Roman25

For a while now I thought for a fact that suicide was as logical as it gets. Ends all self-suffering and you won't have to deal with problems. But suicide isn't as logical as it seems since it also negates your possibility for happiness. I personally think that you should continue living as long as a possibility for happiness exists. While you're depressed your problems seem big. But maybe in a couple months you'll completely forget about what was causing the depression in the first place. Let's say that a suicidal thought comes up. You think "I want to kill myself". Now replace that with "I want to fix myself" or "I want to fix (or cope) with my problems".

I recommend that you spend your energy on building good habits rather than using your energy on avoiding the addiction. You will get drained fast from focusing on quitting. Don't worry if you relapse once. This happens to 90% of people trying to quit an addiction. People make the mistake of assuming that all of your progress of quitting gets reset completely when you relapse. Anyways man, I'm glad that you have enough courage to quit something that you identify with. Shows very strong character. Wish you luck man.

@TheAvatarState Nice, you've done your homework. I agree with most of what you said, but about the direct experience point. In reality there are no good tastes or colors. There are atoms and empty void. Our senses are designed to hallucinate the actual reality to aid our survival. People experience the same object or same event differently from one another. And magicians can easily trick a persons direct experience. I'm glad that leo does say to not make actualized.org an ideology. This is because he genuinely does care to improve the lives of others. I like your response to my "just don't agree with everything he says." Because you can use what he says and filter it with what you know to get closer to truth. But you seem be far more educated than me in what we have discussed so far. I'm 16 years old so there are a lot of limits to my understanding. I haven't read hundreds of books and learned extremely deep concepts about reality just yet. Thanks, good luck too man.

With all of that being said, I have nothing against Leo. He means well for others and he's very smart. Just don't agree with every single thing he says. And too many people see him as a god figure whether they want to admit it or not.

On this video for example he doesn't fully understand the wisdom of pyrrohism. He spent two hours saying nothing about self deception. He keeps saying we are being deceived but fails to prove his case. To claim deception you would have to know the truth, but then that calls into doubt how do you know such truth? It’s pretty much amounted to “this is what reality is and if you think otherwise you are deceiving yourself”. It’s the same as anyone with an opinion who expounds on it. The “paradox” argument is a cop out. Experiencing something for yourself doesn’t make it true or real because the sense can be fooled and don’t tell the truth or lie. As for why I don't think he is a credible source for science is the fact that talks too much about the flaws with science in his videos and doesn't discuss how the flaws are negligible for how it can aid someones outlook and understanding of life. I say that he isn't a credible source for math since I saw a mathematician claim that Leo "knows nothing about math" on quora. And you can tell that the man is very experienced in the field of mathematics from his other posts. https://www.quora.com/Is-Leo-Gura’s-Actualized-org-a-scam The very first guy named Lance Everette is the quora mathematician. I don't agree with him that actualized.org is a scam and I don't agree with most of his arguments though. I would tell you where he says it but... I'm too lazy to skim it and find the word "math" because of how absurdly long his comment is. But he definitely does say it though.

Yeesh, that was worded well. I like your point that you don't have to be experienced short-term dopamine levels. And that you can learn to be in a state of contentment. I think my said that same thing a while back. That law of diminishing is something that I've experienced. I bought a gun in the game team fortress 2 for $5 and I thought it would be really cool to have. But I stopped caring after a while and I'm used to it. So I like your point of happiness being "the degree to which you can accept and be conscious of the present moment."

Ego doesn't exist for the hell of it. It has a very strong importance in human survival. Without ego, one would have no motivation for self-actualization, high self-esteem, and healthy habits. Ego does have its downsides where people get arrogant and selfish, but without it, you'd be no different from a rock in terms of motivation. Leo knows more than me about mindfulness practices and consciousness than I do. So I recommend that you ask him directly about whether you can change your sensations through mindfulness. Leo isn't the most credible source when it comes to skepticism, math and science, but he is a genius in the self-help, spirituality and building healthy habits fields.

Ah I get your point. That money won't fix your issues if you have food or alcohol problems and things like that. I understand what you mean now. The thing about quitting an addiction is that it's a slow process. I used to have a youtube addiction where I would watch youtube for hours on end. It took many months to quit that lol. So I've been very catious after that about what I get involved with. And I set up rules to protect me. Like: don't watch porn, don't watch too much youtube, let go of strong cravings for sugary foods, drinks, and so on... It's always beneficial to set yourself up with defenses for what can become an addiction. I'd say that it's not possible to always be happy because it's been scientifically proven that your brain doesn't want to be happy all the time. And if you are then your brain will start turning off receptors (don't know if they're called receptors, read that a while ago) so that you can no longer feel the happiness emotion. Pretty funny how that works. Edit: They are called neurotransmitters, not receptors. And when I say you can no longer feel happiness, I mean for a temporary amount of time.

