Consilience

Thank you for this. Your posts are always uber helpful, as a fellow TMI practitioner. Unfortunately Im still battling subtle distractions in stage 6 so Ill have to revisit this post again in the future once my mind is more unified... But still helpful nonetheless. Interestingly, I started incorporating the smile with my sits and Ive already experienced a noticeable increase in joy, happiness, and pleasure. Joy has been the slowest and most subtle result of the smile, but it’s funny how effective such a small change has made. The good news about the subtle distractions is that even though they continue to be projected into consciousness, the speed at which attention autocorrects itself back to the meditation object continues to increase. Hopefully Ill be able to start cultivating effortlessness soon.

Looked extremely fascinating. Ordered and thank you for sharing!

Hearing about the Hard Problem of Consciousness on Sam Harris’s podcast and realizing science did not take the significance of this problem seriously. Also smoking a lot of weed and being extremely fascinated with how consciousness was able to change so dramatically.

I've found the commonality to be concentration/stability of attention. In all forms of meditation, the scattering of mind is not conducive towards whatever you're trying to accomplish. The only exception would be the "do nothing" technique, which I don't find to be particularly useful anyways. I've also heard the essence of meditation being described as concentration and surrender. I've also heard it being defined as building mindfulness, concentration, and equanimity, which I find to be a really good model. Building mindfulness is essentially the same as expanding one's awareness, concentration would be the stability of attention aka single pointed focus, and then equanimity would be the ability to be content, perhaps even happy, with simply being and nothing more. This last model is how I view the end "goal" of meditation itself, but I use quotations because if one is trying to achieve this state, you're already unable to actualize what this model points towards. That being said, this is the direction my practice has led me to: the cultivation of awareness (mindfulness), concentration (stability of mind/attention), and equanimity (life's good mayne).

The principle of integrity is huge here. When you say you're going to do something, DO IT. If you can’t trust your own word, what kind of results in life do you expect? Start small, build momentum with your integrity, and over time let your word mean something. The principle of integrity is one of the most powerful and under appreciated principles of self actualization.

Great post.. Never really thought of actualizing the inner warrior this way, but I really like it. Thank you for sharing

? wut

Plenty of people have reached this without psychedelics Beautiful thread OP ❤️??

A heads up, while nice in some ways, is also unnecessary. Leo’s given us an insane, absolutely insane, amount of knowledge and theory to integrate into practice. A heads up is really only beneficial to our ego’s desire and craving for more content. S’all good though. Im happy he’s taken the week off from posting, whatever the reason. We all need rest.

@Serotoninluv @mandyjw Lifting weights is another way exercise can become spiritual. Doing tempo based compound lifting ie doing a squat very slowly has had a powerful effect of my body awareness and ability to move with grace. Exercise, all forms, can grow to become spiritual in nature

I had very little magic as a child. I was very introverted, had a big imagination, played a lot of video games, played sports, did pretty well in school. Kinda a typical kid in all honesty. But I was a mega atheist and despised all religion even from a very young age. Very anti spiritual. By the time I got to uni, I was a hardcore rationalist that took pleasure in arguing with anyone spiritual. But now, because of my exploration with things like weed, psychedelics, and especially learning how to *effectively* meditate, my life has become rather magical. Magic doesn’t manifest anywhere but here. In fact, here and now is the most magical moment of your life But only as my mind has become still, my concentration sharp, and insights permeate into my being has this magic and intuition blossomed. I was never talented. I sucked at meditating at first, like horrible. But persistence with meditation, courage to suspend reality with mind altering substances, and a desire to open my heart up has been the energy needed to achieve this “spiritual success” you speak of. Your life is a miracle. This moment is pure magic. Learn to appreciate deeply, feel compassionately, concentrate effectively, and discover indefinitely. You’ll achieve what you seek.

? I used to have this issue. But over the last month in particular, concentration has been much more stable. I use the meditation system outlined in The Mind Illuminated. Kriya seems to have a huge effect on the mind too though. Ive been curious about whether it would be possible to combine both. For now, tmi meditation is my daily practice.

