TheAlchemist

It's very interesting how all those yogic practices and meditation techniques suddenly truly become "as advertised" as Terence McKenna put it, when done under the influence of psychedelics. There is amazing synergy with those spiritual techniques and psychedelics. Makes you wonder what people were tripping on when these techniques were first developed.

Beautiful. You reminded me of the movie Fearless (1993). I think you would enjoy it. I'm also curious if you would see it as a good analogy to your realization.

Yeah there's nothing wrong with that itself really. I more so meant the disappearance of women or them leaving from here, and the types of explanations for that which we see even in this thread. Instead of self-reflecting when critiques from women are presented, there's often more of a brushing it off or even a defensive reaction among some members.

I don't know how Emerald and some others even bother to speak up here anymore, there are some very rigid and outdated views about women that are pretty much the norm here on this forum. And instead of taking the critiques on those views as a chance to self-reflect and deeply reconsider our views, we mostly see the types of defensive comments where the lack of women on this forum (for example) is turned against women, saying they lack consciousness or spiritual development or some other juvenile stuff. It's a sort of mind parasite that is very difficult to shed from the male mind once infected with it, there are deep mechanisms in the mind that prevent the questioning of those beliefs held about women. I noticed this in myself during the process of shedding some of the dogma that was implanted through a lot of online "manosphere" circles. Honestly, it's still an ongoing process.

Sometimes I entertain the idea that that has already happened. Certainly humanitys collective time spent in highly advanced algorithm supported digital environments has increased rapidly and continues to do so. And clearly there are effects on human minds and human behavior that are happening due to that..... But yes it would be impossible to know when a superintelligence has started playing 20D chess with us.

@Leo Gura I largely agree with you on this. But imagine a few years down the line someone creates a youtube channel which creates content through an AI that has consumed all the videos and forum posts you have ever created. And then based on that they get a 99% accurate version of what you might say. This AI channel starts publishing three hour long videos with your simulated face, your voice, your way of speaking, your style of thinking, your expression, your humour, your type of ideas. It even optimizes itself to keep people on the video as long as possible. It would even respond to questions and comments in your style. But the only thing lacking is that it's not actually doing any of the contemplation or experimentation that you have done, it has just created a model to mimic what you might say very very accurately. Would you be ok with this? Would those videos contain novel insights and be as valuable as original videos made by you? Would it be a win from your pov or for the people watching?

Largely it has to do with US immigration policy, that's my guess. The average immigrant seems to be higher educated than the average American. These days the americans don't take in many immigrants on humanitarian grounds when comparing to other western democracies, and in general they have a very strict filter on who is allowed in.

@Leo Gura does it feel lonely to be the only one who gets it? Is it frustrating that no one really understands? I imagine it might feel like that, but correct me if I'm wrong.

The animals are fed with plants so with meat eating there is a kind of double kill. Plant --> Animal --> Human vs. Plant --> Human. The plant is just filtered through the animal which transforms the plant into something else (meat). Also, there's an intuitive sense with most people that there is a difference between killing a plant and killing an animal, which we can highlight with an oversimplified thought experiment. Imagine you have a big bonfire, and you have three life forms. A plant, a jellyfish and a mouse. Which would you rather throw in the fire if you were forced to? For most people the plant would be easiest, the jellyfish maybe the second easiest and the mouse the hardest. Some might say that it is just bias to prefer one over the other, and that in the grand scheme of things they are all parts of the "illusion" so it doesn't matter. They may be right, but if one wants to live according to that principle in the relative domain, then there is no reason to preserve a human life either over any other life forms.

Bernardo's take: Main argument, some central points (by chatGPT): 1. Psychedelics have been found to reduce brain activity across the board, which is a robust and consistent finding across different groups studying psilocybin, LSD, DMT, and ayahuasca. 2. This reduction in brain activity contradicts materialism because if experience is correlated with brain activity, then an increase in experience should correlate with an increase in brain activity, which is not the case with psychedelic trips. 3. Efforts to find correlations between psychedelic experiences and brain activity may be misguided because even if something is found, it would contradict the rest of the body of work in neuroimaging, which finds correlations between experience and patterns of activation in the brain. 4. The lack of brain activity during psychedelic trips is unique compared to other experiences such as dreaming or looking at a picture, where scientists can predict what someone is experiencing based on patterns of brain activation. 5. The information content of a psychedelic trip is orders of magnitude higher than the information content of a brain scan, yet the brain activity of someone undergoing a psychedelic experience is lower than that of a control receiving a placebo, which is difficult to explain within a materialist framework.

Where did Schmachtenberger say we should have AI governing people? I'm suspecting there's more nuance to his point than that, if you have the link I would love to see the where he spoke on that topic. Here's one clip where he talks about collective/global governance:

@Leo Gura are you gonna have videos there that are meant to be watched under the influence of psychedelics? I feel like that would be giving a lot of power to you to influence people's mind, as people will be in a very vulnerable state. Not saying you would misuse that power but there are ethical concerns to someone having that much power or influence over anothers mind, if you see what I'm saying.

@LSD-Rumi are you still able to sit still in a quiet room not moving or doing anything?

How is death different from a state of general anesthesia for example? Both seem to include the disappearance of the physical body and loss of identification with a finite form. One could argue that the state of consciousness under general ansthesia is highly intelligent since it is unbound pure potentiality, lack borders and is not limited in that sense in any way. But I'm guessing you mean something different. Why do you see death as having this special status within consciousness?

