kinesin

Are you doing the Wim Hof method, by any chance? Cold showers are perfectly safe for your brain. The breathing exercises on the other hand... that's not so certain.

@Vzdoh My guess is that it isn't the aggression which is the real problem here, but rather the context in which the aggression arises. Are we talking about aggression toward a family member or relationship partner? A friend? Strangers in the street? Social media commenters? Aggression isn't necessarily a bad thing, it has its purpose and seeking to suppress it isn't such a practical solution. If you're consistently encountering aggression in a specific circumstance however, a better approach is to reconfigure your habits to minimise or alter your exposure to that circumstance.

Most of them don't have success with relationships actually, and it's the same principle underlying their behaviour which also explains Leo's. Dating coaches are very rarely in committed longterm relationships, infact they're serial daters who have perfected a strategy for the dating process yet weren't necessarily able to deal with the actual relationship stage. If they could, they might be relationship coaches rather than dating coaches. When people give you the answer 'because Leo is human', what they mean is that the entire reason why Leo has learned all this information and spent so much of his life focusing on it is precisely because he struggles with it. Are you familiar with Jung's archetype of the 'wounded healer'? It's a person who has suffered and struggled with something, and in doing so has learned various strategies and methods to deal with it which they then use to help other people through the same issues. The wounded healer isn't necessarily able to put their lessons into practice within their own life - this is also where the stereotype that 'all psychiatrists are kind of crazy' comes from.

@Inliytened1 I've accessed that same meta level many times, I abide in it often. I also abide in subjectivity often. Form is an illusion, cessation of form is an illusion. Form is also reality. Cessation of form is also reality, and an inherently unsatisfactory one - when we experience it in the subjective experience, we mourn the loss of form regardless of what we recognise about its objective nature. Why pretend that once we realise the objective truth, that we've forgotten or lost touch with the subjective one? What are we trying to prove, and to who? We are human beings - regular people with an interest in spirituality who are posting on a forum. When a friend tells a joke, you laugh despite the communication being no-thing. You hug them when you say goodbye, despite the relationship being no-thing. Why pretend that death is any different, and that whenever the subject comes up we have to race one another to assert our belief that it simply doesn't exist, lest we get caught up in believing it does for even a moment? I'm specifically addressing an apparent unwillingness within many comments in this thread to acknowledge that objectivity and subjectivity are on equal footing. To say that death doesn't exist without also acknowledging the fact that it also does, is simply incomplete. @RendHeaven "Before I developed insight, I saw mountains as mountains, and waters as waters. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters."

Either this thread is full of people who are so spiritually advanced that they genuinely don't believe death exists anymore, or it's full of people who are simply so caught up in regurgitating spiritual teachings that they've become entirely disconnected from subjective reality. How do you feel and react when your closest loved one dies? How do you feel and react when your best friend tells you that their young daughter was just diagnosed with incurable cancer? What do you say when an old man tells you that he misses the way his dog used to wake him up in the morning? Do you think that the 'correct' spiritual path results in you being a person who coldly tells them that their pain is only in their head? Objective and subjective truths exist simultaneously. If you abided in subjectivity your entire life and now simply swapped it wholesale for objectivity, fair enough you've gained some insight into another aspect of existence, but until you regain subjectivity you still only have half of the picture.

@Max_V Yes, it was encountering a video about Ido Portal 6 years ago which got me thinking about movement in this way. Of course originally when I encountered him, I was impressed by the physicality of his feats and part of me wanted to be able to emulate those, but as I continued being aware of movement over time, I realised the truth depth of his teachings with regard to their applicability to so many things.

You're falling into a common trap in your thinking here, whereby you forget that although such statements are true from a certain 'enlightened' perspective, they're also false from a human experiential perspective. When people refer to the death of an individual, you know exactly what they mean. You know exactly what the emotions are which go along with that experience. When a person is at risk of death, you make efforts to save them from it - because in this reality we live and exist within, we care about preserving the illusory forms of ourselves and those around us. Just a few days ago you tried wholeheartedly to protect Connor Murphy from unwittingly destroying his life by reminding him that these illusions are also undeniably real in the subjective, despite their illusory objective nature. When it came to a real situation with a real person in need, you didn't try to argue that death was just an illusion, you reminded him it was real. I can't help but notice a common pattern among spiritual communities where people become so concerned with appearing to embody the teachings that they end up presenting bizarre perspectives where they claim not to be able to understand certain subjective human realities like the existence of death in the realm of form, or the distinction of the self from the environment. It's important that as we awaken, we do not lose touch with the subjective human experience. We have to continue to play along with the act regardless of what we know about the objective truth.

