kieranperez

I've met many teachers now that have done 5 MeO post enlightenment and it's always the same answers: "That's not it." "Profound state of ignorance." "Powerful experience, but still relative." What many of you on this forum fall into the trap of with all these experiences is believing you're mind's interpretation of not just psychedelic experience by any of these experiences. When you have your first kensho, satori, enlightenment, glimpse, whatever you want to call it (which is really just gibberish because there is no "it" at all, and not even that), you'll know. Many of you just flat out cannot tell how much your preconceptions and conditioning (including the conditioning you get regarding Leo). If you go into some trip with preconceptions of God or love or "everything is imagination" and whatever other nonsense you've heard (regardless of who it is or where you got it from) that is just a narrative you give to your experience. I don't know how else to tell you this. Many of you on this forum really are just too thick headed to learn from those that made the mistakes (and contributions) during the 60's and 70's. I know a Zen master that was the lead producer and pioneer of LSD that created windowpane LSD that's taken doses as high as 25,000 micrograms. He still looks back and says the same thing: THAT'S. NOT. IT. Psychedelics are altered states of mind. Psychedelics broke open human MINDS during the counterculture. They experienced radical subtle and causal states of mind. That IS NOT enlightenment or what Absolute. Where there is one that is experiencing a state, there is ignorance. If you want an honest experiment where you actually hold your feet to the fire, put your ass on the line and be willing to meet and study with a teacher, have your first glimpse (which is still not something you can do, create, etc. because ultimately it's not something that "happens"), then you'll understand. Or be willing to seek out teachers or individuals that had their powerful psychedelics after realization or bother before and after. The experience and state that came and went is dualistic and relative. Powerful 5-MeO and psychedelic experiences are all RELATIVE. Nothing wrong with that nor is there anything ultimately right about them either. They can be profoundly healing and lead to other sorts of doors opening that deal with psychic and paranormal phenomenon and may even clear out a lot of baggage in the mind that can help purify things. They also might lead to this catastrophe of psychedelic and spiritual narcissism and confusing experience with enlightenment. What is NOT Enlightenment or Absolute: Samadhi/Jhana states Psychedelic experiences Experiences PERIOD NDE's Siddhi states Kundalini Channeling or Mediumship Any of the following may or may not arise for you in your experience along the path. I'm not suggesting dismissal of such experiences. I for one advocate strongly for responsible use of psychedelics and responsible exploration of such states and abilities. However, call it for what it is. And if you can't tell the difference, which MANY can't, take note.

This was too good not share... Entertaining... to say the very least

What categories you use for you commonplace book? Do you prefer digital or physical book? What do you put in it? How often? Read @Leo Gura's blueprint topic on it and I think this is something that I would really benefit from.

Is there any sort of explanation for this? I probably have this about a couple times a week and have had this for so many years I’ve pretty much lose track. Probably since I was a kid and maybe younger.

“We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.” - Hegel https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/show/this-dissident-leaked-explosive-documents-depicting-chinas-brutal-treatment-of-uighurs

