Intrinsic Health is the desire to pursue health primarily for its own sake or its immediate benefits, rather than for some alternative outcome (like increased lifespan, disease prevention etc.). This desire is something that has to be developed, and some of it can be worked on, and some of it is more up to chance (biology, happenstance). This development is something I've discovered within myself and which is a culmination of all my deepest values and intuitions about life. If all of this seems too unrealistic or utopian for you to accept, I'm telling you that it's possible.
 
I will present two main factors that I think contribute to Intrinsic Health (IH) and how implementing both (to the degree that is possible) will lead to highly synergistic effects:
1. Being (foundational factors; the mystical experience).
2. Meaning (practical factors; cognitive, emotional and behavioral patterns).
 

 
First, what is the alternative to Intrinsic Health? I like to think of Intrinsic Health as in many ways the opposite of hedonism. Your sense of pleasure is derived from your most natural baseline state of existence, not some fluctuating level of extreme activation or excitation. The benefit to Intrinsic Health is therefore that it's extremely stable and self-sustaining. It works with its natural bodily functions (homeostasis) rather than against them, and I'll also claim that it is not only beneficial for optimizing functioning, but that it's the very basis for a high-functioning existence.
 
Being
Being is something that is arguably the most crucial aspect to this (at least in my experience), as it lays the foundation for how the immediate benefits of health is experienced on a purely phenomenological level. The ability to investigate your direct experience through feeling, both on an intuitive level and a more bodily level, prior to thought, will allow you to tap into the organic feelings that is produced by healthy food and physical exercise, and it allows you to more readily identify the mechanism of craving unhealthy foods and other behaviors, namely thought itself. In other words, Being both establishes the connection to Intrinsic Health and actively maintains it. However, when it comes to the more practical aspect of maintaining this connection, there are certain so-called vital patterns of cognition, emotion and behavior that are highly beneficial, if not required (some of which can also induce the mystical experience, e.g. a meditation habit), and this is directly tied to the concept of meaning.
 
Meaning
Meaning is at the most fundamental level an expression of goal-oriented behavior. Whether you're an amoeba looking for food, or a monkey displaying aggression, or a human reading a book, it's all fundamentally about the same thing: engaging in behavior that benefits survival. The amoeba's movement through the environment, the monkey's direction of emotional energy towards a target, and the human orienting him or herself through a narrative, are all expressions of meaning, and the definition of a healthy organism is one that is able to engage in this type of meaningful behavior in a successful manner. 
 
An amoeba that isn't able to move in just the right way to accurately locate food will have its health compromised and eventually die. A monkey that is not able to express its emotions in an appropriate manner will likewise have its health and survival compromised, and a human that is not able to ground their life in a higher-order framework of meaning (based on symbolic thought, language and narrative) will also have their health and survival compromised.
 
Cognitive emotion regulation
Like monkeys, humans need adequate cognitive emotion regulation patterns, and you can roughly divide this into two main styles: externalizing and internalizing style. The externalizing style most accurately represents the evolutionary function of emotions, and generally speaking it's therefore the most vital/healthy style (the exception is when it happens at the level of pathology, for example some personality disorders, e.g. parts of Cluster B). Emotions exist to serve a purpose, and it's to direct attention and energy towards some task in the environment (in a meaningful way). Therefore, if you experience an emotion like say anger, what you're supposed to do from a natural standpoint is to act on that emotion, which could be telling somebody that what they did is not OK, or expressing some disagreement, or establishing boundaries.
 
When this is done correctly, the emotion subsides rather quickly and the physiological activation and associated stress and thoughts about the situation will disappear. On the other hand, if you don't do this and instead repress the emotion and pull the energy inwards (internalizing style), you will create endless cycles of mental anguish and physical unwellness, which is generally not healthy. I say "generally" because there are times where internalizing an emotion is socially appropriate. It's rather when it's done compulsively and not in a skillful way, or in a way that is not meaningful, that you will severely compromise your health. Therefore, learning to externalize emotions when that is the appropriate thing to do (and internalizing when that is appropriate) is crucial for establishing a connection to Intrinsic Health. I severely underestimated the importance of this in my life even many years after discovering meditation, and it held me back in so many ways that I can't even begin to tell you about. I therefore cannot stress enough how important this is.
 
Higher-order meaning
The emotional aspect is also tied to navigating higher-order frameworks of meaning, namely daily habits, work ethic, and life purpose. Just like the most basic aspects of life, this aspect needs to have a certain streamlined and less cyclical nature to it for it to have any true effect on your health.
 
When it comes to daily habits, the most foundational, simplest and maybe obvious one is to take notes or make a schedule. Whenever your mind starts bothering you about something you have to do, that is meaning knocking on your door: it has an emotional component that tries to direct attention and energy towards a task, and it even has informational content with instructions on how to do it (the content of the thought itself). This is an amazing technology that you were given by evolution, and the only mistake is to ignore it. The only reason you ignore it is because you don't have a good strategy to deal with it in the moment. Now, I'm saying that the best thing you can do is to write it down. You don't even have to specify "when" or "how" you'll do it (although that is also good): simply by writing it down with the intention that you will do the thing, the job is essentially done. Your mind stops worrying about it. You've eliminated the cyclical patterns of meaningless mental noise, and this is again crucial to maintaining Intrinsic Health. Make notes about whatever your mind thinks is worth spending time reminding you about. It can be anything from shopping ideas, plans for the week, work assignments, creative ideas, life purpose etc.
 
This streamlined thinking should also be applied to your work ethic. If you've decided that you're going to follow a work schedule, your only job is to stick to that schedule. If you don't, your mind will start telling you that you should, and this leads to cyclical mental anguish, which again severs ties to optimal health. If you value your mental clarity, if your value your goals, and if you value your physical well-being, you will avoid cheating on your work ethic at all costs. Same with life purpose. If you don't find a life purpose and your mind keeps bothering you about the fact that your life has no meaning and that you're not moving towards any higher-order goal, then you better start listening to what your mind is telling you. Your mind is really smart and you should listen to it more often. I'm not saying finding a life purpose is easy, but never ever pretend like it's not important for your health. Lack of higher-order meaning is one of the biggest problems that you have to solve if you value your mental and physical health and well-being.
 
Summary and synthesis
To tie this back to Being, having a daily habit like a meditation habit, outsourcing mental activity by writing notes, not terrorizing yourself by cheating on your work schedule, and figuring out a trajectory for your life, directly feeds back into your ability to feel alive, to enjoy having a functioning body that is not aching, to enjoy having a mind that is not cluttered with useless noise and that is able to think amazing things. All of this is intricately tied together into one holistic mesh, which is why your approach to achieving Intrinsic Health should be holistic as well, meaning you will not ignore anything that your conscience tells you to do. Your conscience is the divine spirit that tries to guide you towards ever higher levels of love. Meaning is the way you manifest your conscience in your daily life, and Being is how you experience the fruits of all that.

@Manusia 
 
In order to learn the language, you have to interact with it as much as possible, for example by watching this YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/EasyGerman
 
I personally use "Duolingo" and "Clozemaster" every day to learn languages, other people like to use vocabulary lists on "Anki".
If you just play Duolingo for half an hour a day for a couple of months your German will already be good enough for most basic interactions (restaurant, supermarket, asking for directions etc.). It is actually fairly easy to get to an A1/A2 level in German, especially if you speak English already. It's just almost impossible to get to C2 / Native speaker level bc there are many small mistakes you can do. But they don't really matter, people will understand you just fine. Good Luck!

Hey folks,
I can't find out what he did prior to founding the consilience project. I know he studied Mathematics and Counseling psychology, but I don't know what work experiences he has, how he finances himself (he can't be making a lot of money with his consilience project).
It's inspiring to me to study the path of people who have very meaningful work and understand how they managed financing themselves, while doing what they love.
If you guys know something, please share. 

