Leo Gura

I don't understand why your back is bending itself if you're sitting still. That's only should happen if you're falling asleep. If it bends, straighten it back up and hold as still as you can. You don't have to be perfect at this.

There are many binuaral beat programs on the market. I've only tried Holosync myself. It's more expensive than most. But I think it's worth it. If all it does is get you to meditate for 1 hour every day consistently for a year, it will be well worth it.

There is an organization for professional coaches. It's called the ICF. It accredits schools. So at the very least make sure the program is ICF accredited and gives you one of their degrees/certificates upon completion. The two programs I know of that are good are: IPEC << I did this one CTI But I'm sure there are many others. Do some googling.

I was mostly speaking to the ordinary notion of success that folks have. If you want spiritual success, or family success, or hobby success, or relationship success, you'll still need many of those qualities.

@Hellsgunz100 What is his philosophy exactly? In general I like Elliot. He gives some good advice overall.

Is mathematics meaningful to you? Yes or no? Replace mathematics with whatever other thing you want until you find something that gets a clear HELL YES! response.

Dancing is witchcraft! How dare you mock the Lord with such wanton displays of emotion! First dancing... then you let your hair loose... then drinking... then sex... then gay sex... then a donkey... Then you want to marry the donkey. Where will it end?! You're gonna make baby Jesus cry. And don't get me started on you kids and your rap music.

Well said. The nihilistic aspects of enlightenment is illusory. They are actually just signals of an incomplete realization. The nihilist forgets that he is ascribing a meaning to the meaninglessness of reality. If reality is truly meaningless, this isn't good or bad. It's meaningless. I don't know about ya'll but I love this shit! What could be better and more beautiful than a pure blank canvas with no meaning? That's how I've always intuited reality to must be. What would be truly shocking is if reality had meaning. << That would be fucked up. So for me this is as exciting as it gets. Human chimpery is not nearly as exciting.

Enlightenment is definitely made possible by deactivating regions of the brain. This has been demonstrated by neuroscience. The error, though, made by rationalists is thinking that this demonstrates that enlightenment is unreal. Just the opposite! Actually, what it demonstrates is that a region of the brain must be actively firing in order for a sense of self to exist. Which means that the sense of self is just mind-activity. Which means it's false. Which is exactly what enlightenment demonstrates. So these studies support enlightenment rather than refute it. The key that you're missing is that enlightenment is NOT mind activity. It is not a sense experience or a thought! Imagine that! It is literally absolutely Nothing, for which a brain is not required. The brain has hardware and software in it that keeps you locked in a cage. Drugs and mediation can break this cage. Sometimes I speak of jailbreaking the mind. And that's literally what you're doing when you do enlightenment work. You're hacking the bios and stopping those sub-routines that create a sense of self, space, time, and everyday life. You're hacking the Matrix. Consider this: when the brain is totally destroyed, what remains? Certainly no notions of the self you presently believe you are. And yet if the true you is not that conceptual self, then it is unaffected! This is such a radical possibility most rational people neglect it. But if you are already literally Nothing, then destruction of the brain cannot destroy you. The brain is actually the only thing that's obscuring this reality by projecting a false self-image. The brain is like a projector while the true self is like the room in which the projector exists. Eventually the projector will break. Except you were not the actor the projector had projected on the screen. You were the room the whole time and didn't know it! Now that's quite the mind fuck.

Yeah, I read that too. Hooray for science! (assuming the study is valid)

Yeah, do nothing would be a good addition. You don't need to do much. The audio will meditate you for you.

Hypnosis definitely works. But it's not a magic pill. I have this feeling that most people's expect it to do miracles and solve all their problems without any effort, which isn't a good attitude to take. Think of it as one tool in your self-actualization toolbox. You could try a quality hypnotherapist or learn to get good at self-hypnosis.

@Brandie It's complicated. If you're interested, just buy it and listen to all the explanations for how it works. It definitely works. But it does require a daily 1 hour commitment for the next 2 to 5 years. If you're not ready to make that kind of commitment, then I wouldn't bother with it. It's basically meditation on steroids and it will detox psychological junk/baggage from the brain, which is not always pleasant. But very healthy. And overall it's quite enjoyable. Definitely way easier than starting regular meditation. At this point I've stopped using it because I prefer regular meditation. But it was very helpful for me in the past.

