I thought of depression as something you can only be if you're really sad and can't get up in the morning. I just now realize there can be milder versions of depression and that is most likely what's keeping you stuck.
If non of Leo's other videos didn't help you then I encourage you to watch this:
 

-This episode is ? whoa ?.  It feels like a gypsy curse has been lifted from my psyche.
-The following is the full version of the summary.  It’s looong.  It has all the examples.  The condensed version has about half of them and fewer explanations.  External links were selected by me, for better or worse .
_______________________________________________
481. Summary: How Your Mind Interprets Reality
“There are no facts, only interpretations." —Frederick Nietzsche
 
-The condensed version of this summary can be found here in the Summaries thread.
-Interpretation is core to how you make sense of the world.  It’s going to take you a good ten years to fathom the significance of that.  This is a foundational epistemic episode.
-Every situation has multiple interpretations.  People fall into the trap of treating situations as though there are only one or two interpretations.
-Seeing Only One Interpretation.  The worst case scenario.  If you only have one interpretation it becomes your reality.  It’s absolute truth.  It’s not even an interpretation; it's taken as fact.  This is what most people are doing.
-Seeing Two Interpretations. You get a taste that interpretation is going on, that the mind is not just receiving “raw facts.”  But, now you get caught up in this tug of war, duality, tribalism, partisanship.  You see reality in a black and white way.
          This is all part of a larger theme of Self-Deception.
-You have to think very deeply about anything you call a fact.  Your mind doesn’t question “facts” so they become your reality.  You think a “fact” is something objective that exists independent of you, but they’re actually constructed by your interpretations.
           It’s important to notice that what most people call facts are actually interpretations.  By people I mean you.
           Facts alone have no value and no meaning.  They don’t tell you what's worthwhile or what you should do.  That requires interpretation.  So, the set of facts you choose to focus on is highly biased.  You cherry-pick facts to bolster your sense of reality, to confirm your worldview and to advance your survival.
           The tricky thing is there's always more than one way to make sense of facts, but people like to act like there’s only one way or “the right way.”  Epistemic blunders mostly lie in how you interpret facts and which facts you focus on, not in the facts themselves.
 
Going Meta
-This is an important concept.  Going meta means to step outside the frame of a thing and observe it.  To go one level higher in abstraction.  (clip: Going Meta (8 min). ep: What it Means to Go Meta).  eg: Deadpool embodies going meta.  He’s the only superhero who knows he’s in a superhero movie (clip comes from an R rated movie).
-Don’t get lost in the content of these examples.  The examples are here to make the concepts concrete.  (ep: Content vs Structure)  The danger here is that you’ll focus on which of these interpretations is the “correct one,” but that's missing the point.  Leo’s trying to communicate something meta to you.
           Be aware if you’re getting stuck in the content of the interpretations and failing to go meta.  The larger, meta point with these examples is that there are multiple interpretations.  The need to have one right and the rest wrong is part of the problem.  See the structure, stay meta.
 
Why did the United States invade Iraq?
1st POV: to defend against terrorism. 2nd POV: because of greedy executives running giant military companies and defense contractors and oil companies for whom this war was beneficial. 3rd POV: because Dick Cheney was a war criminal and George W Bush was an idiot who was easy to manipulate. 4th POV: it was a collective psychic backlash to 911, a fear response. 5th POV: there were weapons of mass destruction or at least that's what people believed at the time. -That’s five very different interpretations.  In politics, most people pick one interpretation and act as if it represents the situation in it entirety.  If someone believes that Dick Cheney is a war criminal and George W Bush is an idiot they don't see it as an interpretation, but as reality.  They don't see deeper levels of interpretation, like with the 4th and 5th options.
           There are different levels of quality to interpretations.  They're not all equal.  Some of them are very simplistic, some profound, some even go to a spiritual degree of understanding.  How you interpret the world powerfully affects how you feel, notice that.
eg: The idea of “a collective psychic backlash to 911” is a very powerful interpretation.  Instead of looking at the US government as a group of evil people, you see the situation from a more compassionate, understanding and conscious place.  Mistakes were made because of fear and fear is such a powerful emotion, especially at a collective level.  You can empathize because you know what it’s like to act out of blinding fear.            Fear tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you fear terrorism, invading the Middle East with a poorly thought out war leads to a destabilization of the region that creates more terrorism.
-With the 2nd POV, if you believe the US invasion was because of some greedy executives who wanted contracts, that’s a whole way of seeing the world. It's an adversarial “they’re evil and corrupt and not good like us normal people.  They're manipulating us, those damn globalists…”  That way of looking at the world leads to certain consequences.
           It leads to you feeling and acting a certain way. If you think the world is run by a cabals of globalists does that make you feel empowered or like a victim?  Is that motivating you to be constructive, creative, and follow your life purpose?  Or does it make you feel you're being exploited and manipulated?  Ultimately you don’t care about facts.  You care about how you feel.
-Start to see the whole situation in a multi-perspective, multi-faceted way with multiple interpretations, seeing that each interpretation captures some element of the situation, but not the total thing.

-Even more importantly, you want to see how your mind is constructing these interpretations. Become aware of which interpretations you're missing.  There are different qualities of interpretation.  Saying some group of people does evil because they're monsters or idiots is one of the lowest quality kinds of interpretations.
-Even though there are low quality and high quality interpretations, we shouldn’t squeeze out all the lower quality povs.  Every interpretation contains some sort of partial truth even though it might be very twisted and distorted.
            Also, if many people are suffering from low quality misinterpretations, you need to understand that pov to address it effectively.  Their opinions might not be accurate, but they could be valid.  (eg: Just because there are a lot of Q-Anon people doesn’t mean their ideas are true.  However, the rise of so many angry people is important to know about and understand.)  Ideally, you want a compound perspective of interconnected and intersecting interpretations.
Religion exists because…
a) it's a holdover from superstitious ancestors who weren't scientifically rigorous. b) it’s a tool to control the masses. c) it’s not scientifically or literally true, but these myths contain deep psychological lessons without which you can go astray in life. d) it points to absolute truth which is incommunicable because it's infinite and therefore it can never be articulated in a literal scientific sense. -Do you see how different these interpretations are?  Notice the last two are more nuanced than just saying “all religion is bullshit.”  You’re going to react to religion and religious people differently depending on which pov you believe.
-Remember, we’re not interested in which interpretation is “right.”  We’re interested in the meta point of seeing how many different ways there are to interpret what religion could be.
Islam is…
a) the highest religion and truth. b) evil barbaric and violent. c) used in both constructive and destructive ways.  How it’s used depends on how it’s read and who cherry picks which parts. d) contains profound truths that are more advanced than science.  However, its truths are corrupted by being taken too literally.  It also uses many archaic cultural customs from fifteen thousand years ago. -a) is a devout Muslim interpretation.  This perspective probably thinks it’s “reality” instead of just a perspective.
-b) many Conservatives and Christians in the US feel this way.  They’re fearful and uneducated about Islam.  Also notice they don't hold that as an interpretation, but as reality.
-Notice that c) & d) are more nuanced perspectives.
Donald Trump is…
a) is a true patriot, a secret genius.  A secret systems thinker who acts buffoonish to subvert the elite globalist media. b) an opportunistic grifter and con artist. c) actually God acting out of the highest good and love from his point of view.  All his actions are the seeking of love. -Notice how radically different each perspective is.  How you frame Trump and how you behave politically depends on which of these interpretations you take.
Psychedelics are…
a) drugs, which are bad and dangerous. b) just creating hallucinations in the brain.  If you experience some mystical truths they don’t mean anything. c) great for expanding consciousness and seeing higher truths. d) an immature shortcut.  Fake spirituality because it’s not permanent. e) the future of spiritual work.  They haven't caught on because they've been so stigmatized. -Notice how some of these interpretations will exclude you from exploring psychedelics.  That's how powerful interpretation can be.  Also contentious issues often cause people to get close-minded and stuck in one interpretation.
Actualize.org is…
a) a cult. b) not a cult, but self-deceived and teaches misinformation. d) offers some advanced perspectives and insights about the nature of reality, but is still partial.  It's not a complete picture. e) seems like a cult because it’s teaching advanced things that most of mankind finds threatening.  Therefore the most convenient thing for the ego-mind to do is just to call it a cult. f) it’s a communication from God. g) it’s you teaching your own self how to awaken.  It’s also the universe teaching itself how to awaken.  
Quine’s Gavagai Example
-Imagine an American explorer finds a remote tribe that has never made contact with the outside world.  He tries to learn the tribe’s language.  No prob, right?  Actually, Quine says this problem is much deeper than it seems.  How would this actually play out?
Let’s say you’re sitting with a tribesman around the campfire and then a rabbit runs across the field. 
 

