EternalForest

@OctagonOctopus But you can't really lose resources when it comes to consciousness. The law of conversation of matter states that things are not created or destroyed, only morphed.

@OctagonOctopus Why must the fractal eliminate what's behind it? Why can't it expand with addition, instead of with destruction?

There's a time to be serious, but there's even more time to be laughing! To live a life of seriousness all the time makes the soul weary. The line between comedy and tragedy is extremely thin. The same thing that would make you cry your heart out could also make you laugh your head off. It's all about perspective. There's nothing you can't joke about, because when you do, you let go. Laughter is an amazing way to maintain happiness. Leo once made a video about listing out your Top 10 Things You Love About Life. Laughter would definitely be near the top of my list.

The more deeply I study Spiral Dynamics, the more I realize that the true juice of life is lived at Tier 1, and not Tier 2. I mean yes, at Stage Yellow or Turquiose you've accessed levels of consciousness that most people couldn't even imagine, you've gained a total understanding of the entire system, and you've obtained all the wisdom you'll ever need. But...then what? What's left for you to do? The answer is nothing. There's nothing to do, there's nowhere to go from there except to start anew. From my view, the people at Stages Blue, Orange and Green, although they might be going through their own dysfunctions and they have their own levels of ignorance about things, there's a certain bliss in that. There's a certain bliss in living your life simply to make your family happy, to make your friends happy, to go see a football game or an epic concert, to building a business that matters a lot to you, to going to church, to having your own passions, goals and dreams. There's a certain joyful simplicity in life at Tier 1, a genuine purpose and a certain wonder at how the whole system is constructed. Sure, you can still have the knowledge of how the entire thing works metaphysically at Stage Yellow and still get that juice out of life, but its more subdued. There's more joy in experiencing than simply being. Tier 1 gets to actually get dirty and appreciate the highs and lows and intensities of life first hand. Turquoise may be conscious, but at the level they're at, they can't unknow the fact that they are an observer. It's like asking someone: Would you rather watch a movie or be inside the movie? There's a certain pleasure to both, but if you ask me, I'd rather be in the middle of the action, I'd rather be inside the movie!

I never said there was a best stage, I just said Tier 1 is underrated. What stage do you think I'm in? @Eph75 If you think I'm in fear, you're mistaken. I'm just becoming aware that moving up to further stages is inevitable and so it's best to see the best in the lower stages, and recognize that your perspective in them is temporary. Like Leo's video about impermanence, all of this will be gone someday. The more you internalize that truth, the more you appreciate Tier 1, I believe. I'm allured by Tier 2 yes, but I'm not afraid of it. Very important distinction. A defense mechanism would be to straight up attack it and call it inferior, which I'm not. In concept, it's the logical end point to the entire system, and as you said, a building process.

@Serotoninluv Sure, but I think if God wishes to experience itself through the self, then the self is something to be cherished. I guess over time I've stopped becoming so attached to this constant need to transcend-transcend-transcend all the time, and instead, fully relish in the state I'm in now. Because once you've transcended, you've transcended. You'll never really be who you are at this moment again. And I think that's what the beauty of Tier 1 is. Your identity is created out of what you do not know. But once you do know your true identity, you'll realize that all past identities were nothing but an illusion. Enjoy the illusion, while it lasts...

Now before you comment, just to throw it out there, I'm not suggesting that you should treat every date like an interview or an interrogation, these are just questions to throw in from time to time to learn more about your partner and see how compatible your values and your outlooks on life are. Secondly, I acknowledge that sometimes being with someone who is different than you can inspire a more interesting relationship, and you don't have to agree 100% on every single question. Obviously overall chemistry is the most important.

If its going to happen, it'll happen naturally.

@Martin123 Interesting, never thought about it that way! You have a unique perspective on things.