This podcast you listed is about a guy who had trauma that was misdiagnosed for OCD. Real OCD is something that tends to manifest as a developmental disorder but is usually just addressed with a 3rd person objective lens in terms of cognitive strategies through day to day life to cope and pharmacological treatments at the level of the brain (given the confusion and conflation between mind and brain). ADHD is not inherently a problem. ADHD in a certain sense doesn’t mean anything as it’s not a disease like cancer where we know what it is. If you deal with a disease like cancer, you can see what it is - usually a tumor. When it comes to the domain of cognition, things are A LOT harder to mark out what’s what because all we see is general vague symptoms, we have a medical paradigm that’s grounded on false assumptions between mind and brain and the abstract nature of mind and emotions and how that impacts the brain and nervous system and so on. Having legit ADHD or OCD (which, with the conditions @Crystalous gave I wouldn’t find it appropriate to just say he clearly does as it’s so vague) tends to be an issue in a lot of modern societies because, at least here in America, we have antiquated school systems that range from traditionalist to a post modern value system, all of which are a fucking mess which right then and there could be the heart of these issues given that there’s more reason to suggest that this stuff could be developmental traumas. When I speak of OCD or ADHD, I’m talking about stuff that traces back pretty much cover the entire course of sometimes life. These terms are so easy to through around because it’s convenient given that we live in a world filled with pseudo psychologists. The most important thing I think about dealing with this stuff was actually highlighted in that podcast - if someone wants to deal with this stuff... THEY have to be the source of the solution. Not some gimmick or magic technique or practice. This work is NOT fun and usually very uncomfortable. There is no magic pill or meditation practice, technology, etc. that’s going to do it. That’s not really news people (including me) ever want to hear because it’s a lot more convenient (understandable why that would be desired) to have some teacher say “just do this” or outsource stuff to some self-help teacher or any other kind of teacher or even doctor (not that it’s wise to ignore them) rather than take responsibility for ones condition. Also keep in mind that not all tendencies of mind can be changed and I would question any thought that says one has to - because it’s not true at all. Sometimes this stuff has deeper desires to live a life that’s more suitable and enjoyable rather than trying to just live like everybody else.

@StripedGiraffe the most misunderstood thing with all such notions about "collective awakening" is that it suggests that groups are intelligent. Groups are NOT intelligent. Groups don't have a dominant central monad. Only individuals awaken.

I’m not telling you you should do anything. You’re going to do what you want and that’s up to you. As far as your conditions... yeah welcome to the club my friend lol. Do you think you’re alone in that? I used to shake an entire classroom with my foot shaking, got made fun of for meds, special ed, failed school despite being smart and dropped out of college, etc. That’s part of life. This is the hand your dealt with and I can appreciate the struggle with that. It’s fucking hard when the entire societal system doesn’t accommodate people like us. I dealt with being suicidal throughout my teenage years while dealing with dealing with a crumbling family and watched my mom attempt suicidal weekly for about a decade and until my family collapsed. That’s part of life and First Noble Truth in Buddhism (Dukkha): life is suffering. And I can tell you from personal experience that I wasted years of my life having a pity party that got me nowhere. The reality is you don’t have to do anything about this. I’m telling you this is something that you can take on if you want to. I’ve had psychosomatic trauma in my chest where I can’t breathe and I was trying to meditate and I spent YEARS trying to find ways to sit down while having all of my stories about why I can’t... Until I met the Zen master that I referenced in my first comment and that shut all of my excuses up. I’m telling you that this is something I think you can address if you want to. I don’t care what you do. Maybe your meds will work out. My bet is that they won’t as I’ve yet to see a case even outside myself that it does work. Traumas are fixable... if you want to fix them and I want to invite you to see that your rationalizations on your story (which I’m not dismissing at all) communicates that you don’t want to do the work towards the solution you say you want. I’m telling you that you from personal experience right now, having adhd, that you don't need to not have adhd to have an enlightenment experience. Anyone who tells you otherwise is full of shit. I have other friends who are conscious of their true nature and have had it worse than me (and I haven’t met many that have had worse adhd cases than me). Leonardo da Vinci was enlightened and that dude had ADHD as the case with many others and the more conscious “you become”, the more you’ll be able to deal with the root of this issue most likely. Take what you will from this and I invite you to take responsibility and be honest with yourself on this because this can be turned around (I think - maybe I’m wrong). All the best. Done with this thread. Take care all of you.

Don’t expect that effect to last. It doesn’t. No one can say how long it will last. Sometimes that can last for a couple years but eventually your brain chemistry adapts to that and eventually your brain cannot function without the external stimulus. Similar to the problem people face when they rely on sleep medication to fall asleep. Eventually you can’t sleep without needing sleep medication and then your sleep problem continues even with the sleep medication because the root issue was not addressed. Although I won’t make a promise, I’d bet money that effect at some point or another won’t last. I know what it is you speak of given the fact that I was on EVERY ADHD medication until I stuck with adder all from the 5th grade till I was 22. It doesn’t last and it just suppresses other aspects of mind and brain. Read my prior comment.