Usually spontaneous psychedelic trips aren't the best idea. Getting mind fucked by reality tends to go a lot more smoothly when one carefully plans the set and setting beforehand. However as I've grown in experience with tripping, I've also learned to trust my intuition. I knew I would be tripping sometime this week, but I didn't know when. One thing lead to another and the next thing I know I'm in a hotel room on the west coast (not worth getting into with how or why this was booked.) I wanted to write this trip report primarily to help me with my integration process. I know I enjoy reading trip reports so hopefully some in the community will find this of value. Set: To let the experience be and teach whatever it wants while contemplating "who am I?" Setting: 6pm at a hotel on the beach on the west coast. The entire trip took place that evening roughly from 6pm-12pm. Because I live far enough north the entire thing occurred while the sun was down which created a very cold, and dark vibe, but despite the weird initial energy, it felt like the Universe had guided me to this beach for a purpose and to back out would be to ignore a very authentic call to trip. Moreover, a ridiculously odd synchronicity occurred after checking into the hotel room. Out of all the cheap 2 star hotels available close to the beach in this particular town the one I picked had a very crazy wifi password: AGAPE. For those who don't know, AGAPE is traditionally a Christian term meaning "the love of God for man and of man for God," but from a non-dual perspective, I take this word to simply mean the love of god, of infinite consciousness, of the universe, of the absolute, etc. This wifi password seemed to set the entire tone of the trip. Pre-Trip: It feels like the more psychedelic trips I do, the more sensitive I become to the substances; specifically LSD and magic mushrooms since those are the only two I have access to at the moment. It seems that a reverse tolerance effect has taken place overtime which is why I only took 1.5g. Plus, since I was in an unfamiliar setting doing a not so legal act. Themes that emerged: Agape Infinity Void/Emptiness Stillness Lightness of mind Sobriety Agape Man… What can I say… As I was peaking, I walked out of the hotel room and wandered to the coast. The beach was pitch black; the further into the sand I traveled the darker the light from the town became, engulfing my vision into darkness and the light of the stars (the sky had no clouds at all). I remember looking up and out into the physical universe, and soaking in the energy. My heart chakra lit up as if receiving literal energy from the cosmos while also emitting this energy back out. As I stood there, listening to the waves and watching the stars, I felt the interconnectivity of all phenomena, all objects, all experience, all beings. And I realized that the thread connecting this giant tapestry of existence was none other than the Love of God, Agape. It felt overwhelming. And even as I write this out, I tears form. Words can't really be used to describe what this love is. It's formless, but it connects all form and is not separate from any form. It can't be thought, experienced with perception, or really experienced through form. The body and mind can react to this Agape with tears or ecstasy (or horror), but those experiences in and of themselves are not it. The mushrooms seemed to open my body (specifically the heart center) and still my mind in such a way that a conscious leap took place. Upon which all I could feel was how much love their was for all perspectives, all evil, all good, for my specific egoic life, for all the horrors of mankind, for all the saints and sages across time, there is this deep existential acceptance and infinite love for it all. There is nothing, but love for all of it, and I am that love. This love is light, it is all encompassing, it is completely formless and free connecting the entirety of existence. This love is truly infinite and indiscriminatory. This is both utterly tragic and beautiful to my ego. Thank you wifi password. Infinity How could I not feel the magnitude of infinity while looking up at those stars? Truly a conscious leap that transcends mind, logic, language, time, and even space must take place to truly feel what I felt on that beach. It was as though I was standing at center of eternity with the cosmos smiling down. I remember feeling really happy and at peace at this infinity. It felt light, and harmonious. Something specifically about staring up into the universe created a spaciousness to my awareness; it felt boundlessly free, extending to all of reality. The duality of self and other collapsed as well. Oddly enough, I wouldn't say there was an ego death. Rather, the true Self emerged and watched the ego, while the ego cried with deep appreciation. It was so obvious how infinite I was and how illusory the self was, yet the self wasn't sad nor reacting with any negativity at all while still persisting. I was simply infinite, and have always been. 10/10 recommend tripping under the stars at a beach. Void/Emptiness I've encountered this insight many times before, but it was taken to a new level. In that darkness I could see just how "not there" everything really was. It was strange. On the one hand, I felt the magnitude of infinity and all its creation, but on the other, it was as though the beach, the trip, the perceptions, the feelings, the body, the ego, were all truly not there. Because well… they're not. I don't really know how to say much more about this one. But yeah, there was no beach truly. There