@Martin123 Let me clarify... I'm not treating a relationship like a checklist, like if they don't check off all the boxes on the list, then I can't be with them. On the contrary, I'm asking for questions to discover more about your partner and accept them for who they are + grow with them. Questions are not the only way to do this, as you said just by spending time with one another many questions will be answered naturally. What I don't like though, is when you said that the questions you ask reveal your own insecurities, demands and past scars. That's simply untrue. If the dynamic of a relationship is truly free and open, you won't jump to the conclusion that the motives of the question are toxic. It's like when you ask someone for information and they say "Why do you want to know?" "If you don't tell me why you want to know, I won't tell you.". It makes you feel like that person must suspect the worst of you, and it makes you less willing to be intimate with that person. Granted, anyone can refuse to give information for any reason, but it's best if they're honest and just say it rather than tell you "I don't want to talk about it." when they really mean "I don't want to talk about it with you." So overall, openness and honesty is the best policy.

It's a bit harder to find profundity in this style compared to others since it's not as obvious. But if you can see the profundity and beauty of all things, all stages, including all types of music, and you begin to love this music just as you love your own style, you will begin to appreciate the beauty of all creativity at once, and expand your joy of art as a whole tenfold.

Something seems off about this "Miracle Awakening". Whereas other previous awakenings were inspiring and Love-filled, this one felt "off". To reject all knowledge outside yourself is quite dangerous, the groundwork for self-deception. Listen to what you've said before, no one knows it all, and no one possibly could know it all. Always be most suspicious of your own mind, especially when it tells you that not only are you the only one who knows Truth, but you're the only one capable of knowing Truth. Through non-duality we know that knowledge is free flowing, all people have access to Infinite Intelligence, if only they wish to tune in. Not to mention, viewing spirituality as this sort of zero sum game or like sports where genetics play a big part of your success and if you're not "gifted", anything less than taking psychedelics 100s of times will not lead you to the "highest states" just doesn't resonate. Listen to what you've said before: "Psychedelics can be a powerful tool but they are by far not the only tool", Leo do you not believe this anymore? During your Hawaii retreat you said the downsides of depending on psychedelics, please go back and watch that video, because there's reason for concern. If Self-Love truly is the highest teaching in the universe, how could you be so cynical of humanity? How could you think so little of them? That over 99% of them are not capable of seeing what you've seen? I know in my heart that through God all things are possible, and through Love and Consciousness work all people are capable of discovering the truth about themselves and reach the highest states possible.

I am a big fan of pop culture. I love to explore what is mainstream, what is underground, what is traditional, and what is seen as progressive in any given culture, and how that differs from others. I can go on deep rabbit holes such as the music culture of NYC in the 1990s, the film culture of Hollywood in the 1970s, or even use the Internet Wayback Machine to view old internet culture. These deep dives put me in a very specific time and place, and every era has a certain energy to it. We're in a very special time where we can explore all these cultures with just the click of the mouse. I don't think many people realize how powerful the internet truly is, used productively. Being as passionate as I am about this, I wanted to make some comments on the recent blog post: "The Big Picture of Global Politics" Globalism is a positive thing in many ways, but it isn't without its sacrifices, namely the homogenization of culture. Appealing to all audiences ends up appealing to no one. This is why if you ask people what the most powerful experience they had with art or culture was, it probably wasn't the #1 single or the highest grossing film or a New York Times Bestseller or a tourist attraction (although it sometimes could be). It was more likely a song from a niche subgenre that not many know about but they strongly resonated with, a strange film they found browsing by accident, an old book that their Grandmother had on her dusty bookshelf, or a vacation to small village in France with its own little quirks. Homogenized art lacks a strong creative voice. If you study all the greatest creative movements across all mediums, you'll find that they were all very insular, in the sense that it was a small group that influenced each other and did something really unique and special. Globalism has no culture. It has no context or history. Preserving American culture is important, not because it defines any one person's identity or we should cling to it, but because we should inherently strive to protect the purity of individual perspectives. We have to be able to have these cultures in place, and be able to use them to unify us, but at the same time I think keeping cultures pure is a positive thing as well. In the best case scenario, cultures can co-mingle and create new cultures. But this is of course considering that corporate interests don't get involved. Don't get me wrong, I do believe that anyone, regardless of their ethnicity, gender or background, should be able to participate in any culture they wish. All that's required is that they keep the mindset of that culture intact. Because at its core, outside of time, place and context, culture is an energy. It's a mindset. It's something very specific yet extremely powerful. And it's best left alone, so it can allow itself to flourish. Pop/global culture is good, but it's only one culture, and I hope that one day it is not the only one...

