FredFred

Anyone know about 5-MeO in Oxalate salt form? What's basically the main difference between this vs. freebase or HCL?

Thanks you for your suggestions everyone

Hey! This question's been bothering me for a while. I sometimes get asked why I started my meditation practice. Of course I could give the boring reasons as an answer (reducing stress, better concentration at school, etc.), but I always find it difficult to say exactly why i started doing it, that is to experience the true nature of reality. It's not because I don't know what to say to them, I just don't want to sound like a complete lunatic. I want to make them really reflect on what got me into spirituality and maybe even get them interested with trying the practice themselves. Let's say my father ask me why I meditate. My father has a very orange side of thinking. He studied science in university, he does mathematics and business now at his job and thinks every religious person is a lower-being. Knowing that, how should I even start talking to him about the subject of spirituality? How would I spark that interest in him? As I said I've been reflecting on that question for a while now. I even have a google document with a couple pages of ideas in it haha. For some reasons, I just can't figure out what to tackle first in these kinds of situation.

Two questions popped in my mind while meditating. When I watch the breath, I've noticed that my mind shift between 2 'states'. I'm either concentrated on the feeling of breath, or simply aware of the breath. Let me clarify what I'm talking about, we need to speak the same language : Concentration : A general sense of 'being' the breath. Focusing really heavily on feeling it's coldness, it's bumps and waves, it's velocity, it's mass... When in this state, I feel like my consciousness is completely inside the breath, about at the far end of the throat. It's like I'm analyzing the breath back and forth every single time I breath in or breathe out. Awareness : Simply being conscious of the breath. Like watching the breath from far, far away. A dot that 'is' when inhaling, and that 'isn't' when exhaling. Being close enough to know when the breath is, but being far enough to have forgotten what breathing means. I've already figured that the shifting between these states is problematic. I need to focus all my energy on one state or the other, not alternate between the two. Now that you know what I'm talking about, here are my two questions : 1. Am I even on the right track? Am I experiencing the right things? Is it normal to have this result? 2. If normal, which one of the 2 states should I put my energy on? I figured I would ask wiser people, Thank you

Cannabis becomes legal here in Canada tomorrow morning. As of the 17th of October, I'll be able to buy flowers, oils and edibles from a legal, government owned dispensary. I'll be able to smoke and enjoy weed in the comfort of my own home without being judged as a criminal. I was wondering what was this forums opinions on this subject! Is this a good idea, what will happen in the long run, how will today's society change in the following years? And the most important of all : will cannabis legalization have any repercussions on the population's overall connection with spirituality? Let us know what you think!

I feel like this topic has been going off-road for a good while now. On 124 replies, only 5 tried to answer my original question.

@luckieluuke Thanks luke

I don't know how I feel about this question, but I won't have answers if I don't ask it first. Please correct me if I got anything wrong, I probably will. Hell, I don't even know if even the most basic knowledge I have about this stuff is true. So quantum physics tells us something 'isn't' before having direct contact with it. An atom isn't an atom, it's a cloud of possibility, and it won't be an atom until the cloud collapses into an atom. Let's say everything that has the capability to have direct experience with anything there 'is' stops to look at the moon for an hour. During that hour I make some calculations on paper and understand that the moon will be at a certain place in the sky when I will look at it later. One hour pass, I turn my head and boom! it's right where I figured it would be. How come? I feel like I'm stuck in stage orange, can someone help me understand if I got something wrong? Thanks!

@Jack River So I understand that I should start with concentration on the breath at first. Pure awareness looks very hard to achieve and I won't be there for quite a while. I'm interested however on how the transition between concentration and pure awareness will go. Will concentration simply dissolve, leaving place to awareness?

@graded24 Thank you for your response, I'll try to wrap my head around that!

@Jack River Bringing total, undivided attention to the breath. Noticing thoughts arrive, but letting them go in order to return on the breath. Doing that over and over again.

@Jack River Thank you for your awareness explanation, helps me understand it better But still, for mindfulness meditation, is concentration or awareness the better option?

@Serotoninluv That is really cool! Small wikipedia page here I come! @Viking In the sense that I fell like I'm unable to see the bigger picture.

@Nondescript Then your list is incomplete!

@Nondescript Is marijuana or cannbidiol also listed as symptoms reducers?

