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http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/suicide-rate-by-country/ Suicide rates are higher in more ”privileged” countries.

@winterknight i have communicated with you several times in this thread, mostly with asking questions. Now i feel like i want to share some of my backgrounds with you. I had my last profound experience in 2016 december/ 2017 january. I havent had that much meditation experience before, i wasn't even familiar with the word self inquiry. Before that, i was suffering greatly for several months. It felt like i am finished, i have no reason to live in this world, i felt i should suicide and there is no way out from this misery. I was like a complete hell. I didn't know where i was going in my journey of life. Until something happened.... One day, something inside of me said to me to STOP. And suddenly i stopped. I noficed my thought is happening, and i am just beginning to watch it like a observer. It was like a movie. I realized my thoughts were not me. I felt like something very big fell upon me. It was shocking. Then i felt something inside me guiding me to take a tour with him/her/entity. I gone along with it, and it showed me really very profound things, things that i couldn't even believe! One might ask what was those, but really, i felt like i can not describe those in words, they are so profound and complex. I saw my suffering and that entity showed me those were not even existed in the first place! Then it showed me how i created those sufferings! Watching that, i became really very sad, depressed. It showed me that i am a creator and how i create, things! This period went for several days and those were so profound that i even regreted that why would i have to take food and bath because it felt like waste of time. I was eager to see those things. It finally showed me that i do not exist. It showed me happiness, sadness, depression, sexuality, guilt, shame, sweetness and many things. I felt like its just a layer and there is more to see more to dive deeper. After some days it went away. But i wasnt the same me i was before. I felt that i died. Literally died. After some days of sadness, i became surprisingly happy. I felt joy in my heart. I felt fresh, even the joy was so great that one night i literally was jumping in a street with no reason. And it was giving me tremendous happiness. I thought this feeling will be always there for me. But i was wrong. Now i want to hear from you. What do you think? What was that? What happened to me? Was it some sort of enlightenment? N.B - at that time as i remember now is that i didnt even know the word enlightenment and what it is.

hi my name is amirali and im an 19 year old college student from iran . this is my first post and im excited to be a part of this community. before i ask my questions i want to add that i will use the word "self" instead of "ego" . in my opinion the world ego can be a bit misleading because in my case amirali is the ego and not a separate entity and i did not notice this till recently . now lets get to questions : 1: enlightenment means dissolving or killing the self , how fully enlightened beings or someone with no sense of self can even function (walk,talk,socialize,...) as a human being? or they describe enlightenment as being joyful or stronger than any drug highs, how can I experience joy when there is no me?! 2: after my recent trip i realized that by doing consciousness work im actually killing myself ! how can killing the self or in other words dissolving the ego slowly but surely benefiet the self ?! even so why not just suicide? for the first question i've got some idea's . by killing the self you become formless so you can take many forms . im not so sure about that and would like to hear your opinions too. I'd appreciate you sharing your answer and forgive me for any grammatical mistakes

thank you great people for attending i know that ego is not physical but still suicide and shedding the ego are somehow similar because they both get ride of the concept and dont worry i wont suicide because im scared of losing my identity just like how people get scared during trips or after years of meditation but i think that people should stop demonizing things and that suicide is worth thinking about. maybe thats the fastest way to truth and how can reality , something thats infinite (at least people say so) be joy? something so simple . that does not seem right to me and in my opinion you cant be loving in that sense because still there is some selfishness in it and in best case scenario's you are doing loving things so your ego can feel good about itself and true love can be achieved only by shedding the ego really cool insights my friend but you see in my opinion I am the small self.everything i identify with : my parents , my body , things that happened to me. the small self is these projections(amirali). and i know that there is something beyond but still getting over who you are and what you identify with is really hard at least for me actually this is what i got to during my contemplation and trips but the thing is i havent seen beyond the persona but i know that i am the persona and I started these techniques and consciousness works to make a better persona . seems like ive been wrong this whole time and its better to kill or defrag the persona i couldnt agree more but you see "i am the illusion" . you have to agree mate that its a hard pill to swallow .and you know whats even harder? that by doing meditation , psychedelics , ... i am getting rid of the illusion = i am getting rid of myself. thank you all for your great insights . maybe im just making a big deal out of it

There is nothing to be dissolved or killed. There is no being. There is no experience. There is no self to be benefited and nobody to commit suicide. Ideas are fooling a person that is merely an idea.

