KingCrimson

I haven't found the time to read it yet, but I own it. It's supposed to be a great book. I bought it after a recommendation by a guy called Ryan Kurczak. He has two YouTube channels - one focusing on Kriya Yoga, and the other focusing on Vedic Astrology. I recommend checking him out, he has some very insightful and useful content and lots of it, and he has written two books on Kriya Yoga and enlightenment as well. IIRC in one off his videos he literally gave the advice to "read The Presence Process and do everything that book says". Ryan Kurczak Kriya Yoga channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/KriyaYogaOnline Ryan Kurczak Vedic Astrology channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/RyansVedicAstrology

Maybe you mean Christopher M. Bache, author of "LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven"?

I've read Lord of the Flies. So what? What's your argument?

Wooow. LOL. Honestly I have a hard time imagining how anyone could think that this is true. Do some research about doing philosophy with children. You would be amazed what sort of answers to philosophical questions kids come up with. I distinctly remember one answer by a really young kid (somewhere between 6-10) to the question of "What do you think God is?" The kid said: "God is so big/great, it is bigger/greater than anything else. Nothing is as big/great." This is a famous definition in philosophy and precisely the same that Anselm of Canterbury gives as part of his ontological argument for the existence of God. And that kid came up with the answer without knowing anything about philosophy. Hell, he didn't even know what philosophy was.

Thank you very much for your comments everybody. I found them all quite interesting and helpful in their own way. @Recursoinominado Thank you for sharing your experience. Interesting food for thought. Taking a leap of faith and just trying it out seems to be a good way to go. I might just end up like you and moving back to a bigger city again after all, who knows? @BlackMaze That's one of the thoughts I had as well. Sort of like an anchor effect. There are many stories where the main protagonist goes off to an adventure and then when they get old they return and settle down where they began their journey. However, I'm a bit young for that. I wouldn't want to live in the exact village I grew up in either. Most of the people there are very conservative and some of them can be quite nasty. Thankfully my parents were among the few progressively-minded people there (mostly Stage Green). As long as it's on the countryside, I could imagine living anywhere, be it in Austria, any other European country or even the US, although my feeling is that I prefer the European way of living. Can't really say though because I have never been to the US. Something I want to do in the near future though. I really want to experience culture in the US because they exert so much influence on all other countries. @peanutspathtotruth Wow, that's actually insane! Wouldn't have thought that anyone would have undergone the exact same transition music-wise. Let me know how this evolves in the future, will you? In case you haven't bought some noise-cancelling headphones yet, I want to help you with which ones to buy as I've done a bit of research. I found that the two best ones available currently are the Bose QuietComfort 35 and the Sony WH-1000XM3. The Bose are more comfortable to wear, the Sonys have the better sound. As a music producer I value high quality sound, but in this case I actually picked the Bose because they are just way more comfortable to wear, which I feel is more important on the road, and the sound is by no means bad. However, all these consumer headphones have really exaggerated bass. People who don't know anything about music are impressed by loud bass frequencies apparently. When I put them on for the first time I was actually shocked, I thought I had to give them back because the bass was so terribly loud, not a smooth frequency curve at all. This is easily fixed though by applying some EQ and turning down the volume on the low frequencies. I suggest you do that. @Mrs_C This is a beautiful comment. I think I get what you're trying to hint at. Thank you. A bit unrelated, but it reminded me of this great quote by John Cage: "Music is the silence between the notes."

