MsNobody

I'm doing my second vipassana next week and would like to know if you guys have tried microdosing or any other substances (even nootropics) while doing the retreat, I already know they don't recommend use of anything (so I'm not looking for judgement) my first one I followed all their rules but I was thinking here if I could benefit more if I microdosed, since I'm already in the process of microdosing right now Appreciate all the comments

@Serotoninluv @David Hammond I think one compliments the other, they are both tools, meditation is not easy, psychedelics are not easy, the worst thing would be doing nothing at all. I’ve had so much purging done through psychedelics, meditation has helped me a lot, they both together are miraculous but without psychedelic I think I wouldn’t be here today and would still live 4 more years as a victim. I was sexually abused and got a huge tattoo on the side of my body 6 months after, I didn’t know the tattoo was related to the abuse, until I took 3 tabs of LSD and cried for 3 hours nonstop in front of the mirror just shocked with the realization I tattooed my body just to make it my own again and the tattoo was like a label “belong to Laísa”, and I guess I would have this realization after some years, but that LSD trip was not just a realization, it was a whole process of purging, understanding, compassion with myself and with the person who abused me, it was not easy, it was not beautiful but man it was worth it. We are living in the best times, so many tools available, we are lucky ? Thank you very much for your opinion ?

@Nahm authenticity Nahm. I’ve decided I’ll keep going with my microdose process, it’s been helping me tremendously, I’m sure there it won’t be different, it’s subtle but ive been having so much benefits. My first Vipassana was so life changing I imagine what microdose can do, super excited! Thank you very much for those of you who gave me your POV, really appreciate it ?

I also would like to know what peoplethink about Paul Selig, two of my close friends recommend me his books and I listened to a Podcast with him and was having full body goosebumps all the time, haven't found any posts about it here.

I actually would like to think that it's relaxing, it helps slow down (which is amazing cause I have anxiety and ADHD), but I need to be very honest with myself, I think weed just got me numb but after it wore off my reality was back there, and I would rather work with my reality sober, it's harder but it is what it is, like Leo always says, do what is emotionally harder. Yes, I understand it's good for creation, I'm also an artist and love to draw while on weed, but that's just a hobby it doesn't pay my bills, if you are a musician or work as an artist it might work for you.

Oh that's so nice hearing everyone's opinion, thank you very much! I really didn't think about the collective consciousness, I will take into consideration, maybe I will do one day and see how it goes. @outlandish I'm doing around 10 or 15ug, it's very subtle cause I have a high tolerance, I actually don't feel anything at all, just more awareness and happiness overall

The fact you are having to ask this here already answers your question. I love weed and I can only talk about my experience tho, so far CBD has helped me tremendously with pain, and smoking twice per month is good for insights, weed IMO is an amplifier, if you are feeling good you will feel awesome and if you are having a bad day you start questioning yourself if you could be using your time better, like you just asked, it also makes you kind of numb if you use it in a regular basis. I also have another theory that weeds shuts down my logical mind and I get very primitive when high, only want food, sex and sleep. It can be good to connect with people but overall for PD work is not really a good tool, microdosing and nootropics would be much better. Like any other tool it's how you use it that matters. Short answer, weed (thc itself) does not have healing properties it can be relaxing and everything but its not good for you body, cbd yes, but most of weed sold nowadays has almost none cbd in it. This is a good book if you are really interested. https://www.amazon.com/Cannabis-Pharmacy-Practical-Medical-Marijuana/dp/031646418X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2Q3D5B0TODF6X&keywords=cannabis+pharmacy+by+michael+backes&qid=1554325110&s=gateway&sprefix=cannabis+%2Caps%2C211&sr=8-1

@andyjohnsonman you can cut the tab but its not gonna be precise, the best way is to dilute one tab in distilled water or alcohol, this website is the best one, they teach you step by step.

https://thethirdwave.co/

@Psychonaut That's interesting, I have the same feeling with Modafinil, only feel a pressure in my head, but I'm also having sinus problems so not sure how it affects the whole situation that's why I stopped taking, also tried armodafinil but just got a really bad headache. And thanks for sharing this I'm trying to find my sweet spot with lsd but I'm working with tabs, I've been cutting them in 8 or 10 parts but I can't know for sure how much I'm putting in my body, I think I will dissolve it in water. It helps me so much!! It's a wonderful tool Do you do the one day on and two days off? I'm trying to do more often, like every other day or sometimes stop for three days and take two in a row, I'm sure I will build a tolerance at some point in the future but I am getting more out of microdosing than I would from big doses. @Leo Gura Leo I remember you mentioned you were having sinus problems, do you have a recommendation of something that worked for you? @kieranperez I gave some to my sister and she is super excited about the results too, she also has ADHD, happy to hear that!

