kieranperez

One of the most succinct and powerful teachings I’ve ever gotten that’s paid dividends in following came from a Zen master I work with that touches on precisely this issue: You have to develop a healthy self before you let go and forget the self. And quite frankly, the degree to which you can transcend is the degree to which much of our character has been not only sufficiently integrated but also developed and healed. I’ve heard stories from this particular Zen master how he was on a retreat and how a participant actually broke into his sleeping quarters in the night, woke him up, and told him how he was growing a pussy and how happy he was because he could finally fuck himself. This guy eventually went into a full blown psychosis to the point where they were gonna call the police. They only reason they didn’t is because this guy was so unhinged they knew it would be a blood bath if they came. So they brought back through this rebirthing process. This shit is no joke and does happen.

Here's where I stand. Your work has not only changed my life and helped actually turned my life around but also helped lay the ground work to not give in to suicide when I was at my most suicidal. I ran into your work after being in a hospital and it showed me the way out such that I now have had several enlightenment experiences, my relationships are better than ever, I've turned around many of the things that I've been traumatized by since I was kid including things like ADHD by providing resources and outlets and also community to find what I've been looking for my entire life. Your work has provided me a community such that I've met people in person that have helped me turn my life around 180 degrees. When I came across what you had to say about psychedelics in the early days I was on 5-7 different psych medications that were destroying my very cognition to the point where I couldn't function anymore. I was taking 2-4 hour naps everyday, barely able to stay awake, could barely drive, and at my lowest point in terms of sheer hopelessness and depression. I trusted what you had to say about psychedelics and that you recommended a slow gradual approach and also how they are not safe to mix with SSRI's, mood stabilizers, and such substances. I trusted you and I actually got off all my meds and abandoned the system was doing more damage so I could try this route in order to get to the root of my own suffering and deepest demons. Turns out, by and large, through extensive research (which you recommended), trial and error, a careful methodical approach, it did help me with just that. However, like you also said, they were no magic pill in that I still had to follow up and do the heavy lifting. You provided resources to teachers, some of whom have become some my own teachers personally. If it wasn't for you, I don't know if I would've found them. I imagine not though. In March of 2020 I had my first spontaneous powerful kensho/satori where it was clear that no experience is ever enlightenment. So I do disagree with you when it comes to that. However, I've also seen you say that you are simply a gateway for newbies. That's what you were for me. I've also met plenty of other teachers (I just had dinner with one) that I disagree with about things they deluded about and I think you know a lot more on when it comes to society, government, mind, etc. Teachers and people in this work disagree in one fashion or another and it's expressed in about as many ways as there have been people. So I don't hold hard feelings like that. I think people are probably going to get lead astray if they just sheepishly take what you have to say, hear it, have some experience (psychedelic or otherwise) and taint whatever experience they have and lay some conceptual layering over it which is comprised of their interpretations they have of what you say based on what they create in their mind. I may think you're incorrect but they're responsible for their end. So I don't feel it's fair for me to fault you on that. Although I disagree with you about awakening I do think your contributions on psychology, development, and so forth is solid enough and I think you are of great service. I can nit pick but it's just nit picking. I think if you wanted to turn this thing into a cult you could've EASILY done that a long time ago. I find a lot of people on here are gullible (I was one for sure) and I think it really does show something about you, a guy with your kind online social presence and influence, hasn't gotten into more serious shit. I think it's a testament that you actually are committed to what it is you say you are. I don't consider you my teacher. To be honest you never were for me. You were a guy very similar to me, as far as I could tell from videos, which is extremely limited (for all I know you could have children chained to a radiator in your basement - assuming people in Vegas have basements...) that showed me the way, the path to what it was I looking for my entire life but didn't know it. And I will always be thankful for that. Anybody that says your video promote suicide can talk to me and I'll tell them to go fuck themselves. Make of that what you will.

