CreamCat

I try to visualize for 10 minutes every day. It hasn't been a month since I started it. There are a few problems with it. Since I visualize with my eyes closed, it is difficult to conjure up images and feel emotions. It is easy to be distracted while I visualize. It is easier to visualize vividly while I read or watch something inspirational. But, such vivid visualization opportunities are rare because most things I read or watch aren't inspirational with regard to my life purpose. It's difficult to decide what to visualize. Is there a more cutting-edge technique that is easier and more effective? Or, do I just need to do it better? Isn't self-image susceptible to destruction by others' negative opinions? EDIT 1 : I just visualized for 10 minutes. I visualized being successful for a while. My visualization naturally moved to how to prevent myself from being distracted. I visualized writing down distractions in my smartphone's inbox and my computer's inbox. I also visualized making it a habit by rehearsing. Every day, I look at my inboxes and move items in inboxes to my task management system so that I will either drop the items or schedule them to be done in the near future. It seems that visualization is better for problem solving than for improving self image.

Bolsonaro is worse than Trump. At least, trump didn't go as far as saying he'd rather have a dead son than a gay son.

@Serotoninluv You might want to read my summary of TJ Reeves' take on spiral dynamics on this forum. Did you read it already?

@Serotoninluv I don't see Orange as a substitute for Red in terms of motivation. Rational thinking is not very motivating.

@Serotoninluv TJ Reeves advocates embodying every lower stage properly before moving up. In a way, purple is not dead. Blue and Orange are very much alive in myself. Red weakened, but I need to strengthen it again to refuel motivation. I'm going to work on Beige, Purple, Red, Blue, Orange, and then Green. I'll start with Beige. Working on Beige means sleeping right, eating right, meditating right, breathing right, and a few other things. He views spiral dynamics as something like maslow's hierarchy of needs. He says ignoring lower stages leads to unhealthy aspects of higher stages.

@How to be wise Perhaps, a separate section of the forum? Philosophies don't fit well in self actualization.

You can learn self actualization by teaching. Learning and teaching are not totally separate. I summarized TJ Reeves' latest video on that thread. I learned a lot in the process of summarizing his video. Other people will also learn a lot from my summary.

@Joseph Maynor I don't know. Ask TJ Reeves. I just added more details to clarify Coral.

I think this is one of Leo's blindspots. He told us to just do it. It's going to require willpower to do that if you are not careful. But, willpower burns out quickly. The following video tells us to make the process as enjoyable as the end results. One Line Summary To live a happy life, find a way to make the means as enjoyable as or more enjoyable than the ends. Short Summary The vast majority of people spend the vast majority of their time on doing what they don't want to do in order to get what they want. It is impossible to live happily if you spend most of your time on doing what you don't want to do in order to get what you want. To live a happy life, find a way to make the means as enjoyable as the ends. Most successful people on this planet find a way to make the means more enjoyable than the ends. Long Summary When we do a lot of unwanted things to get what we want, we are playing a game called `a means to an end` where the ends justify the means. When we approach getting what we want by making ends justify the means, we bulldoze parts of ourselves that don't enjoy doing something. We play a zero sum game with those parts within ourselves. We do things we don't like to do and don't want to do in order to get what we want. What if your whole life is just doing something you didn't want to do so that you could get something you wanted? The vast majority of people on planet earth spend the vast majority of their time on doing something they don't want to do in order to get something they want. This is a recipe for absolute disaster. Your life will be unbearable. People choose to settle in this way because they have a belief that it is impossible to live in any other way. We were trained to do something we don't want in order to get what we want. We think this is the way to live life. It is absolutely impossible to live happily if your strategy toward getting things we want in our life is to do something you don't want to do. If you want a happy life, you can't live a life where the ends justify the means. Let's say you want to get to the ocean. You are convinced the only way to get to the ocean is to walk through industrial waste dump for hours. For the first time you do this, you feel it's worth. On the second time, it's going to feel less worth it. The third time feels even less worth it. Eventually, it's going to feel not worth it at all. You spent the majority of your time unhappily. You spend more time on going through industrial waste dump than on enjoying the actual ocean. The ends are not going to justify the means. Once you get want you want, you feel that the means are less and less justified by the ends. To live a happy life, you have to find a way to enjoy the means as much as the ends. You want to get to the ocean without going through industrial waste dumps. You have to find a desert road to the ocean so that you enjoy getting to the ocean as well as being at the ocean. Most successful people on this earth in terms of living life itself find the means they enjoy more than the ends. For example, they want money, but they find a way to make money that they love more than getting the money. The best questions to ask yourself What would I do if I never got a single dime to do it? If someone gave me 5 million dollars, what would I do with my time now that I no longer have to do anything to make money? Get creative about how to use the answer as a means to making money. It is simply your mind that tells you it is impossible to make money by doing these things. People are so limited by what is and isn't possible. They are even more limited by the idea that they couldn't possibly create some possibility that didn't exist. The questions to ask yourself What do I really want? What am I currently doing in order to get what I want? What are the ways that I am doing what I don't want to do in order to get what I want?