I've used Holosync for several years. It definitely rewires the mind. I would recommend it for serious folks. But also you should learn to meditate without audio aids. The most important part of Holosync are the introductory materials which explain all the traps of how to use this technology to get powerful results. Most people don't learn how to use it properly.

I think their biggest benefit is that they can get people interested in consciousness work after the fun is over. Most people have too limited an imagination to see that their entire reality can be a matrix. And something like LSD will cut through that.

I've noticed that some women have this pull towards a kind of paranormal, witchcrafty sort of spirituality. Not sure what to make of it. My guess is some human brains are more sensitive and have access to certain phenomena that normal brains don't, and female brains add an extra layer of complexity to the matter. This is just wild speculation on my part. I'm glad I don't see hauntings, lol.

@jcgiusto For me personally, truth has always been one of my highest values. Not sure why. I was surprised to learn as I went through life that this isn't the case for most people. Frankly it kinda baffles me why more people don't care about truth. No, I don't think it will come after fulfilling basic needs. You just have to want to know it now. It's the truth! How could you not want to know it?

Automatic functions of the body are okay, including blinking, swallowing, breathing, sneezing, etc. Don't move your legs, arms, or head. Accept all the pain. Eyes can also be kept shut the entire time if you prefer. Keep your back perfectly still and straight. Use pillows for support if you want. If you fail, it's okay, just try again next day.

@Pinocchio Well, lucky for Leo's ego, it likes the bitter taste of truth!

It's a legitimate concern for the rational mind. But what the rational mind is not yet allowing as a possibility is that Truth can be accessed DIRECTLY, without the use of mind or sense experience. Is that really possible? Well... do the consciousness work and find out for yourself. Sounds like you should at least leave it open as a possibility until you've been able to prove otherwise. After all, thousands of serious people have claimed that it's possible, and have totally transformed their lives in the process. There's little reason to doubt them other than fear and closemindedness. In practice, as it turns out, if you are REALLY self-honest and make Truth your top agenda, you will discover it DIRECTLY in a way that you never imagined possible. But it will be a very tough row to hoe. The amount of people that get lost in the self-deceptive traps of the mind are legion. This is a journey that very few people are man-enough to finish.

@Pinocchio So then what is the best method you've discovered to attain the ultimate, deepest truth?

@Pinocchio Why is meditation insufficient to discover the true nature of reality? The difference between meditation and self-inquiry is minimal. How can you be so sure meditation is a dead end? Seems like you'd have to do 20 to 40 years of meditation to know for sure.

@MartineF Ironically, doing everything you can to still the mind is only going to cause more chaos. The answer is to just accept everything that arises, including the monkey mind. Not because you want stillness, but simply because it's what's true in the moment and resisting what's true is futile. Taking stuff less seriously and being more open is always a great idea and should be practiced even prior to recognizing where thoughts come from.

@Pinocchio I agree, it's not a means to anything. Truth is just truth. So what? Life still goes on. There's ultimately nothing special or sacred about truth. I don't really see what we're disagreeing about.

@Pinocchio I of course admit I could be wrong about many things, including my interpretations of enlightenment. The ideas I hold are ultimately just ideas and they will drop away with time as I do the work. What you describe is not new to me. You're describing deeper and deeper aspects of enlightenment. I do talk about enlightenment sometimes as what it does for the robot, but of course in the absolute sense enlightenment has no value or purpose or meaning. And it is not an experience. Improving the human race is not an absolute thing, it's a relative thing. It might well be that the best thing for the universe is if the human race died out. Or more to the point, that it doesn't matter either way. If you look at the 10 ox herding pictures, you see stage #8 where both Bull and self are transcended (blank empty picture). Which sorta seems like what you're describing. But then there are two more stages, where you come back into everyday life and society. I don't know how far along the 10 ox herding pictures Shinzen Young is, I was merely stating that he has clearly seen through the self as body/mind. Where one develops to beyond that is difficult to gauge and I'm totally open to wherever the path leads. If you want to define "enlightenment" as the ultimate stage, then you may, but that's not what the term traditionally means. It sounds like what Jed's doing is defining enlightenment as the answering of the "What is existence?" question. I always leave open the possibility that I am a blind guy groping the elephant. Give me some credit.