Yes, this is very common. This is the whole path. If there wasn't some kind of resistance it would be too easy.
I've found that it's crucial to get really clear about what you want -- why do you want awakening? -- and to do deep introspection about what is holding you back. What are all the things you're attached to which keep you from living in God-consciousness? Make a list. It's gonna be a long list. That's all the stuff you gotta work to let go of and heal.
Healing yourself and making yourself whole is very important and not to be overlooked in this work.
You're not gonna be able to sustain God-consciousness is you're tainted with all sorts of fears, judgments, wounds, traumas, grudges, anger, cravings, ideologies, etc.
You have to reach a level of inner purity where you are ready to say, "Okay, I freely surrender myself in the service of God. This is no longer about me and my petty cravings and grievances. I'm willing to surrender the self for good and to live selflessly in the service of others. I want God more than anything else in the world."

A list of some of the top degree programs relating to Consciousness/Spirituality/Transpersonal Psychology for our college/university aged members. Hopefully others can help find more than I currently have researched:
The Alef Trust's Masters in Consciousness, Spirituality & Transpersonal Psychology Sofia University's Masters of Arts in Transpersonal Psychology The California Institute of Integral Studies' Online PHD in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology (Among others they offer) Ubiquity University's Integral Transpersonal Psychology – Foundations Course (Among other high quality courses they offer) Life University's Master of Science in Positive Psychology  
Please, this is not an area to discuss whether someone should/shouldn't go to college/university, these are simply the better courses that exist currently. If you have one to add please comment below or DM me the link
 

This is a documentary which unveils a Christian Group Called "The Family", an organization that works under the shadow and influencing US politics and global politics to fulfil their agenda For Nearly 70 years.
This is an amazing 5 part documentary series which illuminates Stage Blue- Orange wrongdoings and how they are corrupting The US and Global Political syestem.
 
 

According to Jung, the ego represents the conscious mind as it comprises the thoughts, memories, and emotions a person is aware of. The ego is largely responsible for feelings of identity and continuity. Like Freud, Jung (1921, 1933) emphasized the importance of the unconscious in relation to personality.
 

Tak to @winterknight on as far as very afforadable options. He connected me to a Psychoanalytic institute that has a referral program that can be extremely cheap and affordable.
Shadow work is not something you do on your own simply because the shadow is by definition the self that you can’t see. Remember, the eye can’t look at itself. Don’t make it harder than it has to be. Emotional purification and shadow work is bringing awareness to your own self deception. Doing it on your own is like you trying to look at your face but the closest you can get is your nose. 
Get a good psychoanalyst and or a trained practitioner in Reichian therapy or someone whose trained in some form of shadow work. 
A silent mind is one that is emotionally purified or is purifying. All my glimpses of Truth always come after a major emotional release and my mind is finally silent. A silent mind is a concentrated mind. Trying to concentrate in meditation without emotional purification is, as far as my experience, a waste of time. Those who can meditate deeply do so because their mind is finally silent and quiet because theres no unconscious trauma or split personalities in the background projecting its needs onto the world to fulfill needs that weren’t met earlier in life. Have you noticed that monks, Zen masters, yogis, and other stages and mystics who got enlightened weren’t fighting with themselves? Have you noticed that? It may have been hard but the majority of their effort is in realizing the matter itself. Why? Silent mind. There’s little to no internal conflict (for the most part - don’t confuse emotional purification with no shadow. There will always be shadows. Shadow work doesn’t ever end. You don’t ever not have a shadow). Meditation hundreds of years ago worked because the ego was a lot more simple. It was nowhere near as complex as it is now.
Hope this adds clarity 

Hey everyone,
I'm looking for artists that have conscious lyrics in their music, what are your recommendations?
Years ago I remember looking for spiritual rappers, but I had a hard time finding any with lyrics that resonated with me, so I decided to start creating my own music, you can check out my music here and see if you vibe: https://soundcloud.com/mindfulxpansion
I'd love to hear your feedback!
A little bit about myself:
I dropped out of university when I was 19 to live in Hawaii for a year, Now at 22 I live in Costa Rica in a mystery school- It's my goal to help share conscious music to help awaken and inspire people to follow their heart and gain some self-knowledge. I made this thread so I can connect with other fellow artists
Thanks for reading, have a wonderful day!
James