Hello everyone. I am looking for your advice today on a matter I've been preoccupied with lately. I have always been a rather introverted person, preferring alone time over social activities most of the time. I spent the first 18 years of my life growing up in a really small village on the countryside (barely 200 people). Leaving the house all I had to do was walk 100 meters and I was already in the forest all by myself. Great place to grow up as a kid, but a terrible bore as a teenager. At 18, I moved to England to pursue my first degree, and while the new surroundings took some time getting used to, I still enjoyed everything the big city had to offer, going out with buddies to drink and chase pretty girls at bars etc. I couldn't have imagined going back to that boring old village with nothing to do. Over the past few years however there has been a big shift in my preferences. My desire to go out to bars or clubs is pretty much zero. I don't care about going to the cinemas, to restaurants or whatever entertainment the city has to offer anymore. All I seem to long for is some peace and quiet. Tranquility. Silence. I am only 28 years old, yet in this regard I feel like I resemble a 70+ year old. I have attributed this partly to getting older, however peers my age don't seem to share this longing. I get irritated more and more by city life. Cars and everything related to them annoy me: The noise, the stench, the honking, the squealing wheels of aggressively driven vehicles, the sirens of police and ambulance. Bikers who seem to be under the impression that they are participating in an endless "Who can make the most noise?" competition annoy me. Dudes who delight their surroundings with their trashy gangster rap and rave music at max volume annoy me. People screaming like madmen in the middle of the night like they want to kill each other annoy me. People smoking at the entrance to the subway leaving their cigarettes on the floor even though the ashtray provided for by the city council is literally right next to them annoy me. Crammed trams, buses and subways annoy me. Constantly being approached by marketing people wanting to put their unwanted flyers into my hands annoys me. Buildings and poles plastered with advertisements screaming for my attention annoy me. Stage Orange culture all around me annoys the shit out of me. Sometimes I feel like these feelings are unwarranted. Reading the rant I just wrote makes me laugh at my pettiness. I live in Vienna after all, arguably one of the most beautiful places to live as far as bigger cities are concerned. It is comparably small, quiet and clean with a lot of parks and surrounding forests. It is still very different from living on the countryside, but come on. Should I really be this fed up? Could it be that the silence and tranquility I'm longing for is actually the kind that is found within me rather than the one in my external environment? I noticed a change in the music I prefer to listen to as well. As a musician I have over the course of the years developed a pretty eclectic taste ranging from rock and metal to jazz to electronic and classical music. However, over the past two years or so I find myself listening pretty much exclusively to tranquil ambient music. As of late, even that has become too much for me most of the time, and I seem to prefer listening to nature sounds instead. This is another thing I couldn't have imagined only a few years ago. I am dead set on leaving the city and moving to the countryside as soon as possible. A small house in the middle of nowhere with nothing but fields and forests around me. The chirping of birds greeting me in the morning. Fresh air filled with the scent of flowers. Taking long walks and riding my bicycle around the countryside. Sadly, this is not an option right now, as I have yet to finish my second master's degree and create a means of making money for myself that does not require me to live in a city. I'm confident that I will be able to make it happen, but it will probably be a few years still. Until then, I need to look out for other solutions. There are a few things I have already done to remedy the issue somewhat. I have invested in a good set of noise-canceling headphones and quality earplugs and don't know how I ever managed without them. I spend a lot of time at the local parks reading and meditating, however, there's always so many people there making noise, blasting music through bluetooth speakers, and the traffic noise is never drowned out completely. It is hard to find a spot where one can actually be completely alone. Another thing I have taken up which helps is doing regular solo retreats at a monastery in the countryside. However, I enjoy my time there so much I dread going back to the city again. What are your thoughts on this issue? Have you had similar experiences? Do you think moving to the countryside would be merely an escape, just like it is no solution for a person who is lonely to “fix” their loneliness by getting a spouse or keeping busy with social activities? Do I simply need to keep up my daily yoga and meditation so I can enjoy the quiet spaces within me no matter how noisy my environment is? Or is it just a matter of different strokes for different folks? Maybe city life is just not for me (anymore)? I appreciate you taking your time to read all of this, this text turned out much longer than I had anticipated. Thank you in advance for your responses and have a lovely day.

@nowimhere @Rilles He's amazing, yes. There are a couple other videos of his up on YouTube as well, although they are all quite similar in their content.

I've been there. Best thing you can do is to simply stop hanging out with them. It's not worth it to waste your time with them. In time, you will attract new people who are on your wave length and that you enjoy spending time with. For more in-depth info, see Leo's video on how to deal with toxic people:

I wanted to share with you all the remarkable work of Shelli Joye. I found her presentations fascinating to say the least and am curious about your opinions.

Are you referring to Meister Eckhart, Giordano Bruno, John of the Cross etc. or are you aware of any more recent examples? Would you consider Thomas Keating and his teaching of centering prayer coming from Stage Blue, for example?

Reading novels is not just "useful" in many ways. They are simply a joy to read as an end in itself. Yes, certainly, reading will written novels will influence your speaking and writing, but it doesn't end there. There are so many genius authors who were able to convey deep truths in their novels. Just think of Hesse, Kafka, Tolstoi, Dostoyevski. Some books are so well crafted that I wouldn't believe they existed if I hadn't read them. Sometimes, everything fits together on so many levels - the structure of the text, the rhythm, the onomatopoeia, the story, the many levels of subtext etc. all woven together in such a masterful manner that every aspect of the novel corresponds perfectly to all the other ones. You feel like this stuff had to be written. Good poetry is often the pinnacle of this, and great poems are extremely hard to write. There are many okay poems, but writing a great one? That's a rare feat. You don't have a lot of words to say what you want to say so it has to be really condensed, every word has to be in the right spot. Novels are more forgiving in that way. But I digress. My point is: Do read great novels and poetry, they can enrich your life tremendously on so many levels.

Thank you for reminding me that this exists. Always makes me laugh. I'm not really into mashups, but this one is just really well done and absolutely hilarious.

