r0ckyreed

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  1. Powerful Audiobooks
    Powerful (Audio Books)
    Please feel free to share any Audio Books that you think is worthwhile to listen to here. 
     

  2. Discipline
    Lecture about disclipine
    Example
    Think about something you'd like to achieve in middle - long term. It could be anything from 3 months to couple of years. I'll tell you that you aren't going to achieve those goals without making change in your mindset. So the key is to think when you play piano that you're pianist, when you do push ups that you're fighter and when you study that you are very smart nerd. So you have to understand that whatever you do, you must put yourself to the stake. Guy who does push ups here and there can skip some trainings, but bloody soldier can't and that's why it's extremely important to train your disclipine.
    Main part
    Disclipine is skill of doing important things regardless of how do you feel. Many spiritual people may tell you to be gentle to yourself and your body, but that's highly misunderstood. That means not to believe your weaknesses, hate yourself or do anything stupid which could cause suffering in the long run. It isn't excuse card to pass training, work or studying when you feel low. Spirituality doesn't equal laziness, but that's something that you came up with yourself. The whole point is to have best life possible and if you can't achieve your dreams then don't kid with me that you'd have the best life possible, because you obviously don't.
    The main reason why people lack disclipine is that they lack vision of what they want and how they are going to achieve that in the future. In life you shouldn't wish things which you could have anyways. I mean you could wish, but at least don't sit on your sofa thinking that possibilities come knock at your door. When you start actually living this life FOR REAL and dropping your stupid expectations away you'll build yourself again way stronger than you ever thought was even possible. Think about your plans every day and do things which you need to do in order to have those. 
    You have to learn to appreciate the path and the journey, because those are the only things you have at the end of the day. When you really like achieving something the results come faster than you thought. If you only do what you do to guarantee that you don't need to do it in the future then your mindset and goals are shitty. The goal is not to reach state where you can be lazy again, but to appreciate the joy of work so much that you don't mind doing it. Actually you will fall in love with your life and you can enjoy it by being and doing and that's the correct way to be happy always.
    End words
    Maybe it's kind of oldish, but I really believe doing couple push ups a day builds your male energy, disclipine and drive in life so I challenge you to do at least 100 push ups daily without breaking your streak. Time can't be your excuse, because last time I did 100 push ups it took me about 50 seconds so stop fucking crying and start pushing yourself. The goal is to make you soldier and fighter who achieves whatever you want from your life. So I really would be proud of you if you'd take 5 minutes to do as many push ups as you can and post your result here.
    With love -joNi-

  3. Flow Exercise
    An exercise for understanding Flow States and Self-deception
    Have you ever noticed that flow states hit you out of nowhere, when you least expect or force it? The other day it occurred to me that flow states do not come because we simply want them to. Instead, the probability of Flow states increases as a result of forward motion, of momentum, and of disciplined action over time. 
    There is a strange interplay between 1.Self-deception, 2. Higher consciousness theory, and 3. Flow states. This occurred to me as I was attempting to figure out how to get into flow more often. Flow feels good, flow feels like your life is meaningful and on track. So how can you uncover your potential for positive forward momentum by understanding the interplay between self-deception and flow? Answer the following for yourself:
    1. How often do I use the excuse of "feeling overwhelmed" or needing to feel "regrounded" in order to get out of doing something productive? 
     
    2. Can I start to notice when my mind tricks me into inaction? What mechanisms are being used (journaling for hours, binge-watching Leo's videos, reading and never taking any action)? 
     
    3. Have I genuinely given the following habits the time needed for them to provide me with momentum towards flow states? Examples of habits:
    - Daily Meditation upon waking.
    -Exercising every day
    -Journaling to a 30 minute timer?
    -Setting 3 priority actions per day and executing them, regardless of resistance to action.
     
    4. What is the longest I can go with my good habits before I self-sabotage? 
     
    5. How can I realize that the pay off for establishing my habits as standards is greater than the sacrifice and pain felt in the process? In other words, is feeling flow states every day worth breaking free of my self-sabotage cycles? 
     
    These questions helped me uncover the fact that I often use meditation, journaling, or watching content on youtube as mechanisms of procrastination. Second, they uncovered how I never let any of my good habit gain the momentum to get me "in the zone" or in "flow," so my mind never had a frame of reference that felt worthwhile for breaking free of my procrastination mechanisms. 
    Often we choose mechanisms of procrastination that feel like they produce flow or forward momentum. They often do so in a hollow, unfulfilling way if we are self-honest. We need to build the endurance of our awareness to realize that they produce FALSE FLOW states, and that discipline brings a much richer flow experience over time. 
    If you feel stuck in a cycle of inaction, of being addicted to comforts of "over-journaling" and binge-watching youtube for hours on end, then the very first step in curing your predicament is building your awareness of this cycle. 
    1. complete the exercise above. 
    2. pick ONE habit, establish it as your new "mindfulness over procrastination" experiment.
    *For example, I chose doing 50 pushups every day no matter what. I asked myself every day, "what kind of momentum do I feel towards pushups today? Does it occur before or after I start doing pushups? Is this feeling worth it to me to continue improving my flow state frequency?" 
    3. forgive yourself for self-sabotaging in the past, move forward with your new lessons and experiences. 
    *forgiveness is key, because self-guilt perpetuates the cycle of sabotage. You did not know or have the frame of reference before this point to do any better, so now is your chance to start fresh every day, and run the experiment of flow to see where it goes. 
     