I’ll give a crack at this. @The Don All I will say is just going to be based on my own experience. I don’t know what will work for you, I don’t know what won’t work for you, I don’t know your life history, etc. Take what you will from this. First off, ADHD can be a bitch for a lot of people but first, it might be best to address your emotional relationship with this first by addressing the very fact that you don’t need to fix it. There is no ladder of things you must fix in your life. No such demand exists. I can tell you I created a lot of unnecessary suffering by making this a bigger deal emotionally through should statements. Leonardo da Vinci had ADHD so there is no necessity for you to get rid of whatever shit you’re dealing with. So please keep that in mind. ADHD, as far as I can tell (as it likely is the case for me), seems to very much stand as a developmental issue, particularly for guys with aggression that was never integrated. Aggression that isn’t integrated from a physiological standpoint seems to lead to a lot of neuroses in the body that touches on a lot of Freuds work (fixations, oral fixations, neurotic bodily compulsions, etc). As far as I can tell, to address this issue at merely a brain level misses the point. A big issue with ADHD at the level of the brain is serotonin production. Where there’s more efficient and regulated serotonin production, the body-mind is less irritable as a state experience which is what ADHD medications (which I was put on at the age of 6 till I was 22) are trying to do, roughly speaking. What’s not addressed though is the question “what is it that’s inhabiting serotonin production?” That question, as I have found at minimum for myself, is not one that can be solved at level of brain but rather at the level of mind and body (so to speak - don’t get lost on these ideas of levels. Just make the distinction between mind and brain as they aren’t the same. Brain could be seen as simply the receiver of mind). I can tell you that for me, my ADHD stems from a lack of feeling of safety and security in my body and also a lot of aggression that wasn’t never allowed given the mess of the traditional school system and post modern value structure and the way I grew up. The most important emotions I’ve had to work on big time is anger and fear. If you want to use chakras, we would be looking at the first 3 chakras. If you want to see it from a reichian body-mind/therapy perspective, we would see stuck energy or dysfunctions of some kind in that same area through the stomach. Use whatever lens you want. Just trying to give you an idea of what you might be looking at and some avenues of exploration that might be worth considering. Here’s what I’ll share as far as what’s worked for me and more importantly, what I think is worth keeping in mind if your goal is to work on this... First and foremost, this takes time. This will not likely just go away in a matter of months. There are likely deep Unconscious emotional barriers that you may have to work on exploring. These barriers are built towards certain aims you want to have for the sake of self-preservation that hide deeper desires.... let me emphasize the most important part in that: everything you experience as a subjective 1st person experience (not talking about external conditions... necessarily) you experience because you want it. The key here is deep emotional honesty. Allowing yourself to be with what it is you desire in you body mind is important and learning to accept and embrace it for what it is. If you experience anger it’s because you want to experience anger... but you may experience anger to hide the deep care you wish to express but you’re in conflict with those 2 desires and are afraid to be vulnerable. So that conflict of 2 desires must be reconciled. This is what therapy is for. Further, no amount of just following techniques blindly like it’s some machine that does something for you and something is supposed to happen is going to do it for you. Psychedelics, therapy, breath work, etc. doesn’t mean anything if you’re not involved in your own process. All of such practices are a stimulus to get you moving but if you’re not moving, then it’s pointless. I would also like you to keep in mind that your progress towards a greater and more effective experience in your own body-mind will may be directly proportional to how much you change in your life. Emotional honesty will be that guide as there is no set in stone formula or checklist that must be followed or mechanical hierarchy. Your life will unfold as you do, and you will unfold the you are (emotionally) honest with yourself. Everything you do and have ever done or experienced in life is based on what you want so you might as well get clear as to what’s driving you. Lastly, given that I know there is this misnomer, I would like to share that ADHD does not mean you can’t get enlightened or become conscious or even meditate. Let me make this very clear as someone who not only has lived life with full blown adhd and has now had multiple “enlightenment experiences” (such a can be rather misleading and I apologize) but as someone whose teacher is one of the most accomplished Zen teachers on the planet that had ADHD so bad he used to shoot up methadone as a kid in the 60s to stop his craziness (this teacher will remain nameless), I can tell you that can become conscious of your true nature while still having this going on as the Truth is not bound to a state, experience, etc. Greater consciousness does allow for a powerful way of dealing with these issues so the heart of this stuff I’ve found can be dealt with in consciousness work (depending on how we hold what that means in practice). It might just end up being the case that the more conscious “one becomes”, the more your adhd will settle down. Certain patterns of mind may or may not remain, but at a certain, it will be rather irrelevant. What you are is not your mind so it doesn’t really matter whether the mind is noisy or not. Like going out to play basketball while there’s construction going on. When you’re trying to learn certain skills, such noise can be an obstacle to being able to pay attention to learn new moves but eventually it'll just be background noise that won’t make a difference. I would also like to share this video from Jordan Peterson. This video, for me, explained so much of my own life that it was honestly shocking. There’s definitely merit in what he has to say here. Whether or not this will apply to you, I don’t know. All the best.