Welcome! 1. You're already doing it. You have the wrong idea of ego/self - It's conceptual, not physical. The 'death of physical' is the end of the falsity that there was ever such a thing as physical. Joy is. Concerns over physical, death, self doubt, worry, fear, lack - these 'cover' or veil reality / the joy - and keep your mind thinking, when you could be loving. 2. Someone confused you with 'physical death', understandably, you have equated it to suicide. Don't do that. You won't experience formlessness in the sense you understand it now. Your perspective of what you are, and what the world is will change. For the better.

This whole accusation that well known people are responsible for the negative consequences/outcomes of a tragic event among someone is so common and over-rated, it has been happening far too long. People seem to forget about freewill and free choice and how when you make a decision to do something, you're consciously making that decision, so therefore no one else is responsible for your actions except yourself. Have you ever heard of the Ozzy Osbourne story where these two teenage boys dropped acid and listened to the song "Suicide Solution" and it allegedly motivated them to take their own lives during their trip? Ironically, the song was written about the dangers of drugs & alcohol. But of course the media blamed the creators of the song saying, "The song caused this tragic incident." What they didn't put into consideration was the initial mindsets of these kids. That they were simply juvenile, uneducated and vulnerable to the drug, not anywhere near ready to explore it. For example, if they were anywhere remotely ready, they would have at least had the knowledge & awareness to ask themselves if it would have been the proper song to hear during their experience. I mean just by the title alone, it seems rather misleading, and one should be able to draw that conclusion. Like if I was them perhaps I'd have chosen "Mr. Crowley" over "Suicide Solution", if any. It wasn't the song's fault, it was poor choice in music at the wrong time. But they simply didn't realize that this drug can create direct parallel channels & links to circumstances in which one may or may not take into literal account. In which something can feel highly relative to someone and be considered an all encompassing "solution" or "answer" to them in that moment. I wouldn't blame them though because they simply didn't know any better, neither do I blame the song or the psychedelic but only the entirety of circumstances behind the story. This is one reason, however, why I wouldn't normally recommend music to starter trippers. Because I understand the deep emotional & psychological affects music can have on the brain when you're sober, let alone tripping balls. I mean look at how much denigration and demonetization there was towards Rock n' Roll when it first started to blossom and reach its revolutionary summit because of course, most of its origins were heavily influenced and derived from The Occult so it must've been "evil" and "dangerous" and called "Devil's music." It's purely a lack of reading.

English is not my first language. Read only the bold text for a general idea. Fact/Force No 1: Self Actualization feels like the one true thing, the path to follow, the source of meaning and value to oneself and to all existence. It is the highest Maslow need and, as highly developed individuals, we feel attracted to pursue it Fact/Force No 2: Self actualization is threatening to the ego and constantly attacks it, since you can think and experiment the fact that the ego is a blatant illusion and it is somehow funny how we keep doing it even though its clearly ridiculous. The ego is extremely potent after all these years of conditioning and is capable of producing really horrible sensations and feelings that you are about to lose your mind/suicide, and in losing your mind you will never be able to self actualize any further. Therefore, there is an opposing force to self actualization work. Situation: Right now, I'm in a sensitive moment, living in another city, doing hard work, far from my friends and family, with not much comfort/money (it is temporary and I will be back in my city in one week, so it's not like I need to stop and go back to work on the previous levels of Maslow's needs, because I honestly got all that working already). Still, I kept a high load of self-development work, taking advantage of this new moment that I'm living, and therefore force No 2 is starting to get way too intense. The discussion: What should a self-actualizing individual do in this moment? Actively decide to numb down the SA work for a week or two and then resume it? Keep hammering it because the ego suffering is actually good to shatter the illusion even though it feels really bad? Is there a strategy/system to manage the balance between the two forces? I need some light from this brilliant community. Thanks for the insights =)

