aurum

That’s understandable. With respect, I would disagree. I very much resonate with what you were saying about your pet rabbits. I cannot even go into pet shops because it kills me to see animals stuck in cages and being put on display like some sort of cheap product. Nor can I even own a pet because I can’t get over the fact that it feels like borderline slavery to me. If I am going to “own” a pet in the future, perhaps some farm animals, I’d like them to live as close to their natural life as possible. I take no pleasure in causing suffering to an animal. But I also do not believe I am above taking a life to sustain life. And I don’t take that responsibility lightly. Yes I agree. There is no “convincing” because convincing is a tool of the mind. This is something to be felt. Either your heart recognizes the truth that this other being is actually You or the mind blocks it out. My prediction with lab grown meat is that we will discover it cannot be done in a way that truly replaces meat. Much in the same way we are discovering there really aren’t healthy GMOs. There will be downsides to people’s health.

False equivalency. You cannot reduce my argument to what you just said as eating animals is not at all the same as having sex with children. No and I don’t expect I will in the close future. As I said, society is not really set up to make that happen. My goal is to get to a point where all animal products I am consuming have come from my own hands. No. I’m usually happy with people go vegan, at least they are thinking about their relationship with animals and where their food comes from. That’s certainly a step in the right direction. The meat I eat is from regenerative farms practicing ethical animal agriculture. Yes, animals still die. But you could hardly call it factory farming like what is portrayed in most vegan documentaries I’ve seen. Aside for the reasons I’ve already outlined, I also do not believe veganism to be a healthy diet. Which also influences my choice to eat animal products for sure. That is another whole debate we could back and forth on forever.

In certain situations you either can’t cold approach or it just doesn’t make sense to. But yes, as I already said, I recommended guys have cold approach as a skill. Just don’t have that be the only tool you have.

It’s nuanced. For starters, I’m not referring to just unconsciously eating animals. The average person going to eat a cheeseburger from McDonalds is not going to have a healthy relationship with animals either. I’m speaking mostly of indigenous wisdom. I think it’s fair to acknowledge that indigenous people had a much more sustainable, connected, healthy relationship with animals. Sure, there may have been cases when they over hunted. But generally speaking, we moderns could learn a thing or two from them. Where did this wisdom come from? Were our indigenous ancestors just naturally more compassionate and happened to hunt and eat animals to survive? That is what most vegans would argue. Indigneous people ate animals because they had to. And now that we are more evolved, we no longer have to. I think it’s the exact opposite. Indigenous folks had that relationship with animals precisely because they ate and hunted animals. Taking a life so that you can live, consciously, is what cracks open someone’s heart. Our modern relationship with nature is very much out of alignment. Either we ruthlessly exploit it, or we attempt to distance ourselves as far as possible from it, usually as a counter-reaction to the exploitation. Veganism to me is a counter-reaction to the ruthless exploitation of animals. A swinging of the pendulum to the other side. But neither places us as a part of nature. There’s a great book on my website called Heartsblood that goes into some of these ideas. Granted, consciously killing and eating animals is not an easy thing to do in modern society. Society is not set up for that. So it is a challenging task, but it’s something I’m working towards the best I can.

@Emerald I agree that people are extremely disconnected from their hearts when it comes to animal suffering. If slaughterhouse videos don’t make you cry, I’m not convinced you are human. Where I would strongly disagree with vegans is that the most “heart-centered” POV is inherently to not eat animals. And that anyone who eats animals must be disconnected from their heart and the suffering of animals. In fact, I’m going to go one step further and say you are unlikely to develop a healthy relationship with animals unless you eat them. So yes we should watch our rationalizations if we eat meat. But speaking as someone who was vegan for about two years, it’s not the answer for most people.

I’ve said many times on this forum that I think debt and the monetary system should be the first places we look. Specifically, developing a universal currency that does not add to the debt when it is created. This is crucial because debt-based currency is what economists, mostly degrowth economists, refer to as “the growth imperative”. In other words, debt and our monetary system is what systemically drives the need for endless economic growth. Endless economic growth will inevitably result in exploitation. So if we are serious about solving imperialism, we need to take a hard look at money itself and how it’s created. Other ideas I’m in favor of are a UBI, more worker owned businesses, and some amount of relocalization of economic activity. UBI takes away the “carrot/stick” model we’ve been using to get people to work for hundreds of years. Worker-coops address the inequality and perversive incentives in employer/employee dynamics. And relocalization allows for greater community, resiliency and even connection to the natural world. There’s more we could talk about, but these seem most essential to me and in many ways are already in the works.

