Leo Gura

Depends on how screwed up your social conditioning was as a kid. If it was real bad, you might have been so brainwashed that you're really disconnected from your authentic personality now. But for most people I don't think their personality will change much, it will just get purified of egoic distortions and various social conditioning. So if anything, this work should make your MBTI personality stronger. But also it will balance you out. For example, as an introvert, you can learn to function pretty well as an extrovert when the situation calls for it, for short periods of time. Masculine/feminine tendencies in you will also tend to balance out with more and more spiritual work. That balance is nice to have.

@0ne With psychedelics, you have to go slow, gradual, and steady, sometimes taking months to integrate a trip before going back for another drink from the well of nonduality. If you just blast yourself with it, that's going to be traumatic, and it won't grow you properly. The process leading up to enlightenment is just as important as the enlightenment itself. That process is necessary to prepare the mind to surrender. If it take years for some people, that's sometimes because that's what they needed. Of course other times they were just dragging their feet. The problem with psychedelics is that you can easily shortcut this ramp-up, which sounds good on paper, but in practice it leaves you unprepared to handle the Truth when it reveals itself to you.

@Klaudia Not so fast! You speak of nothing but you don't know what that is. Your ideas of nothing are NOT it! There is a way, beyond the mind. You don't yet know what there is in deep sleep.

@Edvard Yes, for me up to 40 mins is pretty easy. After 40 mins it gets tricky. Usually I make an adjustment or two after 40 mins. But that's for regular sitting (not strong determination). I almost always sit on my plush couch. It's not ideal technique and I tend to be lazy. But what your mind is doing is more important.

@Slade Yeah... that's almost exactly how my first sober glimpse happened. The mind gets so caught up gawking at the amazement of it, it kills the thing it's gawking at. I like how Terence McKenna once said the DMT elves told him, "Focus! Do not get lost in the amazement of it!" It's a real problem. It's too amazing for the mind to handle. You need repeated exposure to handle it without creaming your pants.

@Edvard Pain when it comes to sitting is mostly BS pain. Monks sit that way for years, so you should be okay. Sitting pain is good for meditation practice. Other kinds of pain you will want to use more as a check engine light. Like back pain while lifting objects, tooth ache, head ache, etc. The only danger I know of when it comes to sitting is screwing up your knees. But that's with very long-term cross-legged sitting. So maybe watch out for long-term knee-aching if you get that from your sits. Numb legs are okay. You should be able to sit without moving for 60-90 minutes without much problem. Of course, it will take time for you to work up to doing even that. After 60 minutes is when it really gets psychologically frustrating.

@egoless That has been answered long ago in the old Myers-Briggs thread.

@egoless Watch the show and see how they live. You'll see. I'm not the one here who started a thread about needing extreme loneliness.

Living in Alaska IS the heart of living. You don't get more alive than that. Go do a 10 day solo retreat and you'll scratch that loneliness itch. Careful what you wish for

That was what they call a samadhi experience. A merger. Very common to lose your first glimpse like that. That's just the tip of the iceberg. It goes waaaay deeper. You got a good introduction to nonduality. Now the real work begins. First glimpses tend to be easy

@0ne Sounds like you're in a bit over your head. Yeah, enlightenment is DEATH. You may not be ready for it yet. You gotta lay the groundwork with self-inquiry, meditation, and other kinds of inner work. You're very young, so no surprise there. Why you tripping balls on DMT at such a low level of development? It "wasn't good" because you're going too deep too fast. You thought we were kidding when we said: no-self. Well, now you got a taste of no-self How can you pursue enlightenment (no-self) and still expect a self to survive the process? Really think about what is being talked about when we talk about enlightenment. Think about what you're seeking. We're talking about matters of life and death here. This isn't a game. To undertake this journey is to let go of everything you believed yourself to be. Your life will never be the same again once it's done. There will be no one left to die, because you will already be dead inside. You would probably benefit from doing some more regular personal development work. Self-help type stuff. Give it a week or two, and your ego should come kicking back. It's not gonna die that easy.

@egoless Go live in Alaska. Watch Life Below Zero on Netflix to see how such people live.

@Space All that stuff is helping. Sometimes you gotta clear out emotions before you can dig into the existential questioning. The psychedelics will def help you with self-inquiry if you keep exploring them prudently. You've only scratched the surface of them. Any kind of retreats are good. I find meditation helps with self-inquiry, and vice versa. Of course a week-long 24/7 self-inquiry retreat would super-charge your practice, and likely get you a glimpse of nonduality. 1 weekly retreat is worth like 365 days of practice.

@Space You're in luck. See today's new episode. I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but psychedelics would help in this case a lot. Also, doing a week-long retreat would help a lot. But also remember that progress on this path isn't linear. You will have some plateaus. Don't quit.

The authentic self is just being closer and closer to no-self. The more ego you purge, the more authentic you'll feel. There's no conflict here at all. No ego = full flowering of one's innate personality without cultural conditioning and other learned nonsense. There is no self, but there is a personality.

@phoenix666 That was just the intro. 1.5 tabs is when things get real interesting

@kieranperez You're making it too complicated. Too much overthinking. Just do it.

@egoless They are different, but both can take you to similar places. I find AL-LAD (very similar to LSD) better than mushrooms for doing consciousness work. Mushrooms are more volitile and murky for me. It really is worth exploring various substances to see which you resonate with most. With psychedelics, you just never know until you try a few different sized doses.

@Ryan_047 That's right. Welcome to freedom.

@egoless They contain the exact same active indredigent: psylocin. So the trip should be the same. But they are dosed quite differently. Truffle weights are much bigger.

@How to be wise Of course that technique of doing nothing will not cure your addiction instantly. But by the fact that you did that 4 hrs of sitting, you have already made a good stride towards curing it. By sitting there, you were becoming conscious of it. Even by failing to sit there, you became more conscious of it. It will take more of this kind of back and forth, on and off, for you to get consciousness enough to stop it, or at least reduce it significantly. Curing an addiction is no easy thing. It's also important to find some other healthy activity to replace it.

@Alenka Both ways are possible: you can stay in the relationship and apply consciousness to it, or you can leave the relationship, isolate yourself, and do some serious consciousness work that way. Isolating yourself tends to actually be much more effective. Which is why retreats are so important. Spirituality demands lots of uninterrupted focus. But either way can work. It just depends on your goals and values. If you seek enlightenment, relationships will be a distraction.

@faith 1 gram of dried mushrooms or 75ug of LSD (half a tab) are good newbie entry points.

@Alenka Suffering is something you create. Spirituality is not about enduring suffering, it's about becoming conscious of how you create all your suffering. So this "enduring of suffering" game you're playing is not real growth, it's neurosis and ego monkey-business. Apply consciousness and spirituality to your relationships until you learn to stop creating that suffering.

I never really tried. I'm sorta over the whole convincing-people-of-stuff. I already spend enough time talking calculus at mules. I did manage to administer 5-MeO to my gf. She snorted 28mg, surrendered like a champ, and landed in Paradise. Best experience of her life.