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If enlightenment or spiritualism promotes determinism, does that mean there are signs in this world that lead us on our way?

@Davie I didn't listen to much of it, but it sounds like he's all about wanting evidence. If you were a two dimensional being created on a piece of paper by a three dimensional being, would there be any way of providing evidence on a three dimensional being? Personally, I think the uncertainty principle and quantum entanglement are two great examples of how the universe depends on consciousness.

@Leo Ushers n The End We're all struggling. If we're not right now, we will be at some point. I can guarantee you that. Keep holding on, and keep seeking. You'll get there.

@Tanuj I've noticed loud music gets me in a more egoic state of mind.

@Leo Ushers n The End Why are you troubled?

I've noticed some ringing in the ears on occasion, but mostly strange phenomena in my sight--Objects warping and changing shape (slightly). I think as humans, we all have unique and personal ways of accessing consciousness. The trick is to find yours. I also notice high emotion, almost to the point of crying, and what feels like actual movement and slight aching behind my nose toward the center of my skull.

@retardedhorse1 The first one is the do-nothing technique. This is where you allow your mind to wander wherever it wants to go, but don't manipulate it, just watch it. The second one is named something like "active detachment." This is where you have thoughts pop up, notice them, and let them go. The third is mindfulness meditation. This is where your focus on awareness. All of your sensory perception and thoughts. Focus on the medium in which they all converge.

@Frogfucius Do you think you could stop now if you tried? I'm afraid you took the red pill.

Yeah, and your peripheral vision gets cloudy and your eyes water. I don't know exactly what it is but I think it's a form of sensory deprivation relating to sight. I used to get rapid heart rate and a little anxiety from it too.

@strwbrycough Read 'A New Earth', chapters 10,11 from Eckhart Tolle.

I am subtle, simple, completeness. And the "I AM" absolutely exists. It's the only 'thing' that does exist.

@Happiness Remember that the actual experience you had was infinite peace and bliss. Those negative emotions don't really exist. They're all just made up in retrospect.

Great point!

@Yang Noctus I had the experience as well, but I cannot remember what was in my sight at the time. I know my eyes were open, but can't remember what I was 'optically' looking at. Congratulations to you for having the experience. We are very fortunate!

It took me a month for a moment of awakening. I didn't really even know about enlightenment at the beginning of August. And just a couple days ago, I was still asking 'beginner' questions. ...And then boom. I think there's a very large number of variables, like what state your life is in to you, and how often you just ponder about stuff, how abstract you can make your mind think., etc. I have a twin brother who is very successful in his career, marriage, socially, who I wouldn't even talk about this stuff to. He would reject it immediately. --It really depends on you and nothing else. And a moment of enlightenment will definitely not mean you're done. It will try to be covered up by the ego immediately. It's hard to explain, because intuitively, you think once you know something, you know it. But it is not the case with enlightenment. I bet if there are people who spend every waking second enlightened, they have to isolate themselves from everyone and everything.

I had my very first awakening moment this tonight. It was very very brief. I did get a very slight 'experience' of consciousness, and what I perceived was 'subtle completeness.'--That's the best word I have to describe it. Not big, not small, just like completely sufficient in every way--Like all that needs to be. Kind of like absolute closure. My extremely brief glimpse was so minuscule, and yet I experienced it as huge. I had a residual effect in my entire body for hours. I wish it was a more in depth experience, but my ego dissolved it almost immediately. I feel like my ego, took it and locked it up with every chain and lock it has. I feel like it will be a very long time before I have another one. I immediately tried to think my way back into it, and obviously that didn't work. All I can say is it is really out there, right under our noses, and it is very subtle. It's like we've got an equation 3x=6 and we keep looking at the numbers harder and harder, when we really need to look at the nature of equal sign. I don't mean to sound abstract or anything, but there is really no way to word it. You get so much information in such a small period of time, but you cannot really communicate it without sounding completely abstract. It is a lot like one of those 'Magic Eye' books--where you're looking at a page full of a bunch of random pixels of colors, and if you keep concentrating and looking at it a little differently you see a boat--except when you 'see' it you aren't using any sense perception, you're using awareness.

@jjer94 What I did was dove into what consciousness is composed of. What exactly is it. I removed everything from it that I could (sight, sound, touch, thought,) and was left with something. In the past I've been left with nothing (even though I lie to myself and say that I have something), but this time I really had something. Then I 'looked' at it and discovered that IT is all that it needs. It is 100% complete. It needs nothing. Not a sight, thought, touch, happiness, beauty, time... absolutely nothing. And absolute positivity billows from it. Like when you were a kid and told 'do whatever you want to do.' Now I have a 'feeling' that it allowed itself to be seen. It's so hard to describe. Amazing.

@jjer94 Thank you. I will absolutely continue with it. The fact that someone once discovered this without having any indication of the existence of an ego is unbelievable.

@Atticus I know what you mean. Even after an awakening or enlightenment experience you'll find yourself falling back into skepticism. That's the power of the ego. But when you find it, I can only describe it as a truth, so true, that it rattles your bones.

I have a question that has been kind of bugging me: Is the true self aware while the body is asleep? What exactly happens when we sleep? (I'm not talking about dreaming.) The body is turned off and consciousness remains aware?

@DoubleYou My ego swallowed it up almost immediately. It tried to dissect it, doubt it, throw emotions at it and everything else. But that tiny sense of knowing is infinitely more powerful. It's like discovering that the number 4 is the key to the universe. The ego will want to say 'why', 'how', etc., but it's the 'knowing, and 'accepting', that is important. Nothing else.

@Wormon Blatburm It wasn't scary at all. My ego did cling to anxiety because it didn't know how to process it, but it is nothing to be afraid of at all. When you experience it, you know that it has always been right there.

@Wormon Blatburm I still don't understand what you mean. I'm not claiming I am 'walking enlightenment,' if that is what you are trying to say. It was only a glimpse. After only a second my ego took back over completely.

@Wormon Blatburm The conclusions you've drawn will get you nowhere. Consciousness doesn't exist in time. My body and mind do, however. An awakening moment is nothing more than experiencing consciousness without ego. I also wasn't sitting there and experiencing time at a halt. I didn't even notice what time was doing. Like I said, it was only an extremely small glimpse.

@Atticus If you reduced existence to its most fundamental form--where you couldn't break it down any further--it would be pure awareness. You don't need anything to be aware, any quality at all--no brain, no sensory perception, nothing. When we think of the word awareness, the ego immediately says 'we're thinking about thought and/or sense perception.' It's not thought or sense perception.