jimboJones

@Rasfen You want to check out metta/loving kindness meditation.

In response to the video 'Why Rationality is WRONG! - A critique of rationalism. If science gave us a theory of everything i.e. we had a model that could 100% predict the world as it appears in awareness with all its arationality, then for all practical purposes, would the map not become so similar to the territory or even identical that the difference no longer matters? Of course it won't be reality due to the fact that it's born of symbols but you get the gist. Am I missing something obvious? Thanks

This claim is unfalsifiable. I agree that decreasing activity in certain parts of the brain via meditation/drugs/surgery/disease will give you the feeling that you are the world and not the self but there is no way you can say anything further. If you are saying the brain is a filter then damaging it or committing suicide should be the fastest way to enlightenment, yet people aren't doing that. It seems to me that a feeling of nothingness requires an active brain with a specific part deactivated. The gain from understanding no-self is still as great as ever. You get the benefit of knowing there's no self to die, I just don't think you can claim that without a brain enlightenment exists. The room and actor exist only when the projector exists.

@Henri Interesting , I know nothing of this prana/chakra stuff and tend to steer away from it. Any Wilber books you'd recommend? Also Ken presents an interesting case having his RNase deficiency illness. I'll be sure to read more on him as I have a friend who's obsessed with him and probably has a few of his books. Thanks @Toby Was there a hidden message with UG Krishnamurti? Like surely you'd choose enlightenment over $1mil haha. I'm really interested in Eckhart Tolle's experience with depression and I'll check out Byron Katie. I've seen people comment about how Eckhart's depression still comes but how he relates to it totally differently, also how his suffering almost guided his awakening. It's hard to understand the guy though tbh. This illustrates how enlightenment may be more or less a cure for anxiety because it relates directly to sense of self, whereas something like brain damage involves other brain faculties that fundamentally change experience. I.e the self can be anxious and see the world as anxiety provoking but that can be completely cut through and you are just left with raw experience whereas with brain damage the raw experience is different. @Pallero I guess the only way to get answers to my question are to track down enlightened people with disorder x,y,z and see what they say

@Pallero I understand your points. Trust me this question is out of fear and not arrogance, I want to believe enlightenment is available to everyone and not just those with normal brains. This question is about the potential to reduce suffering and not to mock anyone. A blind person doesn't have subject/object perception in the visual field, but it's probably heightened in the other senses. In one of Leo's videos (enlightenment FAQ Part 2) he says something along the lines of 'this (enlightenment) is available to everyone with a normal brain,' hence the reason for my question. There has to be a limit on how good/useful enlightenment actually is. Surely you agree that someone who is starving or in pain or being raped or tortured is not going to be set free by enlightenment and if you do then just imagine a worse scenario. Do you think a blind person would turn down the opportunity to have their eyesight restored because they are enlightened so its all good? Thanks

I think most of these people listed are only enlightened in the sense that they have and can experience non-duality at will. As for Permanent enlightenment there's probably only a handful, and as someone mentioned earlier would they really be functional? In Sam Harris' Waking Up he describes people who seem to literally not know the difference between them and others. I'm sure it'd be great but is that really something you'd want? To me it's important to make the world a better place and not just kind of drop out. For a lot of these people it seems that cutting through the self illusion at will is sufficient. Once you've seen the truth, that's good enough. By definition, the only times you suffer then on are when you forget this truth. And this way you can make the world better for a lot of others. Thoughts? Thanks

@framu No, but he claims to experience non-duality at will i.e. for seconds during the day and the longest duration he's been enlightened for is like an hour or so. Source - Waking Up lecture during the Q and A.

