Loba

I would focus on dating skills as well as spirituality, as we are a communal species and need companionship, this is very important. And because the path of enlightenment involves learning to Love; if you find a love, it is much easier to remember that feeling, when warm and close with someone, then trying to go it alone. Some people are made for that, but most are not. You can learn a lot about yourself by dating and being in relationships, and this can be applied to your spiritual practice. You could even have a spiritual relationship if you want to. The loving feeling that you get when being around a sweet girl that you like is the same Love that you need to practice on yourself - so when you fall in love, you can use that as a learning tool to extend that love to yourself, to family, friends, the whole world. And that is what spirituality is about. These things are never either or. You can have both!

@RMQualtrough I agree with you whole heartedly, that sometimes people who are mentally ill need medical intervention. It is usually people who don't even have a mental illness, or who are still struggling, but went off their meds that tell people they should not take them for this reason and that reason. Medicine gave me my mind and my life back. I was literally nearly catatonic at times, or manic at other times, and ended up being committed to a hospital where I was put on meds and slowly, but surely my sense of reality started to come together. Some people are able to heal themselves, this is true, but this isn't the majority. Most people with severe mental illness need help. At the hospital, so so sooo many people got better on the medication, you could see the huge difference when someone came into the hospital, and when they were stabilized and left - they were so much saner. And so was I. But talk therapy can also be helpful, it just depends on where you are at and what you need. The problem is that a good therapist is hard to find and very expensive. The ones who are not good could leave you worse off than before. But a good therapist/client relationship can be very beneficial for some folks. I don't recommend psychedelics for mental health problems, either, unless done with someone who knows what they are doing that can guide the treatment. The thing is, mental illnesses are caused by a change in brain chemistry usually, and so drugs that are prescribed are made specifically to treat that, whereas other methods aren't, or could open the floodgates to more damage. I think they are best used by people who have trauma that they are working through - this can help - but mental illness caused by brain chemistry needs to be fixed with the right medication. I used to be anti-med for the longest time, parroting what spiritual people told me, until I actually stuck with treatment and wrote down my entire mental collapse for a year, I could/can go back and see a huge difference. I was stuck, frantically trying to fix this near catatonia/delusions with spirituality and it made the delusions worse. Meds not only fixed the delusions, but they did not come back - and my catatonic state is going away with daily work/self care - of which my brain couldn't even do without getting those chemicals stabilized. I felt so sorry for Connor Murphy, he was manic and didn't know it. When people get into spirituality before even coming to understand their illness, this can cause huge problems for them, because spiritual insight and psychosis feel so similar. But I suppose the difference is that with genuine insight, the person comes out of it either more grounded or more stable... usually, there are some odd ones out there who go through madness and come out wise but that's not the norm, either.

I don't think you can fully trust other people's trip reports, because they become hear-say, you have to have all spiritual awakenings rooted in personal direct experience. So, I wouldn't worry so much about that, the only thing you have to focus on is your own journey. Truth has a certain flavour to it, where/when it arises, you Know. If you prefer to find answers with plants and something tells you that man made chemicals are not for your path, then follow that. That's your intuition. If you are curious and want to try something mad made, do that. The best way to learn to trust your intuition is to write a lot, and to trust yourself. This is one of the biggest things people need to learn to do on the path is to follow their own intuition. There's a path of "feeling" that you can take, where if it "feels off", write about it, figure out where that is coming from and if it is just paranoia or if there's something to it. You can gain beautiful spiritual insights from plants, and from man-made chemicals, and the best way to trust the insights is to have them. And you know, sometimes they are wrong... or they evolve over time, you know? One way to know is that there is a sense of clarity; if there is Love in the awakening is a big one. Imo, writing is the best way to keep track, because you can go over later and "feel" for the truth. The way I got to my first awakenings was doing depth psychology on myself, and it only took two or three months to obtain the awakening. What I did is automatic writing, and I just followed that intuition like I had nothing left in the world - and just kept going until I got to the bottom, and there was God. It was like this: "Why am I unable to trust my own insights? What caused this in my environment that I am trusting other people over myself? Where do I need to look? What does awakening mean to me?" And then whatever lectures, books, teachers, pictures, videos, experiences you can find to help you answer that, and what will happen is that the questions will get deeper, more profound, and it just keeps going until you find the Truth. What will happen is that there won't be anything left to uncover, and so the Truth will just.... Be. But the difference is is that you are directing the direction yourself, instead of following anyone - it's a deep dive into who you are. When you do this, you uncover and also clear off any residue that may prevent you from seeing your True self. Each person is going to have different pieces of the puzzle, and a unique path, just for them. We can come together to discuss awakenings, to help one another, but ultimately you'll just have to trust yourself that you have the inherent ability to understand. And you do. How it feels when you find your soul and it speaks to you: Hey, what's your name? 'Cause I need to know I've been high and I've been low Far beyond and far below Never seen you before If I die before I wake Promise me you'll remember me tomorrow 'Cause I'll remember you I'll remember you How to find the soul aka your spiritual compass. ^ (Turquoise/Coral material)