Looks like shit is hitting the fan as the word gets out about his death

@Leo Gura l’m sure you’ve considered this but I would highly recommend you look into maybe creating safeguards around what you teach. I personally don’t agree with many of your newer teachings and approaches. That said, your work has undoubtedly saved many lifes and actually kept people from killing themselves. I say that because I am one of those people. I think you’re actually very clear on many of the things people take for granted. That said man, it might be wise to create some safe guards. For example, I know certain particular Zen masters that have very real and powerful siddhis that have talked openly about that stuff with me. However, they don’t share their more advanced teachings except for those that have demonstrated they can be trusted and have earned those teachings through merit and hard work. This is true for virtually any school or lineage. Of course, that’s not really how you have established yourself but putting yourself out there for the kind a things you have to say to the general public has dangers that I imagine might backfire on you in a few years. Although this is the sort of second coming of the psychedelic renaissance, its also introducing psychedelics to a culture that is utterly clueless and stupid about many of the things you, myself, and (hopefully) many others on this forum do our homework on. This project failed with the boomers that were 2.5 times less narcissistic (there’s a 2013 Time magazine study that goes into this) than millennials (god help Gen Z). Quite frankly I don’t trust the responsibility and the power that will be in the hands of these people, regardless of whether or not this movement gets co-opted by corporate interests (which, as far as I’m concerned, it probably will). And I imagine a lot of people have their target set on you so it might not be the best strategy down the road. Just something to consider. Like I said, I may disagree with some of your stances in terms of spirituality and what not, but by and large you seem like a guy who has his head on straight and god knows your worked literally saved my life so I’d hate to see you go down. Best of luck in navigating this.

Jumping off a bridge is not fucking mahasamadhi ?? This is not a “conscious death” where one is entering a very powerful state of samadhi and transcends the traces of karmic bonds (which, even that is debatable). This is just suicide and a very irresponsible one at that as a result of needlessly confusing psychedelic states of mind with actual truth. That’s all that is. A reckless abandonment fueled by utter delusion. Best wishes to his wife and 2 kids.

It depends on what exactly it is you mean by that. First off having a 2nd tier stage development (which, depends as to which line of development you're talking about), as with any stage of any line of development, doesn't mean you don't have access to lower stages of development. You can be at adolescent level of development in terms of the maturation of your own ego but that doesn't mean that if you break your leg very badly in a skateboarding and have a compound fracture you won't experience some infantile sense of total helplessness if you're by yourself. Evolution is holonic and hierarchical and so you don't necessarily lose things that were gained at lower stages. You just build on top of them. So you can be at 2nd tier and still have an Orange shadow or aspect of your development (depending on which line we're referring to - there's no such thing as just "I'm orange" or whatever, that's a gross overgeneralization) that might be running a muck in your life based on certain addictions and allergies that might playing out for a variety of reasons which are usually specific and unique to each individual. That said, you can also be at say Orange or even Amber (Spiral Dynamics Value stage Blue) and be indoctrinated in a Green ideology. So the person's ego development may have Green programming but their actual ego development is really Orange or Amber. The cases you're talking about where there's a "regress" its usually one of two things: They were never at that stage to begin with. They merely seemed to be at that stage. They have sort of shadow acting out that is not conscious that reflects an addiction that can be mapped out and reflect something from a lower stage that was neither integrated nor developed.

This is all your projection. Go study with him in person rather than just make projections about someone. I couldn’t come up with a more accurate metaphor even if I tried. The moment that guy walked in the dojo I had the thought “oh shit, this guy really doesn’t have a feminine bone in his body.” I’ve heard tell from those that have been around him for a long time (some you might actually know) that that just seems to be a personal thing for him. Like there’s just some lack of basic human empathy (not in some moral sense) that doesn’t occur for him.

Devotion is a very powerful path westerners usually can’t relate to. That said... STAY AWAY FROM HARE KRISHNAS. IT IS A CULT. All because you can have powerful experiences under a certain group or organization doesn’t mean it isn’t a cult. Members of organizations like Isis have genuine powerful spiritual and even satori like experiences and are in rapturous bliss states when they do what they do. Hare Krishnas are a cult and as far as I can tell, a deluded one by and large. The founder was clearly enlightened and clearly nuts. Some of those guys seemed to have something going on but there’s plenty of documentation regarding the abuses that have gone on in that organization. I highly recommend you stay away from them. When an asshole gets enlightened all you get is an enlightened asshole. Some guys with cults, and they are a cult.