Hey everybody.
I’ve joined very recently and as a first contribution I’m sharing this book list that that’s been in the works for 2 years and counting. 
I’ve organised it into sections, covering topics that are central (in my opinion) to self-actualisation in a world that misleads us at every turn. I list a wide variety of critical books on topics as different as Health, Accomplishment, Evolutionary Psych, Contentious History, etc.. 
*Full Table of Contents attached in image format*

Alas, here’s my full list made available using google docs publish feature:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTDWt6DuSrAkEQf32smo_np_7oJVVvyqXsDR2hL6Wv3OXMVTaKxK9MKhtredKxusoj7L03WsBVyhQ_c/pub
Anything familiar? Anything you’re happy / unhappy to see featured? Anything you’re surprised to see? Any proposed additions?
All is welcome.
NB: I have not read all these books, more like 20%, but rest assured each has been vetted / researched at the best of my ability.

https://archive.org/details/Dajjal_And_illuminati
 
if u watch the above video series , u will stop watching movies. it made me stop watching movies.

As I'm sure anyone who has studied spiral dynamics would agree, our society is largely stuck in tier 1 - mostly blue, orange, and green.  And the mutual loathing that has arisen between the factions is having a very negative impact on society.  If tier 2 people had control of the world, the COVID pandemic would already be over.  If tier 2 people had control of the world, global warming would still probably be an issue, but much less of one.  If tier 2 people had control of the world, the education system would be teaching kids how to think for themselves, how to question everything (i.e. see the world objectively), and preparing them for success in the real world instead of manufacturing wage slaves via rote memorization and a hive mind mentality.
I believe that if a stage yellow political think tank could be orchestrated, it would have the potential to change the world.  (I say stage yellow even though turquoise is also tier 2 because once a person reaches turquoise, they probably have less than no interest in such things as politics).  But back to the point, similar to the way that Don Beck and his students tried and succeeded to some degree to improve relations between Israel and Palestine (until financial issues and geopolitical complexities derailed their efforts), I believe a similar holistic approach could be taken to solve much of the world's problems (regarding healthcare, the economy, education, climate change, etc.) and to create a better world.
The million dollar question is how would one even begin to put together such a think tank and sustain it long enough for it to positively impact society?  What form would this think tank take?  A new political party?  A non-profit organization?  Is such a solution untenable due to the never-ending roadblocks and opposition it would face from tier 1 stages?  Anyone with thoughts or comments feel free to chime in.

There is a nice part in the following paper which touches on Tier 2 thinking but from a different models' perspective:
"Stage 5/6 constitutes a radically new perspective. It can look at the whole paradigm of constructive developmental theory, compare it to other psychological theories and see both their similarities and differences, their benefits and limitations. It is thus a stage of differentiation from the previously held view of reality and meaning making. Stage 5/6 embraces the fundamental uncertainty about knowing and shows a greater and greater capacity to see through our human yearning for meaning and wholeness.
People at this form of Stage 5/6 often experience great existential tension as there is now really no ground to stand on, no single reality to observe from multiple perspectives. Instead, there are multiple realities created by humans in different cultures and languages. All theories are seen for what they are: ego’s attempts to create order, certainty, and predictability. While there can be tremendous suffering associated with seeing through the games our minds play, the pain can be appreciated and indeed embraced as a portal to deeper connection and fuller being."
 
https://integral-review.org/issues/vol_14_no_1_cook-greuter_construct_aware_stage_and_the_fool_archetype.pdf

Apologies if this is comes across as a bit basic, but here is how I would frame how to understand epistemology for a beginner:
As a ground for epistemology, it's hugely helpful to have at least some basic grounding in a few of the more important paradigms within philosophy. These would include:
Empericism & Rationalism Physicalism & Idealism Dualism & Monism An intro to philosophy book or video series on YouTube worth it's salt should touch upon all of these 
In addition, it's also helpful to be able to have a working understanding of some basic concepts:
Epistemology is an investigation of how we can come to know things Ontology is an investigation of what actually exists Metaphysics is an investigation of the underlying Being of Reality. (As to the last point, it's worth making a clear distinction between metaphysics and science, as the two tend to get confused. The distinction is this: Science asks how Reality behaves, metaphysics asks what Reality is.)
The reason why it's helpful to know these things is that they're going to be useful for understanding paradigms. A paradigm is a structured, cohesive schema for looking at particular aspects of the world.
The reason that paradigms are important to epistemology is that what is and isn't considered true, valid, and relevant is in almost all cases going to be filtered through the specific set of paradigms that one is viewing the world through.
And the reason that this matters is that an understanding of how paradigms function is going to be interlinked with your ability to View the world through different perspectives, and to be able to compare and contrast different perspectives.
For a solid specific demonstration of how paradigms work, something like Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a really good resource.

I recentely used this https://www.amazon.de/Success-Journal-Serious-Blue-Productivity/dp/1631066641 it helped me a lot to achieve my goals and work a lot without feeling that I burn-out. I find myself consistenly unable to hit all of the 5 goals from the life purpose course, yet this one really helped me. Any tools you can use for a longer time to reach goals. I read some theory behind it, yet never found a proper tool. Mostly I write it down and track it nowadays, make aribitary dead lines on my calendar and measure the progress at best. I don't do all of this consistently, yet this really helped me. Look at my LP goals daily. 

The LP goals are basically the higher vision goals. I do have a vision board. (no dreamboard yet ) and I visualize my current goals. Yet, Istill don't take daily action tracking has helped me to stay consistent over a weekly basis mostly or monthly. Yet, some goals require more effort on a daily basis more. 

The book/tool above helped the most till now when it comes to taking consistent action on a daily basis, what has helped you the most to take consistent action on a daily basis to reach and achieve your goals?

I took 200 mcg a few minutes ago and my memory hit me like a truck! 
Suddenly there's clarity and improved memory! 
Just wanted to share my excitement, this really works.

🍄 Actualized.org on Psychedelics 🍄
• Blog post on How To Research Psychedelics.
• PsychonauntWiki is a good resource for research.
• VIDEO:  How To Plug Psychedelics - Nov 2018 - (Summary is here)
 
            Must Watch Episodes
Ep 268. How To Use Psychedelics For Personal Development. (Summary)
Ep 434. How Psychedelics Work - Making Sense Of Psychedelics.
Ep 483. The Top Dangers Of Using Psychedelics. (Summary)
 
            Substance Reports
Ep 267.  Magic Mushrooms:  The Amazing Power Of Psychedelics - Leo Does Magic Psilocybin Mushrooms!
Ep 275.  5-MeO-DMT:  5-MeO-DMT - The Magic Pill To Enlightenment & God.  (Summary)
Ep 298.  AL-LAD:  Trip Report - A Powerful Tool For Consciousness Work.  (Summary)
Ep 312.  2C-B:  Experiencing Physical Death.
Ep 492.  5-MeO-MALT:  Introducing The Other God Molecule.  (Summary)
Ep 507.  Ketamine:  Lessons From Ketamine - Is Ketamine Useful For Spirituality?
Blog Video. DPT:  The Other God Molecule.  (Summary)
Blog Video. Salvia:  What it’s Like to Smoke Salvia Divinorum.
            (Leo says Salvia is very dangerous and does not recommend doing it)
 
            Blog Posts: Safety and Psychedelics  ⛑️
• The Top Dangers Of Using Psychedelics - Oct 2017
• The Antidote For Pre-Trip Anxiety - Aug 2017
• 5-MeO-Always On An Empty Stomach - May 2017
• No Trip Sitters - May 2017
• Why You Should Never Do Salvia (6 mins) - Aug 2017
 
            Forum Threads
• The Ketamine and Dissociatives Mega-Thread
• The 5-MeO-DMT Mega-Thread
• The N,N-DMT Mega-Thread
• The 5-MeO-MALT Mega-Thread
• The DPT Mega-Thread
• The Trip Reports Mega-Thread
 
• Psychedelics Safety and Protocols Mega Thread
• Psychedelics Informational Resources
• Psychedelic Research Mega-Thread
• Best Psychedelic Trip Music Mega-Thread
• Psychedelic Memes Mega-Thread
 
            Enlightenment & Psychedelics Episodes 🤯
      • Almost every episode in the Enlightenment section of Leo’s Blog Videos.
Ep 283. Interview With Martin Ball - Using 5-MeO-DMT To Become Enlightened
Ep 347. Enlightenment Experience Explanation & Key Lessons.  (Summary) (a response to ep 346)
Ep 437. Outrageous Experiments In Consciousness - 30 Awakenings In 30 Days.  (Summary)
Ep 495. Leo's Worst Bad Trips - Psychedelics Gone Wrong
Viewer Compilation 🥳: Incredible, Powerful Concepts on Life & 5-MeO-DMT
Blog Post and Video on Mapping Consciousness With High Dose LSD
 
            Tripping in Real Time Episodes
Ep 346. Enlightenment Experience Happening In Real Time - LIVE! 🛋️
Ep 431. Total Awakening Live In Real Time - Part 1. 📦
Ep 432. Total Awakening Live In Real Time - Part 2. 🛋️
 
            Misc Episodes
Ep 329. Correcting The Stigma Of Psychedelics - Part 1.
Ep 331. Correcting The Stigma Of Psychedelics - Part 2.
 
More Blog Posts on Psychedelics
            Trip Report 🧳
Jun 2017:    Psychedelic Visions
Jul 2017:    More Serious Than You Ever Imagined (note) 🤯
Sep 2018:  Salvia Trip Report
Jun 2019:   Dissecting The Psychedelic Experience 👽
Jun 2019:   Who Are The Machine Elves? 👽
 
            Research 🔬
Feb 2017:    Alexander Shulgin Documentary - Psychedelics Chemist (note)
Oct 2018:    Psychedelic Receptors 📄 🧷
Mar 2018:   Breaking Convention YT Channel 🤯
Mar 2018:   The Origins Of Mind—Thomas Ray 🤯
Aug 2019:   Psilocybin & Personality Change (note) ⁉️
Aug 2019:   Microdosing Research ⁉️
Jul 2020:     Legal MDMA Therapy Almost Here! (note)
Jan 2021:    Hyperbolic Geometry of DMT Experiences 🤯
Jul 2021:     Ketamine Klinic (note)
 
            Miscellaneous
Jan 2017:    Drunk On Mushrooms
Feb 2017:   The Despicable War On Drugs
Mar 2018:   Dark Room Retreats & 5-MeO-DMT
Mar 2018:   A Society Built On Psychedelics—Bwiti Tribe
Sep 2018:   Your Brain On LSD
May 2019:  Denver Decriminalizes Mushrooms
Apr 2020:   Timothy Leary (note)

I'm approximately 10 pages into this book and you know when something is so good you have to go back and read the page again because it's unbelievably insightful. Well, that X10. Highly recommended. Changing my life already. 
'Feel the fear and do it anyway'- Susan Jeffers 
 

found the mother lode. Really really really high quality summaries.
 
 

Several steps and methods are given, from beginner to advanced. Clear and precise Instruction is given by  Swami Tadatmananda , an ordained monk in the Advaita tradition. Highly recommended if you are new to meditation, or are looking to expand into more advanced practices. Posted a few examples below. Here's  Link to full playlist
 
Chapter 2: Turning Within
Pranayama: Breath Control
Calming the Nerves  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgiz4mijG_8&t=0s
Nadi Shodhana https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgiz4mijG_8&t=0s
Ujjayi Pranayama https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqH2GuyzyRg&t=0s

Chapter 3: Concentration
Trataka Gazing  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlfqHSDoFXI&t=0s
Bhramari Pranayama  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbgS99egOjs&t=0s
Developing Your Concentration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5mrwZn2_OA&t=0s
Overcoming Associative Thinking  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB7qfBSMQr4&t=0s

Chapter 4: Mantra Japa
Advanced Meditation

A Zen Master lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain.
One evening, while he was away, a thief sneaked into the hut only to find there was nothing in it to steal. The Zen Master returned and found him.
“You have come a long way to visit me,” he told the prowler, “and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift.” 
The thief was bewildered, but he took the clothes and ran away. He thought:
'What a buffoon. At least, I got away with these clothes.'
The Master sat naked, watching the moon.
“Poor fellow,” he mused, ” I wish I could give him this beautiful moon.”
-----
A solid understanding of systems theory + a practical spiritual integration of its primary principles is essential for the investigation of truth. In fact, for a life dedicated to greater understanding, fulfillment and happiness at the deepest level.
As you view reality through the lens of systems theory, you'll see avenues you have yet to explore in your spiritual journey. It is a forever open feedback channel that is left within the system until your last breath.
Spoiler Alert: Your entire mind/body system and reality structure is expressed within the core principles of systems theory.
Here are some of my explorations and studies into systems theory.
The Essence of Systems Theory
1- Understand the Key Harmony of the System
Before you disturb the system in any way, watch how it behaves.
If it’s a piece of music or a whitewater rapid or a fluctuation in a commodity price, study its beat. If it’s a social system, watch it work. Learn its history. Ask people who’ve been around a long time to tell you what has happened. 
This guideline is deceptively simple. Until you make it a practice, you won’t believe how many wrong turns it helps you avoid. Starting with the behavior of the system forces you to focus on facts, not theories. It keeps you from falling too quickly into your own beliefs or misconceptions, or those of others.
It’s amazing how many misconceptions there can be. People will swear that rainfall is decreasing, say, but when you look at the data, you find that what is really happening is that variability is increasing—the droughts are deeper, but the floods are greater too.
It’s especially interesting to watch how the various elements in the system do or do not vary together. Watching what really happens, instead of listening to peoples’ theories of what happens, can explode many careless causal hypotheses.
Every selectman in the state of New Hampshire seems to be positive that growth in a town will lower taxes, but if you plot growth rates against tax rates, you find a scatter as random as the stars in a New Hampshire winter sky. There is no discernible relationship at all.
Starting with the behavior of the system directs one’s thoughts to dynamic, not static, analysis—not only to “What’s wrong?” but also to “How did we get there?” “What other behavior modes are possible?” “If we don’t change direction, where are we going to end up?”
And looking to the strengths of the system, one can ask “What’s working well here?”
Starting with the history of several variables plotted together begins to suggest not only what elements are in the system, but how they might be interconnected.
And finally, starting with history discourages the common and distracting tendency we all have to define a problem not by the system’s actual behavior, but by the lack of our favorite solution.  - The problem is, we need to find more oil. The problem is, we need to ban abortion. The problem is, we don’t have enough salesmen. The problem is, how can we attract more growth to this town?
Listen to any discussion, in your family or a committee meeting at work or among the pundits in the media, and watch people leap to solutions, usually solutions in “predict, control, or impose your will” mode, without having paid any attention to what the system is doing and why it’s doing it.
2- Explore Your Mental Models Clearly (After Direct Experience)
When we draw structural diagrams and then write equations, we are forced to make our assumptions visible and to express them with rigor. We have to put every one of our assumptions about the system out where others (and we ourselves) can see them.
Our models have to be complete, and they have to add up, and they have to be consistent. Our assumptions can no longer slide around (mental models are very slippery), assuming one thing for purposes of one discussion and something else contradictory for purposes of the next discussion.
You don’t have to put forth your mental model with diagrams and equations, although doing so is a good practice. The more you do that, in any form, the clearer your thinking will become, the faster you will admit your uncertainties and correct your mistakes, and the more flexible you will learn to be.
Mental flexibility—the willingness to redraw boundaries, to notice that a system has shifted into a new mode, to see how to redesign structure—is a necessity when you live in a world of flexible systems.
3- Respect Data & Information Channels
Information (both conceptual and non-conceptual) holds systems in harmony whereas delayed, biased, scattered, corrupted or missing data can make feedback loops malfunction.
For instance, decision makers can’t respond to information they don’t have, can’t respond accurately to information that is inaccurate, and can’t respond in a timely way to information that is late. I would guess that most of what goes wrong in systems goes wrong because of biased, late, or missing information.
If I could, I would add an eleventh commandment to the first ten: Thou shalt not distort, delay, or withhold information.
You can drive a system crazy by muddying its information streams. You can make a system work better with surprising ease if you can give it more timely, more accurate, more complete information.
4 - Attend to What is Important, Not What is Immediately Perceivable and Quantifiable
Our culture, obsessed with numbers, has given us the idea that what we can measure is more important than what we can’t measure. Think about that for a minute. It means that we make quantity more important than quality. 
If quantity forms the goals of our feedback loops, if quantity is the center of our attention and language and institutions, if we motivate ourselves, rate ourselves, and reward ourselves on our ability to produce quantity, then quantity will be the result.
You can look around and make up your own mind about whether quantity or quality is the outstanding characteristic of the world in which you live.
Pretending that something doesn’t exist if it’s hard to quantify leads to faulty models. You’ve already seen the system trap that comes from setting goals around what is easily measured, rather than around what is important.
So don’t fall into that trap. Human beings have been endowed not only with the ability to count, but also with the ability to assess quality.
Be a quality detector. Be a walking, noisy Geiger counter that registers the presence or absence of quality.
No one can quite define or measure justice, democracy, security, freedom, truth, or love. No one can define or measure any value.
But if no one speaks up for them, if systems aren’t designed to produce them, if we don’t directly experience and radiate them, if we dont point toward their presence or absence, they will cease to exist within the social reality the system is based on.
5- Generate Feedback Policies Within Feedback Loops
President Jimmy Carter had an unusual ability to think in feedback terms and to make feedback policies. Unfortunately, he had a hard time explaining them to a press and public that didn’t understand feedback. Let me explain:
Carter was trying to deal with a flood of illegal immigrants from Mexico. He suggested that nothing could be done about that immigration as long as there was a great gap in opportunity and living standards between the United States and Mexico. Rather than spending money on border guards and barriers, he said, we should spend money helping to build the Mexican economy, and we should continue to do so until the immigration stopped.
That never happened. This is a failure of feedback policy.
You can imagine why a dynamic, self-adjusting feedback system cannot be governed by a static, unbending policy.
It’s easier, more effective, and usually much cheaper to design policies that change depending on the state of the system.
Especially where there are great uncertainties, the best policies not only contain feedback loops, but meta-feedback loops—loops that alter, correct, and expand loops. These are policies that design learning into the management process.
6- Value the Good of the Whole
Remember that hierarchies exist to serve the bottom layers, not the top.
Don’t maximize parts of systems or subsystems while ignoring the whole. Don’t, as Kenneth Boulding once said, go to great trouble to optimize something that never should be done at all.
Aim to enhance total systems properties, such as growth, stability, diversity, resilience, and sustainability—whether they are easily measured or not.
7- Listen to the Wisdom of the System
Aid and encourage the forces and structures that help the system run itself.
Notice how many of those forces and structures are at the bottom of the hierarchy. Don’t be an unthinking intervenor and destroy the system’s own self-maintenance capacities.
Before you charge in to make things better, pay attention to the value of what’s already there.
Get a feel for what to play with and what to allow its maturation process to unfold at its own pace.
8- Locate Responsibility Within the System & Open its Feedback Channels
That’s a guideline both for analysis and design. In analysis, it means looking for the ways the system creates its own behavior.
Do pay attention to the triggering events, the outside influences that bring forth one kind of behavior from the system rather than another. Sometimes those outside events can be controlled (as in reducing the pathogens in drinking water to keep down incidences of infectious disease). But sometimes they can’t.
You need to accept that.
And sometimes blaming or trying to control the outside influence blinds one to the easier task of increasing responsibility within the system.
“Intrinsic responsibility” means that the system is designed to send feedback about the consequences of decision making directly and quickly and compellingly to the decision makers.
In a sense, the pilot of a plane rides in the front of the plane, that pilot is intrinsically responsible. He or she will experience directly the consequences of his or her decisions.
Designing a system for intrinsic responsibility could mean, for example, requiring all towns or companies that emit wastewater into a stream to place their intake pipes downstream from their outflow pipe. It could mean that neither insurance companies nor public funds should pay for medical costs resulting from smoking or from accidents in which a motorcycle rider didn’t wear a helmet or a car rider didn’t fasten the seat belt
A great deal of responsibility was lost when rulers of a nation who declared war were no longer expected to lead the troops into battle. 
These few examples are enough to get you thinking about how little our current culture has come to look for responsibility within the system that generates an action, and how poorly we design systems to experience the consequences of their actions.
9- Always Stay a Student
Systems thinking has taught me to trust my intuition more and my figuring- out rationality less, to lean on both as much as I can, but still to be prepared for surprises.
Working with systems, on the computer, in nature, among people, in organizations, constantly reminds me of how incomplete my mental models are, how complex the world is, and how much I don’t know.
That’s hard. It means making mistakes and, worse, admitting them. It means what psychologist Don Michael calls “error-embracing.” It takes a lot of courage to embrace your errors
10- Embrace Complexity
Let’s face it, the universe is messy. It is nonlinear, turbulent, and dynamic. It spends its time in transient behavior on its way to somewhere else, not in mathematically neat equilibria. It self-organizes and evolves. It creates diversity and uniformity.
That’s what makes the world interesting, and that’s what makes it beautiful.
There’s something within the human mind that is attracted to straight lines and not curves, to whole numbers and not fractions, to uniformity and not diversity, and to certainties and not mystery.
But there is something else within us that has the opposite set of tendencies, since we ourselves evolved out of and are shaped by and structured as complex feedback systems.
Only a part of us, a part that has emerged recently, designs buildings as boxes with uncompromising straight lines and flat surfaces.
Another part of us recognizes instinctively that nature designs in fractals, with intriguing detail on every scale from the microscopic to the macroscopic. That part of us makes Gothic cathedrals and Persian carpets, symphonies and novels, Mardi Gras costumes and artificial intelligence programs, all with embellishments almost as complex as the ones we find in the world around us.
We can, and some of us do, celebrate and encourage self-organization, disorder, variety, and diversity. Some of us even make a conscious moral commitment of doing so.
11- Expand the Time Axiom
One of the worst ideas humanity ever had was the interest rate, which led to the further ideas of payback periods and discount rates, all of which provide a rational, quantitative excuse for ignoring the long term.
The official time horizon of industrial society doesn’t extend beyond what will happen after the next election or beyond the payback period of current investments.
Don't make the same mistake.
In a strict systems sense, there is no long term and short-term distinction.
Phenomena at different time-scales are nested within each other.
Actions taken now have some immediate effects and some that radiate out for decades to come. We experience now the consequences of actions set in motion yesterday and decades ago and centuries ago.
The couplings between very fast processes and very slow ones are sometimes strong, sometimes weak. When the slow ones dominate, nothing seems to be happening; when the fast ones take over, things happen with breathtaking speed.
Systems are always coupling and uncoupling the large and the small, the fast and the slow.
When you’re walking along a tricky, curving, unknown, surprising, obstacle-strewn path, you’d be a fool to keep your head down and look just at the next step in front of you. You’d be equally a fool just to peer far ahead and never notice what’s immediately under your feet.
You need to be watching both the short and the long term—the whole system.
12 - Defy the Disciplines
In spite of what you majored in, or what the textbooks say, or what you think you’re an expert at, follow a system wherever it leads. It will be sure to lead across traditional disciplinary lines.
To understand that system, you will have to be able to learn from—while not being limited by—economists and chemists and psychologists and theologians.
You will have to penetrate their jargons, integrate what they tell you, recognize what they can honestly see through their particular lenses, and discard the distortions that come from the narrowness and incompleteness of their lenses.
They won’t make it easy for you. But you can do it.
Seeing systems whole requires more than being “interdisciplinary,” if that word means, as it usually does, putting together people from different disciplines and letting them talk past each other.
Interdisciplinary communication works only if there is a real problem to be solved, and if the representatives from the various disciplines are more committed to solving the problem than to being academically correct.
They will have to go into learning mode. They will have to admit ignorance and be willing to be taught, by each other and by the system.
It can be done. But, ego gets in the way if not careful.
13- Expand the Boundary of Care - Empathy - Compassion - Love
Living successfully in a world of complex systems means expanding not only time horizons and thought horizons; above all, it means expanding the horizons of caring.
There are moral reasons for doing that, of course. And if moral arguments are not sufficient, then systems thinking provides the practical reasons to back up the moral ones.
The real system is interconnected. No part of the human race is separate either from other human beings or from the global ecosystem.
It will not be possible in this integrated world for your heart to succeed if your lungs fail, or for your company to succeed if your workers fail, or for the rich in Los Angeles to succeed if the poor in Los Angeles fail, or for Europe to succeed if Africa fails, or for the global economy to succeed if the global environment fails.
As with everything else about systems, most people already know about the interconnections that make moral and practical rules turn out to be the same rules. They just have to bring themselves to experience that which they know.
---
Hope you get value from this post. 
Let me know your thoughts.
Much love,
Arda
 

