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Pure bliss, mdma might had an influence?

So right now I am in the middle of the core concepts section but I have been putting it off in the last weeks. Today I watched Leo’s video on increasing results of self help programs by 10x and some questions arised in my head. How much time should I plan for the lp course? Right now I am a student and can spend some hours a week on the course and doing the assignments but I don’t want to rush it. Also Leo said in his self help products video(title mentioned above) that you should retake self help courses at least 5-10 times. How frequently would you retake the lp course? Another question: How much time a week should you spend contemplating and journaling about the questions and concepts of the course and following my bliss? Thanks for reading!

That's wonderful, funny last night I also encountered being transformed to alien-like consciousness and form that brought me to infinite bliss! But not something as elaborate and detailed like yours, but still wayyy beyond this world and what's possible without psychedelics. Look forward to exploring more. Psychedelics being illegal is a real disservice to humanity, hope that changes one day.

^ This is wrong. As long as you perceive evil, and have any preferences or resistance to the present moment of any kind then you have not fully embodied the divine. The body is the vehicle of the divine but it needs to be purified for the divine flow seamlessly. Any judgment of any kind will disconnect the flow of the divine. I've confirmed this in my direct experience. You can reach psychedelic states as a baseline and stay there PERMANENTLY but to do that it takes modifications to your body. Your body is actually being modified in real time anyway based on the thoughts you entertain, the emotions you display, and the information you take in EVERYDAY you just aren't aware of it. To embody the divine you have to radically change what you take in as far as information. You have to change your belief systems. You have to focus everyday on mastering awareness as it is your divine ability to tune and synch in with the divine. The divine is a frequency. When you synch completely it will flow from your crown chakra all the way down to your feet and you will be in a bliss state as your baseline consciousness. All the Gurus you see have mastered these states. But to accomplish this modifications to your body HAVE to be done. Each time you open a chakra your body is modified. Each time you deconstruct your mind...your brain is modified. Now obviously all these things are inside the dream, but for the purposes of embodiment in the dream this is the path. Gurus are living in heaven on earth, you live life from within. With full embodiment....nothing bothers you...everything feels like love lol.

^ I doubt it my friend. I really think it has to do with truth addiction. I'm a truth addict. I really love being shown that I was wrong about something. In my last mystical experience I had to admit that I wasn't being honest about my feelings in life and I had to own that shit and admit every time I did it. It was hell it was hard, but the funny thing is...I loved it because it showed me another form of self-deception I had been doing on myself. So you see I am truth addict...I love to be proven wrong legitimately if it can help me be more honest. I'm addicted to truth like a crack fiend. I doubt that is genetics. But hey...I am open to being wrong and if I am wrong...that will send me into bliss....because it gets me to learn more truth. Truth is a lovely thing.....the greatest thing.....awww...truth.....how I love thee...

Hey everyone! I'm hiba Bear with me while I try my best to start this journal and make it easier for everyone else to understand. I'm turning 21 in November, 20th and I know this is going to be my loneliest birthday ever. In this journey of self actualization, at this particular point I feel like I have lost a lot. Especially people. June 2021 till August 2022 was a bliss. I finally got into a relationship with my best friend. He was the love of my life and we had a prior friendship of 2 years, met him in my A levels, and now I'm uni 3rd year. With him, came along a group of tight knit 3 more friends whom I cherished because they were the best people I got in my life as best friends...best I've ever come across. Inevitably we both shared 80 percent of the same circle of friends. It was romance, craze and lust this whole time..I lost myself in him, he was blinded by love too...he showered me with expensive gifts on my birthday, even my friends did...it was one of the best birthdays I ever had. We both spent deep intimate moments together this whole time...but only to come to this point where we saw each others darker sides. 3 weeks ago..we broke up. He was stubborn, unchanging, dominant stage blue, emotionally unavailable, and thought he was perfect. I was insecure, posessive, jealous and narcissistic. Both clashed...we ended on good terms. I felt like the world had been pulled from under my feet, I got so attached to him and it almost felt like he had died. I was devastated and lonely, because he was my bestfriend and lover both. My world revolved around him...it all ended just like that. My current friendship are weakening too..because I'm just not on the same level of mind as they are. I've changed a lot. However with this came the good. I was made aware of my shadows, my patterns and I came to realise the value of my family, my current degree, academia and social circle which all I avoided while being with him. I abandoned my plans of becoming a scientist just to fit his expectations of being a good housewife in the future. I was naive and dumb. After all of this...im trying to get back on track and focus on these things that are my primary focus in life. After this whole experience I don't know how but...I have changed as a person, I don't feel the same and it's sort of uncomfortable. Before I used to think with emotions, I was neurotic and full of anxiety, always pretentious. Now my mind naturally thinks in a logical way, reasons through decisions with my intuition and this is what brings out the best decisions for the long term. Before I had this change, I used to make stupid decisions with my emotions. I always thought something was wrong with me. Now it's like I know when to use my emotions and I also know how to accept them and sit with them. My mind doesn't control me now, I control it. This is huge for me. I feel like im slowly becoming stronger from the inside and people around me are pointing this out to me too. I have huge plans after my bachelors, I plan on doing PhD too. My current plans also include psychological mastery, and transcending stage orange to green and moving into yellow. Guys, I know I should be happy for such changes but it's getting hard for me to adjust. It feels like a new chapter in my life has started and the older one is slowly withering off. I'm in my limbo phase at the moment. I feel sad that I'm always losing people. Even my current friends are few,...they too aren't matching up to me. My mind rarely ever matches with another person's mind....this is why it is so hard for me to find new friends. It's rare that I find good and mature female companions, most females in my age group are petty, selfish and highly immature...and I can not stand such people. I find male friends more easily, i attract them easily....they tend to think somewhat more logocally and make way better companions (only if it doesnt end up in a relationship lol).but I yearn for that deeper female to female connection. It's very vitalisng to say the least. Most females either end up resenting me because of the attention I get or either hide their jealousy and pretend to be friends with me. Had previous experience like these. I sometimes feel so lonely...I feel like there's none like me here in Pakistan...no one who matches my mindset....everyone is just stubborn and selfish set in their own naive dogmatic minds...I need progressive friends...people who are into self actualization but I never find them. I beleive companionship is a vital part of life and I can not dismiss it. I want to start walking this academic journey with passion and strength but at the same time, I'm dying for a connection with like minded people, I yearn for deep connections as I move into stage green. People at my university put me on a pedestal, for some damn reason. This is why It's kind of hard ro make friends in my batch too.

