TheAvatarState

By ultimatum, do you mean the capital letter absolute? Like life vs. death to Life? If so, then understanding this is EXTREMELY important and practical to your every day life. Understanding that there is only Life and only Existence means you can't fear death anymore (not counting biological fight or flight responses). This one alone will affect your relationship to life, therefore informing in at least a small way nearly every decision you make. You're just not conscious of it yet.

An enlightenment experience is... An enlightenment experience: a complete unveleiling into Nondual consciousness. They are all different with varying consciousness of facets of God and levels of impact (which come down to how well you integrate afterwards). My one enlightenment experience on sober meditation wasn't as impactful, just because of my many breakthroughs on psychedelics beforehand. It was more like connecting everything I had previously learned to the sober state, so it was just like "wow, this is it." Now, psychedelics are much easier and faster, so insisting on meditation or yoga-only enlightenment is basically like being attached to a fax machine.

I relate with this a lot, I was in the same boat for years, up until fairly recently. Played League 8 hours a day. Gained weight. Absolutely no female attention (and I'm physically handsome). Only a couple IRL friends. I could hardly speak to anyone. Some of the social aspects are still true, but it's getting better every day! "I am alone, but not lonely." See, we are all alone in this world, that's the bitter (at first) Truth. We are all one, and because of that, God is technically all alone all the time, it just created illusionary partitions of itself to experience friends, belonging, and love. There is only union. There is only Love. I'm going to say something that will sound absolutely crazy, but the only way you'll know is if you think about it and practice it. It would be unwise to dismiss it outright. The reason why you feel despair and loneliness is not because you "don't have friends physically" (which is bullshit, you do, you're just not appreciating them), it's because you feel like you are unlovable. You are in resistance to yourself. You only love part of yourself, but hate the rest. It's quite neurotic and self-defeating. The GOOD NEWS is that you can change how you feel about yourself by doing inner work. And here's where it might get confusing. You may believe that doing extra things "out there" like quit video games, work out, socialize, etc will fix you. And that's sort of half-true (and necessary eventually), but I want you to understand the real mechanism at play. The quitting addictions and working out should Not be the focus right now, because your inner compass isn't calibrated yet. Work on that, then everything else will follow. You have your paradigm backwards. You think your environment affects your inner state, but in fact it is the opposite. Because you feel unlovable, you receive little love. The things you don't like about your environment are just mirroring things you are not loving about yourself. There is no separation between inner and outer worlds, this duality collapses to just Inner. So my advice to you is this (speaking from personal experience that radically transformed my life over several months. This shit takes time and discomfort): don't change anything about your life just yet. Just observe, accept, then love, in that order, every part of you physically or mentally. This is a lifestyle change mentally (observing, accepting, then loving is always on), without changing a single other thing about your life. Despite how despicable, lonely, flawed, or unloved you may feel, if you cannot love yourself entirely as you are now, then you have no chance of being happy, content, or deeply satisfied for the rest of your life. You must realize that nothing can complete you; you are whole just as you are. I pasted the video on accident, but I'm going to leave it there because it was meant to be. Complete coincidence that one of my quotes above came from this. Take care, friend. If you need anyone to talk to, I'm here. We can talk about anything you need to get off your chest, doesn't have to be serious

Imagine a world if more people did? This is something that I and many other people here are practicing. I know this sounds absolutely crazy (yet another illusory category like good vs. evil), but bear with me. By loving hatred, evil, and violence, you do not support it or act it out. It is an acceptance that this is the way the world is, and it liberates you from inner resistance and turmoil. You are not aware yet how much hatred is built up in you simply from hating other things, even the things you believe are "evil." The Truth is that you are just hating part of Creation (Yes, God must be responsible for all of it), which means you cannot even love or accept yourself as part of that Creation. I believe if you try to quiet your mind and observe yourself, you could Intuit a little of what I'm talking about. So here is my challenge to you: Observe your conversations. Observe your interactions. Closely observe what you do behind closed doors. Closely observe your fear towards other groups of people. Closely observe your fear of yourself. If you are honest with yourself, there is an uneasiness, a resistance, a turmoil within, brewing just beneath the surface. And don't think you might be excluded here... EVERY person on Earth experiences this to varying degrees, yet most are either not conscious of it or won't admit it... So my challenge to you is to find and connect with it. Have a blessed day, my friend. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Do you see an "only if they're good..." clause? Did Jesus say "Only thy neighbor who follows the 10 commandments?" Was Jesus not the embodiment of loving the entire world, even the thieves and scoundrels? Notice how put off you are by the notion of loving everything... And yet you call yourself a Christian. You've been cheated by your religion, by no fault of your own. (Yes, I'm writing the Truth here to rile you up, out of Love. I don't expect your understanding or love back, because I know how hard it must be to read this). God bless.

@purerogue I am the happiness within which all sadness is contained.

