EternalForest

Go to bed at the same time every night, pick a time and stick to it and you won't have sleep problems again (unless you're non-24)

@tsuki Perhaps in a Peter Ralston sense, but that's still a slippery slope.

@FoxFoxFox Is it possible to explain in words? Is Enlightenment the only way to realize the Self?

@FoxFoxFox How do you know?

@FoxFoxFox In a sense, I agree. But in another sense, if you took that attitude towards everything you'd have no thirst for knowledge and become complacent in ignorance.

I'm glad you view this sort of curiosity of about the nature of life and death to be a gift. So many consider it be unhealthy to sit and think about your own death, but I personally find it fascinating. I'll try and contemplate it from different perspectives in the way you mentioned. It's hard not latch onto the dogma of choosing a deity as its been something I've been taught about since I was a child. "don’t let the fact that practically no one knows & understands this discourage your desire to know. It is a matter of self discovery, not odds, and certainly not majority, intelligence, stature or authority...No one can think the answer - why is that, what does that make you aware of? What is the nature of that ‘situation’?....why it is that way - the “guessing game”." You seem to be implying that the Truth is possible to know but it's impossible to communicate. The reason things are this way, is that no one can actually share the answer with me, I have to discover it for myself. "All of that is overthinking (monkey mind), re-read it from that perspective (as much as you can). Pick it apart, one single word at a time. Reveal each word’s origin relative to you, and you’ll see through it’s falsity. " You're saying that I can't consider any of that knowledge or theory as holding any credibility because I haven't experienced it first hand, but what am I left with if I take that thought process to its ultimate end? That no one else's word is any good? That research is, at the end of the day, speculation and nothing more? "How often are you really consciously listening to it? A post? When on the forum? Mood driven? Weekends? “Lately”? " Hard to answer. Definitely not as much as I possibly could be.

@Gabriel Antonio I'm not "worried" about it per se, when my times comes it'll come. It's just something worth being curious about, I suppose.

You're a lucky guy, 7 months could be invaluable to you! 10 ideas off the top of my head: -Travel -30 day meditation retreat -Start learning a new language -Start a daily contemplation journal (also watch high quality shows, documentaries and movies and contemplate them) -Study how things are built, how a house is built, how a computer is built, how a car is built, how a plane is built, etc. -Read holy texts and meditate on them (even if you're not religious, the Bible is still worth reading for scholarly purposes) -Read one book a week and take notes while you read it -Start studying school subjects again, but in a deeper and personal way, things like science, mathematics, history and english, are deeper and more exciting than most have gotten the impression of from school -Create a large art project (novel, music album, painting collection), and complete it over the next 6-7 months -Exercise, get in good shape, etc. There's probably more but that should give you a start, have a great Summer! PS: Do you have a life purpose? Spending this time pursuing that would probably be the most valuable choice of all

On days like today when I only got a couple hours of sleep the night before, I tend to reach this amazing flow state. I feel: -I could sit and meditate for as long as I wanted to without any feeling of resistance (monkey mind is non-existent for this limited time) -I feel "connected" with my environment -Creative ideas flow plentifully and without judgement (and because of this, also tend to be higher quality) -I can achieve hyperfocus -All emotions are felt twice as strong, especially positive ones, and my response to people and situations is more emotionally positive -I can easily view negative emotions in a productive and even humorous way -Small petty things I'd normally get angry about lose relevance -I see the beauty in everything -I see the bigger picture and can easily focus on what matters, people I love, my purpose, my most meaningful work, etc. -I don't feel consumed by fear of failure. -Logic isn't always getting in the way of emotion, but instead freely flows with it in a balanced way -I can think and contemplate with seemingly no limits, the only limit being when I choose to stop -My senses are enhanced and heightened At the end of the day though I'll obviously feel a little burned out from lack of sleep, and when I do fall asleep and wake up again the next morning, I'm back into "normal mode" (the effects are only temporary). But when I'm in this state I genuinely feel a sort of temporary glimpse into what it must feel like to be in a higher state of consciousness all the time. Obviously I know I shouldn't sleep deprive myself regularly, but these occasional glimpses when I am "in the flow" are super powerful. I've even heard sleep deprivation is used to treat depression. Any theories on why sleep deprivation has this euphoric and peaceful effect?

I'm open to the possibility that there may be other realities, but until we can prove one of these other realities using phenomena in our own reality, we have no reason to believe they exist. Even if they do exist, how are we able to demonstrate it objectively? To be clear, it's not that I don't believe they could ever exist. I simply don't believe there is positive evidence to believe they do exist, and until positive evidence comes to the forefront the idea is nothing more than speculation or a thought experiment/hypothesis. Subjective experience is not worthless, but just isn't sufficient to prove multiple realities exist. Unfortunately, even if everyone on Earth claimed to have subjectively experienced another reality, if no one could show each other proof of what they experienced, we still couldn't say for sure if we were all under mass hallucination. Spiritual beliefs tend to also fill in the blanks of our scientific knowledge (consciousness, death, etc.), while conveniently not giving their take on what science broadly covers. There's also a sort of communication barrier between the scientists and the spiritual. The scientists can't seem to "wake up" and the spiritual can't seem to understand the value of logic. The scientist asks "Prove God exists", while the spiritual responds with "Prove you exist!". It's a debate that goes nowhere. One point in the recent What Is God? video I took issue with was the claim that skepticism is more lazy than using your subjective experiences to craft reality, and I just wholly disagree. Studying to find the most rational and accurate answer is indeed work, tons of work, and worthwhile work at that. Although I'm certain that spiritual practices lead to a certain level of fulfillment and insight, to say that the great achievements of science, logic and rationality have been given to us on a silver platter is honestly a little preposterous.