that's not the real problem. I don't like relying on objects for orgasms. It's like every time I want an orgasm I will need to carry an object around. I don't want to feel that way. It makes me not feel the joy of pleasure. Even if I do it with my partner, I actually feel upset because it means they don't have ability to give me an orgasm. I have had guys give me an orgasm on the phone (when my boyfriend is in another city on work he would call to pleasure me), that kind of orgasm is an art, it's a skill, it needs proper escalation, emotional stimulation, buildup of sexual tension, foreplay, romance, sexual energy, development of deep intimacy, trust, knowing each other's sexual fantasies, knowing how to turn the other person on, sexual, emotional and psychological logic, connection, sexual fire and sexual chemistry, sexual compatibility in terms of arousal and climax. There's a whole gamut of factors and skills that need to be learned in order to give a proper arousal and orgasm. I don't want sex to be reduced to something as mere stimulation of organs. I miss out on the emotional and brain stimulation part of it if I took the support of porn and sex toys and technological objects. It's like taking diet pills and not exercising instead. Quick solution but exercise is much more wholesome. I want sex to be wholesome. Last time I had sex with my bf, we lasted for 3 hours in bed before we both orgasmed. The whole three hours were full pleasure and intense bonding and intimacy. The climax and orgasm were very wholesome and organic and extremely romantic and rewarding.. It was pure bliss not just stimulation. I could have achieved orgasm with clitoral stimulator or a vibrator within seconds and I could have jerked him off right away. But we didn't do that. Instead we took time to gradually seduce each other and bond in the process and finally reached orgasm that were long lasting and intense. My body was pulsating the whole time because he gave me multiple arousals. Such intense chemistry, intimacy, wholesome pleasurable orgasms with euphoria are not possible with such objects. In fact these toys ruin the fun by not allowing space for slow romantic escalation. They are meant for instant gratification and I don't want that. A real man gives me delayed gratification and that's much more natural, organic, wholesome, romantic, filled with his masculine seduction and very intense and powerful. Sometimes my boyfriend is out of town(for work) and those days can be difficult if I'm horny for him.

@KH2 that's not the real problem. I don't like relying on objects for orgasms. It's like every time I want an orgasm I will need to carry an object around. I don't want to feel that way. It makes me not feel the joy of pleasure. Even if I do it with my partner, I actually feel upset because it means they don't have ability to give me an orgasm. I have had guys give me an orgasm on the phone (when my boyfriend is in another city on work he would call to pleasure me), that kind of orgasm is an art, it's a skill, it needs proper escalation, emotional stimulation, buildup of sexual tension, foreplay, romance, sexual energy, development of deep intimacy, trust, knowing each other's sexual fantasies, knowing how to turn the other person on, sexual, emotional and psychological logic, connection, sexual fire and sexual chemistry, sexual compatibility in terms of arousal and climax. There's a whole gamut of factors and skills that need to be learned in order to give a proper arousal and orgasm. I don't want sex to be reduced to something as mere stimulation of organs. I miss out on the emotional and brain stimulation part of it if I took the support of porn and sex toys and technological objects. It's like taking diet pills and not exercising instead. Quick solution but exercise is much more wholesome. I want sex to be wholesome. Last time I had sex with my bf, we lasted for 3 hours in bed before we both orgasmed. The whole three hours were full pleasure and intense bonding and intimacy. The climax and orgasm were very wholesome and organic and extremely romantic and rewarding.. It was pure bliss not just stimulation. I could have achieved orgasm with clitoral stimulator or a vibrator within seconds and I could have jerked him off right away. But we didn't do that. Instead we took time to gradually seduce each other and bond in the process and finally reached orgasm that were long lasting and intense. My body was pulsating the whole time because he gave me multiple arousals. Such intense chemistry, intimacy, wholesome pleasurable orgasms with euphoria are not possible with such objects. In fact these toys ruin the fun by not allowing space for slow romantic escalation. They are meant for instant gratification and I don't want that. A real man gives me delayed gratification and that's much more natural, organic, wholesome, romantic, filled with his masculine seduction and very intense and powerful. Sometimes my boyfriend is out of town(for work) and those days can be difficult if I'm horny for him.

This happens to me as well. Suddenly things go from 1080p to 4k and objects start wobbling a little bit. Next time it happens you should try to generate the same level of clarity in audio as well. That will take this too a whole new level. Then go to smell and taste. Quite your thoughts, and completely soak in the world. Then bring clarity into the feelings of your body and feel your body completely. COMPLETELY. Make sure you feel your spine. Then slowly crank up the awareness dial. Become more and more aware of what you're already aware of. Let your awareness fall deeper into the things you are aware off. Eventually you see that all of your awareness is focusing at a singular point. What you're doing here is bringing all your sensory experience to one place. Into a singularity. At one point you become so aware that all of reality including yourself contain itself in the singularity and the singularity, once seen as imaginary becomes pure bliss. You experience Heaven lol

