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@Leo Gura Very interesting. I can't quote them accurately out of memory, but there are several passages in the book Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi regarding miracles (specifically Jesus's miracles). One thing that i found very interesting was Ramana's insistence that Jesus could not have been aware of himself as Jesus while performing healing.

Very interesting insight. I do wonder about one thing (having never done 5-MeO myself) thought. Have you tried enacting actual change on your immediate environment while on the substance? I have not experience such an extreme level of non-dual consciousness, as you call it, but since you have while on the drug, did you observer your environment to change in a meaningful way, brought about by your state or desire while tripping? I have observed change taking place through the power of will alone. Specially internal change in the workings of the body. For example, while meditating, the intensity of energy vibrations within the body can be heightened and lessened simply through willpower. This energetic activity can then clear literal blockages in the body - for example the nasal air pathways. In other cases, i know of "gurus" whose energetic field is so substantial that it is contagious and causes all sorts of psychic phenomena in others. So having experience such a high degree of energetic intensity while on DMT, would you say that you have managed to alter your environment in objective ways through the power of will alone? Changes that persist when you come down the trip?

@Leo Gura Thanks. This explanation of yours about the subjective quality of the state is by far the most valuable description i've read on the forums. It nicely conforms to my own experience, and it's much more useful than any other type of attempt at description (theoretical, philosophical etc.). All that being the case, what would you consider true "liberation"? An unbroken state of acute awareness as you described? Never going back to autopilot?

@Leo Gura Is this a perpetual state for you?

@winterknight In the video you posted, who is the subject? (eg. "...in which you do not tend...). Judging by the content of your video, your constant experience is one of perpetual somnambulism.

You don't need a solution to these (self-inflicted) problems to live. Prior to becoming aware of this "enlightenment" stuff your life went on. Maybe you weren't all that satisfied with who you were, so instead of working on that (or maybe because you were justifiably unable to) you resorted to a complex and arduous process of enlargement by trying to fill yourself with you unconscious. The first worldview is the correct one - and is instinctual to healthy human beings - while the second one is frankly the definition of megalomania. With spiritual work, the point is to see unity in everything and still individuate properly. Anything other than that is an unconscious psychic disorder. Either you completely repress your sense of self and regress to an animalistic state, or expand enough to become a cult leader.

@winterknight If we follow your way then it has no meaning. The quality of experience is reduced to purely perceptual rather than conceptual. All notions of doer-ship will be lost and "humanity" well be reduce to pure instinct and unconscious influence. At least that is what i understand from your video and personal experience following that path. It does result in losing all sense of separation, but the human element is also lost.

But wouldn't that extent to everything you say as well? My question remains, what makes your experience more truthful than others? This is what you are suggesting in the video, no?

@Truth Addict Not if you feel otherwise. If you feel your life has subjectively improved what's shared here then that is at least some "use". However this requires critical thinking which in some cases is quite difficult or impossible without the help of an outside observer.

Wrong to say so because the "liberated one" does not perceive himself as a separate entity within space and time? Instead he is one with experience rather than lording over it or being subject to it. Instead he IS it. Correct?

Excellent. The truth is self evident whether you suffer or are blissful. The notion that the Ego must go to see the Self is an unfortunate mistake that either results in total depression or megalomania.

@Truth Addict See that's again the same thing imo. There's no in or out. There's an active mind and there's an inactive mind. Neither is more truthful than the other. It's all one unified Self. If i were to really help people, i would work with them individually to reconcile their demons so they can have a happy life. Anything else comes off to me as complex attempts at self-repression or expansion.

@winterknight Well, yes, because that is for the most impossible, unless you suffer from some sort of mania. Okay. Then what's the reason for believing that Self awareness and conscious awareness of "things" are two separate modes of being? Isn't this an arbitrary distinction? Considering that experience itself/awareness is never absent, and that only contents of experience change, why do you believe that attention to the content should be diminished. Why is that more "truthful"? This only comes off as a complete repression of conscious awareness. Are you saying that by paying attention to the content, one loses sight of the real Self? If that is the case, who is the one who loses this sight? And why is that? Why are you not able to properly reconcile this paradox? This problem, in my opinion, is entirely self-inflicted. Concepts do not accurately portray perception, but then people can easily be taught to not mistake concepts for the real thing. Individuation will cease to make sense, if thoughts and concepts and other psychic influences are completely put to rest. An empty mind will result in such an experience of life as you mention in your video. But this is, in my opinion, still one step removed from real liberation, which is the recognition that all these self-imposed restrictions on experience are arbitrary. The proof for that, in my opinion, is that individuation - that is a return to conscious life (being directly involved with the contents of experience) occurs naturally and automatically - and that no "samadhi" is permanent.

Well that is still not true imo. I get the impression that many people believe that Ego hides the Self in some shape or form, and only if you see through that you'd be liberated. I completely disagree with this notion, because going by that logic, that is ego trying to see through itself (part trying to understand the whole) which is nonsensical. There really is no illusion.

Well that's what i get from your writing. Any time people try to talk about God objectively it only has the effect of creating a separation. I'm specifically talking about "Dying as ego, living as God" part.

Considering that perception, the unconscious and consciousness are all qualities of the Self, what makes one (in the case of your video, awareness being wholly immersed in the unconscious) more truthful than the rest? Is individuation, in your opinion, an evolutionary or divine mistake?

Why perceive God as separate from yourself? The determinism vs. free will argument is only irreconcilable if your perceive yourself as a separate thing from the rest. They are actually one and the same.

There's nothing separating God and its creation. They are one and the same. Your question only makes sense if you think of God and creation as separate entities. Why would God deny itself anything?

IMO it's tragic. The Ego, the conscious being and the mind of God are all the Self. The Ego is as much you as the rest of the psychic content. Getting rid of Ego will result in a total loss of reference and connection with the world. For some reason this is the holy grail of most spiritual seekers, to be completely absorbed in the unconscious. Better to expand consciousness rather than restrict it I'd say. Sure, you can't ever have a complete map of God's mind due to its infinite nature, but it's not necessary to have such a relationship with it. The fact of our existence is self-evident already, there's no need to seek it through Ego-death. Operating from that standpoint, the unconscious "problems" that result in this sort of fatalistic escapism will resolve themselves quickly, and God becomes one with you.

In the same space as every other perception.

8) The pot doesn't exist because you smoked it.

You don't own awareness. Awareness owns you. You are like a sheet of ice on an endless ocean. As the ocean crystallizes into the ice, so does awareness crystallize into the ego. Ego foolishly thinks it can attain a complete picture of the ocean, but it can't since the latter is infinite. Both the ocean (unknown) and the ice (known) from the same continues being, which is you.

To the persona or ego Karma certainly exists, and it's a perfectly tangible thing. The mechanics of Karma cannot be understood by the ego in any realistic way because that would be the part trying to understand the whole.

I see more and more threads here being locked without any good reason. Threads are being locked left and right seemingly on whim and without care for the human element. If you are a moderator, check your privilege. Killing a potential conversation and blocking someone's path of self-discovery just because you personally don't want to see the content is tyranny. Here are a couple of examples: As a whole, I notice this community is becoming a little less tolerant. Hopefully this is just a phase.

@Joseph Maynor Yes.