@Leo Gura If I saw correctly, people might suggest it ease the symptoms rather than cure it. There's not a lot of reports about the treatment though. Here's the only semi-legit case study I found: http://libertyroot.net/ibogaine-and-parkinsons-disease/ The rest is just people here and there saying it helps. Have you personally tried ibogaine Leo?

@How to be wise You mention The Work of Byron Katie every 2 posts, you have Byron Katie as your profile picture and you have one of her quotes in your signature. Are you blindly believing the words of one author versus another? Is this a new form of religion? Trust the teaching, not the teacher. I think OP's website is really cool! It's very well done and a good introduction to anyone who would be interested on the subject. Do not forget, there are no right paths.

Here's my take on it: -- Part I His argument is very poor. Comparing absolute infinity to a marvel comic really makes no sense at all. Absolute infinity did not just invent the reality 'we' live in, it is ALL there IS. Stanley invented the Spiderman, but wasn't Spiderman himself, or never claimed to be. -- Part II If God is indeed absolute infinity, again it means that it is ALL there IS. It is 'you', it is 'me', it is that chair, etc. I feel like Tom has trouble understanding this, which is perfectly normal. I feel like anyone besides enlightened people have trouble understanding this. I also don't think enlightened people consider 'themselves' from being above the laws of physics, that would just be plain stupid. They just know and understand that there's something above physics. -- Part III People giving teachings about non-dualism and saying that they are God don't really do it because of their ego... That's a ridiculous thing to assume... You don't need to understand things in order to know they exist? An hermit making a direct experience of the moon by looking at it for the first time doesn't understand what he's seeing, but yet knows that there's is something radically different from the usual night sky right there. T+ 13:00 What? -- Part IV Basically 5 minutes of endless contradictions. I didn't give my take on everything he said. Feel free to quote or refute me if I'm wrong at some places. I usually like Tom's videos. He gives useful advices on the use of psychedelics, and his trip reports are always pretty interesting to hear. But I feel like this video misses the point. The editing job is really great though!

@Nahm I sit in sweatpants, very comfortable

I've come to a problem in my meditation practice, I wondered if some of you could help me overcome it. So I'm there, watching my breath. When I inhale everything is fine. I can concentrate on the raising of my chest, on the cold air coming into my nose or even on the slight vibration of my nose hairs. But things get confusing when I exhale. I can't feel the air going through my nose. I can't feel the cold air since it's hot, and for a reason I'm not completely sure about, it's like my hairs don't vibrate anymore... I often feel like I'm always looking for a focal point to put my concentration on when exhaling, which I can't find, and lose my concentration because of it. Any ideas on what to do with this?

@Hellspeed I hadn't thought about the earplugs. Thank you for the recommendation @Nahm I'll make sure to try the technique!

I've had my fair share of cannabis, and I've come up with my own special way of appreciating it. This won't give you insights on your spiritual life, at least it doesn't give me any, but there's something about how it affects the mind that is so fascinating. Let me teach you: Blast a shit load of the substance. When I say a shit load, I mean it. For me it's about a 35mg to 40mg edible, or the equivalent smoked. I use a vape pen, which is very convenient. Then, sit down as you would when you meditate. Do not try to follow the breath, do not try to be mindful. Do not try to sit in a certain position that's supposed to be better than another, just be comfortable. Follow your thoughts, but do not try to control them, just watch. Completely surrender to what's coming next. My thoughts become so fluid, it's absolutely captivating. It's almost like they're more fluid than water itself. It switch from one thought to another in a way that's so effortless. I often see lots of animals, insects and not so often people. I do not associate words to these thoughts, I only perceive vague concepts. It's really an experience like no others, I wouldn't know how to describe it, it's nothing like normal consciousness. I think it's one of the best experience you can have on cannabis. As I said earlier, I don't think you can have an enlightening experience this way, or any form of insights for that matter. But I've only done this for a handful of times, so who am I to talk. I still think it's a very interesting thing to do on cannabis.

Hey! Maybe this question will sound stupid or non-interesting, but it got me genuinely intrigued. I figured at least one of you could give me an answer. I've been watching Samadhi movie part 2. When the author talks about the samadhi state, he often presents fractals on screen as such: or this: My question is: when realizing samadhi, does one actually see/perceive such fractals? Or is it just a semi-adequate representation of absolute infinity? Thanks!

That makes sense, thanks Leo!