    If you complete this exercise, or have useful input on this insight, let me know! Good luck with achieving flow. 
     

  4. Blog
    Actualized.org Blog: Table of Contents
    Actualized.org Blog: Table of Contents
    List of Leo’s Blog Videos List of Blog Quotes Posts on Cults, Creativity & Art Posts on Images of Infinity, Strange Loops Posts on Gaming, Funzies, Music Posts on Actualized.org, Conferences  
    Blog Posts for 2017.............(pg 45 - 58) Blog Posts for 2018.............(pg 31 - 45) Blog Posts for 2019.............(pg 18 - 31) Blog Posts for 2020.............(pg   8 - 18) Blog Posts for 2021.............(pg   1 -  8) _________________________________________________________________________________________
    Table of Contents covers up to mid-July 2021. blog page numbers will change overtime as more posts get added to the blog. ? = posts about Spiral Dynamics.
    ? = posts about Safety and Psychedelics.
    ? = posts where Leo’s written an essay or extended commentary.
    (note) = posts where Leo’s written a short commentary.

  5. ?Learn dream recall video✨
    ?Learn dream recall video✨
    ?Introducing a new way to learn dream recall! It's the first crucial step to lucid dreaming ?
    This guided visualization will have you journey into your last dream and you'll learn to connect to dream memory. You'll also learn how to establish a great dream recall routine.
    You can use this video as a guided meditation, or to coach yourself how to remember your dreams upon waking up. Or both!
    Enjoy, and sweet dreams ?
     
     

  6. Sleep yoga
    Sleep Yoga: Conscious During Sleep (Guide)
    Being able to remain conscious during all sleep stages is the ultimate skill. This will open doors to almost anything.
    - Introduction
    When people want to have a deep meditation, they either try to:
    (A) lower their brainwaves, and thus make their consciousness more non-dual. This includes techniques like: Kriya yoga, trance, hypnosis and the majority of all meditation techniques. (B) directly make their consciousness more non-dual. This includes contemplation and self inquiry.  When people try to get into lower brainwaves, they usually start from their everyday waking consciousness. This works, but it will take ages (lifetimes for most people) till you get into really deep brainwaves - even if you do very direct techniques like trance.
    We already spend 8 hours each day in very deep brainwaves. Why not take advantage of that? So rather than trying to bring lower brainwaves to waking cosnciousness (tirelessly trying to lower your brainwaves during the day), we can try to bring consciousness to lower brainwaves. 
    That is sleep yoga.
     
    - Benefits of Sleep Yoga
    All of your dreams will be lucid (2 hours each night) During the rest of the night (light and deep sleep) you can either abide in deep non-dual awareness (by far deeper than any normal meditations), or astral project as much as you like. You gain 8 hours each day (~ 3 000 hours each year) No lapse of consciousness upon physical death.  
    This is obviously very significant for enlightenment. Apart from that, it will benefit you in so many ways. Merely the 2 hours of lucid dreaming each night will radically transform your psyche. Here I wrote about reasons why to bother about OBEs: 
     
    - Difficulty
    Monks usually require many years of training till they are able to remain conscious during sleep. It takes long because their techniques are not Fire. They usually consist of standard meditation, waking up a couple of times during the night and visualization techniques.
    I've lately done a lot of research and experimenting and tried to combine all the hacks and tricks I found. This should make the process a lot quicker.
    Before I get to the technique, let's first lay a foundation. (or jump to "Chapter 2: The Technique")
     
    Chapter 1 : Sleep - 1. Basics
    During the night you go through several sleep cycles, each around 90 minutes long. Sleep cycles consists of:
    - N1( light sleep). Only when falling asleep.
    - N2 (light sleep):
    Usually around 50-60% of your sleep. N2 is the ideal sleep stage to wake up from - N3 (deep sleep = SWS = slow wave sleep):
    Important for regeneration Around 20-25 % of your sleep. You need typically 60-120 minutes of SWS. defined as having more than 20% of delta brain waves.  Majority of SWS during your first few sleep cycles - REM  (rapid eye movement) :
    Here you have most of your dreams brainwaves somewhat similar to your waking state sleep paralysis so you don't act out your dreams 20-25% of your night  you need 60-90 min of REM As the night progresses, each sleep cycle contains more and more REM A sleep cycle usually begins with N2. Then N3 then N2 again and then REM.
     