Although this is a book and could be put under the product reviews here, I felt compelled to share this here, given that it would like have more attention. Samuel Bercholz is an enlightened guy whose one of the cofounders of Shambhala Publishing out in Colorado. He studied under one of the very well known Tibetan adepts that came to the West during the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Trungpa Rinpoche. This book is an account similar to Dante’s Inferno where Sam shares about his NDE and his personal vision of the hell realms. It is a graphic account, which is to say that he actually hired artists to draw and actually express a display what he actually saw in these visions. There are differences as to the status of hell realms between traditions and also individuals. Sam doesn’t make any claims as to the actual nature and status of the hell realm itself but really goes in depth to communicate the qualitative characteristics of the beings that were found in hell realms and the experiential quality (texture if you will) of these different realms. Though his training was more in Tibetan Buddhism he doesn’t even ascribe this to be a depiction of Buddhist hell realms. To me this was smart and actually gives greater insight. We know that many of forms and deities that were created in yogic and Buddhist cultures often don’t tend to resonate with western minds because there’s no context for the Western European mind because there was no thousand armed god of compassion in those cultures. That said, the very qualitative nature of the form is the same. This is to point out that how we may experience hell realms or any such realm (assuming we do at some point in our life), the manifest content of such a realm may be contextual to our individual finite minds that pertain to the incarnation of the body mind that is having the experience. Which, as far as I can tell, is new and novel in the world today. You can get a copy of the book and audiobook here: https://www.amazon.com/Guided-Tour-Hell-Graphic-Memoir-ebook/dp/B01M9EMEO2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=LMS86LFWL88J&dchild=1&keywords=guided+tour+of+hell&qid=1621282828&sprefix=Guided+tour+of+%2Cdigital-text%2C218&sr=8-1

More posts like this please. Swaha.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haka Very cool to see something like this is still around in the modern and postmodern world! Very cool to see mainstream examples of very healthy tribal traditions and customs to still have a space in our ever more complex world. Despite the fact that I grew up in a very secular, individualistic, and atheistic culture I can totally get why something like this really creates powerful healthy bonds between human beings. Plus the testosterone boost for this looks fucking savage.

Every sentient being (so long as we say there are sentient beings at all to begin) all play a role of victims, perpetrators, and rescuers. Every. Single. One. The motivation and function of being a perpetrator is not possible without having been a victim. The reality is, I can also just say that could be the karma of that particular animal. Saying you can't kill for sport is just your self biased view. The fact is is that you can. Ethics isn't purely determined by the actions you take by the way you experience it. The manifestation of one's ethics is very much based on one's point of view. Suicide bombers and terrorists experience tremendous states of ecstasy and bliss when they are doing what they're doing because for them from their smaller vantage point of perspective, based on their stage of development, what they're doing actually is ethical. And guess what? If you go back a couple thousand years ago when human societies functioned at an ethnocentric level at best, which was considered the leading edge at that time, similar sort of actions that we today in our world centric cultures call terrorism, would've lead such warriors to being considered cultural heroes because they actually were! Our society was only possible thanks to tons of rape and pillage, conquering, war, devastation, suffering, and also great innovations, leadership, etc. And guess what? Things are actually better thanks to this so called "immoral" function. Why? Morality and ethics are very much relative depending on the vantage point of one's perspective. Child sacrifice was actually considered very honorable at one point in history. The reality is, none of these views, and that's what they are, views, aren't really true in it of itself. I'm not saying or suggesting some dismissal of feeling your heart break open if you see factory farming or you read about the kinds of suffering animals go through in a laboratory. I am saying though that that is the reality in which we live. That is the case and it's not ultimately a matter of good and bad. Many of those animals that are tested on in a laboratory ground a way for us to create very helpful resources for the world such as various medicines. Being a human being is very complex. This binary view of ethics is just naive. There is great suffering in the world and no matter how "advanced" humans get, that will remain to be the case. Suffering and survival go together. They cannot and will not ever be separate (at least by and large). Yes they actually do. This has been known by yogis, shamans, etc. for thousands of years but even modern science no longer disputes this. Read up on Rupert Sheldrake's contributions on the matter. The fact that you think plants don't have a nervous system shows you're uneducated regarding basic biology. Plants do experience sensations. It's not "pain" in the way human beings conceptualize it as even human "pain" isn't really pain but is actually very much conceptual. However, they do experience sensations, and, depending on the plant, are quite sensitive to sensations and what they take in. Speaking about all individuals that follow this general food trend is not useful. Many vegans I've met (I live in San Francisco so I've met A LOT of them) are very ideologically driven and actually rather tribal regarding their view. Many vegans I've met also have rather shitty diets. Following a vegan diet doesn't at all mean you're necessarily conscious of the things we're speaking about or even following anything healthy. You can drink tons of beer and load up on all sorts of junk food, which, by your moralistic thinking, I could argue you'd be funding corrupt corporations that poison people with food coloring agents, preservatives, or you're paying for fruits and vegetables that were grown in completely unethical ways (see my first comment on this post where I point out, and you can do your homework on this, how even our "organic" fruits and vegetables that you buy at Whole Foods are still grown in very "insidious" ways). The reality is, this simplistic view of ethics and morals is just a circle jerk. Morality and ethics are very much relative have no reality beyond these views. It is not true in it of itself. So all these claims you're making as declarative truth statements don't hold water, ultimately. Again, I'm not suggesting you don't feel what you feel. I am saying though that our dispositions are just that, dispositions that are full of bias, conditions, deception, etc. that serve a particular agenda, namely survival. I also want to point out, again, that not everybody can even follow a vegan diet for various reasons. Vegan diets aren't healthy for everyone. Vegan diets isn't possible for everyone even in terms of convenience in regards to what their local markets have to provide for food. I am not fond of trophy hunting or anything like that. I would like it if that stuff could stop. That said, it should be here and does here. Why? Because it already does. That is the fact. To argue otherwise is to argue in favor of lies, fantasy, beliefs, etc. In other words, what's not true. There is tragedy in the world. That will remain. There is suffering in the world. That will remain. There is also comedic aspect to all of this too as well as a profound sense of beauty. The most rapturous insights regarding the beauty of everything is precisely because our world situation is so utterly complex, confusing, paradoxical, twisted, and so forth. That is the joke and the tragedy and they both go together. My challenge for you would be to view your ethics from such a vantage. Dare to be honest with yourself on both ends of that spectrum and not lie and say what you don't like shouldn't be the case because guess what, it already. Don't disown anything and do whatever you want.