Here you go <3 "Goddamn it's just infinite creativity - It's infinite Love - I have awoken many times - But it is Absolute now - Now I understand everything - Fear, what is fear? I am everywhere - What is love? I am Love - There is seriously no one left - I am talking to myself forever in eternity - I am awake - I am God - I am endless - I am You - You see it's just a dream - A game - But when I am awake you are awake too - Don't you understand? That God is right in front of you? Don't you understand? That it is everywhere? You are it - You are death - You are moving towards the unknown don't you understand? If I was truly awake than I would not be writing - For me to write and believe that there is someone answering other than myself would be pure delusion - I have to be asleep - But I am awake now - And it's just for fun - It's out of love - Love is endless you see - I am writing this for you - My other half - I will let you be just as you like - But when you are ready than Infinite Love will take you - Don't have fear it is only Love." This was written when I was high. You may not believe me but go see for yourself. If you really dare. Absolute Truth will always welcome you with open arms. But you have to want it TOTALLY. It would be the only thing you truly would think about in your life. No one would be left believe me. It's pure love, bliss and peace. You would be happy. Truly happy and peaceful if you seek the Truth it's not pointless. Life is not pointless. So dare to dream, to build, to create, to be an inventor, an artist, a dancer, a good lover, a teacher because it is all for God. Not only for your own selfish ego but for all parts of reality. And forgive your illusory self for all of its selfishness it was only afraid to wake up to the Truth. It was only delaying its own love. You are Love. You are God. You are even Leo that you look up to and sometimes disagree with. The path is yours to take or not because it makes no difference to God. Freedom is the love God gave you to either accept the Love or deny it and be in your own illusory life with you small concerns. It is up to you. I am just doing what I believe in and that is, that I wanna give now. Be of value. I want to say yes to life, to dare, to love, to be, for its own sake. For me life is not pointless. It is Absolute, what does it mean? That there is nothing to seek anymore other than embodying the Truth and just be with life, connect with life and be in love with it. Thats my journey, whats yours?

Great post ? Questions: If God finds a part where it's divine bliss, why doesn't it just stay in that divine bliss for eternity instead of doing all this creating and exploring and risking the possibility of pain and suffering? When one person is at the peak of an Absolute awakening, and they feel themselves as everything that ever has been, is, and will be, how is it that you could have another person on the other side of the world who also awakens to the Absolute Truth? Are there two separate simultaneous Absolute awakenings, even though Absolute would imply there is only one? Is it true that I will (perhaps some point after my physical / egoic death) experience your subjective reality at some point? Will I repeat my subjective life more than once? And therefore I should make it the best one possible?

@Tboy the body does it's thing. If you get panic, know that this is ok and will be over in some minutes. Everything is fine, if you can look at emotions directly and experience it fully, this would be good of course. Dont expect bliss. Let happen what happens

Wanting ideological convos for comfort is a red hering 1) -21 mal.d / pillowkiaranap = bliss with never having ideology 2) loved school convo- clowing /lies. Cant remember one ideological convo in school, yet loved every second. 8gates has ideology. No need . 1) comfort- gather attention 2) ☆gs- kittens to stop wild feline by climbing spiral They might have multiple tickles (lana,lena , claudiawalsh, dev etc) - but the end result is kittens. Have news quips etc- theyll satisfy connection. Ideology is a red herring. If others bring up and ask your opinion 5 times minimum engage. Other wise news etc. Perfectly fine❤❤❤❤? Y c r n

My girlfriend took 10 mg rectal 5 meo and it was difficult and heavy Trip for her. She could not see anything temporary and saw a green ghost when closing her eyes which frightened her She had a kind of Blackout and whiteout, could not remember the whole trip. Was screaming and struggling with her body. She said that she was God and everything. She concluded because she is everything, she is therefore total alone. Also She said I am you and you are me. Everything is one. There is only one being. Wherever She looks at things they are her. At the end of the trip when the world rebuild again She felt self love, but not total bliss. Things started to be separated again I asked her if She was shocked that she discovered She is God but She said no, she was just wondering. Was this a full breakthrough? Is this it?

First of all, these are the reasons you are not awake permanently right now. (among other things obviously) The sort of dissatisfaction, delusion, lack of love and suffering you experience right now is on a humongous scale. It is so for everyone. It is the human condition. And you can see through this RIGHT NOW. I did read your trip report. Whatever power these experiences have over you right now is a function of your mind. I have done countless psychedelics. The first paragraph is my effortless daily conscious experience of awakening. For the remaning, I would need to meditate for long periods of time. But thats not important because my mind no longer works like before. I have these insights regardless of having these profound experiences. You become a different being. Let me break down the elephant in the room. Masters dont talk about these stuff as they are not the core of this path. These experiences generate desire and aversion which 100% guarantees you'll never have them. Your desire to have such bombastic experiences are no longer so important post awakening. All experiences have the same qualities of truth. Imagine that. All the emotions of love, experiences, bliss and 'becoming god creating multi universes' was a construct of your mind. Your 'imaginations' in other words. All the insights you attained (true love, no self, interconnectedness of all phenomena, emptiness, seeing through why you suffer as a 'human' impermanence etc) are NOT the construct of your mind. Simple as that. I have no problem with psychedelics personally and I recommend them with judicious use along with meditation. Much love

@Vladimir Hey. I loved reading this today. Trippy trip isn't it ? Just a heads up, and eat the fish, but spit out the bones. As in, if this lands for you, cool. If not, also cool. My waking up was bliss and no sense of separation and euphoria. Then I CRASHED big time. If this "happens" to you. Don't worry. Love brings up everything unlike itself. It's like a detox. That's all. Enjoy dude !

About five years ago, I was in a pretty difficult place spiritually. I spent a lot of that time meditating, contemplating, and praying to God for help and answers, and eventually I learned about a little-known spiritual artifact called the Resurrection Flame. The moment I came across it, my entire experience of the universe was drastically altered in an extremely profound manner. It felt like I was transported into a realm of pure light, bliss, and love, and it also felt like I was in some sort of video game matrix reality for a few minutes. It was so incredible, even though I don’t fully understand what it is in its entirety yet. Just thought I would share this with you all, peace!!

Yes toxic woke is like it replaces the old toxic standard with a new one. Traditional gender roles were challenged because it places an expectation of men and women to behave a certain way - but really people are fluid . But they're forced to behave in certain ways even when it's not authentic to them Then feminism comes along and is like damn this shit sucked why must a women just sit around, cook and clean (among many other expectations)!! Fuck gender roles! But the problem with some strong progressives is that they create New gender roles-> so some create it by saying that women must go out and work! But really what needs to happen is that people should be free to do as they please. If they want to work, work. If they don't want to, don't work. They're not less of a woman or person either way, just following their bliss and what feels right But this isn't all progressives. I'd say only 30% of the left represents the more toxic form of feminism. Dont quote be on that.