In the book truth vs falsehood (on leo's book list also a must read in my opinion) david hawkins talks about using muscle testing to determine truth from falsehood, you can also than pinpoint where on the universal scale of consciousness ( A scale from 1 to 1000 with the highest 10000 being enlightened avatars like the buddah, jesus christ etc, the lowest being around 10 the level of severe depression commonly followed by suicide) a person's energy is. I thought it would be interesting, to test a bunch of spiritual teachers on this scale. Anything below 200 is considered ultimately destructive (means your worse of being exposed to them to varying degrees) anything above 200 is seen as supportive of life and beneficial to all. Using testing around 70-80% of the worlds population is seen to be below 200 so it is uncommon to be over this. - Leo gura: Leo calibrated at 310 this is the level of willingness the life view is hopeful and god view is inspiring. This is a very good level for a teacher to be at it means they have overcome inner resistance and are willing to participate in life. This means actualized.org is a positive force on it's audience and generally beneficial to all who use it. -Byron Katie: calibrates at 565 the level of unconditional love, at this level love and compassion, people at this level feel near constant joy and the world is seen as an expression of love and divinity. This is the level to aspire to in a lifetime. Another interesting thing to note is the amount of people who drop down into pride ( around 180 level feeling of superiority over others) after making spiritual advances it's easy to think of yourself as special given the feedback from the outside world, which is a huge cause of a drop in consciousness for people, back to the level of pride. Below is a list of teachers with a note able drop. -Deepak Chopra - Deepak calibrates at 185 the level of pride. At this level it generally feels good and is socially encouraged, but people at pride are still vulnerable because a change in external conditions can drop them down to fear anger etc. Because of the calibration below 200 they are seen as someone to avoid. - Eckhart tolle- Eckhart calibrates at 265 the level of neutrality. At this level life view is generally neutral, a feeling of whatever happens ill be fine. The interesting thing is eckhart has dropped from 510 at the level of unconditional love, to 265. May possibly be attributed to the constant media presence/fame around him?

@Shan I haven't reduced my very high anxiety to anything close to the ideal level but I feel it improving now. In the past I've had panic attacks where I hyperventilate for 30 mins straight and have had a few times where I frantically search the Internet on methods for suicide. The best thing I think you can do is mindful suffering. Suffering which is done mindfully is best done when you're meditating or something. Being mindful of suffering in your day to day life is hard unless you're consciousness is already high enough to try to be. Yesterday I was meditating for 1hr for example, and I was trying to maintain most of my posture. In my mine came up these thoughts "I want to escape I want to escape I want to escape I want to escape.... It hurts It hurts It hurts.." but through meditation you force both your conscious and subconscious mind to react differently to pain. There were times yesterday when my conscious mind was trying to be okay and accepting the pain, realising that a sensation in your consciousness is neither inherently good or bad. But despite this my subconscious mind was in overdrive, providing so much resistance. But throughout the session my resistance was dissolving as mindfulness increased. Meditation when done right is good for general happiness and anxiety. You're confronting your bodies fight or flight response "I want to escape I want to escape I want to escape" and are dissolving it. Your anxiety will also start to fade as you pay attention deeply to what this "I" that wants to escape is. The way I see it, you can conceptualise anxiety as an over the top reaction to some "negative" circumstance. And you want to rewire those reactions.

I know “I’m only 23” but right now it feels like all the shit in my life is just hitting the fan and I just feel so absolutely demoralized about my future and like I’m not prepared enough internally/psychologically to turn things around. Still living at home with no real friends at this point at a dead end part time job with no support system at all but more importantly, no solid internal development, I just found out yesterday from my car insurance company raised my rates again for an accident that involved me getting t-boned from a guy blowing a stop sign and because the guy didn’t pick up the phone after I filed the claim on him to accept liability they actually dropped the claim, stopped pursuing him, and aren’t going to coverage about $5000 minimum if I’m lucky worth of damages. It just feels like my life is just in this melting pot and culmination mode of endless misery and hopelessness that’s destined for me and all the mistakes I’ve ever made are coming to haunt me and will to me being just another average person that accomplishes nothing. Where there’s no background of sense of self-acceptance, self-esteem, how I was never good enough to my parents and how they coddled me with giving me all the wrong forms of help when I was younger and how stupid I was bullshitting around. I struggle to be concrete on my life purpose through the course after taking it 3+ times because it’s so emotionally hard when you have so much fear about how you can’t subsist which leads to being motivated from this place of aggression and anger which is really more of a reaction from this deep sense of hurt. I just don’t know how I can get myself out of this. I grew up in a emotionally and psychologically unstable family where screaming and yelling and suicide threats by my mom and yelling about money was the norm at my house, I struggled in high school from ADHD and from struggling socially and emotionally from the toxic parenting I got at home so I didn’t get to even get to taste some sort of freedom in what would’ve been “the college experience”. I have a terrible relationship with the family I live with now (my Dad) because I’m treated like I just my mentally unstable mom and how I’m some loser that needs to work 80 hours a week. I have no friends to move out with or anything. I feel resistance to just apply for a job here in San Francisco, because 1. I can’t afford to live here, 2. I hate living here in this claustrophobic neurotic human zoo, 3. Working these jobs, I’m sometimes in the bathroom just in tears because I’m faced with ‘this all I can fucking do and I don’t know what I actually can do.’ Every time I get another job like this (some low end job) I just get used to it and numb to it until I stop being numb to it and then I sabotage it by coming in late in stuff because deep down I’m reacting to how much I resent and despise hate with a very visceral hate how much I’m wasting my life in yet I keep getting caught in this catch 22. It feels like yes, life is a maze, this thing is fucking rigged against me to lose and go for fucking cheese, I don’t want cheese, I know the goal, but I’m not good enough in the achieve that goal and I can’t just ask 99.9999999% of people for help on this issue because they want cheese and I don’t want cheese. In yet, I’m not good enough nor prepared to get out of here.

