oysterman

The book 'The Way of the Superior Man' by David Deida is gold for nofap, semen retention, transcendence through mastery of sexual desire, etc.

@Shin The remaining time would never end like that haha, and I don't even want it to. I just keep having the dream, making me think my subconscious is seeking for resolution for the matter. And I don't know whether I should seek closure of the matter by telling her in reality, or seek closure some other way, i.e. internally. Any ideas how the latter could be done? Setting up a daily contemplation practice where I ponder specifically on her and discover that my desire for her is really just a roundabout desire that I have to discover my own infinite nature?

Through a mixture of SDS and using Leo's various guided meditations I have had many strange experiences. With eyes open: When I was once in a very unsettled state, horrific alien-shaped faces came to appear in front of me in the fabric folds of my curtains. In the same session a huge smiley face also appeared, but each appearance was horrifying. I followed Leo's advice to SIT THROUGH such difficulties as they are ego distractions. During another unsettled state, I had a scrunched up duvet in my field of vision. The room was lit with faint evening light. The folds eventually manifested into a (neutral/friendly) large dragon head, and later into several human faces. With eyes closed: I regularly experience significant bodily distortions. For example, my head feels like it is a balloon that is expanding with each breath. Or I have near-indescribable sensations such as feeling as if the substance of my body is either 'thick' or 'milky', 'solid', 'smooth' or 'creamy'. Very strange. I often get closed eye hallucinations from 'deep' meditation sessions, such as a 'pixelated galaxy' just last night. Or a colored hexagonal expanding vortex. If laying down I sometimes feel as if my body becomes flatter and raises up or below where my body really is, and once I felt like my entire experience floated up like a piece of paper and was compressing into a oval-shaped dark hole in front of me.

This large post leads to some final questions about what Killindi lyi said. After watching the video I was interested to see to what extent the existence of historical masterpieces could really be explained with mushrooms - in the video Killindi lyi goes through all sorts of historical things pointing out mushroom references, and I tried to extend this to Gaudí. This post is in part my logical verification as to whether it may or may not be true. Obviously, as Leo said before, it is necessary to 'bite the bullet' and see for ourselves. I think that also the theory is important and extremely interesting. @Leo Gura I spent the rest of today researching Gaudí. His work shows a fascinating, subtle link between various historical architectural styles of Spain, connecting many dots. It is topped off with beautiful, original structural and decorative features; much of it organic in nature (a potential link to the organic singularity idea of Kilindi lyi). Unfortunately for this thread's topic, I cannot imagine, nor find evidence, that Gaudí (a religious man who grew up in 19th century Catholic Spain) would have been a psychedelic explorer of incredible mushroom doses. Hence, my earlier post circling those 'mushroom heads' in Park Guell is probably not a real reference to mushrooms. However, one thing that I did see was that he was a sick child, causing him to be a 'reserved' character. When he was older, perhaps due to this, he became vegetarian. Following hygiene theories of the time, and in-part due to 'religious beliefs', he subjected himself to 'prolonged fasts'. So much so that at the age of 42, a fast caused him to fall gravely ill and nearly die! When reading up on critics, one described Gaudí's act of building of such stone masterpieces as like an 'attempt to quench a spiritual yearning', with many similarities to a Japanese architectural style of mixing spirituality with buildings. Therefore, despite my doubts that he accessed universal consciousness through psychedelics, I am drawn to the idea that the man accessed this (or a) spiritual realm in some way. For many spiritual figures, notably the Buddha and Gandhi, extreme fasting, almost to death, seems to have been pivotal in their growth. Whilst not exactly a spiritual leader, Gaudí's fasting is a similarity, and I am awestruck at the transcendental, other-worldly nature of Gaudí's work that seemed to pop up out of nowhere in an era of strict artistic rules and schools of thought. He is said to not have drawn out plans, but instead use his imagination to directly make models. He would then realize the imagination to the most minute, decorative detail. Or, even more impressively, he would 'improvise' as the buildings went along! Here is an image of one of his planning models of La Sagrada Famillia, pictured in a previous post: SO... While Gaudí probably never used psychedelics, I am led to this question: "Could he have somehow accessed this mushroom-realm consciousness, the place from which the likes of the Egyptian priests copied the pyramids, in order to copy ideas for his masterpieces?" I am not trying to start a conspiracy theory of a trans-cultural high-dose mushroom cult of the historical greats, in which people like Mozart, Shakespeare and da Vinci (and Gaudí) all simply recreated their masterpieces by stealing cosmic information. These people (I assume) did not use psychedelics. But Mozart is said to believe he was 'remembering a melody' that nobody else had thought of before. Likewise, Thomas Edison's claimed that his creative process consisted of finding ideas that were 'in the air'. These people often claim that their creative work is not theirs - and this is perhaps a link to Kilindi lyi's mushroom-realm. My final question: "Are these mushroom-realm ideas (like the pyramids) exclusive to the mushroom technology (as Kilindi lyi claims)? Or, is the mushroom realm accessing a simply universal bed of cosmic knowledge, that can be accessed by some non-psychedelic (or even non-spiritual) people like the historical greats I have mentioned?"

