Michael Paul

@integral From what I currently understand, it’s an aspect of the Spirit of God and it has always existed. It’s omnipresent throughout the cosmos, like an energetic quantum field or frequency range that you can tap into consciously. It can be used for many purposes, one of which is to “resurrect” suppressed aspects of yourself and heal yourself of trauma. I know that may sound a little far fetched or simplistic, but that’s a pretty good summary of my understanding of it thus far. There is more to uncover about this, but it’s definitely real.

About five years ago, I was in a pretty difficult place spiritually. I spent a lot of that time meditating, contemplating, and praying to God for help and answers, and eventually I learned about a little-known spiritual artifact called the Resurrection Flame. The moment I came across it, my entire experience of the universe was drastically altered in an extremely profound manner. It felt like I was transported into a realm of pure light, bliss, and love, and it also felt like I was in some sort of video game matrix reality for a few minutes. It was so incredible, even though I don’t fully understand what it is in its entirety yet. Just thought I would share this with you all, peace!!

Dear Leo, I hope you are doing well. I’ve been through horrific trauma in my life throughout much of the duration of it, and I turned to your videos several years ago in the hopes that you would be able to help guide me out of it. At times you did help, but many other times your teachings were making my life worse than it was before. Eventually I became completely fed up with you and walked away for awhile. During that time period I resented you and wished that I had never discovered your channel. I thought you were just another wannabe cult leader out there on the internet misleading people. But now that I’ve contemplated it a little more deeply, I realized that you are an important person for several reasons. I still don’t agree with much of what you teach, though I believe some small portion of it is at least on the right track. In particular, I think a core aspect of the absolute truth is love, and you do understand that. I respect you for having the courage to put your identity out there publicly to talk about some very polemic and pressing topics. Everyone is on their own journey, right? Who am I to judge you for walking your own path through this difficult world? Just because I disagree with you doesn’t mean I should despise you, and that’s a lesson I’ve needed to learn and am still learning. I think a lot of my resentment toward you was rooted in my own pain and suffering, and I hope you can forgive me for that. I actually want to thank you for making me think outside the box, even if I believe that the vast majority of what you teach about metaphysics is not accurate. It still forced me to think about life, the universe, God, and spirituality in a different way than I am used to, and for that I am grateful. I think I have grown since I discovered you. Thanks for reading, Michael Paul

I have resisted awakening many times in my life thus far, but I think God (whatever God is on the ultimate level) is assisting me at this time and trying to get me to an even deeper level of awakening. Thanks for the encouragement man.

@Razard86 I have had many extremely profound mystical and transcendental spiritual experiences in my life. They have confirmed to me that things are not quite what they might seem to be at first. Consider the following. If there is an infinitely intelligent, infinitely powerful, omnipresent, infinitely loving being called God, and God uses Her infinite power to control your entire individual subjective experience of reality, including all your thoughts, beliefs and sensory perceptions, AND He/She/It had a reason to use the divine power to keep you at least partially oblivious to God’s existence and metaphysical nature, then that’s how you would experience reality. You would never even be remotely aware of that happening to you unless God/Source wanted to give you that kind of insight, knowledge and information.

@Leo Gura Love you Leo, keep seeking and striving brother. We’ll all get to where we should be eventually.