The tribesman says, “gavagai gavagai” and points at it.  What does the tribesman mean?  What is “gavagai”?
a) a furry, living animal with long ears. b) the name of this particular bunny who is the tribe pet. c) God manifesting itself as the rabbit. d) a hallucination of a rabbit, which means the psychedelics at the campfire are working. e) a rabbit’s foot, which the rabbit’s using to wave hello, awwww…. f) a rabbit’s foot, which the tribe thinks is the most delicious part ?. g) a safe, timid brown bunny, as opposed to those demonic white bunnies, thank goodness. -If you think, “Leo, this is a silly problem.  What’s the difference between a furry living animal with long ears, and God manifesting itself as a rabbit?  That's just some fluffy, mystical superstition…”
           Quine’s point here was very deep.  Your notion of rabbit will be defined by your entire sense of reality.  Is it valuable?  Is it good or bad?  Is it made of atoms or consciousness?  There is a significant difference between seeing that rabbit as food, as a biological creature, or as consciousness.
eg: Buffalo Wasn’t Just Food (2min) Native American tribes view Buffalo differently than…many people today view cute buffalo at the zoo…or bison at the butcher shop.            Your notion of anything is metaphysically and epistemically loaded.  You’re not conscious of those frameworks, but they shape how you relate to that rabbit.  So, your mind's way of holding the concept of “rabbit” is not the same as the tribesman’s or Leo’s or Alice in Wonderland’s or anyone else’s.
-The gavagai example shows that most situations in life are deeply ambiguous.  Quine’s point is that we will never fully resolve this problem within language.  We're basically guaranteed to have different ways of interpreting that rabbit because of the underdetermination problem.
eg: an episode of Star Trek:TNG demonstrates this: Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra (1 to 6 mins)  
The Underdetermination Problem
-The Underdetermination problem says: evidence available to us, at a given time, may be insufficient to determine what beliefs we should hold in response to it.  The facts of the situation alone are underdetermined because our way of interpreting and seeing the facts go way beyond merely what is there in the facts.

 
-There’s a problem within science, philosophy and the philosophy of science known as the Underdetermination problem. That’s what we're facing here.
“Underdetermination is a thesis explaining that for any scientifically based theory there will always be at least one rival theory that is also supported by the evidence given, and that that theory can also be logically maintained in the face of any new evidence.
Quine’s Non-uniqueness thesis: For any theory, T, and any given body of evidence supporting T, there is at least one rival (i.e., contrary) to T that is as well supported as T.  This is a result of our inability to completely understand or gain access to the whole set of empirical evidence for any one particular situation or system, and therefore our acceptance that new evidence could be made available at any time.  This thesis maintains that since there is no method for selecting between our two (or more) valid solutions, the validity of our conclusion is always in question.”  —Colin Merna
“Under determination refers to (Willard Van Orman) Quine's assessment that evidence alone does not dictate the choice of a scientific theory, as different theories —observationally equivalent— may be able to explain the same facts.” —Wikipedia
-We can also look at the same “facts” and perceive different things because of biology.
eg: Yanny or Laurel.  The White and Gold or Black and Blue dress pic.  
Science is Subjective
-The mistake here is to think the tribesman is being "superstitious and unscientific.”  Quine's point is that there is no such thing as scientific, because how you define “scientific” is part of the problem. (ep: What is the Nature of Science)
          Science is full of interpretation.  It’s not an objective, singular thing.  Can you use science to find the right interpretation of what science is?  That’s like a heart surgeon performing surgery on himself.  This is a meta-scientific problem.  Many atheists and materialists don't grasp the depth of the epistemic problem here.  Stop naively mistaking the constructions of your mind as reality itself.
           Science doesn’t just discover the facts of reality.  For each piece of data you gather you can come up with multiple alternative theories.  You can never have one theory that perfectly matches all the facts because every theory is underdetermined.  So this creates a an open-ended, infinite problem for science.
eg: Seven of Nine uses the same facts to accuse Cpt. Janeway and Chakotay of crimes that contradict each other.            There are always hundreds of theories that could fit the existing set of data.  (This doesn’t even include invalidated theories that comfort your ego.)
 
Just a Word Game?
-“But Leo, isn’t this just a word game?  There's no difference between seeing a rabbit through a materialist lens versus an idealist lens.”  That's wrong.  There are ways to decide between them, but not at your current level of consciousness and not using materialist methods.
           An idealist will consider something like direct experience of absolute truth as possible.  The materialist is shut off to this because it doesn’t validate his worldview.  So it’s not just a “word game.”  Those words carry a lot of unquestioned baggage.
-The lesson here is that most situations in life are deeply ambiguous.  So, increase your capacity for handling ambiguity and a variety of perspectives.  Profound self-deceptions can be life-threatening.  It's not just empty philosophy.  We could destroy civilization if we don't get this right.
          Your mind wants reality to be one particular way that serves your survival.  The mind abhors a vacuum because it’s threatening.  Leaving things open-ended is a lot of work for the mind.
          It's stressful.  It's overwhelming.  It can make you question your sanity ?.  “Is the bunny real or not?  Are other people real?  Are you real, Leo?”  You might reach that point in your investigations and that's the whole point.
-With all these examples keep asking yourself: how would you know the difference between these interpretations?  Notice how many different povs fit the same “facts.”
           Also, Leo’s not trying to justify any action here, so don’t get lost in the content of the interpretations.  Focus on the larger, meta point: seeing each situation from multiple perspectives.  These examples show how ubiquitous the problem of interpretation is and how many real world implications there are. (49:20)
 