Eyedea and Abilities - First Born
Oliver Hart
same artist under different name
 
alot of philosophical, non dual, ranting mental patient type of music x)

@TheAlchemist
This is the current set up where I live (Geneva, Switzerland). You can go there, get registered, shoot with clean needles and then focus on getting your life back on track. I often see people go there in the morning and then head straight to work. There is also a lot of social programs available in that place. An average of 140 people a day visit it, they use mostly cocaine and heroin.
This program was implemented following an opioid crisis that hit Switzerland in the late 90s early 2000s and led to the decriminalization of consuming. This place is by no mean sketchy or scary, you just see people get in there with a slight hurry and come back out at a more leisurely pace. It has proven to reduce the evitable fatalities, illnesses, and criminal behavior linked to such addictions. 
From my point of view, it seems to be an excellent tool for keeping people from falling off the edge of society and monitoring drug use threw time. 
I grew up knowing about this program and took it for granted. I came across this map confirming that it is such drug consumption rooms are a stage green initiative. 
 https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1MEbZ_OJyO2GVvYrN7mN8aymx2LA&hl=fr&usp=sharing

What is talent, but a projection upon magic?
There was a question yesterday...”If I hit you in the head and you lose consciousness, how could you claim there is still consciousness?”  The assumption at play is that what was witnessed was actually the loss of consciousness, derived from the assumption something other than consciousness was initially “there” to begin with. When all that was actually “known” was sensation (maya: “hand touching”), and thought (maya: “person, hand, bat, action”). 
Then remains the “seeing of” movement / change (maya: space, time, physicality, separation, vision, other)....leaving all that was known was the seeing - but the knowing of the seeing is not knowing a separate thing of “seeing” at all. There is no evidence nor direct experience of separation between knowing & seeing whatsoever, sans the re-addition of maya, as projection of other. “These” are but the very same knowing/knower/known/seer/seeing/seen.
In this example there is what is directly experienced, and then the adding of uninspected meaning, creating an a priori assumption, that somehow within the movement is a separate individual which possesses consciousness and experiences the ‘loss of consciousness’, while the direct experience is : passing out, not passing out - or, knowing of maya, and knowing of maya - no actual experience of in between knowing and knowing, only a hindsight a priori assumption, a hindsight filling in of the blank, when there was, in actuality, no such blank directly experienced.
In the same sense, do you directly experience sleeping for eight hours at night? The direct experience is ‘fall asleep wake up’, and further, we can not even claim that as direct experience but rather, consciousness - consciousness. The blank filled in, is a thought about a blank filled in, not the filling in of an actual blank.  Consider, what is your maya of, ‘someone sleeping next to you’? And what is your maya of, you? That we routinely recreate phrases such as “making love” and “sleeping with her / him”, a priori... as pointers to bliss, is a heck of a pointer to actuality, or true nature of, non a priori self. 
The asking of that distinction can not actually be answered / satisfied by distinction, as still, only your distinction remains, (if that). Another way to express that might be I was not asking for reference to categories, but rather, what you hold as homeostasis. It is in maya, your distinction (if at all), and is your creation (if at all).
If a producer made a movie about Shinzen, and the movie articulated and portrayed Shinzen’s life & talents to such an amazing & astounding high degree, truly such an engrossing film, that for a while, you forgot you were watching a movie, “experiencing” vicariously... would you say the producer of the movie was insanely clever in making such a convincing movie, or that you are experiencing your own cleverness, in believing there is a producer, a movie, a you, a Shinzen, and a me saying this?
What is context, sans your distinctions / what is distinction, sans context ....And again then, what is homeostasis, un-categorically, without context / distinction?    Actual? 
What is this “ego”, which has abilities, which possesses scope? Which possesses talent?
Can you claim you’ve seen or actually experienced talent?  Can a distinction such as talent be held and also be understood in actuality, as the holder is “itself” an a priori distinction, believing to be holding an actuality, but has rather an assessment, one’s own distinction.
Is “the talent of another” not truly your own talent of illusion of other?
Is there this & that perspective, or is there perhaps the beginning of the uprooting of perspective?  
Is talent not your maya to dispel?
 