Thank you so much for sharing! I'll eat up anything related to David Bohm that I can get my hands on.

I am very sorry to hear what you've been going through. I am really punching above my weight here, but for the moment I just want to say to you: Life can be tough. When I was around your age I found myself in a deep hole as well, on the brink of suicide even. I couldn't have imagined ever feeling happy again. I was wrong. Turns out one can turn one's life around. Losing that money sucks, but it is far from the end of the world. You are still young, and you do have the resources and the power within yourself to create a life that is meaningful and filled with joy. It will take some work and time and listening to your heart, but it is so worth it. Try to take what happened as a lesson and don't beat yourself up about it more than you absolutely have to. If you feel like you could use someone to talk to: There is a user on this forum called Nahm who offers Skype sessions. He's a very loving individual who as far as I am aware has been able to help guide a lot of people out of dire situations. This is his website: https://www.actualityofbeing.com/ Sending lots of love! I believe in you.

I resonate both with Leo's style of presentation and the more "fluffy" or "heart-centred" one. I feel like both are useful in their own way. It sounds like you might enjoy Adyashanti whose delivery is a lot less cerebral. At this point I've bought every single book of his on Audible and still listen to him daily. I can't seem to get enough of it, even though all the books/talks are sort of the same, with the exception of Resurrecting Jesus maybe. Just listening to him puts my mind at ease, and there are moments when it almost feels like a particular sentence could trigger a deep awakening in me. It's a feeling that's hard to describe, but as far as I understand this is sort of the point of Satsang. I do enjoy other teachers like Sadhguru or Eckhart Tolle as well, but I don't gravitate to them nearly as much for some reason. Different strokes for different folks? I really don't feel like Leo is "missing his heart" though. Especially not nowadays. Many of his newer videos are deeply moving; his frequently tearing up when talking about Love for example seems 100% authentic to me.

I have some experience with this so I'm gonna chime in. It's been like 10 years or so though since the last time I took it. I agree with outlandish as far as definitions go. It's definitely very different from the classical psychedelics, not only in its mechanism of action, but also in its effects. I experimented a bit with the substance when I was younger and didn't have access to a proper psychedelic. I can say this much: It is in interesting experience, it can be very fun, dissociating from the body/dissolving into the environment is very easy (hence the classification is "dissociative"), music can be very euphoric. Not much OEVs going on unless combined with weed, which I wouldn't recommend - similarly to classical psychedelics, the strength of the trip increases exponentially and combined with the weed paranoia you could be setting yourself up for a really bad time. The CEVs are breathtaking though, even without weed, but they are not comparable to the classical psychedelics. It's not like the mandalas you get on LSD etc. For me, it was more like full blown storylines, almost like lucid dreams, that were happening behind my eyelids. I remember once I was a soldier in a Middle Ages setting during a siege. I was standing right in front of the castle walls, the enemy was hurling rocks down at us, left and right people were trying to climb the walls. Next to me a soldier got hit by a rock on the head and fell to the ground. All very vivid, and all around very weird. Often you get this sense as if you're a train moving on through tunnel. If you know the trip scene from The Big Lebowski where Jeff turns into a bowling ball, it's a bit like that. The effects can be very different depending on the dosage though, and even the same dose can yield totally different results. It's not really possible to recreate the same experience twice, it's really a gamble what you get. Having said all that: Although on the whole I enjoyed my time with this substance, it was purely recreational. In all the times I've done I have never had any remotely profound insights like I get on LSD or mushrooms. It is interesting for the experience itself, it's just a new state of consciousness that I hadn't experienced before, but I don't think it would suit itself for proper consciousness work. It can make you very confused, on higher doses you will have a hard time walking, and you are just generally in a really, really weird headspace. It's not very clean at all. There are also people who get properly addicted to it in a similar way to heroin addicts, craving the dissociation from the body and the accompanying pain relief. This is something that doesn't really happen with classical psychedelics. On classical psychedelics your senses are enhanced, you feel your body and everything going on inside it more, not less. As far as damage to the body is concerned, as far as I know there is no evidence for neurotoxicity (contrary to PCP for example, a similar substance which is heavily neurotoxic). It can't really be good for the liver though, and depending on the method of consumption, it can be extremely destructive to the body. (There are people gulping down 2-4 bottles of cough syrup in a row. The amount of sugar alone is crazy destructive, not even talking about all the other stuff that's contained in it). On the positive side, it is very hard to overdose on the substance. You won't experience actual respiratory paralysis, but the dissociation can get so strong that you don't feel yourself breathing anymore, which can be very disconcerting. The most comprehensive resource I found on the subject is the DXM FAQ by William E. White. But you have probably seen that already since its prominently featured on Erowid. Here is the link regardless: https://erowid.org/chemicals/dxm/faq/dxm_faq.shtml TL;DR: Would not recommend, definitely not for consciousness work. Can be an interesting experience, purely recreational though. Likely not neurotoxic, but definitely not a good thing to put in your body. Hard to overdose on, but often psychologically addictive. Feels quite "dirty" and can make you very confused. Not a lot of commonalities with classical psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, or DMT. No profound insights and does not feel therapeutic at all.