How to be like a child ^ How to grow into an adult/integrate without losing the inner child ^

I have only had a handful of experiences with ultimate truths, and I don't claim to be enlightened or wise; I can only offer advice that I have personally gone through and am always working on figuring out how to word things in the best possible way. I do have some experience though, pertaining to spiritual emergencies and spiritual work while having a mental illness. I have gone through a lot of the traps that people can fall into, and of course still fall into plenty myself. I wouldn't claim myself to be an expert, but the sources that I collect from are generally pretty good and I do have decent intuition into things. If I am only partially sure, or if I am just offering an opinion, then I try to let people know this because I know that people can come here looking for answers and will take them to heart and I want to make sure that the answer I am giving comes from my direct experience. I think you have a good point though, and that there is some parroting going on sometimes. I wouldn't worry too much about it, because you can already sense this intuitively, I would follow your gut when it comes to advice and taking to heart what people here say. If you can sense it, and see it, then you know what to move towards or away from - that's your compass talking to you. Me personally, my awakening experiences have not had a solipsistic element to them, so I have no reference for what people talk about when they mention these things. But I do know that letting go of the ego can be very difficult and it is usually a long process, and I do see people falling into the trap of following one person too closely instead of following their own intuition. It makes me want to knock Leo down a few pegs, not to insult him, but to humanize him a bit for people who gobble up every word he says without even thinking, or practicing, or understanding other elements to spiritual work. If your intuition is telling you that people are parroting and don't know what they are talking about - then listen to it, because that's the intuition that leads to spiritual awakening/enlightenment/healing. I feel that this forum needs a wake up call in some instances, like, "Hey! It's all within you. You can discover it for yourself, I am sure of it. Follow your Truth down to the bottom of the rabbit hole; don't look around at what teachers or other people are doing. You are doing it right, just keep following your heart, and you will get there." And even if someone is parroting a truth, if the advice helps, take it. Use your intuition to "scout" for truth, look for it wherever you can find it. Gl!

@hello1234 Yeah, that's probably a blind spot of his. The teacher that made the video is totally qualified to make such statements, working with personality disordered folks as well as folks who have had to deal with psychos - he's also a very sociable person with a lot of insight into how the mind works. He knows a lot about psychology, philosophy, personality problems, and how to help people heal from trauma and used to do that for a career. I would say to Leo to learn more about these disorders or you can't make an educated claim that someone else is lazy for not understanding people. The first vid, that guy is on the same level as you intellectually, but has actually traveled the world, has made it his career understanding how people work, and offers therapy courses for those who have been abused by people like... Putin. Leo, Putin isn't some genius warmonger, he's a delusional psychopath, a relic of a long lost time that's dying off. The world is changing, and he can't change with it, so he's trying to force these people who want progressive lives to go back into living in the dark ages, where people were slaves and had no identity and were forced to work like dogs in the name of "equality".