All, I've decided that this forum has served it's purpose and utility for me. However, given the fact that I enjoy being able to provide something genuine, authentic, direct, honest, and hopefully something of value to those that may be touched by what I have to say in some way, I would like to share my path thus far and where things are taking course. Though this forum has, as it must be, plenty of users that will likely project stuff about me in the comments, I would like to suggest or invite you to consider that nothing that I share as far as the words that you read here and how you interpret it in your mind means you know about me. I use what I have to say to share a perspective that hopefully becomes one in which that may (or may not) provide either inspiration or value in some way. You are responsible with how you interpret what is written and interpretations are never the truth. With that said, here goes Life Prior to Actualized.org: Prior to finding actualized.org I had been suicidal, hospitalized, dealing with ADHD and a diagnosis of Type 2 bipolar and on 6 different medications, including ADHD medication since I was in 1st grade. Life was never exactly easy for me. I always struggled academically, socially, emotionally, mentally, etc. I almost committed suicide in both high school and my short time in college. I was incredibly depressed to the point where I was sometimes bed ridden. At the same time though, I knew that, to put it blunt, everybody was fucking crazy. Nothing really ever made much sense to me. I never understood why I could, as if, "sense" such deep inauthenticity and deep suffering in those that looked the part of having everything together. That there was something deeply fake about not only myself but also the act I saw but no one admitted. I never understood why school systems were the way they were (and how dyfunctional the way they are). I never understood religion, what the world was (even though I still had my belief systems about it - *recovering* Evangelical Atheist ), why people lived and settled for a life that was of mediocrity and joked away their clear dissatisfaction for their life, etc. The point is, despite my suffering, I knew as a result of my own ignorance, that there was something I knew that nobody around me knew... which is that we didn't know a fucking damn thing and no one admitted it. Or, put another way, I was suffering... but I wasn't stupid. By the time I was 21, I had dropped of college 3 times, had a collapsed family ridden with deep emotional issues that nobody took responsibility for that was and still is filled with deep trauma, almost committed suicide multiple times given how much I experienced such deep hate for myself, failed in pretty much everything I ever set out to do and wanted for myself, dealing with psychosomatic trauma that was through the roof, had no career, no real friends that actually cared, working part-time jobs that I resented myself for doing. I knew that, in the end, despite the mess that had been laid down upon me that was out of my control, I was (and am) the one whose responsible for it and I that I was choosing to still be where I was at and every second I didn't do something about it (over the course of months and years) I grew more mad with myself because I was betraying my heart... and that no matter what anyone said about how much of a luxury or even narcissistic it is to want that... something about not having that fundamental integrity with my heart, some "thing" that almost had nothing to do with the meat puppet that was suffering (and also everything to do with it), felt deeply wrong... and I could never let that go. And lastly... by the time I was 21 I had gotten out of a hospitalization program at UCSF, discovered motivational videos on YouTube, Tony Robbins, and then Leo. Actualized.org - Exactly What I Had Been Looking For My Entire Life: After dabbling with listening to hours of motivational videos, buying my first self-help book (Awaken The Giant Within), exploring Tony Robbins, I eventually found Leo's channel despite months of avoiding the video thumbnails of a guy who just made weird faces with what I thought were gimmicky titles. Boy, was that I projection I'm glad I went beyond. When I found Actualized.org I felt like, for the first time, I found exactly the