    - 2. Segmented Sleep
    About polyphasic Sleep: https://www.polyphasic.net/introduction-to-polyphasic-sleep .
    Segmented sleep means dividing your sleep into 2 segments: See https://www.polyphasic.net/schedules/biphasic/ and https://www.polyphasic.net/schedules/dual-core/ .
    SWS peak is usually at 9-12 pm. And REM peak is at 6-9 am. Sleeping during these times means most efficient SWS and REM. More about that here: https://www.polyphasic.net/sleep-mechanics/biological-rhythms/ and here: https://www.polyphasic.net/blog/three-noons-and-their-importance-to-determining-the-shift-in-circadian-rhythms/
     
    - 2.1 Benefits of segmented sleep:
    Having a REM core with little or no SWS is perfect for trying to learn sleep yoga, more on that later You have a heightened likelihood for lucid dreaming during the REM core because of the high REM percentage and the long time awake after your SWS core. You basically have a very long WBTB (wake back to bed). The longer a WBTB, the more effective.  Prolactin surge benefits: https://www.mattressnerd.com/polyphasic-sleep/overviews/segmented-sleep/ If you sleep monophasically, you can't cover both SWS and REM peaks. Thus segmented sleep is more efficient. ... therefore you need less total amount of sleep Yogis say that the time at around 3-5 am is most valuable for meditation If you usually sleep 8 hours, you could schedule a 3 h SWS core and a 4.5 h REM core.
    The time between the SWS and REM core should be at least 2 hours. Ideally 3-4 hours. Otherwise your body treats it as interrupted sleep rather than segmented sleep and you don't get all the benefits. More time between your cores also means that you cover more of the SWS and REM peak.
    Segmented sleep is not something to do occasionally. You need to do it every night, otherwise you will just be tired and not get all the benefits. Your body needs 1-2 weeks to adapt to the schedule.
    Segmented sleep is not necessary, but it can help a lot. Alternatively, you could just sleep for 4-6 hours and then either add a normal WBTB or just go straight to the techniques.
     
    - 3. SWS Core
    - 3.1 Binaural beats
    If you listen to delta binaural beats, you increase the duration and depth (decrease the brainwave frequency even further) of your SWS. For example, in this study ( https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00387/full )   they played 3 Hz delta binaural beats when the subjects were in N2. Thus, some N2 turned into N3. The length of N3 increased by 30% (N3 length of first two nights without binaural beats was 93 min. On the next night, with binaurals, N3 was 126 min). The subjects were probably new to binaural beats. If you have already trained your brain with binaural beats, the effect could possibly be even more drastic.
    Using a sleep tracking device might be helpful to keep track of your SWS.
    I recommend you try the binaural beats from Jody Hatton. Either on youtube:   
    or on his website. you decide the price for a download.
    Sleeping with headphones might not be the most comfortable. But it can be worth it. Delta binaural beats are only interesting for your SWS core. Instead of over ear headphones, you could also use headband headphones like these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014T3QLBA/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=9td9sm-5xsk-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B014T3QLBA&linkId=82c4b0488d4ece45af2f57a9ea6427c0. they are more comfortable to sleep with. But might have lower quality.
    I don't recommend opting for isochronic tones for delta sleep. They do have the benefit of not neading headphones, but they are said to be inefficient to entrain you to delta brainwaves.
    - 3.2 Melatonin
    Melatonin is important for SWS. How to optimize Melatonin levels:
    Only red lights 2-3 hours before bed (or no light). You can buy red light. Or wear blue light blocking glasses (preferably should block green light as well) or use apps on your mobile phone and pc (for example "Flux") which filter blue light. Sleep in total darkness. Either buy something to block all light from your windows or just take a huge sheet of black carton and tape it over your window. Thats what I do. It takes around 1 minute each morning and night to tape/remove. You could also use a sleep mask. But then, a small amount of light is still registered by your skin. But that is probably negligible. enough (sun)light during the day. decalcify your pineal gland fasting can increase melatonin levels as well. - 3.3 Schedule
    For our sleep yoga practice, we prefer to have all our SWS during the SWS core. So the REM core can be fully dedicated to Sleep yoga practices.
    If you want to get the most out of each night, you also want to have as little light sleep and REM during your SWS core. You want these in your REM core so your REM core is longer and you have more time to practice each night (First we learn to be conscious during light sleep and REM, and only then do we try it during SWS). Depending on your personal SWS needs (which can vary a lot) and depending on how well you can optimize a sleep cycle for maximum SWS, you can choose following SWS core lengths.
    6h: easy 4.5h: Healthy and comfortable  3h: for serious practitioners 1.5h: not recommended  I think you don't need to strictly schedule according to the 90 min sleep cycle rythm. You can extend it if you want.
    A very unrecommended polyphasic sleep schedule - Everyman 4 : https://www.polyphasic.net/schedules/everyman/  - has only one 90 minute SWS core plus 4 short naps for REM. Someone who follows that schedule tries to get all 90 minutes of SWS requirement into the 90 minute core, which is close to impossible. For our use, if you perfectly optimized it and extended the length from 90 to 100-110 minutes, you might be able to get 70-90 min SWS into a 110 min SWS core. But beware, if you shorten your SWS core too much, you risk SWS creeping in to your REM core.
     
    - 4. Core Gap
    Once your body adapted to the new schedule, you won't be as tired during it After spending some minutes on my mobile phone, I'm fully awake. Make sure your devices block blue light. And I use a red light. And I also listen to gamma binaural beats. I like these: https://www.brainwave3d.com/spiritualitaet/erleuchtung/38/the-gateway-to-enlightenment-das-tor-zur-erleuchtung?c=30 and  https://www.brainwave3d.com/meditation/tiefenmeditation-fuer-profis/96/god-consciousness-gott-erleben?c=30 and  https://www.brainwave3d.com/psi-faehigkeiten/dmt/98/mystical-dmt-trip-erlebe-eine-intensive-dmt-erfahrung?c=34 (Use google translate for the website.) The "core gap" is a good time for meditative practces, just make sure you don't fall asleep. If you are likely to fall asleep during meditation, then do it right at the beginning or end of the core gap. So you still have at least 2 hours of continued wakefulness. I recommend spending a few minutes of hard-core concentration at the end of your core gap, as a preparation for your REM core practice.  
    - 5. REM Core
    -5.1 Basics
    Your REM core should ideally consist of only light sleep and REM. Consider:
    Getting enough SWS during your SWS core Having your REM core during or close after the REM peak Applying tricks for lighter sleep You will set MANY alarms which wake you up all the time, giving you plenty of opportunitues and optimal conditions to practice.
     