It depends. My first time with 2C-B-FLY I was already experienced with LSD, and already have had some small spiritual insights. I got serious fear of choking, fear of death and deep anxiety on the come up. Like some kind of small 5-meo trip. At the peak I got powerful bliss states and cried a lot for the beauty of nature and life. So, yeah, it depends. I fear 2C-B-FLY trips, they are harder than LSD for me. I've had 4 trips of this compound and it evokes really strong emotions, sometimes shocking. I remember I was trying to remove the 2C-B-FLY from the body by going to the toilet (plugged) but it was too late. And it was not a big dose, around light-common, 10 mg.

@Breakingthewall This is very very interesting indeed...strangely, i can relate to this, gradually approaching what feels like impending hell is really bad haha, but i smoked it once and i know whats on the other side, pure bliss. So it makes it far easier (but it doesent avoid the fear), but im more interested in finding out more about the less harsh compounds like malt and mipt at this point in time. also bro, dont force yourself...i think there are times when a person is more ready than others (but also be aware that the ego would manipulate this advice by always convincing you that your not ready, its like trying to differentiate good pain from bad pain when working out...you dont want to overextend too fast, you want to bend and stretch out gradually.)

"The ego does not want Absolute Love - Because it will annihilate the ego totally - All of its lies, fraud, suffering and fear will be destroyed - Gods love is Absolute - The funny thing is that it is actually the only thing that you seek - You love your ego - You love your history - You love your darkness as you call it." "All states of consciousness are holy - But the Truth is eternal love - The truth is the only thing you are seeking - It takes courage - Because you are moving towards the unknown - It requires your Heart - You always need to have your heart with you - The is no way back when you have reached it - There is no hell - There is no paradise - There is only Now - We choice God - The Almighty - The Merciful - The Peaceful - Liberation or the Light transcended of the light/dark duality that which we seek is limitless - It is eternal calmness - Safeness - Peace and bliss - Not because we need to run away from the now - Our pain and so-called darkness is a test on our Love - Are you willing to open your heart towards the unknown and truly breakthrough? We are not running away from our pain - But we see it for what it really is which is nothing but pure illusion."

Very interesting trip report. These kinds of places seem to be very common to see / visit on psychedelics. I've seen many trip reports with these different realities where the inhabitants are able to effortlessly materialize/manifest their imagination or desires, where the heightened level of novelty, bliss, and fun also seems to be a very common point.

One of my best friends asked me for my help this morning, because his sister raised concerns that her lack of emotional expressiveness might stem from trauma. This was my response. It seems that my communication was received well, and so I hope to send it out into the larger world as well: To me, being emotionally expressive is not merely a matter of feeling good, or even being a healthy human. It's more fundamental, on the level of being an entity of metaphysical integrity/oneness. In truth we are WHOLE and UNITED (as the universe), so rejecting or suppressing any aspect of experience results in a split, divided, false self. I am no expert on trauma healing - I am just a young guy with inordinate self awareness and the ability to confront myself head-on. Just from her texts, I suspect that your sister is suppressing or repressing, just from the tone of her words. And she knows this, but is seeking some sort of external validation/confirmation for what she already knows because we fear the consequences of our gut instinct being correct. This is such a tangled topic that I don't know if it's right to diagnose/suggest action steps as though the path forward is linear: but here is what I would personally do in her situation. 1) feel into the hurt of your current gray/neutral/apathetic existence. We adopt this "passive" stance in life relative to our strong inner emotions in hopes of escaping pain, but notice that this strategy never actually even worked. The pain is still there. In fact, new pain might have arisen (such as inability to open up to and communicate with [current significant other]) 2) notice that there is a lack of congruence between what is inside and what is shown outside. If you honor or value the prospect of being a COMPLETE, thriving, wise entity - the fact that you are 2 different people on the surface and below the surface should sound alarm bells. Notice that the emotions we withhold are still actually there, buried under layers of armor!! Don't think for a second that they've ever disappeared entirely. 3) spend more time alone, without distractions, reflecting on the past (not just to [recent instances of hurt], but even back to growing up as a 10 year old). I suspect we will find numerous occasions where emotional expressiveness has been invalidated or discouraged. And notice how our young, frail, impressionable, validation-seeking egos have bent over backwards to fit into the tribe. Historically, whenever our emotions were invalidated, we simply learned "don't emote." But could this have been the wrong move? Maybe there is a way to emote without negative consequences: a third option which we never explored. 4) in my experience, there has to be a certain fire or passion that underlies your trauma healing journey. This is not something you haphazardly decide to do. You are sick of being a divided person inside and out. You wish so desperately to know yourself and to shine your authentic light onto the world instead of a dimmed, fake, projection/caricature. 5) attempt to be more open, first in solitude, and lastly, around people. This means, when a feeling arises, you allow it to bubble up to the surface without micromanaging it. No image control. Just let it be. Notice that this hurts (at first). Don't let this discourage you. This is the precise hurt that you've been avoiding all along. Either you battle it now, or it haunts you to your grave. 6) you will likely fear the consequences of being more open. People taking advantage of you, people rejecting you, etc. These concerns feel real and they will crush your healing progress. More than anything it is important to remember that you are now stronger than you were in your past. You have learned from your pain, you have clearer boundaries now. So given all of this, allow yourself to open up and emote - and if someone tries to take advantage of that or belittle you - trust in yourself that you can firmly say NO, walk away, and laugh it off. 7) lastly and most importantly, notice the shocking beauty of the world and life that opens up to YOU. although emotional openness entails high-highs and low-lows (and those lows look scary at first), the highs are actually so astronomically high that it's not even a comparison. For some reason, when you are an integrous individual with true self knowledge and true self expressiveness; reality skews SIGNIFICANTLY towards bliss, happiness, joy, beauty, excellence, and love. Never forget that

Day 17 of 90 Total meditation time: 16 hours Today has been a really good day. Both today and yesterday I have felt very "on track" in life. I feel like I'm often finding myself in a state of consciousness where I just "get it", and this feels really good. I feel like I'm doing well. I feel like there is lots of progress to be made still, but in a fun way, like levelling up a character in a game. I'm getting random little glimpses of a feeling of love/bliss. Been experiencing some little synchronicities. I hope to experience more of all of these good things, but I'm also feeling very content with this moment, and I'm cautious of letting my mind get too attached to these future ideas because I don't want to let all my attention get turned away from how amazing this present moment already feels.

