Attraction is merely phase 1 of the process.
A guy rarely gets laid from attraction alone.
After phase 1 is complete, then he has to master phase 2: building rapport/intimacy. If he skips this step most girls will refuse to sleep with him, so he is forced to master it even if he doesn't want to.
Without solid intimacy a girl will give last minute resistance and weasel out of sex.
And then phase 3 is seduction.
1) Attraction >> 2) Rapport >> 3) Seduction = 4) Sexy Time
Each phase of the process requires training and mastery. Including #4!

Before everything, I want to thank Leo for all the work he has been doing over the past eight years, his content has literally transformed almost every area of my life, and I’m grateful for the stuff he has been consistently putting out.
This will be quite a long post covering only 10% of the things that happened, but I want to keep it concise without leaving any important details. The post’s main topic is my first LSD trip experience and the life changes that followed shortly after. And if you like deep stories, you will definitely love this one. As we go on the post should get more and more interesting the more you read.
For clarification, I’m 21 years old right now.
 
IMPORTANT:
I wrote this report originally on Saturday, Aug 28th, so some dates might be out of sync. I haven’t made a post until today, because my account wasn’t approved on the forum, but it is even better this way because I have discovered some new stuff in the days that followed after. I wrote all the mental effects that stayed after the trip down below and if some effects got worn off or disappeared, I will mention it.
 
So this all started 2 years ago when I stumbled upon one of Leo’s videos that covered the topic of psychedelics. I don’t really remember which video it was, but it really captured my attention. Before this, I wasn’t really aware of psychedelics, I heard the term super rarely and I didn’t even know what it is.
Long story short, things like alcohol, cigarettes, vaping, weed, etc. never really caught my attention and I wasn’t really interested in them. However, when I discovered psychedelics the more I researched the more I was drawn to them and I had a weird feeling of knowing that I will and that I need to take them one day similar to the feeling of your “calling” or your “life purpose”.
So after 2 years of research, preparation, mental and psychological development, I knew I was ready for my first trip. I took 100µg of LSD (one sticker) last week (Aug 18th) and the things that happened after are literally something I couldn’t have ever imagined. I would call this the 2nd most important day of my life, after the day that I found my purpose.
I took it with a trusted friend, in a safe and calm environment without any harmful object in close proximity. We prepared Mentally by having positive talks and by watching cartoons before the effects started to kick in. 
 
And there was me waiting for effects to kick in laying on the sofa not even knowing what’s to come. After 45-60mins I realized that some of the lines on the floor and ceiling started to get wavy. Then after 1-2 hours, some hardcore visuals started to kick in, I saw numbers/letters/symbols on the floor that were changing into one another and circling and constantly. I won’t cover much of the visuals since they are like the least interesting thing that happened here, but here are some of the biggest ones:
1. I had a laptop and I could literally see the energy flowing out of it
2.  I’ve seen some of the patterns on the floor transform into 3D objects
3. When I looked at my abs I could literally see the fat % getting visibly lower and the abs becoming much more defined
4. When I looked at my hand I could see all kinds of letters and numbers
 
The peak lasted for around 3ish hours and then it started to come down. At this peak, I got so many insights, but I didn’t want to write them down since I wanted to just experience this because it was my first time. It felt like I was bombarded with insights every second, if I wanted I could focus on a specific insight and go more deeply into it, but as soon as I let it go more and more just keep coming in.
Then around 8 hours after taking it I decided to go to sleep, but then I got an idea that I could use a hot bath (In a responsible way, water was filled just enough for my body to be in the water with my head not being able to go under the water)
When I entered the bath I had around 60% in trip strength (considering that peak was 100%). But every 5 minutes I just felt like this % was going up by 10% and after like 1 hour I literally surpassed the peak that I had, I don’t know if this is normal, but I felt like the visual trips were harder and I was getting bombarded by the insights even more. Then at like 120-130% I decided to leave since I was scared that it might get out of hand. And btw if anyone is interested, my setup was hot water, slow stream of water flowing in, rgb fade lights and trip music playlist (https://youtu.be/Bd9JsBhzlbM)
Then after the effects started to come down again, I decided to go for a walk and it was literally the best walk of my life. Our house was in a little village and I was walking around the village just enjoying the present moment. Here the trip strength was at around 60% again.
(Also we were at a vacation house, idk if I mentioned it)
 
After I came back home I started to go more deeply into all the insights that I’ve written down (I was written down the insights I got while I was in a bath). And oh boy, was it super easy to just understand things, I could literally see the things just as they are not as my ego wants it to see, it’s like every insight was the absolute truth. But not always, sometimes I did feel like my ego started to delude the insight to make it fit its own biases and world views but this was like 2-3% of the total amount of insights.
 
Now we get into some interesting stuff.
Then at around 11 am, which was 12 hours after I took the trip (I took it at 11 pm the night before), I was wondering why the effects haven’t fully stopped, because in my research the standard trip was supposed to last 8-12 hours and here I was at like 50% of my peak after 12 hours, so I thought it was just an after-effect or something like that.
Then after like 6 more hours (18 hours after taking the trip) I was at like 35% and I could still see the visual trips. But I let it slide again.
And at 10pm I was at around 10-15% of the peak. Visuals stopped unless I focused super hard for 30s+, but the insights that were coming to my mind just kept coming.
And at around 10:57pm, I went to the toilet at a bar (at this moment I was walking on a beach with my friends) and after I was done with peeing, I looked at a clock at it was literally 24 hours after I took the trip and I literally felt like the effects dropped by 50% here, so I was at around 7-10%.
(Note that these percentages are super subjective, I'm just using them to demonstrate you where I was at effects-wise)
(Also note that here I didn’t sleep for around 36 hours at this moment, I haven’t slept the night, so the last time I woke up was around 11am on the day I took the trip / yesterday)
 
At around 1am I finally went to sleep and I want to mention that I didn’t feel sleepy at all until now, I don’t know if it’s because of the effects or something else. 
The next morning when I woke up (at around 11am 36 hours after I took LSD), the first few seconds after waking up from a dream I could see mini visual trips on the walls but they disappeared shortly after.
Then, I also had a feeling like I was on a big boat with waves in an open sea (if you have ever been on a boat you know this feeling), basically, as you are walking you are just getting pushed a little left and then a little to the right with every step.
It’s important to mention that I felt this effect super hard when I was at my peak, but now it was at like 5-10% compared to the peak.
Then when I looked at my keyboard on my phone, between all the little boxes that letters are put in, I could see little greenish/cyanish circles.
Those are the major effects that stayed here after the trip, but they are not even close to what I'm going to describe next. 
 
First, my mom noticed that my posture was much much better, so I was like oh cool. And I also noticed that my thinking patterns from the trip stayed, but at a smaller level. For example, you know how I talked about getting bombarded with insights every second, if I had counted I probably had like 300-500+(maybe even 1,000) insights in the first 12 hours. However now, I still get them, but not constantly. This first day I got maybe like 30-40 “aha” moments in a whole day.
Then as the days went by, the boat effect and circle keyboard effects got lower and lower. The boat effect dropped completely after like 7 days and visual circles are still here, however much less intense and if I don’t pay attention to them they are not here, however, if I focus on “circles circles” I can see them.
And for the insights, right now after 10 days I’m at like 10-15 “aha moments” per day.
(Since this was written 10 days ago, right now its 20 days from the trip and these “aha moment” insights are even lower now, around 1-3 per day, but I still get them)
 
Now we are getting at the best part of this post.
Here are all the thinking ways, patterns/mindsets/world views that stayed.
 
1. I can explain concepts super easily to other people
- Whenever I watched Leo’s videos I was fascinated by how he can explain such complex things in a simple way. And now after this trip, I’m still not near Leo in the way I can explain things, but the improvement literally went up from level 5 to level 100, and I’m not even kidding, it was that big. (Leo is at level 1000)
 
2. Better posture
- My posture has literally never been better and I’ve realized that how you walk and stand is literally all in your head and how you view yourself. I will get more in detail about this later.
 
3. Creative thinking
- My creativity has also received a super high boost, before I was a more hustle/logical type of guy, but now I feel like I can be both super creative and super hustle guy.
 
4. Focus and creativity (Convergent and Divergent thinking)
- This is like a double-edged sword, while creativity is helpful, now I feel like it can also distract me
- So in one way I can be much more creative and come up with new things, but also I can get into the focus flow mode much more easily. I’ve been practicing this for the past few days on my business and it is becoming easier and easier to switch between these different modes
- If I want to extract some ideas and I want to see some things from different angles (thinking outside of the box) I can “tell” my mind, go into creative mode take ideas that we can implement 
- Once I get those ideas, I go into the focus flow mode to implement them much more easily and I feel like I can defend myself against any distractions (phone, social media, yt, video games all the standard bs) with ease
- So I got a boost in both focus work mode and in creativity mode, however I’ve seen that sometimes this creative mode can distract me from focus mode more than before (probably because I wasn’t as creative before)
 
5. Everything feels more real
- The food I taste, the smells I smell, the music I hear. I feel like all these senses literally got leveled up to a new level. Similarly how I felt everything much more on my peak(lvl 100), now my baseline for senses has leveled up as well. (from lvl 5 to lvl 10)
 
6. Confidence
- Huuuh, this is like the biggest one. I was already super confident before, but this new level is unexplainable in words. I wouldn’t say that I’m overconfident, but just at the right level where I should be at my stage of development in every area of my life.
 