@Leo Gura Or maybe mind is imagined by brain. I'm just poking fun. I see far too many comments on here which consist of nothing more than poetic and profound-sounding single sentence statements, where a person could only reliably infer the intended meaning if they were already at the proper level to understand it... but then they wouldn't gain anything from reading it anyway. Maybe it's just because I'm still new here and haven't yet lost my energy for making longer and more detailed explanations, but I don't believe such short and succinct messages are necessarily helpful to anyone. If we are writing with the intention to educate or provide insight, it makes sense to communicate as clearly and in as detailed a manner as possible, while ensuring the reader always has an understanding of the definitions we intend with our words and being careful to minimize the chance that they'll simply make their own mistaken interpretation of a needlessly vague statement. As a teacher, I gain no satisfaction whatsoever from recieving a confused or unclear reponse to my comments. Some part of my ego may gain a crude sense of 'satisfaction' from the seemingly profound nature of my own statements, but this is ultimately unhelpful to anybody.

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.

@Holygrail That information isn't known for sure. Personally however I've come to believe that the quantum field exists below the base level of 'material', and that at that level there's no longer any concepts of zooming in or anything else relating to the norms of material space. I believe that at level, quantum potentials exist not as physical systems but pure informational possibilities which are the true drivers behind physical occurrences at the higher levels. Imo this quantum field is, in effect, the realm of spirit which guides and determines the properties of everything above it.

@Dodo It sounds to me like that dream represents some genuine new insights being formed in your mind. In particular the recognition that you were the whole dream, not just your 'self' within it. From that perspective, which part of yourself do you think the vicious monster may have represented, and what might its motivations have been in chasing you? Here's a tip I've learned over the years - it's possible to revisit a dream during wakefulness in order to analyse it further. If you close your eyes and conjur a mental image from the dream, you can continue to interact with it in your imagination, ask questions of the characters, further investigate certain aspects etc.

@Holygrail To clarify the question - what are you zooming in to? What exactly do you mean by 'differences'?

@Flowerfaeiry The tension in the neck can also be caused by good old fashioned anxiety. I've had it many times. Infact all of the negative symptoms OP described are things I've experienced while 100% sober, so I have to disagree with the @Javfly33's suggestion that it's impossible to have a 'bad trip' below a certain dose threshold. Sure below a certain dosage the bad experience may lose its overtly psychedelic edge, but this doesn't mean a negative experience can't happen.

Yep, this is totally normal and precisely the reason why set and setting is so important, but you already know that. Expect for a general sense of uneasiness and possibly some mild 'flashbacks' to remain for a while, but they'll go away over time. Congrats on making it through the worst of it, though.

@Growly If you commit to this practice and do it regularly, your anxiety symptoms will reduce. I myself had severe anxiety pretty much all of my life (I'm in my mid-30s now), tension, digestive issues, shaking, stammering, panic attacks etc etc. My anxiety eventually got so bad that I started getting such piercing headaches and nosebleeds that I was convinced I must be having brain aneurisms or something, and then I eventually had a complete nervous breakdown which left me with absolutely 0 tolerance for any stress or anxiety whatsoever, like a newborn baby. It was in the wake of the breakdown that I realized firsthand how anxiety is rooted in nervous energy (the breakdown felt very literally as if I'd blown a fuse) and then I began researching the nervous system and found this knowledge. It's now been 2 years since I learned all this, and I'm now in complete control over my body's functioning. Now I can even raise and lower my own heartrate at will, just by controlling my breathing. As for nootropics - generally no. If you get interested in nootropics, you'll inevitably find yourself continuously reading about new compounds and wondering if you should give them a try. You'll find many new and exciting compounds, but there won't be any real research available yet so you'll be stuck basing your decision to take them on forum posts you read. Many of them will turn out to be neurotoxic or otherwise dangerous over time. Eventually you'll realise that many people in the nootropic community are simply desperate for solutions to their problems and would be better off using the methods I've outlined. If you want a tried and tested nootropic which helps in moderate doses, try caffeine if you don't already consume it. Only consume caffeine before 12pm or so though - it has a half-life of 5 hours meaning if you drink it at 2pm then at 12am you'll still have a quarter of it in your system, and that'll inhibit your sleep leading to further anxiety. Remember what I said about keeping the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems in balance. Exercise, sleep and meditation are really the best nootropics around - look into their beneficial effects on brain functioning and you'll find they far outweigh the promise of any chemical nootropic.