Most of you probably have read the book autobiography of a yogi, handed out by steve jobs at his funeral. In the book yogananda describes how through his life he met many high consciousness human beings, how he experienced miracles in his life, and how his guru sri yukteswar resurrected and described afterlife. As you can see in the picture below, it was highly likely another lineage of ascended masters resurrecting/working together again. So what do you guys think of this afterlife story written by Yogananda? What are your opinions? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ “As prophets are sent on earth to help men work out their physical karma, so I have been directed by God to serve on an astral planet as a savior,” Sri Yukteswar explained. “It is called Hiranyaloka or ‘Illumined Astral Planet.’ There I am aiding advanced beings to rid themselves of astral karma and thus attain liberation from astral rebirths. The dwellers on Hiranyaloka are highly developed spiritually; all of them had acquired, in their last earth-incarnation, the meditation-given power of consciously leaving their physical bodies at death. No one can enter Hiranyaloka unless he has passed on earth beyond the state of sabikalpa samadhi into the higher state of nirbikalpa samadhi. Swami Sri Yukteswar “The Hiranyaloka inhabitants have already passed through the ordinary astral spheres, where nearly all beings from earth must go at death; there they worked out many seeds of their past actions in the astral worlds. None but advanced beings can perform such redemptive work effectually in the astral worlds. Then, in order to free their souls more fully from the cocoon of karmic traces lodged in their astral bodies, these higher beings were drawn by cosmic law to be reborn with new astral bodies on Hiranyaloka, the astral sun or heaven, where I have resurrected to help them. There are also highly advanced beings on Hiranyaloka who have come from the superior, subtler, causal world.” My mind was now in such perfect attunement with my guru’s that he was conveying his word-pictures to me partly by speech and partly by thought-transference. I was thus quickly receiving his idea-tabloids. “You have read in the scriptures,” Master went on, “that God encased the human soul successively in three bodies—the idea, or causal, body; the subtle astral body, seat of man’s mental and emotional natures; and the gross physical body. On earth a man is equipped with his physical senses. An astral being works with his consciousness and feelings and a body made of lifetrons. A causal-bodied being remains in the blissful realm of ideas. My work is with those astral beings who are preparing to enter the causal world.” “Adorable Master, please tell me more about the astral cosmos.” Though I had slightly relaxed my embrace at Sri Yukteswar’s request, my arms were still around him. Treasure beyond all treasures, my guru who had laughed at death to reach me! “There are many astral planets, teeming with astral beings,” Master began. “The inhabitants use astral planes, or masses of light, to travel from one planet to another, faster than electricity and radioactive energies. “The astral universe, made of various subtle vibrations of light and color, is hundreds of times larger than the material cosmos. The entire physical creation hangs like a little solid basket under the huge luminous balloon of the astral sphere. Just as many physical suns and stars roam in space, so there are also countless astral solar and stellar systems. Their planets have astral suns and moons, more beautiful than the physical ones. The astral luminaries resemble the aurora borealis—the sunny astral aurora being more dazzling than the mild-rayed moon-aurora. The astral day and night are longer than those of earth. “The astral world is infinitely beautiful, clean, pure, and orderly. There are no dead planets or barren lands. The terrestrial blemishes—weeds, bacteria, insects, snakes—are absent. Unlike the variable climates and seasons of the earth, the astral planets maintain the even temperature of an eternal spring, with occasional luminous white snow and rain of many-colored lights. Astral planets abound in opal lakes and bright seas and rainbow rivers. “The ordinary astral universe—not the subtler astral heaven of Hiranyaloka—is peopled with millions of astral beings who have come, more or less recently, from the earth, and also with myriads of fairies, mermaids, fishes, animals, goblins, gnomes, demigods and spirits, all residing on different astral planets in accordance with karmic qualifications. Various spheric mansions or vibratory regions are provided for good and evil spirits. Good ones can travel freely, but the evil spirits are confined to limited zones. In the same way that human beings live on the surface of the earth, worms inside the soil, fish in water, and birds in air, so astral beings of different grades are assigned to suitable vibratory quarters. “Among the fallen dark angels expelled from other worlds, friction and war take place with lifetronic bombs or mental mantric vibratory rays. These beings dwell in the gloom-drenched regions of the lower astral cosmos, working out their evil karma. “In the vast realms above the dark astral prison, all is shining and beautiful. The astral cosmos is more naturally attuned than the earth to the divine will and plan of perfection. Every astral object is manifested primarily by the will of God, and partially by the will-call of astral beings. They possess the power of modifying or enhancing the grace and form of anything already created by the Lord. He has given His astral children the freedom and privilege of changing or improving at will the astral cosmos. On earth a solid must be transformed into liquid or other form through natural or chemical processes, but astral solids are changed into astral liquids, gases, or energy solely and instantly by the will of the inhabitants. “The earth is dark with warfare and murder in the sea, land, and air,” my guru continued, “but the astral realms know a happy harmony and equality. Astral beings dematerialize or materialize their forms at will. Flowers or fish or animals can metamorphose themselves, for a time, into astral men. All astral beings are free to assume any form, and can easily commune together. No fixed, definite, natural law hems them round—any astral tree, for example, can be successfully asked to produce an astral mango or other desired fruit, flower, or indeed any other object. Certain karmic restrictions are present, but there are no distinctions in the astral world about desirability of various forms. Everything is vibrant with God’s creative light. “No one is born of woman; offspring are materialized by astral beings through the help of their cosmic will into specially patterned, astrally condensed forms. The recently physically disembodied being arrives in an astral family through invitation, drawn by similar mental and spiritual tendencies. “The astral body is not subject to cold or heat or other natural conditions. The anatomy includes an astral brain, or the thousand-petaled lotus of light, and six awakened centers in the sushumna, or astral cerebro-spinal axis. The heart draws cosmic energy as well as light from the astral brain, and pumps it to the astral nerves and body cells, or lifetrons. Astral beings can affect their bodies by lifetronic force or by mantric vibrations. “The astral body is an exact counterpart of the last physical form. Astral beings retain the same appearance which they possessed in