7. Visuals when meditating (HPPD or normal?)
- My meditation sessions have literally never been better after the trip, I feel like I’m progressing much faster now
- But also another interesting thing happens now, if I do a meditation where I focus on an object after like 2-4 minutes of intense focus I can literally see the reality around the object melting and starting to be wavy
- Now my question is. Is this normal, or are these potential symptoms of HPPD? I still haven’t done much research into HPPD, so I don’t really know. But I know that its a disorder that causes hallucinations after you had taken a psychedelic
* Under all these changes, I wrote a deep description of the meditation that I did this morning, which was also super interesting.
 
8. Bombardment of insights + mini visuals after I wake up
- Now right after I wake up, especially if I wake up from a dream. For a few seconds, I feel like I’m getting insights every second similar to the experience at my peak. And along with that, I also see small visual effects on my wall right after I wake up for a few seconds that disappear after a few seconds. 
- Also, one more thing, after I woke up 2 days ago I closed my eyes and I had small closed eye trips as well, which was kinda interesting but it also didn’t last for a long time (around 15-30secs)
* Last time I managed to do this was 7 days ago (from today), so this one might have fully disappeared
 
9. If I want to explore a subject it’s super easy
- If I want to introspect or if I want to explore any subject now after the trip, it is super super easy and I can get to the truth of things really fast.
- For example, if I wonder “why is this like this/why am I thinking like this/why am I doing this”, I can get the truth almost effortlessly while before it was much much harder when I compare it to this way of thinking
- And also I want to mention, that somehow when I explore a certain subject and I get some sort of a conclusion, this conclusion seems much more real and true than when I was drawing conclusions before the trip
- For example, now if I want to improve some aspect of the business I just know what to do in a few minutes, it’s very hard to explain but now it just seems as the right answers almost instantly come to me
 
10. I can finally dance
- Before I was thinking of dancing in a logical way, like “what move should I do now, what comes next etc…” of course this is so wrong and no wonder it never worked
- However, now I can feel the music much better and just dance as the music flows
 
11. Almost instant flow state
- I will assume that you already know what the flow state is
- It seems that at everything I do, I can get to this flow state almost instantly (in literally 1 minute), whether it’s creative thinking, working on something, driving, cooking, talking to someone etc. Basically, any task that requires you to focus on it, I can get into that flow/focus mode almost instantly and be completely present at whatever I’m doing
 
12. I see the things as they are, not as I want them to be
- I can see that my biases are affecting me way less when I want to understand things
- I can understand world views that I feel are more true now compared to the feeling I had towards them before the trip and that is because my ego blindsided and deluded me into thinking something that I wanted to be right, not what was actually right
 
13. Got shifted more to left on the political compass
- Before I was like 75/25 conservative, I still am in favor of conservatism, but now it’s like 60/40 and I also feel like the more time passes the more I’m leaning to the left side
 
14. Connection with people
-When I talk to people, I can talk to them much more easily which of course leads to a deeper connection
- So I feel much more connected on an individual level, but also on a cultural level, I can see similarities between me and other people more easily
- I can also understand other people’s points of view with ease
 
15. Care for others
- I’ve become much more selfless and caring towards other people compared to before
- I feel like I want to help others without needing anything from them, I just want to help
 
16. A better leader
- Since I’m running a business with a team of 15 people, I always had some leadership qualities in me
- However, now I feel like I can lead the whole team and the company much better and more easily
- I know what I need to say in order to inspire others and motivate them so we can achieve a certain goal
- I also see much more clearly the things we need to do in order to achieve our next goal, I also knew this earlier, but now its much much more clear now
 
17. Accessing all the knowledge that I have
- Now I can much more easily access all the knowledge I have gained from the past few years
- Before, I always felt like I learned something and I would forget like 95% of the stuff that I learned, but now I can finally start to access most of the things that I have learned super  easily which helps me with connecting many different subjects and understand some topics even more in-depth
 
18. Present and mindful
- I feel much much much more present at anything I do, I think this probably correlates with the flow state in some way
- And now I can fully enjoy the present moment without needing any external inputs
 
19. Flow with the universe
- Although I had this feeling before, now its much stronger and it seems that everything I do is just what I needed to do
- There is no more right things or bad things that happened to me, there are only things that needed to happen to me because that’s what the universe wanted
- Now it seems like all the things fall just in the right place at the perfect moment
- Also here is an example of me not being approved on this forum for 10 days which allowed me to make this post even better. And it also lead me to a thought train that gave me an idea to do a certain meditation which I will mention down below.

 
20. Comfort zone
- This is one of the biggest ones
- I would say that before the trip, I was way above average when it comes to stepping out of my comfort zone, but now it is a whole new level
- Now I feel like I can literally do anything uncomfortable, I can get into any uncharted territory as long as it’s not super life-threatening 
- Before, socializing was my biggest obstacle that I wanted to fix since I was very introverted and had social anxeity, however now I feel 0 social anxiety literally 0 and I could talk to anyone about anything, which leads me to 2 last and biggest changes that happened
 
21. Tyler Durden
- If you’ve seen Fight Club, you know who Tyler Durden is
- Basically, a guy that give absolutely no fucks about anything and what anyone thinks
- And that’s exactly how I feel right now, I do not give a 1% fuck what anyone thinks of me, I’m just me, and you can either accept it or leave
- While I do feel like I can do anything now without 1% of shame, as I’ve stated I’m feeling much more selfless, so I don’t want to go into the extremes where it might hurt other people or simply make them uncomfortable (Tyler being that extreme)
- So to put it in short, I absolutely do not care what anyone thinks, but again I will treat them with respect and won’t make them uncomfortable
 
22. THE FINAL - LETTING GO
- Out of everything, this is the biggest one
- After all these fucking years, I can finally be myself. Let me explain.
- So before the trip, whenever I was talking with someone I felt like I was not me like my ego was putting on a mask that was a picture of how I wanted other people to perceive me, and now I see how wrong this was
- I introspected even more and realized that I was only 100% real when I was completely alone by myself (think when you are home alone and you are dancing, singing doing guffy shit, but if you knew someone was looking at you, you wouldn’t do that because you are afraid of judgment)
- Also, another time I felt like “me” was whenever I talked to my best friend, but again it wasnt 100% (it was like 95%, because in some cases I didnt want to say some things that were on my mind because of the fear of judgement)
- In all other social situations, when I look back at it now, it felt like I was someone who I was not because I wanted other people to think that that fake me was me, because I was afraid of them judging my real me
- This combined with a fake identity that was put into my subconscious over the years with stuff that came from school like being told to stay quiet if you talked with a friend, getting punished for being excited, being punished for talking when you are “not suppose to”, being punished for socializing when you are “not supposed to”, I feel like all these things were planted deep into my subconscious and reprogramed my mind to think that talking=bad thing, because if you talk you get punished
- And now after the trip, I feel like I’m finally free and I’m finally be REAL ME not FAKE ME, but REAL FUCKING ME all the fucking time, 24/7, at home, at a bar, on the street, while driving, while talking to a friend, while talking to my team I’M FINALLY ME
- This is the thing that literally unlocked all my social skills and now I feel like I can talk with anyone for literally hours and hours, while before I was “afraid” of a 10-minute conversation

 
These are all the changes that happened after the trip which are super interesting and I could have never imagined the changes would be this big, I would love to hear some of your thoughts on all these.
 
Today I also did a 1h meditation, where I focused on a single object without moving at all (only a finger when I turned on my voice recorder to record the things that are happening).
 
If you’ve read the post completely you have seen that I mentioned some visual effects in my meditation sessions, so I wanted to explore this more deeply and see what happens. So let me tell you what happened in my meditation session this morning.
-This is the sight that I was looking at https://prnt.sc/1rgmi8s (Dog wasn’t there at the time). I will keep the effects that happened in bullet points. 
- I focused on the little light which was on the left side of the knob of the furniture (arrow is pointing at it)
-The first thing that happened is that the circle on which the knob is placed completely connected, the middle line disappeared https://prnt.sc/1rgmoei (After 1 minute) 
- Now after 3-5 minutes the circle vanished and merged with the black background of the furniture, while the 3 little lights where the sun was shining on remained (https://prnt.sc/1rgn167)
- After 5-10 minutes, all the walls and floor started to get wavy
- Then after 15 minutes, I wanted to switch to a closed eye meditation because I wanted to observe my thoughts now
- If I wanted to focus on my breath it was super simple as if the monkey mind almost wasn’t there at all, thoughts were coming super slow compared to the usual state
- Now I opened my eyes again and wanted to progress on the visual stuff, first it seemed like all the visuals that I progressed to dropped, but I got to the same place again super fast (within 1 minute)
- Now I focused on the little light even more and after some time it also disappeared and merged with the background
- Then at around 30 minutes, the whole wall and the floor took the color of the furniture and merged into one object, however as soon as I let go of my focus the effect would instantly disappear, but if I start to focus again after some time it would merge into a single object with the same color again
- Then I decided to do a closed eye mediation again and now it felt like I had a super an altered state of consciousness, nowhere near the normal state and this is the first time I felt like this while meditating, although I had long meditation sessions in the past, I’ve never felt even similar to this
- Then I opened my eyes again and focused on the light, but now the circle in the middle had a larger circle around it https://prnt.sc/1rgnt7q 
-And within this larger circle I could see the interchanging colors, changing in a similar pattern to this -
- The last thing that happened is that I could decide in which direction I wanted the background to be wavy. For example, I was saying “right right” in my mind and - the wave effect started to go to the right, if I said “left left” it went to the left and so on
- This is where I ended the meditation.
 
