Deep

@Joseph Maynor @Shanmugam @SOUL Don't you guys get tired of intellectualizing?

That's not true. Enlightened people can remember things. The memory can go away during certain mystical experiences but it comes back after.

Kundalini rises in the astral body. I don't think it damages the physical body.There are two currents that run from the hemispheres of the brain. One is called Ida (right) and the other called Pingala (left). They cross at the base of the brain and go down the two sides of the body. At the base of the spine (root chakra) lies a dormant serpent (kundalini) which becomes activated when the currents contact it. The kundalini rises in a central channel called the Sushumna. When the mind is harnessed, kundalini begins to rise. The higher up it goes, the more awareness increases. The negative experiences probably occur because people have a lot of resistance to God. I don't think there's anything to be afraid of.

Yes, those are good questions to ask. How?

@Patang The free will or fate argument is only in the mind. There is no one separate from God to have free will. At the same time God is doing everything.

Yes I agree. By God, I mean the indescribable. Yes it's just a word until you experience it.

@cetus56 It's impossible for God not to have free will.

I don't know if I suffer. You're right, I have a long way to go.

You might be right.

Yes, I can remember all that.

It's hard to think for ourselves because our mind is susceptible to conditioning.

Yes I'm trying to develop a healthy ego so I don't become dysfunctional. I'm slowly discovering what I want. What I truly want is not of this world but I pretend to want worldly things. At the moment, I think being a research assistant would be the best job for me. I definitely want marriage. @cirkussmile Thanks! Yes vaguely but I can't imagine them. My imagination is weak. Yes, I might be deluding myself. That's correct! I can try to do things but I have no control of the outcome. Other people still think I'm "Deep." lol

Do you think successful people are psychologically healthier on average? What do you think about taking huge risks? For example Elliott Hulse was in $90,000 of debt. He still started a business.

I think people with decent 9-5 jobs are healthy too.

@Shanmugam I think you do a great job in explaining things. Unfortunately, you will always be misunderstood on this forum because it is a forum. Everyone will misunderstand each other.

@exhale Yes contact him but don't become too emotionally invested in him. Listen to his story.

@MsNobody Here is some good information about chakras.

That's what manipulative people do and you said he's not manipulative at all?

@Nahm Thanks for your input. I've also noticed successful people are psychologically healthier but not always. Some psychopathic people can attain success too. @Armando Gutierrez Yes I agree some pursue success for wrong reasons.

Can you briefly explain what the Samkhya philosophy is? Thanks.

@Shanmugam I'm saying various definitions of enlightenment can also be correct. If one feels like they are, then they probably are.

The keyword is path. They aren't enlightened yet. They are still suffering. Enlightened people can feel arrogant sometimes too. Ego transcendence means a person doesn't follow any rules on how they should/shouldn't behave. Sometimes people will be arrogant and sometimes they will humble. It's just a human thing.

If you know in your heart you're right, there's no need to apologize or admit fault. If you're wrong, it is better to admit it because it would only make you feel worse. How someone else feels is their problem. If they can't accept your apology, they're the ones who are wrong.

@Shanmugam This thread is interesting! Yes, I agree with you that enlightenment is binary. I think the problem comes from people defining the ego differently. I think the ego is not just a web of beliefs and concepts, but also an energetic field that makes us feel like an individual. This energetic field is broken during a non-dual experience like nirvikalpa samadhi. After the experience is over, the person returns to egoic consciousness but they know they are God. This is how Ramakrishna talked about a kundalini awakening. After the kundalini rises, the person adopts a fake ego to function. In my experience, I have beliefs and I use concepts but I'm detached from them. I still feel like a separate individual from the world. I pretend to believe in things others believe in because I have to function. For example, I pretend to believe in culture, nationality, religion, and politics even though I know they aren't the Absolute Truth. I don't feel overwhelmed by problems in life like the way other people do. I just go wherever God is taking me.

It's not anything specific Leo says but the overall vibe he puts out. If you pay attention to his specific comments, there is truth in them. If you see the overall vibe he puts out, there are flaws in that. The overall vibe I get from him is this: He puts enlightened people on a pedestal and sees egoic people as losers. He puts psychedelics on a pedestal. He implies you must attain enlightenment at any cost otherwise you are a loser. He thinks the ego is the cause of all the problems in the world. It's like he's trying to distinguish himself as a leader from the unconscious masses. They're losers because they don't know they're God. In this thread Leo puts Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on a pedestal: In another thread he put Sadhguru on a pedestal. In this thread he says enlightened masters might have different brain chemistry: That might be true but we don't know why certain people attain enlightenment faster. There I responded to him saying some people practice yoga/meditation more rigorously. In my opinion, enlightenment is about embracing everything not about removing ego. Leo doesn't seem like he's at peace with the world unless he's on 5-Meo. In other instances Leo says science is an inferior way of studying reality than spirituality. To me it seems like he's coming from a place of separation and not love. I acknowledge there are problems in the world but the ego is not the cause. The cause is God. The body, mind, and ego are all God, there is no separation. It's God who's creating problems and God is solving them. I could talk about more things but I haven't been following Leo very closely. I could be wrong about my judgments. Those are things I realized by staying away from actualized.org.