@TheAvatarState Those are great enlightenment/spirituality films Just for another "self-actualization" film though, try Rocky Balboa. This speech has always stuck with me in particular:

If you're looking for Self actualization "in action", you could start by watching biographies of great people. As for fictional stuff, there's The Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump and Good Will Hunting for starters

Watching this video made it click in my mind that to achieve the success I want in life I have to do WHATEVER it takes. It just broke all perceptions of "walls" I had in my way and was super empowering. It may sound crazy, but this video was actually a big turning point in my life.

@Ingit It's kind of like mathematics, two negatives equal a positive. So if someone is depressed and they listen to depressing music it will have a net positive effect on them because they relate to the emotions and its cathartic and makes them feel better. If they're in a positive mood and listen to positive music it makes them even more positive. But once again, everyone is different.

Music is very powerful. See it as adding to whatever state you're in. It's additive, not negative. Silence does, however, have its place.

In the US and many other countries, radio, TV and all other public broadcasts, people are censored from saying certain words/showing certain images. If US society reached higher stages like Green/Yellow/Turquoise, would censorship no longer exist? It seems to be a stage Blue trapping we're still in.

@Aakash Thanks, I'll definitely rewatch the video and research all those terms individually using spiritual texts. You could read a book about each one of those terms, so it could take me years to actually get a deep understanding of them all, but I think once I do I'll be able to put the puzzle pieces together a little bit better logically. But direct experience seems to be what eludes me the most, so I'll also be using the other methods mentioned including meditation, self inquiry and retreats. As said in the video, it's also one of the most tricky topics out there, so I shouldn't feel too bad about being kind of lost, as much as I've already contemplated about this. At the same time though, I shouldn't use that as an excuse to stop seeking and become lazy about it. It's just traps within traps within traps and it's easy to get lost on the wrong path for years before realizing where you went wrong

@Nahm Beautifully put. Yes, I believe alone time is some of the most precious and important time we can spend in life. I've had days like you describe, in such total flow and awareness that time became irrelevant and I was feeling abundance, freedom, creativity, etc. I've made a post in the past where I shared a few songs that made me feel truly one with everything for that moment, brief moments of non-duality, if that's possible with music. I really had a spiritual experience with this music, just listening alone taking in the sound. Walking alone in the forest, journaling alone, reflecting and getting to know myself. You should get to know yourself better than anyone else, I think, because you're gonna spend every minute with em, and if you're good friends than life becomes a blast. But in terms of spirituality, extended periods of quiet alone time have always been where I got my most profound experiences. And profound may not be the best word since I still haven't gotten hardcore with my spirituality and these were scattered session of hour long meditation I did over a long period, and even those weren't always hits but overall I'd say that the spiritual experiences I've had alone over my life have been really beneficial and inspiring.

@Arthur How did that experience affect any fear of death that you had? It would seem like discovering there is literally nothing after death would be fairly frightening, especially if you saw it firsthand.

@Leo Gura All possible possibilities = reality, a hallucination hallucinated by a hallucination...hm, that's some stuff I'm definitely going to mull over. I appreciate your thoughtful responses, as well as everyone elses in the thread. Quality community. I watch your videos because I believe there's some deep truth there, but feel it's just out of my grasp. I'm going to start doing the practices seriously this year, from my previous posts I've shared that I try starting spiritual practices (meditation, lucid dreaming, contemplation, etc.), get some minor progress but then at some point fall away and get disillusioned, frustrated, disinterested, inconsistent, etc.) This year I'd really like to try and make a meditation habit stick, trying to build from 20min to an hour daily and maybe do a retreat this summer and get to the bottom of this stuff, not through this sort of intellectual discussion but more direct experience/meditation. Hopefully this will click for me, only time will tell (I'm in no rush )

@lmfao What you're saying sounds straightforward and makes sense on an intuitive level but it's hard for me to real feel the "realness" of what you're saying, because I've honestly never felt one with everything in that sort of way. At certain moments of creativity I have felt one with what I was creating, and I've felt one with family and friends, and occasionally nature, but not everything all at once in the sense you're talking about. So it's just not true for me on baseline level, but I've had experiences that hint at what you're talking about.

@Leo Gura Okay, I'll take you up on that, all realities are equal. Let's say I have a village in my mind that requires watering the plants, working the power plants, and regulating the weather and sunlight, among other things. I am basically the God of this village. Now let's say I die. What happens to that village? Does the village in my mind suddenly go into chaos? Who would know but me? Where is that "occuring"?

That's just the way it is Oh, but don't you believe them Epic, sounds of inspiration, Han's Zimmer's Time We Come Running! One man can change the world.... 'fore the day I die, Imma touch the sky Viva La Vida, beautiful nostalgia and flowing of spirit and inspiration <3 Finally, xxxtentacion's Schizophrenia and Hope