Now back to the general trip report.
It really seems like I got all of the things I needed in order to take my life to the next level and advance even further.
The main thing I feel is that all my baseline levels in every field got leveled up anyhere between 10% - 2500% (25x) depending on the field and this is the thing that literally keeps blowing my mind as more time passes, I literally cannot believe that something like this is possible from a little 5mm sticker, super crazy.
Also, another thing is that I compared my insights, results and visual trips with my friends and I can see that it is much much more than what they got from the same dose. Although they are taking it more recreationally and for fun. While I take it for 99% growth and 1% fun (I have 1% fun in there because the fun will make the growth more enjoyable, so the overall growth will be even bigger)
 
My theories on why it was a harder than a usual trip are:
1. It was the first time
2. I didn’t sleep at all the night I took LSD
3. The bath boosted the trip to another level
 
However I don’t feel like any of these are true, I think it’s something deeper than that, hopefully, I will get some insight about this in the future. What I was feeling as a truest theory is me having some sort of “potential” for stronger trips, but I also feel like my ego wants to feel “special” so this is definitely something that I will explore more in the future in order to find what is the actual truth.
I hope some people that have a lot of experience with psychedelics read this post and tell me their thoughts. Is this normal/average or something beyond average. If it is a beyond average trip, what exactly caused it to be beyond average?
 
And the HPPD thing as well, I can see the visuals in 3 scenarios
1. The visual circles on my phone keyboard that I mentioned in the beginning
2. Right after I wake up, short visuals on my wall or a short closed eye trip (15-30s) (This hasnt happened for 7 days now)
3. Meditation having the visual effects that arent even 1% close to what I had before. (Well actually I had no visuals in my meditation sessions before)
 
I’m finally done and I feel like I only scratched the surface of everything that has happened, but I think that I covered most of the important information and insights that I got from this experience.
 
My 4 main questions are:
1. Was this an unusual LSD trip?
2. If yes, what caused it to be unusual?
3. Should some of those after effects last for 10-15 days? (Like the mini trips after I woke up, or the boat feeling)
4. Do I have a HPPD? (I assumed this from having those unusual things that happened in my meditation sessions that didn't happen before and the lasting after effects of LSD)
 
I just want to thank Leo once again for introducing me to the best experience of my life and literally changing my life again but at a much deeper level this time. I feel as if this amount of growth would equate to around 2,000-3,000 hours of intense self-development. Because I’ve grown the same amount if not more from this trip than from my last 2.5 years of self-development journey.






 

There are 2 basic secrets to getting women:
1) Location, location, location. Be where the women are.
2) Delusional levels of self-confidence
Boomhauer pretty much has it down In real life he would be sleeping with hundreds of women while you guys are here clowning around and whining.
The only thing worse than being Boomhauer is being Bobby. And you guys here are like Bobby. That's your whole problem in a nutshell.

It’s not subjective. The biggest distortion that occurs on this forum is repression of the feminine side.
You can tell if you take a peek at the dating/relationship section.
You may not recognize it when you see it, so I’ll mention some symptoms of feminine repression below. And you’ll notice many of these popping up on the forum.
Intellectualization Spiritual bypassing  Ineffectiveness in birthing an idea into reality  Lack of emotional intelligence The mind is seen as superior to the heart, which creates a lack of clarity and non-directionality Decisions are made from a place of pain avoidance or abstract “shoulds” and “should nots” All things can be rationalized- devil’s advocate  Difficulties with women  Misogyny and bitterness  Trying to escape reality  Anti-Earthiness  Valuing the ideal over the real Coldness Competition to prove one’s worth Lots of judgment around holding up a certain standard of masculinity  Men policing each other’s masculinity  Seeing social isolation as a virtue Macho posturing - aping masculinity Prickliness

Talk about yourself, all the petty small details that you would normally not tell anyone because you think they wouldn't care.
Like this:
"This morning I rolled out of bed late and stubbed my toe on the nightstand. Then I burnt my piece of toast and put some butter on it. The butter was from Wholefoods. Organic, grass fed butter, but this is a new brand I never tried before because they ran out of my other favorite brand. I think I like this new brand better, it has a better texture and better packaging...."
And just keep going.

From the highest POV, NOW is all that exists. Which means you are imagining that you have ever slept.
The past is imaginary. Past is imagined in the NOW.
God doesn't sleep. God imagines that it has slept in the past.
It's a mindfuck. You have to stop assuming that the past ever happened.

The truth is more twisted than you can stomach: sleep never happens. Right now you are consciousness imagining that you have ever slept. You never actually sleep, you only imagine so.
The materialist argument is not convincing for even 1 minute if you just realize that all material objects are just appearances within consciousness. The end. No materialist can counter that.
You cannot kill consciousness without killing materialism, because materialism is consciousness. But consciousness is not materialism.

You're in a delusional experience right now.
All experiences are mediated by chemistry. The notion of "altering chemistry" is silly, since all chemistry is relative with one default chemistry.
All experience is Absolute Truth.
You are confusing the absolute truth of Being vs the relative truths of conceptual stuff. Falsehood only exists at the conceptual level. You are lost inside your own mind.
All experience is equally real, but you are confused about what the experience is or represents.
The experience of a flatearther is as real as any other experience, but the flat earth is a concept.
"Delusion" is a relative notion. Those things are delusions relative to your arbitrary standards.
You do not understand what you are talking about.
EVERYTHING is a dream. Reality is completely imaginary and it does not exist in any form without imagination.
You are trying to pick and choose between imaginary grounds for reality, and this will always fail since reality is groundless.
You are simply failing to be skeptical about your own experience. You take it for granted that your conception of reality correct. But it isn't. You have misused skepticism as I have warned about many times.

@Karmadhi  Basically, I was depressed and suicidal throughout the lockdown and my baseline consciousness was abysmally low. Paid a friend to get me some shrooms, he tells me our guy ran out and gave me LSD for free instead. I take it a week later. Luci drowns me in an ocean of unconditional love and acceptance, rejected disintegrated parts of my ego are re-embraced into my being, I finally accept I'm bisexual that night, something I'd been in complete denial of. What I can only describe as femininity awakens in me, I would struggle with gender dysphoria and think I'm a trans woman for a few months as I trip more, but eventually I would holistically integrate both femininity and masculinity in infinite capacities. I feel so much self love and self acceptance I am nearly crying. I began to honestly contemplate what I want from life and my honest to god answer is lots of friends and a romantic partner, something else I was in total denial of. That first acid trip really changed my life and who I am. LSD is literally the best thing ever, Luci is a spiritual guide that teaches you how to love thyself and thy neighbor. I want to cry just thinking about it.
I go out to my cities downtown area every night. There's lots of bars and clubs, so there's always sets of people walking around outside. I avoid going inside places because of covid though. I started by just greeting people and working on eye contact, now I approach a set, I say "I heard this is where the cool people hang out, is that you guys?" They reply "Fuck Yeah!" And I integrate into the set, making them laugh and generally being a fucking clown. People like me so much they ask me for my number!

No object has a stable objective form. Form is relative to your perception of it. When you're not perceiving an object is collapses back into Infinity. Every object is identical to every other object until you polarize/collapse/distinguish it with your perceptual system.
You can think of your perceptual system as a filter upon Infinity. You filter Infinity down into an elephant by distinguishing it from everything else. And if you stop filtering/distinguishing it, it returns back to Infinity because Infinity is what everything is when it is unfiltered and undistinguished.
What you're missing is a realization of total ontological relativity. All physical objects are relative. They only exist if you filter Infinity a certain way. You need to let go of the notion that physical objects have any sort of stable form or existence.

It's only scary until you're dead

The closer you come to killing the ego, the fiercer it thrashes to remain alive. You have to be sneakier than your ego, so surreptitiously so, that it doesn't even realize it is being threatened. Like the frog that is boiled by gradually raising the temperature, until it is too late for it to jump. ? The heat source is Consciousness itself, and the stove dials are the time-tested tools of meditation and contemplation.

@Nick_98 The ego cannot awaken itself. That's the problem here.
What's missing is a change in your state of consciousness.
I suggest two things:
1) Rather than pushing, relax and totally let go during meditation. Do-nothing style mediation where you have zero goal to reach any awakening. Just sit. But do so for very long periods of time. Like 10 days in a row straight. Or practice mindfulness meditation with labeling as explain in my Mindfulness Meditation video. Also, ENJOY it! Stop making this process so grindy and forceful. Enjoy just sitting and basking in being.
2) Psychedelics. This would really help you break through. This is precisely why I stress psychedelics. It's a powerful tool for breaking through such blocks.

