Xonas Pitfall

It can! However, ultimately, you need to decide what "proof" is good enough for you. If I tell you, Hey! Pluto exists, look at it through the telescope, and if you refuse to look, then you will never get your proof. Maybe you're such an overly skeptical person that you'd think I photoshopped images of Pluto or stamped some fake projection onto the telescope. In that case, you'd need to physically invest in becoming an astronaut - training, getting the money, waiting for your turn to be flown out to space - and only then could you finally prove it to yourself. That would take years of investment, effort, and cash. So, if you're seriously looking to prove something that is so radically reality-shifting, then you need to invest the appropriate time - doing the contemplation work, deconstructing your values, narratives, and opinions about what you think the world is, and engaging in lots and lots of psychedelics, meditation, yoga, breathing techniques, or whatever you can get yourself into. (Even Leo himself recommends a solid 250+ breakthrough-dose trips of 5-MeO-DMT, which is quite a hefty amount.) Good luck!

Also, please be careful not to trap yourself in a victim mentality. Thinking: "Because I grew up like this, I’ll never be able to think clearly and properly." There are people who grew up in sheer poverty, alcoholism, and drug addiction yet transformed themselves into completely unrecognizable versions of who they once were. There are many scientists who grew up in strictly religious households yet became atheists. Your upbringing doesn’t have to define you forever - it influences you, but now that you’re conscious of it, you have a choice. Please do your best to remove yourself from victimhood. The best way to do this is by taking full ownership of your values, your mind, and the influences you allow into your thinking, as well as taking responsibility for your decisions. You have no idea how dangerous this sentence actually is. Careful! <3 Who says you need to follow rednecks? No one. You don’t have to have an ounce of similarity to anyone in your life - absolutely no one. If it helps, you can use this thread/forum for journaling and contemplation on what values resonate the most with you and why. I can go over it and help. But even then, you'd STILL have to ask yourself - Why trust me and not someone else? See how it always loops back to your mind? Hehe.