I was reading some thread on the forum when I saw our beloved summarizer @FlyingLotus say this:
This is an example of a very unique, valuable skill that you won't hear about pretty much anywhere. Almost no one in society is going to go and develop it deliberately. It's just not talked about.
So I wanted to ask you guys: do you know of other examples of such skills, especially those that you yourself are trying to grow intentionally? or maybe that you're planning to?
I'm talking about skills related to general self-help, education, spirituality, epistemology, creativity, or whatever! In short, improving the quality of life somehow, paying massive dividends AND uncommon to hear about. Let's make them explicit.
Some examples I thought of, or heard Leo mention:
being able to quickly spot bullshit - be that outside or inside (self-deception) being able to quickly discern how open and "conscious" a certain perspective is being able to formulate lessons and key points from things you read;  being able to read between the lines (example: I've been reading some trip reports lately, but I noticed that I'm not getting much out of this - because am I actually learning something from them, or just reading? Well, I thought to myself, I could as well take away some meta-lessons about the general process of psychedelic exploration. So I guess what I mean is when I'm reading, I'm trying to read between the lines and learn something that isn't explicitly said in the report) - quite similar to what FlyingLotus said. using a search engine very efficiently reframing a failure into a lesson to be learned the skill of organizing your knowledge and insights elegantly the skill of integrating insights you get into everyday life the skills of putting things, situations in a larger context (gaining a "higher perspective", looking at situations with a certain distance) These are just food for thought  I'd love to hear your examples. 

9sedt is better than spiral dynamic.i do not read ken wilber integral theory.which is better 9sedt or integral theory

This idea is based off of my other post titled Discipline is Ratshit - The Art of Blissipline.  
I often hear people talking about procrastination and how it is "bad" or must be avoided and dealt with.  But rarely, do I hear people talking about how procrastination is actually a good thing.  I mean think about it.  What is procrastination really and what is its function?  Here is what I am come to as a result to my contemplations on the matter.  I may be wrong, so please feel free to contribute or disagree or whatever.
What is Procrastination? (My personal answers from my Contemplations)
Procrastination is avoiding emotional labor is the thought the first crossed my mind.  But I realized that procrastination as a concept is much more broad than that.  I came up with the definition that procrastination is the "process of delaying, postponing, or avoiding something."  This means that if you have any thought of something and you either delay, postpone, or avoid doing it at the moment, you are procrastinating.  
This makes it seem silly to "eliminate procrastination."  If we eliminated procrastination, then every thought you have of doing something, you would have to act on it right at the given moment.  If I have a thought that I want to call my parents, then me not calling them would be procrastination.  But I guess it really depends on how it is framed.
 
For instance, you may be studying or you may have been procrastinating on your work, school, or life purpose.  You then take action to do your life purpose, work, and school studies when a thought to call your parents or go out with your friends seeps into your mind.  The thought to hang out with others may appear to be a distraction, or it could be viewed as a way to procrastinate, or your current attempts to grind to get your work done and stay busy doing schoolwork that you don't wanna do could be viewed as the distraction or the procrastination from facing your fears in calling your parents, etc.  You see?  
Distraction and procrastination are relative to what your current highest love, bliss, and inspiration you have at the given moment.  That is why being Blissiplined is important as opposed to being disciplined.  Blissipline is simply being a disciple or student of what your highest bliss, love, and inspiration.  It is being an employee of your higher-self.  Whereas discipline is traditionally thought of as grinding through work to get it done.  
The discipline mindset views procrastination as the enemy, as something to "eliminate."  But you are not really eliminating procrastination through your disciplined mindset approach.  What you are really doing is procrastinating on your highest bliss, inspirations, and love for life.  
The disciplined mindset may view thoughts of inspiration to hang out with friends and call family as a distraction that will lead you to procrastinate, but actually, the real distraction is your not following your inspirations and love.  You may think that grinding through your work or your 9-5 grind is your inspiration, which it actually may be your initial inspiration at first.  I may have an initial inspiration to write a book.  I may be flowing through it, but I may get to a point where that flow begins to turn into a grind.  
When it becomes a grind, I may not have that initial joy as I once did, and that is okay.  The mind needs to procrastinate in order to critically analyze our choices and plans, as well as to keep us in alignment with our highest values, joys, and inspirations in life.  If you are having fun and are in alignment with your higher self, procrastination is not such a bad thing as long as it is expanding you towards your higher-self and not as an escape to go into your lower-self.  "Sometimes doing nothing very often leads to the very best of something." -- Pooh.  
Conscious Procrastination Vs. Unconscious Procrastination
Conscious procrastination is "the process of actively delaying, avoiding, and postponing areas of your life that are no longer serving you, so that you can embody more love, inspiration, insight, and wisdom into your life, to better help you be in flow with your mission and highest bliss." This is what I was discussing above in that conscious procrastination is deliberately delaying our tasks so that way we can tune into where things in life are already figured out for us. 
On the contrary, unconscious procrastination can lead to negative results for our lives.  I define unconscious procrastination as "the process of delaying, avoiding, or postponing something despite knowing that it will have negative consequences for you."  I think unconscious procrastination is what people often talk about when they are wanting to "eliminate procrastination."  They really want to eliminate unconscious procrastination but not conscious procrastination.  
Without conscious procrastination, we cannot be in alignment with our highest blisses in life.  Society, as well as our mind, is always designed to keep us busy with problems, but our soul or spirit is always designed to keep us attuned to our intuition, passions, fun, cheer, excitement, joys, etc.  
Our soul/spirit is the child to our adult selves.  Our minds are the rational adult and our spirit is the emotional child.  None is "better" than the other.  Both parts of our psyche are important.  We need the child-like part to connect back with spirit, magic, and wonder, while also keeping the adult-like part to have the rationality to help us survive.  
The key is balance and how our relationships are with all the different parts of our minds.  It is kind of the Id and superego in Freud's psychoanalysis model.  We can't be too disciplined and neither can we be too impulsive either.  I mean, we can but a "healthy" psyche is not at discord with itself.  The ideal is for all parts of our minds to be welcomed and for all parts to be on the same mission to serve our higher-self.  
 
What I mean by higher-self is being in harmony with our intuition, heart, passions, joys, bliss, creativity, and all that makes us our best and highest versions of ourselves.  Our lower-self is fearful, disconnected from feelings (hyper-logical), depressed, uninspired, addicted, etc.  
Conscious procrastination is about being on the path towards our higher-self.  If that means to take a break and do nothing so that you can quiet your mind for an answer to come, then go do that.  Productivity is a trap, which can make people believe that procrastination is an evil to be procrastinated with (see what I did there? lol).  But in reality, the productivity mindset that unused time is wasted time has the energy of your lower-self if you can intuit that.  
How can you ever waste time if you enjoy time and are in alignment with your higher-self?  Your higher-self doesn't need to work to figure things out.  Your higher-self is always tuned into where things are already figured out for you.  Your higher-self is your intuition.  All you have to do is do nothing, connect with being, listen to your intuition, and have the courage to follow your heart.
I hope all of that helped!  I encourage anyone to contribute to these ideas here. All perspectives are welcomed!  

Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6:

(These are just my thoughts, not an official representation of any authority on the matter. Some of the terms presented here use my own idiosyncratic definitions and may have different meanings elsewhere. It's also not at all a comprehensive view on the topic but only a rough summary based on my limited understanding.)
 