-This episode is ? whoa ?.  It feels like a gypsy curse has been lifted from my psyche.
-The following is the full version of the summary.  It’s looong.  It has all the examples.  The condensed version has about half of them and fewer explanations.  External links were selected by me, for better or worse .
_______________________________________________
481. Summary: How Your Mind Interprets Reality
“There are no facts, only interpretations." —Frederick Nietzsche
 
-The condensed version of this summary can be found here in the Summaries thread.
-Interpretation is core to how you make sense of the world.  It’s going to take you a good ten years to fathom the significance of that.  This is a foundational epistemic episode.
-Every situation has multiple interpretations.  People fall into the trap of treating situations as though there are only one or two interpretations.
-Seeing Only One Interpretation.  The worst case scenario.  If you only have one interpretation it becomes your reality.  It’s absolute truth.  It’s not even an interpretation; it's taken as fact.  This is what most people are doing.
-Seeing Two Interpretations. You get a taste that interpretation is going on, that the mind is not just receiving “raw facts.”  But, now you get caught up in this tug of war, duality, tribalism, partisanship.  You see reality in a black and white way.
          This is all part of a larger theme of Self-Deception.
-You have to think very deeply about anything you call a fact.  Your mind doesn’t question “facts” so they become your reality.  You think a “fact” is something objective that exists independent of you, but they’re actually constructed by your interpretations.
           It’s important to notice that what most people call facts are actually interpretations.  By people I mean you.
           Facts alone have no value and no meaning.  They don’t tell you what's worthwhile or what you should do.  That requires interpretation.  So, the set of facts you choose to focus on is highly biased.  You cherry-pick facts to bolster your sense of reality, to confirm your worldview and to advance your survival.
           The tricky thing is there's always more than one way to make sense of facts, but people like to act like there’s only one way or “the right way.”  Epistemic blunders mostly lie in how you interpret facts and which facts you focus on, not in the facts themselves.
 
Going Meta
-This is an important concept.  Going meta means to step outside the frame of a thing and observe it.  To go one level higher in abstraction.  (clip: Going Meta (8 min). ep: What it Means to Go Meta).  eg: Deadpool embodies going meta.  He’s the only superhero who knows he’s in a superhero movie (clip comes from an R rated movie).
-Don’t get lost in the content of these examples.  The examples are here to make the concepts concrete.  (ep: Content vs Structure)  The danger here is that you’ll focus on which of these interpretations is the “correct one,” but that's missing the point.  Leo’s trying to communicate something meta to you.
           Be aware if you’re getting stuck in the content of the interpretations and failing to go meta.  The larger, meta point with these examples is that there are multiple interpretations.  The need to have one right and the rest wrong is part of the problem.  See the structure, stay meta.
 
Why did the United States invade Iraq?
1st POV: to defend against terrorism. 2nd POV: because of greedy executives running giant military companies and defense contractors and oil companies for whom this war was beneficial. 3rd POV: because Dick Cheney was a war criminal and George W Bush was an idiot who was easy to manipulate. 4th POV: it was a collective psychic backlash to 911, a fear response. 5th POV: there were weapons of mass destruction or at least that's what people believed at the time. -That’s five very different interpretations.  In politics, most people pick one interpretation and act as if it represents the situation in it entirety.  If someone believes that Dick Cheney is a war criminal and George W Bush is an idiot they don't see it as an interpretation, but as reality.  They don't see deeper levels of interpretation, like with the 4th and 5th options.
           There are different levels of quality to interpretations.  They're not all equal.  Some of them are very simplistic, some profound, some even go to a spiritual degree of understanding.  How you interpret the world powerfully affects how you feel, notice that.
eg: The idea of “a collective psychic backlash to 911” is a very powerful interpretation.  Instead of looking at the US government as a group of evil people, you see the situation from a more compassionate, understanding and conscious place.  Mistakes were made because of fear and fear is such a powerful emotion, especially at a collective level.  You can empathize because you know what it’s like to act out of blinding fear.            Fear tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you fear terrorism, invading the Middle East with a poorly thought out war leads to a destabilization of the region that creates more terrorism.
-With the 2nd POV, if you believe the US invasion was because of some greedy executives who wanted contracts, that’s a whole way of seeing the world. It's an adversarial “they’re evil and corrupt and not good like us normal people.  They're manipulating us, those damn globalists…”  That way of looking at the world leads to certain consequences.
           It leads to you feeling and acting a certain way. If you think the world is run by a cabals of globalists does that make you feel empowered or like a victim?  Is that motivating you to be constructive, creative, and follow your life purpose?  Or does it make you feel you're being exploited and manipulated?  Ultimately you don’t care about facts.  You care about how you feel.
-Start to see the whole situation in a multi-perspective, multi-faceted way with multiple interpretations, seeing that each interpretation captures some element of the situation, but not the total thing.

-Even more importantly, you want to see how your mind is constructing these interpretations. Become aware of which interpretations you're missing.  There are different qualities of interpretation.  Saying some group of people does evil because they're monsters or idiots is one of the lowest quality kinds of interpretations.
-Even though there are low quality and high quality interpretations, we shouldn’t squeeze out all the lower quality povs.  Every interpretation contains some sort of partial truth even though it might be very twisted and distorted.
            Also, if many people are suffering from low quality misinterpretations, you need to understand that pov to address it effectively.  Their opinions might not be accurate, but they could be valid.  (eg: Just because there are a lot of Q-Anon people doesn’t mean their ideas are true.  However, the rise of so many angry people is important to know about and understand.)  Ideally, you want a compound perspective of interconnected and intersecting interpretations.
Religion exists because…
a) it's a holdover from superstitious ancestors who weren't scientifically rigorous. b) it’s a tool to control the masses. c) it’s not scientifically or literally true, but these myths contain deep psychological lessons without which you can go astray in life. d) it points to absolute truth which is incommunicable because it's infinite and therefore it can never be articulated in a literal scientific sense. -Do you see how different these interpretations are?  Notice the last two are more nuanced than just saying “all religion is bullshit.”  You’re going to react to religion and religious people differently depending on which pov you believe.
-Remember, we’re not interested in which interpretation is “right.”  We’re interested in the meta point of seeing how many different ways there are to interpret what religion could be.
Islam is…
a) the highest religion and truth. b) evil barbaric and violent. c) used in both constructive and destructive ways.  How it’s used depends on how it’s read and who cherry picks which parts. d) contains profound truths that are more advanced than science.  However, its truths are corrupted by being taken too literally.  It also uses many archaic cultural customs from fifteen thousand years ago. -a) is a devout Muslim interpretation.  This perspective probably thinks it’s “reality” instead of just a perspective.
-b) many Conservatives and Christians in the US feel this way.  They’re fearful and uneducated about Islam.  Also notice they don't hold that as an interpretation, but as reality.
-Notice that c) & d) are more nuanced perspectives.
Donald Trump is…
a) is a true patriot, a secret genius.  A secret systems thinker who acts buffoonish to subvert the elite globalist media. b) an opportunistic grifter and con artist. c) actually God acting out of the highest good and love from his point of view.  All his actions are the seeking of love. -Notice how radically different each perspective is.  How you frame Trump and how you behave politically depends on which of these interpretations you take.
Psychedelics are…
a) drugs, which are bad and dangerous. b) just creating hallucinations in the brain.  If you experience some mystical truths they don’t mean anything. c) great for expanding consciousness and seeing higher truths. d) an immature shortcut.  Fake spirituality because it’s not permanent. e) the future of spiritual work.  They haven't caught on because they've been so stigmatized. -Notice how some of these interpretations will exclude you from exploring psychedelics.  That's how powerful interpretation can be.  Also contentious issues often cause people to get close-minded and stuck in one interpretation.
Actualize.org is…
a) a cult. b) not a cult, but self-deceived and teaches misinformation. d) offers some advanced perspectives and insights about the nature of reality, but is still partial.  It's not a complete picture. e) seems like a cult because it’s teaching advanced things that most of mankind finds threatening.  Therefore the most convenient thing for the ego-mind to do is just to call it a cult. f) it’s a communication from God. g) it’s you teaching your own self how to awaken.  It’s also the universe teaching itself how to awaken.  
Quine’s Gavagai Example
-Imagine an American explorer finds a remote tribe that has never made contact with the outside world.  He tries to learn the tribe’s language.  No prob, right?  Actually, Quine says this problem is much deeper than it seems.  How would this actually play out?
Let’s say you’re sitting with a tribesman around the campfire and then a rabbit runs across the field. 
 