Is anything known to you about his skill of meditation? Or are you projecting an idea of yourself, via comparison, upon magic (“Shinzen”)?
 
 
 

Some people's reality and consciousness is so radically different they might as well be another species. You guys are underestimating just how radically different consciousness can be for humans. This is a common oversight because humans looks similar from outside appearances. But as you've been told, don't judge a book by its cover. This is what's happening with humans. Most humans simply assume that all humans are like them. This is a bad assumption unsupported by science, evolution, medicine, genetics, or other facts.
It's as if you walk into a book store and treat all the books the same just because they are books. But there are huge differences between books even though they have a similar form. That similarity is superficial when you really dig into them.
Some humans are like that donkey, they will never attain enlightenment. The reasons for this are nuanced and complex. Motivation is part of the equation. Most people do not have the motivation to do it. You cannot dismiss motivation as part of the "talent". Motivation is a huge factor. You cannot just train someone to be motivated about Truth. Yes, training helps, but there's much more to it than training. And who you can train also depends on who they are. Many people are untrainable.
There is no reason whatsoever that all humans should be equally spiritually capable given how evolution works. The difference between a human and a donkey doesn't really exist. Brains evolve to become more and more capable of insight. There is no such thing as "a human brain" vs "a donkey brain". There is an infinite spectrum of brain structure -- from worms to aliens -- which allows for greater and greater insight capacity.
I don't downplay any of that. That's all good and important.
But my concern is not any of that. My concern is accessing the deepest level of consciousness and understanding. For that, training alone may not be enough for most people. That's all I'm saying.
Not as similar as you imagine.
Nowhere near 0.1% of the population is awake. It's way lower than that. And when it comes to truly understanding the deep structures of God, it's less than 0.0001%.
I would estimate that less than 0.1% of awake people truly understand how deep awakening goes and all of its many facets.
It's more important in spirituality than in getting women.
Obviously if you look like Quasimodo that affects your chances attracting women. Although still not impossible.
My biggest concern with the Red/Black Pill guys is that they use genetics as an excuse to not even try. They turn it into an egotistical ideology. Obviously I'm not saying that with spirituality. I'm not making some argument here about how you cannot realize God. I'm just saying your physiology plays an important role. So alter your physiology, alter your neurotransmitters! That is what spiritual technique is about.
Yes, you ARE still limited as long as you have a human body.
But, that doesn't mean you can't access the Absolute. You can. You can access it deeper and deeper levels and facets. Degrees of depth here do not contradict each other, rather they build on top of each other. It's like this: you can learn some math, it will be valid math, but that doesn't mean you've exhausted your understanding of math. Math goes very deep. As you go deeper into it, the old math is still valid. So in this way you are accessing Truth but you have not exhausted Truth, because Truth is infinite. Your understanding of math can deepen forever.
It's hard to articulate that here for you. I have had extensive hour-long conversations with Shinzen, asking him all sorts of nuanced metaphysical questions and his replies did not fully satisfy me. I see him as having gaps in his understanding. For example, he does not hold that enlightenment is Absolute Truth. He still hangs on to aspects of materialism, holding enlightenment as a subjective thing. I do not think he understands what Truth or Consciousness really is. I also don't think he understandings what Love really is.
Yes
Yes
If you think about it for a moment you should quickly realize that it must be possible to lose enlightenment because otherwise humans could not exist. To be human God MUST be able to lose awareness of itself as God. This is how you were born. And no matter how enlightened you get, you will eventually lose it in order to incarnate as a tree, worm, bird, human, alien, etc.
You already have direct experience of being unawakened. How did you get there? Only one way: by losing your awakening. Everyone has lost their awakening, even the most enlightened people including Buddha and Jesus. Otherwise they could not awaken.
Awakening is only possible because of unawakening.
Nothing I said contradicts that. I never said he denies siddhis. I'm not just talking about siddhis in this thread.
Trying some psychedelics doesn't mean much. It's a question of what one has become conscious of using them. Lots of people have tried psychedelics and have little understanding to show for it.
My claim is not merely that Shinzen doesn't have all the possible siddihis. My claim is that his understanding of Truth itself is incomplete. He's not wrong, but it's not the deepest level. I'm  not contradicting him, I'm just saying there's deeper understanding, deeper insight, deep consciousness.
How it will help is a question of survival. That's not my interest. My interest is understanding reality for its own sake. Whether it helps or hurts is irrelevant to me. The Truth is whatever it is regardless of how it effects you.
Any benefits that understanding of reality offers are secondary and beside the point (for me).
The deeper one goes, the clearer it becomes who has and who hasn't gone that deep.
The things I've realized cannot be put into words in any way whatsoever nor taught in any way whatsoever. And yet I can intuit that Shinzen Young and Ralston have not realized what I have realized. If that sounds arrogant to you, I understand. But it is what it is from my POV.
Shinzen doesn't understand Truth.
Ralston doesn't understand Love.
To me, those are important oversights. I would not be satisfied missing either of those understandings.
Obviously these are my understandings of their attainments. I could be wrong. I'm not saying you should believe me. I'm just stating my best understanding of the situation at this time. Certain things they have told me do not square up with my deepest realizations. And I will doubt all teachers before I doubt my own deepest realizations.
If the choice comes down to trusting 5-MeO-DMT and DPT vs trusting Shinzen and Ralston, I will trust the neurotransmitters. And no, that is not materialism. Direct consciousness is king, and that's what the right neurotransmitters facilitate. No human teacher can take you that deep. All human teachers and teachings are to be questioned and doubted. Including of course myself.
- - - - - - - -
P.S. Nothing I said here should be used to entrench a victim mentality. Keep two things distinct in your mind: 1) the actual mechanics of how humans awaken, 2) any stories you come up with for why you cannot awaken and why should give up or not even try. I am talking about #1 in this thread. #2 is self-deception you gotta be very careful with.
When it comes to genetics and physiology you gotta make the best of the hand you've been dealt. Playing a victim is not a smart move regardless of how bad your hand is.