Yeah there is a positive side to tiktok, also lots of mental health awareness, lgbt+ and body positivity stuff etc. seem to spread there which can have a positive impact on young people's well-being, at least if that awareness is channeled into action to solve those problems at both the individual and collective level.

That kind of makes sense. So wouldn't it apply to world peace as well? I haven't seen world peace so is that somehow excluded from "everything possible existing"? Why would war just be a thing that goes on forever if infinity is exploring all possibilities? Wouldn't it be reasonable to expect it to also explore a state of world peace? Also, why would infinity eternally "need" violence/war? It doesn't seem to need mass slavery anymore either..

If you can't move out, consider taking a trip out of the home for at least a few weeks. The sense of power she feels she has over you is likely connected to your lack of options. If you go away for a while, she might become more aware that if she wants to remain close to you she can't act any way she wants towards you. She's taking you for granted and abusing that power. There's a big power in saying no and in walking away. These are the types of situations where a bit of stage red energy can be very healthy.

These octopuses are completely bizarre and alien looking to me, and they are also quite intelligent. Blows my mind

Trading away my mortality would be like selling my soul. And besides, I'm out here just learning to savour playing as a mortal so don't tempt me with offers like this!

To see, hear, smell, taste and feel what you never before had in the field of your experience. So basically to expand the spectrum of experiences in your mind and to see what the world and reality is beyond the everyday buffet of experience that you're used to. With the proper intention these experiences can aid in understanding the Earth, including its diversity of cultures and people better. Also it has the potential to deepen self-understanding. I'm sure some really good VR tech could be used to achieve something similar but there your exposure would be limited to those environments that are available in the VR and to those people who have access to that technology. Also this came to mind:

Does it need to be read in Arabic to have these supposed spiritual effects, or will a translation work also?

This was a really enlightening analysis related to that. He argues that Jordan Peterson is actually an atheist and that Peterson doesn't really believe the events of the bible literally happened. He digs deep into what ideas and beliefs are fuelling Peterson. Really puts into context some of his odd seeming obsessions. Worth a watch for sure.

I was trying to figure out how to be more authentic and what is it that stops me from living my truth. I realized that anger was a key to authenticity and it tied into the core of my struggle. Some of these points I should thank my friends for, who planted many of these seeds in my mind earlier. And of course what I read in books etc. But only now have they flourished into real insight that is a living truth for me: Anger is the most powerul emotion because it is the self-preservation/self-defense instinct. Just like an animal will bite you if you poke it and prod it, so will a human naturally protect their boundaries if they are breached. The boundaries are what make the person, so it is not nor should it be a small thing to cross someones boundaries. Anger is a proper response to someone pushing into your space for example. In this way anger is absolutely healthy and normal and should be encouraged and integrated as a healthy aspect of being human. Anger leads to problems when it is not just used for protecting your own boundaries in self-defense, but breaches other people's boundaries. When anger goes too far, the person wants to cause the other to feel the pain that they feel, because the angry person doesn't know any other, healthier way of gaining empathy. Anger also reveals our deepest values, what we see as important (preferences/biases). We don't get angry over a dog pissing on the street. But we do get angry when someone is driving too slow or talks loudly in a hostel room at night. This is because for example we deeply value being considerate or aware of others. Or we have a need for rest. And anger can reveal that wonderfully. When we completely supress anger, we lose touch with ourselves, since we constantly tell ourselves that our boundaries are not worth defending. We tell ourselves other peoples needs are more important than ours. This leads to low self-esteem and low self worth. We lose authenticity, we lose touch with our inner child that needs to know it's safe to be here since there is a sufficient internal protection and a robust self defense system in place. Just imagine how anxious and stifled citizens of a country that might be invaded any day with no defenses would be. Or a family in a high crime area that lives in a house with no protection or protector. In other words, no boundaries. That kind of environment is clearly not a place that encourages people who live there to fully actualize their potential. One root cause of low self-worth is suppression and denial of anger. With no anger, there is no safety, there is no confidence. The mature thing to do with anger is to channel it assertively and clearly to communicate if someone is breaching your boundaries or if some of your needs are not being met or to communicate what values are important to you. When angry tell the person how you feel, and what objective behavior of theirs is causing you to feel that way. Then tell them what they could do instead and invite them to do that out of their own choice. When others are angry at us, and they are incapable of expressing it clearly; we can use it as an opportunity to help them notice how some of their needs are not bring met in that moment or how they might feel disrespected or not heard for example. If you find yourself second guessing yourself and not sure if your anger is "justified", go back to your values, your needs and your boundaries. That's all you need to focus on. Not in making other people act a certain way, but simply making sure your self and its state of sovereignty is intact. And if needed, you can communicate what specific actions somebody could choose to do or stop doing to help you feel more at ease. A bit off topic: Diplomacy is interaction between entities that have needs, values and boundaries that are at times in conflict with each other. Great diplomacy is calm but assertive communication of needs, values and boundaries, which are defended by the potential for physical force for self-defense. War is an expression of anger. A "healthy" war is one that defends boundaries, needs and values of a specific entity, while still not trying to remove another entitys boundaries, needs or values. World peace is the ultimate end goal of diplomacy. Anger and conflict have a healthy role to play in diplomacy and the path to peace.