iTommy

Hmm, I think by this he could mean, that your ego-sense of self doesn't see imagination for what it fundamentally is, where it originates from (God), and thinks imagination is something happening to a "you"/ego. It's creating the distinction between a "you" that has/experiences this imagination, and God's imagination, keeping a sense of seperation from the source. The ego doesn't see itself, as imagination.

@SQAAD You= God, thus it's God's imagination. The ego likes to take credit for imagining stuff.

This is a complicated issue. As others have already stated, those problems seemed to exist prior to his psychedelic use. Yet when going into "spiritual" and psychedelic territory, certain practices and substances can add to those problems, bringing those more to the conscious surface. If that is true in his case, I can't say. Kundalini and energy stuff can cause sleepless nights/insomnia in some people, psychedelics can cause kudalini/energy to become noticeable, thus creating issues for some people.

♥

I can't remember where I heard it. It might've been a snipped (preview) from one of his books, read by himself (audio).

Unemployed, well the plan was to work on an online business of mine, yet mainly due to my current living situation this hasn't even begun and it'll take a while to change that situation (no internet, at times no electricity etc. I live with others that don't pay their (our) bills and I can't just get out of that apartment contract and move). I find that if I am working jobs like others do, then there's a spiral into suicidal depression within the first week (usually). I am glad to be on government assistance (I'm letting them down currently since they expect me to run that business), and I am still trying to figure out how to survive without the feeling/urge to check out. I admire those, you guys, who just pull through, even when working shitty jobs.

Leipzig, Germany.

When what you described happened, were you in a state of maybe 50% asleep & 50% wakefulness (+-)?

Depends on what your chosen type of meditation is. I recommend just going for it, in a formal meditative posture, straight back. It can take a while till you get used to meditating in public, yet that's a fear to face that'll bring you growth. I like to wear earplugs during meditation (especially outside, when others are around). I still get tense when others are near me in public during meditation, and not hearing those sounds around me helps me to stay focused. Eventually, this gets easier and people might even find it inspiring, seeing you meditating on the beach or somewhere else

Look into reviews of that website, and user experiences using google. Most RC sites you come across look legit, but aren't. You pay them money, they don't ship anything to you. Also you can ignore that "Not for Human Consumption" label.

@ElvisN The first time I bought "5-MeO" and tried it (snorted), the reaction of mine was similar. I didn't test the substance for 5-MeO at that time, so if it truly was it, that I can't confirm. Although it seems that from some reports as already mentioned, people have similar experiences like you had. Martin Ball even had trouble with this substance at first, he thought it didn't do it for him. After he tried another method of administration/technique or something in that realm, first then it had an impact on him that he couldn't even imagine. Maybe you have a certain kind of immunity to it (if it was 5-MeO), and maybe, this substance still could work wonders for you if it's done in the proper way for you as an individual.

I think you may have hit the nail already on the head. You seem to indentify with the things that you listed, and hearing about it from someone else triggers memories and thoughts about your own struggles with them, seeing that others go through similar things you did/are. Suffering often creates a connection between people that are both suffering, especially from similar things. It feels as if one isn't alone in this (even though logically most people know they aren't the only ones), and there's someone who can understand to some degree. Also, if one of those people suffering isn't suffering from that particular illness/disorder anymore or less than before, then it can be sad to see the other people still going through it. There seems to be quite the mental and emotional attachment to memory and identification with it.

@Master Lin Chi Welcome to the Forum KBL

Good start, nightly dreams are often abstract and when in the waking state, it seems linear - the story of "me" goes on but within a different frame of time, it has usually a different rule-set and personality (me) too. Now, it's possible to be conscious of stuff that's beyond this "normal" waking state. Most people need to do practices to see beyond. Some have astral projections and apparently it's possible to meet other people that are projecting within that astral realm. I can't confirm this from personal experience tho. I think there may come a time when the border between hallicunations and what one labels as "real" might get blurry, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, although it might seem scary at times. I've got this theory, and I am not sure if it's correct but maybe it is. I like to imagine that we're all (humans) having a subconscious experience from an individual POV (me/you) and all of us operate on different frequencies (like a radio antenna signal, receiving different data depending on the channel), thus no-one has the same experience, BUT there are things that overlap. For example, we're both looking at this forum right now, yet we experience it differently nevertheless this very moment. New age stuff often talks about raising ones frequency/vibration and similar, and I think there's something to it. When you go into "spiritual territory", you might experience unusual things that others don't, maybe that means that you're on a different frequency than others, and then paradigms (especially the currently held ones) start to get blurry. I remember the times when I first started to get some tastes of this "weirdness" (feeling as if entities were in the same room as me during meditation - slight coldness/windy on parts of the skin even though the windows were closed, goosebumps etc.). I thought I was going crazy and I felt scared occasionally, yet now I find it more exciting and welcoming. Some things that new-agers and religious people talk about, might not be so far fetched as I first thought they were - (such as meeting "otherworldy" friendly beings, having visions and so on). If those strange experiences can be practical in daily life or trusted as "truth" (in regards to visions and similar), that's another thing. --- Now, things could be purely psychological issues and if they are, then it's useful to see a professional, especially if it bothers you, and if in any way you perceive things that seem threatening (such as voices telling you harmful things). Yet, it's not unusual for some people, to experience strange things during meditation or similar practices after some time. In my experience, it's not all scary and dark and I hope that you see the good side there too, if it continues to happen

So, what is "real"?