    - 5.2 Gamma brain waves
    I believe they are the key for being conscious during sleep. Monks have increased gamma acrivity during non-REM sleep: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073417#pone-0073417-g001 .  The significance of 40 Hz for lucid dreaming:  https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.zmescience.com/medicine/mind-and-brain/lucid-dreaming-electrical-trigger-042342/amp/ . I guess, the main difference of brainwaves during sleep, between a sleep yogi and a normal person, is gamma activity. The more gamma (and beta) you have, the more alert/aware you are. So if we want to be aware during sleep, we need more gamma during sleep.
    How to have more gamma during sleep:
    gamma brainwave entrainment audios during sleep.   Applying the tools for having"Lighter Sleep" (more on that later) day-time meditation practices (more on that later)  
    - 5.3 Schedule
    If you are concerned about your sleep, then do the practices only for 1-3h, and then turn off all alarms, go back to sleep and sleep as long as your body wants. Depending on how easily you tend to fall asleep on any given day, you spontaneuosly decide for the right amount of "lighter sleep" tools.  
    - 6. Lighter Sleep
    - 6.1 Benefits
    You are closer to the awake/asleep threshold. That means a) it is easier to retain consciousness while falling asleep and b) it is easier to stay in that state. The deeper your sleep gets, the greater the risk of losing consciousness decreased risk of SWS creeping in increased likelihood for DILDs, WILDs and DEILDs better dream recall  - 6.2 How to have lighter sleep:
    - 6.2.1 Body Position:
    Level1: Turn in bed 180 degrees. So your head is now where your feet used to be. Level 2: lie on the floor.  Level 3: Be in an inclined position. for example of 60 degrees. https://www.theminimalists.com/drew/  Level 4: Sleep sitting upright with head support.  Level 5: Upright with no head support. That is particularly good, because everytime you fall asleep, your head drops and wakes you up. Thus it is easier to get closer to the awake/asleep threshold. - 6.2.2 Noise
    Tv or music.  listen to a hypnosis audios about falling asleep.  
    - 6.2.3 Gamma brainwave entrainment:
    I listen to these binaural beats during my REM Core:   https://www.iawaketechnologies.com/product/gammaburst/ . You can cutt off the beginning and end so that it's only in the relevant frequency of 25-45 Hz. I listen them during my whole REM core. Another option are these 40 Hz isochronic tones: https://www.iawaketechnologies.com/product/gamma-40/ . But I only listened to them once, I found the binaural beats more effective. But they have the advantage of not needing headphones. - 6.2.3 Discomfort.
    Level 1: wearing headphones Level 2: Add any discomfort you can think of Level 3: Hold your arm up vertically. Ellbow supported on the matress. https://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-lucidity/107214-wild-awareness-training.html - 6.2.4 Alarm clocks
    Level 1: Every 15-30 min. It turns itself off. So you have a lower likelihood of waking up if you are in a somewhat deeper sleep.  Level 2: Every 8-12 min. Alarm needs to be manually turned off. (you press snooze. So it will ring in a few minutes again) Level 3: Every 3-8 min. Alarm needs to be manually turned off Some alarm clock apps are able to play the alarm through your headphones only.
    - 6.2.5 Light: 
    Level 1: Leave on some red light Level 2: Remove your curtains from the windows just before your REM core Level 3: Turn on artificial light. Light will have a negative impact on your melatonin levels. In terms of melatonin, we are most concerned about it's effects on SWS sleep. So light after your SWS sleep is relatively fine. It is recommended that one spends 8-10 hours in darkness (or at least red light rather than blue light) each day. So if you turn off normal lighting 3 h before your SWS core, then have a 3 h SWS core, followed by a 3 h core gap, you have 9h.
    - 6.2.6 Others:
    Intention  uncomfortable temperature   
     
    Chapter 2: The Technique Our approach consists of:
    SWS Core Core Gap REM Core + Alarm Clocks  and there you practice "Conscious Falling Asleep"  
    - 1. Getting yourself closer to sleep
    Some tips:
    Reverse Blinking. Thats very effective to get tired very quickly. Close your eyes for 2-7 seconds, then open them briefly. Continue till you are very tired. https://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-lucidity/24607-inducing-trance-wild-part-1-a.html Hypnotic suggestions/affirmations "sleepy" Concentrate on the "sleepiness" sensation and deepen it Pretend having fallen asleep  
    - 2. Awake/Asleep Threshold Tools
    Everything I listed under "Lighter Sleep" can be helpful to remain conscious during the awake/asleep threshold. Particularly powerful is:
    Holding up your arm vertically, ellbow resting on the mattress. Sleeping sitting without head support. When you fall asleep, your arm or head will sink/fall down and wake you up.
     