was no me. There was no reality at all which was precisely the fact of the beach. In a sense, I'm still on that beach looking at the stars, BECAUSE, the direct perceptions we experience ARE NOT ACTUALLY REAL. There are not actually anything at all and completely empty and void of real substance. This is a tricky insight to communicate. Stillness One of the most interesting aspects of this trip compared to all other psychedelic experiences I've had is how still the mind became. It was like gaining a lifetime of meditation training in one night. The mind literally was thoughtless for the majority of the trip. I felt 0 need to contemplate anything because there was nothing more to understand. Usually when I trip, my mind can get pretty worked up or excited about insights I'm having, but this time there was no such activity. There was simply a complete and utter stillness and abiding as the Self. The conditioning of thinking was gone. I realized that this is the state that meditation ultimately leads towards. This stillness, as far as I can tell, felt very important towards integrating truth. As long as the mind is wandering, thinking, discriminating, planning, worrying, creating, etc. oneness will be difficult to abide in. Overall I believe this state was achieved because of how much effective meditation I've been doing lately. And I believe that this trip let me glimpse into what no-mind is like and where persistent, effective meditation practice leads to over a lifetime. It's fucking beautiful. Lightness This theme was similar to the stillness. Both arose more or less simultaneously, but I think it's important to create the distinction. My mind could best be described as being extremely light… Very not dense. If someone's never done psychedelics or has thousands of hours of meditation under their belt, I don't really think they'd understand what I mean here. Literally the mind while sober has a density to it. It feels heavy. There are 1000s of random unconscious thoughts drifting in and out of awareness so quickly throughout the day, the overwhelming majority of which we don't recognize. Don't take this to mean that this undercurrent of thought doesn't influence your experience just because we don't recognize them - it very much does. I consider myself to be a pretty decent meditator, but I was shocked to see this contrast so fully. There is a metric fuckton of mental activity that goes on and shields consciousness from being conscious of itself, inadvertently (or perhaps purposefully) creating a heaviness to mind. This heaviness literally condenses us into the body, into identification with ego, creates and manages survival strategies at macro and micro levels, and it does all of this at lightening speeds. It also creates a myriad of random, completely meaningless and distracting thoughts, which also contribute towards survival. This is a very active, powerful, and DENSE mechanism. The mushrooms dissolved all of this activity. All that was left was this abidance in the present moment at a level I've never experienced before. It was insane. It felt so light… The experience also made me appreciate the path of meditation, and just where it ultimately leads at advanced levels. Sobriety Thought the trip itself was a wonderful and almost healing experience, I remember feeling very appreciate of what my sober state of mind really does. I feel so grounded while sober and having that ground pulled out from under me is difficult. I like feeling the grounding and tranquility that sobriety offers. Plus, at some point I realized that I'm gonna have to let go of the substances. I'm not sure when, and maybe it won't even be in this lifetime, but at some level, I will have to accept how I am without influence of chemicals. This doesn't mean tripping is bad or wrong, merely that sobriety is enough. My work is to work until I stay conscious of these truths at all times, sober, tripping, suffering, or blissed out on something as simple as breathing. The struggle is that right now, my sober state of mind is so engulfed in the illusion of separation, and survival that having psychedelics temporarily destroy this functioning helps immensely. That being said, there is something very wonderful about our sober minds. Take Away: Overall a very powerful experience for as little mushrooms as I ingested. I feel at peace with my spiritual development and I'm happy with how far I've come for only having done this work for less than 2 years. I feel very grateful to only be 23 and have seen what I've seen. It feels like if I had to die, in a way that would be okay. After all, 99% of people haven't experienced what I've experienced; the gratitude I have for Leo and this community is very strong. Thank you everyone for how you've contributed towards my path. I also feel very motivated with my meditation practice. I can tell anyone reading that meditation, when done correctly and effectively, leads to a dramatically different state of mind. This state will be extremely conducive for contemplating and discovering existential truths, as well as experiencing the magnificence and beauty of reality aka YOU. The other thing that I took away is that eventually I'm going have to up these doses… I've continually stayed within the 1-1.7g mushroom range, and 100-200ug LSD ranges. Even though a reverse tolerance effect seems to being taking place, I think there is a lot of value in having your reality completely destroyed, but having the courage to face it with love and acceptance. The call for a high doses seems to be brewing, but for now, chop wood carry water haha.

