r0ckyreed

In my experience, women like a guy that asks for consent and not just assumes and violates boundaries. I just say something simple like “is it okay if I kiss you right now?” If she says “no.” Then, I just say “no problem.” And then I move the heck on.

Good points. Glad I made a thread about it. What do you think Oregon should do differently? Portugal makes it where they can go to rehab, but if they do not go, then they will be charged with disobedience and will be moved to criminal system. All of these treatment facilities in Portugal are free so I am not sure how they are able to do that. The treatment facilities and healthcare in America are messed up. I am not sure what would fix it. They should have free counseling and rehab services for all. There is a high demand for those services though too, so I can see how it can be difficult.

I agree. I am an existential therapist and see the effects of drugs on people, as well as the limits of health care resources. I am not sure what my stance is on this issue. It all sounds good to legalize it all but am skeptical. Isn’t that logic you used the same that right wingers use to justify having guns? They say it’s so easy to get them from black market, so we might as well make them available to all. I am not against that, I just think drugs and guns need regulation. Some people could be buying drugs and not understand the risks in the same way people buy processed foods and don’t understand the risks. We cannot assume that people will give much thought and research into their decision-making nor make the best choices. That’s the cost of freedom.

I don’t think our healthcare industry is ready for that kind of change. I don’t think the majority of people are either.

It is not about the size of the brain but the right neural connections. Dolphins have bigger brains than humans, but humans on average are still more intelligent than dolphins. Why is that? One hypothesis is because humans have more cerebral capacity than dolphins. My theory is that intelligence is also associated with the body. The human body is more versatile and equipped for more intelligent things like hands to make things. A dolphin cannot make a 3D computer because it does not have the body to do so. But imagine if we gave dolphins artificial limbs to help them be able to have similar levels of intelligence as us. Dolphins are more intelligent in terms of not polluting the earth and being friendly towards each other. Whereas humans have struggles with just co-existing amongst each other. It really depends on how you define intelligence because it is so nuanced.

Yeah! It's amazing! I am just focusing on socializing and making friends. It takes the pressure off. I went up to a group of girls and got rejected, and it didn't matter. It's their loss and my gain. I made 2 new women friends and got their SnapChats.

So we are playing that game, huh? I have a PhD in detecting ratshit. I taught myself because universities are full of it.

Dogshit excuse. I am sure he called plenty of people in his spare time but you weren’t on the list of priorities. Time to move on or have undeniable proof that there is a change and a genuine apology. I wouldn’t expect any change.

This helped me to get out of my house, go to the drag show bar and make two new women friends. We had a great night at the dance club after. Thank you.

I am ready to start socializing more. I am wanting to work on talking to women and getting into “pick up.” By pick up, I don’t mean short term fun. I mean being able to attract many women and go on multiple dates and then choose the one I want. I live in a college town. I am 26 years old. I have had success with attracting women when it comes to me performing magic tricks for them. But I want to be able to do this through my cold reading and conversation skills. My main fear is talking to a woman but she has a boyfriend who is nearby. As a magician, I can do this easier because it is not obvious that I am “picking her up.” But without magic, I fear that when I talk to a woman, she may have a boyfriend and he may see me and try to kick my ass. I saw a beautiful woman walk into Aspen Coffee. I was going to try just to talk to her, but I noticed that she went to a guy who I presume to be her boyfriend. How do you guys go around this? I don’t want to get into any trouble.

What’s wrong with asking?

I would agree with that analysis then.

Please don’t derail the thread.

I can see how you thought the title suggested that. But you need to read my post. Please make sure you read my post and not just my title. Like you are saying, what do you expect if you just read the news headlines and not the articles? You will get an unenlightened brain. Also, nobody here is enlightened. Enlightenment doesn’t exist. If consciousness is infinite, then you will never reach the end. Notice how Leo always says I’ve reached a new level, a new level, a new level, a new level of understanding. That implies that he didn’t have a complete awakening before. There is no such thing as complete awakening or enlightenment.

Nobody said anything about flirting with others spouses. The thing is that you don’t know if a girl is taken until you ask. And yes, I am afraid of getting punched in the face. Do I deserve it? No. In my city, a guy got shot because he was just friends with a girl. The boyfriend thought she was cheating. This kinda stuff is ridiculous.

Leo is definitely an empiricist. He thinks our perceptions are absolute truth. He thinks rationality cannot be trusted but our senses can. At least that was his view when I talked to him about the veil of perception.

Damn. That truth bomb hit harder than Oppenheimer.

You already are that being. Everything you see is the Universe.

You forgot to look at the comment section. Look at all the love. By the way, God does not exist. Only the Universe does and it includes every possible scenario both what you call good and bad. Good and evil are just relative human notions. There is no such thing as a monster.

Fear of death is one of the strongest forces in life. Getting rid of fear is not the goal but some Buddhist Ratshit.

Really? No one else has got nothing to say?