@Daniel Balan I'm really happy it helped you so much - that brightened my day! Hehe <3 Hmm... if someone has been cheated on or fooled before, does that mean they should never try to find a genuine connection again? Probably not. You keep seeking love and connection, just with a stronger, more intelligent, and more cautious perspective. The same applies to you and your problem of seeking truth and building a moral system that you are truly proud of and certain about. Interesting, but why? And also, why do you want to align with Leo's views so much? If your father is a hardcore Trump/MAGA fan and Leo holds the complete opposite views, that suggests you have some deep searching and value rethinking ahead of you. If a person is easily swayed in one direction and then another, it suggests they haven't thoroughly evaluated what they truly stand for and why. If I can simply charm you into believing something, it’s not about what I’m saying but how I’m saying it. This indicates a tendency to be drawn to charisma and entertainment rather than prioritizing truth, correctness, alignment with values, and integrity. (But don’t worry - this is completely normal. Most people are naturally like this. You often need to experience being fooled and charmed before you start caring about it, tbh.) If anything, having those core memories and experiences of being fooled is actually a good thing because now you know to think twice before easily adopting a charismatic person's perspective. Take it as a blessing. I had a personal experience of being fooled, which is why it became crucial for me to develop independent thinking. As you heard in that Manipulation, Cheated, Exploited episode, Leo also had plenty of experiences himself, so it's nothing unusual. You first need to start grounding yourself in your own values and thinking. If you’re naturally easily persuaded, it's almost like living on autopilot - you have to slowly develop a taste for filtering opinions through your own lens. This feels like asking yourself: There are plenty of people who responded to you on this forum. Why did you like my response? What was it about it? What made my response helpful or enjoyable for you? What could I have said that would have made you hate it, discard it, or not respect it? Depending on your answers, you can start seeing what you subconsciously believe is right. If you say, "It seemed very genuine, and you have an interest in helping me," that might indicate, that I value genuineness and helpfulness. Okay, so what does that actually look and feel like? How do you ensure someone genuinely has those intentions? Why did you like Leo’s content? Why do you think Leo is more correct than your dad? Why not support Trump? Why not turn into a redneck like the people at your work? Why not fully embody everything Andrew Tate says? What’s so bad about that? Maybe Leo is idiotic and delusional - why should I trust him? You need to answer these questions honestly for yourself. The key here is for yourself. You have to genuinely question both the people you think are “right” and those you think are “wrong.” Once you truly answer these for yourself, you won’t have to worry about falling into "the charisma trap." No matter how persuasive or captivating someone is, you’ll be able to deconstruct their arguments and ask yourself: Why is this right? Why is this wrong? My guess is you haven’t deeply questioned these perspectives before - you’ve likely just been persuaded by the general emotion or archetype someone represents. This is completely fine because developing this skill isn’t natural - but now that you’re aware of it, you can start improving. As I mentioned, people often follow someone based on their vibe or archetype rather than what they are actually saying. Imagine someone selling you pure garbage - maybe a get-rich-quick scheme. But because they wear a suit, rent a Lamborghini, hire some models, and use fancy vocabulary, people trust them more than a simple guy in casual wear. A good example is how many people voted for Trump over Kamala just because he felt like a competent businessman, even though they never read his policies, investigated his past, or examined his character. The same goes for Andrew Tate - many people supported him because he embodied the “masculine alpha male” archetype without bothering to research his actual business model, how he got rich, or the manipulative tactics he used. Do you think this is true? Why? If Leo disappeared, it’s not like everything you learned from him would vanish overnight. You’ve gained new perspectives - you are not your old self anymore. I encourage you to investigate why you fear this and whether that fear is rational. I promise you. You can never truly escape your own judgment. Even if you only listen to Leo or whoever you find most compelling, you will still filter everything through your subconscious values. Two people can listen to Leo and walk away with completely different perspectives. You can never escape your own filter - you can only refine it, become more aware of it, and retune it over time. You have control here. Just because you were persuaded before doesn’t mean you always will be. Leo was once an atheist, and now he is a hardcore mystic. Do you think he fears reverting back to atheism? No, because he has lived through the direct experiences that led him to his current beliefs. He deconstructed his worldview independently and came to his own conclusions. He can reverse-engineer why he thought the way he did before and why he thinks differently now. This should be your goal too. If you can understand why you were persuaded before and why you believe what you do now, that will tell you a lot. Also, Leo only provides opinions on certain topics - but in life, you will need to make decisions about where to live, who to marry, what career to pursue, and who to trust. You can’t ask Leo to guide you on all of that. Those choices will be influenced by people who may be incredibly charming and capable of misleading you. So yes, gather insights from content creators, media, and the people around you to help make decisions. But ultimately, you will never escape your own filter and judgment. The decision of who to follow, when to follow them, and in what context will always be your choice - not Leo’s, not mine, not anyone else’s. You can never escape yourself. So work on refining your mind, judgment, and values to ensure you don’t regret who you allow to influence you. Take responsibility for your beautiful mind Daniel, and you’ll do great! I believe in you! <3

@Davino Please yes! I'd be so curious about that Thank you <3

These are probably the most useful Leo episodes for deeply understanding and contemplating this issue.