@Leo Gura That guy who made the first video is an NLP expert, an expert on trauma caused by psychopathic abuse, who does a lot of videos on narcissism/psychopathy and is close friends with Sam Vaknin, a successful psychopath. I doubt he's being "lazy". He probably knows more about Putin's mental health than you. How much do you even know about these disorders to be able to consider someone else lazy? You're being lazy about calling someone else lazy; you don't even know their work, you didn't even look into it to know if the source was reputable or not... The person who made the video reads... a LOT and has traveled the world, and knows psychology better than you do. Their entire life, like yours, is dedicated towards finding truth and learning, and also used to be a life coach, like you.

@SQAAD It's less likely that something bad will happen, but more likely that the feelings will come up again and that's what needs to be redirected. You can even start the process just like that, too, example: "Hello to myself. I am very upset and here is why: (Reasons why) Because of this, my emotions are as follows: (Emotions) My intentions are to redirect these feelings to something beneficial. I fear that something bad will happen if I say something negative. Where did this fear start, and why did it happen? (Look into where the fear started and why it happened.) I am doing shadow work to look into these feelings and transmute them. My goal is to have more positive thoughts and emotions. What are some beneficial feelings I would like to feel right now, and what can I do to experience those feelings? (Write down some ideas.) How can I overcome my negative feelings in this moment? (Write down what you can do to overcome negativity.) And then end it with positivity, so that it redirects your emotions, like so: "I am a good person, and my feelings and the things I have said or want to say do not represent the entire picture. What manifests is the entire picture, so as I learn more about myself and grow, I can manifest positive things in life. I am doing the right thing, I am loved, and I will and am growing. I am adding awareness to my emotions and my feelings by writing about them, and this is redirecting my life in a positive way. I am safe. I am smart. I am introspective, I am wise." ^ This is the power of the Word. You get to decide. You can go as deep or as shallow as you like into these emotions, but the more you understand them, and then feel them through, the more love and light can enter into your life. The darkness isn't evil, and it isn't there to manifest bad things into your world - it is there just to remind you where you need to look at. It's like a bookmark of a chapter that you have not finished yet. "Can anyone who has heard this music really be a bad person?" Do you see right now, how you are using your Words to create solutions by asking for help? That is also manifestation. And it's not bad or negative. <3 <3 It's hard to explain how manifestation works. It can create a confirmation bias of bad things happening, which is what is more likely to show up... but what is underneath all of that is Love - and you must come from this place to manifest... anything. It will create more bad things... but those things aren't real, it's like... hmmm... it's like, the shadow will keep coming up until you see it. It is a type of lens put over reality, but not the true reality - that's why you'll want to manifest from a place of loving yourself. If you want good things in your life. And God wants that for people, to See Love. It is kind of a paradox. Where, yes, more negative things can happen - but it is because you are seeing them and not the Love. If that makes sense, so the biggest obstacle to that, is just rewiring to see things for how they are. Some advice: Write down everything that you love, that makes you happy, feel safe, makes your soul feel whole and move towards that.

Agreed. I wish there was some way the West could get more involved without nuclear weapons. If they roll over, it will give him the idea that other countries will be as easy to take over.

Yes, it can make these things more likely to happen, but this is a feature and not a bug. And it is very easily remedied through awareness. Actually, when you have negative feelings or want to say something, this is a blessing - it is your shadow showing you what you need to work on in yourself. My suggestion is to write. The Word is very important, because Words do create reality, and so do feelings, but these can change and become more beautiful and complex. Write about why you are feeling that way, where it came from, and how you want to feel. Direct how you want to feel like how a dog trainer teaches a baby puppy. Say someone did something cruel to you, and you want to say something about it to them, and those words might not be in your best interest - instead of doing this, write the whole thing out, how you feel, and how you want to feel. That way you do get your "say", but you are directing what happens afterwards. I fight with my family, and I do this a lot for my journal. If something bad happens, I write how I feel instead of spewing it out, and then find solutions to feel a different way, or activities that are beneficial for my growth. When you realize how powerful the Word is; you are halfway there into building and creating your own life, how you want it to be. The feature in this "bug" is that you are the director, you just have to remember that. Don't feel OCD about saying negative things, if it happens, it happens, and you can reverse it by changing your outlook - just write it out or if you don't like to write, you can do an audio journal, too. See that this is actually a guide, that you can also take positive Words and emotions and make something beautiful out of them. This quick anime clip explains the power of the Word much better than I can: I haven't delved into these books yet, but I would look into the Jewish tradition to understand how the Word is used.