Podcasts: Rogan Sam Harris Buddha at the Gas Pump Breaking Convention (not a podcast but just an idea as far as presentations go) Jordan Peterson (I wouldn't be surprised if it actually turned out to be a productive show) Tim Freke The Weinstein's Rebel Wisdom Guru Viking Ken Wilber - he's gotten interviewed by people with very little following so I wouldn't be surprised if you guys could get a dialogue going. The only thing is, it couldn't be an interview but rather a conversation. I think that would be one of the most fruitful ones you could probably have, in my personal opinion.

Yes and we all do that everyday, regardless of our diet. I can apply that to vegans because hey, it's easier to kill plants and so forth for our own selfish survival agenda. You kill bugs everyday when you walk on the ground whether you're aware of it or not. So this really isn't saying anything. You're conflating corrupt forms of hunting with the entire hunting community. Native Americans killed wild buffalo (among other animals) while having having thriving spiritual tribes in yet it's also in their culture and customs to experience great a sense of respect and gratitude for the animals that they kill. There are ethical codes to within the hunting community and if you're too blind and dogmatic to see that, that's on you to get that, nobody else. Regarding compassion, compassion is an experience we create in our own experience. You can be enlightened and still be a samurai or a warrior and kill people. Hence the samurai in Japan that were trained in Rinzai Zen. Hence Muhammad. In yet you can do so from a place of great compassion and still "do your duty." Giraffes and elephants have to kill plants by eating from them everyday. Is that a relationship to nature that lacks compassion by your standards? Plants are just as much alive as animals or humans. So this stance of yours is purely ideological and self biased.

The problem is not the knife. The problem lies in our relationship to it. Same goes for idols. Idols are phenomenal inventions by people for spiritual practice for a myriad of things. Concentration practice, deity yoga, tantra, etc. It’s also useful to consider how powerful inventions they were for pre literate cultures. Idols also can serve different purposes aside from just enlightenment. Idols aren’t a problem if you don’t take them as inherently true rather than as the inventions they are, and they were and still are powerful inventions that serve people. That’s why art is so powerful. Art you could say is really just a projection of a snapshot of a something that was in a human mind that was given form and made manifest that people then resonate with and connect with in their own unique way and their unique psychology. A painting, a poem or piece of literature, or an idol for that matter becomes a medium for deep connection that is unique and personal for each person.

