefully I can sum it up cleanly. So Ive been following leo for a long time, on and off, I admit i havent been the most dedicated watcher, I skip videos sometimes. But if a title grabs my attention I can sit through a 2-3 hour video easy. I have experience with psychedelics in my past (admittedly mostly recreational use) but I also have a history with a mental hospital and that's the big thing I kind of want to mention. Over the course of 3-4 years ive been to the mental hospital a total of 3 times. This February was my last visit. I get a better handle on my episodes each time, but they're loosely tied to my existential questioning and spiritual journey. I loose touch with reality and it's hard to explain without getting too into it. (Im not here to detail my psychotic episodes to you all, you dont deserve it and it may be missing the point lol) I used to really be into the spiritual journey and nonduality (a lot of leo and alan watts will do that) but lately I feel like ive lost my focus and im almost damaged with my mental illness. I dont want to give up on the path, but i realize that it can no longer be the same for me. Ive gotten some good insights to myself but I feel like ive forgotten them and I feel so lost. I feel like I don't know myself anymore, who am I really, what do I really want, what im capable of anymore. Do I really want to be enlightened? What does enlightenment even mean to me? (I have no fucking clue lol) Am I capable of doing these practices after all that ive been through after ive questioned myself so much to the point where ive lost my grip on reality. I feel like ive broken myself down so much, but now I was hoping to get advice on how to build myself up again. I dont know how many of my old perspectives ive re-adopted (in terms of ideas about reality) I feel like im just in survival mode. Leo talks about letting love lead you nowadays and I feel like I need a redose of the fundamentals again. IS there any direction that someone can point me in? old videos of leos maybe? Is this even path even possible for me anymore? I dont want to be resigned to floating through life mindlessly and unaware... but i feel like I need to start all over again... so how do I do that? I hope this wasn't too long a read for you and I didn't ramble too much. Basically I just want to know where I go from here after all ive been through.. and what you all think. I can't appreciate you enough for your advice, even if it's just support, and I wish you all the best.

In this video nonduality teacher Wayne Liquorman explains that the sense of a personal self is fine and it's the hijacked sense of self by the belief in being independent and claiming authorship that is the false self. Both Wayne and Roger Castillo had Ramesh Balsekar as their teacher. I find that to be a great explanation. Because it allows for an integral transcend and include of the individual self. The trick is to "just" recognize that the personal self is the whole universe in action.

Hey guys, I had a crazy experience triggered by Leo's video "Jacques Derrida, Deconstruction, Post-Modernism, and Nonduality", so I was just watching it again and taking notes in preparation for tomorrow's, ah, amplified self-inquiry. Anyway it dawned on me that if I find notes on Leo's videos valuable, others might too, and I have several notes from the past few years on my Google Drive, so I'd like to share them with anyone that might find them useful. I've attached 9 of them down below. A note: some of these notes are pretty long and detailed like the 'Derrida, Deconstruction & Nonduality' and 'Spiral Dynamics' notes, others are pretty bare-bones like '10 Important Things' & 'What Women Want in a Man'. I made these for me, so I don't know if anyone will find them useful, or if people would prefer bare-bones notes vs. more detailed ones. (Personally I feel that as Leo's content has gotten so much more advanced, I find more detailed notes increasingly necessary) I will be taking a lot more notes. I feel like I've been doing self-development work for the past few years rather aimlessly, just having faith that it was worthwhile, and relatively content with the significant, yet still shallow, improvements in my life. My experience last month totally mind fucked me, so I'll be taking a lot more notes for myself, and if you guys like them, of course I'd love to share and add more. Derrida, Deconstruction, & Nonduality.pdf Spiral Dynamics Basics.pdf Shamanic Breathing Technique.pdf Leo's Nootrpoics.pdf What Women Want in a Man.pdf Mindfulness Meditation.pdf How to Become Enlightened - Step by Step.pdf Avoiding Dysfunction Relationships_ Red Flags.pdf 10 Important Things You Don't Know You Want.pdf

Why is Duality Lower than nonduality? Isn't that a duality between duality and nonduality? If reality is ONE how can there be higher and lower? Dual and nondual? Where is this oneness? Does it have a location? Is there someone who is controlling this process?

So nonduality is the new pick up ?

absolute love and unconditional love are not per say the same. they are so different as a black hole is different to space, nothingness is to everythingness, destruction is to creation, egoic-love is to self-love, duality is to nonduality, time is to timelessness, when absolute love happens unconditional love dies - that’s why even in non duality there is always a dual choice even if the absolute does not like that.

According to nondual philosophy, evil does not exist. Evil is something "other" than good. In nonduality, there is no such thing as "other"; therefore no such as thing as evil. The problem of evil is in the assumption that "evil exists".

"But you cannot run away from yourself. However far you go, you come back to yourself and to the need of understanding this point, which is as nothing and yet the source of everything." -Nisargadatta Maharaj Lately I've been dealing with being lonely off and on. It's interesting that there's a lot of self judgement and embarrassment around this. I feel like I should have been able to have a busier more lively life, or live somewhere different or have a different partner, be more successful, have more friends, etc. A lot of the plans I make to distract myself aren't available because of the pandemic. I can go into all kinds or reasons and stories about this. Here's one, in the past, summer was an incredible but beautifully lonely time. My parents lived very secluded lives far away from civilization or the school I attended. Summer vacation was a time completely to myself. Trees, flowers, birds and my own fantasies were my only company. I've never really felt that again so strongly until now, because as an adult I have always been able to make plans to see people and do things. Particularity I'm really interested in why I feel shame about being lonely. A lot of the things I'm driven to do and want are simply out of this alone feeling. I think a lot of conflict between people just comes out of loneliness. I feel like we're so harsh on ourselves for being lonely, it's our fault or failure. So it feels just slightly better to blame other people for doing things that don't allow us to be with them or love them how we envision things should be. What does nonduality say about being lonely? There aren't two. There's no you to be lonely, no you to want someone else. But it's happening out of wholeness. So should I be even more ashamed? Or maybe the loneliness is love itself? Love I didn't want to feel because I was too busy upholding my sense of separation? Confession, I'm lonely. My loneliness is killing me (and I) I must confess I still believe (still believe)