Situations & Multiple Interpretations
What is God?
a)  God is a fiction created by irrational people who don’t or historically didn’t know about evolution. b)  God is a state of higher consciousness. What is Mysticism?
a) Mystics are wishful-thinking, loose-minded fools who just don't want to face death. b) Mystics have figured out how to access higher dimensions of reality. -When you’re presented with these different interpretations, seriously consider this one as being possible and then seriously consider this other one as being possible.  If you can do that it will open your mind (ep: How Openmindedness Works).  None of this work works if you don't understand radical open-mindedness.
Science is…?
a) truth. b) a set of mental constructions that help people manipulate reality for survival. -How would you decide the difference between the two?  After all, if what you care about is survival and nothing else, you could easily conflate survival with truth, which of course you do.
Senator _____ won't vote for gun reform because…?
a) he’s corrupted by the NRA gun lobby who bribed him. b) he believes gun rights are important and guaranteed by the constitution. -A lot of liberals and progressives make this mistake.  They accuse certain senators or politicians of not supporting their policies because they've been corrupted, bribed or influenced.  That’s definitely true in many situations, but that's not the only reason.  Progressives overlook how many senators and politicians genuinely believe the Conservative worldview.  Many Conservatives grew up with the gun culture.  The NRA wouldn’t be so popular if a significant number of people didn’t love guns.
-If you want to be a good progressive you should care about getting this right.  There’s so much partisan polarization because each side strawman’s the other instead of stepping outside their own interpretation to truly understand a different pov.  That's the meta problem.
           Also, our financial interests are always deeply entangled with our worldview, our metaphysics, our values, our epistemology.  There’s never a clean division of these two things.  (Which is why it’s important to get money out of politics.)  Money is the distillation of survival.  Your world view is your world view because it helps you to survive. (ep: Survival I, Survival II)
Bill Gates is trying to…?
a) control the population and get rich via vaccines. b) help humanity in the best way he knows how, but those ideas aren’t good. c) help humanity using good ideas, but his ideas aren't perfect because of limited knowledge and the complexity of humanity’s problems. -Truly put yourself in Bill’s situation.  What’s the best way to help humanity if you had billions of dollars?  It's hard to help everyone in a way they agree with.  Everyone has different ideas of what kind of help they need or want.  The help you need is probably different from the help someone in Africa or Norway might need.
Person x is…?
a) insane. b) understands something you don’t. -It’s easy to demonize someone who understands something that’s not popular in mainstream culture.  Then again, there are some people who are truly insane.
So how do you distinguish these two things?  You have to deeply study epistemology and do contemplation for years, decades.  If you don’t do the research you won’t figure it out. (1:00:00)
Hitler was…?
a) evil. b) trying to do good, but because his worldview and consciousness was so low he ended up doing a lot of bad. Person X is…?
a) evil. b) doing things for a greater good, using her higher vision that you are too narrow-minded to see. -Mystics, sages and saints operate on such a high playing field that it’s easier for mainstream society to demonize them than understand them.  Some of the wisest, most conscious geniuses were put to death, jailed, tortured or crucified.  (Christ, Socrates, Gandhi, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther King Jr, Giordano Bruno, and so forth.)
Consciousness is…
a) just a product of the brain. b) imagining everything, including the brain. -Don’t just believe it.  Open your mind to that possibility of it.  Can you see the massive repercussions if it’s true?
Someone who criticizes science…
a) is unscientific and likely a religious nutcase. b) might be religious, but is definitely deluded and attacking from below because science is truth. c) could be criticizing science from above in a meta-scientific way that’s more epistemically rigorous than science itself. -Science often refuses to do epistemology and metaphysics.  They’re so attached to science they don't think there's anything above it. (The pre/trans fallacy by Ken Wilber)  However, there are things in reality which are meta-scientific, which science cannot understand or access.
People who talk about God…
a) are dumb, superstitious ideologues. b) could have had direct experiences of God that are more genuine than science. -That’s a radically different interpretation because most materialistic and atheistic people are not open to the possibility of having a direct experience of God.  To them, all experiences of God are just hallucinations in the brain.  So they are forever cut off from truly mystical experiences unless they open their mind.
A lack of proof for God means…
a) that God doesn't exist. b) God is a type of thing which cannot be proven because God exists prior to proof. The earth is…
a) moving around the sun. b) the entire universe is moving around the earth -That sure flips the situation on its head doesn't it?
Other people…
a) exist. b) don’t exist because this is all a dream, like the people in my dreams at night. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Notice how many options there could be.  Really try them all on.  Stay meta.
Love is…
a)  a mammalian emotion produced by the brain with no metaphysical significance. b)  a core metaphysical aspect of universal mind and consciousness. Evolution is…
a) solid proof that God doesn’t exist. b) the process by which God creates. Cop X…
a) is racist because he did so and so. b) is not racist, but his actions appear that way because he's acting under extreme pressure. c) could be racist.  Although the entire police system is affected by culture and both explicit and implicit racism, and being a cop is difficult in ways that cannot be appreciated by people who aren’t cops. The Buddha didn't talk about love…
a) so love can't be the truth because the Buddha taught the truth. b) because he realized that love is truth, and what he called truth was actually love. c) because the Buddha's nirvana is actually metaphysical, existential love.  Not just emptiness. Obama's drone strikes…
a) were evil war crimes. b) saved ground troops from going in, thus saving many American soldiers. c) were ugly but necessary.  They killed 90 civilians but also killed 10 hard core terrorists who were planning to kill 1000 American civilians. d) were still evil because 1000 hypothetical Americans don’t outweigh 90 Somalis and Yemenis. e) well, they do if you’re the American President. -Leo’s not trying to justify drone strikes.  The meta point is to try on each perspective and appreciate the complexity of the situation.  (Btw, numbers in the example were made up to illustrate a point)
           The calculus is very complicated and so hairy that most people at the Pentagon probably don’t even know the answers definitively.  Most people take this simplistic attitude that drone strikes were evil war crimes.  You're not considering the greater evil of sending cruise missiles or even a nuclear weapon.  How many civilians are acceptable to kill with drone strikes in order to prevent destabilizing the region, or even nuclear war?
-This also shows the Underdetermination theory at play.    These are realities you would actually face if you were the leader of any major nation.  How do you weigh those variables, especially when the stakes are so high?  This shows the importance of having a variety of nuanced interpretations rather than black or white thinking.  We're dealing with uncertainty and incomplete information and yet we have to take action.
           Good leadership is not about knowing everything perfectly.  It’s about having principles and integrity and taking decisive action in the face of great ambiguity and turmoil.  Leo’s not justifying Obama’s actions, just pointing out there are no easy or good choices.  They’re often the lesser of two evils.
Absolute truth is…
a) impossible to access even if it exists. b) possible to access.  You simply haven’t done enough work to access it. -If you haven’t done the work it’s easy to confuse your personal laziness with something being impossible.
When Leo says absolute truth exists and he’s accessed it personally he’s…
a) being arrogant, narcissistic and egotistical. b) lying. c) telling the truth. d) self-deceived. Witchcraft is…
a) silly ancient superstition. b) absolutely real.  Some people are born with supernatural abilities that have been demonized by mainstream society because it's threatening. Liberals…
a) have a mental disorder, like the bumper sticker says. b) are more conscious than you. -Whenever you think you're more conscious than someone else, always consider that they're more conscious than you.  Maybe you're just projecting your unconsciousness onto them?
Conservatives are…
a) racists. b) more prone to fear, survival and xenophobia than Progressives because of their neurology. Leo said that ⬆️ because he wants to…
a) whitewash racists. b) provide a more nuanced interpretation that could be true. Capitalism…
a) exploits workers. b) is not yet sustainable in an ethical way because humans aren't selfless and conscious enough to not exploit each other. -Do you see how different a) is from b)  It changes your whole orientation towards capitalism.
Leo said that ⬆️ because he…
a) is a capitalist shill. b) believes humanity isn’t conscious enough to sustain a higher, more humane system. Because animals suffer…
a) I must not eat animals. b) it has no relevance to what I eat. -How would you know the difference?  Remember, Leo’s not trying to justify any action here.  He’s just trying to get you to see the meta in the situation.
      -The following are very common views within the pickup community:
Women are…
a) gold diggers who only want Chads with money. b) attracted to your money because you have nothing else to offer them but money. c) not attracted to you because your personality sucks and you’re too lazy to develop yourself. d) not attracted to you and aren’t even attracted to your money because you have none. e) attracted to qualities you could develop within yourself that have nothing to do with money, but you can’t see that. Women are…
a) cheaters. b) called cheaters by PUAs because they’re projecting their own lack of integrity onto women.  They expect women to cheat because PUAs are themselves cheaters. Women are…
a) selfish for not giving me sex b) not selfish.  You are selfish because you think women owe you sex and blame them because they have free will. Life has no meaning so I…
a) should kill myself because meaninglessness sucks. b) could construct whatever meaning I want.  This paradoxically gives life the deepest meaning possible. c) I am free from death because if life has no meaning, death has no meaning. Solipsism is…
a) bad and depressing. b) profoundly beautiful, you’re too busy ranting and denying solipsism to see it. God’s son is…
a) Jesus, and only Jesus. b) everyone.  We are all the son (and sum) of God. Those who reject Christianity are…
a) working for the devil. b) rejecting Christianity because it was co-opted thousands of years ago and corrupted so that now Christianity is literally devilry. -How would you know the difference?  Remember, don’t get lost in the content of the interpretations.  Notice how there are multiple ways of looking at a situation.
To be happy I need…
a) lots of money b) to find a new mode for happiness -Think about how this changes your entire approach to life.  Needing lots of money (or success, or babes, or validation) to be happy is not a fact, but an interpretation that you could change. It’s a lot easier to change interpretations than facts. That would be the wiser course.
Life sucks because…
a) life is unfair. b) because you haven't been living by the right principles. c) life actually is fair.  It’s fair to those who follow the principles.  There's natural consequences and suffering which is what you're experiencing and then you call that unfair. -Maybe life sucking is just a consequence of following the wrong principles.  It’s like when an idiot hits his toe with a hammer and then experiences excruciating pain, he blames that on the hammer and God and other people.  He doesn't take responsibility for his own decisions.
Black people’s IQ scores are…
a) lower due to genetics. b) inaccurately perceived as lower because it serves some people’s nationalist identity. The Middle East is…
a) less developed than the West because the people there are savages with an inferior culture. b) less developed because the Middle East was a harsher environment to survive in.  So historically those people have required more time to develop than those civilizations that arose in Europe and elsewhere. -They will eventually develop to the standards of Western culture and beyond.  So it’s not some inherent, genetic inferiority or some cultural problem.  (“Guns, Germs and Steel” by Jared Diamond)
Winning a debate means…
a) the winner knows the truth! Because he won! ? b) the winner might know the truth or might not, because winning debates has nothing to do with truth. Women have vaginas and Men have penises…
a) it’s a scientific fact. b) it’s not always the case.  The idea of penises, vaginas, men and women are abstract categories created beyond and outside of empirical science. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Really try on all options here.  Stay meta.
Logic is…
a) what reveals truth. b) a rationalization mechanism co-opted by the ego-mind for the purposes of your survival. The Constitution must be…
a) followed because it’s the Constitution. b) updated.  It was written over 230 years ago and contains outdated ideas which need to fit with modern times, otherwise the nation will stagnate and perhaps even collapse. I can't get laid because…
a) I don't have a square jaw and a big dick. b) I don't understand female attraction, have cripplingly low self-esteem and don't socialize. c) I don’t understand that a not-big dick is better at hitting sensitive spots inside a woman, so I can drop my “big penis envy” and focus on technique.  Bigger isn’t always better.  That’s like assuming the tallest guy in the room is always the best slow dancer.  It depends on the size of the girl too. -If you've never seriously tried to fix yourself how can you know your dick and jaw size are holding you back instead of self-esteem issues, fear of socializing and ignorance about female attraction?
I can't get laid because…
a) of feminism. b) I blame feminism.  I've never done the hard work of approaching women and I play hundreds of hours of video games.  I also talk on incel forums who promote victim ideology. Feminism is…
a) the reason I can't get laid. b) a scapegoat you invented because of your unwillingness to take responsibility for your results. People think Jordan Peterson is a fascist because…
a) his haters are snowflake SJWs who are threatened by manly greatness!!  Hail ?!! b) his detractors are attached to the Progressive worldview.  They don’t look at his work with nuance because they misunderstand the Conservative mind and feel attacked by stage blue. Person X is a…
a) lying hypocrite grifter. b) is just weak.  Like all of us are.  He failed up to live up to his own ideals and has been corrupted by money. Person Y criticized me because…
a) he is projecting his own shadow onto me.  I'm feeling guilty because I'm failing to distinguish that. b) I actually did something wrong. Landing a man on the moon proves that…
a) science is true. b) it's possible to land on the moon with limited and even untrue science. CEOs…
a) are greedy capitalists b) have crazy pressures put on them for survival of the company. I'm poor because…
a) capitalists exploit me. b) I haven't taken responsibility for developing highly valuable skills. Slavery is…
a) evil. b) only evil relative to today's cultural norms and level of development. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Really try on all options here.
Walls are…
a) real, because I can't walk through them, which proves their reality. b) might be real, or I could be imagining walls that can't be walked through. The number of stars and galaxies in the universe means that…
a) life is very common. b) life is extremely rare. -See how significantly different that interpretation is.  It just flips the whole thing on its head.
When Leo calls Trump a corrupt fool, he’s being…
a) biased and partisan. b) accurate.  You just don’t want to hear it because you’re biased. If the paranormal was real…
a) science would say so, but science doesn’t so it can't be real. b) science would discredit the studies and outcast any scientist who dares to prove it. God…
a) will punish you for your sins. b) will not punish you for your sins. c) will love your sins as much as your goodness.  However, sins naturally produce their own suffering by disconnecting you from loving consciousness. e) sinning against another is just you punishing yourself. Stage green socialism is…
a) dangerous. b) being conflated with stage red and blue communism, which are not the same things at all. Government regulation is…
a) socialism. b) necessary for the harmonious balance of a society.  You can’t have a government without regulations. Taxation is…
a) theft b) makes the military, the courts, infrastructure and many other things you enjoy in a democracy possible. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Notice how many options there could be.  Really try them all on.  Stay meta.
Democrats want illegal immigration because…
a) it gives them more voters. b) Democrats are more compassionate and less fearful because they actually care about the suffering of immigrants and don’t think it will destroy the country. -To most Conservatives that interpretation doesn't even enter into their mind.  When you can't compute that possibility the only alternative is to come up with some idea that Democrats are doing it for their own selfish gain.
Communism was a…
a) failure b) success that led to the greatest growth in living standards in the 20th century both in Russia and in China.            -If you actually look at the GDP growth and rise in living standards percentage-wise in Russia and China over the last century, it rose way more than in non-communist countries.  Leo’s not saying communism is good.  There are many problems with communism.  He’s just showing how these interpretations are much trickier than they seem.
Guru X…
a) is a rapist and an abuser. b) had consensual sex with a bunch of groupies and one of the groupies got mad because the guru wouldn’t marry her. c) took advantage of his role as a teacher and confidant and used that to abuse and coerce girls who wouldn’t otherwise date him. -This is a very common problem in spiritual communities.
Guru X is a rapist therefore…
a) he cannot be enlightened. b) he could still be enlightened because who says enlightened people can’t be rapists? -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Really try on all options here.
People voted for Trump because…
a) they were racist. b) he appealed to their spiral dynamic stage blue and orange value set, which is the majority of the US. When Leo says that he's God…
a) he’s being narcissistic and unspiritual. b) he actually is God. c) he is God, and so are you, but you're not conscious of it yet. Supernatural healing is…?
a) delusion b) real, but only accessible from exceptionally high and rare states of consciousness that you haven't accessed yet. The miracles of Jesus…?
a) are myths and exaggerated fairytales to tell to children. b) are real because Jesus was so exceptionally conscious that he actually had those powers. Disputes between spiritual teachers…
a) are just differences in word and style, not in substance.  They’re basically word games. b) are differences in underlying substance, and consciousness.  Some teachers are actually more awake than others. c) are a blend of a) and b) There is no proof of paranormal phenomena because…
a) it's all bullshit. b) the methods of proof you're using are too limited for measuring paranormal phenomena.  After all, your method determines what you're going to get back. I’m bad with women because…
a) I'm short. b) I’m insecure about being short. -You might spend your entire life thinking you're bad with women because of something you can’t change (your height) when the true cause is something you can change (your insecurity).
          One of the best guys Leo knew from pickup was a 5’5 Pakistani guy.  He would crush it.  He would do better than a six foot tall white guy.  At the club he was one of the most secure, brash and confident guys, the exact opposite of insecure, and his results reflected that.
Women…
a) care about my dick size. b) only you care about your dick size. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Notice how many povs there could be.  Really try on all options.  Stay meta.
 
Examples from Leo’s Life
Leo said something in a video that I also said, which means…
a) he stole my work and didn't give me credit for it. b) that people can develop insights independently and still overlap with other people’s insights.  Not all ideas have one origin point. c) deep universal truths can be discovered by many people. d) he totally stole from you, and got away with it too!! The backdrop of Leo’s apartment means…
a) Leo’s purposely sending secret Illuminati messages to his followers who 100% carry out his every command (unless those commands include mediating, exercising, reading or delousing the clutter in their mind) b) Leo’s bad at decorating his apartment. The symbol of 666 is…
a) deeply significant. b) completely meaningless. c) the molar mass of the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7, which makes it satanic. Youtube/Influencer fame is…
a) the most profound and fulfilling experience a human soul can have. b) a stream of babes and compliments, with maybe one troll every five years. c) a nonstop flood of people projecting their egos at you. -Leo has experienced constant projection on a daily basis for the past decade.  It’s especially difficult because he stays open to feedback and valid constructive criticism.  However, it’s difficult to distinguish that from people’s projections.
          It underscores how everyone is projecting all the time and of course Leo does it to others too.  When you experience other people’s projections so strongly it makes you more aware of your own projections.  (It also shows fame ain’t all it’s cracked up to be)
Leo deleted my youtube comment because…
a) he doesn't like me and he's censoring me. b) youtube has automatic comment filters to get rid of spam. Youtube’s spam filter is…
a) proof it’s part of a globalist conspiracy to suppress free speech. b) trying to counteract bots and spammers that would make websites like youtube unrunnable. Leo filters out comments based on….
a) opinions he disagrees with.  Critiques of his work. b) slander, racism, extreme vulgarity, disinformation, conspiracy theories, spam, and so on. Leo’s work is…
a) a copy of other spiritual traditions and presented as his own truth. b) a result of discovering these insights independently on his own. c) triggering to people who are attached to their particular lineage or guru as the source of truth. d) fun to play in the background while you’re cooking. -If that original yogi or mystic could discover the truth for himself, why can’t other people discover the truth for themselves too?
Leo doesn't want to debate others because…
a) he’s afraid of being exposed as a fraud. b) he has become too conscious to be interested in debating anyone. c) he’d rather spend that time making videos for us ?! Leo denies he is leading a cult because…
a) he isn’t leading a cult. b) denying you're a cult leader is exactly what a cult leader would do, which proves Leo’s leading a cult! -That’s circular logic.  I can play this game on you.  I can call you a cult leader and as soon as you deny it I'll say, “Ah ha!  According to your logic if you deny your cult leader that's exactly what makes you a cult leader!”  (Speaking of which, Kanye West says his greatest accomplishment is that he is the greatest)
That spiritual teacher…
a) worked really hard to become enlightened. b) didn't have to work that hard because he was born with exceptional spiritual talent. Leo didn't respond to my email (or my awesome LoA question  ) because…
a) he doesn't like me ?. b) he didn’t see my email.  He gets tons of them ??‍♂️?        -Using the Spiral Dynamics model…
Trump is…
a) stage orange with a bit of red. b) stage red with a veneer of orange. Jordan Peterson is…
a) stage yellow with a green shadow. b) stage orange with some yellow capacities.           -Spiral dynamics has very interesting interpretive problems because it also suffers from the Underdetermination problem. (ep: Spiral Dynamics)  It takes a lot of experience, study and application of spiral dynamics to be able to start to distinguish between these things.  Even the developers of spiral dynamics suffer from this problem.
Don Beck and Ken Wilber…
a) are right about pushing towards stage yellow because we’ve already exhausted stage green. b) are seriously overestimating how evolved politics and culture are.           -In the US, green is only prevalent in advanced universities.  The majority of society is still in blue and orange, even in developed countries.  We've got to move through green for many years before we can get to yellow.  We don't even have a green economic or political system.
          Spider Dynamics is an interpretation that you're projecting onto reality.  It can be difficult to know which interpretation to apply, which one is more accurate.  Clip: Spiral Dynamics (11 min)
People who believe in ufos…
a) are idiots. b) aren’t necessarily idiots.  Scientists and skeptics are simply too close-minded. c) watched too much X-Files growing up. d) are right.  UFOs are hidden because there’s a conspiracy! e) are right.  UFOs are hidden because the government and people studying them can’t explain them properly.  It doesn't fit their worldview. Absolute truth is…
a) not real, because if it was everyone would know about it and talk about it. b) so radical that almost everyone is in denial about it. All spiritual teachings…
a) are just different paths up the same mountaintop, leading to the same peak. b) are not different paths leading to the same peak.  There are lower and higher places along the mountain and it's not a single mountain.  It's a mountain range with many different peaks and not all paths lead to the same peak. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Notice how many options there could be.  Really try them all on.  Stay meta.
Immortality is…
a) impossible, just religious wishful thinking. b) possible because death is actually a mental construction that you're imagining. In a relationship, you could say…
a) your partner is the problem. b) you are actually the problem. c) the two of you are not a good fit. d) one or both of you is wrong and evil. There's something wrong with…
a) the world. b) how your mind sees the world. -Remember, how would you know the difference?  Really try on all options here.
All men…
a) are shallow cheating pigs. b) aren’t shallow cheating pigs.  You just end up with pigs because of your low self-esteem problems. God is…
a) a fictional bearded man in the sky. b) Jesus. c) Love. d) consciousness. e) nothing. f) everything. g) all of the above. The existence of evil in the world means…
a) God is not good. b) God cannot exist because he wouldn't create evil. c) that “evil” is just an illusion created by your selfish biases.  You don't see the world’s perfection because your vision isn't perfect. Philosophy is…
a) impractical and a waste of time. b) valuable.  You just haven't done it enough to realize it. Consciousness is…
a) impossible to know. b) possible to know because you are consciousness and consciousness is infinite, but you don't understand that yet because you haven't become conscious of it. Leo is…
a) wrong, because he hasn't considered whatever point I want him to consider. b) maybe right.  Maybe Leo has already taken that point into account and seen beyond it to points you have yet to consider. c) not perfect, but his epistemology is better than most people's epistemologies.   He’s spent decades doing the work.  Can the same be said for you? -The notion of raw facts is a naive myth.  Your mind does so much interpretation and confirmation bias that your relationship to reality is less than one percent. The other 99 percent are your projections, interpretations, assumptions, metaphysical and epistemic frameworks.  Your “facts” are actually biases, beliefs, fears, emotions and justifications.
-Your interpretations are are deeply distorted by your survival needs and insecurities.  They’re not objective or arbitrary.
 