with 'understood' here I mean 'intellectually understood'. I hope that this can now set the foundation for the real practice of self-inquiry. and I am sharing this so that it may help you in this way too. I am not sure if this is the most obvious triviality that everybody here already knows, at least for me it is a next level of understanding and maybe it is for you as well. Please do really contemplate these sentences. That is what I wrote down as it came into my mind:
since the question is 'who am(!) I?', I can only be(!) the answer, but never know it.
because I cannot be something that I know. and I cannot know what I am.
when there is being, there is no knowing/'not-knowing' and vice versa.
that is because 'am' means oneness, and 'know' means separation (of subject and object).
since 'am' allows only for oneness, I 'am' absolutely one with (all) 'am-ness' / being.
'am' is oneness. 'am' is absolute identity.
I 'am' oneness (because I 'am'). I 'am' absolute identity (because I 'am').
I am not a thing that is one or identical (with sth), but I 'am' actual oneness/identity itself.
'am' not only denotes existence but also oneness.
since 'am' means/is oneness, and since as a consequence there can only be one 'am-ness'/being, I 'am' that.

@Mada_ There is no such need.
All you need is to make direct eye contact and move your body/face within a foot of her's. If she doesn't hold eye contact or tries to lean away, she's not receptive. If she gives you puppy-dog eyes, then that's your green light.
One final trick is to slowly brush her hair to the side with your fingers, and slowly run your fingers down her jaw line. If she flinches, she's not receptive and do not kiss her. If she maintains eye contact then she definitely wants to be kissed.
Really, it's all about the eye contact. Look at her erotically in the eyes and hold it steady. If she maintains it, it's on boy!
Another trick is if you go in for the kiss and she refuses it by leaning away. You brush it off as though nothing bad happened and try again 5-10 mins later. Keep trying even if she is resisting. Eventually she should relent.
It's also important to time the moment. The mood has to be right. The best time to go for a kiss is after you've made her laugh. When she's in a good mood, she'll be much more receptive.
Also, don't make it a big deal. Don't make it some formal, stiff thing. The mood has to be light and casual so there is no nervousness or awkwardness about it.
When you go for the kiss, decide on it and commit 100%. The worst thing you can do is be seconding-guessing yourself in your mind and half-assing it. Just assume that she wants it and that it will succeed. Don't be playing images of failure in your mind.
If a girl is on a date with you, she's already agreed in her mind that she is willing to sleep with you. Otherwise she would have never agreed to the date in the first place. So all you gotta do is not be awkward or creepy.
You need to build comfort and ease by doing lots of touching throughout the date. Then kissing is easy and natural. It is awkward and creepy when you go for half the date without a single touch. Get your hands around her body ASAP. You gotta be finding excuses to touch her all throughout the date. Tickle her and so forth in a playful way to break the ice.
And finally, if you wanna use words, rather than asking, the better way is to declare it: "You look yummy. I feel like kissing you now." You must say it in a way where you are not fishing for her permission but stating your genuine desire and intention.