@Alex bAlex I also don’t drink alcohol, I just say I don’t like it, people want you doing the same things that they are doing, if you are taking care of your health it shows them they should be doing the same, their egos get hurt, misery loves company. And sometimes I say it’s not good for my health, I’m practicing radical honesty and think if we don’t be authentic and expose ourselves we will be just joining the rest of the crowd who lives in denial. Here is a quote I like: to ask them to legalize pot is something like asking them to put butter on the handcuffs before they place them on you, something else is hurting you - that's why you need pot or whiskey, or whips and rubber suits, or screaming music turned so fucking loud you can't think, or madhouses or mechanical cunts or 162 baseball games in a season. or vietnam or israel or the fear of spiders. your love washing her yellow false teeth in the sink before you screw. Charles Bukowski, Tales of Ordinary Madness

In the book How to Change Your Mind from Michale Polan he mentions another woman's work where she says kids are tripping till around 4 ~5yo, they see things differently, colors are more alive, etc. He talks about an experiment she did with adults and kids, and kids were able to solve the problems faster because their minds are more flexible/resilient, capable of seeing possibilities and alternative ways that a conditioned adult mind couldn't, what I love most about kids is that they are always in the now, and spending time with then you are kind of forced to be in the now too, I wouldn't underestimate the power of those little creatures, only they know what's going on in their minds.. Here is a piece of the Podcast Tim Ferris did last week with Michale Polan I also think, though, there’s the pure science piece, which is really interesting. I interviewed, in the book, Alison Gopnik, this psychologist who’s a colleague of mine at Berkeley, a child psychologist, and she has a fascinating — she studies the mind of a child, which she thinks is an altered state of consciousness. And she said, “If you ever want to experience an expanded consciousness, just have tea with a four-year-old.” And she really believes that kids are tripping all the time, up to about four or five. And in a very specific sense, that they take in information in this global way that we don’t. We have something she calls spotlight consciousness. Tim Ferriss: Or the reducing valve? Michael Pollan: Or the reducing, exactly, it’s the same metaphor. And it’s also ego-driven consciousness. It’s very pointed. We can block everything out. But kids have lantern consciousness. They’re taking in information from all different sides. That’s why you can’t keep them on task. But they’re doing something really important, which is exploring their environment and mastering it in a way that we, as adults, cannot at a certain point. It’s like learning a language after you’re 10. It just gets much harder. Michael Pollan: So she’s kind of got a very interesting model that you could use psychedelics to restore some of the qualities of children’s consciousness, the kind of creativity, the kind of problem-solving that kids actually do better. We talked about the mask experiment, predictive coding. Kids don’t have all those models in their head telling them what’s likely to work, or what’s likely is happening. So they’re taking in all that sensory information, and they’re more creative as a result. Well, could you put us back in that head? So there are pure science experiments that I know she would love to do that need to be funded, also. And I think there’s a real potential to learn important things about consciousness. Basically, one of the ways you learn about any complex system is disturb it, and we now have this amazing tool for disturbing everyday, normal consciousness, and studying the results. So I would love to see that happen, too. And that’s academic research. And I hope that there will be centers for psychedelic research at Johns Hopkins, perhaps at UCSF, where this work could be done, because I think the payoff could be tremendous.

“People only get really interesting when they start to rattle the bars of their cages.” Alain de Botton “You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, long before many gods were born, I woke from a deep sleep and found all my masks were stolen,--the seven masks I have fashioned an worn in seven lives,--I ran maskless through the crowded streets shouting, 'Thieves, thieves, the cursed thieves.' Men and women laughed at me and some ran to their houses in fear of me. And when I reached the market place, a youth standing on a house-top cried, 'He is a madman.' I looked up to behold him; the sun kissed my own naked face for the first time. For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted my masks no more. And as if in a trance I cried, 'Blessed, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks.' Thus I became a madman. And I have found both freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us. But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief.” by Khalil Gibran

“If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.” Aldous Huxley

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

@abrakamowse ??? the bird one!

@Serotoninluv can’t tell you how much I appreciate the way the universe expresses itself thought you, this is beautiful! Thanks for sharing ? @moon777light yes it’s my shadow work ? really glad you enjoyed it 1 - Surrendering 2 - Stolen innocence 3 - L’amour

@Pristinemn so expressive @moon777light love the patterns in the water. Beautiful!

@NoSelfSelf working on it!