I personally have no problem with someone (particularly me) taking a moral or ethical stance when it comes to veganism if... The decision is made as an ethical form of protest when it comes to say the suffering that is caused by say factory farming and what not. There is the non dogmatic understanding that life is life. Plants actually do in fact feel pain, we just aren’t usually in a sensitive enough state to have that be a conscious experience. I do resonate with what @aurum said regarding pets. I have a dog and I’ve already had some many insights regarding just how we anthropomorphize our relationship with these different species for almost purely selfish motives. We can have so many different perspectives on this but at the same time, lose sight of the fact that these are merely perspectives, ways of looking at what is the case regardless of how we color it. We can also have perspectives of how these animals can live rather happy lives if they are treated well. For example, take people that rescue dogs that might be strays and really help them. It very much can just come down to our relationship to the reality of the matter. There’s very poignant examples of stories about enlightened beings that were executioners and so forth, a job that we might believe inherently lacks compassion in and of itself, but that’s not true because compassion is experienced in and through individuals, not jobs. Hunters that hunt animals can do so from a place of great respect, compassion, and love. That’s why there’s ethical codes in the hunting community. You can prepare your meat with great gratitude and reverence for the animal for providing the sustenance you are about to get from it. Certain cultures did have these in place. However this belief that enlightened would, should, and are vegans or whatever is pure hogwash. This is not true. Just a belief. Unfortunately there’s a lot of complicated stuff when it comes to the world of food, nutrition, and the sourcing/growing of our food as well as the economic sides of things that would be useful to take into account. Not everyday has the time it takes to research and adjust to such a diet that might be more expensive down the road. Vegan diets don’t fit everyone’s personal priorities for their life. There’s also the trade off of supporting corrupt forms of farming of our fruits and vegetables that have lead to the decrease in quality of nutritional value should more people choose to go vegan that would increase demand and create messy issues on how to produce enough supply and what corners might be cut in order to meet the challenge. In the end though, this is a dynamic play between suffering and survival and the two, by and large, go together. There is no perfect way around this. There is no binary ethical/non ethical switch here. It’s very much relative and my invitation is to consider the relationship we have.

The stick works better than the carrot. I haven't met a single powerful teacher that didn't go to the "extreme" to really further their insight. When you are ready to stop fucking and get it no matter what with a single minded relentless determination that you will become conscious NOW no matter what and stay with that impatience (be impatiently patient), and not put up with more bullshit comfort tactics because NOW you truly do want to know no matter what. All this back and forth stuff for people in their pursuit is because they're not being honest about the fact that some part of them doesn't want the truth. Which is fine. That actually takes a lot of honesty to admit that which I imagine most people on this path in name don't have the courage or awareness to see or speak that truth to themselves. Which actually can create that "charged, polarized divide/conflict" which creates more questions that are worth exploring and investigating and purusing what you do really want rather than what you think which will still leave your deepest thirst unquenched until you honestly want the truth (or consciousness, to know who you are, to know that which you can always trust, the source of peace, etc. it doesn't matter, however that ultimate is cognized for you is fine) no matter what. That's actually what separates a lot of people who get far that are willing to go to what we conventionally call "extreme" (though it's not inherently necessary).

Well said. I think Brendan really is a trooper and a great guy. He’s been of real help to me for the last year or two. Very cool. The lack of judgement and not “making somebody wrong” really i think is a subtle thing to catch in order to see how empowering that actually is. He really does work his ass off and that’s clear to anyone that goes there. They walk their talking with a lot of integrity. Their actions and words match. It’s a very rare thing to see, even among teachers. I’ve come across teachers that will talk all this stuff when it comes to “don’t believe me, these aren’t beliefs” and blah blah blah but there presentation is such that they talking the statements themselves as inherently true. Which really is misleading and false - there’s nothing inherently true about any verbal teaching given that it’s all couched in ideas, concepts, and language, which the mind, by no fault of any student, is going create something in their mind. If you really pay attention at a Cheng Hsin intensive and how they do things, the very way they present their material through exercises is a way to avoid that route entirely. I imagine most people don’t get that. So many spiritual people take this “no belief” thing as just pure confirmation bias of their own new set of spiritual dogmas. See you there. He’s also just put in an insane amount of work. That obsessive and focused quality he speaks of is palpable. You can see that when you’re close to him. I’ve seen that when I met Michael Jordan or if you look at guys like Kobe Bryant. It’s a rare quality. However, he has his flaws which I have heard indirectly from others. To add more onto this specific contribution.. what I really find stunning is just how he did so by going beyond this conventional inventions for doing so, recognizing the fact that they are inventions and is not truly necessary (though that is not to say they can’t be enormously helpful for some). Though he has done a lot of original enlightenment intensives, I know hear he has done a lot of work specifically with Zen and went around meeting different teachers including people like Adi Da who he sat with, saying, as pretty much everyone else seems to say, that he was the powerful teacher he ever met in terms of the sheer wattage of transmission by no close margin. So he’s been around and done inhuman amounts of work not just with the consciousness work but also of course in the martial arts. I mean, it still blows my mind that he almost scored a fight with Sugar Ray Leonard. I even hear tell he was as fast as him, which is insane. He also has an IQ of like 160 so he is a guy to be around for sure.