He's one of my favorite musicians, watched many interviews and followed him through the years, and at the moment I'd say he's Stage Blue through and through. Occasionally he'll fall into Stage Red thinking (Yeezus), during his lower periods, but at the moment he's in a healthy version of Stage Blue. He was so close to being Green last year (Ye, Kids See Ghosts), but now the dogmatic religious thinking patterns from his College Dropout days are having a backlash. I think he's more artistically developed than he is self-actualized. He's a brilliant artist, powerful speaker, and a really bright guy, but it's obvious he's got a lot of growth to do. Edit: Just forgot to add that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is like the epitome of Stage Orange, like a pure Orange album

Sorry about bumping the post after being inactive for weeks, I just haven't been online in a while and wanted to make one last reply: @remember Despite the negative connotation with it ("It's not as good as you remember, it's just nostalgia"), I think nostalgia is something to be valued. You bring up an interesting point with the cowboys and guns example. I certainly wouldn't want cowboys of that nature running around nowadays, and perhaps it's best they be left in the past. What I'm referring to is more of the positive things we have lost to the past. There are so many ways in which past cultures were more conscious than American culture today, and I don't believe this amounts to nostalgia, it's just fact. Media is the best way to preserve it, I agree. But that brings up the issue of lost and unplayable media. Data rot is something I worry about, how many old hard drives and CD databases of stuff we could lose... And I agree. We really are conditioned to think the future looks a certain way through scifi, but for all we know it could look nothing like that. @Oeaohoo I don't understand how the ideas I'm presenting are nationalistic. I'm not claiming any one culture is better than another, or even that members of one culture can't join another. Anyone can join an art movement or political movement, regardless of where you're from. I think the benefits of globalism outweigh the negatives by a long shot, but it must be pointed out there will be downsides, such as cultural homogenization. If all cultures become one, cultural diversity is inherently sacrificed. Because for something to be, it must not-be something else. Let's say hypothetically, all cultures became one, what would buildings look like? What would music sound like? What would food taste like? What would the government look like? Probably something unique and awesome right? We all want to see what that would be like...but then you realize that that one Global culture would just be....it? This is it now. You wouldn't have hundreds of unique perspectives anymore, it would just leave with one. And as good as that one would/could be, I would personally rather have 100s.

@Odysseus Art that needs no introduction to be great is certainly a great thing in of itself. What I'm referring to is more of the importance of the contexts, circumstances and processes out of which that art was created to not be lost, as that's an essential part of what makes it what it is. I want to preserve an original snapshot that contains the essence of every culture for posterity. Context isn't necessary for enjoyment, but it is necessary for full appreciation. But as you put quite eloquently, it's always open to any and every interpretation As far as what I mean by homogenization, I don't believe in the pretentious notion that the most popular art is the most shallow. I've seen plenty of shallow underground art and plenty of deep, introspective and profound mainstream works in every medium. Homogenized in the sense I'm using it is more synonymous with "corporatized"

@Leo Gura Blending of cultures is a good thing, but preservation is still important. The essence of the thing must be saved, if even for the purpose of future fusions. It's kind of like cooking. To make something new you still all those basic ingredients. Though just a bowl of white rice by itself might get boring if you ate it every day, at the same time that white rice needs to exist in its purest form to be used in making something new. It's important for rice to stay boring so we can use it make new things more exciting. If the rice itself became too exciting or novel it wouldn't be rice anymore. What's wrong with doing both? Striving to create new cultures through the blending of existing cultures, but also keeping an archive or specific area "traditional". My city does something like this with the Art Museum (containing classic pieces spanning thousands of years) and the Contemporary Art Museum, which features the most cutting edge pieces. This system is a nice compromise which could be applied at a more meta, cultural level. Of course a major city will have MORE creative activity, but are they going to have the SPECIFIC, and very niche appeal that the culture of a small village may have? Likely not. Preserving the languages of small tribes is valuable, thousands of people dedicate their lives to archiving this stuff. In theory, yes, that should happen. And I'd venture to say that even in practice, it's entirely possible to happen. All I'm saying is that, in practice, many times, the essence of the original culture is lost in the process of fusion, and that's my worry. It's history we're talking about here. And a lot is lost in that game of telephone. This is a good point. I definitely agree that on a functional level like this, unification is valuable. Nationalism? I'm not claiming any one culture is "best". The US isn't "better" than China, for example. What's best is subjective. I just find it valuable to always have a "copy of the original file around". Sort of like how you try not to have too much influence over an experiment you're running. You want to let it run its course. That's not to say you couldn't use that original file to create a new one though. I'm confused now, a minute ago you said globalism doesn't need one culture to be best, but now you're using 80's technology as a metaphor for how culture "improves over time". Question is, in what sense? In terms of medical, equality, and tech maybe, but in other ways certainly not...it's not binary.