@outlandish Kahlil Gibran definition is great too! When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth. Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself. He threshes you to make you naked. He sifts you to free you from your husks. He grinds you to whiteness. He kneads you until you are pliant; And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast. All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart. But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor, Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love. When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God." And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; To return home at eventide with gratitude; And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

what is love? It depends. There are as many loves as there are people. Love is a hierarchy, from the lowest rung to the highest, from sex to super-consciousness. There are many, many layers, many planes of love. It all depends on you. If you are existing on the lowest rung, you will have a totally different idea of love than the person who is existing on the highest rung. Adolf Hitler will have one idea of love, Gautam Buddha another; and they will be diametrically opposite, because they are at two extremes. At the lowest, love is a kind of politics, power politics. Wherever love is contaminated by the idea of domination, it is politics. Whether you call it politics or not is not the question, it is political. And millions of people never know anything about love except this politics – the politics that exists between husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends. It is politics, the whole thing is political: you want to dominate the other, you enjoy domination. And love is nothing but politics sugar-coated, a bitter pill sugar-coated. You talk about love but the deep desire is to exploit the other. And I am not saying that you are doing it deliberately or consciously – you are not that conscious yet. You cannot do it deliberately; it is an unconscious mechanism. Hence so much possessiveness and so much jealousy become a part, an intrinsic part, of your love. That’s why love creates more misery than joy. Ninety-nine percent of it is bitter; there is only that one percent of sugar that you have coated on top of it. And sooner or later that sugar disappears. When you are in the beginning of a love affair, those honeymoon days, you taste something sweet. Soon that sugar wears off, and the realities start appearing in stark nakedness and the whole thing becomes ugly. Millions of people have decided not to love human beings any more. It is better to love a dog, a cat, a parrot; it is better to love a car – because you can dominate them well, and the other never tires to dominate you. It is simple; it is not as complex as it is going to be with human beings. People are falling in love with horses, dogs, animals, machines, things. Why? Because to be in love with human beings has become an utter hell, a continuous conflict – nagging, always at each other’s throats. This is the lowest form of love. Nothing is wrong with it if you can use it as a stepping-stone, if you can use it as a meditation. If you can watch it, if you try to understand it, in that very understanding you will reach another rung, you will start moving upwards. Only at the highest peak, when love is not a relationship any more, when love becomes a state of your being, the lotus opens totally and great perfume is released – but only at the highest peak. At the lowest, love is just a political relationship. At the highest, love is a religious state of consciousness. I love you too. Buddha loves, Jesus loves, but their love demands nothing in return. Their love is given for the sheer joy of giving it; it is not a bargain. Hence the radiant beauty of it, hence the transcendental beauty of it. It surpasses all the joys that you have known. When I talk about love, I am talking about love as a state. It is unaddressed: you don’t love this person or that person, you simply love. You are love. Rather than saying that you love somebody, it will be better to say you are love. So whosoever is capable of partaking, can partake. For whosoever is capable of drinking out of your infinite sources of being, you are available – you are available unconditionally. That is possible only if love becomes more and more meditative. Medicine and meditation come from the same root. Love as you know it is a kind of disease: it needs the medicine of meditation. If it passes through meditation, it is purified. And the more purified it is, the more ecstatic. Osho, Unio Mystica, Vol. 2, Talk #4

@Angelo John Gage I think it's a great idea, so far I've met three people from the forum and they are really amazing people, a friend even came from another country to spend a couple weeks with me and we talked about several things and did psychedelics in the woods, another friend trip sat my 5Meo trips twice (because I don't have many friends who are familiar with the substance or even psychedelics in general), without even mentioning the other ones I only talk to virtually who became very special for me. @Shin The idea of the gathering is not to idolize Leo, it's to discuss the topics we usually talk about here in order to open our minds, as I see a lot of people here are interested in the same stuff and have the same values. Also something bothers me in the idea of all of us behind our devices talking like anonymous people, technology is already replacing so many things, nothing will replace the real interaction face to face with another human being, I would never underestimate the potential of like minded people together, the same way Spiral Dynamics evolves like an organism, so it is with people and their surroundings. But maybe I'm just saying all of that because I'm a real loner now, I used to be very extroverted and social when I was surrounded by my blue family and friends, as for now the deeper I go inwards and start getting green or even yellow values the more introverted I become. Leo's community is getting bigger and bigger, soon he will reach 1M followers on YT and although he may not be aware of how things are gonna turn out, it's inevitable that we will meet a lot of people from here and even him in person at some point. If I were to follow your train of thought I would consider this online forum a cult too careful with generalizations and misuse of labels. @Leo Gura Leo, would you consider doing something in Vegas for this year? I wonder if it would still take much of your time, I understand it can be a distraction from your personal work but also it would be sooo inspiring for all of us to see you in the real world and be surrounded by other people who think alike.