@peanutspathtotruth thank you! ❤️ To respond to your question, that’s a tough comparison. For me, TMI has been invaluable at really transforming my mind and integrating contemplation insights. But on the other hand, the more psychedelics I do, the more energetically active my chakras become.. Giving credence to the idea that dedicated purification practice would help stabilize this energy and allow it to transform my experience however it wants. Aka I think Kriya would be very helpful. Overall though, my body feels like it handles the energy well on its own without the need for practice (I have a lot of experience with exercise and nutrition which I think helps) and therefore, I concluded that meditation is more useful for me specifically. Generally speaking, I recommend TMI to people just because of the sheer power of the ego-mind and how directly TMI works on the mind. Id love to hear other’s perspectives on this too though.

Hehe. Thank you! And yes, yes you were ? @Leo Gura Thank you ??

“We shouldn't be worried about anything related to Trump's actions. America is gonna be fine with or without Trump.” That’s easy to say from a place of privilege. As someone with a chronic disease who struggles to pay for expensive medication every month, it’s hard not to let it where me down or stress me out if I were to not be able to afford what I need. If Republicans would have had their way and truly gutted Obamacare, it would have generated a lot more suffering in my life. Notice how much privilege this excerpt speaks from. If you were on the receiving end of Trump’s/conservatives disastrous policies, you’d be speaking differently. There’s around a 50% correlation with clinical depression people with my disease have and Im fairly sure this number would be lower if American’s actually gave a fuck about trying to help the chronically ill. The fact that it already is difficult to manage PLUS the absurd cost of healthcare can be psychologically taxing to say the least. Thankfully Im happy and not depressed, but I have my moments where the collective lack of care hurts and the fact that a major political party actively works towards making the challenge of this disease already more challenging.

Great post and weird synchronicity. I was listening to Leo’s Survival part 1 video this morning and contemplating survival in the woods. Love the insights.

Such a thing is completely possible for the average seeker. Samatha meditation practice is what I recommend, specifically from the book, The Mind Illuminated. I feel like a broken record because Ive recommended it in a lot of threads but it’s too powerful not to mention. Ive made more meditation progress in the last 3 months than the other 1.5 years Ive been serious about it. And I've had “peak” sessions where my mind was effortlessly calm and stable. My attention was completely at my control, so to speak. To give credit where credit is due, @ardacigin is the one who first introduced me to the book awhile back in another thread. Id also recommend psychedelics. In my experience, as I see more and more existential truths and embody them, my mind has gradually grown calmer. If you can maintain awareness and equanimity on a heavy psychedelic trip, well doing it sober will be easier by comparison. Moreover, continually exposing oneself to infinity, emptiness, void, love, fear of death, etc. the mind will naturally grow tranquil. You just cant unsee certain mindfucks and those mindfucks have definitely left their mark on normal mind operating patterns. Edit: I want to be clear that what Im talking about here is specifically “controlling” the mind from an experiential, subjective point of view. I have no clue what such states and experiences would look like on a brainwave machine.

Beautiful post. Thank you ??

