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Any mainstream narrative has to be scalable to the masses. Imagine that tomorrow CNN came out and revealed the magic of 5-Me0 DMT, suggesting everyone should take it. What would happen? Chaos. You'd have people overdosing, parents freaking out that their kids that are going to start doing drugs, people not showing up to work because they've seen God and freaked out, people questioning their religious and scientific beliefs, people breaking the law to order drugs (5-Me0 is illegal in the USA), etc. All sorts of misuse and unintented side-effects would occur. It would be insanity. Suddenly CNN is to blame. You're the president of CNN. Are you still going to print that story? No way. It's not a scalable idea because it's too nuanced. You can't just blindly tell people to go take 5-Me0. There's a proper context with which is must be taken. Why do you think Leo withheld the name of the drug before he released the video detailing the nuances and safety preconditions? Because he knows that with his level of influence, if he isn't careful, he could really fuck up people's lives. Now realize that Leo's audience on YouTube isn't even close to the size of a mainstream media outlet like CNN. And the average person watching CNN is probably way more unconscious than a person who closely follows Leo. The result is that all the best shit tends to remain slightly out of the eyes of the mainstream. And it probably will be that way for a long time. Whenever it does, there always is a clash. This is where the idea of "controversy" comes from. The internet is incredible because it allows these ideas to spread for those we have the desire to find it. You can't sweep it under the rug anymore because everyone has a voice. And it someone finds some cool shit like 5-Me0, word is going to get around.

Similar for sure. You can find a lot of flaws with RSD, but one thing I always respected about them was their ability to actually create results in people's lives. They've managed to convince thousands of angry, depressed 20 something year-old guys who just want to get laid that they should be doing high conscious behaviors like meditation, offering value to people, being non-judgmental, etc. How many teachers, family members and institutions probably tried to impart the same lessons on those guys and failed? Why? Because no one cares dude. A guy who is lonely is just lonely, he doesn't give a shit about your high consciousness motivations, moralizations or even the belief that he should be happy. Tie it to something low consciousness, like that he can get back at his ex-girlfriend, and suddenly things take off. Will it work for everyone? No, definitely not. I'm sure there's some guys who get stuck in the low consciousness tail-chase. But it's a lot better than the alternative.

It's true that Enlightenment experiences do not make you enlightened because true enlightenment is not an experience. It's more like a continual state of being in the world. The point of these experiences I see is that they have the potential to inspire you and alter the ego in very positive ways. You won't be enlightened, but you'll have glimpsed the true nature of reality, which is pretty cool too Also, from what Leo has said, it's possible that enough of these experiences can eventually lead to a full, permanent surrender of the ego. I have no idea if that's true, but it certainly seems plausible.

This is a great video. A point of contention I have: If someone is in low consciousness, trying to tell them that they need to transcend low consciousness is just going to go over their head. They don't have the awareness / experience to see the importance of this. So rather than telling people "you need to become more conscious! All these 'petty' egoic desires you have, they're stupid and you're stupid. Just move past all that", why not work WITH the ego? I'm for giving people want they want. If some guy wants to go become a player because he thinks sex with random stranger will make him happy, he should go do that. Don't tell him to go meditate, he's not going to listen to you anyway. Instead, show him how mediation will HELP him become a badass player. And incredibly, you actually can make an argument for this. Mediation puts you in a present state where you can be that attractive self that women love. Beyond that, you know what the best way to transcend craving hallow, random sex is? Having shallow, random sex. Is that so unbelievable? That's how you get awareness and real understanding. You can see it in real life how these things are effecting you. Why do we assume that the only solution is to sit and do visualizations/contemplation? Why can't it be both? It's similar to when Leo made his video detailing the benefits of Enlightenment. The point of that video was to get the ego on board with enlightenment, even though there's no benefits to the ego in enlightenment. Why not do the same thing with high consciousness work? Why not admit that people in low consciousness mostly only understand the language of low consciousness?

Your brain has a characteristic called neuroplasticity. Basically, it means that you can wire/unwire you brain for most activities that you perform. When you learn a skill and then don't practice it for years and forget it, those are both possible because of this neuroplasticity. Porn seems the be the same way. When you watch porn, you are wiring your brain to watch porn. You start associating it with jerking off and even come to expect it. Basically, you start forming a porn habit the same way you form any other habit. I know a lot of guys who apparently really struggle when having sex because built such a porn habit. They either can't get hard, can't stay hard, don't enjoy sex or can't finish all because they are so used to porn. Personally that's just not the kind of life I want. I've found that real relationships and sex with real people is far better, even if it's not as much of an insane dopamine rush as porn. So I don't watch it. Some people also claim that porn throws off their motivation to pursue goals in real life. I don't know how true this is, I've also been pretty motivated even when I watched porn. But there's tons of anecdotal evidence to support it. So I'd suggest trying a porn cleanse and seeing first hand how you respond to it.

No. Meditation is a habit that you'll probably be doing for years. One day won't matter much in the gram scheme. That being said, there's something to be said for momentum. I've found that if I rationalize not meditating one day, you'll tend to miss more. And then the next thing you know, it's been weeks or even months and you haven't done any meditation. So just keep that in mind.

There definitely can be information overload. But depending on the circumstances, I wouldn't say it should cause anxiety by itself. Maybe just a headache

You do not need to abandon your whole life to pursue enlightenment. However, I have found that people tend to "unplug" from everything at a certain points in their journey. The solitude seems necessary so that you're able to disconnect other people's opinions and really contemplate. If you don't feel the desire to firebomb your life and do nothing but meditate and pursue enlightenment, don't. You're not going to be able to force yourself into it. If the time comes when that's necessary, you'll know.

