Elysian

I can't speak about other's experiences with psychedelics and media, but as long as I was able to comprehend the words being said I've gotten alot out of watching videos during a trip. I've also gotten benefit from simply being alone in quiet, with friends, and even at a gathering, but for some reason whatever communicates with me through psychedelics did so mostly through 2 mediums: other people speaking to me, and videos. They were mostly educational, think Ted talks, discussions about spirituality, but one of the most intense experiences of my entire life happened with something communicating to me through an anime called Machine Gun Girl. The best way I could explain it, is my awareness would be altered in a way to focus in on words in a certain way to incite an exact insight that never would have been found normally. Another thing that typically happened was my entire way of interacting with the world being dissected. Something that also regularly happened was that the information being said (the sensory information my mind received) would be completely altered and not match up literally to what was said. The best example I have of altered information would be my Machine Gun Girl experience. I had just dosed with at least 10 other people at my apartment. I began to trip very intensely, so much so I puked from the rapid shift in consciousness. When I got done and laid down, within about 5 minutes all of these 10+ people fell to sleep. Mind you they just dosed, of which I was having one of the most intense trips of my life, and they all went to sleep almost exactly at the same time, like God had powered them down so I could trip alone. Right before one of them went to sleep they started an episode of Machine Gun Girl. As soon as it started, the voices started to break every action of mine down as I did them. I became extremely disturbed and moved closer to my girlfriend, then they said, "Look, he's moving closer to her for comfort." I tried to shake her awake and it was like she had taken tranquilizers, zero response. I didn't know what to think, so I decided to muster the courage and sat dead center in front of the TV. It used the scenes of the anime to explain my toxic behavior in my relationship, how I hadn't been handling my depression properly, how I was impacting my community, all very harshly, tough love approach. I was weeping, taking what at the time felt like ruthless insults, but I understood it was all true. After several hours everyone wakes up, which led to a 2nd part of the trip I won't get into. But I told them what had happened and they didn't believe me. So after the effects wore off in the morning, I went back and replayed the anime. Absolutely nothing I heard matched the words of the actual anime script. The video was the same but that's it. Most people would consider this a traumatizing experience, I think most honestly would have ran out of the apartment, especially at where I was at emotionally/spiritually. But this was absolutely a positive experience. It led to major changes in how I interacted with everything. These types of experiences with video took me from the peak of my depression, being Blue/Red, and elevated me to Green/Yellow and even played a part in reaching some Turquoise traits. They weren't the only factor, there were many, but they played a significant role. I don't recommend psychedelics anymore, but if you're set on taking them and have a babysitter, I suggest experimenting with video. It can be a good vehicle for insights. If it doesn't resonate simply turn it off and continue your trip without it. I'd set up a playlist before hand. There's a good amount of room in psychedelics for you to be able to watch/listen to something, but it can quickly become difficult even at lower doses to search for videos and set it up properly. Gaia TV has a lot of quality spiritual material, I'd consider them Turquoise.

This has been my experience as well. Awesome

I'm not sure if it would be correct to say they have been going well/not well. I've been encountering a lot of resistance lately while sitting. Although it doesn't feel like I made much headway recently in quieting the mind, I've had various mystical experiences. Shooting out of my body during my first waking Out of Body Experience, guided meditations by something other than ego, a non-dual experience, a lot of Kundalini symptoms, it appears I've opened my third eye, etc. I don't know if I can attribute that all to meditation, but considering most of those events happened during meditation it seems relevant. I've also made many lifestyle changes like becoming Vegan, cutting out addictions, trying to implement shadow work, learning about Yoga in it's entirety, etc. I think one of the biggest things holding back my meditation and overall well-being is a massive amount of emotional trauma. I've noticed the meditation sort of tames it, but it doesn't deal with the issue. This led me to trying different healing techniques, and thankfully today I found one that actually works from me, after watching the documentary E-motion. Sorting these out seems vastly more important than meditation right now, although I'm still maintaining the practice.

I've had other people tell me about their experience with this using DMT. Do you consider these flavors something one can only experience temporarily or at least some of these flavors possibly becoming their baseline awareness?

It seems that my non-dual experience was more like a glimpse into the beginning of nonduality then, and that's why it's hard to understand, since I've never directly experienced the way you're describing. The distinction between Self, other and environment was much more difficult to see, but I still retained individuality. Speaking to other felt as speaking to other even if physically the boundaries were not as apparent. Note: Maybe the experience I had was really meant to highlight the illusion of associating with ego and body, and instead to associate with awareness itself. This is what stuck out most to me, and the fading of borders was more of a preview.

Even if there was a reason, my mind is blown all across the floor if I even begin to contemplate existing itself. It's like an overload of unfathomable and error codes.