The tribesman says, “gavagai gavagai” and points at it.  What does the tribesman mean?  What is “gavagai”?
a) a furry, living animal with long ears. b) the name of this particular bunny who is the tribe pet. c) God manifesting itself as the rabbit. d) a hallucination of a rabbit, which means the psychedelics at the campfire are working. e) a rabbit’s foot, which the rabbit’s using to wave hello, awwww…. f) a rabbit’s foot, which the tribe thinks is the most delicious part ?. g) a safe, timid brown bunny, as opposed to those demonic white bunnies, thank goodness. -If you think, “Leo, this is a silly problem.  What’s the difference between a furry living animal with long ears, and God manifesting itself as a rabbit?  That's just some fluffy, mystical superstition…”
           Quine’s point here was very deep.  Your notion of rabbit will be defined by your entire sense of reality.  Is it valuable?  Is it good or bad?  Is it made of atoms or consciousness?  There is a significant difference between seeing that rabbit as food, as a biological creature, or as consciousness.
eg: Buffalo Wasn’t Just Food (2min) Native American tribes view Buffalo differently than…many people today view cute buffalo at the zoo…or bison at the butcher shop.            Your notion of anything is metaphysically and epistemically loaded.  You’re not conscious of those frameworks, but they shape how you relate to that rabbit.  So, your mind's way of holding the concept of “rabbit” is not the same as the tribesman’s or Leo’s or Alice in Wonderland’s or anyone else’s.
-The gavagai example shows that most situations in life are deeply ambiguous.  Quine’s point is that we will never fully resolve this problem within language.  We're basically guaranteed to have different ways of interpreting that rabbit because of the underdetermination problem.
eg: an episode of Star Trek:TNG demonstrates this: Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra (1 to 6 mins)  
The Underdetermination Problem
-The Underdetermination problem says: evidence available to us, at a given time, may be insufficient to determine what beliefs we should hold in response to it.  The facts of the situation alone are underdetermined because our way of interpreting and seeing the facts go way beyond merely what is there in the facts.

 
-There’s a problem within science, philosophy and the philosophy of science known as the Underdetermination problem. That’s what we're facing here.
“Underdetermination is a thesis explaining that for any scientifically based theory there will always be at least one rival theory that is also supported by the evidence given, and that that theory can also be logically maintained in the face of any new evidence.
Quine’s Non-uniqueness thesis: For any theory, T, and any given body of evidence supporting T, there is at least one rival (i.e., contrary) to T that is as well supported as T.  This is a result of our inability to completely understand or gain access to the whole set of empirical evidence for any one particular situation or system, and therefore our acceptance that new evidence could be made available at any time.  This thesis maintains that since there is no method for selecting between our two (or more) valid solutions, the validity of our conclusion is always in question.”  —Colin Merna
“Under determination refers to (Willard Van Orman) Quine's assessment that evidence alone does not dictate the choice of a scientific theory, as different theories —observationally equivalent— may be able to explain the same facts.” —Wikipedia
-We can also look at the same “facts” and perceive different things because of biology.
eg: Yanny or Laurel.  The White and Gold or Black and Blue dress pic.  
Science is Subjective
-The mistake here is to think the tribesman is being "superstitious and unscientific.”  Quine's point is that there is no such thing as scientific, because how you define “scientific” is part of the problem. (ep: What is the Nature of Science)
          Science is full of interpretation.  It’s not an objective, singular thing.  Can you use science to find the right interpretation of what science is?  That’s like a heart surgeon performing surgery on himself.  This is a meta-scientific problem.  Many atheists and materialists don't grasp the depth of the epistemic problem here.  Stop naively mistaking the constructions of your mind as reality itself.
           Science doesn’t just discover the facts of reality.  For each piece of data you gather you can come up with multiple alternative theories.  You can never have one theory that perfectly matches all the facts because every theory is underdetermined.  So this creates a an open-ended, infinite problem for science.
eg: Seven of Nine uses the same facts to accuse Cpt. Janeway and Chakotay of crimes that contradict each other.            There are always hundreds of theories that could fit the existing set of data.  (This doesn’t even include invalidated theories that comfort your ego.)
 
Just a Word Game?
-“But Leo, isn’t this just a word game?  There's no difference between seeing a rabbit through a materialist lens versus an idealist lens.”  That's wrong.  There are ways to decide between them, but not at your current level of consciousness and not using materialist methods.
           An idealist will consider something like direct experience of absolute truth as possible.  The materialist is shut off to this because it doesn’t validate his worldview.  So it’s not just a “word game.”  Those words carry a lot of unquestioned baggage.
-The lesson here is that most situations in life are deeply ambiguous.  So, increase your capacity for handling ambiguity and a variety of perspectives.  Profound self-deceptions can be life-threatening.  It's not just empty philosophy.  We could destroy civilization if we don't get this right.
          Your mind wants reality to be one particular way that serves your survival.  The mind abhors a vacuum because it’s threatening.  Leaving things open-ended is a lot of work for the mind.
          It's stressful.  It's overwhelming.  It can make you question your sanity ?.  “Is the bunny real or not?  Are other people real?  Are you real, Leo?”  You might reach that point in your investigations and that's the whole point.
-With all these examples keep asking yourself: how would you know the difference between these interpretations?  Notice how many different povs fit the same “facts.”
           Also, Leo’s not trying to justify any action here, so don’t get lost in the content of the interpretations.  Focus on the larger, meta point: seeing each situation from multiple perspectives.  These examples show how ubiquitous the problem of interpretation is and how many real world implications there are. (49:20)
 