@Buba I'd say that "hallucinations" are very real. A dream is just as real, as your daily "waking" experience (the waking experience is usually just more vivid) IMO. If you took a substance like N,N-DMT, this experience might even seem more "real" than your everyday sober experience. I assume that we call "hallucinations", hallucinations, because they don't fit into our paradigm of "normal" day-to-day experience of life, that the majority of people experiences. You could say that your normal day-to-day experience is also an illusion, which it in fact is. You're/We are constantly hallucinating, one small change in chemicals or other stuff in the brain, and your experience can change dramatically beyond logical/conceptual comprehension. It's just that our daily sober experience is the accepted paradigm of "realness" amongst most people, since most have only a tangible connection to this physicality since childhood, and not experienced other states of consciousness. Maybe it helps you to ask for guidance (spirit guides, ascended masters, higher beings, angels etc.) and protection before meditation in a sincere way. You don't have to believe in that, maybe just try it out and see if it makes you feel better. If it makes you more comfortable during meditations and less worried/scared, then that's good.

Usually, politics is a topic that I am seldom interested in. A video like the one coming/announced, might turn that around.

This reminds me of a guy in the documentary "The Work". Maybe this one would be interesting to look into.

I've heard from several sources, that many self-realized/enlightened people drop their physical body. How does this procedure go about? Do they consciously decide it's time to go, and then "flooOOP", travel within the astral realm or other dimensions?

Without a thinker/self-concept, thought seems to arise, or rather it's perceived but also disappears into a blank space/nothing/silence. This empty space/silence is what part of "me" thinks is what I am, since when the mind tries to grasp/hold onto this space that is seemingly blank and it feels as if it's infinite, it seems incapable to do so including obectifying it. That in itself might be another conceptualization, that may be a hindrance. Thought seems to be beneficial in creating dualities, creating categories and differentiating especially when connected to a self-image. With a firm self-image in place, thoughts about survival of that self-image seem to dominate the thought process. It seems that the primary purpose of thought is conceptualization of what is perceived, mainly for sustaining a self-image, for really getting immersed within the dream of life and thus creating different characters/personas that may or may not interact well with oneanother. I had to think about that one for a while. I'd say that non-duality is in itself non-dual. Within non-duality, duality can arise or rather be conceptualized by thought intertwined with emotions and interpreted as duality, creating the perspective of an illusory individual ego-self which is usually creating/sustaining those real-feeling/sense and self-limiting concepts about what "I am/It is", about what reality is. Thus it feels as if this individual "me" is somehow different that other "me's", and this can create the conceptual barrier between the interpreted duality and consciously recognizing the whole/reality itself/non-duality. Deep stuff...

For example, Om Swami in his book "If truth be told" mentiones that he thought about dropping his body, yet he didn't. The same thing is mentioned in "spiritual" literature, and that some ascended masters operate on other realms of existence which I assume might happen when the body is dropped. Afterall it's possible to astral project, and apparently one can meet other beings there during the projection. Yet this is all speculation about what it could really mean.

See, that's the thing I find tricky to communicate in regards to enlightenment. Language is dualistic, and misunderstandings happen. I could deduct more things about what I wrote, and deem it as wrong since it can be perceived as such from another perspective. For example, I could claim that there's no enlightenment at all, or that enlightenment already is and that saying "after enlightenment..." would be false, or as you wrote, there's no-one to get enlightened/a perceiver. It all comes down to interpretation and perspective. That's why I didn't answer your first question properly, since I know where that game usually leads. ----- Hopefully, I can make it more clear with what I meant by ''one still perceives duality within non-duality". I meant, that "you" still navigate reality in a human form, or from the POV of a human, only that "you're" conscious of the illusion/the "dream" and that you're not a human fundamentally. You can still differentiate and put things into categories for practical purposes. I may have not communicated it properly, since what you wrote about here, is what I wanted to convey. That's what I find tricky to communicate. I meant that one can still differentiate and put things into categories/dualites for practical purposes in everyday life, yet knowing that "one" is this "no-thingness", God, reality itself. @Inliytened1 Yea, I've only had a few glimpses of non-duality/small breakthroughs, yet those were just... glimpses. Some say that those glimpses mean nothing at all, since you usually regenerate the perception of an ego navigating a physical world after a while. There seems to be quite some ego-fog that I yet have to go beyond, vividly seeing it for what it is/for what things are. Even though I imagine, that it's more simpler than what my mind makes it out to be. The mind tends to complicate things, conceptualize etc. Once enlightenment occurs, first then I think that one really gets the simplicity of it.

Harry Potter on his Nimbus 2000. Sounds fair and after the realization according to my knowledge, one still perceives duality within non-duality. So I wonder why many apparently do drop the physical body from a duality POV. I've read that some ascended masters continue to help and teach in other realms, such as the astral realm. When one realizes that the body isn't them, or only a part of them, is it really a death praising idea at that point from their perspective?

@Ysabelle I agree that natural solutions are preferred, such as meditation, diet, excercise etc. I do both (meditation & medication), since meditation alone doesn't do it for me when it comes to sleep. Maybe I can sleep well without those pills some day. I used to listen to guided sleep meditations besides sitting in silence, those were helpful too.

@still_no_satori Neat "coincidence"! Maybe it's a sign or something like it, that tries to lead you to the path of truth. From my own experience, I too had a couple of strange "coincidences" happen to me in my daily life, that led me to believe that maybe I was looked after by some...thing/being or whatever else there may be. I try to not interpret too much into it, fearing that I would be deluding myself, but whoknows.