@Raphael It definitely depends on what you consider “work”. No, I could not do some tedious, menial task like data entry 10+ hours a day. That sounds like my definition of hell. But if I’m given a variety of tasks I feel strongly about, I can certainly go for 10+ hours. In this case, I’m likely to not feel as if I’m “working” at all, even though there’s an obvious energy expenditure. The key for me is shaking up the monotony, being purpose driven, and short breaks. If I really don’t feel called to do something, I usually won’t. And this means that when I do feel called to do something, I can focus and go all in. At least ideally.

Everybody thinks they can fight until they have to throw a punch

@John Iverson As I've said many times, I feel social circle is the best way for guys to be dating. I know Leo recommends cold approach a lot, and many guys on here seem to focus on that. That's fine, cold approach does have its place. But it's severely limited and bottom of the barrel when it actually comes to dating. I would focus your social circle around your Life Purpose. These values you listed: are good values. But ultimately I would get a lot more specific. What do these people do for work? What do they do for fun? Where do they hang out? And how can you provide value into those social circles with your unique life purpose? Once you've gotten at least somewhat more clear, just start putting yourself in those situations. Become a regular. Be seen, and be seen a lot. Make friends with everyone. Help people accomplish their goals. Be a connector and connect people who need introductions. If you do that you'll starting building a social circle in no time. Social circle happens fast, literally just knowing one right person can change your entire social life.

@machiavelli And what if everything you said is just a story you tell yourself to keep pretending you’re not God?

You don't need to wake me up to anything. Never claimed they didn't have a pathetic dating life. I would agree having a sex life where you're having sex with a lot of different girls is extremely rare. I'm simply stating the fact that these guys meet a girl at all is a testament to how powerful social circle can be. Understand I'm not arguing for a normie sex life when I talk about social circle. I'm talking about something way beyond that. Then argue your point. You haven't shown why you believe this or how social circle cannot be reliable for meeting new high quality women. I can tell you why I believe it does. It's because for the years that I was involved in the PUA community, the number one thing that consistently got me results was social circle. Even if I met a girl off cold approach, it was usually social circle that "sealed the deal" so to speak. For instance, I met my last long term girl friend doing cold approach. But were it not for my social circle, I doubt it would have gone anywhere beyond a good initial approach. Social circle is a deep honest signal. We agree on this. Not saying guys shouldn't learn cold approach at some point, I think it's an excellent skill / tool to have. Let's say I want to hook up tonight. I could go out to a night club, do the whole cold approach thing, meet a girl I've never met before, have sex, and then never see her or her friends again. Essentially we can both just fade out of each others lives. There's little to no strings attached. You're essentially anonymous. But in a social circle it can be different. If that girl is in your circle, you're probably going to see her again. Word might get around to other people you know that the two of you had sex. It adds layers of complication to casual sex. That's why I said it might be more difficult in some situations if your goal is purely as much casual sex as possible. Though a guy could get around that or even leverage it to his advantage through social proof.

Yes it can be done. Not denying it. I've certainly have found success doing day game. Sure, if you have no friends and no social status, that's an optimal strategy. Otherwise it's just silly to rely on that. Then keep doing cold approach. I'm just saying, there's levels to this. And cold approach is at the bottom. There's definitely a learning curve and you can improve. But if you don't believe cold approach is at the bottom of the tier of meeting women, I would say you're in denial. Not only is it reliable, it's better than cold approach in every way. The fact that normies who know nothing can meet a girl through their social circle is proof of that. Meeting someone through socializing and not "cold approach" is not a slander. That's a good thing. Cold approach is for guys who have no other options. And hey, sometimes you really don't have any other options. In which case I'd recommend cold approach. But let's be realistic about its potentiality for dating and its limitations. It also depends on what your dating goals are. If you're just trying to have a bunch of anonymous, random casual sex, then cold approach might be better in some situations. Simply because you want to remain as anonymous as possible. But even then, I'd still put my money on the guy with the strong social circle. But if you're actually looking for something deeper and an actual relationship, social circle is far superior. No questions asked.

@StarStruck It's hard to say based just on the little that you shared. One potential is that you're pushing for the number and so it's just easier for girls to avoid conflict and give it to you than not. But they're not ultimately that invested or that serious about seeing you. You might do better pulling back and qualifying more before setting any sort of date up. You also have to realize that cold approach in general is always going to be inherently flakey. These girls don't know you and they don't know anyone you know. You're not part of their social circle. So there's essentially zero social repercussions for them flaking on you, versus if you were part of the same social circle. And in general, it's just difficult to get anyone that invested in anything in a short interaction that lasts a few minutes. You're literally going from a complete stranger to someone she might want to spend a few hours with on a date. It can be done, but I've found it's just not ideal. This is why I think cold approach should be a last resort when it comes to dating. If you've got no other options, fine. Do a cold approach. But it's not what you should be consistently relying on for your dating life in my option. Dating should come from your social circle. It just makes everything easier. Of course, if you don't have a social circle, you may have to cold approach to make that happen. But cold approach will always be extremely limited.