Situations & Multiple Interpretations
What is God?
a)  God is a fiction created by irrational people who don’t or historically didn’t know about evolution. b)  God is a state of higher consciousness. What is Mysticism?
a) Mystics are wishful-thinking, loose-minded fools who just don't want to face death. b) Mystics have figured out how to access higher dimensions of reality. -When you’re presented with these different interpretations, seriously consider this one as being possible and then seriously consider this other one as being possible.  If you can do that it will open your mind (ep: How Openmindedness Works).  None of this work works if you don't understand radical open-mindedness.
Science is…?
a) truth. b) a set of mental constructions that help people manipulate reality for survival. -How would you decide the difference between the two?  After all, if what you care about is survival and nothing else, you could easily conflate survival with truth, which of course you do.
Senator _____ won't vote for gun reform because…?
a) he’s corrupted by the NRA gun lobby who bribed him. b) he believes gun rights are important and guaranteed by the constitution. -A lot of liberals and progressives make this mistake.  They accuse certain senators or politicians of not supporting their policies because they've been corrupted, bribed or influenced.  That’s definitely true in many situations, but that's not the only reason.  Progressives overlook how many senators and politicians genuinely believe the Conservative worldview.  Many Conservatives grew up with the gun culture.  The NRA wouldn’t be so popular if a significant number of people didn’t love guns.
-If you want to be a good progressive you should care about getting this right.  There’s so much partisan polarization because each side strawman’s the other instead of stepping outside their own interpretation to truly understand a different pov.  That's the meta problem.
           Also, our financial interests are always deeply entangled with our worldview, our metaphysics, our values, our epistemology.  There’s never a clean division of these two things.  (Which is why it’s important to get money out of politics.)  Money is the distillation of survival.  Your world view is your world view because it helps you to survive. (ep: Survival I, Survival II)
Bill Gates is trying to…?
a) control the population and get rich via vaccines. b) help humanity in the best way he knows how, but those ideas aren’t good. c) help humanity using good ideas, but his ideas aren't perfect because of limited knowledge and the complexity of humanity’s problems. -Truly put yourself in Bill’s situation.  What’s the best way to help humanity if you had billions of dollars?  It's hard to help everyone in a way they agree with.  Everyone has different ideas of what kind of help they need or want.  The help you need is probably different from the help someone in Africa or Norway might need.
Person x is…?
a) insane. b) understands something you don’t. -It’s easy to demonize someone who understands something that’s not popular in mainstream culture.  Then again, there are some people who are truly insane.
So how do you distinguish these two things?  You have to deeply study epistemology and do contemplation for years, decades.  If you don’t do the research you won’t figure it out. (1:00:00)
Hitler was…?
a) evil. b) trying to do good, but because his worldview and consciousness was so low he ended up doing a lot of bad. Person X is…?
a) evil. b) doing things for a greater good, using her higher vision that you are too narrow-minded to see. -Mystics, sages and saints operate on such a high playing field that it’s easier for mainstream society to demonize them than understand them.  Some of the wisest, most conscious geniuses were put to death, jailed, tortured or crucified.  (Christ, Socrates, Gandhi, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther King Jr, Giordano Bruno, and so forth.)
Consciousness is…
a) just a product of the brain. b) imagining everything, including the brain. -Don’t just believe it.  Open your mind to that possibility of it.  Can you see the massive repercussions if it’s true?
Someone who criticizes science…
a) is unscientific and likely a religious nutcase. b) might be religious, but is definitely deluded and attacking from below because science is truth. c) could be criticizing science from above in a meta-scientific way that’s more epistemically rigorous than science itself. -Science often refuses to do epistemology and metaphysics.  They’re so attached to science they don't think there's anything above it. (The pre/trans fallacy by Ken Wilber)  However, there are things in reality which are meta-scientific, which science cannot understand or access.
People who talk about God…
a) are dumb, superstitious ideologues. b) could have had direct experiences of God that are more genuine than science. -That’s a radically different interpretation because most materialistic and atheistic people are not open to the possibility of having a direct experience of God.  To them, all experiences of God are just hallucinations in the brain.  So they are forever cut off from truly mystical experiences unless they open their mind.
A lack of proof for God means…
a) that God doesn't exist. b) God is a type of thing which cannot be proven because God exists prior to proof. The earth is…
a) moving around the sun. b) the entire universe is moving around the earth -That sure flips the situation on its head doesn't it?
Other people…
a) exist. b) don’t exist because this is all a dream, like the people in my dreams at night. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Notice how many options there could be.  Really try them all on.  Stay meta.
Love is…
a)  a mammalian emotion produced by the brain with no metaphysical significance. b)  a core metaphysical aspect of universal mind and consciousness. Evolution is…
a) solid proof that God doesn’t exist. b) the process by which God creates. Cop X…
a) is racist because he did so and so. b) is not racist, but his actions appear that way because he's acting under extreme pressure. c) could be racist.  Although the entire police system is affected by culture and both explicit and implicit racism, and being a cop is difficult in ways that cannot be appreciated by people who aren’t cops. The Buddha didn't talk about love…
a) so love can't be the truth because the Buddha taught the truth. b) because he realized that love is truth, and what he called truth was actually love. c) because the Buddha's nirvana is actually metaphysical, existential love.  Not just emptiness. Obama's drone strikes…
a) were evil war crimes. b) saved ground troops from going in, thus saving many American soldiers. c) were ugly but necessary.  They killed 90 civilians but also killed 10 hard core terrorists who were planning to kill 1000 American civilians. d) were still evil because 1000 hypothetical Americans don’t outweigh 90 Somalis and Yemenis. e) well, they do if you’re the American President. -Leo’s not trying to justify drone strikes.  The meta point is to try on each perspective and appreciate the complexity of the situation.  (Btw, numbers in the example were made up to illustrate a point)
           The calculus is very complicated and so hairy that most people at the Pentagon probably don’t even know the answers definitively.  Most people take this simplistic attitude that drone strikes were evil war crimes.  You're not considering the greater evil of sending cruise missiles or even a nuclear weapon.  How many civilians are acceptable to kill with drone strikes in order to prevent destabilizing the region, or even nuclear war?
-This also shows the Underdetermination theory at play.    These are realities you would actually face if you were the leader of any major nation.  How do you weigh those variables, especially when the stakes are so high?  This shows the importance of having a variety of nuanced interpretations rather than black or white thinking.  We're dealing with uncertainty and incomplete information and yet we have to take action.
           Good leadership is not about knowing everything perfectly.  It’s about having principles and integrity and taking decisive action in the face of great ambiguity and turmoil.  Leo’s not justifying Obama’s actions, just pointing out there are no easy or good choices.  They’re often the lesser of two evils.
Absolute truth is…
a) impossible to access even if it exists. b) possible to access.  You simply haven’t done enough work to access it. -If you haven’t done the work it’s easy to confuse your personal laziness with something being impossible.
When Leo says absolute truth exists and he’s accessed it personally he’s…
a) being arrogant, narcissistic and egotistical. b) lying. c) telling the truth. d) self-deceived. Witchcraft is…
a) silly ancient superstition. b) absolutely real.  Some people are born with supernatural abilities that have been demonized by mainstream society because it's threatening. Liberals…
a) have a mental disorder, like the bumper sticker says. b) are more conscious than you. -Whenever you think you're more conscious than someone else, always consider that they're more conscious than you.  Maybe you're just projecting your unconsciousness onto them?
Conservatives are…
a) racists. b) more prone to fear, survival and xenophobia than Progressives because of their neurology. Leo said that ⬆️ because he wants to…
a) whitewash racists. b) provide a more nuanced interpretation that could be true. Capitalism…
a) exploits workers. b) is not yet sustainable in an ethical way because humans aren't selfless and conscious enough to not exploit each other. -Do you see how different a) is from b)  It changes your whole orientation towards capitalism.
Leo said that ⬆️ because he…
a) is a capitalist shill. b) believes humanity isn’t conscious enough to sustain a higher, more humane system. Because animals suffer…
a) I must not eat animals. b) it has no relevance to what I eat. -How would you know the difference?  Remember, Leo’s not trying to justify any action here.  He’s just trying to get you to see the meta in the situation.
      -The following are very common views within the pickup community:
Women are…
a) gold diggers who only want Chads with money. b) attracted to your money because you have nothing else to offer them but money. c) not attracted to you because your personality sucks and you’re too lazy to develop yourself. d) not attracted to you and aren’t even attracted to your money because you have none. e) attracted to qualities you could develop within yourself that have nothing to do with money, but you can’t see that. Women are…
a) cheaters. b) called cheaters by PUAs because they’re projecting their own lack of integrity onto women.  They expect women to cheat because PUAs are themselves cheaters. Women are…
a) selfish for not giving me sex b) not selfish.  You are selfish because you think women owe you sex and blame them because they have free will. Life has no meaning so I…
a) should kill myself because meaninglessness sucks. b) could construct whatever meaning I want.  This paradoxically gives life the deepest meaning possible. c) I am free from death because if life has no meaning, death has no meaning. Solipsism is…
a) bad and depressing. b) profoundly beautiful, you’re too busy ranting and denying solipsism to see it. God’s son is…
a) Jesus, and only Jesus. b) everyone.  We are all the son (and sum) of God. Those who reject Christianity are…
a) working for the devil. b) rejecting Christianity because it was co-opted thousands of years ago and corrupted so that now Christianity is literally devilry. -How would you know the difference?  Remember, don’t get lost in the content of the interpretations.  Notice how there are multiple ways of looking at a situation.
To be happy I need…
a) lots of money b) to find a new mode for happiness -Think about how this changes your entire approach to life.  Needing lots of money (or success, or babes, or validation) to be happy is not a fact, but an interpretation that you could change. It’s a lot easier to change interpretations than facts. That would be the wiser course.
Life sucks because…
a) life is unfair. b) because you haven't been living by the right principles. c) life actually is fair.  It’s fair to those who follow the principles.  There's natural consequences and suffering which is what you're experiencing and then you call that unfair. -Maybe life sucking is just a consequence of following the wrong principles.  It’s like when an idiot hits his toe with a hammer and then experiences excruciating pain, he blames that on the hammer and God and other people.  He doesn't take responsibility for his own decisions.
Black people’s IQ scores are…
a) lower due to genetics. b) inaccurately perceived as lower because it serves some people’s nationalist identity. The Middle East is…
a) less developed than the West because the people there are savages with an inferior culture. b) less developed because the Middle East was a harsher environment to survive in.  So historically those people have required more time to develop than those civilizations that arose in Europe and elsewhere. -They will eventually develop to the standards of Western culture and beyond.  So it’s not some inherent, genetic inferiority or some cultural problem.  (“Guns, Germs and Steel” by Jared Diamond)
Winning a debate means…
a) the winner knows the truth! Because he won! ? b) the winner might know the truth or might not, because winning debates has nothing to do with truth. Women have vaginas and Men have penises…
a) it’s a scientific fact. b) it’s not always the case.  The idea of penises, vaginas, men and women are abstract categories created beyond and outside of empirical science. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Really try on all options here.  Stay meta.
Logic is…
a) what reveals truth. b) a rationalization mechanism co-opted by the ego-mind for the purposes of your survival. The Constitution must be…
a) followed because it’s the Constitution. b) updated.  It was written over 230 years ago and contains outdated ideas which need to fit with modern times, otherwise the nation will stagnate and perhaps even collapse. I can't get laid because…
a) I don't have a square jaw and a big dick. b) I don't understand female attraction, have cripplingly low self-esteem and don't socialize. c) I don’t understand that a not-big dick is better at hitting sensitive spots inside a woman, so I can drop my “big penis envy” and focus on technique.  Bigger isn’t always better.  That’s like assuming the tallest guy in the room is always the best slow dancer.  It depends on the size of the girl too. -If you've never seriously tried to fix yourself how can you know your dick and jaw size are holding you back instead of self-esteem issues, fear of socializing and ignorance about female attraction?
I can't get laid because…
a) of feminism. b) I blame feminism.  I've never done the hard work of approaching women and I play hundreds of hours of video games.  I also talk on incel forums who promote victim ideology. Feminism is…
a) the reason I can't get laid. b) a scapegoat you invented because of your unwillingness to take responsibility for your results. People think Jordan Peterson is a fascist because…
a) his haters are snowflake SJWs who are threatened by manly greatness!!  Hail ?!! b) his detractors are attached to the Progressive worldview.  They don’t look at his work with nuance because they misunderstand the Conservative mind and feel attacked by stage blue. Person X is a…
a) lying hypocrite grifter. b) is just weak.  Like all of us are.  He failed up to live up to his own ideals and has been corrupted by money. Person Y criticized me because…
a) he is projecting his own shadow onto me.  I'm feeling guilty because I'm failing to distinguish that. b) I actually did something wrong. Landing a man on the moon proves that…
a) science is true. b) it's possible to land on the moon with limited and even untrue science. CEOs…
a) are greedy capitalists b) have crazy pressures put on them for survival of the company. I'm poor because…
a) capitalists exploit me. b) I haven't taken responsibility for developing highly valuable skills. Slavery is…
a) evil. b) only evil relative to today's cultural norms and level of development. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Really try on all options here.
Walls are…
a) real, because I can't walk through them, which proves their reality. b) might be real, or I could be imagining walls that can't be walked through. The number of stars and galaxies in the universe means that…
a) life is very common. b) life is extremely rare. -See how significantly different that interpretation is.  It just flips the whole thing on its head.
When Leo calls Trump a corrupt fool, he’s being…
a) biased and partisan. b) accurate.  You just don’t want to hear it because you’re biased. If the paranormal was real…
a) science would say so, but science doesn’t so it can't be real. b) science would discredit the studies and outcast any scientist who dares to prove it. God…
a) will punish you for your sins. b) will not punish you for your sins. c) will love your sins as much as your goodness.  However, sins naturally produce their own suffering by disconnecting you from loving consciousness. e) sinning against another is just you punishing yourself. Stage green socialism is…
a) dangerous. b) being conflated with stage red and blue communism, which are not the same things at all. Government regulation is…
a) socialism. b) necessary for the harmonious balance of a society.  You can’t have a government without regulations. Taxation is…
a) theft b) makes the military, the courts, infrastructure and many other things you enjoy in a democracy possible. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Notice how many options there could be.  Really try them all on.  Stay meta.
Democrats want illegal immigration because…
a) it gives them more voters. b) Democrats are more compassionate and less fearful because they actually care about the suffering of immigrants and don’t think it will destroy the country. -To most Conservatives that interpretation doesn't even enter into their mind.  When you can't compute that possibility the only alternative is to come up with some idea that Democrats are doing it for their own selfish gain.
Communism was a…
a) failure b) success that led to the greatest growth in living standards in the 20th century both in Russia and in China.            -If you actually look at the GDP growth and rise in living standards percentage-wise in Russia and China over the last century, it rose way more than in non-communist countries.  Leo’s not saying communism is good.  There are many problems with communism.  He’s just showing how these interpretations are much trickier than they seem.
Guru X…
a) is a rapist and an abuser. b) had consensual sex with a bunch of groupies and one of the groupies got mad because the guru wouldn’t marry her. c) took advantage of his role as a teacher and confidant and used that to abuse and coerce girls who wouldn’t otherwise date him. -This is a very common problem in spiritual communities.
Guru X is a rapist therefore…
a) he cannot be enlightened. b) he could still be enlightened because who says enlightened people can’t be rapists? -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Really try on all options here.
People voted for Trump because…
a) they were racist. b) he appealed to their spiral dynamic stage blue and orange value set, which is the majority of the US. When Leo says that he's God…
a) he’s being narcissistic and unspiritual. b) he actually is God. c) he is God, and so are you, but you're not conscious of it yet. Supernatural healing is…?
a) delusion b) real, but only accessible from exceptionally high and rare states of consciousness that you haven't accessed yet. The miracles of Jesus…?
a) are myths and exaggerated fairytales to tell to children. b) are real because Jesus was so exceptionally conscious that he actually had those powers. Disputes between spiritual teachers…
a) are just differences in word and style, not in substance.  They’re basically word games. b) are differences in underlying substance, and consciousness.  Some teachers are actually more awake than others. c) are a blend of a) and b) There is no proof of paranormal phenomena because…
a) it's all bullshit. b) the methods of proof you're using are too limited for measuring paranormal phenomena.  After all, your method determines what you're going to get back. I’m bad with women because…
a) I'm short. b) I’m insecure about being short. -You might spend your entire life thinking you're bad with women because of something you can’t change (your height) when the true cause is something you can change (your insecurity).
          One of the best guys Leo knew from pickup was a 5’5 Pakistani guy.  He would crush it.  He would do better than a six foot tall white guy.  At the club he was one of the most secure, brash and confident guys, the exact opposite of insecure, and his results reflected that.
Women…
a) care about my dick size. b) only you care about your dick size. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Notice how many povs there could be.  Really try on all options.  Stay meta.
 
