Samuel Garcia

@Afonso What are 'higher energies'? How do you know or measure if something has higher energy? I just journal a lot what I want to improve in my life. Love writing things down.

After watching the video about having proper expectations, what should I expect from myself? Is it best to try and 'hypnotize' myself into believing I can do it so I feel confident or have no expectations for my performance? Afterall they do say believe in yourself. What mindset has worked well for you in the past?

@Joseph Maynor And it's definitely better that way.

Some of the things you're saying are some insights I had on my first trip with shrooms yesterday. During it, I was thinking that there is no other person in the world but me. I realised that me thinking about other people's perception if exactly just thoughts and that the only thing there is my perception. For example I think now there are people typing posts on this topic now but on the trip I would say that the posts are all there are. Moreover, I was laughing a lot because it's so obvious. Very obvious and yet I'm missing it (but now it isn't so obvious after the trip). So I questioned during the trip ''But how can people interact with me if they such as telling me about their life? Surely there are lives being lived by others but I just don't know it because I'm not conscious of it as I'm not there?'' Like how are people able to share their ideas if there is only me? I then realised when I interact with people that is me. Reality is talking to itself when I talk to others -- because reality can't be any other way. But why did I have all the experiences right from birth and not other ones? Because reality can be no other way. It is as if I realised all the experiences I had were the thing I had been looking for all my life. It is difficult to communicate the feelings I had. My question: But now I really don't get it -- how are people typing posts and share THEIR ideas and insights if there is only my consciousness? That would mean I am all alone in the world (like said in the loneliness video). But surely just because I don't experience it, that doesn't mean there is more to life than my experience. It was super obvious on my trip but what if I was being delusional then?

@Leo Gura How do you act in public? Do you often make a conversation with the cashier? Do you smile to people a lot? Are you exactly like other people or could one tell that you are involved personal development and enlightenment? What do you do when your waiting, like in a line for something? How was personal development and consciousness work affected the way you interact with strangers and with close ones like family and friends? Do have different feelings towards certain people then to strangers?

@TJ Reeves But doesn't the brain allow us to exist?

Can you please explain why going around being honest is another lie? How is being like that another pretence?

@Revolutionary Think Yep, they are very secretive with the method -- there's a lot more they are hiding I suspect too. I think I'll give it a pass. Thanks the the post.

People were handing out flyers for meditation. So I went to the intro class. I met a man who explained to me something called Subtractional Meditation. As you remove each aspect of the mind, your mind eventually becomes an empty space and you stop living the world in your mind -- see the image below which he explained through what happens as one progresses by doing the meditation. You see the world as it is. In other words enlightenment although he didn't use that word until I asked him if he were enlightened and he said yes. He said all things which sounded familiar and he seemed like a happy guy. He said the organisation has 300 centres globally including a retreat in South Korea. He also claimed 5000 people last year reached the stage of completion (ie 5000 people became enlightened through the organisation). Furthermore he claimed one could reach this point within 1 year since humanity's consciousness is a lot more advanced than before. Quite a claim. @Revolutionary Think came across this too. How did you find it? The man wanted me to join for a month for £70 (about $56 in the US). I was tempted because he claimed he was enlightened and got quick results. But I was suspicions as he wasn't telling me how the process goes. Eventually he said it was guided meditation. He kept trying to persuade me and go another women to talk to me about it too. But I wanted to do my research. It turns out this is linked to Maum meditation from search I did online which is apparently a cult. The centre I went to (which was actually a house) didn't use the name Maum but they talked about the founder Woo Myung. He has a few books: https://www.amazon.com/Living-Everlasting-World-Happiness-Forever/dp/0984912401/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1499358030&sr=8-2&keywords=woo+myung Has any of you heard about subtractional meditation? Should I give it a go or is this something dangerous? A lot of people say its dangerous out there if you do your research. Best to stay cautious. https://truthfreedom284.wordpress.com/

@Afonso It's more of a request, but tell him to check out Actualized.org.

Plenty of sleep (8 to 10 hours) Eat well -- Try cutting sugar out for 3 weeks and see how you feel. Just try it. Exercise regularly (4 times a week at least) Supplements: Iron (if you have anemia), Vitamin D (if you don't get much sun), Magnesium. I'm trying Rhodiola and seems to help. Stay hydrated with plenty of water. Preferably bottled Less sex -- At least for me, I found sex to drain my energy a lot and my productivity throughout the day. Deep breathing exercises -- apparently breathing well can help for some. Remember: Exercise, nutrition, rest! Also you could go for blood test to see what your body lacks. Which areas are you lacking in? Work on those ones.