Brick wall.

How is this known? That the Absolute has no intention for this existence other than existence itself?

League is a really bad one. I spent countless hours getting better at it, even getting good enough to enter Diamond if I simply spent the necessary time playing to climb the ladder. But think about how useless that skill was, I literally got nothing out of it. Imagine what you could do with the thousands upon thousands of hours most gamers have spent playing games in their lifetime. Becoming a master of multiple fields of study you say? The bits about improving certain things like hand eye coordination is just addict explaining away addiction. The negative aspects of video games outweigh any possible positive side effects. When I was in the middle of my addiction to video games I used all of these same sorts of rationalisations to paint gaming in a better light, and to paint over the problem I had. Citing studies on possible health benefits while ignoring the mountain of evidence about the known negative side effects was one of my favorites. The comparison to cigarettes or drugs is not a strawman, if you think it is you just don't understand the reward brain pathways that are associated with addiction. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1920543/ They've found the same areas of the brain activated when an addict shoots up heroin are also activated in regular players of video games. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/radical-teaching/201110/neuroscience-insights-video-game-drug-addiction Most everyone has addictions, and most addicted tend to dismiss their addictions entirely, but dismissing it on a public forum is encouraging others to do the same. Just be careful about what kind of world you're encouraging when you do this sort of thing. Sure not everyone that plays video games becomes addicted to them, but the vast majority do, and to say otherwise is denial.

Even if there is some truth to what he is saying about you needing to cut back on books I would still remove him from your life immediately. Shin was spot on. Never supportive and only puts you down? Occasional tough love when needed is only tough love if the person actually loves you, and it being the only way he treats you to me sounds like an extremely negative person who will only bring you down. It's much better to spend time by yourself until you find new friends than to let someone spoonfeed you poison just because people like him or you don't want to feel lonely. People can like a sociopath, it doesn't mean you should admire them. A real friend will try to lift you up, encourage your effort, be more gentlehanded with criticism until a harsh reality check is actually needed. Reflect on the amount of books you're reading vs what you're actually applying. If you're not applying what you've learned, don't read anymore until you apply at least a few of the most important books/skills you've learned about. Apply them fully. You'd be amazed at how much applying one major change to your life can have an effect on your overall well-being.

I could choose not to, but to not even have the desire to in the first place? I can't even imagine.

That might be because of the communities created around games, especially MMO's. I would say games are worse than TV in general. The addiction that is likely to happen is just hitting so many more impulses in games than in TV.

Yes, assuming that another person in my perception is indeed conscious and not just a hallucination/simulation. But the point of view I call my Self, simply can never experience another point of view with this amount of awareness. Are you saying regardless of not being able to directly experience those other points of view that they are the same consciousness? Being a part of the same whole is different than saying they are exactly the same. This still wouldn't negate the possibility of multiple levels of subdivision of awareness I was originally talking about. Just like we've forgotten what we are, so too could a higher Self be separated in some way from the Absolute.

I wouldn't consider this evil, but a tragedy. And the tragedy of the rivers in India is far more severe.

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/tobacco_industry/hookahs/index.htm Non tobacco shisha isn't addictive because of the lack of nicotine, but even it has harmful chemicals and is toxic. They've also found the charcoals themselves have toxic chemicals that are inhaled when smoked. From any angle it's bad for you. Better off finding something else to do communally. Playing instruments in a circle is one good binder to bring people together to socialize. Also setting up the area in a way that promotes socializing. Like having seating facing each other, such as a circle.

This wasn't my experience when I went non-dual, the distinction between self and other disappeared, but perception only happened from one point in this experience, Not two. Recognizing two points of consciousness as one whole and experiencing two points of consciousness simultaneously are two different things (ie. From two points of view). I've only experienced two points of consciousness simultaneously in the Astral. I can tell you, this is extremely disorienting and difficult to process. I've heard more than two can be done but that's not something I've achieved yet.

Although it gets thrown around that you're everything, and at the highest level this can be the case, the awareness that is aware of your/that body and your/that mind is a point of consciousness. Even if you achieve self-realization and the distinction between self, other, and seen fades, it is all being perceived from a single point of consciousness. Perhaps when points of consciousness experience what seems to them like past lives, this might be them tapping into a larger point of consciousness that isn't the Totality, but a larger Self than the individualized consciousness currently experiencing right now. Think of it like a Russian nesting doll. You are the smallest point of consciousness, which broke off from a larger point of consciousness for whatever reason, and this continues on until you reach the Absolute. If this were the case, this overarching consciousness above you could be where the experience of your past lives goes. But if time is not linear, it would be more proper to say this is where your other lives go, even lives that would be considered future in linear time.