I have never been to the US so I have an extremely limited perspective. One thought that came to mind recently was whether possession of guns relates to the fact that the distances between cities and villages are so big? Let's say you own a farm in the middle of no-man's land the next city and police station being hours away, does that relate to people feeling like they need a weapon in their household to protect themselves? Like some sort of residue from the Wild West? This whole notion of "I have the right and need to protect my property with a gun" is very alien to me as a European.

I'm intrigued, would you mind sharing some of these stories or is this too personal? I think my grandfather might have a decent amount of red. He used to drink a lot and could be violent even. Often treated my grandma and mother like shit and to this day feels extremely entitled and orders my mom around to do stuff around his house, wash and iron his clothes etc. During the corona crisis, she went shopping for him so he could stay home and he would shout at her, telling her that she was useless and bought all the wrong stuff etc. Sadly, she doesn't have very good boundaries. Only recently she's been learning that she is not obliged to obey and deal with all of his shit. Does this kind of entitled patriarch sound like Red, or is that even worse?

The classic Fawlty Towers episode "The Germans" has been censored by the BBC to "omit racist language". Other popular British comedy shows like "The Mighty Boosh" (which I got introduced to when I was still living in the UK and found incredibly funny) and "The League of Gentleman" have been pulled entirely. I wonder what people's opinions are on the issue of political correctness and how the topic relates to spiral stages. What confuses me is that political correctness seems to be a Stage Green phenomenon, and I very much embrace Green/Yellow values, but I cannot subscribe to this kind of political correctness. In my mind, to want to censor Fawlty Towers you'd have to be completely ignorant of what this episode in particular and satire in general is all about. I live in a German speaking country (Austria). I have friends in Germany. I can assure you "we" are NOT offended by this sketch. On the contrary, Monty Python are extremely popular over here, and this episode has always been one of my favourites. In case you have never seen it, this is the supposedly "racist" scene in question: I'm sure some of you will have seen the Munk Debate on Political Correctness, and while I have found most of it appalling to watch, I found Stephen Fry to be phenomenal as usual, and in his opening statement, he summed up my thoughts on the subject more eloquently than I ever could, so I'm just gonna quote him instead: "My ultimate objection to political correctness is not that it combines so much of what I've spent a lifetime loathing and opposing - preachiness, piety, self-righteousness, heresy hunting, denunciation, shaming, assertion without evidence, accusation, inquisition, censoring...that's not why I'm incuring the wrath of my fellow liberals by standing on this side of the house. My real objection is that I don't think political correctness works. I want to get to the golden hill, but I don't think that's the way to get there. I believe one of the greatest human failings is to prefer to be right than to be effective." What do you guys think? Is this kind of censorship truly justified? If so, how? And, what is of particular concern to me, how does this whole issue relate to spiral stages and Green values? Thank you in advance for all your opinions. I hope we can have civil discussion since this topic can evidently ruffle some feathers.

Admittedly, I felt like some of the videos on the nature of God/reality were becoming a bit repetitive lately. I've had profound psychedelic experiences where I directly experienced what Leo was talking about, so watching a video about the subject felt a bit pointless since any description of these experiences pale in comparison to the real thing. Having said that, all of these the videos have still helped me tremendously to be able to better understand my experiences and all their implications. This one, though. I don't know what was different. Came straight from the heart. Not that this hadn't been the case before, but for some reason I was particularly moved this time. I'll have to watch it again very soon. Thank you so much for all your effort, Leo. Words cannot describe my gratitude.

Brilliant, thank you for sharing!

@AtheisticNonduality That's awesome! Thanks a bunch!

It seems absolutely crazy to me that police officers in the US apparently only go through an average of 2 months of training. 2 months! In my country (Austria) it's 2 years, and I still think that's not quite enough to prepare someone for the job. Especially in the US where guns are a lot more widespread and the chances of being hurt on the job are much higher. With these protests, it is especially important that police officers have the ability to keep a cool head in stressful situations and know how to de-escalate a situation.

I don't know much about modular synthesis, but I do know my way around software synths like Serum and my Korg R3. I have recently become interested in the topic and I see myself diving more deeply into it in the future. It seems like an expensive hobby though. I got properly introduced to modular by a musician called Hainbach. He has a great YouTube channel, I recommend you check him out. You might find this video particularly helpful: