David1

Set yourself a goal, and don't waver from it. Even if the goal doesn't seem so attractive anymore after a while. Do it out of principle. Because reaching your goals is what you do. This principle helped me alot.

The ego loss i experienced on mushrooms...the onset and the first waves kept getting stronger and stronger i was losing coherent thoughts, it felt like i was dying. Reality shattered like a broken mirror in a million pieces. I had to surrender to it...make peace with the thought i was going to die. It wasn't mild at all for me. I didn't had all my faculties, i couldn't think, let alone speak. My ego completely dissolved.During the long comedown i had halucinations as if my body consisted of huge cubes that shifted in space. I can't even imagine being out on the street or in traffic in that state, it would be a total nightmare. In later experiences, i learned that the surrendering is absolutely nessecarry.Avoid a struggle My self was gone! There was no boundry between myself and the environment. After a while i regained my abilitie to speak All in all we had a very different experience it seems.

@Emerald Wilkins Oh, i've had my share of ego loss and psychedelic experiences. But i never tried to go about my daily routines. I just can't function normally. I would be a danger in traffic to myself and others. Idem at work. I would probably end up dead or in the ER.

Now you're scaring me. Be careful ok?

@Emerald Wilkins Ok...do this experiment...take a 'ego disolving' dose of 5meo-dmt and try to go out and do your normal routines. Do you think that will work? You need your ego to stay safe and to function.

@Leo Gura I agree, there is alot to learn, to play around with...different angels, insights, experiences. But none will be as profound as being God.

The personal self drop away completely and for good? That's death. You can't function as a human being without a self or ego. You are a drop, you can't be the ocean unless you stop being the drop.

Buddhists have a saying...'after enlightenment, the laundry'. I guess people expect the world to stop turning or anything but not the laundry please

I don't get the distiction that is made between 'enlightenment' and 'permanent enlightenment'. What Leo described in the 5MEO-DMT video is enlightenment. Realizing, experiencing that you are Brahman/God... is it. You can't 'unrealize' it. It is permanent. What more profound insight can you have? Leo sais he's not enlightened because maybe he doesn't want his quest to be over?

For me, intuition almost never 'speaks' (it only tends to do so when i'm on a psychedelic substance). It usually comes in the blink of an eye, as an idea or as a feeling, and it sometimes even seems to come in the form of a response from the environment (synchronicity). I can articulate that idea or feeling, put it into language, but originally it didn't come to me in language. I've also experienced that it answers to questions. Even very mundane questions. And i don't need to be in silence and solitude. For example, i have a work related problem, that i don't have an immediate solution for or that requires me to do a lenghty algoritm to come to the solution. I clear my mind, put myself in the now, and then very often the solution will 'pop up' in my mind. Even if i'm in a busy or noisy place.

@Nora So what he is really saying is 'monkey see, monkey do'? This is a well known and exploited phenomenon. Basically all advertisements use this, porn, movies... What does this have to do with the mind-body problem? The fact that i can close my hand on command, simply by 'wanting' it,...that is mind over matter. That is the real mystery. In my opinion, the body is the mind and vice versa. Why? There is a neural correlate for every thought, every feeling, every emotion. What happens to the body affects the mind, and what happens in the mind affects the body. So why would there be a distinction between them? Let's take for example getting angry. If i see something or experience something that makes me angry, a whole chain of biological processes start. Basically, my brain sends signals to my adrenal glands who in turn release adrenaline, wich makes my heart rate go up, wich make my bloodpressure go up...and i end up being angry, and agitated. Now if i am calm and relaxed and someone gave me a shot of adrenaline...the outcome will be the same. My heart rate and blood pressure go up and i'll be angry and agitated, and i can't stop it with my mind.

We can follow Leo around the compound, see what food gets served etc. and we'll get a 'live' report about his ayahuasca experience, see him purging and slaying his dragons. That should make one juicy video

Great video by Seth Lloyd on quantum biology and how quantum mechanics may play a huge role in biology.

This song by Tool really nails it imo.

@fireworld When you go on a spiritual journey, sooner or later you will realize that hapiness has no external cause. Then what? All material desires kind of fall away, because you know they won't make you more happy. So the goal you set for yourself doesn't really matter anymore but the challenge does. It becomes a willpower thing. Just choose a goal and see if you can will it into existence. Sit for 10 hours straight, don't say a word for 10 years, climb mount everest, make a million dollar...whatever. The world is your playground.

@Lorcan Yes, you should gain weight to build muscle. If you don't see results after working out for a while, you're probably undereating. Count calories! Calculate your BMR, and eat 20% above that. Don't exagerate though or you'll gain alot of fat instead of muscle. Leave enough time between workouts to allow for recuperation. Don't work out if you're still sore from the previous workout. And maybe get some protein shakes. Also, avoid cardio if your goal is to build muscle. Cardio will make you skinny, light and fast. Kinda like eg. Lance Armstrong. I would ditch the burpies and do pullups, chinups, diamond pushups, dumbell squats (if you have dumbells)...things you can't do 20+ reps of. Check on youtube for some great variations on bodyweight exercises.

@Frogfucius I agree with philosogi, you say you're not comfortable with 'fake it untill you make it' but that's exactly what you are doing now. What everybody is doing. You are just comfortable with the 'character' you're in now, and it takes alot of effort and discomfort to change that.

Does anybody have any experience with an ayahuasca retreat?. I've been planning to do this for some time, but there seem to be so many. I first thought of going to Peru, but now i'm in doubt about Brazil. I'd like to take the opportunity to see more of the country while i'm there ofcourse. So does anyone have experience travelling in South America? What country would you recommend?

@cozmo Everybody wants to be happy. That's basically the bottom line. The problem is, that people (or other people, the media...) tell themselves stories about what will make them happy. And some of these stories conflict with eachother. Once they realize that hapiness has no external cause, the problem is solved.

I've never done 5meo-dmt but the reports i've read remind me of salvia. Fast onset, pretty fast comedown, dissociative. It's the latter i really don't like, and that causes the 'fear' response imo. With salvia, the dissociative effect is really strong. So strong, you don't remember taking it, and that makes it so scarry for most people. Mushrooms hug your ego to death, but salvia just twists it in the meat grinder. I prefer to be hugged to death

@ChristopherW You're right. It sucks to be omnipotent. Not to know is just so much more interesting. In my opinion, people should just shut up about this. In order not to spoil it for others. And that's exactly what you see most enlightened folks do...they shut up about it. And the ones that do start to shout about it and stirr things up, are usualy quickly dismissed as crazy, on drugs etc.

@Jani Isn't it normal for parents to want their children to be independent?

@Blaze35 Don't detach from the desire to earn money (this will make you homeless lol), but instead detach emotionally from money itself. I mean, approach money like you would when playing monopoly. Use money to aquire assets. But don't get emotionally attached to it. Remember... it all goes back in the box anyway. If you want to travel, find a way to turn travel into an asset. Write a travel blog, work for a travelling agency, sell pictures....whatever you can think of. http://www.travelthewholeworld.org/2014/05/42-ways-you-can-make-money-and-travel-the-world.html?m=1

"We were all trapped in stories, she said, just as he used to say, his wavy hair, his naughty smile, his beautiful mind, each of us the prisoner of our own solipsistic narrative, each family the captive of the family story, each community locked within its own tale of itself, each people the victims of their own versions of history, and there were parts of the world where the narratives collided and went to war, where there were two or more incompatible stories fighting for space on, to speak, the same page." Salman Rushdie.