Simply put, you're coming at this from the wrong angle. You're looking for outside sources to define your "values, ethics, and morals," whereas these need to be intrinsically derived. Obviously, it's still fine to reference outside sources and consider other opinions, but fundamentally, all of these have to be filtered through your own values. If you don't define those clearly, you'll always end up taking on someone else's and being persuaded by things like charisma, seeming professionalism, intelligence, authority, or success. To give you an example: Let's say we have Person A and Person B. Person A’s ethics aren't well-defined, and fundamentally, what he cares about is "seeming right" or aligning with what "seems to be right" - basically, the current status quo. Person B, on the other hand, values things making logical sense. For him, truth has to be something he can break down and derive on his own. Now, let's say both of them take a math class with a charismatic teacher. This charismatic teacher tells wonderful stories about how 2 + 2 = 5, explaining the history of 2 and 5, the history of addition. He seems incredibly intelligent, adding humor and playfulness, making it sound like 2 and 2 always add up to more than they seem. People start clapping, and agreeing, and soon, the status quo in that class becomes "2 + 2 = 5." If both Person A and Person B enter this class, what do you think they'll take away from it? Most likely, Person A will believe that 2 + 2 = 5, because it aligns with what his values and personal filter tell him is "right." To him, what is right is whatever is presented as correct, whatever is presented as most truthful, whatever the most charismatic and intelligent-seeming person says it is, or whatever the majority agrees on. Person B, however, will think, "This is fucking bullshit." Because when he takes two objects and adds two more, he gets four. This makes no sense to him. He doesn't align with it. For him, what is right and truthful is whatever he can derive for himself. He doesn't care if everyone agrees or if the teacher seems knowledgeable - he'll either confront the teacher, ask others who weren’t in the class, or do more research. To be truthful, you actually have to put in effort. You have to care about aligning with what's right, which means putting way more effort into thinking critically. But the most important thing is actually seeing and deconstructing your own ethics and values - understanding why you think certain things are correct and others are not. This is the common thread among all great thinkers: independent thinking and filtering everything through values they've deeply questioned and deconstructed. That’s the difference between someone who cares about their health - someone who tests different products, exercises, diet plans, etc. - and an unhealthy person who just buys random pills from some guru to "prove to themselves" that they're healthy, even if they don’t feel any actual effects. The former has a filter and a deep value for real health. They don’t just want to look healthy or pretend to be healthy - they want to be healthy and feel healthy. So, they actively seek out what works instead of blindly following someone’s advice. I’d guess that all the people who "scammed" or "persuaded" you were people whose advice you never actually questioned or deeply tested. Andrew Tate is a good example. While his advice might help you get laid, it doesn't take a genius to see that his worldview is not a good foundation for meaningful relationships or a healthy society. A society needs loving parents and people who genuinely care for each other in order to grow and prosper - not men and women set against each other. If you look at his gym workouts, you'll see that he’s not much of an expert in either kickboxing or proper training. And if you ever entered his community, you’d realize that most of his courses just recycle common internet side hustle advice that you could find anywhere. My guess is that you enjoy being around entertaining and inspiring people - and as a result, you adopt their beliefs. But you need to separate those things. I can enjoy watching someone I disagree with because they bring me energy, humor, and entertainment, but that doesn’t mean I adopt their beliefs. And when I want to think critically, I go to sources I’ve personally vetted much more carefully. TL;DR: The most crucial step to fixing this is defining your values. What do you think a good society looks like? What is important? Is it a world where people are more spiritually aware? What does that even mean? Is it happiness? How do we increase human happiness and goodness? What policies contribute to that, and which ones don’t? Do we need more love or more fear in this world? What events, policies, groups of people, values, and leaders promote that? Which ones don’t? Another thing - don’t fall into the common mistake and bias of thinking, I need to align with one side; I must be liberal or I must be conservative. This is probably one of the most common reasons why there is so much polarity and adversity. There are important lessons to take from both sides, and you don’t need to define yourself as anything. Develop your value system, and when it’s time to vote, vote for the party that has more values and policies aligning with that. No one will ever be 100% aligned with you or perfectly agree with you, and that’s normal - that’s how it should be. It means you're thinking critically and not just parroting other opinions. Also, just look at the sheer character of the person you're evaluating. What are their values? Is it power, selfishness, personal gain, narcissism, manipulation, cheating, exploiting? Or is it genuine help, contribution, mission, goodness? And be careful not to just believe what they say - because everyone will claim they come from a good place. Look at what they do and implement. Do you think a guy who makes girls fall in love with him, then prostitutes them as cam whores, and then teaches them to steal money from clients has values of truth, goodness, and help? Or is it more about fast cash and self-gain? Do you think he’s more or less likely to scam you and be selfish with you too? Or do you think he’ll magically be kind now? etc. These are the questions you need to answer for yourself. Once you're deeply and genuinely grounded in your values, no one will be able to scam, manipulate, or cheat you, because if they fundamentally don’t align with what you believe, you simply won’t care about them. You can still watch and listen to those people for entertainment and curiosity, but you won’t be easily manipulated into adopting their worldview. I hope this helps

Can youCan youCan youCan youCan you?

Let me be a little glitch in your world! I will try to gaslight you into believing that I am realer than you are. I exist beyond your existence. I am the Other that will disprove your sovereCan youignty! WhatCan you now? Can you deny my existence? Can you Can you

This is good! This is bad! This is useful! This is useless! This is helpful! This isn’t! This is smart! This is foolish! This is kind! This is rude! This is efficient! This is wasteful! This is fair! This is unfair! This is organized! This is chaotic! This is productive! This is lazy! This is safe! This is risky! This is polite! This is disrespectful! This is clear! This is confusing!