Yes, you'll need to read books as videos can only do so much. Let me send you over to this post I just made for this mother: There are some resources there if you are going through a spiritual emergency.

Hi Mips! We all have, deep within ourselves the capacity to heal and our souls know what that is and what it needs to feel whole again. I would ask her to contemplate deeply on what she feels she needs from you and her environment in order to heal. A journal can help uncover these things, so give her the opportunity to write a diary or journal and let her really delve into what it is going to take. The soul aka higher self knows what path it needs to take to get to where it needs to be, we can only guess what she might need. Then, as she uncovers aspects of herself, allow her the opportunity to have those things/moments/experiences/ect. Read up on the individuation process; Stanislav Groff has a lot of info on spiritual emergencies as well. Студопедия — Psychological Renewal through Return to the Center - https://studopedia.info/6-85774.html Here's an example of Groff's work. https://www.amazon.com/Stormy-Search-Self-Personal-Transformational/dp/087477649X http://maryshutan.com/what-is-spiritual-healing/ This author has a series of books that could be of help as well. She is a shaman who does energy work. http://maryshutan.com/books-2/ Here's her book list, I can personally attest that the advice found in them is solid and sound. I would suggest these books to start with: The Spiritual Awakening Guide: Kundalini, Psychic Abilities, and the Conditioned Layers of Reality, Managing Psychic Abilities: A Real World Guide for the Highly Sensitive Person, The Body Deva: Working with the Spiritual Consciousness of the Body, and The Complete Cord Cutting Course: Working with Cords through Energy Work and Shamanic Healing. These books have a lot of advice on how to ground one's self. You could read/do them together.

Girrrrlllll, preach. I feel this can be applicable for some folks, myself included.

@Zeroguy I can't marry, I have temperament issues, I'd be like my mother - an angry fish-wife. Maybe someday I'll find price charming after I work on my own shadows a bit more. Still a ways to go.

It doesn't matter, follow your own intuition and find the answers for yourself. Leo's just a dude, doesn't mean what he says is right... people just take his word like it's truth, but his conduct here esp. in the dating section... says otherwise... I love the forum, but trust yourself more than people you find online. You can unravel all of the secrets within yourself just by following your intuition. Trust yourself more and what Leo does will matter less and less. Like I said... he's just some dude. Who cares what he does? You're just as capable. The answers are in you, not in some course. He is literally selling "nothing" to you. You can find nothing through meditation. People interpret things from where they are at, so if you have some lonely guy who doesn't socialize well and thinks he's some genius - plugging drugs - that's what you get - solipsism. Adopt your own path.

It's not that people suck at everything, it's just that life doesn't allow people to explore more things to see what they are good at. Not everyone automatically knows what they are good at they have to look around for a while. I doubt you suck, you probably just have not found your thing yet. Also, don't feel bad. I'm not the smartest most successful person either, but I am happy. Try to find ways to be happy and at peace with yourself, just the way you are but keep an open mind to trying new things and perhaps you will find your thing one day.