One of my best friends is very biased against philosophical, spiritual and metaphysical topics. He believes those topics are completely subjective, and not worth exploring to him compared to "objective science". I'd like to share Actualized.org with him, but I'm looking for a good place to start. I was thinking of this one: Any other good introduction videos?

@This is the end American and Chinese culture are becoming more similar than they seem. China is becoming more like the US every decade as they move into Stage Orange.

@TheAvatarState Good choice, curious to see his thoughts on that one.

@TheAvatarState That's definitely a Top 10 video for me. Trouble is, at least for right now, there's no way he'd ever sit through a 3 hour video on spirituality. Anything equally as good, but shorter? I don't want to push anything on him, so I likely only have one shot, one video to make an impression. I'm starting to think that I might be better served talking to him myself and working through some paradigms first before sharing anything. If there's anything I've learned from these videos, it's that people's minds can only change through their own insight and personal experience. I've got enough work to do on myself, I shouldn't spend too much time trying to persuade just yet (although there's nothing wrong with sharing information to those who are open).

@d0ornokey Good point. What I may do is throw in a few of these questions or ideas in more casual conversation, or start from a more Stage Green standpoint, (now that you mention it, that video is definitely too Yellow). There just isn't an easy way to share this content, even though it's the content I would honestly like to share most. I haven't shared it with anyone I know outside of one person, who I was very confident would be open to it from the start and he ended up gaining a lot from the book list and concepts here.

You should have many types of friends around. I have a few friends for just going out and having fun, others for making music, others for nerding out (games, movies, anime, etc.) others for having deep conversations and self development. Sometimes they overlap, but they don't always have to! Don't try and find them, perhaps if you introduce the topics to the friends you have now in the right way a spark could ignite. Love your friends for who they are.

I do have OCD, and throughout the day, if I get into one my little "cycles", then thoughts may have trouble leaving my mind. Yet strangely, meditation gives me no real struggle. I can easily sit and just relax my mind. There is no clearing my mind. I might be the minority, but I can easily sit for an hour in an empty room and quiet my mind. I may look at the clock a few times, and sure, any more than an hour and it may become a challenge. But there's no monkey mind as far as I can see. If I try to focus like it's taught in certain meditation methods, it makes me over-focus because I already feel focused, yet relaxed, Thoughts may arise in my mind, but I can choose to entertain or to not entertain them at will. The worst that can happen for me during meditation is falling asleep! At the same time though, I feel no real need to make it a daily habit to sit down and meditate. When I do it's nice, but I don't get very much from it outside of some extra relaxation. I've had more spiritual experiences through astral projection or lucid dreams on a real-life level of vividness. Those experiences take me somewhere beyond myself, but meditation does nothing of the sort for me. One theory I have is that I'm not meditating correctly, there's something I'm doing that's keeping it from being what its supposed to be. Edit: I'd like to add that my favorite meditation sessions have been done in extremely large rooms, out in nature, looking at the trees around me, or looking out the window of a tall building from the 8th floor at the city below. Those have given me more enjoyment than sitting in a normal room, but it had nothing to do with the meditation itself, it had more to do with me enjoying the environment. Sessions in an environment I enjoy I could even see myself doing for 90 minutes. But even these experiences feel shallow to me. It feels like I'm sitting there doing nothing! And I know that's what it's supposed to be, but its an hour of "This feels nice." without any real lasting draw for me to return.