    - 3. Deepen your Trance
    When trying to fall asleep, you are basically in trance. When you deepen your trance, you get your body closer to sleep. But apart from that it also alters your consciousness in a different way (than just using normal tips like those listed under "getting yourself closer to sleep") which can be helpful for conscious falling asleep.
    - Tips for deepening your trance:
    Falling sensation. Either visualize how you are somewhere else - in a visualized body - and experience a falling sensation there (literally falling, going down steps, elevator, etc...) or 'stay' with your consciousness in your physical body and visualize the falling sensation there (I personally prefer that). Try to visualize the sensation you have in your gut when being on a roller coster.  
    Use Hypnosis. Here I wrote in detail about hypnosis (keep in mind, when I wrote older posts, I had less understanding):   
    Use your Hypnotic Triggers. You can anchor every state of consciousness. so for example anchor being sleepy with the word "sleepy", or anchor going into a deep trance with visualizing going downstairs. Hypnotic Triggers are like key words for your subconscious that tell it what state of consciousness to produce.  
    Visualize it into being. Visualize how you are in a very deep trance. Visualize having no more body sensations and being in the void. It's hard to expplain how exactly to do it, but it works.  
    Visualize how you are expanding. Expand your consciousness to include your room, then house, etc. It is said that this produces more theta brainwaves   
     
    Fractionation: A hypnotic induction technique. The idea is to get out of trance and then immediately go back down. If done skillfully, you will end up deeper than where you started.  One way to do it is to count from 1 to 3 (feeling how you are getting more out of trance with every number), open your eyes, count down from 3 to 1 (feeling how you are getting deeper), and closing your eyes again.  
    Dissociation from the body. Some possibilities: Pretend that you are lying in bed upside down. Your head where  your feet used to be. Till you are actually convinced. The axis going from your feet to your head. Visualize turning around that axis. Like you are rolling in bed.  Visualize how you are in a visualized body in your room. Turn around and look at your physical body  
    Try to induce the sensations of your body: becoming heavy.  quickly shrinking, expanding, shrinking, expanding, .... feeling strange  becoming weightless having no sensations melting with the room fading out of existence  
    Completely surrender. And use some of your non-dual hypnotic triggers  
    Visualize how you are in a visualized body somewhere. For example in your kitchen. Try to immerse yourself in these visualizations as much as possible. This produces deep theta brainwaves. And the more often you change your environment (particularly using doors, floors, etc) the more theta brainwaves are produced. So they say at least.  
    some say looking up with your eyes to the 3rd eye helps  
    Amnesia: Try to forget your body. Forget the physical universe  
    Pretend like you are moving your astral arm. And you could try any OBE exit technique  
    All of these could also induce an OBE. If they do, great, but their actual purpose is to help in conscious falling asleep.
     
    - 4. Anchors
    In order to remain conscious while your body falls asleep, it's recommended to have an anchor to focus on. (In past posts I used the word "anchor" as being a trigger for a state of consciousness. To avoid confusion, I use in this post "hypnotic trigger" for that instead). 
    - Anchors:
    any mantra works but for our purpose I would use sth like "mind awake, body asleep" so you also benefit from its affirmative effect. Awareness itself. just try to remain conscious Any trance deepeners The True Self Hypnagogic images or sounds counting your breath chakras any sensations  visualizations  
    - 5. FILD
    Finger induced Lucid Dreaming. It is usually used as a form of DEILD (or WILD) in order to induce a lucid dream. The technique is very effective at keeping you awake while your body falls asleep. Lucid dreamers use it to lucid dream, but we can just as well use it for general conscious falling asleep. I actually believe that this might be the key for conscious falling asleep (in combination with the other points I wrote).
    You alternate slightly moving your middle and index finger of one hand. As if playing piano. The movement must be extremely tiny. Just keep doing it and decrease the range of motion. Eventually your fingers shouldn't be moving any more at all (or only less than a millimeter). But the information to move is still delivered to your fingers. The tendons and muscles might be moving or tensing slightly. You find more detailed tutorials on the internet, like:  https://www.dreamviews.com/induction-techniques/36683-finger-induced-lucid-dream-fild.html And on reddit are countless FILD threads as well, including impressive success stories.
    You could say FILD, is just another anchor. But I believe it is more powerful than other anchors. Actually moving a body part seems to keep the mind more awake (perhaps by activating an additional/different brain region). And the movement is so tiny that it doesn't prevent your body from falling asleep.
    For the purpose of lucid dreaming, FILD is usually only done for 20-120 seconds (then you should just fall asleep and try later again). But we will just keep wiggling until we made the transition.
     
    - 6. Reviewing the keys
    The following points are the most significant. Most monks are not aware of them, that's why we can achieve sleep yoga quicker.
    REM core without SWS MANY alarm clocks Gamma brainwave training Reverse Blinking  awake/asleep threshold tools (hand up, sitting + no head support) Trance deepeners FILD   
    Our goal is that the body falls asleep, while retaining consciousness. For that to happen the body must be tired (which is achieved by the many alarm clocks, when they wake you up, your body is still in sleep mode and wants to return as quickly as possible. And by reverse blinking, trance deepeners and by sleep deprivation, in case you end up being sleep deprived) while your mind must be alert (which is achieved through the "lighter sleep" tools and anchors). To achieve that, some astral projectors, would go for one night without sleep (body tired) and then trink coffee (mind alert) before going to sleep the next day.
     