This is related to Leo's blog post on Understanding Psychosis- https://www.actualized.org/insights/understanding-psychosis I had 3 psychotic episodes. I am mentally ill. It started after I started doing meditation. The first episode was after 3 months of 20 minutes of meditation daily. The second episode was after 5 months of the first episode. The third episode was 5 months after the third episode. I had no hallucinations but I was misinterpreting things radically. I thought everybody wanted to kill me. ( Maybe thats because I have a history of being bullied in childhood.) In the first episode I was thinking that God wanted to kill me for all my sins. And I felt a constant terror in my body to the point that I couldn't sleep even holding my parents' hands. I was taken to a psychic who helped me. In the second episode I thought that I was trasported to an alternate reality(I was wrong), I jumped in to a pond to commit suicide, I was unable to sleep for over a week, and I felt like my higher self was being expressed through me. I was taken to the psychiatric hospital but they did not medicate me thinking that I was just pretending because I was in the higher self mode. In the third episode I could not sleep(insomnia which may be caused by my 20 minutes of meditation), I again felt like my higher self was being expressed through me. This time too I was taken to a psychiatric hospital and they medicated me and diagnosed me BPAD with Psychosis and gave me medication. But now whenever I try to meditate now I am unable to do it. I also feel depressed most of the times inspite of 3 anti-psychotics and 2 anti-depressants. I feel headache on the top of my head. Life feels hopeless. As Leo said- "Doctors will often just think of you as crazy and load you up on drugs, making the situation much worse.", Doctors infact think me as crazy and have loaded me up with medicines. When I suggested to the psychologist that they need to fix the root problem which is my childhood trauma of being bullied ,they said I am just depressed and I need to do more activities to overcome my depression. I mean they give no importance to emotional healing. I feel lost when I can't even rely on the professionals. please give your opinions and advice. Thank you!!

@Leo Gura Great response from Leo. Although I don't know if easing off the medication is the right approach as they could literally save your life (stop suicide). But I'm in 2 minds with this. @Anirban657 I'm sorry to hear this ♥️ I also believe that your condition is due to repressed trauma. I've recently started seeing a private therapist who offers the humanistic approach to therapy and so far it's amazing. I highly recommend. I pay for it, it's worth every penny. Could you have a scan online? Also (as much as possible)... * Eat healthily * Exercise regularly * Be out in nature regularly * Try and sleep well if you can (a good routine) Sending you so much love ♥️