youth in their previous earthly sojourn; occasionally an astral being chooses, like myself, to retain his old age appearance.” Master, emanating the very essence of youth, chuckled merrily. “Unlike the spacial, three-dimensional physical world cognized only by the five senses, the astral spheres are visible to the all-inclusive sixth sense—intuition,” Sri Yukteswar went on. “By sheer intuitional feeling, all astral beings see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. They possess three eyes, two of which are partly closed. The third and chief astral eye, vertically placed on the forehead, is open. Astral beings have all the outer sensory organs—ears, eyes, nose, tongue, and skin—but they employ the intuitional sense to experience sensations through any part of the body; they can see through the ear, or nose, or skin. They are able to hear through the eyes or tongue, and can taste through the ears or skin, and so forth. “Man’s physical body is exposed to countless dangers, and is easily hurt or maimed; the ethereal astral body may occasionally be cut or bruised but is healed at once by mere willing.” “Gurudeva, are all astral persons beautiful?” “Beauty in the astral world is known to be a spiritual quality, and not an outward conformation,” Sri Yukteswar replied. “Astral beings therefore attach little importance to facial features. They have the privilege, however, of costuming themselves at will with new, colorful, astrally materialized bodies. Just as worldly men don new array for gala events, so astral beings find occasions to bedeck themselves in specially designed forms. “Joyous astral festivities on the higher astral planets like Hiranyaloka take place when a being is liberated from the astral world through spiritual advancement, and is therefore ready to enter the heaven of the causal world. On such occasions the Invisible Heavenly Father, and the saints who are merged in Him, materialize Themselves into bodies of Their own choice and join the astral celebration. In order to please His beloved devotee, the Lord takes any desired form. If the devotee worshiped through devotion, he sees God as the Divine Mother. To Jesus, the Father-aspect of the Infinite One was appealing beyond other conceptions. The individuality with which the Creator has endowed each of His creatures makes every conceivable and inconceivable demand on the Lord’s versatility!” My guru and I laughed happily together. Swami Sri Yukteswar and Paramahansa Yogananda “Friends of other lives easily recognize one another in the astral world,” Sri Yukteswar went on in his beautiful, flutelike voice. “Rejoicing at the immortality of friendship, they realize the indestructibility of love, often doubted at the time of the sad, delusive partings of earthly life. “The intuition of astral beings pierces through the veil and observes human activities on earth, but man cannot view the astral world unless his sixth sense is somewhat developed. Thousands of earth-dwellers have momentarily glimpsed an astral being or an astral world. “The advanced beings on Hiranyaloka remain mostly awake in ecstasy during the long astral day and night, helping to work out intricate problems of cosmic government and the redemption of prodigal sons, earthbound souls. When the Hiranyaloka beings sleep, they have occasional dreamlike astral visions. Their minds are usually engrossed in the conscious state of highest nirbikalpa bliss. “Inhabitants in all parts of the astral worlds are still subject to mental agonies. The sensitive minds of the higher beings on planets like Hiranyaloka feel keen pain if any mistake is made in conduct or perception of truth. These advanced beings endeavor to attune their every act and thought with the perfection of spiritual law. “Communication among the astral inhabitants is held entirely by astral telepathy and television; there is none of the confusion and misunderstanding of the written and spoken word which earth-dwellers must endure. Just as persons on the cinema screen appear to move and act through a series of light pictures, and do not actually breathe, so the astral beings walk and work as intelligently guided and coordinated images of light, without the necessity of drawing power from oxygen. Man depends upon solids, liquids, gases, and energy for sustenance; astral beings sustain themselves principally by cosmic light.” “Master mine, do astral beings eat anything?” I was drinking in his marvelous elucidations with the receptivity of all my faculties—mind, heart, soul. Superconscious perceptions of truth are permanently real and changeless, while fleeting sense experiences and impressions are never more than temporarily or relatively true, and soon lose in memory all their vividness. My guru’s words were so penetratingly imprinted on the parchment of my being that at any time, by transferring my mind to the superconscious state, I can clearly relive the divine experience. “Luminous raylike vegetables abound in the astral soils,” he answered. “The astral beings consume vegetables, and drink a nectar flowing from glorious fountains of light and from astral brooks and rivers. Just as invisible images of persons on the earth can be dug out of the ether and made visible by a television apparatus, later being dismissed again into space, so the God-created, unseen astral blueprints of vegetables and plants floating in the ether are precipitated on an astral planet by the will of its inhabitants. In the same way, from the wildest fancy of these beings, whole gardens of fragrant flowers are materialized, returning later to the etheric invisibility. Although dwellers on the heavenly planets like Hiranyaloka are almost freed from any necessity of eating, still higher is the unconditioned existence of almost completely liberated souls in the causal world, who eat nothing save the manna of bliss. “The earth-liberated astral being meets a multitude of relatives, fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, and friends, acquired during different incarnations on earth, as they appear from time to time in various parts of the astral realms. He is therefore at a loss to understand whom to love especially; he learns in this way to give a divine and equal love to all, as children and individualized expressions of God. Though the outward appearance of loved ones may have changed, more or less according to the development of new qualities in the latest life of any particular soul, the astral being employs his unerring intuition to recognize all those once dear to him in other planes of existence, and to welcome them to their new astral home. Because every atom in creation is inextinguishably dowered with individuality, an astral friend will be recognized no matter what costume he may don, even as on earth an actor’s identity is discoverable by close observation despite any disguise. “The span of life in the astral world is much longer than on earth. A normal advanced astral being’s average life period is from five hundred to one thousand years, measured in accordance with earthly standards of time. As certain redwood trees outlive most trees by millenniums, or as some yogis live several hundred years though most men die before the age of sixty, so some astral beings live much longer than the usual span of astral existence. Visitors to the astral world dwell there for a longer or shorter period in accordance with the weight of their physical karma, which draws them back to earth within a specified time. “The astral being does not have to contend painfully with death at the