@Serotoninluv Thank you for your perspective.. That's a very good point. The distinction between tripping and sober is truly relative and one isn't more real than another. Perhaps I need to experiment with higher dosages... haha. I've stuck to moderate doses aside from one 4g mushroom tea experience which hit like a freight train. But that trip in and of itself wasn't really about awakening, bad set and setting. You're right. Much of what I wrote about is relative to the person, self. Even the notion of someone to embody it is hinged on self. It feels like there are qualities to enlightenment I assume are so, like equanimity, focus, tranquility, lack of suffering, which seem like states of a mind which has fully understood truth. However, I don't know if this is true. What I have noticed in my experience is that psychedelics don't seem to have this enduring mind effect I assume awakening will have on the mind. But this may be due to a lack of experience with these heroic doses. Welp thank you again for you input. You too, @TrynaBeTurquoise , even if I got a little feisty.

1) That post wasn't anti psychedelic 2) Expecting psychedelics to do the work for you seems to be what Leo is doing by forsaking all the other forms of consciousness work he's promoted in the past. 3) "You are never going to get around putting in the effort yourself. As a catalyst though, psychedelics are extremely extremely powerful for the person who wants to learn and put the work in themselves. " aka the psychedelic trip itself is not going to help you embody, aka horrible for embodiment, aka you're in agreement with what I'm saying so I don't really understand where the criticism is coming from.

Perhaps you miss understand what I meant by embodiment. " It depends how seriously you take the lessons learned in your trip and want to change your habits and how you want to approach life." The taking seriously of the lessons is embodiment, which takes place outside of the trip. It takes work. But this work is usually in the form of things like meditation, self inquiry, yoga, journalling, and otherwise sober activities. Embodiment isn't done through taking more psychedelics. The psychedelics reveal the work that needs to be done, they don't replace the work. That's been my experience. So when Leo talks about ONLY doing psychedelics, it doesn't really seem to imply he's doing the other work needed to stabilize those peak experiences as actual, sober embodied truths. "Maybe you havent done the right psychedelics with the right dosages in the right set/setting. Or maybe they just arent for you. In which case Leo is directing you to do other practices." Perhaps this is so. I've only done LSD, NN-DMT, and Mushrooms.

I think Leo’s approach to consciousness work feels a off. I am very appreciative that he opened up explaining that he no longer does formal spiritual practices such as meditation or Kriya yoga, in favor of psychedelics, but I think reliance on these substances is a limited approach. Perhaps its part of what he wants to discover/pioneer, which is that psychedelics alone can lead to awakening. Yet here’s a crucial element Ive found missing with psychedelics: while they’re fantastic for providing insights, they are horrible for embodiment. They provide these amazing sometimes horrifying sometimes ecstatic states of consciousness that facilitate wisdom, insight, and the expansion of consciousness. But! Once the peak ends, it’s more or less over. Yes there are residual effects, and lessons to take away. I don’t want to undermine their power or utility for this work. But they aren’t, in and of themselves, powerful enough to create lasting effects in sober living. How many times has Leo tripped? How many times have the individuals in this community tripped? Hell, Ive lost a mental count of how many times Ive tripped! And in my experience, these trips are only as useful as the work I put in while sober. If I dont take action to embody via mediation, yoga, sober contemplation, journalling, self actualizing without drugs, they feel pretty useless. Psychedelics dont help build my focus, calm my mind, build my equanimity, permanently increase awareness, or make me capable of facing hours upon hours of boredom. It’s one thing to face your physical death on a psychedelic. It’s another to face 10 days straight of doing nothing, and being so woke you dont suffer whatsoever from Boredom, boredom with a capital B so to speak. Being so woke that during those 10 does of absolute nothing, you’re joyful and completely fine. Just my 0.02. I have nothing but respect and appreciation for Leo though. He’s changed my life and Im glad he seems to be living his most authentic life. Plus I wanna know where the psychedelics only path leads! So thank you for pioneering Leo ??But for me, Ive realized psychedelics are only one piece of this work and a piece worth pursing yet not relying on.

Fosho. Meditation is like a meta skill that’s improved all areas of my life