They say be mindful what ever you do throughout your day. I may be sounding silly, but how? Which technique (if any) should be used? Is it best to do the labeling method (hear,feel, see)? I don't think so because there is so much going on it is hard to focus on one sensory channel for at least 5 seconds. For example as I type this, there are sounds of the keys, seeing the letters on the key boards, seeing the letters appear on the screen, the feeling of the chair on my body, feeling the ground on the feet, the voice in my head etc. Focusing on the breath as anchor would be distracting to what I am doing. So would be feeling the body. Any advice? Also, what do you do if your waiting? What mindfulness would be best? Listen to thoughts? Focusing on the breath? Labelling? Vipassana body scan? Which one?

I got diagnosed with ADHD a couple months ago and one of the really bad things about ADHD is that (with me at least) I cannot increase my concentration as I am addicted to thinking. All I do is think all day. But the self-help field say meditation is the way to calm the monkey mind. I meditate one hour a day and last month went to a vipassana retreat yet I can't stop thinking. I am trying to do the concentration practice but yet can't even go 2 minutes without daydreaming. In my experience, a lack of concentration/addiction to daydreaming limits the ability to self-actualize. I struggle to connect with people since I can't just listen and be present, can't focus on work and therefore cannot be productive, can't turn introspect as my focus is all over the place. Ultimately I cannot connect with Being -- I cannot relate to how Being can feel so good? After doing a fair amount of meditation and even going on a 10 day retreat, I just cannot grasp how Being can be so great. Being just seems really boring not pleasurable! Being-cognition seems like all the pleasure of life would go away. And I don't know what to do anymore. I just feel my brain is stuck where it is and I cannot change. If our prime directive in life is to raise consciousness, I have an inability to do this. As a result of my very low consciousness, I feel very lonely (as I have an inability to face being), depressed, anxious and feel stuck with low self-esteem issues which require awareness to get rid of. And rather than changing myself and doing real growth, I need to change my external circumstances as much as possible to suit me. I'm don't have such an extreme disorder but I cannot change; of course some people with certain conditions won't be able to self-actualize. There is no point in doing a lot of the spiritual work as it would not be effective. Is it fair to say I cannot self-actualize since there maybe something medically wrong with me that I cannot change?

Does that mean our thinking is dictated by chemicals and hormones and not by 'us'? What if you gave certain a substances to someone who was enlightened which would alter their thinking? Wouldn't the most conscious of people lose rationality?

Can't focus -- went to 10-day Vipassana and was just thinking all the time; did not improve in concentration at all. My concentration is very poor -- I can't even focus for 30 seconds without wondering. Always wander -- cant fix this. Concentration practice isn't working. Perhaps this is a medical issue. I'm trying to get drugs for ADHD but its taking a while. As result, I can't be aware of my actions, I struggle to change, time goes by so fast and ultimately lost in thought unaware for most of the day and I'm very unproductive in doing work and it is taking me a long time to write this as my mind keeps going to another place (but I don't know where). And if I can't concentrate and it isn't improving, is mediation/self-inquiry worth the time? Because I feel liberation is almost impossible for some people including me. Feeling very lonely; I love talking to people but seem incapable of making friendships as I don't connect with people. Plus those who are willing to be friends just seem to not fulfill. I'm just different from others. Even on this forum, I feel like I'm very different to others as I'm not getting the results others seem to be getting. Why do I desire attention form others so much? What is the 'cure' for loneliness? I also value a select few people but they are not willing to be around me. I just don't feel happy; fundamentally unfulfilled. I meditating for 1 hour a day for since the start of this year but seems to not help me be fulfilled (perhaps this is not enough). I look at other people's lives at university and they seem to be quite fulfilled. They are outgoing, they go on holiday with their friends, are able to find intimate relations easily, able to succeed in their work, are not needy for validation, are high self-esteem, are not-victims, don't complain, and are just happy -- whilst I'm not. Perhaps it isn't fair to compare, but they don't even do personal development. I just find it difficult to believe I can live a profound life by doing personal development. I don't do self-inquiry but I find it hard to see how I will get benefits from it. Lack of energy to do take action. I feel tired in the morning. I eat fairly healthily; don't eat too much. Blood test said I got vitamin D difficency and I'm taking prescribed tablets but still feel tired. I try to avoid ejaculating, but in the bed unconsciously I do so and that also depletes my energy. It's difficult to stop this since, I am unaware when this happens. But when I am awake, I have no real urge for sex. Low Self-esteem as I feel scared of doing new things like traveling abroad, feel incapable of partying, clubbing and having fun like I hear other people do, incapable for success at university work, scared of getting a job which I would like when I'm older. I feel like have no real strengths too. When I hear other people do all these really outgoing things like skiing or doing volunteer work in Africa, a whole physiology reaction occurs. I feel that my problems are a little bit more specialized /unique (or perhaps not). But I feel like I don't know what to do now. I feel hugely stuck.

