ZenSwift

I consider myself insanely lucky with the amount of helicopter rides I was on (wildland firefighting), and that one time where I was in a helicopter with an aftermarket part in the rotor blades. That helicopter shook a lot during that ride. Didn't think too much about it other than "man this shit has gotta be off." That same day, another pilot of the same manufacturer brand of helicopters went down. The word I got was that the rotor blades straight up flew off of the helicopter, and he went down, falling out of the sky and killing the pilot. It was literally a situation of us or them for whoever was going to die first. I also almost got hit on the ground by the tail rotor. 1 meter in the wrong direction and I would have been shredded. The pilot was a fool with his landing strategy that day.

Update on the Kriya Yoga practice motivation department: I have been asking myself: What are the most meaningful things for me to be doing? It currently appears to be: Raising my Consciousness Developing Mastery I reflect on things I remember Leo saying: And I combine it with a community challenge to practice Kriya 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening for the next 8 weeks. Plus, there's the good chance of going to Leo's retreat, and I want to put myself in a good condition for that. When I asked Leo what's the best thing I can do for preparation, he said Kriya Yoga. Roger that. I also remember reading Leo talking about him doing several sits of Kriya per day. Primarily with Maha Mudra and spinal breathing of some sort. As this had a Pareto principle level of gains just from those 2 practices. Something like that. So I'll likely eventually follow suit.

This guys channel details a lot of interesting facts about animals and their relationships with eachother. https://m.youtube.com/@OddDanny/shorts

I can probably get AI to scrape it, but not make it pretty

Font 6 please

I would prefer this because I like to copy it all to like a big PDF. I wish there was a way to like load like 100 posts at once. Or even a big pdf to download of the Blog. That's exactly what I'm trying to create.