Furthermore, a more recent monument by Gaudi is incomprehensibly complex and intricate, La Sagrada Familia. I find it hard to believe that a single human mind could come up with something so grand in one lifetime. Some of his other works perhaps have mushroom references, with the encircled mushroom heads in Park Güell and the windows with more circles within circles in Casa Battló. Fascinating.

Wow. If what this guy is saying is true, it explains a lot of monuments! Perhaps a new take on the reason for Stonehenge... Which was originally a circle within a circle!

Pues... ¡Vámonos a España!

I have been taking cold showers every day for over six months. It's simply amazing. On the odd occasion where I am forced to have a warm shower at a house where the shower cannot be made completely cold, the difference is astonishing. It is like a cloud of mental fog comes over me. I also get 'hypnotised' by the warmth and stand there like a zombie in the 'lovely' warmth. I say 'lovely' because people LOVE their warm showers. But believe me, after a few months of cold you will never want to go back! Cold showers just cut through morning tiredness or a low consciousness mood - instantly you're sharp and alert. I sometimes feel the same sort of satisfaction and content as after a long strong determination sit. However, I am now approaching the coldest months. How will my new habit stand the test of winter, with water that has been waiting out there in the FREEZING cold all night? My cold showers are becoming quite shocking recently: my nice cooling experiences in the summer were not quite adequate preparation. Edit: It's been a long time that I've been cold showering, but I remember it was very hard for the first few weeks. The first milestone I noticed was after a week or two I could actually sing in the cold shower. Only for brief moments before tensing up with resistance again. These days I can sing the whole way through.

Hey Leo - a reply to an old comment here Someone asked you what your biggest regret is. How would you have lived your life differently HAD you known about it in college? My question is mostly aimed at subject choices - would you still have done philosophy? Would you have chosen a different subject, like science or language? Would you have gone to uni at all?

@JustinS In over a year of daily meditation I too have always yawned like this. It doesn't seem to change in amount whether I am tired. It is far, far more yawns per hour than the rest of my non-meditating life. The tears are very hard to deal with when they start slooowly dripping down your face in SDS Recently, I have even started burping excessively in meditation. Often a horrendous pressure of needing to burp will start to build up. It usually only goes away once I finish meditating and start walking around. I have no idea whether this is anything to do with releasing energy. I too am very interested if anyone knows anything on this matter!

In his older content, Leo talks about self inquiry in a different way to now. It comes across as if it were simply a process of asking a few questions: Who is aware? Who is perceiving? Who am I? I would say that style of 'thinking' inquiry is also found in his Neti Neti guided video. In a more recent guided video (Guided Meditation), I notice an entirely different style of inquiry. In this episode, Leo slowly builds up your awareness by getting you to be mindful of your senses. After your awareness has increased, he encourages you to become your senses, accepting absolutely everything. When I practise the questioning-type method, I end up with no answers, and easily lose focus. With the other, awareness-type method, after just a few sessions of practice I can consistently 'push my awareness' out of my head, into all of my senses. This results in very strange experiences - I would definitely not call them enlightenment experiences, but my awareness shifts and my sense of self feels like it is being twisted and pulled. My question is this: are the older methods less effective than the new ones? Leo's content seems to have evolved greatly in the past few months, and I am wondering whether his attitude to self inquiry has evolved at the same time. I am lead to conclude that his older 'thinking' methods are now obsolete in comparison to this new, 'being' style inquiry. What do you think?

Can this method be effective (reasonably quickly) when practised in daily 1 hour sessions? Or is it only properly effective with the week long mindfulness retreats you told me about in my thread?

@Leo Gura Thank you for your answer. While I'm at it, thanks for so much for actualized.org

Thank you for clarifying this. I'm sure it's on your to-do list, but it might be worth mentioning at the end of an appropriate video. I've seen a lot of people with similar queries

I once sat and watched my face in the mirror for a whole hour. The effects included vastly distorted facial features (like massive eyes or warped cheekbones). At points I looked like decades older, or the other gender. At points my face looked idealised, like a painting. I really resonate with 'feeling like you're looking at a stranger' that you described. Personally I did not find this induced panicky feelings, it was quite amusing. But meditation can. In 'The Dark Side of Meditation', Leo's main message is to keep going, keep meditating, through any 'bad stuff', unless you have real reason to believe that you should temporarily stop your meditation habit. Hopefully you don't feel too threatened to stop, keep it up

1000x the recommended dose can't be good for you

I have not yet experienced long term pain from my SDS habit. I just set myself up in the most comfortable cross-legged position I can and then try to keep my back straight. An acupuncturist once told me that long term SDS meditation can produce lasting pains and damages - I think that Leo has a new section on the booklist that might be relevant. I am personally going to read about on this topic before starting a habit of extremely long (2+ hour) SD sits.

When meditating for many hours on end, the posture is surely an important part. If you are maintaining a practise for many years, surely at least some guidance on posture would be advisable? Otherwise many people might inadvertently give themselves aches and pains in their old age. I personally would love Leo to give at least some guidance on this topic, because when I am sat alone meditating my posture is often a part of the process that is uncertain.