I feel bad to comment on my own post but... This is the best video I've seen all week! It's outstanding, and I feel like everyone should watch it, because it speaks to our true nature. "I Am" is authentic and accurate... Please consider giving it a listen. ?

@Elisabeth 5-meo is the most powerful psychedelic known to man. So go with your gut instinct, listen to your heart. There's absolutely no pressure at all, so if you don't feel right about it, then don't go. That simple. There will be many more opportunities later in life. That being said, I recently read an account of someone going to a 5-meo ceremony with only a couple trips under his belt, and it utterly transformed his life in a positive way. He said that prior experience with states didn't really matter, because 5-meo is just a completely different animal anyway.

@Aldo Cold showers are the bomb for resetting your mind quickly. Nothing else comes close (that isn't harmful, that is...). That being said, meditation has many other amazing benefits beyond "being in the moment," so you should really do both if you're serious about personal growth.

@mandyjw an updated understanding of Noble would be if it's in line with Teotl. Did you see Leo's video on Aztec nonduality? I understand why Leo uses the term Noble, but yeah I feel like it's seeped righteousness, separation, and higher "order" commanded by a Blue version of God as a bearded man in the clouds. When I hear "Noble" I think of knights fighting in the Crusades haha. Language is powerful, and that word has a lot of context and history... I feel like it's our duty as self-actualizers to use updated vocabulary like authentic, spiritual, transcendent, nondual, etc. that send a clearer message. There's no reason to hang onto the past. Even Leo using the term "God" constantly has its problems for newcomers understanding the message, because there's so much historical context of using it in a dualistic, separated way.

@ExodiaGearCEO IMO, books ARE necessary for personal growth. There's just no way around it. Try doing a mix of audiobooks and regular books, and start slow. Like 15 minutes each every day. Trust that with consistency, you will learn to enjoy them over time. I also find that I'm more engaged and excited about reading when I have 3 books going on at once. I don't know if you've downloaded songs on iTunes or Spotify, but when you click "download album" it does 3 songs at once, alternating a little of each. I find this to be a powerful technique for maintaining interest.

@mandyjw Noble is admittedly an outdated word with stage Blue roots. Perhaps replace it with "Authentic" to your true nature. If pissing in the wind makes you feel alive, by all means do it! Edit: pissing in the wind: To waste time on a pointless or fruitless task; do something that is ineffective. You can make a complaint if you like, but you'll just be pissing in the wind. The duality of "fruitless" and "fruitfull" collapses when questioned... Indeed, one man's "pissing in the wind" is the next man's authentic expression. So it's all context dependent. The real measure is if the act is in line with your top values... and don't over think life, everyone needs to piss in the wind every now and then to feel alive and human.

@Sidra Thank you for coming here to share you thoughts! I empathize with you deeply. While I was lucky enough to be born in the US, not having to worry about "hard" roadblocks like geographic location, war, strict religious doctrines, etc (my heart goes out to you on those), I've had to deal with a lot of "soft" roadblocks like social pressure, "orange" success expectations, parents, and the biggest one of all, my own mind. It sounds like you're seeking advice for the "soft" roadblocks, which is good, because the hard roadblocks are more personal and logistical (which you can and must figure out yourself or with friends there. Yes, even your parents, so you have to conquer the soft roadblocks first). First and foremost, as a fact of the universe, you will suffocate for the rest of your life if you don't pursue your inner thirst for knowledge, understanding, and true spirituality. Not being authentic to your true nature is the greatest mistake you could ever make. You have a duty to yourself that comes prior to pleasing the world. It's a sacred force within you. To not honor your top values is to deny yourself, and you will be miserable, which also means you can't serve the world in your greatest capacity. Unfortunately, most people are in this category and never accept the call. Just look around you... do they look and feel happy? Do they even know themselves? I highly recommend reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho if you haven't already. Secondly, your parents' main drive, whether they know it or not, is to see you succeed, be happy, and make an impact in a way that's authentic to you. Somewhere along the way society convinced them otherwise, but deep down they are still connected to the feminine spirit of raising a child, to be more successful, happy, and healthy than they were. You have to understand that they FULLY BELIEVE that this narrow path of religion and dogma (they don't see it that way) is what is best for you. They want what is best for you, and that's the only way they know how. Because their parents told them that, and so on all the way back to your great great great great grandparents. And yet... Love will eventually win, you have to trust that. They may get angry, they may never understand, but they will still love and pray for you no matter what. What I'm saying is that you cannot stop for you parent's approval. They don't have the vision you do. They don't know what's best for you. So with Love and Understanding, let go. I broke my family apart for many years because I didn't understand myself and couldn't express what I felt. But this is getting better all the time, and I couldn't be happier now. When you take the initiative to make a positive change in your life, they will come around. They just want to see you do great things. You said "Heartbreaking but liberating" yes. In the end, big picture, this move would be best for both you and your parents. Energy spent persuading your parents is energy wasted. Plain and simple. Lead by example. It doesn't matter how "Blue" you are, an authentic, positive person commands immediate respect. It is universally admired. Attachment and subsequent judgment of views is a lesser, secondary response, for which you should have no interest in. That's low consciousness bullshit and can't be changed. Understand that by trying to change this response, you only feed into it and poison yourself. Read Leo's latest posts, and you'll see that your top values of Truth and Freedom cannot be found in college. That being said, college can be a great opportunity, and might be your ticket out of there! If this is the route you take, remember to never lose sight of the path you are on. Use it for what you need to but don't get sucked in. There are many ways to chip away at and overcome your fears, all of which are based on understanding them. Tim Ferris's technique called "Fearsetting" (search Youtube) is a powerful, logical way to bring perspective on your fears. I highly recommend it, especially for financial and logistical fears like moving and living on your own. For inner fears like self-doubt, limiting beliefs, insecurities, etc., learn about the mechanics of anxiety. Alan Watts (search youtube) has some great talks on understanding anxiety. Basically when you dig to the root in yourself, it's all an illusion! It's attachment to past or false future outcomes, which do not exist. Read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle to understand this. I really wish you the best, and I hope you'll consider the advice here. It is in EVERYONE'S best interest that you take the call to become your greatest version. One last thing, it's a common trap to get frustrated quickly... to give up, point fingers, etc. This stuff takes TIME! Go easy on yourself, you still have a year and a half to figure this out, and even past that, life is just one big "figure it out" simulation with new sets of challenges. Uncertainty is synonymous with change. "Not knowing" is the greatest gift, because it means you are alive! There are few things I'm certain about, and based on my personal experience and research, one of them is that putting your head down and obeying society is synonymous with the decay and death of your soul. Oh, and stay subscribed to the School of Actualized and the forum!