Yeah you're right. Sometimes I have some "normal" moments, but it's very rare. I usually think it's an awakening, when in fact it's just simple lack of anxiety, or normal state of being. I didn't have time to read your book recommendation, but I skipped through the pages and I got the essence. I tried the method where you ask your body "yes" or "no", it said I have no problems and trapped emotions. Then I asked about the Heart Wall and it said yes. It's not a hidden Heart Wall though, so I think my subconscious is ready to let go of some things? I asked if it's ready then it would say no then yes and no and yes again. And so forth. What does that mean? I think it goes like this: I show too much love, even if it's just friendly admiration and respect towards him. I'm a very passionate being so I might go over the top. He has some wounds, perceives it as me being dependent on him. I sense his anger, I have some wounds regarding males being angry so I try to overcompensate, thus being even more pushy and suffocating, but this time also fearful and maybe desperate for forgiveness and an answer. He gets distant, doesn't want to talk. Says he only talks when it's necessary and that he has nothing to say. It goes like this for a few days, he's getting more nervous, I get more anxious, the pressure between us grows. I keep pursuing him and asking what's wrong. He says nothing, he's hard to contact via social media and all, responds in 2 word sentences, usually in an irritated tone. He doesn't want to hurt me because he cares for me, but his fear of commitment (even for a loyal friendship, not necessarily relationship) eats him inside - notice the inner conflict between his love for me and his desire for freedom. Then that is a period when he tends to forget the real me, and sees me as desperate and kinda retarded. The tension in me grows, I get angry, I break off all ties and stop talking to him. But after a few hours I talk to him again to calm him down that everything is ok and I need space (again, some deep unconscious fear of losing people if they commit suicide because of me - source of fear yet unknown, but maybe the emotional abuse of a masochistic relative in childhood). I make sure he will be safe, even though I know he's probably ok. I tell him to give me space, to leave me alone for a few months but I tell him that he can write if he has important problems that I can help with. Then I'm calm but sad, feel some grief, especially in my lungs and I breathe very badly for a few days, very bad chest pain. Then everything in my life goes well, I'm happy. Then after some time I miss him and I wonder if he misses me too. I get depressed. Then he writes to me because he was feeling the same grief. We return to each other, have fun, feel good, share experiences of things that happened when we both were away, feel strong connection and he shows tons of love and admiration for me. Then cycle repeats. It has repeated like 10 times now, and I've only known him for about 3 years. That's some things based on my observation. It was really liberating to see things from perspective and write it down like this. It's true. Thanks. Yeah you're right. I do think Shin is amazingly helpful, but things are far more complicated than that. I just didn't share more info about my friendship because I didn't want to argue and complicate. But notice the dynamic I illustrated for Mu. It's written in a very objective manner. You cannot say one friend is bad or another is good. It just sort of happens out of fears, wounds, bad habits, complex dynamics, pressures. Strangely enough, even the most toxic people can have very good caring hearts. That's why it's hard to let go of him. I think the ultimate solution is to detach from the situation, even if it keeps happening in the background. I think of it as admiring a person from distance. The simple feeling of it is blissful. Especially cause Shin and others didn't consider one thing: that the love between me and my friend isn't necessarily egoic stage orange trading system type of love, but a holistic love that takes on many forms. One based on being. None of us is attached to "owning" or "keeping" the other person. It's almost like an very unhealthy manifestation of turquoise love, while the two persons involved are stuck in orange-green mentality and lifestyle because of the circumstances (society expectations) and ego-desires. Or maybe there's no circumstance yet to express it? But it's there. There can be any label on our relation to each other, yet we feel and express the same things. We were both trying to describe to each other the feelings we hold for the other many times, but it's really hard to explain. It's like the other person is the most fragile and important thing for one person, yet no one has the intention to keep the other person caged. We've been trying to find all kinds of solutions to express these strange emotions in the safest environment possible, so we tried dating (it seemed like being loyal would provide safety), then dating seemed very orange and possessive so we moved to friendship, but friendship is a label that doesn't let the people involved explore the possibilities of love-expression fully, so we detached completely from each other, but what do we do with other people and society? What do we tell them? People demand a label for everything. I'm wondering it anyone will ever "get" what I'm meaning above. This seems like the only community that would understand, yet I don't expect much, especially because my way of describing things isn't the clearest thing in the universe. sorryy. But I'm curious if anyone will truly get it. Also if there's an explanation of how two seemingly unconscious humans developed high consciousness emotions next to each other. That's the weirdest. (p.s.: this doesn't mean the relationship dynamic is healthy nor that I'm defending it in any way. + high conscious emotions are present in higher percentages in the friendship when other needs are met - like Maslow's hierarchy - so I didn't contradict myself anywhere on the thread)

I had a similar thought. Mine is that if you want to become enlightened, there is a way more efficient way to make that happen than years of meditation. To be concrete: suicide. So, if someone wants to be enlightened to end suffering; you can end suffering right now by killing the ego. If someone wants to be enlightened to find truth; you can kill what's preventing you from finding truth by killing the ego. Leo often says that the point of life is to awake; to die before death. I never understood why he believes that. Seems inconsistent. If you want to awake to the absolute truth, there are way more efficient ways than meditation or psychedelics. I get why one would want to become enlightened, but claiming that survival of the body while absence of ego is the number one priority of life does not make sense to me. At least I haven't heard or experienced anything convincing to back up that claim. Long story short; if enlightenment is the most important thing for you, there is nothing preventing you from killing your ego permanently at any moment. And as you say; enlightenment will happen one day anyway. There seems no reason to awake before you die, other than that it is something you want to do. Me: Not an expert on nonduality and never had an experience I would count as such. Just someone who tries to make sense of what he hears.

I feel like the stuff that happens to me keeps me from awakening. It's hard on my self esteem and I'm trying to fix my ego for a decade now because I know its necessary to go further in awakening. But for some reason unfortunate coincidences keep piling up and up and its just takes away all my energy. Sometimes I feel like my life is engineered perfectly to drive me slowly into suicide.