I've spent the past year or so really trying to wrap my head around the essence of Tier 2 cognition (starting at Yellow), namely systems thinking. Just these past 6 months, after taking some courses in communication theory and community psychology, I've gotten some insights into the matter that really solidified my previous intuitions which I'd like to share here. I was truly surprised of how much these two fields were based on systems theory (mainly the theories of Gregory Bateson and Urie Bronfenbrenner respectively, although these two theorists only serve as lightning rods for the vast meta-theoretical space that is systems thinking).

I'll open up with a quote from each of the aforementioned theorists:

What these quotes have in common is that they emphasize relationships or interconnections. That is what a system is: a collection of relationships. But isn't it the case that anybody can understand concepts such as "relationships", "interconnections" and "systems"? What makes systems thinking so special? Now, you could actually argue that systems thinking itself isn't necessarily confined to Tier 2. However, I'll say that Tier 2 cognition consists of something called a "mature systems view." It's about a way to view the world; a worldview, and it's of a certain sophistication or maturity. To truly understand this worldview, we must first contrast it with a more common worldview, which I will call "analytical thinking."
 
Analytical thinking

Fritjof Capra, a pillar of the mature systems view, refers to this worldview and way of thinking as the "Cartesian-Newtonian paradigm." It's characterized by reductionism, mechanism, atomism and positivism. The Cartesian method approaches understanding the world by breaking it down into smaller components (reductionism). Newtonian mechanics describes the world as force interactions between physical objects that consist of atoms (mechanism, atomism). Positivism refers to the idea that we can formulate consistent laws based on this type of knowledge (e.g. "laws of physics").

Another way to think about it is that analytical thinking approaches the world "vertically":


This vertical approach isn't just confined to the hard sciences (physics, chemistry, biology). It's also central to fields like psychology. The analytical tradition of psychology reduces problems down to components within the individual: symptoms, diagnoses, traits, drives, genes, beliefs, values etc. It lays the basis for individual psychotherapy (psychoanalysis, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy etc.), psychiatric medical treatment (antidepressants, anxiolytics etc.), personality psychology (Big 5, MBTI etc.), cognitive psychology (e.g. Beck's schema theory) etc. Jordan Peterson is a big proponent of this view.

On the other hand, there is a systemic tradition within psychology called community psychology. It emphasizes relationships, connections and environmental factors when solving problems (social, economic, political, cultural etc.). Not coincidentally, Jordan Peterson is not a big fan of this approach. Without making this any more about our beloved JP, let's get straight to it: what is systems thinking?
 
Systems thinking

In contrast to reductionism, mechanism, atomism and positivism, systems thinking is relational, holistic, ecological and organic. 

A system is a collection of relationships between units, and holism is about focusing on the whole. Taking a systems view is about seeing the interplay as a whole, not just the individual units for themselves. The bigger the system view, the greater and more inclusive the whole becomes, and the more holistic it becomes. Ecology is about understanding the relationships between organisms and their environment, and an organism is an interplay of smaller living units ("organs" or organic units). Systems in nature and society are complex and can be described using different concepts from systems theory (e.g. "transaction", "self-organization", "adaptation", "feedback" etc.).

In contrast to the vertical nature of analytical thinking, systems thinking is "horizontal":

 
This picture represents a social system, however the horizontal principle applies to other systems as well: organ systems, cells, molecules, atoms etc.). These are «real systems» (natural/social systems). You also have abstract systems (e.g. scientific theories, ideologies, value systems, meta-systems, paradigms, meta-theories etc.), and that's where things like construct awareness come into play (more on that later).

Meta-theories are "theories about theories", which try to understand how abstract systems work through meta-systematic observations. Fields like philosophy of science and models like Spiral Dynamics and Integral theory are examples of such meta-theories. Model of hierarchical complexity (MHC) is a good model to understand the different levels of abstract systems (e.g. "how complex is a paradigm?").
 
Context awareness, Construct awareness and Theory pluralism.
I've already mentioned construct awareness, which is one of three main facets that I think are useful to further understand systems thinking:

 
Context awareness refers to the general ability to understand the pervasive nature of relationships in the world: the vast array of relationships across different domains (physical, biological, social etc.). Any individual unit exists within a larger context (their environment or the larger system), and being aware of context is synonymous with a general form of system awareness.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological systems theory is a good illustration of context awareness:

 
Construct awareness is the ability to the understand the relationship between the human and the world with respect to making sense of the world (knowledge, sensemaking and epistemology) and how it's a process of constructing abstract systems. People may manipulate these abstract systems without understanding how they work, e.g. what kind of system it is, how it's made, and how it relates to other systems, which would be an exercise in construct blindness. For example, it's possible to operate a car without knowing how it was made or how the engine works. To not be aware of how abstract systems work to construct your reality is to have a lack of construct awareness.

Thomas Kuhn and his book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" is a good example of construct awareness. After performing a meta-theoretical study on the historical development of science, he concluded that all scientific theories at all times are validated relative to a historically contingent framework of philosophical assumptions (a paradigm, a collection of constructs), and thus all scientific knowledge is fundamentally relational in nature. So not only are the external aspects of human behavior dependent on context (as in social interactions; Bronfenbrenner), but also the internal aspects (mind). If we go back to Gregory Bateson, in his systemic communication theory, he in fact defines "context" not as something external, but as an internal psychological framework. He does this because of the insight that the mind is constructing the external world. Alfred Korzybski's "the map is not the territory" is also a staple of construct awareness.
 
With enough context and construct awareness, you'll inevitably end up with theory pluralism: the ability to explore and understand a wide range of different abstract systems (theoretical frameworks). In a sense, theory pluralism is both a prerequisite and a consequence of construct awareness (they're co-created). However, to really develop a wide knowledge of theory, you must have a deep meta-theoretical understanding which is able to see the larger picture – the essence of construct awareness. Ken Wilber is a great ambassador for theory pluralism. His vision of integrating all domains of knowledge into a single, comprehensive framework is the pinnacle of systems thinking. Fritjof Capra should also be mentioned here with his book "the Tao of Physics", where he not only makes profound observations about context and construct in his writings about Quantum Mechanics, but he also makes theoretical comparisons to Taoism and non-duality.
 
I mentioned earlier regarding having a "mature systems view" that systems thinking is not necessarily confined to Tier 2 cognition. This is because Green is very open to context awareness and will easily appreciate models like Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. What Green struggles with the most is construct awareness. It might be able to deconstruct a lot of Orange systems, both from a rational place and an intuitive place, but it struggles to pick up the pieces, both theoretically and practically. Construct awareness also makes you more prone to grasping the concepts in systems theory, which unlocks key concepts like the meta-theoretical evolutionary lens (Beck & Cowan, Wilber, Kuhn), which Green crucially lacks.
 
So that is the gist of it, but there is so much more I could talk about, e.g. the history of systems theory (deep ecology, cybernetics, Gestalt psychology etc.) and different systems theory concepts like I've alluded to earlier. There are also other aspects of Tier 2 cognition that could be expanded upon, like the ability to hold paradox, understanding holarchies, or different real-life applications (that's a big one). I would anyways like to hear what you guys have discovered about systems thinking that I've left out. I would never turn down the opportunity to deepen my theory pluralism  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Additional notes and clarifications:
Expanding on this:
 
Analytical thinking and systems thinking must not be thought of as diametrical opposites, but as generally expressing different dimensions of movement through abstract systems (vertical vs. horizontal). Neither of them are pure expressions of either "vertical" or "horizontal" thinking, because technically all abstract thought utilizes both dimensions to navigate the cognitive landscape. An alternative description could be hierarchical movement vs. cross-hierarchical movement. The categories explored in hierarchical movement tend to have a corresponding familiarity or similarity of kind, while the ones in cross-hierarchical movement have corresponding distance or diversity of kind (in that it's possible to have many qualitatively very different things interacting with each other in a system).
 
