PsiloPutty

Do-Nothing isn't more advanced; it's just a different technique. If you look it up on YouTube, you'll find out more about it, but it doesn't focus on anything at all. It's more a "freestyle" version, where any thought or emotion is allowed and not chased away, as long as you're not actively participating in the thought. And no, the vast majority of people, after meditating for years, will still have some thoughts enter their minds during their meditations, but the thoughts do get less frequent and less urgent. The main thing about meditation is that it opens for you a unique window on your mind's habits, and it can even go beyond that. If meditation helps me with awakening, that's great, but I'd keep doing it even if I knew that it would never assist me with that.

A good video to convey the benefits of meditation....

"Do-Nothing" is even simpler than a breath-focused technique. It's almost TOO simple for some people. Breath-focus is just that: sit down, close your peepers and try to fully notice and appreciate every breath you experience for 20 minutes. You won't notice every breath, but that's the "goal." Don't try to control your breath; just observe it as it goes in....as it goes out. In and out, in and out. Notice how each breath feels going in your nostrils and out your nostrils. Really focus on it. When (not if) thoughts pop into your mind, just mentally greet them and then go back to your breath. When you start feeling that you must be doing the meditation wrong, greet that feeling and go right back to your breath. When you wonder how much time is left on your timer, greet that thought and then go right back to your breath. When you realize that you've been thinking about something else for 2 minutes, don't be hard on yourself and go back to your breath. If you've never meditated before, just accept up front that you'll suck ass at it for the first few weeks. See those first few weeks as a SOLID investment in your future and don't give up. After that time, you'll start to see small changes in your thought patterns, moods and behavior. That's when the encouragement to continue becomes soooo much easier.

I'll 2nd the suggestion of meditation, if you don't do it already. A simple breath-focused technique is great to start with. 20 minutes a day will change your life.

That's so interesting to me. We all have multiple personalities; some more obviously than others. LOL, it'd be hard to do a strong determination sit like that......what if one of them hated meditating?

I want to be aware of a constant of the machine I call my body. The breath is an easily-observable constant, so I want to use that constant to remain aware of the present moment in an effort to become accustomed to thinking of my body, mind and existence as something separate from me. To be the witness. I think being anchored to the breath would be a useful habit to that end.

Most of the stuff I found online on this topic seems to be geared toward lucid dreaming. Do you know of any books that talk about the practice of incorporating more awareness into life? I've been practicing staying with my breath as much as I can during the day, and I think there's good potential for growth in it, but would like to learn more about that sort of thing. Thanks for your help.

@okulele Cool, I will check into it. Thanks! @Faceless I get the gist of your post: "how can you study being aware? Just BE aware." I get it, but I'm looking for tips on implementing it. Going from unaware most of the time to being aware most of the time isn't simply a conscious decision with an on/off switch. Not for me anyway.

It's hard to not be afraid of these things, and someone who doesn't have a little fear in them is probably going to get their butt handed to them by the substance they ingest. I think though, that if youre of reasonable mental fortitude, and are in a place in your life where things aren't in complete upheaval and tumult, you'll do okay with it, despite the fear and anxiety of going into the unknown. Set and setting are far and away the two most important factors in making a good psychedelic Journey. The mere fact that you're entertaining the idea and asking about it here suggest to me that your mind is at least open to the idea of a transformative experience. It doesn't mean that you are 100% ready, but it's a good sign.

When I first encountered mushrooms, I was absolutely fascinated with it, and I wanted to experiment with dosage, in an attempt to sort of map things out. Started with 5 grams, went to 6, then 7, then 9, and finally 14g. For me, it just gets more confusing and the information gets more unusable and impersonal at the higher doses. Like raw data bundles being hurled at you in clumps, and you don't know how to use it, so all you can do is duck and try not to be hit by it. It was like Cosmic dodgeball. I have since learned that for me, the most benefits seem to be in the smaller doses, like say 3g - 6g.

Some people believe completely in the dream. There's little possibility of waking up from something that to them isn't a dream. For those of us who realize or at least suspect that there's something more going on, I think we have an innate and deep sense of curiosity as a common denominator. It seems most people lose that curiosity in childhood, when they start believing that they know who they are and how the world works. Burdened with those illusions, there's no need for that curiosity anymore, so they ditch it, get a job, start working on those 2.5 children and all the other trappings of the dream.

I think he meant the collective You. As in: "If a person is green, he/she will like this video."

Not that it's a competition, but do you know how far ahead of the crowd you'll be if, at 17 years old, you start meditating once a day for just 20 minutes? Leaps and bounds. If I were you, I'd put the NOTION of self-improvement out of your mind, because it sounds like the thought of it freaks you out right now. Just meditate for year or two and come back to "self-improvement" after that. The meditating, all by itself, will change you for the better, and you'll then be in a better place to readdress the issue. Plus you'll be older and more emotionally mature at that point. LOL, that last line wasn't meant to sound derogatory.

I think music speaks to us on the level of Source. Reminds us of home maybe.

Sure, I know a few people who have done it. If you don't want to get fancy, you can buy a grow kit and spores online.

Be gentle with yourself, man.

Good poetry there. It's the same reason I meditate. Lets me see the world through a clearer lens. What we do dictates our perspective. Changes the paint on our palettes.

I don't have anyting that I can think of to help, but I will send you good energy and hope things settle down in your mind.

@pluto That was well said. I could only screw it up by trying to add to it. @Samra Yep, Ayahuasca was my very first psychedelic experience, and I quit drinking for the most part after that weekend. I would drink 7 or 8 drinks every evening of my life up until then. But like Leo said above, you have to at least be partially open to making changes before doing psychedelics, because it probably won't work if you're expecting a miracle to be put in your lap. I knew something had to change, so I gave it a whirl. It gave me the insight I needed to allow me to just walk away from it. Like Pluto talked about above, I just saw past the loop of cyclical thinking/behavior I was caught up in, and I considered that my life....as ME. This showed me that it wasn't "me" at all. The loop I was in was just a construct of habit. OP, you said you've used psychedelics before, so you know that it's hard to control a trip, and focus it on what you want to concentrate on. That's the problem here, you can't use psychedelics as a flashlight in the basement of your soul, trying to shine it on specific things. You can go in with an intention, and you should, but that's like dropping a note in a suggestion box somewhere. It might not even get read.

That's an interesting past, Jed. I stand by what I said before, there's no stopping a man with that look about him! Safe travels on the journey to your demise, friend.

If that helps you get through your 90 days, go for it! At the end of the 3 months, you can try it without the music and see how that goes. That's the way I did it when I started, and I still listen to binaural beats a couple times a week during my meditations. You will be on the road to some changes in the way you live your life if you do those 90 days. Stick with it!

@zoey101 I would kill you if I could, but only because I like you so much! You're right, them's arrestin' words anywhere else!

I would welcome an existential crisis like that during self inquiry. To me, the uneducated guesser, it sounds like you're knocking on the door of a breakthrough if your mind and body are flipping out that much. Like some sort of potential of energy getting ready to shift. No idea though.

@zoey101 Zoey.....would you like to die today? Would that make you happy? Heh heh, see I like having a website I can go to where I don't get banned if I ask someone that.

I love that guy, and that video was wonderful to watch. I like his style, he's playful, insightful and....normal. LOL, for some reason Awakening seems more possible when I listen to someone like him, instead of someone who speaks cryptically and looks "outta my league."