Dear @Leo Gura, What is the most effective way to create a beautiful mind? This is the most inspiring thing for me. Nothing else comes close. For me, it appears to be as follows: (In order of immediate effectiveness.) Number 1: Awakening. Reaching states of God consciousness and states of non-dual awareness, states of consciousness of absolute truth. This ideally looks like creating as many 5-MeO-DMT breakthroughs as I can consciously and healthily stomach. Including that, is by facing my fear of death directly, through lower doses of psychedelics and through direct self-inquiry, till I reach death similar to Leo’s "2C-B Trip Report - Experiencing Physical Death" https://youtu.be/9_WL0hoRA7s In addition, facing all of your traumas, systematically facing fear, ideally through psychedelics. Getting into the right state. https://www.actualized.org/insights/wrong-state Related: https://www.actualized.org/insights/brain-fuel Number 2: Developing your Sensemaking, Studying epistemology, and metaphysics. Deconstruction of Reality, rationality, science, etc., Practice of Real Philosophy through Direct contemplation of Reality from first principles. Studying Leo’s content. Reading books from Leo’s booklist (and any other great metaphysics/epistemology/consciousness book). Studying The 9 Stages of Ego Development. Creating loads and loads of requisite variety in your studies: Hundreds of sources, hundreds of experiences, hundreds of case studies, contemplating hundreds of things, etc. Making explaining of reality and contemplation of reality into a strong almost automatic habit. Really living the life of a sage. Number 3: Actively Becoming aware of your Bias/Selfishness/Devilry/Corruption/Double Standards/Where you are wrong/ Self-deception by having a routine contemplation practice into this. Understanding the force of survival to profound degrees. Number 4: Rewiring your nervous system and Altering your Brain Chemistry: Rewiring your nervous system with Kriya Yoga Practice, Heavy Metal Detox, Eating Clean, doing proper exercise, mastering your sleep schedule, drinking properly filtered water, ridding any additions to stimulation that is frying your brain, whether that be media addiction with your phone or substance use. Cultivating a brain that can actually focus and isn’t distracted into oblivion. Number 5: Systematically designing your life and survival situation to be aligned with Truth and Love. Ideally aligned with a consciously created life purpose such that acting in a conscious loving way is rewarded, not punished. Mastering your survival such that it is conducive to this work of being a sage, effectively creating a lifestyle of inquiry and learning. Now, obviously, in practice, these are going to be pursued alongside each other, but I simply want to pinpoint down: What the hell is the most effective in creating massive growth? What the hell do I focus on to really create a beautiful mind? What are the biggest levers of this work? (For definition's sake, I’ll quickly define “the work” as: Creating a beautiful mind aligned with the intelligence of God. Or: The raising of your consciousness, raising your sensemaking ability, jailbreaking your mind, unlocking access to “alien intelligence.”) What are the biggest levers in aligning my mind with that of God? To be direct, I would appreciate Leo’s perspective on what he sees as the most impactful areas for my growth in consciousness development. If needed, I’m open to providing more context so this can be meaningfully addressed here on the forum. I infer that Leo has become more restrained about openly promoting psychedelics, likely because he recognizes the influence he has and the risk that people may misuse them irresponsibly. That said, I still want a clear, direct answer on what the most important things are to focus on. If I want to create a beautiful mind: What are the best things I can do, the highest leverage techniques that will get me there? You could say I’m looking for more clarity on the direction with all of this... Additional Contexts to mention. Because Leo, I’ve been studying your work for a long time: Leo, On Nov 4th 2018, you’ve mentioned “The most powerful techniques you’ve discovered” in the episode “65 Core Principles Of Living The Good Life” as follows: https://youtu.be/BqWPqZK-Ikg?t=7326 Psychedelics Meditation Meditative yoga Journaling Contemplation Visualization Solo Retreats Leo, if I am remembering correctly and if I understood what I read correctly, I've seen you express attitudes and opinions that Kriya Yoga was far superior to any meditation. Right now the most effective techniques appear to be psychedelics, kriya yoga, contemplation, and solo retreats. Side note: What is your opinion now on the relative effectiveness on journaling and visualization? In your Solo Retreat notes of March 2019 you mention that 5-Meo-DMT is THE tool to use for awakening your consciousness: https://www.actualized.org/insights/solo-retreat-notes-feb-2019 “5-MeO-DMT is the ultimate awakening tool. Let's stop beating around the bush. No other technique, method, or teaching is as direct, deep, or powerful. Not meditation, not yoga, not contemplation, not self-inquiry, not any other psychedelic. 