@catcat69123 Hmmmn, you know I went through a period of feeling reclusive and I needed that to do my work, but once I was done with that portion it was too difficult to be alone all the time and now I am starting to be more social and active. I think it must go in a pattern, where sometimes the person probably needs to take a year or two and get away from people, just to learn about themselves and to see where they are at as far as life development goes as well as discovering who they are - but it probably goes full circle where these people come back to the community. Here's what I found in hermit-mode; one needs a solid foundation to grow and there is no way around that. So, even though my experiences have components of advancement, there isn't anything I can do with it unless I work towards something positive, and since I have some deficits in some areas, I can set aside gruelingly searching for where that beautiful illuminated glow came from, or I can let it go for a few years and just focus on practical stuff and then the emergency that brought about the awakening will never happen again because I'll be prepared. I don't know what to think of people who maintain hermit-mode forever or who become very inactive - as my awakenings gave me a more unified perspective of other human beings and a love for them and for community as well as a sense of purpose - which motivates the action. What about you? Did you have a few friends/acquaintances who dropped off the earth after discovering spirituality?

@Yarco Dogmatic how? I view it more as just having fun sharing experiences and stories, you can learn a lot from other people, I've had awakenings just from reading random posts on here before, just how the person would word it clicked and my ego would let down and then through that direct channel - called 'hollow bone state', generally that's when I'd learn something new. @Benton Thanks Benton, you too. We need more people who have had some of the more "out there" experiences, not enough clairs on here!

Exactly, you can talk about it and think about it, but the direct experience of it is the best option for most people because destiny/God has a unique path for each person and so talking about it, or trying to transfer what you know to someone else doesn't work I have learned unless you remind them of 'how' to look for it themselves, and then give some resources, then it is up to the person to do the work and find out via direct experience. My download/version of what happens might end up being completely different to the puzzle pieces someone else might be given and that's what is so beautiful about it - we each have a story inside of ourselves to unravel. I've found that accepting mortality of the body has grounded me a lot in authentic spiritual experience; because it is a genuine 'stop'. Like a koan, we don't know, we can only sit with it for a while until death reveals itself as the ever faithful, always watching friend it always was. I don't think everything is pointless, and yet I do, I think "fuck it all and enjoy the ride", but also I have a strong desire to help other people through positive action. It's kind of a mixture of both. You have to eventually say "fuck it all" and then you will find yourself on a literal ride! But that ride, from my perspective, is made of actions and intentions that survive beyond just the person; you can almost feel the intention move through people; generations, like ghosts or spirits all of their own. And so, to create a good chain of events, I try to transform my life by being better, with other people in mind. I haven't always been this way, I used to think everything mattered and did not care about people, but as I am getting older, I find less matters and I care more. When I did not care from an unloving place, this was due to ignorance, and then the more I began to learn about the world, and humanity, the more I wanted us all to do well as a species, a collective, because we are amazing and we can do amazing things and there should be more opportunity for that for everyone who wishes to use their creativity to positively impact the world. What are your opinions/experiences/ect?

I remember seeing somewhere when I was in my nature documentary phase that the Himalayan mountains are melting, that it supplies a river to India and a few other countries, and if the ice melts in the mountains, the river will dry up and something like a billion people will be without access to fresh water, and that this is serious.

Honestly, I would try to get this under control. I used to get crushes like that and they would last a long time where the person would keep entering into my awareness, and sometimes I would think that there was a spiritual connection because it would usually start out with some sort of revelation into myself. Over time, I found that these crushes would take me away from my path - that the people were never who I envisioned them to be anyways - most of them were much worse - and so I was just creating a caricature of the person in my mind, really... It will waste your time, and set you off the path because it is chasing, it is craving, it is desire. Plus, most people don't like being crushed on that way; I don't like it. I've had people crush on me and have the wrong image of me because they spent more time thinking about than talking to me, and if I see that, I split, I take off, because I know that no good can come from viewing people from the lens of too much thinking about them. It's not reality and never will be. It's escapism. When these situations would happen, I found that it was because my life was out of control and I felt scared for my health and felt that I couldn't manage on my own, while simultaneously thinking someone out there knew better than me, and they never did. I was always the one who knew what was best for me and no one else. My suggestion, every time you focus that love onto someone else, bring it back to yourself and love yourself and all that you are. Crushes are a trap. It is better to view people with a neutrality to start with, and then if they align with you, you can see it clearer than if you have a crush and are projecting an image onto them.