-Key point:  Notice your interpretations.  Even deeper, notice yourself denying that your interpretation is an interpretation. How are you trying to retcon your interpretations as fact or science or “just the way it is”?  Also notice how rash and unconscious interpretations lead to self-deception and misunderstanding the world.
-Start taking alternative interpretations more seriously. Reality is a lot less obvious than it seems. The ability to go meta is crucial for Spiral Dynamics Tier Two.  Stage Yellow is interpretation aware and holds multiple perspectives at once.
-This work takes cognitive development and consciousness. Be aware that most knowledge, opinions and reporting you see in culture and media is actually an interpretation, but you’re not treating it as such.
           You unconsciously swallow culture and media and their implicit frames which leads to deep self-deception in your life.
-The meta point here is notice all possible interpretations of a situation, rather than looking for the “right one” and defending it.
           This will make you a better human, a better creator, more effective in business and relationships, with your health, with your wealth.  It'll make you happier.  It'll make it easier to do spiritual work.
 
Tips for Application
1) There’s always dozens of interpretations.  If you can only see one or two, you’re being epistemically irresponsible.  That's your clue you're not being mentally flexible and curious enough, that you’re just fooling yourself.
2) Realize that your first interpretation is usually the worst.  Unless you're extremely spiritually developed your initial gut interpretation is going to be very crude, foolish and wrong.  The more contemplation you do of epistemology and metaphysics, the better your interpretations will get.  Overcome your self-deceptions.  Notice the ego games and the blaming in your mind (ep: Self-deception I).
3) Get in the habit of looking for alternative interpretations.  Make it a little game you play with yourself.  This requires exploring multiple perspectives with an open-mind, without bias.  Even seeking a high quantity of interpretations is good.
4) Seek more nuanced, high quality interpretations. The examples above have both crude and nuanced interpretations.  Notice the differences between them.
5) Generate novel interpretations for all sorts of situations.  For your relationships, your children, love life, sexuality, views about men, women, the government, and so forth.
6) Reinterpret your own self.  You have tons of negative interpretations of your capacities that you consider facts.  How compassionate and empowering are your interpretations about yourself?
7) Seek more charitable and loving interpretations.  Some interpretations are very fear-based, us versus them, tribalistic and polarizing.  Other interpretations are more compassionate, more inclusive. Steel man other interpretations instead of straw manning them.
8) Seek interpretations that understand and can accommodate other perspectives.
9) Question and discard fear-based interpretations.  These are robbing you of your vitality and ability to be effective in the world and to see reality truthfully.  Fear is the smog that clouds up your vision.  It sneaks into so many of your interpretations, in ways you don't detect.  If you want to reach truth give up your fear-based interpretations.
10) Question and discard toxic, disempowering interpretations and victim mentality.   When you start to interpret yourself as a victim it becomes your reality.  You’re constantly drilling that into your mind.
           Notice how conspiracy theories and incel ideology use fear, hatred and judgment to make you feel like you're being empowered by the theory, but you’re actually not.  It dismisses compassionate interpretations that could jailbreak your mind and truly improve your life.
           Notice that incels and conspiracy theorists hammer your reptile brain.  They lack the ability to self-reflect and go meta.  Their epistemology is very poor.  That’s a surefire sign that their ideology is limiting and toxic.
 
How is interpretation different from Recontextualization?
           It's a difference of degree. (ep: Recontextualization).  Recontextualization is about how the context of a situation changes what the facts are and how you perceive the facts.  Recontextualizations are pretty rare, happening maybe once a month or once a year.  Reality pummels you with something and then you're forced to change your interpretation.  Interpretation is similar, but happening on a much more fine grained level. Interpretations are always going on in your mind.
Be careful about how you interpret these teachings
           The gavagai bunny also shows up in Leo’s work ?.  There can be double, triple meanings to the words Leo uses.  Unfortunately unconscious people who need these teachings the most are the most prone to misinterpreting them.  Also the more advanced a teaching is, the easier it is to misinterpret.  His concept of, say, ego death isn’t the same as your concept of ego death in your mind.
    Leo’s 3 hr episode about Relative truth means…
a) Life is subjective, relative and full of interpretation, therefore Absolute truth does not exist. b) misunderstanding Relative truth causes a lot of suffering, and it co-exists with Absolute truth ?! What you think he said might be the opposite of what he actually intended to say.  That’s the difficulty of communication.  So be very careful when listening to these videos.
-Epistemology is at the core of all of your problems in life
When you don’t take that seriously you misinterpret everything, everywhere.  The finite thing you believe you are is itself a gross misinterpretation of what you actually are.  You have fundamentally misinterpreted infinity as something finite.  You've misinterpreted consciousness as material substance.  Mind and body as atoms and science as truth.  Culture, government, politics, your own capacities as a human being, you've misinterpreted all of these.
-The real work is correcting the misinterpretations in your mind.  Fixing your epistemology fixes the foundation for your life.  The sturdier the foundation, the higher you can build your skyscraper.
           With most spiritual development teachings you get flimsy houses of cards.  At least when you're done with a three hour Actualized.org episode it will change something about how you see the world, and over time that changes your life.