This is very interesting, exactly what I would expect. Thank you.

While I agree with what you said in the first part, I think you are contradicting yourself in the quote above. You are simultaneously thankful for and conscious of Sam Harris's role in your own development (as a stepping stone), while denying he has any positive value. Really? Zoom way out. Consider that society needs figures embodying partial Truth, to serve as stepping stones to higher consciousness down the road. The fact is that there are millions of people (you and I included just a few years ago), that absolutely started leading better, more productive and centered lives because of the work of JP and SH. While they may not be embodying full authenticity because of certain shadows or other personal issues, still consider they may be doing God's work. We all need stepping stone figures... If every teacher was a full-fledged nondual teacher/Yogi/mystic, then society would have no chance of evolving. The only reason Sam Harris, for instance, is seen as credible is because he believes consciousness is caused by the brain! Haha, now that's an insight... Now consider the work he's done on the meditation app, his brilliant podcast that interviews the greatest minds, etc... It's really quite remarkable we have people like him to overall positively influence millions. From God's perspective, it's all part of the plan.

Wow! This could mean a lot for a Nationwide discussion on the topic! I'm proud to live here, and feel very lucky. What are your thoughts on it guys?

@Angelo John Gage @kieranperez it may be possible that he knows the Truth, yet he holds on to the materialist paradigm so as not to alienate his viewers. It seems counter-intuitive but he may be able to have a BIGGER, more POSTIVE impact by playing along with certain aspects of the current paradigm.

@Angelo John Gage so you think he's fully stuck in the materialist paradigm of 3rd person objective and consciousness as an emergent phenomena? Wow, lol. I just assumed because he meditated a lot that he might be more woke, but I guess that makes sense. I haven't really thought about this before, because I haven't heard him talk specifically about consciousness yet.

@Angelo John Gage Im curious why your question might be directed at Sam Harris?

Apples are like gravity... All you need is a little push

@Rilles No, we all have to dress up as a sponge! That would be the ultimate expression of our infinite nature.

Word. I'm so thankful every day for this wonderful resource and community of self-actualizers. It's easy to nitpick, but when you zoom out to the big picture... nothing else really compares.

@Leo Gura Oregon initiative: https://psi-2020.org/donate/ Heffter Research Institute: mission statement: "The Heffter Research Institute promotes research of the highest scientific quality with the classic hallucinogens and related compounds (sometimes called psychedelics) in order to contribute to a greater understanding of the mind leading to the improvement of the human condition, and to alleviate suffering." https://heffter.org/donate/ I couldn't find anything specifically for a California based organization.

Right?! All day, I figured it didn't pass, but I still considered it a win because it was all over the news, and the vote was close. What a nail biter! My fingers are crossed for California and Oregon!

@SOUL media jumped the gun before all the votes were in... Latest news said it passed! https://www.foxnews.com/us/denver-decriminalize-magic-mushrooms https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.denverpost.com/2019/05/08/denver-psychedelic-magic-mushroom/amp/

Laughter is a release of ego. Laughter is rooted in metaphysics, believe it or not... It's the ability to laugh at ourselves in different contexts, because that's all there is to laugh at! Existence and death are infinitely Humorous. The emotion of humor is just a tiny sliver of something greater, like our experience of love.