Jodistrict

Vipassana is nothing more than using your body feelings as an object of meditation. Shinzen Young’s Unified Mindfulness system is based on Vipassana, with all the cultural trappings and beliefs removed. It is a pure practice. https://unifiedmindfulness.com/

It’s interesting that he claims that anyone who is making statements about psychedelics doesn’t know what they are talking about because there isn’t sufficient scientific research to back it up. He only talks about scientific studies and never once mentions shamanism. Presumably, the people who have been using these substances for hundreds of years aren’t even worth mentioning. He doesn’t appear to have taken psychedelics himself, but he thinks he is qualified to talk about them. This is why you will never hear anything useful from these YouTube “gurus”.

Years ago I had roomates who were scientologists. They woke up to the scam and left. But they still claimed that the auditing worked.

Or Spiritual Bypassing.

It’s already well known as a technique. When Shinzen Young was in a Japan monastery, he had to pour freezing cold water over himself every morning before meditation in the middle of winter. That’s cold torture. The American Indians have the sweat lodge. That’s hot torture. But these methods don’t permanently damage the body so they could still be considered the middle way. The middle way can still be pretty extreme.

This is just repeating Western Christian propaganda on the “savage” that needs to be civilized. But nobody has been more cruel than Christians. Western civilization killed close to 100 million people in two World Wars, and nuclear weapons could end human life. Who is the savage? It is a myth that indigenous cultures are “simple”. They are human and have the same brains that we have. And they have developed sustainable ways of life, whereas “civilization” is unsustainable leading to catastrophe.

A communal life is still practiced by indigenous tribes, some who still have no use for money. It was our natural condition.

The Western countries were supporting apartheid in South Africa, while the communist and socialist countries were opposing it.

The demons are symbols of repressed pain in your unconscious mind. Psychedelics like LSD, Ayahuasca, and mushrooms keep you stuck in your mind. You are exploring your self. Everything you see is you, just like in dreams. The only thing that seems to take you beyond the mind is 5-meo.

This is an interesting and well written article written by a young person raised by American Buddhist parents. She explains why Western Buddhism is not so benign as people think and why she left. For those here who were raised by Buddhist parents, do you agree with this? https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/02/what-it-was-like-to-be-raised-by-american-buddhists.html

Having used a lot of psychedelic medicines, I have become skeptical of anyone who thinks they understand them. Because research has been illegal for years, we know very little. When I was in Peru, where they have a longer history with them, they treat the plant medicines like deities. This isn’t a bad metaphor. A deity is unpredictable and you just don’t approach with demands and expectations. You first make sacrifices, and approach with humility bringing gifts. Western capitalistic culture will treat them as commodities to be sold for profit by large corporations. What could go wrong?

Any psychedelic will do the same thing if it breaks through your defenses to the deeper parts of the brain. When I was in the Amazon taking Black Ayahuasca I heard audible voices calling to me from the jungle.

I agree. I actually find the results encouraging. Janov came up with his therapy in the 1960s when knowledge of the brain was very limited and he was funding his own research. However, in my opinion he has outlined the correct approach to psychotherapy, based on biology, that can result in a complete cure. The other problem is getting money to support the research needed. Only the government could provide funds to do this. But the system has been captured by cognitive psychologists who have staked their careers on ineffective therapies and will fight to maintain the status quo. The Janov therapists had to go through years of extra training and how many are still around? There are plenty of fakes who will pretend to be primalists.

That could work some, but it is still a left brain coping strategy. When you are under stress, the pain signals will still come from the right brain putting the whole strategy in jeopardy.

The Disappointments of Primal Therapy http://primal-page.com/disapp.htm The Success and Failure of Primal Therapy http://primal-page.com/success.htm

"I have treated many LSD users from the ’60s. They have a specific brainwave pattern which indicates disturbance, even decades later. They often do not sleep well, and use marijuana for help in falling asleep. They hold all kinds of bizarre notions. Why? Because their gating system was blown apart, feelings are bubbling up with little cerebral control." Arthur Janov, Ph.D.. Beyond Belief (Kindle Locations 151-154). Reputation Books. Kindle Edition.

America is still a puritanical country, and people come up with all kinds of silly beliefs about sex. Other cultures treat sex as part of nature and don’t make a big deal about it. In general, all cultures are toxic to some degree. Try your best to avoid abusive people and be very, very careful who you listen to.

A shaman told me not to do Bufo with Ayahuasca because they are both DMT and it makes the Bufo less effective.

The tryptamines are remarkably safe. The body has enzymes that can metabolize them. It’s amazing how few problems there are considering how irresponsible people are in taking them. It’s not even close to the damage done by alcohol. But that is legal.

The effects of the elites are in plain site. Like all of the business schools in America that indoctrinate students with neo-liberal economic dogma, and the underling assumption that the only thing of value is progress and efficiency. This is top-down educational brainwashing. It’s not initiated by a mob. Similialy, a handful of elites control the media. They use the control of information to shape opinion. When they wanted to invade Iraq, the media just made up lies to convince the public. The top-down control is a problem.

Alcohol is legal even though the damage it does to people and society is a significant problem. But the ruling class aren’t afraid of alcohol because it just makes you uncoordinated and dumb. Psychedelics expand consciousness which is dangerous to the status quo. LSD did, in fact, create a huge change of consciousness in the 1960s. It did it’s job. Now that psychedelics have been proven to have medical benefits, the drug companies are busy finding ways to modify them so they don’t give what they call those troublesome “hallucinations”. This is their mentality.

Why do this right wingers always complain about “centralized” government, but they never say anything about the threat of a world run by multinational corporations. Corporations are non democratic and government is the only way the people can express their collective will. And he attacks people who are trying to save the living earth from a sure depletion of resources and certain destructions (and they are losing). When a tree breathes, it gives you oxygen. When JP talks, he expels bullshit. I honestly couldn’t find the good points. Peterson is an embarrassment to his fellow frogs.

There are also religious leftists. Look up “Liberation Theology”. Nobody is more materialistic in their philosophy than the elites of the corporate state who worship progress and efficiency.

Interesting. This man also talks about the childhood vows.

Is propagating the words of the latest Internet sensation really thinking for yourself? The network nature of the Internet creates this avalanche effect where the most simplistic narratives go viral (e.g., Tate, Peterson) taking up all the bandwidth. In economics, there is the concept of bad money driving out good money. Only a central regulation solves the problem.