Focus is just the label we give to concentration of the mind. You can increase your ability to focus. I'd suggest reading a book called Focus by Daniel Goleman and maybe The Shallows by Nicholas Carr. But I really wonder how much of people's inability to focus is because they have some sort of "problem" that needs to be fixed and how much of it is that they're doing things that they have no motivation to be doing.

Man, I should have written a book! That sounds awesome though. I'd love to check it out.

The rational answer as @Neo pointed out is that your brain loves patterns. Once you've got some sort of belief, it will block out counter evidence and focus on what confirms the already established belief. That being said, Enlightened people will often talk about navigating the world through flow and recognizing patterns. They do this because they've surrendered "personal will" and instead are just moving where life seems to be taking them. When you do this, in the end, things tend to work out with perfection.

This might be a male-biased opinion, but I've found that breakups can be incredibly powerful in terms of personal growth. If it's really bad, basically your entire life goes up in flames. And from that wreckage you're forced to come back a more highly evolved person, capable of doing things you never would have done before. Usually it can take at least a couple of months, if not years though that you can look back and go "oh wow, I'm so glad that happened. What was I thinking doing X / being with Y kind of person?" And then everything is alright again. What kind of advice did this book give?

I look at compassion as a possible byproduct of Enlightenment. If you say "I want to be a more compassionate person, so let ME become Enlightened", you're still coming at it from an egoic perspective. Enlightenment is Truth Realization. Everything else is speculation.

@Frogfucius @Progress Let me see if I can reconcile these two pieces of advice. @Frogfucius is right. You want awareness over you actions and your thoughts, and eventually that will lead to a dissolving of your behavior patterns. But @Progress is right as well. You need to take external action as well. Call me ant-spiritual, but I don't believe sitting in a room and meditating is going to cure you of your shyness. It's just not a practical. Rather, you should go out and socialize. You should go and put yourself in uncomfortable situations. But do it consciously. Observe yourself while you're doing this. When do you start to feel the shyness come on? What thoughts are going through your head? What are the consequences of these actions? You don't need to beat yourself up or hate yourself to do this. You just need motivation and an understanding of why you're doing it. I also agree that self-acceptance exercises and meditation AS A SUPPLEMENT can be immensely valuable. But no, I don't buy that it's the only thing that's necessary.

From the video, it sounds like you didn't "break through". Leo said lower doses will often only cause panic attacks. I'm not looking down on you. I've had an awakening experience and resisted it the whole way as well. But I still really want to try this drug to see how it compares and if I can deepen my own understanding.

Amazing thread congratulations man!

Fair enough. I misunderstood the question. But this can be answered too. The fact that someone is Enlightened does not necessarily mean they are going to teach the same way as another Enlightened being. Once you get into studying "enlightenment techniques", we're back into the world of dualistic thinking. And so we're going to have these kinds of problems because everyone has their own perspective just like anything else. When Leo says, "enlightenment is random", he doesn't literally mean that there isn't a process people usually go through. There is no such thing as random, only our limited capacity to understand cause and effect. So techniques of course can play an important role.

I have no idea if I've ever gotten to ego = 0 but I've definitely had some intense experiences. For instance, I can remember the first time I got REALLY PRESENT after doing meditation for awhile. It was like the first time I'd ever actually been happy. I walked around for like 2 hours in this blissed out state, really crazy. Because ego can only survive in mental fairy tale land, presence is like a reduction in ego. You're not really "thinking", you're kind of just aware. And so you experience what IS when you don't place labels or judgments or any kind.

It's because what is trying to be communicated can't inherently be done through words. Imagine that you were trying to describe the sun to someone who had been in doors their entire life. So enlightened people have to resort to analogies, metaphors and incomplete statements of knowledge in order to get you going down the right path. But eventually, the hope is you say "fuck all that" and you experience it FOR YOURSELF. If you honestly break down most non-duality books, it's all the same shit at the core. The perceived contradictions come from the LIMITS OF HUMAN RATIONALITY, not the message itself.

You've missed the nuance of what Leo has been talking about since the beginning of his Enlightenment series then. It's not as simple as "Leo takes substance, Leo becomes God". No. I'd suggest re-watching his Enlightenment series from the start and then reading some books about non-duality. Here is the first video to get you started: Good luck!

If you want to succeed in grasping enlightenment theory, you're going to have to understand some very nuanced and subtle truths. Read between the lines. What are both Eckhart and Leo word's pointing at? Keep learning, everyone is saying the same thing.

Emotions are good, it means you're not just theorizing. I describe this part of my journey as my "boiling phase". Once it's over, things will be very different.

Of course they're not required for Enlightenment. There is no hard and fast rules or requirements in this game. That being said, let's not be naive enough to assume that a relationship automatically puts you farther away from enlightenment either. If God is waking up in you, it can use anything. Universal intelligence is incredible.

I'd read Crush it! by Gary Vaynerchuck for a great intro on these kind of questions. Essentially, you need to find a passion (sounds like for you programming and math) and run with that. Don't worry about getting the overall specifics right, those things will tend to work themselves out as long as you just keep hammering away at whatever drives you deep down. But generally, you want to start some sort of blog, product and community similar to how Leo did here at Actualized.org and then just keep making it better. Don't be afraid to change when necessary, but also don't think that just because it's been a year and you're not a millionaire that you'll a failure. That's simply not true, these things take time, and they take more time than most people would admit. That's where the passion comes in. You've got to love what you're doing to push through the times when it seems pointless.

I've found life purpose and enlightenment very complimentary. How can you really know what you want to do with your life when you're still asleep?