@HERO_ One gallon of water a day seems excessive and not healthy to me. I’d substitute that for something else, maybe a daily meditation practice. Otherwise I’d say go for it.

@marinaaniram What were you eating prior to fruitarian?

@Lyubov Controversial non-doctor perspective: I’d be more concerned with high estrogen than cholesterol. High LDL is not inherently “bad” without more context. LDL is quite important actually. I would definitely cut the sweet drinks and junk food though. That’s a recipe for potentially developing a degree of insulin resistance, in which case high LDL could then become a real problem.

It’s a very male orientated way of looking at sex. Very results orientated. “Okay babe, we’re not leaving here until you cum five times! Get ready!” And there’s nothing wrong with being results orientated per say. I understand why Leo would say that, especially when you consider just how low the bar is for good sex in our society. And it’s cool to have all that sex knowledge. But in your case, I think you’ll have a better experience if you just relax into it and focus on being present / intimate with your girlfriend.

@integral Don't get obsessed with chasing orgasms. It becomes easy to feel like you're not "doing enough" and that you've got to put on this whole show. If orgasms happen, great. But orgasms are not the goal of sex. I would put your focus on the experience itself.

I think it does. A lot of time there is big potential in traditionally "low consciousness" fields for an LP. You can be the one to help raise the consciousness of that field. It's going to be tricky though. You're going to have to be creative. And you're likely going to have to face a lot of pushback from the status quo and people who don't like what you're doing. The system may try to squash you.

@soos_mite_ah I've definitely been there. I think what you're experiencing is very normal. We all have a desire to belong and feel a part of "the group". I don't think having a perspective that largely goes against our peers is inherently always necessary or "better" than having a perspective that fits in. In fact, in a more ideal world, the things we talk about on this forum would be the norm. And we would just be one of many. The problem is, what happens when the group is collectively walking off a cliff? Do you just follow along, or do you actually declare that you're going to do something different? That's how I see spirituality right now. It seems to me that the majority of people are walking off a cliff when it comes to their life. And spirituality feels like sanity. The more I do this work, the less bothered I am about not necessarily fitting in. I know it's making me a happier, more fulfilled person.

@7thLetter I certainly wouldn't say it looks pretty. There are many problems that I've talked about at lengths on this forum about the way we think about economics. The monetary system and the ideology of economic growth seem to be the biggest culprits.' That said, you've got to watch out for these "doomday" type of predictions. Financial "gurus" make these kind of predictions all the time and the vast majority never amount to anything. Don't let your amygdala run the show.

@Lyubov It's very possible that humans were made to eat animals and that an animal diet is optimal for human health. The research on the carnivore diet is interesting to say the least. In which case there is no getting rid of killing animals to eat. And I don't think there needs to be. That said, if we are to eat animals, it should be done as consciously as possible. Factory farming is horrific and I would not recommend anyone eat animals that are part of that system.

@Joyful Silence Meet Mindful: https://www.meetmindful.com/ Lua: https://www.lua.earth/

No. What you need is conceptual knowledge that is appropriate given your personal experience. Conceptual knowledge beyond that becomes mental masturbation and can actually hurt your results. You have too many theories and maps with no grounding in what they actually mean, which then leads to excess confusion. Don’t assume that more theory = more understanding. Understanding comes from doing, from which the theory can only then help explain your experiences and help you make sense of them in a positive way. Don’t underestimate how easy of a trap this is to fall into. Lots of guys do, because learning theory while watching YouTube is a lot easier than doing approaches and having to work to make sense of your experiences. Of course, there is also the trap of not doing any conceptual learning. In which case you might have a lot of experience, but very flawed ways of interpreting it. A blind intuitive feel that could be heavily biased from your cultural programming. But for guys studying social dynamics, it’s almost always the first trap. Studying is what they’re comfortable with. Actually going out is much harder. If I had to pick between the two, I’d much rather be the guy with tons of personal experience than the guy with all the conceptual knowledge.

@Karmadhi I'd say you're generally correct. Your value as a guy tends to be way more dynamic than static like it is for women. At the same time, there is quite a bit women can do. Even if we just take the most superficial level, a lot of women could vastly improve how guys perceived them if they exercised regularly and ate right. I understand that's shallow and objectifying, but it would work. And considering I hold myself to that same standard, I don't find it unreasonable. These are things everyone should be doing, even just for their own health. Then add in some self-actualization / life purpose / spiritual work and she would be total wifey material, especially for a guy who is less superficial and more developed. And all of this is within your control to do. So there is still quite a bit of leverage, even for women.