5-MeO-DMT is the guru. No guru can do for you what 5-MeO-DMT can do for you. If Christ or the Buddha came back to life and personally taught you one-on-one for 10 years, they would not be as effective as a few doses of 5-MeO-DMT. That's a bold claim. Yet it's undeniably true for anyone who seriously experiments with 5-MeO-DMT. 5-MeO-DMT will not solve all of your growth challenges, it may not even permanently awaken you, but it can lead you to super-human levels of awakening if you use it properly — and I emphasize PROPERLY!” In your episode “What Is Fake Spirituality?” You stress that REAL Spirituality is Ego Dissolution and that You're doing spirituality to experience God, which aligns with 5-MeO-DMT use a lot. You also outline an overall scope of what real spirituality looks like in practice. Outlining all the points of direct inquiry. https://youtu.be/ECUHkflwBQc In “An Intro To Serious Philosophy - Top Advice For Philosophers” you mention committing to at least 100 psychedelic trips. Alongside having a rigorous contemplation practice, a practice of inquiry through deep contemplation and observation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InmNW96qcUk You stress like crazy pretty much everywhere that proper sensemaking is number one. https://www.actualized.org/insights/conscious-vs-unconscious-sense-making https://www.actualized.org/insights/the-loop-of-wrong-sense-making You also stress that Truth is the highest priority to have. https://youtu.be/nvNGha_g2U4 You stress exercising Epistemic Responsibility: https://youtu.be/W5kvXJNMMM4 You underline that a deep study of your own self-deception is imperative to this work. You emphasize becoming conscious of your selfishness and bias. Understanding your forms of lying, Devilry, Corruption, Why you avoid Truth, Double Standards, Understanding Survival, Where you are wrong, etc. You stress that you have to understand how your sensemaking is being squashed by conforming to pre-established systems of thought. Such as Skepticism, Science, Rationality, Post-modernism, and also understanding the nature of belief, such as understanding ideology, understanding authority, and understanding conformity itself. Deconstructing all of your thinking is the bread and butter: Deconstructing rationality, science, ideology, belief, etc. You stress that Truth = Love. You Stress having holistic attitudes towards your sensemaking with Understanding holism. Developing sovereignty of mind is also imperative to further rid your dependence on others as mentioned in your video: The Root Solution To People Pleasing & Loneliness. An awakening into solipsism helps here as well, obviously. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZqEMok_NXw And you know what, to be honest, I might just be overwhelmed by the workload. There is a lot here. And there comes to be a point where I start asking what are red herrings and what aren't. In a way I'm very lost in Maya. To be clear, I genuinely enjoy studying and learning this material, it's my favorite hobby at this point. But I notice I struggle to follow through with the level of industriousness that I want to be at. For example, let’s say I aim to read at a rate of about one book per week, yet I’m currently struggling to maintain a rate of one book per month. I want to be a completionist with Leo's work. Lots of it is due to managing survival, but the other half has also been just not being industrious with my studies in the way I would like to, another aspect of this is the sheer volume of this work. I think I am fooling myself by focusing on studying all of the content, and putting little to no focus on the Pure Philosophy of contemplating reality from first principles. I'm honestly really bad at that. I do that actually really rarely, yet I understand the power of it, I can change my paradigm of reality in an afternoon if I want to contemplate for 5 hours straight. But this is what my behaviour has been like. Another note is this: I have significant difficulty focusing. Gotta love that ADHD. It’s hard for me to pick one task or one project and see it through to completion. Even when I intend to commit, I find myself pulled in different directions, which makes consistency challenging. This is also why I’ve been so interested in Leo’s mind programming course. At the same time, I recognize that I’ve done the best I could given my current level of awareness and understanding. You better believe I'm lost in my personal maze. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeIfHozjcls 🐀 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 🧀