Hello everyone, just wanted to share some links that I thought could help some folks out here with money issues.
I've attached an excellent video by Mr. Money Mustache explaining the title.
And I've listed a link for more practical information on the subject.
I've started this journey 3 years ago after lots of research and haven't looked back.
 
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/03/07/how-about-that-stock-market/

I’ve been listening to this podcast by Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin for almost a year now. It is one of the most intelligent podcasts I’ve come across. This takes a systemic approach to understanding the world’s current issues. I was waiting for someone to post a link to it in the forum before me, at last I thought I’ll do it myself. 
 Here’s the links:
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4KI3PtZaWJbAWK89vgttoU?si=4N3i8mGoTEy3rKesyPJoJA&dl_branch=1
 
Apple Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/your-undivided-attention/id1460030305
 

Right brained feeling types will do better starting with this very digestible series.
https://www.diamondapproach.org/public-page/diamond-heart-book-one-elements-real-man
https://www.diamondapproach.org/public-page/diamond-heart-book-two-freedom-be
https://www.diamondapproach.org/public-page/diamond-heart-book-three-being-and-meaning-life
https://www.diamondapproach.org/public-page/diamond-heart-book-four-indestructible-innocence
https://www.diamondapproach.org/public-page/diamond-heart-book-five-inexhaustible-mystery
 
Left brained rational types will appreciate the two monsters from the Diamond Mind series.
https://www.diamondapproach.org/public-page/point-existence
https://www.diamondapproach.org/public-page/pearl-beyond-price

I don't think people here realize how much of "ego/being asleep" boils down to various depths and degrees of childhood trauma (0-18).
Psychedelics in combination with psychotherapy and meditation (concentration/focus/letting go exercises) is where it's at boys.
A strong long trip on shrooms or acid or mescaline can also crack your mind open, making your sober meditation practice 10x deeper the days afterwards. Build Momentum of that.
There is much talk about here how meditation needs to be 2-4 hours/day for you to get significant results spiritual-wise. Sure, if you don't do psychedelics.
Psychedelic trips can really deepen your meditation, meaning you can get closer to ego-death/God-levels-of consciousness in shorter amounts of time. Heck, 10 min is enough for me, although 20-30 min is the sweet spot for me. Mhm. Delicious silence ?
WATCH *THE WISDOM OF TRAUMA* !
Also: read/listen to Alan Watts; that's the spicy 4th ingredient besides psychedelics, meditation & therapy;)

I will keep it short and simple, i see so many repetitive questions on the forums and i have a surge of energy to set it right once and for all.
Start Behaving as if you already HAVE what you desire or ARE what you seek to be or KNOW what you seek to know or Understand. Behave as if you emit an infinitely strong electromagnetic force that the whole universe hears, sees and feels you, feel it deep in the core of your being, Fully and completely immerse yourself in your Beauty, your Love, your Passion, your Godliness even if you don't see and believe it yet, they key is to trick the mind/subconscious and the overall energetic matrix into believing and doing so. This is how you change yourself thus your reality.
Keep doing this and repeating this, eventually you will trick your self into the belief that you are actually there already(which is ultimately true but you are just not aware of if yet) and in return, reality must comply with the vibration you are emitting because reality is absolutely, self-reflective.
I always tell people, keep flooding the mind/body with thoughts and feelings that you prefer, at first it won't believe you but if you keep doing it and allow no gaps of your regular routine to take over again, your overall auric and cellular energetic matrix will start to behave and emit a vibration out into the universe that its already there thus the universe MUST and WILL comply because that's all you are feeding it, so to speak.
Once you start getting the hang of this and hopefully mastering it, the focus on personal and small scale things naturally becomes obsolete as you will start to realize how powerful you actually are and you will naturally be lead to more global/universal/collective scale things. Don't worry about destroying the universe, creation has fail-safes that are unbreakable. Once you start becoming very powerful, Enlightenment takes over by nature, in turn you cannot destroy self.
The Child that pretends and imagines creates and manipulates reality the same way the Master does. Do not be afraid to imagine, do not be afraid to pretend.
You are absolutely and infinitely Loved, Blessed and Supported by Creation. Immerse yourself in the power of Love & Light and you will never be lead Astray!
The Mirror will never smile first.
Infinite Love!

@Leo Gura sorry another suggestion can't help it...
just an armchair engineer I'm in good health so haven't tested this on myself but seems very relevant to autoimmune disorder and also this seems like the cutting edge in processing and reporting clinical research.
listen to the Rich Roll podcast with Will Bulsiewicz >> https://www.richroll.com/podcast/will-bulsiewicz-538/  This is all about gut health and microbiome and how this is foundational to all things human health
next if that resonates read or listen to Will B.'s book.  "Fiber Fueled" >> deeper dive on the podcast material.  (I'm currently reading this and implementing as fast as I'm reading thru the book)
then as a further step, Will B has an online course, https://theplantfedgut.com/course/.  All about correcting gut dysbiosis then being able to reintroduce a wide range of food in a controlled manner.
...I'm not planning to take the course as I'm in good health.  I have no affiliation with any of this.  Just seems like a great lead.  Looking forward to good physical health for u.

This is really powerful

Classical yoga. No equipment, can be done anywhere, takes 25min to do, has mental and energy and spiritual benefits aswell. A practice that trains every organ, every joint, every tissue, every bone in your body. 
I do it myself. It's a whole new level of fitness and agility. 

Rebounding is an excellent workout for your health, while being extremely low impact. 

Cancer cannot survive in an oxygen rich, alkaline environment. What you want to do is detoxing and fasting and stimulating the lymphatic system to help release toxins. If i had cancer i would only consume Organically grown raw fruits and vegetables and add a lot of strong anti-cancer herbs and spices like turmeric, cannabis, ginger, berries, cinnamon, oregano, cayenne, black seed, apricot seed, chaga mushroom, spirulina/chlorella ect... and drink a lot of herbal tea's and water and exercise daily(to sweat it out) paired with maximum bodily exposure to sunlight and probably go live somewhere up in the mountains (temporarily) or coastal or rural areas where there is fresh air and fresh water and abundance of nature surrounding you.
Ultimately you don't want to eat or focus on food too much, your body is infinitely intelligent it can heal itself from any disease all on its own by fasting but initially you want to aid and give a helping hand to the body with powerful herbs/spices and anti-cancer substances like these below. https://naturalon.com/top-20-anti-cancer-herbs-plants/view-all/
Dr Sebi, Dr Leonard Coldwell are two names that ring a bell which have had very high success rates for helping patients cure not just cancer but all known diseases. Urine Fasting and Urine Therapy also has been shown to cure all known diseases. Read The Water of life by J.W Armstrong.
Technically you want yo allow nature/your body the freedom to take care of itself, you just have to be a side nurse for your body and assist. Essential Oils are very powerful too and Dr Hulda Clark also rings a bell and Dr Robert Morse.
Many people have cured their cancers with simple fasting and or juice fasting on fresh fruits and vegetables and some herbal teas to assist. Our mindset and belief systems also play a big role and vibrational therapy, sound healing, pho-tonic emitting technologies have also been shown to neutralize cancers. Dr. Royal Raymond Rife and Wilhelm Reich are two names who used similar technology to cure people.
Nature has always had an answer to every known disease but the westernized drug industries cannot profit from cures. A cured patient is a customer lost. Cancer has always been about business and its because our bodies become acidic rather than alkaline and pharmaceutical drugs only make our bodies more and more acidic and the body has to deal with the foreign substance and never has change to focus on the cancer itself.
The list for foods, substances, supplements and methods to cure cancer is endless, sometimes just be using your mind and re-wiring your belief systems can neutralize any threat to your body. There have been many cases where 1 the patient believed the doctor and died exactly on the same day or time-frame the doctor gave them or 2 completely ignored the doctor and did not believe them and continued on with their life only to find out few to several months later there is no longer any trace of cancer in their body.
Nevertheless, don't want to drift too far of the subject but ultimately everyone should know and understand these things by now.
Hope this helps

The guy is a great example of self-discipline and self-actualization. He's a self made billionaire yet strict in his meditation and spiritual practice. You can see how sharp and critically thoughtful he is. One of the most informative Joe Rogan podcasts.

