Osaid

If there was a genuine perception that "now" is all there is, then all your "degree searching" is moot because you are imagining degrees of consciousness...right now. What occurs now "encompasses" itself perfectly, it's just that there are thoughts about "not now" appearing now, which don't actually describe anything outside of what is occurring right now. You can't quantify consciousness by imagining things other than you...because there aren't things other than you which can be compared to you. You are not going to ever properly slice and cut consciousness and then compare all the pieces to each other, because it all has to happen right now; there isn't separation. I'm not saying anything about what aliens are or aren't; you are. You are quantifying your own consciousness by imagining aliens; by imagining things that you aren't. Humans and donkeys are the human capacity for imagination and intelligence, they aren't entities that have intelligence. It's like you're imagining a unicorn and then saying "unicorns are so stupid, humans are more intelligent compared to unicorns, etc.", but the entire thing is just your imaginative capacity describing things that aren't actually experienced outside of that imagination. The function of imagination allows you to describe things that aren't there, in the same way a blueprint or weather prediction does. The entire thing is human intelligence, and the projection of intelligence onto a donkey is anthropomorphism of the donkey, because donkeys and kangaroos can't think they are anything separate, and so they certainly don't think of themselves as "kangaroos" and "donkeys" since they literally cannot. That is where human intelligence comes in. There aren't separate entities which have intelligence, your intelligence is the description of those entities. Descriptions don't describe anything outside of themselves, because you can't experience something that describes another experience, and you can't use experience to point at another experience, because there is always just what is occurring now. Descriptions are now, and they don't describe what is not now, since there is no "not now." There is only describing, not a "thing" described. When you point your finger at something, your finger didn't actually create any objects, and so it is not actually pointing at anything, it is simply just pointing.

Since when do rats and humans have consciousness? Isn't your metric for "measuring" consciousness just an anthropomorphization? The idea of consciousness having levels is based on the idea that you are human. The desire to reach non-human consciousness is actually a very human sentiment. Only a human could have that sentiment.

"Nothing" is more apt. It's not being "replaced", it's just being "seen through." Like thinking a rope is a snake, and then realizing it is just a rope. Imagine realizing that every single thing you thought of was never actually describing anything. Thoughts become more of a drawing board. Still useful and interesting, but nothing is there aside from the thought.

At a certain point, you stretch the rubber band far enough and the entire thing snaps, never to be seen again.

Oh damn, true and ironic. Like someone in a drug-induced psychosis who thinks they're invincible since they can't feel physical pain. Seems like reality likes to keep balance.

Practically, this doesn't seem to ever happen from psychedelics. What is left over are memories, desires, longings, and speculations. But nothing that really "lasts." I see it very simply. The psychedelic is a chemical which "brute forces" itself in such a way that the brain does not have the capacity or intelligence to form an ego anymore. Once that chemical wears off, the ego is back, but it is thus never understood what the ego actually is, and thus "ego" is never seen through totally. In order to figure out what ego is, you must be able to clearly perceive it and sit with it first. Alcohol makes you happy, but it is temporary because substances are temporary, and so there is always a distinct "come down." There is no understanding of how to be happy in the "baseline" state, the alcohol stunts your intelligence because your intelligence makes you unhappy in the baseline state. Similarly, psychedelics stunt your intelligence so that you cannot form a proper ego anymore, and that creates a temporary "clarity", but that substance-induced state is often misconstrued as some sort of higher and more "truthful" state which should then be chased after. Similar to how someone might look at being drunk as a "happier" state, but what is not seen is that the happiness and unhappiness is simply your intellect malfunctioning, and the alcohol manipulates that. It's like the analogy of the rope and the snake. Enlightenment is seeing a rope as a rope, not a snake. Psychedelics are like transforming or removing the rope entirely, so that it is not perceived as it normally is. Then when you come back to the baseline you're like "oh shit the snake is back!" I can see how it could be beneficial. But really the only benefit I personally see is the sense of open-mindedness, and the curiosity it creates. The real problem is when those states are put on a pedestal, or the psychedelics are used as some sort of clutch. If you create some kind of ideology or conclusion that relates to those states, that immediately creates a hierarchy now which turns the psychedelic state into some kind of arbiter of truth.