One reason why horizontal movement tends to be more readily associated with complexity might be due to the relative simplicity of postulating it abstractly, because meanwhile it's possible to have interactions between many qualitatively different things, it doesn't actually necessitate or force a qualitative difference (e.g. you can simply have interactions between many molecules of the same kind), meanwhile a comparably complex vertical scenario is much harder to postulate, as the different levels of a hierarchy always forces a degree of difference (e.g. molecule > atom > sub-atomic), and thus most abstract hierarchies tend to be simpler (because models are supposed to simplify). In other words, the tendency towards horizontal complexity could simply be a bias of abstraction, and that in reality, systems are equally infinitely complex across all dimensions, both vertically and horizontally. Thinking is nevertheless about abstraction, and therefore horizontal thinking serves as a litmus test for complex thinking.
 
So from this alternative view, what is systems thinking? Well, the more you refine your general ability to abstract both vertically and horizontally across categories (symbols, concepts, classes and domains), the more expansive and complex your thinking becomes. Therefore, the proclivity towards the mature systems view simply depends on the size and complexity of one's perspective. Horizontal thinking is nevertheless generally an indicator of complex thinking.

The book I mentioned has a nice secuence of progression which I recommend you follow. The 5 min concentration thing is cool but also just play around with it as much as you can, I did it that way becouse I didn't know that book back then. It falls short on Musical Imagination. I'll just give you some general tips and then you can ask me to expand on Music if you want 
- Practice both exact recalling of objects of perception and also train your Plastic Imagination by propousefully changing their qualities. For example, imagine a plastic ball you just saw, exactly as you saw it, but then change it's color, texture, shape, etc.
- Start by the smallest thing you can Imagine to perfection. For example, if you try to Imagine an apple tree at once, you'll miss a lot of detail. So, first Imagine just an apple, then just a leaf, then just the truck and branches, and finally put it all together. Later, you will be able to Imagine the whole tree (and even whole scenes) at once, Imagination grows exponentially.
- Imagination has "degrees of density". It's faint/subtle/ghosty at the beginning, but becomes more dense, defined and concrete as you progress. The same way it happens with Psychedelic hallucinations as you up your dose. 
- Don't try to force Synesthesia, it comes by itself by developing all of your senses. When I started developing my Musical Imagination, I quickly and unintendedly began to see the notes and other sounds just becouse I had been working on my Visual Imagination for years prior. I also feel the texture of any object or group of objects I put my attention on.
- Psychedelics help, you'll find that as your baseline Consciousness increses, the same dose will take you higher and higher. For durable results, use them to Imagine things that are just a little bit above your level. For example, if you can imagine any inanimate object, plant or animal to perfection, but have trouble with human faces (which is the hardest), practice it both during and after the trip. But if you can't even create inanimate objects, go for that first, becouse faces will be too much to sustain after the trip. 

Hey everyone, I have been researching neurofeedback for a while now and I haven't had too much luck with leads, it seems to be a tough nut to crack for me. So I hope I can ask here directly to get some specific pointers in where I can go learn more about neurofeedback.  I've done A LOT of digging already. Any significant leads for information is greatly appreciated.  (And yes I am willing to drop $2k-3k for a proper setup as Leo recommends.) (I live in Canada BTW if that changes anything for sourcing equipment, I'm pretty sure I can get shipments from the US easily.)
 
My goals with neurofeedback are as follows:  
Healing my ADHD Learning how to meditate 100x more effectively.  
 I want to know things like:
A structure or model to help me get a grasp on the nitty gritty of neurofeedback. What theory I need to learn to put my practice into context. Where can I learn more about neurofeedback so I know exactly what the heck I am doing, what I'm looking for, etc. What equipment should I buy? Where?  Personal Stories with using Neurofeedback to 100x their meditation or cure their ADHD Etc. Thanks in advance.
 
 
I also plan to utilize the following to further progress my healing my ADHD:
Kriya Yoga (Currently In the process of reading Kriya Yoga books) Psychedelics (Ongoing) Nootropics (I have acquired Armodafinil, Modafinil, 5-HTP, NALT, L-theanine, Lions Mane, Korean Red Ginseng, a couple others.) Heavy metal detox protocols. (Still Have to research it.

@Cody_Atzori  I would make distinctions between skills, process and content. For example, if I replicate someone's artwork, am I creative? I would say no. There is a process of learning and developing creative skills. People have different potentials in different areas - based on genetics, interest, curiosity and life history. For example, I don't have natural abilities in creating music. I love listening to music, yet my mind just isn't oriented to creating music. Who knows why. Maybe my brain can't distinguish notes well. Or maybe my neural auditory pathways are not inter-connected with other neural pathways - like emotions, liguistics, neural-muscular etc. . . In contrast, my brain naturally does well with abstraction and integration of concepts. My mind can integrate concepts in genetics, neuroscience, psychology and sociology easily and my mind loves to do it. Yet my mind can't even integrate a few musical notes together!
You mentioned that you like to gather knowledge and wisdom. One question I would ask: Do you like the accumulation of knowledge or the integration of knowledge? For me, knowledge without integration is sooo boring. Last year I went on a date with a gal that was super knowledgeable and she talked for an hour about the details of some European war. General XYZ and battle ABC. Country 1 vs. Country 2. All these different battle dates and locations. . . It was a miserable hell for me. All those detailed knowledge has no color without integration. Why was Country 1 against Country 2? How did the psychology of General XYZ allow him to be more successful than General Q? How did the battles transform society? What aspects of the war is still evident in society? How did the war shape the culture? . . . Yet hear mind was oriented differently. She kept getting upset when I was in integrated/systemic/holistic mindsets. She kept asking "What does that matter? I'm trying to list out all the battles that occurred in the year 1947". She was much more oriented toward concrete, grounded facts.
In terms of developing skills of integrative/systems/holistic thinking: A helpful book for me was "How to Think like Leonardo Da Vinci". This book helped me realize various forms of intelligence such as intellectual, social, creative, social intelligence. The book gave different examples of genius in each area and explained how Da Vinci was a genius in all areas. He didn't excel in seven different areas. Da Vinci excelled in ONE holistic area because he didn't have boundaries between areas such as barriers between engineering, ecology and art. . . Also, there are many expressions of Yellow. Saying "I want to become Yellow" is like saying "I want to become an athlete". There are many different ways that athletes express themselves. It's nice to have a framework, yet don't limit yourself. For example a good framework for an athlete might be that athletes develop strength, balance, flexibility and endurance. Yet we wouldn't limit ourselves to "An athlete is a soccer player". Soccer is just one expression of athletics. 
Also, it is much easier to recognize Yellow than create Yellow. You can recognize a full stage higher than you can create. For example, I recognized the Yellow in Da Vinci and was amazed. Then I started seeing the Yellow in others. Yet my mind wasn't able be Yellow on it's own. This was frustrating at times. I would be walking in nature or journaling and think "Why can't I be Yellow on my own?". . . One thing that helped me was to watch and engage in Yellow-ness. For example, if I recognized Yellow in another I would try and converse with them. I met a Yellow-level artist and he pulled me up into Yellow-ness and we would have Yellow-level discussions. I was thinking and being Yellow with him. Yet went I was on my own, I didn't do it very well. I really wanted to be able to do it on my own. With time, it just started happening spontaneously. I would be out in nature and insightful integration between nature, art and science would appear. . . I already had the skill of recognizing Yellow, so when it spontaneously arose in my mind I was like "Whoa, that's Yellow!!". Almost like learning a new language and being able to think in the foreign language naturally without translation. . . Once the language is known, all sorts of doors open. . . 

About 6 years ago, I came across Leo & Actualized.org. This bald guy and his kinda small youtube-channel, just love at first sight I guess. Little did I know that this scrawny man in his black T-shirt will change the way I looked at things forever. Was it first for those self development content he put out, he later took me on the ride into this beautiful abyss called spirituality. He fed me the red pill. What this means in particular does not really matter. All that matters is what I learned about this community, enlightenment itself and the ridiculous tumors it sometimes gives birth to. It seems to me, that the spiritual journey, is the purest of all hero journeys. What that means though, is that at the end, only a few courageous warriors will gain the real treasure, whilst well over 90% get lost in the swamps and come out worse than they got in. Sounds pessimistic? Well, maybe it does. But I have seen so much bullshit and so little real advice in this community, its not even funny anymore. Most spiritual masters/people lack nuance on every level. Leo, is definitely one of the better ones and thats why I decided to put this here. 
So who am I to say such brave things? Who am I to dare to question the advice of the enlightened ones?  It doesn't really matter. Take the message, ignore the messenger. This is what I wanted to hear when I was stuck. If you can look at things just the way they are, you will come to the same conclusions. Some of you will hate what I have to say, others will like it. This is not about the denial of absolute truth or any other spiritual axiom that is known the be true since millennia. This is about the advice I see popping up basically everywhere in this community, presented in the typical blind leading the blind fashion.