@Vibes You think so? I see it more as trying to adopt a realistic perspective. It’s great to be optimistic, but if you believe everything is sunshine and rainbows all the time, you’ll likely be less careful and observant of the challenges and difficulties that could arise. This line of work often attracts very "Green stage-esque" people who embrace a hippie-like, somewhat delusional mindset—believing that unconditional happiness is possible 24/7 through peace, love, and plants. So, counterbalancing that with some practical caution, I’d say, is important. Leo is probably coming to his own realizations about being grateful and present during moments of genuine happiness and health and possibly wants to share that insight... but who knows. Either way, the perspective still holds!

@Vibes It’s just being realistic, tbh. That statement holds a lot of truth, and if you haven’t experienced it, that’s a good thing - it means you’ve been relatively fortunate in life so far.

Happiness in your "human form" is 100% conditional. To understand this, it’s best to observe yourself as an organism. An organism cannot grow, live, or sustain itself without the right conditions. Some animals need cold winters, others are more social and depend on having a group or tribe, and some require very specific reproductive strategies, etc. We are the same. And because we are one of the more complex organisms, our needs are far more niche, precise, and heavily conditional. Just turn off your heating or electricity for a day, and you’ll quickly see how conditional your happiness and well-being truly are. The more "meditative" or "enlightened" type of happiness is often described as unconditional. In this state, you’re in such a high state of awareness that whatever conditions you’re in, you recontextualize them as part of understanding yourself as an observer of reality, or as one with oneness, God, or existence itself. You’re so completely detached from your human self that it wouldn’t matter if you cut off your arm right then and there. You’d just perceive it as part of "exploration, understanding, and Love." That’s often what drug addicts, especially heroin users, experience. If you ask them why they keep running their lives the way they do and continue taking heroin, they’ll often say, "Well, it’s because heroin takes it all away and makes it feel good." These states are beautiful but highly dysfunctional and dangerous to your human self. However, this state is incredibly difficult to maintain, especially if you still want your human self to function and participate in "human society." It’s so impractical that it’s almost useless to think about unless you’re planning to fully commit to the path of a monk or yogi who meditates 24/7 and is supported by others in a monastery. If you don’t plan to go down that path, then yes: happiness is 100% conditional. You need to accept that and carefully define the conditions, preferences, and actions you want to build your life around in order to feel good.

Could you give an example of how to contemplate this further, maybe some questions to start? Sounds like a really interesting aspect of God Realization.

This. There is no such thing as ugliness; we simply don’t see the beauty in what we think is ugly. From an absolute perspective, it’s correct. Ultimately, you have two forces: one constructive or creative, and one destructive. For us humans, seeing a decaying corpse is ugly, with foul smells and gruesome features, because it represents the end of life and could be infectious or poisonous to be around. Seeing a deformed, unhealthy face is considered ugly because it represents degenerate, sick genes, which our instincts don’t want to propagate -- this is a subconscious evolutionary bias toward what is perceived as ugly or beautiful. Seeing a piece of artwork being destroyed is ugly because it’s damaging something we perceive as valuable. However, from an absolute perspective, if you don’t care about the survival of an individual species or ego, a corpse means a human has left their ego self and passed on to other forms. It’s beautiful and freeing. It signifies that evolution is happening, and a genotype that couldn’t survive anymore is not being propagated, while something more beautiful and stronger is. A painter’s artwork getting destroyed means there is now empty white space for another beautiful mural to appear, or perhaps something else entirely. Both creation and destruction are beautiful -- there is no such thing as ugliness. Evil is only everything that is threatening or damaging to us humans, our own ego-self, or our ideology. There are lower and higher forms of consciousness, but both need to exist, so they are equally needed and therefore equally beautiful in God’s eyes. If you want... (!) I encourage you to possibly indulge in forms of artwork that are specifically trying to convey something ugly as beautiful. Think of how much beautiful poetry and music have been created from heartbreak or unrequited love—one of the more painful and "ugly" things someone can go through.

@jacknine119 If you have absolutely no preferences and just want skills and cash, anything in sales, marketing, or trades will work for you. Otherwise, find something you're actually interested in. Exactly!