@Razard86 I haven’t really watched many of his recent videos as I haven’t necessarily had the time to do that, so forgive me if I’m leaving out some crucial information about his more recent teachings regarding what I’m about to say. From my own experience, there is more to existence than just nondual consciousness. I’ve heard Leo jump on the nonduality/Advaita bandwagon many times in the past and I think that this philosophy is very limited in scope. I think there can be an aspect of God/Source that is entirely non-dual and consciousness, and there can also be duality. In other words, why does there have to only be nonduality and consciousness? Why can’t there metaphysically be a universal spirit and/or consciousness as well as a physical aspect? There’s no rule etched in existence that says that all of reality must be simple, parsimonious, or follow Ockham’s razor. Pluralism and dualism (even substance dualism) can both be true, depending on what we are talking about. Attempting to simplify that which is beyond infinitely complex and sum it up into a neat little model that other people can easily understand is foolish, in my opinion. Also, anyone who submits that there is no objective reality AT ALL has lost the plot. There is an overarching, objective truth that exists independently of anyone’s belief, knowledge, or feelings about it. The question is, what IS that truth on an ontological or metaphysical level? What IS it in and of itself, outside of any of our beliefs about it? I know that there are many levels to this — the rabbit hole never ends. There’s no bottom to it. Some aspects or attributes of God and creation are marvelously simple, and others are beyond infinitely complex. The whole system is evolving at each instant as well, but I know that God/Source is omniscient and is able to comprehend this fully. Essentially, Leo is trying to describe something in language that is borderline impossible to explain through that medium. He’s a very eloquent and intelligent person, don’t get me wrong. But he has fallen into the trap of thinking that we as individual spiritual beings are capable of comprehending this in its entirety. Maybe one day our models will be able to correspond 1 to 1 with the objective truth of existence, but ultimately we aren’t quite there yet as a species. Also, I’m aware that he has seriously proposed metaphysical solipsism as a viable philosophy in the not so distant past. Solipsism is complete horseshit, and I fully disagree with anyone who seriously teaches that in any way shape or form. It’s a delusional, harmful, egocentric philosophy designed to isolate people from other REAL HUMAN BEINGS. Don’t fall prey to anyone who seriously canvasses that nonsense. In addition, I question the teaching of “we are all God”. God is unlimited in nature, true. But to say that I am God as an individual does not sound correct to me. It always rubbed me the wrong way when I heard him say things along those lines. I think we are all part of an immanent and transcendent spiritual reality, and at the root of it is the spiritual Source (God) that can be both personal and impersonal in nature. We are all connected to the Source, but this does not necessarily mean that we literally ARE the Source. Some final thoughts: we are all unique, individual physical and spiritual beings on our own journeys. It is a fact that there is an aspect of the collective where we are all connected and “one”. But let’s not forget that we are also unique individuals at the same time, and that’s not really a contradiction if you think about it for long enough.

Lately I’ve been watching and reading Ramesh Balsekar’s teachings and work. For those who don’t know of him, he was a student/disciple of Nisargadatta Maharaj and a renowned teacher of nonduality in India while he was alive. Ramesh’s teachings are very simple to understand but can be difficult to accept. He basically taught that all that exists is the Source/Consciousness/God and that we as human body-mind organisms each have our own unique destiny from the moment of conception. In other words, humans are not the doer, we are simply instruments of the Divine Will. We are each individually programmed to think and act as we do by our environmental conditioning and genetics. Obviously this is not a new teaching, as Ramana Maharshi and many other sages throughout history have said similar things. Even the Bhagavad Gita says that man is not the doer. To me, it seems as though the ego/separate self is founded upon the concept of personal doership. If you get rid of the notion of personal doership, then the ego fades away. This is true from my own experience. What are your thoughts on this?

Question in the title says it all. Can high doses of marijuana be considered a psychedelic, at least a mild one?

@OneHandClap Delta 10 is very nice in my opinion, even subtler than D8 but kind of gives you a slight cosmic vibe and calming effect without being anywhere near overwhelming.

@OneHandClap I’ve smoked regular Delta 9, Delta 8 and even Delta 10 in various forms, including flower and dabs. I like Delta 8 and Delta 10 a lot, they seem to reduce the ‘trippy head high’ of regular THC significantly while keeping the relaxation element of weed intact. For me personally, they help me retain the psychological clarity I desire while being high. @EmptyVase Interesting and good point. @BipolarGrowth When I was younger, I definitely had some nondual awakenings while high without understanding the significance or context of those awakenings. Took me awhile to integrate them and even understand what they were, but they were very powerful. @Jodistrict Thanks for the information source, I’m definitely going to give it a look. @Ry4n Thanks for the insight, seems as though edibles definitely produce a more psychedelic effect, if you can call it that.

This encapsulates my personal experience with pot very well. In a good way, bad way, or both at the same time.

@Leo Gura I realized that I am all that exists, as the one dimensionless consciousness. So yes, I realized and became conscious that I am God.

I recently had a powerful personal insight into the nature of consciousness. After following the teachings of Advaita Vedanta and Leo in particular, I came to the realization in my direct experience that the only thing which actually exists is one single dimensionless consciousness. This single consciousness is dimensionless because there is no space or time inherent to it. In other words, the one consciousness is inherently spaceless and timeless, yet it exists and is eternal and changeless. By eternal I don’t mean everlasting in time, but without beginning or end and ever-present. Space, time, and their ‘contents’, including us living beings, are analogous to a dream where the one dimensionless consciousness seemingly fragments itself into space and time with numerous subjects of experience inside them. The only reality that space and time actually have is as the dream of the one dimensionless consciousness — nothing more. This includes all living beings within space and time — our only reality as individuated subjects of experience is within the dreamed space and time of the one dimensionless consciousness. If anyone wants to add to this understanding from their own experience or knowledge base, feel free.