Since very young I remember to suffer headeches. Different types, migraine, and tension hedaches, I get stressed very easily.
My mum took me to many doctors and neuro specialists and nobody gave me a solution, just make relaxation exercises and take medication. But nobody told me the cause, evn when you search online most doctors say it depends on multiple factors, or the causes are still unknown.
Thru all my life I observer habits that trigger my headaches like lack of sleep, stress, ar certain type of foods, for example oragnes, cheese, lettuce...
Once the doctor prescribed me triptans, a more advanced medication than typical analgesics, and told me to take them just when the headache was about to start.
They never worked.
For the last 20years Ive been struggling with headache like 3-4 times per week, this impacted my life in the way so bad that most of my introversion was because I had too much headaches to have a normal social life. when other were hanging out I was at home suffering.
 
One day i found a youtube video and one guy talking about how the gallbladder and the liver were the responsable of 95% of headaches but I didnt pay attention thinking it was fake. Many days later I saw another video from a reliable channel that explained this thing more in deepth and recommending a herb cleansing protocol so I gave a try. 
magic, boom! HEADACHES GONE.
Its sad that actual doctors ignore of hide the truth, some collaborating with pharma mafia, but ibuprofens and other antiinflamatorys damage the liver creating more headache and this is a neverending loop! also they are bad for the heart.
Well Im gonna explain the RECIPE for who suffers from headaches very often. The guy told a lot of herbs but I just bought what I knew were the queens of liver cleansing and dismissed the others:
-marian thistle
-dandelion
-fumaria extract
the 2 ones  in fusion and the add the fumaria liquid extract. If you infuse the 3 fumaria will give a very bitter taste.
other herbs that I didnt bought: green neetle and horsetail.
they guy also recomended a Epsom Salts protocol that make a meta cleaning with 2 days of fasting, but I didnt make it because I though it was for hardcore-cases and you have to do it the days you dont work because you need a WC near.
Very important, foods to avoid:
Citric fruits.
High cocoa chocolate.
Red meat.
Canned blue fish like tuna and mackerel.
Foods and supplements very recommended:
-Lots of apples.
-malic acid supplement.
-black radish extract.
-artichoke.
-turmeric
 

Kenneth Folk after twenty years of training in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw, including three years of intensive silent retreat in monasteries in Asia and the U.S., he began to spread his own findings, successfully stripping away religious dogma to render meditation accessible to modern practitioners.
I know some things here goes contrary to what is believed to be true by the majority of people here. However, I find this perspective thought-provoking as well as I believe there's a great value to search not only for things that prove your already existing beliefs. Read with an open mind.
 

IPEC, the coach training program I completed has a Myers-Briggs-like assessment for gauging a person's level of consciousness. It's quite good but they charge money to take it. That's just one example.
It's not hard to design a questionnaire which will assess a person's level of consciousness.
Here are a few same questions:
On a scale of 1 to 5, rate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements:
Nothing is bad in the world. The world is perfect exactly as it is. I am able to give love freely to all living beings. Fear is an illusion. All living beings are interconnected. Science is a partial, narrow, relative way of understanding the world. If the body is destroyed, my true self will not be harmed. Morality is a relative human invention. Every religion is part true, and part false. I am responsible for creating my emotions. All evil is done out of lack of consciousness & ignorance. Etc.
An unconscious person will not be able to strongly agree to any of the above statements because their ego is too insecure and because their everyday experience does not demonstrate the above truths.
To an unconscious person the above questionnaire will appear stupid, childish, hopelessly unrealistic, and even delusional. Which precisely tells you their level of consciousness.