Let's say for example that you win 5 million dollars. You feel super happy. Now you get a stomach ache because you ate food that didn't mix so well together. You're pissed off. But once you're done being pissed off you'll feel happy again since you use the money for something that brings happiness. It's basically a cycle. And since you don't have to have a job or go to school that opens the opportunity for you live while you're in more control of your life. You won't waste 8 hours a day at school or at work anymore. That's what I mean when I say money provides long-term happiness. You will still be able to feel negative emotions when certain life events happen but the money will open the door for you to do what you want in life. Are you hungry? Are you not happy with where you live? Do you need to go on an adventure? Do you want to take a trip? Do you need medical care? Money fixes all these issues. The issue is if you don't teach yourself how to manage it properly. I'd personally use it to buy healthy foods and I'd never buy something super expensive like a Lamborghini or something. With my average day, I play the game team fortress 2, never watched porn before and I'm never going to, don't enjoy tv very much unless I'm watching a movie with my mom, I like watching educational videos, watching anime every now and then, learning about science, and listening to audio-books. I hate reading real books though. Money would open up the opportunity to do these things for longer periods of time.

What is a devil's advocate?

Love is an illusion that generates a positive emotion throughout the body. When you love someone or something you don't love the actual physical or existential them, you love the idea in your head of the person, place, or thing. For instance, someone with a "love for astronomy" can imagine a black hole and feel the emotion of love for it. They haven't seen a black hole before but they can still feel the emotion.

I'd say that your true self is a variety of brain activity. And that your brain produces that extensional stuff around you, such as your emotions. Without ego one would be no different from a rock. They would have not motivation to live or do anything. That's what separates living from non-living (other than physical properties).

I know a finite amount of delusions since I spend a finite amount of time reflecting on the day. A human being isn't designed for "infinite truth." They are designed to survive. It's not a coincidence how everyone has similar desires, thoughts, and habits. It's a script being played out.

Technically money does make you happy. For a short period of time. Anything that causes happiness only causes the happiness for a short time period. If you have a lot of money then it can cause short bursts of happiness over a long period of time because you'll be able to buy the things you need for survival. There is no being "truly happy." That makes no sense. One cannot just be happy in general. It's laughable how some people don't think money gives you happiness.

You handle meaninglessness by deluding yourself.

I would advise against quitting meditation if you have a lot of progress in it. It's been backed up quite strongly by science to show positive impacts on the subjects who meditate. But it's your decision really if you want to quit.

Interesting, amazes me how anyone is even mentally capable to meditate for that long even once. The most I could ever meditate for in one sitting is probably 1 hour and a half if I really try as hard as possible.

Thank you all for the tips. I'm feeling a lot better about giving the new habits a shot

I want to develop the habit of reading books more often and learn how to write my own book(s). I do listen to audio-books commonly but I rarely have the courage to pick up many physical books. And I want to practice gratitude, get back into meditation, and things like that. But I already have habits that fill themselves that I am more interested in. But I don't want to be interested in anymore. If that makes sense..

I honestly don't think that that's healthy. Humans have needs that must be fulfilled. It's unnatural. Which is why spending hours on technology is unhealthy no matter what you use it for. Since it's unnatural.

I have a hard time believing that the universe is infinite. Mainly because of 2 reasons. Space is black & you can only see so many stars. Let's discuss reason #1. When your mind can't distinguish something due to lack of light entering your eyes, that object is seen as black. It is there but your can't interpret what it is. The color black is basically just an eye error in a way unless it's black paint or something like that. Black paint isn't the same as black when there's no light. When you look at the night sky then you see the color black. If it went on forever then it would be clear since there is nothing for you mind to perceive. Reason #2. You can see an individual star in space. If space was infinite then there would be an infinite number of stars. So you wouldn't see the black. All you'd see is stars covering the whole sky. Your thoughts or counter arguments?

Funny how you talk about love. I've been thinking just recently about what it is. So I'll give you my full assumption based off what I observed. Love is an illusion that generates a positive emotion throughout the body. When you love someone or something you don't love the actual physical or existential them, you love the idea in your head of the person, place, or thing. For instance, someone with a "love for astronomy" can imagine a black hole and feel the emotion of love for it. They haven't seen a black hole before but they can still feel the emotion. Even the whole concept of dating someone is just concept. Based off of the philosophy of dating someone, you can date anyone on the planet.

Not a problem lol

You weren't the one who I said was including emotion. FredFred did before he edited his comment. Take a look at your hand. You can't see an individual atom in your hand since it takes up a very small amount of sight. But you can see your hand since all of the atoms are very close together and high in number which takes up more area of sight. If there were an infinite number of stars then it won't matter how far away they are. You'd still see them because they would block any available area of sight.

I like the way you talk. You have a lot of great wisdom to share