Ever since I became interested in nonduality, the nature of time and memory has become a central topic for me. I’ve watched a decent amount of Rupert Spira’s videos about time and space, and he makes some interesting points about how we never actually experience time. He often asks questioners to “step out of the now and visit the past”. He doesn’t mean think about the past — he means literally go there. But it’s obvious that this is impossible. The only thing we have of “the past” are memories, but memories are only known insofar as they are experienced now. Rupert has a fascinating chapter about time and space in his book The Nature of Consciousness. The chapter’s title is The Memory of Our Eternity and it’s Chapter 16. I’m not going to rehash all of what he says in that chapter here, but in a nutshell he states that consciousness exists eternally here and now, and that time and space are essentially activities of the one infinite, eternal consciousness that has no dimensions. I’ve had some pretty intense experiences where I felt like consciousness was beyond time and space both high/tripping and sober, which seem to corroborate Rupert’s model of consciousness, time and space. I’m having a hard time grappling with the issue of memories in relation to this understanding, because if time and space do not actually correspond to our experience, then our memories seem like they don’t actually point to real events. What are your thoughts on this topic?

The crazy thing about this is that it means visual perception itself is imaginary, which is the primary way we relate to reality. Like, my eyes themselves and everything I see is imaginary. Blows my mind.

I will preface this post by saying that I am NOT a physicist, but rather someone who is deeply interested in the philosophical implications of our best physical description of the universe, quantum theory. Quantum Field Theory (QFT) says that the universe is either a set of all-pervading quantum fields or one unified all-pervading quantum field (the search for a unified quantum field theory is ongoing), within which all seemingly separate objects are actually vibrations or excitations of the field(s). The implications of this for personal identity are unfathomable, although it might not seem like it at first glance. According to QFT, everyone and everything that exists IS the same ‘fabric’ in different states of excitation, not various different objects that emerge and disappear over time. To quote Magnus Vinding in his book “You Are Them”: “...the world is comprised of an all-pervading “substance” that takes on a myriad of different structures; it is not a structure that contains a myriad of substances.” What this means is that we ARE the field(s) as a whole, and what we experience as “me” or “myself” as a human being is simply a localized vibration of the field(s) that happens to be sentient. There is no persistent, stable “you entity” reincarnating or disappearing; just different states of the same field(s). This seems to imply that there is no reason to assume a fundamental difference between you, me, and every other sentient being who is part of the field(s). We all share the common experience of being conscious, and if we are all literally the fabric of the field(s), then it follows that we are all the same being. I highly recommend the book “You Are Them” by Magnus Vinding. It covers the topic discussed here as well as the ethical implications of understanding it.

The very notion of non-existence is incoherent and contradictory. If non-existence were the case, it would have to be the case. But the very concept of non-existence implies non-being. This violates the law of non-contradiction, which states that something, or rather “non-being”, cannot both be and not be. Here’s another way to view the non-existence of non-existence: For the sake of argument, let’s consider existence to be a contingent fact; that is, it could potentially not be the case. This would mean that non-existence is possible, under the assumption that existence is contingent. If existence is contingent, but it in fact exists, then the possibility for existence was undeniably real. But if the possibility for existence was real, that possibility must exist. Therefore, the reality of the possibility of existence necessarily implies existence in full, because the mere possibility of existence itself is something and not nothing. Therefore, existence is necessary and not contingent, and if existence is necessary, it’s also eternal, because it must exist and cannot fail to exist.

@Moksha Interesting perspective. Thanks for that. The notion of “existence” that I was trying to encapsulate in the original post was “that which is”. Existence in this sense, as a category, is logically immutable in that it must exist in some form, as I tried to show. Non-existence would be the absence of “that which is”. But it would also have to be absent of itself, meaning that it could not obtain and still considered to be true.

Regardless of any of our metaphysical commitments, be it materialism or something else like idealism, we are all equally part of reality and therefore are reality itself. The brain filters reality. Before any of us were born, there was pure, unfiltered reality. After we die, there will be pure, unfiltered reality again. The state of unfiltered reality is the same before our birth and after our death. If this is true, and we all can equally be considered to be reality itself, then we are all the same person. Thoughts? Feel free to critique this line of thought if you feel like it is inaccurate or missing something, it’s just something I recently thought of. If you feel like there are flaws in my logic, please let me know. Thanks .