I hear you. But you know what, I had a dream of being a tennis pro and trumpet pro. Of being the best tennis player and trumpet player ever. I even had a dream of being in a symphony orchestra as a trumpet player. I even had dreams of being a famous singer. But I looked into my dreams and outgrew them. In my pursuit of my dreams to be a musician and tennis pro, I realized that it was not what I wanted to do in the end. I experienced anxiety/depression in my freshmen year of college when I was a music major in trumpet performance. I found psychology and philosophy during those times and fell in love with that. Now, I am an Existential Therapist who specializes in Existential Therapy and Cognitive Behavior Therapy. I love what I am doing now. But I also know that I am nowhere near the end of my life purpose. I have only begun. I work in a clinic, but I have goals of having my own practice and business. Keep your head up. This can be frustrating. It was difficult for me to cope with the reality that I will never meet my tennis goals of playing professionally. I don't know how I learned to accept it. I was talented at many other areas. I think just learning about life and doing your best is the gift you give to yourself. I believe there is a bigger dream for you. I am actually in some ways very thankful that some of my dreams failed because they were quite shallow to begin with in retrospect. I encourage you to give yourself time. Music is something that you and I probably will never outgrow, but our relationship to it can change. I encourage you to focus on having fun with music. The reason why I dropped being a music major was because the curriculum was taking the love and playfulness out of music and was replacing it with demands and stress. Music will be with you for the rest of your life. I have thought about music therapy at one point, but I think I prefer existential therapy better. Also, I wouldn't completely abandon this dream of yours. We all bloom at different times. Some people don't make it until later in life. A lot of it can do with elements that are out of our control. But in the meantime, take a deep breath and see if you can reconnect to the pure joy of your passion independently of money.

Purposefully let your character die multiple times. Get desensitized and detached from outcome. Consider watching walkthroughs on YouTube while practicing mindfulness.

Wow! It is amazing to see in action the process of philosophy turning into religion. All religion essentially boils down to an idealization of the messenger. But the messenger is not as important as the message. Religion loses sight of the message in regards to deriving truth for one’s self. They think they need the messenger to deliver messages to them. Essentially what Jed McKenna says, “don’t look at my finger, look at the moon.”

PROGRESS UPDATE (8/4/23): I wanted to share my progress tonight: I went and danced with two women tonight. It was a loud club. I immediately walked in, and I saw someone I recognized. A woman grabbed my arm as I was walking away. I introduced myself and so did she. It was loud in there. I was not really physically attracted to her. But I thought I would practice building up my confidence and approach. I asked her if she wanted to dance and led her to the dance floor. We danced for quite some time. I was dancing really hardcore. I have a lot of energy and was breaking up a sweat. I danced with some other young girls around me and made some jokes. Some of them were college students and I said something witty like: "I bet everyone here is a major in drinking and is making an A in that." That got some giggles. I then took a break, and I saw this young woman that looked attractive. I was about to leave, but I said "screw it" in my mind and went over and approached her. I did not recognize her at first, but I was surprised when she said my name. I found out that I performed magic tricks to her the week before but forgot. I asked her to dance, and she said agreed. We danced and 2 stepped, but she was not dancing close to me. I spun her around a bit. But I saw her glancing around. I said "You are a great dancer. Are you having fun?" She said "Yes." I said to her something really dumb. It was something like, "You seem like you are from the midwest. Are you a play-it-safe kind of girl?" I really don't know why I said that lol. But after I said that she was like "What is that supposed to me?" (with a smile on her face) and then she stopped dancing and walked over to her friend. I just asked her where she was from and then I said "Thanks for dancing with me. Have a nice night." In my analysis after the fact, I could sense during the time that she was not interested because she was not asking me questions, she was not dancing close to me, and was looking around and not always at me. I want to count my success that I was able to get one girl to hook point, but I was not attracted to her. I eventually, left her and went dancing with other women around the dance floor. I was able to have the confidence with her and in talking to other women. The club was really loud, so that was against me in talking to women. Also, in the future, I plan on not dancing like I am on drugs. I have ADHD, and I went hardcore on the dance floor to where I was break dancing. It got people's attention, but I realize that all it does is makes me seem needy maybe. I don't know. I was really just being myself and having fun. But I can also see that from the energy I exude off may come across as too much for some people. Also, in the future, I missed an opportunity where I was talking to some women I was dancing with. And one of them said, "You should go dance with her (the girl I danced with initially). She seems to enjoy dancing with you." I should've said something like, "I bet you would too." I missed an opportunity there. But I am learning by writing it here. If you have any other feedback, I would greatly appreciate it. My goal is to go out again the next night and try again. EDIT: I also missed an opportunity where there were girls sitting at a table and there as an empty seat. I did not approach them because I was nervous. They were on their phones. But I was nervous as to whether they had boyfriends around. I walked away and saw a guy bringing one of the girls a drink. So, I am not sure. I find it easier to socialize and flirt when there is some activity going on like on the dance floor because usually if women are out there dancing together and not with some other guy, then they probably don't have a boyfriend.