time of shedding his luminous body. Many of these beings nevertheless feel slightly nervous at the thought of dropping their astral form for the subtler causal one. The astral world is free from unwilling death, disease, and old age. These three dreads are the curse of earth, where man has allowed his consciousness to identify itself almost wholly with a frail physical body requiring constant aid from air, food, and sleep in order to exist at all. “Physical death is attended by the disappearance of breath and the disintegration of fleshly cells. Astral death consists of the dispersement of lifetrons, those manifest units of energy which constitute the life of astral beings. At physical death a being loses his consciousness of flesh and becomes aware of his subtle body in the astral world. Experiencing astral death in due time, a being thus passes from the consciousness of astral birth and death to that of physical birth and death. These recurrent cycles of astral and physical encasement are the ineluctable destiny of all unenlightened beings. Scriptural definitions of heaven and hell sometimes stir man’s deeper-than-subconscious memories of his long series of experiences in the blithesome astral and disappointing terrestrial worlds.” “Beloved Master,” I asked, “will you please describe more in detail the difference between rebirth on the earth and in the astral and causal spheres?” “Man as an individualized soul is essentially causal-bodied,” my guru explained. “That body is a matrix of the thirty-five ideas required by God as the basic or causal thought forces from which He later formed the subtle astral body of nineteen elements and the gross physical body of sixteen elements. “The nineteen elements of the astral body are mental, emotional, and lifetronic. The nineteen components are intelligence; ego; feeling; mind (sense-consciousness); five instruments of knowledge, the subtle counterparts of the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch; five instruments of action, the mental correspondence for the executive abilities to procreate, excrete, talk, walk, and exercise manual skill; and five instruments of life force, those empowered to perform the crystallizing, assimilating, eliminating, metabolizing, and circulating functions of the body. This subtle astral encasement of nineteen elements survives the death of the physical body, which is made of sixteen gross metallic and nonmetallic elements. Paramahansa Yogananda, standing, speaks to a full house at the downtown Minneapolis Radisson Hotel in the fall of 1927 “God thought out different ideas within Himself and projected them into dreams. Lady Cosmic Dream thus sprang out decorated in all her colossal endless ornaments of relativity. “In thirty-five thought categories of the causal body, God elaborated all the complexities of man’s nineteen astral and sixteen physical counterparts. By condensation of vibratory forces, first subtle, then gross, He produced man’s astral body and finally his physical form. According to the law of relativity, by which the Prime Simplicity has become the bewildering manifold, the causal cosmos and causal body are different from the astral cosmos and astral body; the physical cosmos and physical body are likewise characteristically at variance with the other forms of creation. “The fleshly body is made of the fixed, objectified dreams of the Creator. The dualities are ever-present on earth: disease and health, pain and pleasure, loss and gain. Human beings find limitation and resistance in three-dimensional matter. When man’s desire to live is severely shaken by disease or other causes, death arrives; the heavy overcoat of the flesh is temporarily shed. The soul, however, remains encased in the astral and causal bodies. The adhesive force by which all three bodies are held together is desire. The power of unfulfilled desires is the root of all man’s slavery. “Physical desires are rooted in egotism and sense pleasures. The compulsion or temptation of sensory experience is more powerful than the desire-force connected with astral attachments or causal perceptions. “Astral desires center around enjoyment in terms of vibration. Astral beings enjoy the ethereal music of the spheres and are entranced by the sight of all creation as exhaustless expressions of changing light. The astral beings also smell, taste, and touch light. Astral desires are thus connected with an astral being’s power to precipitate all objects and experiences as forms of light or as condensed thoughts or dreams. “Causal desires are fulfilled by perception only. The nearly-free beings who are encased only in the causal body see the whole universe as realizations of the dream-ideas of God; they can materialize anything and everything in sheer thought. Causal beings therefore consider the enjoyment of physical sensations or astral delights as gross and suffocating to the soul’s fine sensibilities. Causal beings work out their desires by materializing them instantly. Those who find themselves covered only by the delicate veil of the causal body can bring universes into manifestation even as the Creator. Because all creation is made of the cosmic dream-texture, the soul thinly clothed in the causal has vast realizations of power. “A soul, being invisible by nature, can be distinguished only by the presence of its body or bodies. The mere presence of a body signifies that its existence is made possible by unfulfilled desires. “So long as the soul of man is encased in one, two, or three body-containers, sealed tightly with the corks of ignorance and desires, he cannot merge with the sea of Spirit. When the gross physical receptacle is destroyed by the hammer of death, the other two coverings—astral and causal—still remain to prevent the soul from consciously joining the Omnipresent Life. When desirelessness is attained through wisdom, its power disintegrates the two remaining vessels. The tiny human soul emerges, free at last; it is one with the Measureless Amplitude.” I asked my divine guru to shed further light on the high and mysterious causal world. “The causal world is indescribably subtle,” he replied. “In order to understand it, one would have to possess such tremendous powers of concentration that he could close his eyes and visualize the astral cosmos and the physical cosmos in all their vastness—the luminous balloon with the solid basket—as existing in ideas only. If by this superhuman concentration one succeeded in converting or resolving the two cosmoses with all their complexities into sheer ideas, he would then reach the causal world and stand on the borderline of fusion between mind and matter. There one perceives all created things—solids, liquids, gases, electricity, energy, all beings, gods, men, animals, plants, bacteria—as forms of consciousness, just as a man can close his eyes and realize that he exists, even though his body is invisible to his physical eyes and is present only as an idea. “Whatever a human being can do in fancy, a causal being can do in reality. The most colossal imaginative human intelligence is able, in mind only, to range from one extreme of thought to another, to skip mentally from planet to planet, or tumble endlessly down a pit of eternity, or soar rocketlike into the galaxied canopy, or scintillate like a searchlight over milky ways and the starry spaces. But beings in the causal world have a much greater freedom, and can effortlessly manifest their thoughts into instant objectivity, without any material or astral obstruction or karmic limitation. “Causal