Gladius

One week. So far so good. I have been using phone too much, although in a mindful way if that makes sense.

Your posts ressonate a lot with me, but I'm ten years older Keep it up, you're doing great!

How much is too much psychedelics? I had mushrooms in April and they worked wonders. However the experience was so intense I promised myself to do it only once a year. One month later I had the chance to join an ayahuasca retreat and I did it. Now I just got some magic truffles and plan to eat them soon. I tell myself I'm using them for spiritual purposes only, but what if I'm tricking myself? Should I wait? The effects on the brain must be huge...

This is a "trip" report from the pilgrimage I did by myself back in September in Spain (Camino de Santiago). I highly recommend it as a way to learn about yourself. The most classic route of this traditional christian pilgrimage starts in the very south of France and finishes in the north-west of Spain, in Santiago de Compostela. This would take around one month. Since I only had two weeks, I took a plane to the middle (a city called "León") and started walking there. Since it's such a popular route, you don't have to worry too much about where to sleep or what to eat. There is huge network of hostels and restaurants specially oriented for pilgrims. All along the way you find places ofering a cheap "pilgrim menu" for lunch or dinner. There is an average of a hostel every 2 km so you don't have to worry about that either. Your daily routine consists in waking up with the sunrise, walking around 25 km (5-6 hours), and dropping in the hostel of your choice. Then, you can spend the rest of the day eating or cooking, doing the laundry, visiting the town, or hanging out with other fellow pilgrims. During the first week of my pilgrimage I had very deep insights. After couple hours walking, your mind clears up and your monkey mind shuts tfu. I met many likeminded people, tasted great new food and learned a lot about myself. During the second week, things changed a little bit. As you're getting closer to Santiago, there is more and more people joining. That lowers the bar, if that makes sense. I felt there was a "colective" ego backlash there. I met more people from my area, and I started walking with them. After so many days by myself, I couldn't help to join them and gave myself permission to have some fun. That led to have some beers, party, sex, etc. I have to say I had a great time, although I felt kinda guilty to not been able to ignore the devil In the end, I reached Santiago after two weeks walking 320 km in the nature, overcoming many obstacles and with a nice group of new friends. Hope to do the whole thing some day!

@Serotoninluv Sure, specially in the earlier stages. It's very easy to strike conversations if you want to, and walk along someone else. Actually the most authentic pilgrims are the ones who started at the very beginning. There are not many of them, but you can tell they take it seriously, and they are respected, since they had been walking two or three weeks by the time I met them. The closer you get to the destination, the lower is the consciousness bar. There are lots of people joining the pilgrimage during the final days attracted by the partying and the sightseeing.

@Serotoninluv I'd say mostly observing. In the end I was also curious about the surroundings and all the different forests, towns and landscapes I was walking through, so I was just 100% present.

@Vinnie Sure. That was on my to do list for some time. This year I wanted to spend my vacations doing something spiritual. I had done ayahuasca on my previous ones and I felt like getting away from the city. Also, I had very good feedback from everyone else who had done it before. I had two weeks off, didn't have plans with anyone else, and the timing (September) was perfect weatherwise. Besides, it is also a popular place to meet new likeminded people. @Salvijus To be honest in the end it was not as cheap as I thought. I took planes forth and back, ate in a restaurant every day, and drank a bit too much I probably spend around 300 euros (excluding flight tickets and material). However, you can save a lot of money if you buy food in the groceries store and cook in the hostels. There are also many spots along the way where food is given away to pilgrims.

@ZZZZ Too much thought maybe

@ZZZZ Actually, this year I planned psychedelics for every vacation I had (the three I mentioned). Only in one vacation period I chose to go on a pilgrimage instead (which was also great).

I have been playing victim for most of my live. I have been trying to fight it in many ways: working out, meditation, self-inquiry, self-help, therapy, ayahuasca, psilocibina... All of that, it does help but still, I eventually kept going back to my negative thinking pattern. A few days ago, I was observing one of this "negative rollercoaster" going on in my mind and the sentence came up: I suddenly told myself: "They'd love to see you this way". By they meaning the people I blame for all my troubles, my "enemies". I imagined "they" would enjoy how I'm beating myself up, and that vision automatically changed my mindset, into being aware. So my suggestion is you try to tell this to yourself: "He / She / They would love to see you this way". Now some people might say that mantra is bringing more "hate" and "blame" into the equation. But for me, it doesn't come from that position. In my case, this mantra just makes me raise my consciousness level and be more focused, loving and positive. I know these kinds of things don't work the same for everyone. Even if it's too soon and the "effect" of this breakthrough somehow fades, I felt such a powerful inner change I wanted to share here. This is probably result of many years following Leo, and maybe it can help someone with similar problems.

@Shin Yes, I did try, but I ended back at the same dark place eventually. I know you're talking about the "right thing to do", but that's maybe too advanced level for me at this stage. The technique I exposed might be for beginners but for the time being it floats the boat. For sure I'll keep watching.