Hi @Makkatya, I believe its' possible. A specific type of meditation called loving-kindness (Metta in Buddhism) can create this feeling. Basically you meditate, starting by wishing a close friend (not romantic love) "may you be happy, may you be free from suffering, may you live with ease, may you be free from danger." You to this for some time and then direct those statements towards a neutral person, someone you don't know very well but neither like nor dislike. Then when you can move that same well wishing, warm fuzzy feeling from your friend to the neutral person you can then direct it at an enemy. So again, "may (my enemy) be happy, may (my enemy) be free from suffering, may (my enemy) live with ease etc. This then moves to other species etc until you kindle this feeling for everyone... you get the picture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mett%C4%81. You can also skip this process entirely and take pure MDMA and it will feel more or less the same. (But I can't condone the taking of drugs) Importantly, an experience of non-duality/enlightenment is different than the feeling of unconditional love. But the feeling of unconditional love may appear during a non-dual experience just like any other feeling. Best wishes.

@Kelley White You can probably find plenty of ways to modify an event in memory, some more dangerous and experimental than others. One interesting/plausible and realistic method involves removing the fear aspect. There are currently trials with MDMA for war veterans with PTSD which are showing pretty extreme results. The synergistic actions of MDMA and psychotherapy combined are greater than either psychotherapy or MDMA alone in treating PTSD. Sorry, can't remember where I saw the actual preliminary results but there's more info here http://www.maps.org/research/mdma. I haven't experience personally, but the effect of MDMA is more or less the same as the endpoint effect of a lot of work doing Metta meditation or loving-kindness meditation. They basically increase feelings of safety and override the fear component. Just the metta meditation alone doesn't seem to give the same radical effect of MDMA and psychotherapy http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23893519 but nobody has studied the combination of psychotherapy and metta combined, sounds like a year/multi-year process vs the mdma which is like a few months. It all gets a little philosophically hazy though. I'm the kinda person that would get traumatized by the thought of removing a traumatic memory pharmacologically or physically haha but not psychologically, but I'm weird like that. Cool stuff though!

I came across Harding a year or so ago, pretty cool seeing as it's so logical and westernized. I feel like I get a split second of 'seeing' and the feeling of my head being replaced by the world. But it doesn't exactly feel like I am everything. I wonder if its a matter of practice. I always, always come up with some objection extremely quickly, so it probably a good idea to incorporate these tricks when you're 15mins into mindfulness meditation.

Thoughts on the particular state of brain health/normalcy to experience temporary or permanent ego death. Everyone's brains are different thus everyone will have different abilities and/or thresholds to become enlightened. Where do we draw the line? I'm sure the mentally healthy (neurotypical/neurotic) can become enlightened, what about so called soft mental illness (depression/anxiety), they probably can with more work. How about those with schizophrenia or bipolar? Brain damage, mental retardation. Does a blind person enjoy becoming one with the universe when they have no subject/object perceived depth of field to collapse? Obviously this can be answered as per the individual but I think this is an interesting topic nonetheless. The people who could benefit the most may unfortunately be inaccessible to this truth. Thanks.

I was on pristiq for a year and a half, it worked extremely well after I became depressed very suddenly. Funny thing though, I'm petrified of what the drugs may have done to my brain, I know that all they did was make me permanently feel better but now I'm very anxious "what if they messed up my emotions, what if they changed me in a way that I can't get back to etc" and wish I'd just gone full on psychotherapy. CBT made things better but my fear of what pristiq may have done worse. I am a big fan of Acceptance and Commitment therapy though, very strong ties with Buddhism - mindfulness, acceptance and gratitude. I'm basically trying to use ego-death as a way to see if there is anything wrong with me and if I even care about it. I.e if there is no 'me' to have brain damage (which is a thought) then none of my anxieties really matter.

Gday Lucas, can't speak from experience but I came across this channel a few days ago which might help, the guy seems pretty switched on! https://www.youtube.com/user/HarrisHarrington. Go see a psychologist though, and don't settle for one unless they seem good. I'm really interested in this experience, it's like the ego is partially dissolved but the fear, hopelessness and despair aspects are very much still there. Everyone has their reasons for wanting ego-death and it's unfortunate the people who could benefit the most are the most likely to really fuck their minds up. I hope everything works out though!