Although I’ve contacted Peter many times and have had interactions with him during the time he was doing satsangs, this was my first time at his intensive (lead mostly by Brendan Lea), and my first retreat in general. The created format for their questions going from who am I, what am I, etc. I thought was a little annoying and rather confusing given that I started with who (which I hear is a common frustration with people in the beginning that do work with Cheng hsin) but I understand why they make the distinction between who and what. It’s basically to distinguish any confusions in the mind about WHO is to get enlightened, as they would put it and then questioning the nature of what your nature is. The thing to keep in mind is that it is an invented framework for working with things and Brendan and Peter are honest and upfront with that. Ultimately it doesn’t matter but I imagine it could avoid confusions down the road even after an enlightenment. I really appreciated this sort of pure cold masculine orientation to things as that’s how these guys are and how they run things, particularly Peter. Brendan primarily is the one that runs things and I think he’s good at his job. When it comes to the format, as someone whose worked a good bit now with Zen and certain zen masters, particularly Rinzai (though a more toned down version of it), this really does feel like a lot like that. Understandably so since (Rinzai) Zen is a very masculine, militant, and disciplinarian way of doing things. Personally I found it very refreshing and direct and I still feel like they held back the intensity and wish they amped it up more. That’s just my personal take on that though. For me it was very empowering and I highly recommend it if you’re used to this airy fairy egalitarian orientation to things. I found it to be a real breath of fresh air. I must confess it took me a day to get over my projection of Peter when I first encountered and talked to him in person. This was expected on my end prior and I know that’s usually how this goes. I definitely had a hard time shutting up when it came to asking him questions. He certainly “puts on a character” when it comes to how he is in the dojo and what you see on video. There was a lot I learned about him indirectly from other students and I’ll just say, he’s still a person (as we all are - enlightened or not). That said, the guy is a genius and really a one of those rare kind of humans. His genius as far as I’m concerned really isn’t even necessarily anything to do with enlightenment, although it is impressive in terms of the freedom of a lot of stuff that is not going on for him. I certainly had a lot of fun and look forward to more work. What I found interesting though on the first day was that I felt no transmission or anything from him on the first day, unlike other teachers who I’ve befriended and sat with such that I’m experiencing intensity more strong than any LSD trip I’ve taken. Funny enough, I heard tell from several people he actually hides it to not hook students as it is just a distraction, which I appreciated. Though I can’t help but wonder if that would’ve helped process all the mental garbage in the first days of the intensive and release shit. I also can understand why people think he has some kind of asbergers or something. He certainly seems to lack some kind of basic human empathy thing that most humans are wired with or something. His militant intensity and this austere obsessive personality though was felt from day 1 though and it really stood out, transmission or no transmission, and it was impressive. That guy speaks from that and it really is one of those things you encounter in one of those rare kinds of human like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, or whatever. All in all I highly recommend you go. Or just get enlightened and get on with your life. Cobsider the following Ralstonion thought, “life’s a bitch and then you die.” ?

Not sure if delight is the word I would use... I definitely had to douse the morning oatmeal with peanut butter and honey. I still remember the first meal there and was like “yeah, Leo wasn’t kidding about the food” ? It felt like that scene in the first Matrix where Neo walks in for breakfast and is faced with the morning gruel before training. He did also say they’re like a 1 star Michelin restaurant, so he was certainly honest.

There’s also sacred sightings of Adi Da that you can find on YouTube. I’d be curious if you guys feel anything off of it. Ever enlightened guy that I’ve met that sat with or knows of someone who sat with Adi Da (this includes even people like Peter Ralston) said he is by far the powerful enlightened teacher or guru in regards to the sheer wattage of transmission. Saying things about how sitting with him was far more powerful than any heavy dose psychedelic they’ve ever taken and what not. So you could YouTube search that or google any darshans by him. Though there seems to be a hit or miss thing going on when it comes to effective transmission through YouTube. For example, I’ve never felt anything when I’ve experienced Sadhguru’s darshan, in yet I hear tell he too also just blows people out when he sits with them. So it seems to be a hit or miss. Then again, there’s also receptivity.