Ok, got it. It makes sense. Thanks Leo and everyone.

I don't mean to be assholish here, but I am a big Leo's follower and I found a subtle contradiction in last video about self-help. I'd like to know Leo's feedback (or at least from you guys). He says that enlightenment alone is not enough to solve your problems, that's why you should read specific self-help books. BUT in some other video (can't remember which one, probably about enlightenment) he literally stated that raising your consciousness is the key to solve every problem, by giving some examples as usual (whether success, productivity, dating, etc). Again, I'm not trolling, just a bit confused by these two contradictory advices since I'm following actualized.org since almost the beginning. It has changed my life (and improved a bit my english level). Hope it makes sense. Cheers!

@PsiloPutty Thank you! Well, I actually tried mushrooms two months ago, but it was a totally different experience, positive although much more... earthly? It was positive experience and it can be life-changing if you take the lesson. I'm looking forward to do more psychedelics in the future, although I don't want to rely too much on them. I think it's easy to get "addicted" to this kind of experiences, and use them as an excuse to avoid taking action in your life. By the way, I'm having a big ego backlash this week. Can't help drinking beer, eating meet, and being zero productive. Hope to be back to normal soon but having increased my consciousness baseline, if that makes sense.

That sounds like a really profound experience! But do you feel "cleaner" or "healt" somehow, or is it just a trip? I just posted mine by the way (you asked me to do so in another discussion).

Exactly, thanks.

A couple months ago I had my first psychedelics experience. My friends and I went to Amsterdam and I took the chance to try mushrooms for the sake of "spiritual growth", taking Leo's advice. It truly was one of the best experiences I had. My brain reseted, my chakras opened, I felt love all around, and so on and so forth. I finally found the breakthrough I had been looking for the last years of my life, and it was really needed. Unfortunately, one of my friends had a bad trip. He fainted shortly afterwards and we spent that night in hospital with him. As powerful as I had felt until then, my chakras closed back and couldn't help to feel lots of frustration. Next week I'm going (by myself) on a Ayahuasca retreat. I'd like to know what to expect compared to psylocibina and how to make the most of it, so I can get it right this time. Thank you Leo, thank you guys!

Thanks guys! @PsiloPutty @Leo Gura I'm gonna point out my intention was to have a mystical experience with mushrooms, but we were a group of six people and I got carried away by them. @Quanty That attack was pretty close to me as well. I didn't expect to have these kind of predictions, but I'll be open minded about it. @Samra Thanks for the advice! This ayahuasca retreat is really serious and reliable (and expensive). I'm really excited to finally "face my demons". I'll post about it for sure!

Ok, long story short: 4 hours after taking them we went to a restaurant. I felt so good at that time I started flirting with a cute waitress, and she was flirting back. My theory is he felt extremely envious on a subconscious level. At that point he literally fainted on top of his meal, then fell backwards and hit his head against the floor. He started shaking and talking nonsense, so they called an ambulance. True story.

I do believe aggressiveness is a necessary quality not only for self-actualization and successful life purpose, but to survive in society. I've been traditionally slow reacting against insults, offenses, and agression. Standing up for myself is one of the key points in my self-actualization journey. When someone insulted me or even humiliated me, I didn't really "care" at the moment, but that was keeping my self-esteem and confidence at the lowest level possible. Lately I've been improving that area to become more "badass", but my meditation practice made me even more calm. Yesterday, I had a discussion in a bar. The guy escalated quickly and threatened to punch me right there and break my nose. I remained calm, fearless and didn't even move. The guy kept threatening and eventually a friend of mine arrived and took me out of the situation. On the one hand I'm happy I was not reactive, on the other hand I took a verbal agression with no response and feel bad about it. How can one be both more aggressive and self-actualized?

Sure, I get it, but what do you do if someone touches your girlfriend's ass? Should you just be "assertive"? Or love unconditionally? I don't think so... @ajasatya I'd love to walk only among illuminated human beings, but life is not like that unfortunately...

Sure, I get it, but what do you do if someone touches your girlfriend's ass? Should you just be "assertive"? Or love unconditionally? I don't think so...

If you don't masturbate your social skills will (have to) improve, in order to get better with women. Besides, you'll keep that energy for your sexual interactions. NoFap highly recomended.

In my opinion it looks a bit tricky to ask for help to a woman in this issue. It might be a good idea to get a prostitute to decrease the pressure on yourself.

Practical tips and tools to rewire your brain, considering you have been raised and living among negativity and low consciousness values for many years (toxic family, trauma, abuse, bullying, or just negative environment). If you have been procrastinating and not being authentic for too much time, change via simple meditation / awareness can feel too slow even for a lifetime. It would be very interesting to know a hollistic alternative approach to make this necessary change faster and more permanent. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge, Leo.