Because of all that, I decided to put something out. Something that counteracts so much of the nonsense I read on this boards everyday. This is it.
Inspired by Jamie Wheal, Ken Wilber, and many others, including my experiences/insights in the last 6 years, here are 12 suggestions for life, an antidote to spiritual bullshitting. If you are a new or intermediate seeker, I highly suggest you to take a hard look at those. Please note that I deliberately used the word "suggestion" instead of "rule". Many points are comming from a highly nuanced perspective and not from any absolute standpoint. You might have an allergic reaction to some things mentioned, and thats perfectly fine. Dont be dumb, think a bit. Thanks!


1) Do the obvious
Take all the "biohacking" and "personal optimization" off the table. We literally do so much crazy shit to "enhance our life", yet we most often forget to do the basic stuff. This is the bottom of the pyramid. If you dont have these one in order, your lifes quality will drastically suffer. We tend to forget that taking care of our meatsuit is a crucial basic fundament for any possible growth. So fuck your crossfit, fuck your perfectly balanced diet, fuck your bulletproof-bullshit or Ben Greenfield idiocracy - KEEP IT SIMPLE. DO THE BASICS. 

-Sleep deeply 
-Move often
-Get outside (sunshine/water/trees/fresh air)
-Eat real food ("mostly plants, not too much"- Michael Pollan)
-Bathe regularly (Daily hygiene is a no-brainer - this is more about hot/cold - sauna/icebath. 
-Make and play music
-BREATHE (Our life is only as good as our breathing! This is so often dismissed and not really talked about, yet so crucial.)
-Grieve FULLY (weep, dont whimper!!)
-Make love 
-Have meaningful human relationships
-Be grateful

2) Dont do stupid shit
We have unprecedented access to the world's most potent ecstatic technologies. They always used to be tightly controlled and connected with strict rituals & rules, yet it seems like that our narcissistic, dumb western culture is about to fuck it up for the rest of us. It really grinds my gear when I see people smoke 5-MeO-DMT at a psytrance-festival. How dumb can you be? Use those tools in a respectful and appropriate manner. Dont chase for the highs and the next ecstasy. Integrate what you have learned and keep your hands away from it for some time. This is why discipline is such an important thing in your spiritual journey. 

Dont end up in a: Cult, Body Bag, Jail Cell, Rehab or Looney Bin! 

3) Let the mystery stay the mystery
Dont presume to map the infinite.
If you every checked the accounts of the deepest mystic you will recognize really fast that NONE OF THEM MATCH UP! The reason for that is beacuse every attept is mediated by humans and the prisonhouse of language. Let the mysery stay the mystery. Share your perspective but realize that its just a perspective, not more, not less. When you think you have the answer, you stop seeking - Instead, plant a garden where mystery and strange plants bloom. 
4) Fuck your journey
"Love Keeps No Record of Wrong" - St. Paul

Whatever gets us to the Deep Now is both redeemed as an essential part of our path and utterly irrelavant campared to the exquisite quality of the Moment we are blessed to share. Show us how much you have grown, but please, dear God, stop telling us! Stop being a epiphanywhore. 

5) Do the hard thing
"If you have got to eat two frogs in a day, eat the ugliest one first" - Mark Twain

We all kinda know what we have to do, but we usually dont do it. Do the hard thing and rest of life becomes easier! 
Do what inherently scares you! Ask that girl out, create that business, go to that vipassana retreat, take that psychodelic (CAVE: see suggestion 2)
Stoicism is a great framework for helping with that kind of issue. 
 

BTW: Can anyone make a petition to bring the old Leo thumbnails back?

6) Never lose the One
You can go anywhere you want, and think anything you want, as long as you can reverse your steps and make it back to the last known point of consensus reality - the One. So get funky, tweak it out, freak freely, but be sure to stick the landing. This is such an important point, yet so rarely mentioned. I have seen people getting lost in the spiritual domain, never to be found again. Always put down your string when you enter the labyrinth. 

7) Its not that either
No matter how dazzling your latest breakthrough, "download" or insight, its still only a piece of the puzzle.
It may be lowercase "t" true, but the second you assert it's uppercase Capital "T" TRUE, it's become false, just by overstating the claim.
You can no more become fully enlightened than you can become fully educated. Take the insights for what/all that they are and KEEP going! 

If you have found the answer, you didnt. 

8) Dont build on a weak fundament
Honestly, if you are at a low point in your life, then this is not the the right time to start a spiritual path. Its not. Everyone who says so and doesn't tell you about the dangers/difficulties that come with going on this journey is lying to you or has no real knowledge about it. Its basically sending a soldier who suffers from PTSD back into the war zone. Dont listen to anyone that who tells you otherwise. Most often you don't really know what your psyche can bare and what will trigger a heavy psychosis. If you are in a deep depression right now or have any other psychological/physiological difficulties, give yourself at least 5 years to fix them. It doesnt mean that you cant use tools out of the high conciousness toolbox. Psychodelics, after all, are propably the best thing to battle depression with, right now (in the right setting of course). Just be careful and take care of your needs. Take Maslows hierachy of needs as orientation. Maybe your lack of sexual intercourse is going to bite you in the ass later, you never know. Build on a strong fundament and you will be far more likely to succeed. This is so freaking important, yet talked about so rarely. 

9) Be from this world,, but not of it
Do you live in unity with everything? Maybe after some DMT or heroic dose of mushrooms - but not now.
Life can be difficult and cruel. No conceptual philosophizing about how "good and evil" don't really exist will help you with that (Even though its valid from an absolute perspctive). You cant talk yourself out of a depressive episode. If your best friends dies, you will be fucking sad. Yes, this is a movie and you are the thing, that light and the projector itself. But as long as you just know this on a conceptional level, with a glimpse of "being" the projector light here and there, it wont change much. Its true for almost all people who will read this: You will remain in a relative world for 99,999% of your time. So yes, improve your consciousness. Take the psychodelics. Meditate. Do some weird astral projection shit. But don't forget that there are situations where you act from absolute and other where a relative perspective is the way to go. Its a paradox, understand and embrace it.

10) Wake up, grow up, show up

SHOW- UP:
"Barefooted and naked of breast,
I mingle with the people of the world.
My clothes are ragged and dust-laden,
and I am ever blissful.
I use no magic to extend my life;
Now, before me, the dead trees
become alive." - 10th Ox Herding picture



11) Play
Go out there and play this game. Its all about the game.
Use spirituality to enhance the experience. Become the player, not the character.
Dont let anybody tell you what "low conciousness thing" you better shouldnt do.

Experience life fully & conciously. 

Follow your desires but realise them for what they are. 

12) "Above All, Be Kind"
Dying words of Aldous Huxley, famed philosopher and man of letters, while holdind the hands of his soul mate Laura (under influence of 200 mcg of Sandoz LSD 25). If its good enough for Aldous, its good enough for us. After all, if we skip this part, does any of the rest really matter?

Love,
undeather

PS: 
Thanks again Jamie Wheal for your amazing teachings (Some points directly taken from him)
https://www.flowgenomeproject.com/

Thanks Rebel wisdom for giving that guy a platform
https://www.rebelwisdom.co.uk/
 

I want to do some basic enlightenment sessions with people.  I'm wanting to know what you all found to be the most helpful techniques, teachings, metaphors, and approaches in the beginning stages.  
I've been doing enlightenment/self-inquiry work for about two years now (meditation for about 5) and have experimented with a few techniques.  
What were/are you favorite techniques?
What were/are your favorite/most helpful teachings/philosophies/concepts regarding enlightenment that were taught to you?
Even attitudes and demeanors teachers took would be appreciated.
Cheers