    - 7.  Simplified Technique Overview
    Upon waking you do either of these (or a combination):
    Just try to remain conscious while your body falls asleep awake/asleep threshold tools Trance deepeners focus on anchors FILD  
    - 8. Tips 
    You can also experiment with using strong intention. Jus don't allow your mind to fall asleep.  You need balance between concentrating too tightly and too loosely If you notice you are about to lose consciousness, open your eyes. Regain consciousness and then close them while using your hypnotic triggers. This sudden fractionation could be enough to send your body one step closer to sleep whlile retaining consciousness  You can switch between sitting and lying during your REM core Reverse FILD: Suddenly stop the finger movements and pretend you fell asleep. https://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initiated-lucid-dreams-wild/101305-reverse-fild-technique-100%-success-out-4-attempts-so-far.html When you can't fall asleep during your REM core, keep being conscious and see it as awareness practice, thus no time is wasted It's very easy to end up half-heartedly doing the technique upon waking up and then very quickly fall back asleep. When you wake up, strengthen your intention and determination first.  
     
    Chapter 3: Daily Practices - 1. Conscious falling asleep (during your REM core)
    - 2. Perfect concentration
    When you are very alert and have perfect concentration you produce more gamma brainwaves. Spend every day 5-10 min of perfect forced concentration. Don't allow thoughts. Don't allow anything other than what you are focusing on. 
    I usually focus on being extremely alert. Alert of whether there are thoughts. If a thought appears immediately cut it off. Don't even allow subtle thoughts. 
    You can also listen to gamma brainwave entrainment at the same time.
    - 3. Relaxed awareness 
    Spend every day 5-15 min doing relaxed awareness. The objective is to stay aware. And allow everything to happen.  Allow all thoughts and passively observe them. That's alpha brainwaves (and some theta).  But don't lose your awareness. Aim for zero lapse of awareness. That's the gamma (and beta) brainwaves.
    This is the sate of mind you need during conscious falling asleep. Relaxed and passive, yet uninterrupted awareness.
     
    - 4. ADA periods
    Doing all day awareness (ada) surely helps for conscious falling asleep but I don't think ada is worth the effort. Effort/Benefit ratio is poor. 
    Instead, I recommend you do ada only for a short period - like 2 to 10 minutes - around 1-3 times a day. Perhaps while driving, cooking, exercising. Just do your normal activity while trying to stay conscious.
     
    - 5. Binaural beats during the day
    All the above practices develop your gamma brainwave skills. Additionally you can listen to gamma (and other frequencies) brainwave entrainment while doing daily activities like reading, cooking, etc. I wrote about that here: 
     
    - 6. LOA Visualizations 
    Visualize everyday for 1-3 min how you are successful at sleep yoga. Know that this is true. If your memories say otherwise, regard them as false memories.
    You can apply all LOA stuff for sleep yoga. Here i mentioned some more LOA stuff: 
     
     
    - 7. Trance 
    Trance practice is not required but can be helpful.
    - 7.1 Procedure
    Strengthen your intention and LOA visualize how your session will unfold Get to your awake/tired sweet spot: (Reverse Blinking, hypnotic trigger, suggestions) Body relaxation: body scan, progressive muscle relaxation, tensing/relaxing muscles, visualize a light relaxing your muscles. You could also stretch, move and massage some muscles beforehand) Mental Relaxation Hypnotic suggestions Trance Deepeners and using your Hypnotic Triggers Listening to Guided Hypnosis or freestyle.
    0-60 min each day, as you believe necessary.
     
    - 7.2 Tips
    body and mind relaxation is crucial. it is the foundation for altered sates. Don't wave them aside, thinking they are not worth doing. I made that mistake and wasted a lot of time therefore. Once I realized the importance of body relaxation, I spent a few days - 2-4 hours each day - only trying to relax the body.  The objective is to get alpha and theta brainwaves. So practice when you are tired, because then it is far easier to enter these brainwaves. Find your sweet spot, of tired enough but still able to resist falling asleep. Exhaustion. It has a similiar effect like being tired. Hypnotic suggestions are more easily absorbed and it is easier to surrender into trance. Here I wrote more about exhaustion, including it's value in terms of enlightenment:  Use hypnosis (see my hypnosis thread) Use brainwave entrainment   
     
    Chapter 4: Stages of Progress  
    - Stage 1
    Getting close to the awake/asleep threshold for brief moments, but then being immediately snapped back
    - Stage 2
    Able to stay conscious while the body falls asleep. But after a few moments, you either lose consciousness or are snapped back.
    - Stage 3 
    Able to reliable stay conscious while the body falls asleep (during your REM core of course) and smoothly transition into a lucid dream.
    - Stage 4
    Able to enter the void. No, or almost no sensations of your body left
    - Stage 5
    Able to remain in this void during your whole REM core (both light sleep and REM)
    - Stage 6
    You stopped your segmented sleep schedule. You can retain consciousness while sinking into deep sleep, but are not able to hold it there for long
    - Stage 7
    Able to stay conscious during the whole night
    - Stage 8
    Able to enter epsilon brainwaves during deep sleep without losing consciousness 
    - Stage 9
    Able to enter the exact same depth, in your meditation during the day, when you are not tired.
    - Stage 10
    Able to do that in less than 5 minutes.
    - Stage 11
    Able to do that while sitting
    - Stage 12
    Able to do that while walking. You are able to split your consciousness. One part is astral projecting on Mars, while a small portion of your consciousness remains in your physical body, cleaning the kitchen.
     