@Callum Milner Who are integral teachers? Do you think teal swan doesn't have integrity because she divorced a few times?

Like who? The most successful entrepreneur in your field? I don't care much about enlightenment, yet. I still care more about practical tips I can get from others.

@Callum Milner Why? She gives me quick useful tips that are easy to digest.

I'd like to see his training program of the future.

Damn, it seems TJ Reeves is creating new stages. Is he the pioneer of Spiral Dynamics? Whether or not he is really Teal, I admire the level of discipline behind his beautiful muscles. Everyone can understand disciplined muscles. I also like his masculine energy.

What is Teal?

@Serotoninluv I'm worried about Leo Gura. I'm not sure whether Leo is open-minded enough about his own beliefs although he advocates open-mindedness in his videos. He couldn't even entertain the idea that a man could be sent to prison for months for accidentally bumping his hand into a woman's ass although there are news reports of such a man. In my country, that man has been famous for a while. He probably thought I was lying. It seems Leo Gura has at least two personalities. Nondual Leo Gura who features himself on videos. Dual Leo Gura who has strong convictions about things that others are not sure of. He appears on forum.

I wouldn't go that far down the rabbit hole of relativism. Read my comment above again. I wanted to use relativism to soften dogmas, but not to justify unhealthy behaviors. Beyond a certain point, relativism becomes ridiculous. I advocate obtaining direct data through your own little experiments. Become a mad scientist for your own life. For any belief that people have, there are better beliefs. Do you believe in black holes? Or, do you want to test validity of black hole theory? Most beliefs are like black hole theory which is convincing but might crumble under examination. My current beliefs about pedophilia are a sand castle and can crumble in the future. At least, I recognize my beliefs as a sand castle. Some people consider their beliefs as facts. I'm not sure whether Leo recognizes his beliefs as a sand castle because he seems to have strong convictions.

@Serotoninluv That was a bit of relativism. I basically wanted to say that we shouldn't be sure or dogmatic about certain beliefs. I could see through beliefs which others were not so sure about. People are desperately trying to believe beliefs which they are not sure of. I have beliefs I'm trying to believe, too. Your beliefs are fragile. Actuality is not. People are so sure about pedophilia while they know little about it. I'm talking about actuality rather than relativism. In a similar manner, people are so sure that not sending children to public schools will ruin them. Well, I'm relatively sure that I can guide education of my future children myself. I will know after I acquire direct experiences with unschooling. Unschooling has been done for decades, and it has been working. I think public schools are good for parents who don't have money and time, but it's delusion to think that it is the only sane way. Beliefs about compulsory education, unschooling, pedophilia, and so on really need revisions through direct experiences. I can see through dogmatism without direct experiences.

