EternalForest

Working a job is not the problem, it's the mentality that the job cements into you that's the problem. Go ahead and get a job to save money for your own business or dream, but be super careful not to become submissive / a follower in the process. Do your best while you're there, but plan to leave as fast as possible. Be careful NOT to let them condition you into a submissive mentality. And I mean super careful. Because once you lose your drive to escape even a little bit, they've got you by the balls and you may never escape. Good luck.

"You only care about equality because you don't want anyone to be higher than you." False, I fight for equality because I don't want to treat anyone lower than me, because we're all human. It sort of seems like she's treating the world as a zero sum game, when it's actually not. It is possible for everyone to be fed, and everyone to have shelter. Just because we haven't done it doesn't mean it's not possible. Someone who meditates on a mountain for 20 years has more knowledge than you regarding meditation? Sure, but does that mean that there is no value in the perspective of someone who is new to meditation? Perhaps they could have fresh insights that the 20 year meditator could never have anymore. Why? Because their minds are fresh to the process. There is advantage to bringing someone new to a project or process because they are unbiased and have fresh eyes. An engineer is useless in Swan's field and Swan is useless in the engineer's field, but if Swan spent 10 years studying the engineer's field and the engineer spent 10 years studying hers they would be on an even playing field. I don't see her point here. She's off base when she says to ignore weakness. You need to be aware of both your strengths and your weaknesses to be successful. True equality has nothing to do with physical advantages (men trying to give birth, women trying to be physically stronger, etc.), it's impossible for them to do those things, what difference does it make? Equality is about seeing everyone as human. Love and awareness are great, but why can't we also embrace equality? Finally, I love how she asks if this episode "triggers" you, anyone who disagrees with her opinion is "triggered", eh?

Back in June, you gave your thoughts on a deep debate between Jordan Peterson and Matt Dillahunty here: https://www.actualized.org/insights/the-god-debate Besides your channel, I'm an avid viewer of a show Dillahunty frequently hosts called The Atheist Experience, and enjoy listening to Matt Dillahunty's discussions with theists. He's one hell of a debater, and ever since that blog post I've always thought it would be amazing to hear a discussion between the two of you. You made some arguments in that post that he's never heard on the show or in any debate he's had, and while I agree that in 99% of debates the truth rarely comes to light, this could be a great way for you to expose him and the audience of the show to some mindblowing ideas. As you said in your What Is Spirituality? video, you create your content with the intention of communicating to scientific, atheistic and rationally minded people, so you could be one of the first theists to come on the show and really shake up their atheist worldview. Debating him in person would be even better, but for now I think just waiting until a Sunday afternoon when Matt Dillahunty is hosting, and having a short debate on air would be just amazing (other forum members, please also reply to the thread and share if this is something you'd like to see!) Call the show on Sundays 4:00-6:00pm CDT: 1-512-686-0279 Here's their Youtube channel, so after you call in, go there and you should find the live stream! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCprs0DXUS-refN1i8FkQkdg Thanks again for all the great insights over the years and I hope to see you on the show one day

There's nothing wrong with motivational videos, continue watching them! Just be sure that you don't confuse watching a motivational video with accomplishing things. As long as you are taking action on what you watch, motivational content is wonderful.

Sorry if I'm bumping the thread after being inactive for a couple days, but @Leo Gura even though I understand that he would probably be closed minded to the idea that you can perceive truths using more than just the 5 senses, I think it would be worthwhile to simply expose him to the idea. Because if Matt is the true skeptic that he claims to be, if he simply took his skepticism "all the way" as you put it, then I'm sure it would make him re-evaluate things. I'm not even sure if he's aware that spirituality exists outside of religion exclusively. You could simply present it to him as an experiment: be open minded to seeking enlightenment, seek where it leads you, follow where the evidence leads honestly. That's something Matt often talks about, follow where the evidence leads you instead of leading the evidence to the conclusion you want it to. So once again, even though it may be a fruitless pursuit, I still think it's one that's worth the try, but it's up to you. I know that once I have more spiritual experience and confidence in the subject I may even call the show myself and attempt to explain these things. @Serotoninluv Yes, he is very skilled at re framing an argument, and totally rejects personal experiences. Hosts on that show often assert that if something isn't demonstrable to someone else then it can't count as evidence, and on the surface that's a hard thing to argue with. But I think this is just a side effect of rationalists not acknowledging the non physical as a viable source of truth. A spiritual truth is more personal, and even though it may not be as demonstrable to others, there is a trade off in that it is 10x more convincing to the person who had the experience. And I'm not saying that spiritual truths can't be deceiving, but that logic can be deceiving as well, (and not in the sense of a logical fallacy, but in the sense of being physically biased.)