     
    Chapter 5: Resources and Notes - 1. Resources
    There is not much information out there about Dream Yoga.
    - In this post I mentioned it a bit: 
     
    - Books:
    Dream Yoga by Andrew Holecek The Tibetan yogas of dream and sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Dreaming Yourself Awake by B. Alan Wallace. - Forum posts: https://www.dreamviews.com/beyond-dreaming/142072-exploring-delta-sleep.html
    - A Website: http://www.swamij.com/yoga-nidra.htm
     
    - 2. Depth of Sleep Yoga
    Some reports of being conscious during sleep, don't appear as fantastic as one would expect. I guess it's the same as with psychedelics. The average person might take 700 ug of LSD without getting nondual, while a spiritual seeker might get completely blown away by 300 ug. How deep your mystical experiences are (for psychedelics and sleep yoga alike) depends on many factors but the biggest are:
    your baseline consciousness  self-inquiry / contemplation skills surrender skills intention (for pyschedelics, there are some more, like personal tolerance etc).
     
    - 3. My progress so far
    I had tried WILD a few times a year ago with zero success.
    I have done quite a lot of meditation during the past 2 years. But I don't think this is required or provides a huge advantage compared to someone who hasn't done any meditation so far. A few months of the above-mentioned Sleep yoga practice, is more valuable in terms of sleep yoga progress than 3 years of meditation.
    I started my sleep yoga practice around 3 weeks ago. My attention has been mainly on figuring out the right technique/schedule rather than trying to actually achieve sleep yoga (but I did try, of course). Now I'm finally somewhat satisfied with the technique, so the real practice starts tomorrow.
    So far I'm roughly at progress stage 1. 
    I'm gonna keep updating.

