Leo Gura

Yes, this is a common problem. Tier 1 thinkers tend to be too simplistic and one-dimensional. They don't see systemic problems. That requires Tier 2 Yellow cognition. And even then it's tricky. We have to admit that we don't always know how complex systems will behave. Which is why a scientific approach to public policy is so important. We need to split test solutions and track actual results. Imagine the following approach: Democrats propose change A to the education system. Republicans propose change B to the education system. A coin is tossed to see which change we split test first. We try it out for 10 years and we track the results with a non-partisan committee of scientists. Then we implement the other change and track those results for 10 years. Then at the 20 years mark we look at the data and select whichever produced the best results. Citizens could also be allowed to vote on which produced the best results. Once this process is complete we settle the issue forever and move on to other issues. In this way we don't keep rehashing issues like abortion rights, taxes, marijuana, immigration, etc. Of course partisan & ideological people will not want to agree to such a system because their ideology does not want to be tested in the court of real-world experience. That's the whole point of an ideology. It's held true come-what-may.

My contribution is to make people aware of the problems and the solutions. To get them thinking properly. To install the proper mind OS. That's how philosophers and intellectuals contribute to advances in government. Of course I'm not gonna run for office. That's not my role. My role is intellectual, visionary, and inspirational. I would not make a good politician. I've said too many crazy things and I'm not really a people person.

@Joshe It's easy for a large company or government or professional chemist. Not easy for your average Joe.

The real problems are systemic and much bigger picture than that. Here are some basic problems: Improving education to make it more conscious Reducing waste on military-industrial complex Making it easier for all people to vote without discrimination Eliminating corporate lobbying and money corrupting politics Retraining the police so they don't shoot unarmed black folks Protecting the environment from destruction and toxic pollution Ending the drug war and for-profit prison system Regulating the banks so they don't crash the economy Regulating giant monopolistic companies like Amazon from dominating everyone else Making medical care affordable for everyone Making college affordable for everyone without massive debt Redistributing wealth so we have a thriving middle class, not a handful of billionaires Putting workers on all the boards of major corporations Helping young teens find their life purposes & train them for passion jobs Helping train people to start small businesses & giving them funding Funding for scientific & medical research Improving basic infrastructure like road, bridges, airports, schools Massive push for green energy Allowing people to vote for directly on propositions at the federal level the way they can at the state level Public funding of all elections Strengthening people's ability to unionize Regulating the giant telcoms Giving Constitutional protections to whistlerblowers like Ed Snowden Increasing government transparency across the board Stuff like that The bottom line is that we're trying to structure society in a way which enables more people to meet their basic needs and pursue higher consciousness without a lot of obstacles. How should society be restructured to facilitate that? How do we get as many people up the Spiral as fast as possible? See, most people don't even understand that the goal of government should be CONSCIOUSNESS! If we could just get people to realize that, half our problems would be solved. But of course they will NOT agree! They will resist. Because most people's goal is to use government for advancing their own egoic agenda. That's when the shitstorm ensues.

Do not quote RationalWiki ever on this forum. It's delusion of the highest order. You can link to it in the Stage Orange Examples Mega-Thread for us to laugh at. Rationalism is a religion.

@Zizzero Link to me 1 video of an intelligent analysis by a libertarian of how government works and why government exists. I've never seen one. If you do decide to link one, start a new thread about it because this thread has gotten derailed enough as it is.

I have spent enough time listening to libertarians debating their talking points to the point where I don't feel I need to hear any more. I got it. But if you haven't, sure, it might be worthwhile to do so just to see how foolish it is. While you're at it you can study Nazi ideology, Communist ideology, alt-right ideology, and many more. There is value in studying foolish philosophies. But at some point you gotta let it all go because there's bigger fish to fry and real work to do, and life is short.

You guys are free to start a thread and beat this libertarian horse to death if you want. I will stay out of it. It's just that once you're aware of enough things, you quickly sort the wheat from the chaff and don't waste your time entertaining silly things. There are too many foolish ideologies in the world to debate them all seriously. You are welcome to believe whatever you want. My interest is in talking about conscious politics, which is at a completely different level than typical political discussions. But it is not neutral and it does not tolerate nonsense or devilry. The thing is, people expect consciousness to be neutral towards their foolishness and devliry. But it isn't. Consciousness shreds through bullshit. So if your position has bullshit it in it, you may feel like you're being treated unfairly. I don't have all the answers, but I have better answers than libertarians, that's for sure.

@Joseph Maynor I got better things to do. You are free to study whatever ideology you want.

That's already been done by any serious democratically-oriented person.

@Zizzero I don't find libertarianism even worth discussing. It is not a serious position. Just one look at how foolish libertarian presidential candidates here in the US are tells you all you need to know. You can their videos on their conventions on Youtube. It's good for a night of laughs. I once spent 12 hours straight binge-watching libertarian videos through the whole night until 6 in the morning. It was so funny it was like 12 hours of the best comedy I've ever watched. Here's a good playlist of libertarian foolishness: Watch out, it's so bad and so sad it's addictive.

It would be too hot for you guys to handle

@docs20 It's just mantra meditation. You can pick any random mantra and use it to meditate. Here, I'll give you a free mantra you can use which will be as good as any other: "rum lum da, rum lum da" There you go! Now repeat it mindfully a million times. That's all mantra meditation is. You will get better results with Kriya yoga and it's free.