Are certain individuals (aside from insane and those who are 'disabled' etc.) naturally closer to Truth than others? For example some say that the male brain is more logical than the female brain which is more emotional. Wouldn't this mean that the male brain sees reality in a more objective frame or more with B-cognition whilst the female brain would be in D-cognition as emotions would distort reality more? What about people with ADHD? ADHD means that focus is a lot less concentrated than non-ADHD individuals. So meditation and self-inquiry with ADHD would be far less effective due to poorer concentration.

Why would my self matter when I am giving in lots of money to a charity which contributes to helping refugees escape from a war zone, giving orphans an education, or helping with emergency responses to natural disasters? Surely the act of helping those is need is what matters, not the devil/self? Compare doing nothing vs. actively helping these people who are suffering. There are bigger things we are dealing with then the self, right? When the majority of people raise money say for example for special events like Comic Relief, is this a devilish act? Partly yes, but it would be more devilish to do nothing. How would my passion, love and happiness help someone on the other side of the world in a war zone? On an individual scale, it won't matter and sending money to help with supplies would be more loving than doing nothing for those people. Perhaps only the people with direct interaction or indirectly even could benefit from love and passion.

It is also so nice that we actually want to help each other grow in a non-judgmental way. Not so common anywhere else. Love y'all!

@ajasatya What you mean by love? Is love giving without expecting in return? Is it just being there for the other person? Something else. The problem for me is that I don't feel complete by myself. There is a need. But how can I get rid of the need of someone and just be complete by myself?

@Leo Gura Isn't socializing in a way just patching up the loneliness? Wouldn't real growth come from detaching from the need for to feel complete from other people?

@Sukhpaal When I am in crowds, I feel lonely particularly because I struggle to socialize as I have Asperger's Syndrome. But when I am by myself at home, I don't feel lonely. Why? Because when I am alone I am free; I can express my emotions. Try this: when you are alone at home put on music you like and dance and sing to it -- and see how you feel when you self-express. Find ways to express yourself in other ways and see what happens. Perhaps you could feel your emotions fully (and even cry) and see how you feel. Also I would strongly recommend try to 'commit to something bigger than yourself' as Tony Robbins says. Go find some sort of volunteering -- whether with it is with children, feeding homeless people, fundraising etc. Find something meaningful to you and see what happens to your loneliness. All the best

The video posted on ''Naive Realism' got me thinking: An enlightened women, Byron Katie, said in an interview to a women who questioned about being at peace with world hunger, that it isn't true that people are hungry. I instantly disagreed in my mind. Yes, the thought 'people are starving in the world' is a thought. Yes, what I have of reality is sense perception. But doesn't that implies that there is a 'me' because if my body dies, my thoughts and sense dies as well so I cannot perceive the world no longer, yet other people lives still go on. So surely there are people hungry around the world -- I just don't perceive it because my sensory perception isn't everything. My sensory perception is everything to me as without it I have nothing on the world to perceive. So surely there is a me, right? So how is there no hunger in the world? Of course, this is just one example of anything. How do people not exist if I can't see them? How is there no external world? I assume enlightenment will show me the answer.

What do you mean by ''love''? I would think love is something like helping others without anything for yourself. But you say LOVE = BEING. Are you saying love is just what is and love doesn't increase or decrease? What is meant by being?

If I only have my senses and thoughts to access reality, why would I want to help other people? Because the reason I would have empathy for other people would be because I believe that there is a person in there your experiences emotions and struggle (via there sensory field). But I only have my senses and thoughts -- nobody elses. So surely my experience is the only thing which would really matter. This though however builds up a little bit of arrogance and so why would I consider other people's perceptive (as suggested in the how to deal with anger part 2 video) when other people are mostly thoughts most of the time?

What do you mean by this? Doesn't the visual sensation cause/influence thought? Where does focus fit into this matter? For example, they say blind people are more attuned to their hearing (maybe because they have more focus on the hearing and none on their seeing). When intensity of physical pain increase, doesn't more focus go onto that pain (feeling) and less onto hearing and seeing. But you said that no phenomena is superior to another. Isn't attention/focus the thing which connects sights, sounds and feelings?