  7. Enlightenment Map
    Enlightenment path explained
    This helped me to clarity.


  8. Shamanic Breathing Insights
    100 Days of Shamanic Breathing
    I have done shamanic breathing for 100 days, each night.
    This topic follows my 60-day marathon, which I have spoken of earlier on the forum. Today would be technically day 108, but I have missed a few.
    This thread serves as a canvas for what I have learned during my 100-day marathon, as a guide in which are mentioned the things to expect and watch out for if you dedicate your time to do something similar.
    Technique & Setting Overview:
    The following setting became routine for the breathwork:
    Night around midnight Alone in a room on the floor All lights or electronics off, apart from headphones & phone Water served prior to each session Ready to go sleep, last activity of the day Over the 100 days, the sessions usually lasted:
    5 minutes (50%) 15 minutes (40%) 60 minutes (10%) Music:
    If the session lasts 5 minutes, played after. If the session lasts longer, played during and after. Tracks that have proved to be the most influential are: Anything orchestral, such as Two Steps From Hell. Anything instrumental, such as Narnia or Skyrim mixes. Especially songs by Loreena McKennitt. The Mystic’s Dream Ages Past, Ages Hence Beneath A Phrygian Sky Now for the technique itself. I used to get terrible drought in my mouth before the marathon. It does not happen anymore. As anything in life, the technique will perfect itself if you practice. The state I could once achieve in 20 minutes is the state which I can evoke in less than five now.
    Same as psychedelics, the breathing is not linear.
    What helps to breathe properly:
    Try imagining a shore. As you breathe out, imagine waves that are thrown by a gusty force onto a sea. As you breathe in, imagine the tide crawling back towards you. Breathe out – blow the waves up & away. Breathe in – visualize a slow rising tide. Please, pay heed to this: The most important aspect of this exercise is to visualize an elliptical movement.
    The visualization is merely supportive. Pay attention to your breath, and imagine it repeating an elliptical pattern as you breathe. It helped me a lot with sending the air into the belly. When your body gets the rhythm and memo, it will automatize.
    What to watch out for:
    Some of these insights will be freely quoted from my previous threads.
    1) During the first minute of the breathing, and especially during the first 20 seconds, a huge wave of fatigue may wash over you. This is nothing but the ego's illusion. I personally experience it every time I initiate the breathwork. It feels like having barely enough energy to crawl into your bed after a tiresome day. When you initiate a session, be prepared you may be molested by thoughts like "You are tired" or "You will suffocate" or “Stop it now”. You will be playing devil’s tricks on yourself; it will be debilitating, heavy, like wading through drifts of snow. Remember in the moment: This is the ego trying to persuade you through whatever means to stop the exercise. You are perceiving these thoughts, do not get attached to them. This barrier only lasts about 20 seconds for me. But it may be completely different for you.
    2) Time runs differently during shamanic breathing, for its notion starts to crack. The gap between 5 and 20 minutes will feel as breathing for the first five.
    3) Lay down. Do not get up during the practice. I got up from the floor once and tried to drink from an open water bottle. I grabbed it upside down without realizing what was happening. I also dropped a five-kilogram object onto my leg, and I also fell and hit my head twice by wobbling around a bed. Lay down. These are blackouts you got to watch out for. They are potentially dangerous. Lay down.
    Insights:
    This is what I reaped from 100 days of shamanic breathing.
    Bridge Towards Being
    I am humbled by the ever-present connection that sprawls between us. This is the “w” axis of an “xyz” world, the untrodden path, the childhood magic, the indescribable kernel of mysticism, the ever-flowing river that sways you. Despite my highest efforts, I will never grasp it through language, and neither will you, and this guide will be merely a singular cell in a limitless body, and I will cry for an hour because it is so beautiful.
    The Body Is A Temple
    All the mysticism-braided notions you have heard throughout your life; of Atlantis, of Shangri-La, of the Center of the Earth, of Aztec pyramids, of El-Dorado are within you. Your body is literally, and I emphasize the word literally, a temple. Within you splash waterfalls and shine stars, literally. This is all symbolism, yet it implies exactly what is experienced; and it can be experienced literally. Ever since childhood, I have always had special place in my heart for these notions. Yet they are all here, you are basking within them, they all celebrate you.
    You Have Already Made It
    You have already crossed the glorious veil. You have already made it to heaven. Congratulations. You are here! Love has never abandoned you, and it always has your back, no matter how deep you go. To quote my past commentary, the fastest method to enlightenment is realizing you already are and dropping the duality completely. You were brainwashed in the first place to believe you are something less than pure consciousness. You took the belief that you aren’t enlightened by storm & you set out on the mission to find yourself, not realizing you would be chasing your own tail. You are searching for what you already are, how comical is that? Enlightenment has no authority over you, it's not anyhow or anymore important, all those are bulwarks keeping the ego protected. You invent the notion of a "method", which implies a future-that-is-yet-to-come, and therefore pushes enlightenment infinitely far away.
    When I speak of enlightenment, I speak about pure awareness of being, and I realize how tricky it is to get lost in semantics, definitions, and in what exactly is being implied. Take whatever suits you, do not pay any attention to me. I do not exist in the classical sense, I am irrelevant, for you cannot refer to anyone but yourself.
    Infinite Metamorphosis
    Everything is happening here simultaneously. You believe to be alive, to be on Earth, to be a human experiencing stuff around you. This is all just one narrative out of the infinitely many unfolding now. Even when you pursue enlightenment, from the human point of view, you are still constantly bombarded by thoughts like “I am a human pursuing enlightenment” or “I am reading a paragraph by SirVladimir right now”. You really are not, though, reality is simultaneously everything. When you look at the screen, it is simultaneously a coffee table, Mount Everest, a cheese; the pure consciousness, the groundless appearance which you are experiencing now is literally everything you could break down & focus on and even more. You could literally believe you are climbing Mount Everest right now. Reading this sentence could actually mean driving an ice axe into a rock. Those are the basics of how tangible reality is. You are so free that you can blindfold yourself into believing any narrative.
    To give you an example – and I realize how symbolic this is, for you realize in that state how the mind is constructing these notions – last night, I experienced an entire human lifetime in a matter of seconds. Listed below is a video, which is set to 1:10. As soon as she sings “Ages Past, Ages Hence”, stop the video. That’s it. That’s how long it took to experience one life; it was a matter of 2 seconds.
    https://youtu.be/g97IG3yuFBk?t=70
    Life Purpose & Vision
    Shamanic breathing is a golden ticket to your life purpose. Defining one can be tricky. If you remain too down to earth, the statement will be, so to say, a mere construct of an already predefined paradigm, yet if you go too nondual, the statement will always be Love. Use sessions of shamanic breathing in order to reach beyond-earth states to deconstruct your beliefs and shadows from (t)here. Your doubts will melt like lemon drops. Without shamanic breathing, I would have never written Journeys Beyond Earth and therefore never attempted to create a new book genre. But it’s coming in a matter of days, and I will make a thread about it.
    I Love You
    Last but not least, this hit me just yesterday, and I cried for about twenty minutes. For one paragraph, I will relax and just say my deepest thank you for being here, for pursuing the highest truths, for sharing this forum. We are perfectly alone together. You are amazing, all of you. How comical and funny it is? To share one reality, to bask in the experience, to communicate with one another, all while pretending there is society & that we are humans? What I felt when it clicked yesterday was completely out-of-earth, unimaginable, yet I am humbled by how much more there is to come. Thank you for searching for yourself.
    Love you. Freaking Godspeed, spread the sails, and let’s go.

  9. Video summary bookmarks
    Actualized.org Video Summaries!

  10. Video summary: summary pdf
    Actualized.org Video Summaries!
    This is a summary of almost all the videos I've seen  Make sure to apply these principles carefuly! You can see how I was growing as I saw more and more of these videos and did the practices, especially to the end of the file...  Some of the things at the beginning might complete bullshit, I am not sure...
     
    actualized.org.pdf

  11. Video Summaries
    Actualized.org Video Summaries!
    Hey guys! I'm gonna upload all the video summaries I have at the moment and will be uploading more of them as I watch them! Needless to say that is a summaries made by me and not transcripts nor Leo's summaries. Probably you will find some of my comments and ideas in them; I enjoy feedback of any type so feel free to comment