June 15, 2020 I feel like I am slipping into autopilot without the dedication necessary to self actualize. I wasted a lot of time today, but I did find a few important things. There are one day tournaments I can play in every week. I could create a better life than what I currently have by becoming a yoga instructor even though this is not a huge passion but there are a few motives for it. This expands the quality of my consciousness which I think I lack. Outside of time wasting, I thought a lot about what my life purpose should be. One important note I make to myself to help seek truth is that I care about my survival more than I do truth. This is a paradox that avoids ideological stances about truth. I also tried learning about transpersonal psychology, but I did not yet find what college I would go to. I don't want to be discouraged by the fact that many beliefs about nonduality are created along the way. I also realize that forceful methods are doomed to failed so long as my survival is what I value more than truth. I considered going into politics again. I see politics as the greatest potential for increasing the well-being of all of mankind. The greatest good for the greatest number is a principle that resonates with me. Politics is meant to teach me to set my biases aside and see things as they are. My highest priority is constant self reflection to ensure that I do not become corrupt. The next most important things are anti corruption and various social problems in which to detect the greatest good for the greatest number. I am not clear on what precisely the means are, but if I believe that I can't get the money I will lock myself out entirely. Ideology is a major source of corruption and I think a mystical experience is necessary for me to nonduality as more than a belief so that I can actually be more loving and not just preaching whatever people on the internet told me. I could consider business for financial independence. It may not seem like a passion now, but it is serious potential to create the means. Means is one problem with going into politics where me being corruptable is the other problem. Money is the source of many of my limiting beliefs about travel, psychedelics, contribution, and maybe something else. I think truth may be important to understanding a life purpose. Most people don't know what is true, and if I do know them that may provide me with a significant advantage. This is not to be better than others, but simply to make me more capable of making a meaningful contribution. Right now I am attached to my survival, my addictions, my limiting beliefs, and more. I did do a little chess today. I won one game in which my opponent blundered a knight and resigned immediately. He was otherwise better. I finished some homework on mating patterns and will soon move onto double attack. I feel like I am losing focus and am not As focused on chess As I would like to be when training. Maybe my mind is too numbed by all the social media. I should test this out for one week with only one blog post a day and no YouTube. Just meditation and diet. This will make me more effective at my training. I will find your purpose. I don't want suicidal thoughts coming up suddenly when I see my life as insignificant and pointless. I want more than just talk. You have done some work and I would like to stop giving you the stick to motivate you. I don't love you. It is possible to raise this capacity for love. This may be a counter intuitive solution like with truth vs survival. The truth is that I do not understand love and I am not less because of it. This is love.

Leo. You. God. Nonduality....not-two. There is the direct experience, self-awareness, ‘right now’, of one (not two).

@Lenny this is a problem that comes up for me a lot on this site. It becomes hard not to create beliefs about what is true and I feel like it creates a delusional affect where really I don't know what is true. I think this can really interfere with my efforts to seeking truth. I don't want to create beliefs about nonduality that prevent me from knowing for sure if it is true or just a story the mind could spin. Maybe this is a cause for me to not spend too much time on this site. After my own contemplating I questioned how do I know inanimate objects don't have feelings. I can compare a curtain to cat and see a clear difference. The cat purrs and hisses while the curtain only changes shape when acted upon by a person folding it for example. It appears to have no judgement, but unless I am the curtain, I can't tell for sure if it has feelings or not. I assume it has no perspective because of the initial comparison between inanimate objects and animals. I want to be careful not to change my beliefs just because it seems wrong. As for thinking, an example of a body part being unable to think on its own would be a dead person. The body may still have living cells, but the body becomes like a curtain that just sits there until a creature moves it. I feel like there is a voice in my head, and I have a hard time hearing a voice in my feet or hands which suggests that thoughts come from my brain. My body is connected to my mind because I think of words to type and my fingers move accordingly. The movements of the body are learned because I practiced typing and I do not consciously think "I will move this finger to this letter then the space bar.". My mind might associate these words with letters which are associated with particular positions on the keyboard which then causes me to automatically move my fingers in this way. Maybe this is a simplified thinking process of my brain which I associate with these movements allowing my fingers to do this quickly just like tying my shoes. The voice in my head can be acted upon if I cause it to say "I am a rainbow butterfly with 17 wings who likes to tap dance on a pot of gold.". This suggests that the voice is the thoughts and beliefs but I am manipulating what they say. My thoughts are also habitual just like my finger movements. If I have the same thoughts all the time, then I am on auto pilot because my behavior never changes. In order to know what is doing the thinking, I would want to see what is prior to the thought. When I try my mind silences and I do nothing. I then find nothing prior to the thought. The thing which thinks my thoughts is that which causes this body and mind to do things when acted upon. I might be the brain doing all of this, but I would need to see my brain and perform surgery on myself while conscious in order to make sure I am the brain thinking. I did my best with my contemplation. I don't know how to define progress in the context of truth.