thing, person, talk, topics, etc. that I had always been looking for. A guy who was very cheeky, honest (brutally so - which I loved), and had the fucking balls to say what he was saying. Though I initially avoided the spiritual videos, after a certain point of playing with meditation and not being able to explain why, after all my (now what I see as surface level nonsense forms of) therapy how sitting down and being aware created such a profound difference, I realized it was worth listening to what this bald dude had to see and maybe stomach the spirtual jargon. Turns out he explained perfectly well, in the way I needed to hear it, what I was coming across in my own sits of guided meditation/mindfulness/self-inquiry. Turns out he was not only right, but as if, metaphorically speaking, held a lens to a bigger picture outlook on what was and is really so about this thing called existence and how it ties with my own philosophical yearnings since I was a kid and my own suffering... and also how I was wrong about fucking everything I ever believed... and I wanted more. More than anything though, Actualized.org helped me reconcile with myself that that yearning I always had in my heart was not only worth following, it was the only thing to do. From one perspective, the way I saw the trajectory of my life completely changed in terms of what my more gross surface and even subtle aspirations, goals, and ideals, and values were. From a more fundamental self perspective, nothing changed. It was just more pure. I reconciled within myself that having a big, grand, noble vision for myself and what I wanted to impact this world with is something to never ever give up on. It was reenforcement for what I was knew deep down inside. I also got the education I always needed and wanted. I now had a vision for myself that exceeded even my own perfectionist ideals. Not only that, but that I myself could do it if I committed enough to it. I eventually went out to take the Life Purpose Course that I shed some hours of tears of frustration, confusion, and being downright lost digging through my mind and heart trying to find what I really wanted and what was most true to me. I spent years on that course. I exhausted that course. I listened to every video, exhausted every exercise, did all the extra reading and video material, listened to every single one of Leo's other videos, listened, watched, and studied those that served as say "archetypes" that represented that which I am most inspired by. Then my purpose became clear... and that was to know what everything is. Not just enlightenment but to understand, to make that understanding experiential. I looked at the sages and mystics of history and present today. I found Peter Ralston, Sadhguru, Ken Wilber, Leonardo da Vinci, Gautam Buddha, Christ, Pyrrho, etc. and it became clear that that was it and that that was the only thing for me. Not fit into their category and become a copy of them but as Zen Maser Matsuo Basho said best... Walking My Path: By January 2018 I got off all 6 of my psych medications. I had been on medication at that point from the age of 6 years of old till, at that point, just under 23 years old. A month after that I met my now homie through the forum @Sahil Pandit. By March of last year I finally had my first psychedelic experience and for the first time of my life, I actually loved my self and my heart blew open. By May of last year I got in contact with @Robby who is now a person I can say is a true definition of a real friend. One of those friends that comes in and changes your life. I got a chance at a job where I tested myself to truly live on my own and earn enough money working 70+ hours a week and start taking grounded ownership of my life. I then met someone who I am proud to call both a great enlightened teacher and dear, dear friend @winterknight in NYC and have stayed in touch since and is someone I can't express enough gratitude towards. I set my intent to move to Boulder, Colorado to study under a teacher Ken Wilber has openly called "one of the most accomplished spiritual teachers on the planet", Zen Master Doshin Roshi of Integral Zen and Ken Wilber himself. I succeeded and found a teacher who I resonated with probably more than with any other human. I found not only a truly deeply enlightened Zen Master but someone