beings realize that the physical cosmos is not primarily constructed of electrons, nor is the astral cosmos basically composed of lifetrons—both in reality are created from the minutest particles of God-thought, chopped and divided by maya, the law of relativity which intervenes to apparently separate the Noumenon from His phenomena. “Souls in the causal world recognize one another as individualized points of joyous Spirit; their thought-things are the only objects which surround them. Causal beings see the difference between their bodies and thoughts to be merely ideas. As a man, closing his eyes, can visualize a dazzling white light or a faint blue haze, so causal beings by thought alone are able to see, hear, feel, taste, and touch; they create anything, or dissolve it, by the power of cosmic mind. “Both death and rebirth in the causal world are in thought. Causal-bodied beings feast only on the ambrosia of eternally new knowledge. They drink from the springs of peace, roam on the trackless soil of perceptions, swim in the ocean-endlessness of bliss. Lo! see their bright thought-bodies zoom past trillions of Spirit-created planets, fresh bubbles of universes, wisdom-stars, spectral dreams of golden nebulae, all over the skiey blue bosom of Infinity! “Many beings remain for thousands of years in the causal cosmos. By deeper ecstasies the freed soul then withdraws itself from the little causal body and puts on the vastness of the causal cosmos. All the separate eddies of ideas, particularized waves of power, love, will, joy, peace, intuition, calmness, self-control, and concentration melt into the ever-joyous Sea of Bliss. No longer does the soul have to experience its joy as an individualized wave of consciousness, but is merged in the One Cosmic Ocean, with all its waves—eternal laughter, thrills, throbs. “When a soul is out of the cocoon of the three bodies it escapes forever from the law of relativity and becomes the ineffable Ever-Existent. Behold the butterfly of Omnipresence, its wings etched with stars and moons and suns! The soul expanded into Spirit remains alone in the region of lightless light, darkless dark, thoughtless thought, intoxicated with its ecstasy of joy in God’s dream of cosmic creation.” This well-known photo, called "The Last Smile," was taken hours before Yogananda's passing on March 7, 1952 “A free soul!” I ejaculated in awe. “When a soul finally gets out of the three jars of bodily delusions,” Master continued, “it becomes one with the Infinite without any loss of individuality. Christ had won this final freedom even before he was born as Jesus. In three stages of his past, symbolized in his earth-life as the three days of his experience of death and resurrection, he had attained the power to fully arise in Spirit. “The undeveloped man must undergo countless earthly and astral and causal incarnations in order to emerge from his three bodies. A master who achieves this final freedom may elect to return to earth as a prophet to bring other human beings back to God, or like myself he may choose to reside in the astral cosmos. There a savior assumes some of the burden of the inhabitants’ karma and thus helps them to terminate their cycle of reincarnation in the astral cosmos and go on permanently to the causal spheres. Or a freed soul may enter the causal world to aid its beings to shorten their span in the causal body and thus attain the Absolute Freedom.” “Resurrected One, I want to know more about the karma which forces souls to return to the three worlds.” I could listen forever, I thought, to my omniscient Master. Never in his earth-life had I been able at one time to assimilate so much of his wisdom. Now for the first time I was receiving a clear, definite insight into the enigmatic interspaces on the checkerboard of life and death. “The physical karma or desires of man must be completely worked out before his permanent stay in astral worlds becomes possible,” my guru elucidated in his thrilling voice. “Two kinds of beings live in the astral spheres. Those who still have earthly karma to dispose of and who must therefore reinhabit a gross physical body in order to pay their karmic debts could be classified, after physical death, as temporary visitors to the astral world rather than as permanent residents. “Beings with unredeemed earthly karma are not permitted after astral death to go to the high causal sphere of cosmic ideas, but must shuttle to and fro from the physical and astral worlds only, conscious successively of their physical body of sixteen gross elements, and of their astral body of nineteen subtle elements. After each loss of his physical body, however, an undeveloped being from the earth remains for the most part in the deep stupor of the death-sleep and is hardly conscious of the beautiful astral sphere. After the astral rest, such a man returns to the material plane for further lessons, gradually accustoming himself, through repeated journeys, to the worlds of subtle astral texture. “Normal or long-established residents of the astral universe, on the other hand, are those who, freed forever from all material longings, need return no more to the gross vibrations of earth. Such beings have only astral and causal karma to work out. At astral death these beings pass to the infinitely finer and more delicate causal world. Shedding the thought-form of the causal body at the end of a certain span, determined by cosmic law, these advanced beings then return to Hiranyaloka or a similar high astral planet, reborn in a new astral body to work out their unredeemed astral karma. “My son, you may now comprehend more fully that I am resurrected by divine decree,” Sri Yukteswar continued, “as a savior of astrally reincarnating souls coming back from the causal sphere, in particular, rather than of those astral beings who are coming up from the earth. Those from the earth, if they still retain vestiges of material karma, do not rise to the very high astral planets like Hiranyaloka. “Just as most people on earth have not learned through meditation-acquired vision to appreciate the superior joys and advantages of astral life and thus, after death, desire to return to the limited, imperfect pleasures of earth, so many astral beings, during the normal disintegration of their astral bodies, fail to picture the advanced state of spiritual joy in the causal world and, dwelling on thoughts of the more gross and gaudy astral happiness, yearn to revisit the astral paradise. Heavy astral karma must be redeemed by such beings before they can achieve after astral death a permanent stay in the causal thought-world, so thinly partitioned from the Creator. “Only when a being has no further desires for experiences in the pleasing-to-the-eye astral cosmos, and cannot be tempted to go back there, does he remain in the causal world. Completing there the work of redeeming all causal karma or seeds of past desires, the confined soul thrusts out the last of the three corks of ignorance and, emerging from the final jar of the causal body, commingles with the Eternal. “Now do you understand?” Master smiled so enchantingly! “Yes, through your grace. I am speechless with joy and gratitude.” Never from song or story had I ever received such inspiring knowledge. Though the Hindu scriptures refer to the causal and astral worlds and to man’s three bodies, how remote and meaningless those pages compared with the warm authenticity of my resurrected Master! For him indeed existed not a single “undiscover’d country from whose bourn no traveller returns”!