Are the screen and the movie the same thing? Are the car and the journey the same thing? No, the brain and the mind are not the same thing. The brain is a biological machine which enables the functioning of the mind. The brain is the physical mushy thing inside your head, while your mind is the 'inner experience' inside your head.

@Growly Such as bloating, tight feeling in the stomach and possibly digestion issues? Part of the parasympathetic nervous system's job is to control the process of digestion, and part of the sympathetic nervous system's job is to inhibit it. If you extend and slow down your exhalations, you'll activate the parasympathetic system causing your anxiety to reduce, and sending signals to your gut to relax and begin the digestion process. Those symptoms you experience in your stomach are because the anxiety interrupts your digestion. Try this - Either lying down or seated, bring your awareness to your breathing. Take a deep breath in through your nose (not as deep as you can go, just reasonably deep), then let it go through your mouth. Take another deep breath in, then let it go through your mouth a little slower this time. Take a third deep breath in, and then let it go even slower again. Notice the pause at the bottom of the exhalation, wait a moment, notice the slight urge to take another breath and then do so. Now keep repeating this pattern, but the next time you breathe out, direct your awareness to your stomach and try to let a little of that tension go out with the breath. Another slow deep breath in, another slow extended breath out, letting your stomach soften as you do so. Continue the pattern a few more times. Your stomach might make some noises - that's a good sign that you've got the breathing pace right, because this relaxing breathing pattern will stimulate your digestive system. Do it at least a few times a day, and as often as you can, try to become aware of your breathing. If you catch it being quick or shallow, deepen and extend it a little. Your anxiety should reduce quite quickly. Also whatever you do, if your goal is to reduce anxiety don't do the Breath of Fire, that's a stimulating exercise which will make your anxiety worse. It has it's proper role, but it isn't what you should do if you're trying to reduce anxiety. Neither the parasympathetic or sympathetic nervous system is 'bad', both play their imporant roles in the functioning of the body and should be kept in proper balance.

@spiritualryan Why can't it be that easy? Where is your surprise originating from? Where is your struggle to believe in the easiness coming from? I'm kidding, but also poking toward a greater truth, which is that no, it's not quite that easy. You're definitely on the right path, but make no mistake it's a long path with many false peaks which later give way to further insight as you realise there's still much further to go.

@Seraphim Astral projection is absolutely real, but not in the way that video shows it. I'm sorry if this offends, but we have to be quite harsh when it comes to blatant falsehoods which could cause a person to stray from the path of genuine truth and insight - that video is highly misleading and isn't demonstrating what it claims to be demonstrating. The girl is simply looking at the objects through a tiny gap in the mask which opens up when she tilts her head - she even says so directly at a couple of points, for example at 7:20 when they say she's "seeing through the light spots in the mask" and 11:30 when she says "that one is a very small hole" and that she can see through it. I'll be charitable to the adults in the room and suggest that they genuinely want to believe that she's not doing this and is infact seeing without sight, and not necessarily trying to knowingly decieve. This simply isn't how astral projection works.