Yes. They can obviously become a massive red herring. If someone is very stubborn on the matter, for example they refuse to self-inquire into their existence or even look into the possibility, then I think it can help "open their mind." But it can also make someone mentally ungrounded and make them latch onto all sorts of lofty metaphysical ideas. Humans already have all sorts of crazy ideas just from the baseline state. I would definitely not use it for "chasing truth" or any such endeavor. I think it's better to use it to spark curiosity instead of landing on lofty metaphysical conclusions, because the mind sticks to those like glue. But it's not like it's mandatory or anything, truth isn't conditional.

Ego doesn't exist! It's like unicorns. Don't mistake the map for the territory. And no, you don't need unicorns to remember your name or whatever.

Funnily, doesn't seem to happen on psychedelics. Only sober. "Enlightenment" as it is called. (sorry for using the E-word!)

Nothing is at stake. That is the fantasy! "Without fantasies I can not exist as a self" is like saying "without unicorns I can not exist as a self."

❤️❤️❤️

That sounds great. I think you have gained significant distance from your previous thoughts about reality. My advice to you is to sit with all your thoughts and imagination, and watch them appear and disappear. Do it in a dim/dark place if possible. Keep watching them until you completely realize that none of your thoughts and imagination exist or point to anything. Ramana had a great koan: "If mind exists, then describe it."

Sounds like an enlightenment similar to Eckhart Tolle. Immense psychological pain, and then a sudden "detachment" or "understanding" that you aren't really located inside of the thought/imagination you are perceiving. Do you still experience anxiety or social anxiety? How are your emotions in general?

Very nice. What inspired this?

lol

Are we really entertaining that God at its ultimate is a two-forked road between nihilism and non-nihilism? Is God a philosopher now? How convenient for the intellectually and philosophically minded. What is this cognitive dissonance? Is that all you see of life and reality? Ground yourselves. This is like imagining a dirt house and thinking "I'm gonna live in my imagination because that's what God wants." What is the most obvious and simplest explanation? That God is a philosopher who juggles between meaning and nihilism? Or that God is being anthropomorphized by a human ego? If triangles had a God they would give it 3 sides. If humans had a God they would give it an existential nihilistic crisis.

The idea of solipsism gave you an existential crisis, and now you are left choosing between nihilism or non-nihilism. It looks really pretty when you add the word "God" in there though. God is apparently having an existential nihilistic crisis, and that is the ultimate intelligence at play?

That's pretty damn accurate as a summation. The "surrender" is really just a clear perception that that you cannot be inside the content of thought. It is a clear recognition of the nature of experience and how it contains itself. Once you see it you can't unsee it, and that is so called "enlightenment."

Ego can only ever be thought. All "I" statements are thought. All "I" statements are limitations because they are divisions and separations. All separation is limitation. You are being aware of thoughts of limitation, like "I am this or that." You, as unbounded infinite awareness, are being aware of the thoughts, but not being in the thoughts. Awareness can't be limited by what it is aware of, because it can't be inside of what it is aware of. You can't read a story while being in the story. Trying to get rid of barriers is like trying to get rid of unicorns. You can't get rid of what is inside of imagination because only something which exists inside of imagination could do that. You are not someone who hunts unicorns. You are not someone who hunts down barriers. You can only realize that you aren't inside of imagination in the first place.

The dreaded E word. We don't use such terms around these parts.

All of which would have to be imaginary. Like imagining blue and yellow unicorns. Finite is thought. You are aware of the thought of being finite, like "I have incarnated into a body/unicorn." You are being the thought, not being in the thought. You can't be inside of what you are aware of. You can't read a story while being in the story.

Ego can't do any of that because unicorns can't do any of that. The ego is any story or statement you make of it. You can't read a story while being in the story. You are being aware of things, not being in what you are aware of. The idea that the ego can return is itself ego. There it is, right there, in the idea: "the ego will return."

Quote from the edited version: Meaning, there is no higher level, because higher level is in contrast to ego/body, which itself is imagination and thought. The entire thing is ego/imagination.

Only what is imaginary can be imagined. If the body is being imagined at a higher level, then the body and the higher level are both imaginary.

Ego is thought. Your statement relates itself to ego, therefore it confirms the existence of ego, therefore it is ego. Because it claims that the body relates to ego in some way. Therefore, the formulation in the sentence is itself is just thought and ego.