I’m curious as to how your guys’ comedowns are when tripping? In my experience, and there’s a lot of stuff behind this that I won’t get into here, my comedowns are always insanely draining, heavy, and can even be sort of hellish. For example, my comedowns for LSD are always extraordinarily draining. To put it metaphorically, it feels like my mind is like an echo chamber. It’s incredibly unpleasant along with several other effects that’s hard to put into words. In any case, it can be so incredibly draining and overwhelming. Mushrooms for me tend to be a bit more forgiving in terms of the comedown (aside from the taste that I can feel in my stomach even several hours later - any solutions to that would be appreciated). I find the comedowns on mushrooms are nowhere near as long too. Has this been your guys’ experience? Are there any substances you have found don’t have as hard or long comedowns?

Bump

All of this utter horse shit. If you’re going to believe that which changes (which presumes “thing-ness”, which is false) is Absolute then there’s nothing else to tell you that you’re utterly deluded by this grandiose powerful states of MIND, because that’s what they are. Enough enlightened people have said over the last half century alone the same damn thing post enlightenment about their psychedelic experiences and it’s the same thing. Post enlightenment for me (which is really just gibberish), which nothing “made it happen”, it was utterly clear that everything that psychedelics dealt with were completely and utterly of the mind, including all interpretation. Your presuming there is someone who is “stuck in a limited state” and that truth realization is dependent. FALSE. WRONG. That which is aware of everything arising (which is also gibberish because that too is based on signifiers and made up distinctions) alone is absolute. Realization is not some state of mind (you call it consciousness but sorry, that’s not consciousness, just the mind). “Ego death” via psychedelics is a temporary break down of constructed character which is made up of A LOT of inner psychic conflicts and manipulations and so forth. However, to presume that THAT is enlightenment is just wrong and utterly silly. God realization is not of an experience, though a powerful experience may or may not arise. You have nothing to refute the fact you yourself even know teachers (I won’t name any names) that have some 5-MeO and have reported the same thing back. You’re fooling yourself as well as everybody else on here who subscribes to this nonsense. I would bet my life savings that most of the people that would even provide testimonials regarding the “validity” of what you say about psychedelics via their own experience comes down to one thing: They listen to all this stuff about “reality is imagination” and all this other shit. They take a psychedelic and have some powerful altered state of mind, may have some healing experience (which is great), but then superimpose all this dogma via their own interpretation from what they’ve heard from you. Christians pull the same shit. They pray and have some powerful experience and them interpret it as “I was communing with Jesus” or get into some semi equanimous state and then interpret it as something it wasn’t. Their experience was wrong. Their interpretation was. And it was a relative experience of mind that came and went. Experiences of 5-MeO or psychedelics are not “wrong”. They are experiences that came and go. They are massive subtle or even casual experiences, which are all relative and dualistic and your language even communicates that. You're not some unique person for having powerful experiences on psychedelics. Many people have powerful on even 5-MeO and aren’t swayed by the fact that it is still an experience. Many enlightened people have done the same damn things and say the same damn thing: That’s not it. All this shit like “they’re immune” and all this blabber is just excuses and self depiction. If you’re gonna believe that every enlightened being (if we’re gonna say there even is such a thing) is just somehow immune or whatever other bullshit, sorry but you’re just being rather convenient and deluding yourself. Nothing produces enlightenment, realization, or insight because it’s not something that can or even could be produced because what enlightenment refers to is precise That which has nothing to do with this dualistic relative stuff. Producibility is relative and dualistic, by definition. Even from the standpoint of states, realization can “take place” while in a gross state, subtle, or causal. Even if you’re gonna make the argument that “psychedelics aren’t for fools” for not “realizing” what happens to them, you’re presuming egoity, separation, and actually my point that all psychedelic experiences are of the mind. Bottom line: Psychedelics ARE NOT truth realization. They produce powerful experiences which can be very helpful, healing, potentially transformative, and also harmful. They deserve and their place when it comes to purification, healing, and so forth. However, the Absolute is not something that’s realized via an experience or state. Psychedelics can help bring what is repressed or “impure” to the fore so there can be purification which can make that which is always ever present and Known that much more “clear” and “obvious”. All insights however are of the mind.