The physical, mental and spiritual planes are mirror reflections of one another. Many people these days view mental images and visions as being 'just' mental, as if their origination within the mind makes them innately meaningless. This is not the case however, as the mental and spiritual are deeply entwined. To give an answer from the mental perspective, that experience you had was a deep and subconscious mental construct. It was a real-time visualisation of your mind's processing the act of letting go of your child and accepting that they were passing on, kind of like a waking dream which deeply symbolises the reality behind what is currently occurring. The mind abides in the mental plane, but the content of the mind is reflected from the physical and spiritual planes. A dream, a mental image, a symbol, a metaphor... these are not hollow illusions, they're direct reflections of a spiritual reality which can only be glimpsed through their mediums. Nobody can tell you that the spiritual plane actually exists and that your child is actually abiding there, you can only realize it for yourself. I personally believe it does exist, because I've seen its reflection in the physical and mental planes.

Firstly OP, I just want to mention that I understand how you're feeling. I've been through this exact experience myself relating to general depression, spiritual dryness and also traumatic relationships which ended. The first thing I want to point out is simply a hopeful sign which you may or may not be able to appreciate in your current mindset, but which is there regardless. You came here and posted this thread. The fact that you did that shows that you've reached a turning point in your suffering, where you turn your attention toward help and solutions. By accepting that you haven't been happy and by making efforts to correct things, you've found yourself on a new upward path out of your suffering. Secondly, a practical piece of advice to aid your contemplation. Notice how in the process of writing about your struggles in this thread, you've recognised certain realities about the nature of your suffering. Recognise that it was the act of writing about them which enabled that insight. I'm a huge believer in the power of writing to provide insight into our own minds, and I've used writing to learn many truths about my own psyche which helped me to overcome similar negative feelings I had about ex girlfriends and loneliness. For me, one thing which helped was writing out my own fears. By doing this, I realised that I was terrified of being romantically alone in life, because I feared that my happiness was dependent upon having a relationship. Once I recognised this belief within myself, I was able to address it and re-ignite the knowledge in myself that wellbeing is *never* dependent on external factors, not even love and relationships. To recognise that desire to be in a relationship is actually based in fear of being alone and miserable enabled me to 'let go' of that desire once I realised that fear itself was the only thing making me feel alone and miserable. This is simply what I realised about my own emotions through the process of writing. Your own feelings may be entirely different, but my intention here is to convince you to do more writing on the topic so you can reach greater understanding and escape from this particular suffering. I have a secret folder on my PC where I simply open a new .txt file each time and spend 20-30 minutes writing on a given topic without fear of how well it's written or how other people might percieve it. Every time, I finish the session with new insights and those insights have been absolutely invaluable to my personal and spiritual development. Try it out.

There are actually 2 distinct things which people generally refer to as 'anxiety'. Cognitive anxiety, and physical arousal. To clarify, arousal doesn't refer to sexual arousal but simply energetic activity in the nervous system which produces anxiety's physical symptoms such as jitteriness, raised heart rate, fast breathing, sweating etc. Cognitive anxiety can and often does produce physical arousal, but not all physical arousal is the result of cognitive anxiety. The first step is to recognise which type of anxiety you're experiencing. Are you worried or fearful of something in particular which leads to your symptoms, or do the symptoms originate seemingly out of nowhere? Are they more mental or physical in nature? If your anxiety is originating in the mind, then meditation techniques aimed at quieting the mind will help. If your anxiety is arousal based, you need to treat it physiologically. For this, getting a rough sense of the broad functions of the nervous system is necessary. There are really only 4 things you need to know about the nervous system - 1: The parasympathetic nervous system. Governs energetically 'down' functions in the body. Rest and digest mode. 2: The sympathetic nervous system. Governs energetically 'up' functions in the body. Fight or flight mode. 3: The vagus nerve is the main nerve which mediates activity between the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems. 4: Respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Sounds like something bad, but is actually a normal function. When you take a deep breath in, this activates the vagus nerve and your heart rate increases along with general sympathetic activity. When you let a deep breath out, this releases pressure on the vagus nerve thereby slowing heartrate and increasing general parasympathetic activity. Google those terms so you get a bit of a sense of how they work. The main takeaway from this knowledge is the realization that by controlling your breathing in specific ways, you can directly influence your arousal level. Don't just take my word for it though, please experiment with your breathing and see for yourself. Try long, slow inhalations followed by longer, slower exhalations and pay attention to how you begin to feel after 5 or 10 breaths. This video provides a short and sweet summary -