The Deep Problem Of Marketing Society and culture is very resistant to new ideas Modern society is very materialistic It's not just about providing evidence Marketing is no just about sales, marketing is about influence and eye balls, it's exposing millions of people with certain paradigms, assumptions and ideas and then those ideas become reality, they define what reality is, reality is not just something you find out there, it's something you construct - marketing, society , culture, business are constructing it So the question is what type of ideas are most people exposed to. Status quo is always interested in maintaining it's power and will fight for it It's a construction of beliefs, concepts... and most people will not think of it like it's just a story, they will think it's reality This current reality is mostly constructed by science, academia and business Business is only concerned about maximizing profits, it doesn't care about truth and consciousness Marketing is important anywhere where your trying to get a consensus, for people to agree on anything Those who have control and power, they control access to eyeballs Education is a big propaganda, and after you go trough it, you are indocrinated in a certain box, paradigm and anything that then goes against it you will think of it as insane, non-mainstream stuff People in power want their ideology being spread trough education "I will exert my power to push my self-agenda trough" - this is what ego all about, ego is power hungry.. why? ... because it is no conscious, if it were conscious it would surrender all desire for power, but it doesn't know any better, so it's life is all about acquiring more and more power and than using that power to satisfy and fulfill shallow ego gratifications like buying stuff, taking vacations Notice that nothing high consciousness is ever advertised on TV, or taught in schools Modern marketing is selfish, it's all about maximizing sales (every little word is tweaked to push all your emotional buttons) Marketing is any way to influence any body and getting eye balls and then you can use those eye balls to earn money, to pitch a religion or you can use it to enlighten people.. you can use it for good or evil Word of mouth is another way of marketing Notice that nobody is talking about real solutions to mankind problems What modern marketing is pitching you is fake solutions to very real problems and those solutions are designed not to work so that you can come back and get more (example: pharma that sells you "medicines" that dont' cure anything, jsut so that they can sell you more medicines) 44 min - marketing is directly responsible for causing obesity, disease, mindless consumerism, mind numbing entertainment, dogma, tribalism, misinformation, war, laziness, anti-mastery mindset, suicide, anger, depression, ignorance cancer, every form of addiction known to mankind, materialist paradigm,the growing gap between the higher and lower class, pollution and poison Materialist paradigm is gross by it's very nature, it doesn't recognize anything subtle (creativity, consciousness, beauty, truth, love)... it recognize only the most base forms of human desire (need for sex, need of greasy food, easy stimulation, shortcuts and quick solutions and get rich quick schemes). Modern marketing sets the bar so low that when you hear the truth, the truth sounds like insanity... because you are always judging anything you are hearing by what you heard before, and what you have heard before is what you have heard from every single marketing channel that is popular ... so you are always judging truth against untruth and there is always a giant mountain of untruth with a little tiny grand of truth, so that giant mountain easily outweighs the little tiny grand of truth if you are not vigilant about it (and in a sense this is how it should be because society must evolve trough the spiral dynamics stages. What can be marketed is very much limited by the audiences paradigm, it's very much limited by the limits of human language and by what can be communicated, if a thing cannot be communicated, it's hard to market it. It's also limited by the predominant needs and desires of the population, so it creates this kind of vicious circle where unconscious people will only buy things that are unconsciously marketed to them but then because companies have to carter to that and market unconscious things that makes the people even more unconscious and then those unconscious people are themselves the ones who are running the marketing companies . Even if you think you are not doing marketing, you are doing it by working for a company , so you need to look at what marketing is your business doing. If you are working for Mcdonalds look at what kind of marketing it is doing. Most people are like zombies, cogs in the machine who are contributing to the marketing of Mcdonalds and then what that is ultimately doing is poisoning human beings It's not easy to find conscious work, most work is unconscious. To break out of that unconscious cycle it take vision, ambition, higher consciousness values, takes a lot of work to work towards those , takes work to move trough the spiral dynamics stages Here's what we can do: you can take control of your own life, you can stop using society as the gold standard against which you judge other paradigms and other ideas , you can stop assuming that society will deliver truth and health to you, you can stop sucking on societies tits and take ownership over the kind of media that you consume, over the kind of businesses that you shop with and the kind of companies that you are willing to work for and kind of marketing that you are willing to do and willing to support, that's within your power and that's exactly what a conscious person will need to do. Most people don't exercise this power because, they haven't really thought about it, they are just ignorant about it. They are unconscious. High consciousness stuff is hard to market. It's much easier to create a business which sells poison than it is to create a business which actually elevates people. It's hard to convince people to buy good stuff. Are you gonna appeal to people most base and unhealthy needs and desires or are you gonna have a larger vision for the world? A lot of spiritual masters will never be famous because they don't write books and don't know how to market to the masses. You tend to take marketing that you are exposed to as the entire possibility space of what's out there, of what's possible and that is an enormous distortion of the truth. There is a whole world out there beyond mainstream marketing that most people have no clue about. 1h - Leo wants, that you on some point outgrow actualized.org. So, that you don't need that material for personal development and that you can get all the answers from within What would responsible marketing look like? marketing what elevates the user, taking the users agenda as your number 1 priority rather than money. Is the thing you are selling going to truly, honestly elevate the user? Is your product elevating the user? How can you improve your product so that you would be really proud of the fact that you are elevating your users consciousness? responsible marketing cares about improving peoples lives cares about marketing health and not disfunction. It doesn't want to addict people. It wants to offer permanent solutions to their problems. Key takeaways from this episode: Start to notice how marketing is unhealthy, just how much of it around you there is and start to notice that marketing doesn't just pertain to TV adds but to a lot of other stuff that you normally don't consider as marketing Start to notice a few of healthy marketing out there that exist and try to see what is the ratio of healthy to unhealthy. Ask yourself is that elevating me or is this dragging the humanity down? Stop expecting that truth will trickle down to your from up above. That society will speed feed you with truth - it wont. Go out of your way to find the unmarketed gems (the books, the seminars, the teachers) . This is really how you advance yourself in life. You don't sit back and wait for gems to come to you, you don't wait me for tell them to you