who was radically fucking real that had balls. I found a teacher who knew exactly my suffering because he lived it and then some. A teacher who also had ADHD, OCD, etc. and was a fucking real Zen Master. If he could do it, I can fucking do it. I got in touch with the Cheng Hsin community and stayed in contact with both Brendan Lea and of course Peter Ralston. I got the chance to talk to Martin Ball. I can now say I have more than my fair share of not only enlightened friends but more importantly, real genuine friends and mentors who are actually going to tell me the fucking truth and really care. Though my stint in Colorado didn't go exactly to plan, nothing ever does. So I am now currently back in San Francisco working a job to save money. I am moving to India in a matter of time that isn't clear yet to find a teacher and go pursue this path until there is no more pursuit. In the mean time I am now about to go to my first enlightenment intensive which be a 3-day retreat held by Joseph Rubano in SoCal in April, an Isha Hatha Yogasanas Program in March, in search for a therapist, and also plan doing some more tripping in the mean time. Though money is not exactly ideal to say the least right now and I am not progressing at the rate I want to be progressing at all, if I am honest with myself and with those of you whom read this, things in a weird way are unfolding. On the surface it isn't that tangible so much but deep down I trust I know where I am going, even though I know I can easily go or fall down a direction I don't want to go. In the end, I know what I want, I know the path, I have exhausted more conceptual study more than I think most honest people would honestly say they've ever done, and I can feel what my heart wants deep down and I'm willing to die for that. Conclusion: I would like to leave in 2 parts... First, thank you @Leo Gura. Though I've shared with you this before, whether or not you remember at all, I would've been hanging on a noose long ago if I hadn't have found your stuff. You not only changed but saved my life. Though I don't really know you I hope one day I can at least have the chance to say to your face thank you for everything and that I wish you, your channel, your work, your path, your life purpose the absolute best. I will still drop in for videos every now and then, stay a patron, and stay tuned for more so long as I am still around and need guidance from outside. Your videos ignited a fire in me when mine was almost out. Your videos never had to be as long, deep, authentic, full of heart, and honesty as they have been in order to have your success on YouTube. But they did. And even if I did have thousands or millions of dollars to pay you, I don't think that would do justice to how you've at least helped me. However indirect that help is. My heart goes out to you. Never sell out because what you've given thus far has been utterly priceless. Second, to those of you whom aren't Leo... follow your path. If we are actually serious about this path, fundamentally the only thing standing in the way is not ADHD, depression, OCD, learning disabilities, etc. it's us. There are people out there whom want to help and often takes nothing but a simple act of reaching out and asking. Our commitment to a stubborn intent that is grounded in the heart is the thing we need to listen to most. As much as that doesn't answer, it also answers everything as far as what, how, and whom we seek. Our path is ours to follow and ours alone and it is up to each one of us to take responsibility for that truth. It is up to you and I to be honest with ourselves and others. It is you and I that must become conscious and stop asking for everybody on here to give you answers. It is on you and I to seek out the therapists, resources, guidance, teachers, workshops, etc. Take nothing on faith including the words you hear from teachers that speak from a paradigm that you resonate with. Believe nothing. Question everything. Tell the truth. If you don't know what's true, that's what true. Be honest about that you don't know. Be honest about what seems to be most true for you right now in your experience and then question it. Most importantly... follow and listen to your heart. It's always known. And remember... the only reason suffering hurts is because of how much you love.