High for TWO DAYS Alone in INDIA - THC Bhaang Trip Report Bhaang Pronounced like “Bong”. but with a strong H after the ‘B’ and an “ah” sound in it. “BuHHHaaaanggg” Bhaang is pronounced correctly here https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6F6D6rnbS1U https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1Ig5t4wI6vc https://youtu.be/N_ClOxr7OcQ AI description: Bhaang (or Bhang) is a traditional, edible cannabis preparation from India, made from the leaves of the Cannabis sativa plant, known for its mild psychoactive effects and historical use in Ayurvedic medicine and festivals like Holi, often consumed as a paste or drink (like thandai) but generally considered less potent than other cannabis forms. > It’s commonly mixed with Lassi, typically an extremely sweet and sugary yogurt drink. Calling it Bhaang Lassi. Bhaang Trip Report Date: January 11th 2025 Dose: Eyeballed what was roughly 25% of the original ball of Bhaang. People will take an entire ball of this stuff as a normal dose. I would have been MegaFucked if I did that. Thank God Leo’s teachings towards psychedelics encouraged people to start low. I took that seriously. (See picture) Context: When I was solo travelling in India, I came across some Bhaang in Udaipur. I’m very stringent on taking any substances. Especially as suspicious as this. After doing what research I could do on the substance, I saw it was “just weed.” “So it’s weed hey? Sure why not, a small dose of this couldn’t hurt.” I thought. This amount I took was considered a really low dose. For me, it was not a low dose at all. Holy Fuck! Time: Taken at 4:10pm 30 minutes, noticing a Comeup 38 minutes You know, like how the dose ramps up in waves? Felt the next wave here. 41 minutes - wave 46 minutes - wave Thinking cognition is slowing down 57 minutes feeling lots of activation in the brain. 1h 4 min - wave 1h28min - Experiencing a Peak in consciousness. More acutely aware of the headless nature of reality. 2h in, STRONG peak 2h 7 minutes, significantly high as hell. My consciousness is traumatically expanded. Scary forms of oneness. What is will? > So here I was beyond uncomfortably high. This is one of those “oh fuck” moments, because you are in a REALLY STONED state of consciousness, and you know you are going to be here for awhile. I was travelling solo in India, so the support I needed wasn’t there. Luckily, it was a good time to have a video call with my trusty trip sitter mom that was on the other side of Earth. I had her presence on video there to help ground me. I realized there was nothing that she could say or do. Just the presence of her on Video call while she was typing away working some office job was the best she could do. That video call of course only lasted an hour or so. 4 h 3 minutes - Just noticed a release in weight. What is metaphysics? What is reality? What is epistemology? > Here I was trying to use this fucked state of consciousness to SOME sort of use. 4 h 48 minutes - Slight release. > I remember being so high where I was trying to ask chatGPT if what I took was a lethal dose. I could not understand what ChatGPT was saying. I was too high to understand! So there I was just not knowing if I took a lethal dose. 15 hours in - I’M STILL HIGH THE NEXT MORNING 21h in - Still VERY High > So I am in fucking India, right? and I had no idea where anything was, and I had to eat. And I was so high that I could not understand google maps enough to navigate to an ideal Restaurant for some food. Ideal restaurants were very far. So I picked one and made my journey to it. It turned out to be this rather high class restaurant. I received an appetizer that I didn’t like at all, and that I didn’t order, but I was so hungry I ate it anyways. I was genuinely confused, did they mess up my order? Was that what I ordered? Was my main dish still coming? How long is it going to take? How long it took for the food to arrive at my table, I don’t know. All I personally experienced was eternity. > I tried the whole time to keep my cool and “look normal.” This failed miserably, as it was abundantly obvious that I was high. An Indian man sitting at another table with his friends looked at me trying to ask if I was high. He ended up just saying to me “High high” while gesturing his hands down and up in the air. And I’m like “YEAH!” while nodding my head. At that point I found out how obvious my state of consciousness was. > The food does arrive, and I'm on a mission to eat this butter chicken that is too spicy for my tolerance. Food being too spicy was common in India, even if you asked for it to be not spicy. It would still be spicy. > There was no fun on this trip, I was just getting through, waiting it out in eternity. Two days later, I'm finally much more sober. Post trip report: Not a fun trip at all! For 2 DAYS I experienced this brain dead retardation state of consciousness. It was chock-full of recurring infinite thought loops. There was no ability to grasp onto any coherent thought or sensemaking whatsoever. It was a complete derp state of consciousness. Never taking Bhaang again! > I remember calling my friend that was halfway across the world about what was going on, and he was like “Broo you’re gonna be high for 2 days.” I didn’t believe him. > I was high for 2 days. > I laugh now BECAUSE I’M okay, BECAUSE I got out of that situation unscathed. But that was a Bruh moment for sure. That was so dangerous for me. I was so vulnerable being a tourist in a foreign country. Weed is no fucking joke. I was high for over TWO FUCKING DAYS in a foreign country travelling alone! End of Report.