This is the symptom list from the National Institute of Mental Health: Persistent sad, anxious, or “empty” mood Feelings of hopelessness, or pessimism Irritability Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities Decreased energy or fatigue Moving or talking more slowly Feeling restless or having trouble sitting still Difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions Difficulty sleeping, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping Appetite and/or weight changes Thoughts of death or suicide, or suicide attempts Aches or pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive problems without a clear physical cause and/or that do not ease even with treatment It doesn't have to be every symptom, and it could fluctuate in the amount of symptoms and intensity over time. People often misinterpret depression as an extreme sadness, but depression is often a sort of umbrella emotion that contains many other emotions underneath like sadness for instance. And if it's been going on for some time then it's probably because there are some major issues that haven't been addressed like emotional trauma or even the current traumatic situation that is actively going on (think abusive spouse, bullying, etc.). I've been in similar situations/feelings before, and so that might be why what is said resonates with you. Agreed I think him being your ex makes a big difference. There's a plethora of reasons he could be acting this way because of it. I think the most likely is he was only there for the sex and now that you're not providing it he's treating you like what he feels like you are, a nuisance.

I'm originally from a deep Red place in Florida that's like 95% white (in the area with the poor/working class whites... aka my background), and the racism that I've noticed comes in mild to more severe forms in about 40% of those people. This is a HUGE number of people. So, because white people are the largest demographic that have the biggest sway on election results, that means that people on the Right know that they have to appeal to this group to get elected. So, they create dog whistles as a wink and nod to that demographic of people. This is called the Southern Strategy, and has been employed since the Voting Rights Act in the 60s when there was a political re-alignment. So, this is an example of institutionalized racism against non-white people that continues on into present day. So, I don't know how bigoted Mexican men and black women generally are, nor is it relevant. It's not relevant because there are no candidates running on the "be racist against white people" platform, as this is political suicide. White people are the majority party. So, you can't only rely on non-white voters to win you an election. You have to appeal to white people as the majority demographic. And proposing bills that disenfranchise white people will simply not work. However, a politician running on the Southern Strategy will win votes and approval by promising to disenfranchise non-white people and making good on those promises. So, the social power here is not conferable in any way. So, even if there are some mean black ladies somewhere out there who give white people the stink eye at the bus stop, it doesn't threaten to have any effect on the lives of white people, at all... except maybe hurting some snowflakes' feelings. And that's true, no matter how bigoted a demographic that's non-white generally is, as that party is still a minority and doesn't wield as much voting power or power to stack to the status quo in their favor. So, I suspect the way you're looking at this is by asking, which demographic do you really think are "better people"? Do you think Mexican men and black women are better than poor white people? And the answer is none of the above and no. I guarantee there are good people and knuckleheads in each group, in conferable proportions. People are all over the place on the spectrum of having it together and not having it together. But this is not an issue of character, and framing it as such obscures the real issues. In reality, it's an issue of social power and the workings of a system that give more power to white individuals at the expense of non-white individuals. And it's important to be aware that this system is being leveraged by powerful people in the Right wing to get votes and approval on the backs of non-white people.