After doing more research into Spiral Dynamics I've realized I have some Yellow traits, but mostly Green, with even some Orange, and a few Turquoise traits. My circle is mostly burners (people who go to Burning Man/similar events), and they fall into Green with some Yellow. Several months ago I decided to be have a more positive impact in the community I needed to take time to work on my self and so I've been in seclusion since then. From before that time and since then I picked up some Yellow traits like: taking all sides into account before making a conclusion, not condemning individuals for systemic problems, not forcing my positions on to other people, noticing the demonizing and hypocrisy of Greens, studying different perspectives, etc. But I'm still working through Green. Like trying to unpack energetic blockages/emotional trauma, putting more effort into more environmentally friendly alternatives, being more selfless. I even still work for a major company, who at least on some level is doing environmental harm, so me still needing to try and create my own non-exploitative/environmentally friendly job is an Orange issue I still haven't sorted. But even though I'm still working through these lower stages, I've also had mystical experiences, astral project, "I've" experienced non-dual awareness. And because of these experiences I feel a natural pull towards self-realization, and have been systematically moving towards it. But Leo said in his Yellow video that one should try to embody yellow before making a move towards Turquoise. Well I'm certainly not fully Yellow, but isn't self-realization an aspect or something needed for Turquoise? Which would mean not to even bother pursuing it until fully Yellow? Everyone says self-realization could take several years, decades, possibly not even be achieved in this life. I figure if that's the case, no better time than the present, even if I've got other stuff to sort out. Am I misinterpreting/misusing SD? Should I continue moving towards self-realization?

By ending progressive movement, do you mean to simply sit in beingness? This is the way I interpret do-nothing meditation, although helpful ego didn't simply buckle and give way to Truth. Not in the time I've spent in such meditation anyway. Or are you saying to try and understand thought, which sounds counterintuitive.

I can see what you mean by delaying the necessary. I usually meditate a couple hours daily. By self inquiry do you mean Dhyana or the exercise list Leo posted, or are these one in the same?

In my experience, taking psychedelics is you giving something beyond ego, permission to teach you a lesson in whatever way it sees fit. That could be reliving a traumatic memory, noticing your hypocrisy, learning about higher aspects of reality, or that you shouldn't use psychedelics again to attempt to achieve spiritual growth. That could all play out as a bonding moment with friends, an extremely harsh tough love approach that most might consider a 'bad trip', or that could end up with you in the hospital falling off the edge of psychosis. That's why I think there is so much diversity in trip experiences, you're getting a hand tailored smack on the butt by something far more Intelligent than ego.

I had an experience some time ago with psychedelics, where some vastly more Intelligent being opened up several different circular images within my vision, they all looked like exact copies of the room that I was in. It then went on to explain that there were an infinite number of parallel realities, and shortly after I lost my concentration. Since then I contemplated the meaning of multiple realities where I'm simply one of many. My ego was pained by this, feeling worthless in this vast sea of infinite possibilities. I asked the most spiritual and intelligent person I know what they thought of this. They said that it must all be for some purpose, even if being separated as we currently are makes us too dumb to see the big picture. Some interesting possibilities is that maybe Source is searching for a way to create a perfect universe in it's eyes. It could be a way to stop a universe from inevitably destroying itself, a way to make a universe that required less suffering for expansion, to figure out it's own creation, who knows. We could just be one of countless simulations being ran for an original universe to figure out the correct paths to take, Simulation Theory. Regardless though, we should just remain humble and grateful we're getting a chance to experience this fascinating universe at all. Even if we're just an oversized fishbowl in a kid's bedroom.

I've just recently listened to Leo's video on Turquoise, which made me realize this person definitely falls into that category. I mean I'm grateful they love me, there's no one on this planet I love more than them. The only thing is, I'm not Turquoise. I think I'm at best a little orange, mostly green, some yellow, and a little Turquoise. Before I even heard of Spiral Dynamics, it was always very clear to me that this person was on a different level than anyone I've ever met. I never really understood why they loved me so much, they love me in a way I don't even know how to love yet/anymore. My question is why would a Turquoise love someone at a much lower stage if the chasm is really that big, and what if anything does it say about me? I asked this person before what it was they loved about me, and they said they couldn't really put it into words, maybe similarly to why I can't do the same. It's everything.

If you've ever experienced hellish landscapes in your dreams, then you'd realize we have it pretty good here. If you're going to worry about any reality, it's best to focus on the one right in front of you. Be thankful you're not in a more thought-responsive environment, because you probably would've wiped your self out a long time ago with that kind of thinking (think dreams where whatever you think immediately became reality). This happens to some degree here, but most of us are not ready to handle a true thought-scape.