You're right. I didn't have sex with pedophiles when I was a child. I am not a pedophile myself, either. I don't have direct experiences with pedophilia. Notice that you have a specific way of interpreting raw data. I just noticed that I had one, too. People interpret children's relative naivety in one way or another. In one of Leo's videos, he said that there are infinitely many ways to interpret raw data and none of them is truth. Given what he said on this thread, he is very likely to object that that argument is related to nonduality and doesn't pertain to social issues. But, for me, there is no clear separation of nonduality teachings from other things. I was deluded about the whole topic of pedophilia. But, others are deluded about it too because they don't have direct experiences, either. It's like two blind persons talking about the shape of a skyscraper by touching it on the ground level. Once you recognize that you were adding interpretations upon interpretations to raw data, you will not be so sure about your opinions. I guess I was trying to demonstrate that we take our bullshits too seriously. Let me add more bullshits. I'd like to add that any degree of intelligence that you have as a human is tiny compared to infinite intelligence which also manifests itself in social structures and education system. Infinite intelligence is the order of the whole system. The order of a whole society is also part of infinite intellgience. In specific configurations of society, it may not be safe to have sex until age 30. In other specific configurations, it may be safe for most children to have sex due to infinite intelligence scaffolding human intelligence. We can talk eloquently and have various kinds of sex because of infinite intelligence, not because of human intellect. Without social structures, you can't even speak human language. Human intellect would become very primitive like a chimpanzee without the help of infinite intelligence. Human intellect is the work of infinite intelligence. Look at what happens to people who spend their first years with animals. Beyond a certain point, such people cannot learn human language until death. If you were raised by wolves, you would act like wolves until death. You acquire wolf intelligence. I suspect that we assume children are incapable of safe sex because we attribute our results to human intellect. What's great is not human intellect, but infinite intelligence. Even, chimpanzees beat human mind in some areas. If you tap into infinite intelligence the right way, an 8 years old child can get a PhD. If you don't tap into infinite intelligence, you might even give up getting a PhD at age 35. I think the same can apply to sex. I hypothesize that with the right structures, it's possible for infinite intelligence to make people good at sex before they hit puberty. It's basically infinite intelligence accelerating learning process. Our current model of bureaucratic education system is extremely inefficient. Infinite intelligence is an aspect of God. God can surely make people good at sex before they hit puberty. But, it's just a hypothesis, and I know that it is just another interpretation of raw data. Ignore me if you think I'm bullshitting.

You are assuming that sexual attraction for kids is bad. In the past, people used to think being gay was a disease. Gay brain was bad and had problems. To me, pedophilia is an unusual sexual orientation just like homosexuality, bisexuality, and so on. What is actually bad is child abuse. Thinking about having sex with children is not child abuse. Thinking about having rough monkey sex with women as a heterosexual man is not rape. I think about having various kinds of rough monkey sex with women every day, but I haven't assaulted women, yet. You can say the same about every heterosexual man. Actually, I haven't had sex with women, yet. In japan, a large portion of male population never had sex despite watching porn regularly. It's told that most pedophiles are just like us. They have sexual urge, but most of them can control it. Low consciousness porn is said to affect sexual performance, but it doesn't say anything about crimes. Almost every man watches porn, yet only a few of them commits actual rape or repetitive sexual harassment. I don't care much about porn's effects on sexual performance because being bad at sex is not a crime.

@Serotoninluv Sorry for taking up too much of your time. I hope you don't hate me for bugging you.

First, you're assuming that pedophile's brains are problematic without actually analyzing their brains. That's a value judgement of human ego like any other. In the similar manner, psychopathy is not a brain disease, but it is an evolutionary adaptation like any other. You're thinking that pedophiles (and psychopaths) have problematic brain connections because they seem to threaten you or your children. Also, that's like saying heterosexual porn reinforces my brain's problematic connections each time. We better talk about actuality rather than vague theories. 2D child porns have been circulating for decades. I haven't heard that 2D child porns meaningfully contributed to crimes. Does GTA 5 mess up with criminals' brains? Should we ban GTA 5? Did games like GTA 5 significantly contributed to starting wars? I surely killed thousands of people in GTA 5 without remorse. Does 2D child porn mess up with pedophilic criminals' brains? Should we ban 2D child porn? Do heterosexual rape porns reinforce assault toward women? Should we ban heterosexual rape porn?

A large part of social welfare is freedom. It's largely freedom from boss and starvation. It is also about prevention of crimes. Universal basic income will ensure freedom from boss and starvation. Basically, in a nutshell, social welfare is about preventing bad things from happening to people. Universal basic income is an important goal of social welfare. Conditional welfare programs are often as good as nothing. Universal health care might become as important as universal basic income. But, I don't dogmatically advocate any of those policies. I just think of them as possibilities. Also, I wouldn't condone any method that would increase actual crimes. I suspect that under the current circumstances, it's not safe for most children to have sex with adults. Why do we not think about constructing a new future where the vast majority of children can safely have sex with adults? Perhaps, in a fully immersive virtual reality of the future? I also suspect that freedom can be a Green value for some Green people. Perhaps, are you not quick to peg me as a fully Orange person? Also, are you sure you are being Green with regard to pedophile issues? No one is solidly Orange or Green across all aspects of life. I think being obsessive about wanting to be Green or any other stage of Spiral Dynamics puts the cart before the horse. Green is not some glorified destination where we should stay. It's not special. It's just a stage like any other.