Congratulations.

I remember getting this insight on one of my trips: Reality is trying to kill you at all times.

https://www.actualized.org/insights/god-imagines-psyches I love posts like this. Really spell it out. Brilliant. Plus your recent quotes I loved. Like how you are imagining a shower experience. Yes!

This dedicated thread serves as a suggestion box for Leo’s Premium Clips Vault. Please take time to deeply contemplate your questions and requests so they are clear, direct, powerful, and valuable for others.

I was thinking at least building a thread for discussion of the clips.

Clip Requests for @Leo Gura: Most urgent for me: Recommendations on how to prepare for your first Vipassana, or the attitude to have in it, etc. Most personal for me: A genuine pep talk from Leo on taking your life seriously with sensemaking. Having a proper sleep schedule, taking care of your body, throwing away media addiction and other addictions. Taking study seriously, disciplining yourself properly. Setting goals, Taking time to contemplate, doing the kriya practices, handling survival, etc. Genuine advice on how to read more, contemplate more. I want you to explain the most industrious you've ever been, and what really got you there. If it makes sense to share: Genuine advice for those that are suffering from ADHD brain, especially in regards to focus. A complete checklist of what to wipe away from direct experience while you are staring at your hand while on a trip. Searching for all forms of knowing that contextualizes this experience such that it can be dissolved. At 1h 9 minutes in your Lecture "The Power Of Not-Knowing," you mention that you can go even deeper on this not-knowing exercise. I would love you to guide me to go as deep as you can. https://youtu.be/RMXNQ-nGBSA?t=4140 I know there are additional instances on when you did not elaborate further for the sake of the scope of the lecture. I will have to dig them up. What I remember right now: Conscious Communication, How to say No, How to assess character, more insights on Relativism. How to use Google to change your life, etc. Key exercises to handhold the newbie through contemplation. Like, "contemplate x until y dissolves." Like a contemplation grocery list. Contemplate x until you get 10 insights that you have never become conscious of before. etc. Key distinctions outlining the importance of contemplation. How to figure out the ratio of contemplation versus study. How much should one contemplate versus watching Another Leo lecture, or reading a book on the book list. Because I know reading books and studying lectures provides loads of grist for the mill. So, yeah, more thoughts on this stuff. Latest insights on how to study the most effectively. What studying even is. What is Attitude? What is Clarity? What is illusion? What is imagination? What is Healing? What is Fantasy? How to think. Key insights to help you master being a teacher. Key insights in developing master of being a therapist. Key insights on developing mastery in public speaking. What did your daily routine look like at different periods of your life? What did it look like when you were bootstrapping yourself into creating actualized.org?: Shooting a video every week. etc. What does your days look like today? How seriously do you take things like following a sleep schedule? What are some of the most fascinating things that you are contemplating/ have contemplated? There was a period of time where you were having an like Awakening 3 times a day, and you were just being pummeled, and this was a rough chapter to grow through. I want to hear about this experience. A tour of all the products you have, your home layout, why you have your layout the way you do. I know there is a bible is reasons for every object, and every placement of object in your home. I studied product design for exactly this fascination, so I'd love you to completely nerd out about products for a couple hours. I will happily sit there and listen to why you chose this type of faucet versus any other kind of faucet. What is Ego? Day in the life Vlog

Hey @Leo Gura I have loads of thoughts coming your way about these clips. I am wondering how would you like me to address the clip? Do you have a preference? Like: "Clip#323" or "Clip#323 - Fear is Attachment" Also, I just want to comment this now about that clip: I realize that my attachment is what grounds my sense of reality. Fear IS the mechanism the mind uses to create a sense of ground. It makes so much sense now. I fear loosing my attachment to the earth, to matter, to other people, to time, to death, to being biological, to being a living creature, etc. Yet, facing all of these fears is supportive to the awakening process, if not it is directly THE threshold guardian to awakening itself. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this. Thankyou.

Clip #193 - The Power Of Asking Questions Brings up Error Message: Sorry this video doesn't exist.

Typo present in Actualized Quotes #598

Clip #048 has this bug when you click on the dedicated page. it just says "Clip #048 - The"

@Leo Gura Found a Typo Also, Clip #095 - A Shortcut For Understanding Reality - Part 1 is displaying the video clip of #002 - Why Women Love Assholes

Understood. I remember this one dude named Stephen G Pope outputted a lot of content around making your workflow with video creation far more efficient. He has a Skool group and such. Using AI tools and utilizing workflow setups. Thought it wouldn't hurt to mention it. https://m.youtube.com/c/stephengpope Where would you like these suggestions? Would you like it to be here or in a dedicated thread?

The current organization of numbering clips with a related title is adequate for me. I would like to encourage you to find some sort of more efficient alternatives to reduce the grind of that. Like for example, finding a middle way where the rendering isn't even needed because the camera setup has done all the work for you. To be frank, for me personally, I just care about the insights & the audio quality, not the video quality.

@Leo Gura I really appreciate you making the vault. I think it reduces the friction for content/insights to flow out of you. I think the paywall to throw away the Riff Raff is a good thing because it creates more space for a more serious audience. And creates more freedom for Leo to censor himself less and say it like it is. Also I think just the vault lowers unnecessary standards that Leo can impose on himself. (Yes, the lectures Leo puts out is a beautiful performance and a work of art, but that creates a lot of friction to output content as it has to reach a high enough standard. So having an outlet for the more random haphazard insights is a great thing. The blog also has been great for this.) I think it can open up opportunities to answer questions at a greater depth. Leo, I'm curious if you're open to suggestions or requests to speak on certain things.