Ah, I think I'm on this same page. Just confused as to why anyone claims to know anything, then, even with respect to enlightenment? Just a note: She does seem largely dualistic and parts of Atlas Shrugged make it clear she didn't really understand philosophies like Advaita Vedanta and erroneously assumed that they are 100% illogical and baseless. You may have read some of her nonfiction - so have I. However, I am not as quick to completely debase her, especially in terms of how to create an economy and behaivoral expectations of individuals (or distinct experiences of the one Self, in terms of nonduality). Basically, her systems thinking is interesting to me. I should note that I am not supporting the unhinged capitalism so many people (incorrectly) think Rand raves about. It would be interesting to talk to you and others who so strongly rebuke her about the actual plots of her novels and their implications, bad and good. Also, Rand died of heart failure. Not suicide. So.... weird that Osho claimed suicide.

Funny when the ignorant call out others ignorant. I've done many camping trips, someone of the best times of my life connecting back with nature and life. Firstly of all I didn't say you have to do it forever, your average person is so fucked up side ways, they would die in a week of camping because they have no living in nature skills, or they would burst into tears from being alone or not having TV/Video games etc. Also it doesn't have to be as a hard as you think, as long as the weather conditions are decent and you have some access to fresh water (rivers) and food (berries + animals) heck you can even go buy your groceries beforehand, you don't need to do it 100% handicapped, you can use tools to aid you. You have no idea what you're talking about you've just made some assumption about how things work, maybe go research some tribes that live in rich environments, you'd realise how much spare time they have in their hands to sit and do nothing in the village because it actually doesn't take 16 hours of your day to meet your survival needs, especially if you've got a foundation. Yes yes we have evolved, thats why depression and suicide is more rampart than ever, most people cant meditate or be alone in silence for 10 mins. Look at how much the entertainment industry soaks up time, look at how many people spend hours upon hours on stupid websites like reddit or twitch where they watch other people play video games because they're so desperate to make that little connection, because they're depressed and lonely. Even for productivity, read "Deep work"? you're much more likely to get shit done if every time you needed to work you can fly out to a cabin in the woods away and from everything with nothing to do but the work. It has been proven by science to that being in nature actually plays a vital role for your health and being. And you get the opposite with concrete roads, builidngs, vehicles, human traffic, noise, pollution, grey landscapes, advertisements and billboards everywhere, all this soaks your life energy and makes you depressed. Please don't chat shit like as if our evolution isn't a double edge sword, 90% of men would be happy to sit in a high end realistic VR and fuck virtual girls all day long, and never get out of their couchs ever again, you think this is good for your soul? Most people choose what's not good for them, but what dopamine wants, hence unhealthy foods and obesity, no one wants to intentionally be fat. Nature and the wilderness helps to regulate dopamine. I hope you learned something. Guess you haven't read enough productivity books, one of the technique that keeps coming up "walk out in nature", the bad thing is most people have to make do with parks which isn't good enough, it's too artificial, too overcrowded, you can still see the buildings and see and hear vehicles, and you barely see any wild life or interesting plants. To get the benefits parks will do little, you really need to walk into real nature environments.

This is a really good example of how models suck at representing reality. Seems to be a double edged sword, based on the context, the individual and however its ripple effects dance around in the universe. Let's not paint schizophrenia as if it is a good disorder for everyone - I am sure it can be embraced by certain individuals - but the overall effect on people seems to be of pain on people. Statistically higher suicide rates, high rates of smoking, etc. That said, I believe there are just shades of schizophrenia like there are shades of everything else - everything is blurry anyway. Three of my siblings have had schizophrenia and I've always intuited that there was a dream-like quality to the world. Perhaps a mild form of schizophrenia(ish) jumpstarted my inquiry into nonduality. I believe there is a connection. Some excellent systems thinking and deep insights about conciousness could potentially be used to tackle this issue (aka we need turquoise people, according to your model).

I also want to add that seeking Ego death is a fool's errand, because the Ego is already an illusion. Suicide can be done only if you believe you are the body and you believe that by ending the body you end yourself. There is a base error there. If the body dies, you do not die. Hence suicide is impossible - it is a fool's errand. Enjoy being, peace.

@Azrael be careful with your theory, man. I appreciate your concern but i had a feeling meditation is for suicide long before Leo said things like death, suicide

Your post in one of the reasons why I dislike @Leo Gura talking about deep topics containing phrases like death, ego suicide, etc. To someone that is as far as Leo or more advanced, this kind of talk can make sense and illustrate ideas or experiences. To someone like @Baotrader, it is confusing and misleading because you don't have the capacity yet to make sense of it. That's why in Zen they only give the knowledge to you, that you can handle. Otherwise, ppl would go crazy.