The List
 
I’ve yet to listen to most of these but this looks like an amazing collection of high consciousness podcasts. 

You are breathing too much.  Practically everyone in modern society is chronically mildly hyperventilating, due largely to being overly comfortable, sitting down all day, junk food, overeating, underactivity etc etc.  Optimizing your breathing is, in my opinion, the single most beneficial thing you can do to improve your health and well being (okay tied with meditation and relaxation).
Proper breathing is unfortunately overlooked in the health and fitness community, and of course in society at large.  On top of that, the breathing advice we DO get is often counterproductive.  For example "take deep breaths".  On the surface this may sound like good advice.... wouldn't bringing in a ton of air help oxygenate your body?  The answer is no.  It's counter-intuitive (like so many things in self-actualization), but breathing LESS oxygenates your body MORE.  I won't get too scientific but it has to do with the carbon dioxide in your body (see Bohr effect).  You actually do not breathe because you are hungry for oxygen, you breathe to get rid of carbon dioxide.  Carbon dioxide, though often demonized as a toxic byproduct of breathing, is required to transport oxygen into your cells and bloodstream.  Our goal is to increase your tolerance for carbon dioxide, so that more of this gas can stay in your body for longer, so that more oxygen can be transported into your bloodstream and cells.  And in general, more oxygenation = better health and well being.  To add just a little more science, you want to be breathing through your nose, because the air interacts with your sinuses to produce nitric oxide which further increases oxygenation.  (Increasing nitric oxide is another extremely worthwhile endeavor in addition to breathing properly).  Additionally, your nose warms the air and filters out impurities.
Proper Breathing
Inhaling and exhaling through the nose Slow, gentle, calm, soft Non-visible, quiet No sighing, yawning, gasping, coughing, abrupt inhales or exhales, etc Using the diaphragm ("horizontal" breathing, not "vertical") Exhale is not forceful, rather it is simply a relaxation of the body Slight pause after exhale Rhythmic and regular Less than you are currently breathing Better advice than "take deep breaths" would be: relax your body and take softer, gentler breaths.  Think about it this way, what does a calm, healthy, fit individual breathe like at rest?  You wouldn't even notice their breathing.  Then, consider an overweight, unfit, anxious individual breathing at rest.  This person's breathing would likely be visible, perhaps you could hear it, they might even be breathing through the mouth sighing a lot etc.  Consider also when you are deep in meditation... with your body and mind as calm as can be, your breathing can almost become nonexistent. 
Ideally, you want to get your "control pause" as high as possible.  Your control pause is the amount of time you can comfortably hold your breath after exhaling.  To measure, sit upright, comfortably, relaxed, and breathe as normal for a few minutes.  Then, take a normal inhale, and normal exhale.  Hold your breath until the first inclination to breathe occurs.  The number of seconds between that exhale and inhale is your control pause.  Note, you should be able to resume breathing normally after measuring your control pause.  If you have to take a big gasp or feel out of breath, you have held your breath too long and improperly measured your control pause.  A good goal is to get your control pause over 20 seconds.  Even more is better.  Don't worry, I was at like 3-5 seconds when first starting.  Every few seconds you can increase to your control pause has a substantial influence of your health and well being.  I especially notice it in my mood, cognition, mental health etc.
Proper Breathing Exercise
There are many exercises, but the goal of most is to maintain a slight air hunger for some time.  Don't overdo this, you wouldn't try to bench 300 lbs your first day at the gym Sit upright, completely relax your body Gently, softly, slowly, inhale through the nose.  Inhale slightly less than you would naturally Exhale through your nose by completely relaxing, especially your diaphragm and stomach Wait a little bit longer to inhale than you would naturally Continue for as long as you'd like.  This is a great way to meditate / start your meditation Breathe in this manner while also doing physical activity like walking, running, lifting weights etc etc for SERIOUS health gains (try not to open your mouth!) (can't stress this bulletpoint enough) You will know you are doing well when your extremities feel warmer, you are producing more saliva, and you feel calmer and more at peace Other tips to oxygenate your body
Exercise Walk, walk, walk Don't sit too much Eat oxygenating foods: Beets (MVP), spices like ginger turmeric cayenne etc, high nitrate vegetables like leafy greens (nitrates increase nitric oxide, beets have the most which is why they're MVP... In fact, I would wager that most of the benefits of eating plenty of vegetables comes from their nitrate content), raw cacao, cordyceps mushroom Meditation and relaxation Properly hydrate Do not overeat or eat junk food Look into fasting Improve your sleep quality (may need to write a separate post on this sometime) TAPE YOUR MOUTH SHUT AT NIGHT WHILE SLEEPING (maybe the single easiest yet most beneficial thing you can do for your health) Some Resources
Patrick Mckeown's youtube videos and book "The Oxygen Advantage" Research the "Buteyko Method"  
Some Caveats
The goal is to make your unconscious breathing more in alignment with the above descriptions of proper breathing I.e., breathing exercises where you DO hyperventilate can potentially have benefits as well (Wim Hoff method, shamanic breathing, etc), but chronically hyperventilating (which practically all of us do to some degree) is harmful, and in general breathing less throughout your day makes you healthier  
 
 
"A perfect man breathes as if he is not breathing"  -Lao Tzu

Namaste Ji!
I'll suggest you go with Pranayama!
1. BHASTRIKA
2. KAPALBHATI
3. ANULOM-VILOM *this one is Gold*
5 minutes each one, you can even start with 2-3 minutes each, and then consecutively increase the time duration.
I would like to suggest a few yog gurus if you can understand Hindi —
(1) Swami Ramdev-
https://youtube.com/c/SwamiRamdevOfficial
(2) Nityanandam Shree-
https://youtube.com/c/NityanandamShree
These are the links of their official channels, you'll find the videos of all the pranayamas mentioned above, else you can search respectively for the pranayama you wanna search for, I'll recommend you go with the second one for detailed explanation (Nityanandam Shree).
For Videos in English, I like this dude~
 
I'll suggest you to not do it without under in some expert's supervision, since it is an advanced yoga, start first with basics first, see how do you feel after.
best regards.

You say you want to improve brain power, but your post contains no mention whatsoever of learning.  I've boosted my own awareness and intelligence hugely over the past 5 years, so I can give some solid advice.

Of course, diet, exercise and proper sleep.  You already know all of that.  Regular meditation and mindfulness aimed at developing concentration and insight - but you probably know that too considering you're on this forum.  As far as learning though, it's not so much a question of just stuffing your brain full of information, but rather if you want to develop intelligence and brain functioning you need to take a systematic approach toward developing yourself a broad, low-level, fine-grain education which will teach you knowledge, methods and insight which are applicable to a wide range of other things.  The more fundamental the knowledge you gain, the more widely applicable to many other things it'll be, and this knowledge acts as a portal which can skip you to a more advanced level of understanding in other topics.  You need to spend a lot of effort to plan this out and find out what the most fundamental subjects are for you and your needs.

Here's a solid example from my own experience.  A few years back I got introduced to 'movement' as a topic of interest, and I decided to learn as much as I could about it.  I spent a lot of time focusing my awareness on my body, the placement and movement of my limbs, spine and hips, the sense of weight and balance.  I realized that I could 'plan out' a specific movement such as a jump or an arm swing by consciously recognising the starting, mid and end position of the movement in order to maximise the efficiency of it.  What did this practice lead to?  Well, I suddenly found myself able to dance.  I found myself able to practice perfect form in exercises naturally without guidance, and to develop my own exercises.  I could throw further, run and swim better, jump higher and more gracefully.  I had an intuitive high-level understanding of yoga.  I'm now able to play the piano by 'dancing' my fingers across the keys in coordinated patterns.  These are just a few of the many benefits I've noticed, all of which came as a result of developing a core focus on a single specific thing.