My direct awakening experiences around reincarnation came from a few years ago after getting very sick, and while exploring memento mori, they have given me personally tailored truths, that reincarnation is the name of the game. If you have not experienced proof of this, don't worry about it - each person's path is unique and we are each given different pieces of the puzzle. The less you conceptualize it and the more you actually face your fears around death, if you have any, you'll be more likely to have a direct awakening into reincarnation. The process is called memento mori, and by learning about different cultures, by practicing dying before you die, what can happen is that you can get a download aka awakening into the nature of reincarnation. You are really just "here" and always were, but the outside layer changes. This is what goes on after death: Break me in don't break me down Swimming in these empty towns I wonder if it's all so master planned Diving into sweeter bliss Falling fair before we miss Taste the taste before it's gone and you're too late Won't change what I am To find who you are Can't stay in these lines When I'm bursting at the seams My body might collapse If I carry one more dream If I carry one more dream I could be anything I could be anything Breaking out beyond the night Reeling in the quieter times Saving all the flavors of my mind Reflecting on the lessons learned The broken bonds and bridges burned Take the taste of hate and throw it away Won't change what I am To find who you are Can't stay in these lines When I'm bursting at the seams My body might collapse If I carry one more dream If I carry one more dream I could be anything I could be anything Some sources on reincarnation: Jane Robert's Seth Speaks books and Sri Aurobindo's book "The Psychic Being" along with the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Check out NDE's as well, and listen to people who are going through the dying process. Get very comfortable with it. Start a journal. Live, breath and feel it = what is inevitable, the body will pass on... go through every emotion that comes up with bravery - nature respects and rewards bravery - and offer gratitude and Love. Love combined with surrender can wake a person up if they practice this. You have to go on your own path to find the truth of reincarnation and not what me or anybody tells you. Awakening experiences happen when a person is ready usually, when they have inquired into something with an honesty and a curiosity. The answers to whether reincarnation exists rests within this research, spiritual practice, honesty, open heartedness and bravery. Some questions to get a person started: Am I afraid of death? If so why? What do I think will happen? And then go from there. There's a whole rabbit hole when it comes to exploring this kind of stuff, most people that genuinely have insight into reincarnation got there through going through some form of a death, be it an NDE or a spiritual death, an ego death, even when someone close dies, they can experience loved ones giving them messages about the other side.

I don't feel a strong love, either. I can only love a few people at a time, and with them I can have a very deep connection but not with just anyone. Usually I am neutral. Something to work on, for sure.

My life is fair to me, but it came at a cost and took some work. It is an easy life, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually, there is a lot of karma that needs to be worked through, and so I don't waste my luck. I wasn't lucky in a lot of ways, other than with free time which is probably the greatest luck of them all. I don't care about just looking like a normal woman, or other people's riches or whatever, I have enough.... Uhm.... Look for areas where you are lucky, where other people are not and see that this is a spectrum. You're very smart. The not wanting to do work think sounds like it could be depression, in which case I suggest what I always do, which is to work out every day and build up those feel good chemicals naturally. Also, you don't look like an unattractive young man, I'm not so sure of what you're worried about looks wise. You aren't ugly. Most of us are normal, it's no big deal. Beautiful people and rich people may have easier lives, but a lot of them have very fake lives, where appearance is all that matters, and they don't have to dig deep to find truth... An easy life right off the bat is a handicap, not an advantage. I would try a gratitude journal, and look for things in your life and immediate environment that can show you how you are blessed. If you don't feel gratitude, try looking at something beautiful, and know that it is for you - that God made this... for you. Try looking into the path of bhakti yoga, to open your heart and to help feel the reverence for life. This song reminds me of God trying to bring back someone who is lost, who doesn't have faith and to let them know that God is still here. It reminds me of the path of devotion, which yields strong results.