Examples from Leo’s Life
Leo said something in a video that I also said, which means…
a) he stole my work and didn't give me credit for it. b) that people can develop insights independently and still overlap with other people’s insights.  Not all ideas have one origin point. c) deep universal truths can be discovered by many people. d) he totally stole from you, and got away with it too!! The backdrop of Leo’s apartment means…
a) Leo’s purposely sending secret Illuminati messages to his followers who 100% carry out his every command (unless those commands include mediating, exercising, reading or delousing the clutter in their mind) b) Leo’s bad at decorating his apartment. The symbol of 666 is…
a) deeply significant. b) completely meaningless. c) the molar mass of the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7, which makes it satanic. Youtube/Influencer fame is…
a) the most profound and fulfilling experience a human soul can have. b) a stream of babes and compliments, with maybe one troll every five years. c) a nonstop flood of people projecting their egos at you. -Leo has experienced constant projection on a daily basis for the past decade.  It’s especially difficult because he stays open to feedback and valid constructive criticism.  However, it’s difficult to distinguish that from people’s projections.
          It underscores how everyone is projecting all the time and of course Leo does it to others too.  When you experience other people’s projections so strongly it makes you more aware of your own projections.  (It also shows fame ain’t all it’s cracked up to be)
Leo deleted my youtube comment because…
a) he doesn't like me and he's censoring me. b) youtube has automatic comment filters to get rid of spam. Youtube’s spam filter is…
a) proof it’s part of a globalist conspiracy to suppress free speech. b) trying to counteract bots and spammers that would make websites like youtube unrunnable. Leo filters out comments based on….
a) opinions he disagrees with.  Critiques of his work. b) slander, racism, extreme vulgarity, disinformation, conspiracy theories, spam, and so on. Leo’s work is…
a) a copy of other spiritual traditions and presented as his own truth. b) a result of discovering these insights independently on his own. c) triggering to people who are attached to their particular lineage or guru as the source of truth. d) fun to play in the background while you’re cooking. -If that original yogi or mystic could discover the truth for himself, why can’t other people discover the truth for themselves too?
Leo doesn't want to debate others because…
a) he’s afraid of being exposed as a fraud. b) he has become too conscious to be interested in debating anyone. c) he’d rather spend that time making videos for us ?! Leo denies he is leading a cult because…
a) he isn’t leading a cult. b) denying you're a cult leader is exactly what a cult leader would do, which proves Leo’s leading a cult! -That’s circular logic.  I can play this game on you.  I can call you a cult leader and as soon as you deny it I'll say, “Ah ha!  According to your logic if you deny your cult leader that's exactly what makes you a cult leader!”  (Speaking of which, Kanye West says his greatest accomplishment is that he is the greatest)
That spiritual teacher…
a) worked really hard to become enlightened. b) didn't have to work that hard because he was born with exceptional spiritual talent. Leo didn't respond to my email (or my awesome LoA question  ) because…
a) he doesn't like me ?. b) he didn’t see my email.  He gets tons of them ??‍♂️?        -Using the Spiral Dynamics model…
Trump is…
a) stage orange with a bit of red. b) stage red with a veneer of orange. Jordan Peterson is…
a) stage yellow with a green shadow. b) stage orange with some yellow capacities.           -Spiral dynamics has very interesting interpretive problems because it also suffers from the Underdetermination problem. (ep: Spiral Dynamics)  It takes a lot of experience, study and application of spiral dynamics to be able to start to distinguish between these things.  Even the developers of spiral dynamics suffer from this problem.
Don Beck and Ken Wilber…
a) are right about pushing towards stage yellow because we’ve already exhausted stage green. b) are seriously overestimating how evolved politics and culture are.           -In the US, green is only prevalent in advanced universities.  The majority of society is still in blue and orange, even in developed countries.  We've got to move through green for many years before we can get to yellow.  We don't even have a green economic or political system.
          Spider Dynamics is an interpretation that you're projecting onto reality.  It can be difficult to know which interpretation to apply, which one is more accurate.  Clip: Spiral Dynamics (11 min)
People who believe in ufos…
a) are idiots. b) aren’t necessarily idiots.  Scientists and skeptics are simply too close-minded. c) watched too much X-Files growing up. d) are right.  UFOs are hidden because there’s a conspiracy! e) are right.  UFOs are hidden because the government and people studying them can’t explain them properly.  It doesn't fit their worldview. Absolute truth is…
a) not real, because if it was everyone would know about it and talk about it. b) so radical that almost everyone is in denial about it. All spiritual teachings…
a) are just different paths up the same mountaintop, leading to the same peak. b) are not different paths leading to the same peak.  There are lower and higher places along the mountain and it's not a single mountain.  It's a mountain range with many different peaks and not all paths lead to the same peak. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Notice how many options there could be.  Really try them all on.  Stay meta.
Immortality is…
a) impossible, just religious wishful thinking. b) possible because death is actually a mental construction that you're imagining. In a relationship, you could say…
a) your partner is the problem. b) you are actually the problem. c) the two of you are not a good fit. d) one or both of you is wrong and evil. There's something wrong with…
a) the world. b) how your mind sees the world. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Really try on all options here.
All men…
a) are shallow cheating pigs. b) aren’t shallow cheating pigs.  You just end up with pigs because of your low self-esteem problems. God is…
a) a fictional bearded man in the sky. b) Jesus. c) Love. d) consciousness. e) nothing. f) everything. g) all of the above. The existence of evil in the world means…
a) God is not good. b) God cannot exist because he wouldn't create evil. c) that “evil” is just an illusion created by your selfish biases.  You don't see the world’s perfection because your vision isn't perfect. Philosophy is…
a) impractical and a waste of time. b) valuable.  You just haven't done it enough to realize it. Consciousness is…
a) impossible to know. b) possible to know because you are consciousness and consciousness is infinite, but you don't understand that yet because you haven't become conscious of it. Leo is…
a) wrong, because he hasn't considered whatever point I want him to consider. b) maybe right.  Maybe Leo has already taken that point into account and seen beyond it to points you have yet to consider. c) not perfect, but his epistemology is better than most people's epistemologies.   He’s spent decades doing the work.  Can the same be said for you? -The notion of raw facts is a naive myth.  Your mind does so much interpretation and confirmation bias that your relationship to reality is less than one percent. The other 99 percent are your projections, interpretations, assumptions, metaphysical and epistemic frameworks.  Your “facts” are actually biases, beliefs, fears, emotions and justifications.
-Your interpretations are are deeply distorted by your survival needs and insecurities.  They’re not objective or arbitrary.
 