Open Individualism (OI) is the theory in philosophy of self that there is only one subject, and this subject is every sentient being at all times. It’s a solution to the theory of personal identity. This is opposed to Closed Individualism, the common view which claims that personal identity is unique to individuals and survives over time, and Empty Individualism, which claims that personal identity is different at every moment (minimum unit of time). OI seems to be the most parsimonious and logical conclusion to the problem of personal identity. Regardless of your metaphysical commitments, whether you are a physicalist (materialist) or idealist (believing that the most fundamental aspect of reality is consciousness, as Leo does), it makes sense in either case. If, theoretically, the entire universe and all of existence was strictly physical, OI makes perfect sense. Quantum Field Theory states that any particle is an excitation of an all-pervading field, or fabric. Therefore, we are all vibrations or excitations of one all-pervading fabric, rather than discrete objects which come into and leave existence. This means that, essentially, we are all the same person. If idealism is true, and everything that exists is made out of one consciousness, then OI logically follows from this conclusion. If you’re interested in OI, I highly recommend Magnus Vinding’s book You Are Them.

The last few months of my life have been very difficult existentially. I fell out of touch with my spiritual side and temporarily adopted a strictly naturalistic, secular, and atheistic perspective on the universe and life. However, after taking a purely logical approach to understanding ourselves and our relationship to existence, I rediscovered the truth that all the great sages throughout history have taught us. I think what caused me to fall out of touch spiritually was the fact that I was trying to gain insight strictly by listening to teachers and trying to understand what they meant, rather than figure it out for myself. This ultimately frustrated me and forced me to give up the facade I had created of truly understanding. Here’s my current understanding: we are entirely comprised of the fundamental substance of existence itself, whatever that substance may ultimately be — pure consciousness/awareness, energy, etc. This is true even scientifically under the materialist paradigm — this view says we’re all made up of atoms, and atoms comprise the entire cosmos. Therefore, if each one of us is entirely made up of the substance of existence itself, then we are not separate from the totality of existence and hence are existence. There is no difference between us and existence itself. The entirety of existence is whole and can manifest itself into a potentially infinite number of forms, and this is everyone’s true Self. Continuing this line of thought, since we are existence and experience/perceive ourselves and existence consciously, then it follows that consciousness must be a fundamental attribute of existence since we are. This is because, if existence can develop a sense of individuated consciousness with each of us, then it itself must be conscious. There is no separation between our consciousness, mind, and perceptions and the rest of existence. The ego is the part of us which prevents us from seeing that there is no actual separation. All of our body’s actions are existence’s actions. Thanks for reading, hope you got something valuable out of this. I know these ideas are not original to me, it’s just that I’ve finally come to my own understanding of these things.

I think a found a potential solution to the dilemma of free will. From the perspective of the body-mind and/or separate self, free will is an illusion. This is the relative or personal view. However, from the perspective of the One Absolute Consciousness (this is what we truly are at our most fundamental core), which is primarily impersonal to the body-mind, we have total freedom or free will. It’s just that this freedom does not belong to any individual, separate ego. In other words, Consciousness is and has always been in control. Feel free to tell me what you think of this.

There is quite a bit of literature about the phenomenon of false memories. Also, many studies have confirmed how the human memory is extremely fallible and susceptible to alterations, distortions, confabulation, and even outright fiction. It’s difficult to discern a false memory from a real one because most of the time, we do not attempt to verify our subjective experiences — we just assume that these memories are real, almost video-like recordings of objective events. But that’s not how memory works at all. If you’re interested in this phenomenon, I highly recommend the work of Dr. Julia Shaw and Elizabeth Loftus. To take this a little further, if we get to a very deep level of awakening we can realize and even directly experience that our everyday notion of past, present, and future is illusory, and that only true Eternity (which is Consciousness or Awareness) actually exists. This is what people like Eckhart Tolle refer to as ‘the Now’. If ‘linear time’ is truly is illusory, than our memories are simply just references to experiences that take place in the Eternal Now.

A Course in Miracles denies that “creation” or the Universe is an aspect of the Divine, and instead considers it to be an illusion created out of guilt for having separated from God. Don’t believe that bullshit. I highly recommend you move on from ACIM. It’s anti-life, from what I’ve experienced.