That's not entirely correct. Goodness beats out badness. Badness only arises when one isn't conscious enough and resists. So it's not just random. As you become more God-like and pure, the bad trips will become less and less frequent. Of course it's important not to overdose or trip in the wrong settings. Taking 10 grams of mushrooms at a noisy music festival is a recipe for hell. The best way to trip is with small and moderate doses. Until you're very comfortable there. I have a feeling that 90% of all problematic trips could be eliminated simply by dosing lower and sitting in a quiet safe space free of people. Simply do not take high doses of anything. It's stupid and it will not grow you as much. Only take what you can handle. 1-2g of mushrooms or 125ug of LSD is plenty for most people. Spend a couple of years working those doses and getting all the growth you can from them. People who take 5g of mushrooms or 400ug of LSD are being foolish. So of course they end up getting wrecked.

Good government already assumes protections for individual liberties. You speak as if government is some kind of totalitarian enterprise. That's not good government at all. Good government delicately balances between individualism vs collectivism & freedom vs limitation. It does not take ideological or absolutist stances on either side. Individual liberties are only possible through mutually agreed upon and self-imposed limitations. For example, you are not free to own a nuclear weapon because if such a liberty were allowed then all humans would be dead, thus ending all liberties for everyone. You are also not free to discharge a firearm in an airplane for obvious reasons. The problem with the libertarian philosophy is that: A) it is purely a philosophy and disconnected from real life, and B) it is an ideological position of freedom absolutism. Absolutist positions do not work. They are a form of fundamentalism. Here you have a case of free market fundamentalism. So libertarianism is actually a kind of religion with all of the problems religions creates, just in a secular vein. If you notice the way in which libertarians defend themselves, it's very similar to how radical Muslims defend themselves. The mental gymnastics are similar.

@Meditationdude Those sorts of decisive moments will arise in running any business long enough. You just gotta take them in stride and keep your eye on the ball -- your larger vision. Why can't you run your business from another location? Why can't you follow the code? This is an opportunity for you to take your business to the next level, make it more professional. Your anxiety is understandable, but it's also clouding your vision, so don't stew in it for too long. If you build your business properly it should not be so fragile to be tanked by one code violation. Even if this business ends up failing, remember, that's just valuable experience for building your next, even better business. So hang in there. When it becomes to business you gotta be persistent like a python strangling its prey. Yes, life will get really hard at times. Have you considered renting a small office? They can be very affordable.

It seems some people have a serious immunity to it. Like it just fails to work on them. Very odd. Hope you guys can figure out why that is. You might need to try smoking/vaping it.

@Rigel Even your bad trip has value, not to mention the good ones. Give it a week, you'll feel better. Let it pass. It sounds like you were shown some deep truths which you were not ready to stomach so you resisted it. That's all material which must be worked through. That IS the real spiritual path. Before you reach the rainbows and butterflies you must face your inner demons. Mushrooms are a twisted and mischievous substance. Might want to try something more straightforward next time like AL-LAD. And lower your doses.

Of course it's not straight forward. By design. Otherwise you couldn't experience what it's like to have a human POV. The deeper question is, why would you care to escape it? The way your question is framed it assumes that escape is better than not-escape. But this is only true if you think it is. God escapes itself, then it returns to itself. Since it has nowhere to go, since it is in all places at once. Liberation is to realize that there is nowhere to go, nowhere to escape because all places are equally good. So long as you think that one place or state is better than another, you will suffer and seek to change your state. To be liberated is to be surrendered to whatever state happens to arise, seeing the perfection of them all. If you try to cling to any one state, including formlessness, it becomes a problem. You can't escape the totality of what you are.

Well, obviously, since that's basically what enlightenment is. You'd have to sit and concentrate on nothingness for many thousands of hours. Or do decades of yoga. Yoga is basically a method for naturally producing 5-MeO-DMT or its equivalent. Dark room retreats are another method. Long fasts are another method. Shamanic breathing is another method. All these techniques are designed to change your state of consciousness.

@ColdFacts It's not a belief. And your ability to carry God's love is so limited because you are a devil.

@hikmatshiraliyev How do you know the brain is true? The point is to investigate. This is a truth-seeking project. You have to want to sift through everything to get to the bottom line. Warning: that is not the same as armchair skepticism or cynicism. Sitting around and doubting stuff via an online forum is not genuine truth-seeking, it's a distraction.

Absolute Infinity. Nothing beyond it. Since it is ALL.

Your mistake is thinking of life as bondage. It only is if you think of it as such. Imagine a kid is sitting there enjoying playing his video game and you come up and tell him, "But what's the point of all this dying and suffering?! Let's turn it off this bondage." The problem is not with the kid, but with you. Bondage is a way of looking at the world, not a fact of the world. It can be exciting to know that you will get to live many different lives, experiencing the world in many different ways. One day you will be born on Mars. That will be a cool life. One day you will get to be the Pharoh of Egypt. That will be cool. One day you will get to be a bald eagle soaring through the sky. That will be cool. Etc. It's all cool from God's POV. Even the "bad" stuff. The key is to adopt God's POV.

Look, this is a highly personal matter. Your trips will be very different from mine. So my experiences are not a good point of reference. My first trip I had a panic attack. In the end, no of that matters. Just minor obstacles.