-Key point:  Notice your interpretations.  Even deeper, notice yourself denying that your interpretation is an interpretation. How are you trying to retcon your interpretations as fact or science or “just the way it is”?  Also notice how rash and unconscious interpretations lead to self-deception and misunderstanding the world.
-Start taking alternative interpretations more seriously. Reality is a lot less obvious than it seems. The ability to go meta is crucial for Spiral Dynamics Tier Two.  Stage Yellow is interpretation aware and holds multiple perspectives at once.
-This work takes cognitive development and consciousness. Be aware that most knowledge, opinions and reporting you see in culture and media is actually an interpretation, but you’re not treating it as such.
           You unconsciously swallow culture and media and their implicit frames which leads to deep self-deception in your life.
-The meta point here is notice all possible interpretations of a situation, rather than looking for the “right one” and defending it.
           This will make you a better human, a better creator, more effective in business and relationships, with your health, with your wealth.  It'll make you happier.  It'll make it easier to do spiritual work.
 
Tips for Application
1) There’s always dozens of interpretations.  If you can only see one or two, you’re being epistemically irresponsible.  That's your clue you're not being mentally flexible and curious enough, that you’re just fooling yourself.
2) Realize that your first interpretation is usually the worst.  Unless you're extremely spiritually developed your initial gut interpretation is going to be very crude, foolish and wrong.  The more contemplation you do of epistemology and metaphysics, the better your interpretations will get.  Overcome your self-deceptions.  Notice the ego games and the blaming in your mind (ep: Self-deception I).
3) Get in the habit of looking for alternative interpretations.  Make it a little game you play with yourself.  This requires exploring multiple perspectives with an open-mind, without bias.  Even seeking a high quantity of interpretations is good.
4) Seek more nuanced, high quality interpretations. The examples above have both crude and nuanced interpretations.  Notice the differences between them.
5) Generate novel interpretations for all sorts of situations.  For your relationships, your children, love life, sexuality, views about men, women, the government, and so forth.
6) Reinterpret your own self.  You have tons of negative interpretations of your capacities that you consider facts.  How compassionate and empowering are your interpretations about yourself?
7) Seek more charitable and loving interpretations.  Some interpretations are very fear-based, us versus them, tribalistic and polarizing.  Other interpretations are more compassionate, more inclusive. Steel man other interpretations instead of straw manning them.
8) Seek interpretations that understand and can accommodate other perspectives.
9) Question and discard fear-based interpretations.  These are robbing you of your vitality and ability to be effective in the world and to see reality truthfully.  Fear is the smog that clouds up your vision.  It sneaks into so many of your interpretations, in ways you don't detect.  If you want to reach truth give up your fear-based interpretations.
10) Question and discard toxic, disempowering interpretations and victim mentality.   When you start to interpret yourself as a victim it becomes your reality.  You’re constantly drilling that into your mind.
           Notice how conspiracy theories and incel ideology use fear, hatred and judgment to make you feel like you're being empowered by the theory, but you’re actually not.  It dismisses compassionate interpretations that could jailbreak your mind and truly improve your life.
           Notice that incels and conspiracy theorists hammer your reptile brain.  They lack the ability to self-reflect and go meta.  Their epistemology is very poor.  That’s a surefire sign that their ideology is limiting and toxic.
 
How is interpretation different from Recontextualization?
           It's a difference of degree. (ep: Recontextualization).  Recontextualization is about how the context of a situation changes what the facts are and how you perceive the facts.  Recontextualizations are pretty rare, happening maybe once a month or once a year.  Reality pummels you with something and then you're forced to change your interpretation.  Interpretation is similar, but happening on a much more fine grained level. Interpretations are always going on in your mind.
Be careful about how you interpret these teachings
           The gavagai bunny also shows up in Leo’s work ?.  There can be double, triple meanings to the words Leo uses.  Unfortunately unconscious people who need these teachings the most are the most prone to misinterpreting them.  Also the more advanced a teaching is, the easier it is to misinterpret.  His concept of, say, ego death isn’t the same as your concept of ego death in your mind.
    Leo’s 3 hr episode about Relative truth means…
a) Life is subjective, relative and full of interpretation, therefore Absolute truth does not exist. b) misunderstanding Relative truth causes a lot of suffering, and it co-exists with Absolute truth ?! What you think he said might be the opposite of what he actually intended to say.  That’s the difficulty of communication.  So be very careful when listening to these videos.
-Epistemology is at the core of all of your problems in life
When you don’t take that seriously you misinterpret everything, everywhere.  The finite thing you believe you are is itself a gross misinterpretation of what you actually are.  You have fundamentally misinterpreted infinity as something finite.  You've misinterpreted consciousness as material substance.  Mind and body as atoms and science as truth.  Culture, government, politics, your own capacities as a human being, you've misinterpreted all of these.
-The real work is correcting the misinterpretations in your mind.  Fixing your epistemology fixes the foundation for your life.  The sturdier the foundation, the higher you can build your skyscraper.
           With most spiritual development teachings you get flimsy houses of cards.  At least when you're done with a three hour Actualized.org episode it will change something about how you see the world, and over time that changes your life.

Truth/Love/Esctasy is the realization that there is no difference whatsoever between anything.
When all difference is seen to be imaginary and irrelevant, you reach infinite joy. It's an ocean of Love so deep you shudder in a metaphysical cosmic Mindgasm.
Then you understand what true happiness is. True happiness is simply realizing that nothing is better than anything else. Period. That's when all seeking stops.
So long as you are under the illusion that one thing is better than another, you will always suffer because you will seek the better and resent the worse.
The ultimate Truth is that nothing is better than anything else because all things are equally wondrous. Ta-da! Your unhappiness turned out to be nothing other than bias.

Self-amusement is the #1 key to attracting women.
You should laugh at your own jokes so much that you are having more fun than anyone else. Then the woman gets attracted because you are a boss, not seeking any validation or reaction from her.
Like I keep saying, attraction is a very counter-intuitive thing.
Whatever you feel, the woman was feel. If you feel good, she will feel good. If you feel awkward and shy, so will she.
You should even get good at laughing for no reason whatsoever. Just to laugh. Life is a fucking joke. You take yourself way too seriously.
Stop trying to act like James Bond. Start being a playful rascal. You'll get laid way more and you will feel happier.
And even in non-dating situations, people always appreciate a cheerful guy. Even guys do.

There are so many ways to do a spirituality biz.
Start by doing a few months of research on what already exists and what other people have done. Search the web, you'll find tons of stuff. And think outside the box of being a guru.
Also think about the biggest obstacles you faced in your spiritual journey and what kind of problems people commonly face in spirituality. You can basically start a biz around any single common problem.
In general, in order to enter an industry you must first become an avid consumer of it. As you consume and explore the industry you will see what works, what doesn't, what's missing, and what niches are available. You need a lot of experience consuming the industry you work in to find opportunities and to learn from what has already been done.
I broke my way into self-help by consuming a ton of self-help and seeing gaps and opportunities. No one was doing self-help in the way I wanted it done, so I started my own channel.

It's not a function of time, it's a function of grabbing her attention and making an emotional connection.
You could do this within 5 minutes or fail to do it after 60 minutes.
The conversation needs to be emotionally engaging, it needs to broadcast your personality, and it must have sexual tension without ever talking about sex.
You must also work on all your sub-communication so it's tight: eye contact, body posture, vocal tone, smile, facial expressions, your mood, etc.
Asking too many questions is problematic. Instead of asking questions, make statements and observations, and lead the conservation by talking about yourself a lot. In the beginning you need to carry 90% of the conversation rather than asking her to carry it for you.
The best way to carry a conversation is by learning to talk about yourself a lot. This is something extroverts do naturally but introverts almost never do.

If a guy doesn't hunt you, how you ever gonna find a guy?
You're looking at this the wrong way. You are seeing this as hurting women when actually helping men become better men creates more quality men for you ladies to marry.
The problem here is not simply one of getting laid. The problem here is one of how to make better men. You are not going to have quality men when they are too scared to approach a woman. Those men will be socially awkward, bitter, hateful incels.
You want to date an incel? Log into their forum and have you pick. If you dare.
You are looking at this sitution in such a narrow and selfish way. As if all that matters is you.
Men need an avenue for how to learn to date and be strong. It just needs to be done ethically.