Find the right fundamental skill or perspective and a whole new world of brain functioning will open up to you.

Research Hamilton Morris.

@RMQualtrough  I realise that this is a spiritual forum so people are going to answer from a spiritual perspective, but those answers miss the mark.
I have extensive experience with anxiety of various forms - spiritual, cognitive and physical, and I've learned that each needs to be dealt with differently.  As you say that your anxiety doesn't seem to stem from any particular thought or concern, and it's eased by drinking alcohol, it sounds to me like your anxiety is of the physical sort, so allow me to paste a comment I made previously in another thread outlining some information about the mechanism of anxiety in the nervous system and how to treat it at the source.
 
 

Though I do meditate every now and again, I do find it hard to motivate myself to keep a consist routine where I'm meditating for say 15-30mins per day when all I can think is well, in the end, I could just pop a psychedelic and achieve perhaps a year or two's worth of intensive meditation practise in one trip. The only catch is that the UK has exceptionally strict laws on drugs and about the only chance I have of acquiring such substances is waiting until the autumn for the mushroom season.
So in the meantime, does anyone have any thoughts on this or feel the same way? I feel content and relaxed generally in myself so I'm not meditating for the purposes of that but rather to expand my consciousness, but of course, that kind of intention could take ages to achieve with meditation alone - and even then it might not happen. If a conscious shift does happen, it happens by chance as it did to me last year but I wasn't even meditating. I took an evening walk in the summer and I just experienced a profound sense of connection with where I was - I've tried to recreate the experience ever since to no avail.  
I'm sure even Leo said in his episode on psychedelics that you're pretty much wasting your time if you're just meditating. The real gains are with psychedelics. You've also got the problem of the more you try in the meditation, the less likely a conscious shifts will happen which is often the mode of mind I get into when meditating, but psychedelics, just throw you into that consciousness space, it's just up to you to make sense of it.
I'm aware of the benefits of meditation in tandem with psychedelics, but if I had some to use then I would feel more motivated. 
I'm new to the forum so it's not a meaty question as such but more about introducing myself as well and letting you guys know where I'm at after listening to much of Leo's work  

Hey there,
Today I was reading Ken Wilber's The Religion of Tomorrow book and I was struck with so much gratitude for you @Leo Gura... it's just a gift that I'm even able to understand almost everything that this book says. You have given me so much and I just felt like sharing some love with you. 
I noticed that I have never shared many precious gifts that I have found along my path with y'all, in an area that I think the actualized.org crew is needing lots of resources, which is relationships (my life's purpose is to teach people how to have conscious, authentic, healthy relationships - I'm a therapist). 
So here we go, the best resources I have found after years of pursuing this relationship path:
Best teachers + books + seminars (stage yellow/turquoise)
https://www.learningloveinstitute.com/
https://www.learningloveinstitute.com/portfolio/books-2/
OTHER HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BOOKS: https://www.learningloveinstitute.com/books-we-recommend/ (great books on sexuality and tantric practices - life-transforming)
I have tears in my eyes just thinking about these two teachers: Krishnananda & Amana... this is love at its purest. I hope some of you have the opportunity of meeting these teachers, they are the most loving human beings I have ever met. Their teachings are deeply rooted in non duality (they lived with Osho for many many years - they have a very interesting life's story). Even though they call Osho their master, they are the 1st ones to say "Osho was full of shit in many situations".
I recommend to start by reading their book: Face to Face with Fear – Transforming Fear Into Love or Stepping out of Fear – Breaking Free of Pain and Suffering.
They try to communicate in a very simple way and give people very simple models for healing. 
You can solve ANY relationship problem you have in a therapy session with either of them, which costs something around $170. Another amazing thing about them is how their business doesn't revolve around money, their seminars and sessions are fairly cheap compared to most teachers.
I cannot recommend this work enough. THIS IS GOLD!
Best way to practice authentic relating based on meditation and find a community of people that you can feel deeply connected to
https://integralcentered.com/aletheia/ + https://integralcentered.com/ken-wilber-on-authentic-relating/ (Ken Wilber's take on authentic relating)
https://www.circlinginstitute.com/circling/what-is-circling/
https://www.circlingeurope.com/what-is-circling
https://circleanywhere.com/
I highly recommend circling. It's an amazing way to see your relational blind spots, to feel absurdly connected to other human beings, learn communication tools and etc. It has it's some pitfalls, like not exploring trauma and how to heal wounds, but it's an amazing tool to growth.
A good introductory book on circling: Circling and authentic relating - Marc Beneteau (even though the author is fairly undeveloped).
Most big cities have a live circling group these days that you can attend.
Other good resources
Podcasts (yellowish): https://relationshipschool.com/podcast/ and https://www.neilsattin.com/relationshipalive/  (there are some false teachings in these podcasts, but many useful teachings and resources).
Relationship courses + trainings: https://relationshipschool.com/dpir/ - I have been studying with this teacher for the last 2 years. I have spent $25k on his courses and I find them to be a very good base for a healthy relational life. He's mostly yellow, but he's still very stuck in some orange toxicity IMO - he can be very manipulative, greedy and etc. I have done trainings with him because the most recommended teachers - learningloveinstitute - don't offer programs as he does. I still highly recommend this material (especially if you are still in orange or green), but you should know that some of the stuff that he teaches is based on falsehood IMO. I'm leaving this teacher soon and completely focusing on the Learning Love Institute one's.
Another downside is that it's very expensive.
Other interesting authors and books:
Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the path of liberation - Bruce Tift (yellow+turquoise)
Mindsight - Daniel J Siegel
Gabor Maté
...
There are many more that I could list here, but I actually think it's best for all of you to focus on the ones that I have already mentioned (too much information can be distracting). All the people that these 2 podcasts interview can be good resources.
 
@Leo Gura if you are open for feedback: I think that the relationship books in your list are pretty bad lol , which makes sense because you were mostly on stage orange when you created this list (I think).
The way of the superior man: this book can be very shaming in my opinion and is male chauvinist (even though I loved it when I read it years ago and it has some beautiful insights). My perception today is that it has very poor relationship teachings. Chapters like: Don't force the feminine to make decisions, Praise her, What she wants is not what she says, Her complaint is content-free, She wants to relax in the demonstration of your direction and etc are pretty bad (very blue/orange). Real relational teachings teach you to be with your wounds and emotions, there's very little of that here. I think Deida is a case of someone that maybe has done lots of waking up (maybe not even that), but hasn't done much growing up.
The 5 Love languages: IMO this is stage blue relationship garbage... the 5 love languages are actually feeding people's egos/shame in most situations. Even though it has a "positive effect" in the short-run, it feeds falsehood in the long run. Example: someone's love language is Words of Affirmation - if you go deep enough, you'll see that the person was traumatized into thinking that he/she is only worthy, lovable when receiving compliments from other people. It's like telling a model that she's beautiful, she'll feel good about it, but it's feeding her shame instead of dealing with it.
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus / The 7 Principles That Make Marriage Work / He's Just Not That Into You - these books are very orange and don't give actual tools for people to heal their relational wounds and move towards healthy relationships.
Let me know how this lands for you! 
 
If anyone has questions or wants more suggestions and advice, let me know!
Relationships are such an incredible way to deal with our shadows, especially long term partnerships. And of course, such an important part of life that cannot be avoided. I hope this helps some of you to grow up in the relational area of your lives. 
Lots of love fellow seekers,
Gabriel. 
 
 
 

For all who are truly interested in their health, go read: Regenerate: Unlocking Your Body's Radical Resilience Through The New Biology by Sayer Ji.
 
This guy understands health on such a deep and holistic level. Don't underestimate this book! Go read it. It's amazing. This guy is a genius

Incredibly entertaining video, really concrete action steps being laid down here.
 

Its not black or white, there is alot of grey in the history of this conflict. If you have about 20 hours to spare listen to the first 6 episodes of the Martyrmade podcast which is the most in depth information on the history of this conflict you will ever hear. Its also very entertaining, it rivals hardcore history.

Read "Recapture the Rapture" by Jamie Wheal or at least watch his video with Rebel Wisdom. 
 
You can also read "The Religion of Tomorrow" by Ken Wilber, although that's largely just a reiteration on Integral Theory applied to religion as an example if you're already familiar with that model. 
Watch "Awakening From The Meaning Crisis" lecture series on YouTube by John Vervaeke. He does touch on a possible re-imagination of religion without the dogmaticism in the later lectures.