Jodistrict

I believe that Aboriginals and pre-modern people can perceive subtle energies. This perception has been, perhaps permanently, destroyed in modern man by cultural conditioning. The analysis obsessed man can’t perceive much outside his conceptual imagination, so can’t detect these energies and thus declares they don’t exist. They may even be undetectable by any instrumentation. The Aboriginals when they put this into language may refer to the energies as spirit entities, which modern man immediately concludes as superstition, even though what they are referring to is totally real. It’s a limitation of language. Angeles, holy spirit, etc. could also be an attempt to describe energy in language. I also believe that the chakra energies are real even though what you read in books is the same conceptual bullshit and there are few people alive today that can actually perceive these energies directly.

I knew someone who had two NDEs. He had a genetic heart condition and died twice. He had super self confidence and seemed to be fearless which added to the credibility of his story.

Up until the 1960s, a middle class man could afford a home, a wife, and have at least two children. He would retire from his company with a pension. Even people in the upper classes can’t afford to do that anymore. In exchange, we have tons of electronic garbage, smartphones, Internet. A real quality life has been lost and replaced with surface entertainment.

I have found that it is best not to talk about your experiences with psychedelics. Nothing good comes of it. It was meant for you and won't make sense to anybody else.

This has been debated for thousands of years. Shankaracharya believed Karma Yoga and Bakti yoga couldn’t get people to liberation. Shankaracharya in the Vivekachudamani: “The fear and sorrow created by the delusory serpent on the rope can be ended only after fully ascertaining the truth of the rope which is available for recognition only through steady and balanced thinking”. He is using the rope/snake metaphor. You mistake the rope for a snake and have fear, but the fear vanishes once you recognize it is only a rope. Knowledge of the truth gives instant liberation. The catch is that in order to practice the Vedanta, you have to be qualified, which means you need to have a sattvic mind. For most people they just go in circles applying self inquiry with a disturbed mind. That is where Bakti becomes useful in purification. Even Ramana Maharshi practiced Bakhti yoga.

Chatgpt just summarizes what is already on the Internet - pretty words that mean nothing.

Don’t get hung up with the story. If somone had a trip, but the effect continued after the drug wore off, and it appears to have initiated a positive influence, that means that an energy was activated and energy is real. Somone from a different culture might label it Kundalini or Shakti energy. Again, don’t get hung up on stories. If it affects your life in a positive way that is something real.

The only problem I have with Christianity is their insistence that they are the only way. The higher philosophies of Hinduism are so much more mature and embrace all paths to the divine. Swami Vivekananda explains it as follows, noting that intolerance is not exclusive to one faith. “The one great advantage of Bhakti is that it is the easiest, and the most natural way to reach the great divine end in view; its great disadvantage is that in its lower forms it oftentimes degenerates into hideous fanaticism. The fanatical crew in Hinduism, or Mohammedanism, or Christianity, have always been almost exclusively recruited from these worshippers on the lower planes of Bhakti. That singleness of attachment (Nishthâ) to a loved object, without which no genuine love can grow, is very often also the cause of the denunciation of everything else. All the weak and undeveloped minds in every religion or country have only one way of loving their own ideal, i.e. by hating every other ideal. Herein is the explanation of why the same man who is so lovingly attached to his own ideal of God, so devoted to his own ideal of religion, becomes a howling fanatic as soon as he sees or hears anything of any other ideal.”

It was common for people in ancient cultures to live without chairs. They would sit cross legged or squat. It had nothing to do with looking cool or spiritual. And what is so great about chairs? People develop back and posture problems with chairs. Also, the only reason you can sit on a chair is because you adjust your posture every few minutes. The chair puts to much pressure on the bottom to sit perfectly still for even an hour. The full lotus distributes weight making it possible to be still for hours. But it’s not necessary for all meditation.

I went to the Goenka Vipassana 10 day retreat. They provided chairs for those who ask. But you have to ask in advance.

The Hindus see different paths. You can either approach the absolute directly or approach the absolute through forms. People have different temperments making them suitable for different approaches.

It’s interesting that we can infer from the Bible that there were loads of people who came across Jesus and didn’t see anything special about him. The Bible mentions he wasn’t believed in his own village. This is actually quit realistic. There was also loads of people who never saw Ramakrishna as special. Most people are too low vibration to recognize an enlightened being, and he becomes invisible. Most people saw Ramakrishna as ordinary but Vivekananda fell at his feet and recognized he was God.

Jesus didn't create a religion. He never talked about creating a new religion, nor indicated that he was outside the Jewish tradition. It was Paul that created Christianity.

The part I find most interesting about the story is that a positive change persisted after the drug wore off. Long term change is what everyone is looking for, and not just a one time memory. I would say go with it. But presenting the experience to a forum of skeptics probably isn’t most useful. To reinforce the experience, it would be useful to present your Ayahuasca conversion testimony at a charismatic oriented Christian church.

I have never heard of someone having a Jesus hallucination without previous indoctrination. It also occurs in near death experiences. I have done 20 Ayahuasca ceremonies, and have seen Jesus in a few because that is what I grew up with.

That's what worries me the most. This has been going on for more than 10 years

South Park went so low that there is nowhere else to go. If it doesn’t work, they have used up all their bullets. It just shows desperation. The long term solution is for the democratic party to become a party again that people want to vote for.

The scandel is that they have significant amounts of money making them worthy of being a target. Buddhism in Thailand is a unique culture.

Do the 100,000 prostrations of Dzogchen. The Tibetan Lamas say that after completion laziness permanently leaves and is not possible.

Mussolini started out a a socialist and is the person who really developed fascism long before it was adopted by Hitler. This was the real fascism and not just name calling. During the same time period, the 1933 plot to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt and establish a fascist dictatorship in the US was revealed by retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler. Arch conservatives like Douglas McArthur were overwhelmingly loyal to the Constitution and served under FDR during World War II. Conservatives could have taken out FDR if they wanted too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

Blaming men for not socializing is feeding into the myth of the individual. In reality, the society is making people more isolated and the individual has less control than he thinks. There is no longer a sense of solidarity for the collective. The sexual revolution promised sexual liberation but actually did the opposite. Because a woman’s sexuality is a valuable resource subject to control, manipulation, and exploitation. Freedom means freedom to fulfill one’s desires which is actually slavery. The modern world is turning us all into resources and objects and it is getting hard to find someone that cares about anything beyond their own desires.

Dating has changed dramatically for the average man. Up until the 1960s, if a man had a job and a car he was highly desirable. The girl next store was enthusiastic about marrying him so she could get away from her father. Today, even normal successful men are complaining they are invisible and women are pursuing the top 10% of men. Rich men can offer unlimited entertainment during what use to be child bearing years. Of course, the trajectory of winner take all neoliberal capitalism is going to eventually commodify access to women, which in their terms would be considered a valuable resource. The gamified dating apps take further advantage of the losers by getting a monopoly over access to play a rigged game. To the unregulated capitalists we are all resources and objects to be exploited.

I do physical yoga and stretching every day. Stretching is as important as exercise and increases blood flow to muscles.

When you are in a leaky boat you throw everything overboard that isn’t essential. When the shit hits the fan, you tend to quickly abandon all the silly stuff that doesn’t work and focus on the truth for your own survival. It sheds delusion.

Given that it is thousands of years old, it is more than reasonable to search for the reasons why it works. Things that consistently harm tend to be deleted by history. The Yoga Sutras actually never mention any specific asana, but only says an asana should be stable and comfortable. That is because in the yoga sutras, asanas were preparation for meditation. The full lotus is the most stable of all the meditation asanas.