What is called from some traditions as "Unknown" or "Uknowing" is the same as "Knowing" "Known". Pick your preference with words. It doesn't matter. Why do you think Ralston's book is called "The Book of Not Knowing"? Why do you think all traditions stress Not-Knowing? Or traditions that stress That which Knows? In the end, these are all words that are a description of something that is neither a thing nor can ever be described. EVER.

I was going to say Big Foot or the Sasquatch that discovered Crest toothpaste but alien works too.

The video his daughter posted was quite clear. He was on a very physically addictive antipsychotic medication to deal with the suffering of his wife who was dying of cancer. As he was trying to get off the medication he suffered from a rare yet not unheard of case of absolutely devastating case of withdrawal that left him on the brink of suicide. He went for help by going to the hospital to get treatment to help himself get off the medication safely while battling the withdrawal symptoms. Let me be clear, if you have not been on a antipsychotic medication (antidepressants, mood stabilizers, tranquilizers to bring down bipolar people from manic episodes, etc.) you have no clue what withdrawal from those things it’s like. Pretty much all antipsychotic medication have warning labels about not getting off too quickly because the withdrawal can be so bad and so sudden you can end up killing yourself and not even know why. If you have not had this experience you have no idea the level of hell this is. You can be having a seemingly great day and within a matter of minutes after being several days off the medication you can be on the brink of killing yourself. For those using developmental models of psychological development (which are abstract conceptual generalizations of individuals, collectives/cultural memes), you are merely projecting your own ignorance on a man you don’t know. How about we express some compassion for a human being whose been going through hell rather than express petty likes and dislikes that have everything to do with mind and ego? If you’re going to try and critique, pick apart, ridicule, and delegitimize every person based on their stage of development than you’re wasting your time. Jordan Peterson is actually a very healthy Orange modernist and makes and has very useful points and perspectives on some of the problems in the world. If your case is that “well he’s just an orange rationalist who thinks logic is supreme and has no idea about God,” what exactly is the point you’re trying to make? That enlightened people are the only people worth listening to? Newsflash, the more developed you are, the more capable you are of making bigger mistakes. The more developed you are, the more capable you are of both benevolence and also malevolence. A Turquoise ashram leader who hasn’t done any shadow work is more capable of harm than a Magenta (purple) tribesman who hunts with sticks. A truly conscious person in practice is able to really learn from Peterson and appreciate the fact that he’s actually very integrated person for his altitude of development given the amount of shadow work he’s clearly done. He highlights very big real problems of both Green and Blue. Those points are worth listening to. Take what is useful, toss the rest and have compassion for another human being that’s going through hell. The odds of people who are not in the public light, not to mention how much of the public light he’s under, to handle criticism as well has he has is so extraordinarily low it would baffle you. I highly suggest to forum users that it’s wise to really appreciate, learn, integrate, and the value all the different stages of development.

Projection Amen. Preach.

Talented people (in sports) tend to take their talent for granted. If LeBron James was a 5'7" Jewish white dude, I don't care how hard he works, he ain't gonna be even in the D-League, much less the NBA. Talent and rigorous training. Some sports are more skill oriented than others, which in some ways levels the playing field, in other cases, it doesn't.

There is a lot of fantasy not just on this forum but in particularly Western New Age conceptions and belief systems of spirituality that the path of Enlightenment/Liberation/Awakening and so forth (and there are many ways you can frame that as it’s not set in stone as some universal as to what it is and entails). One primary fantasy is that spirituality is only love, light, bliss, etc. and just being in states of bliss, samadhi, etc. There are many people who can get into such states and still be very deluded as to what they’re really doing and about both their own self and ego (those are not the same). The degree to which we truly integrate and transcend our self and ego is to the degree to which we can acknowledge our outright capacity for being a hellish being. For example: regardless of our race, heritage, skin color, ethnicity, etc. if you can’t see your text an inner racist, there’s a part of you you can’t see. People, particularly people who have been raised in post modern societies, have no clue about their own capacity to have ethnocentric tendencies because of course it’s denied, repressed, and suppressed which where you get the collective liberal shadow of arrogance and passive aggressive violence. Another example which I personally really like which was a real breakthrough insight: if you see a school shooter, notice how that makes you feel because you ARE capable of such an act. On a surface level, we can that individuals within societies like the US react which such hate and vitriol (which is often denied in the name of “goodness” and “justice”) because they lack higher compassion. Whats left out though is that the reason people lack that basic compassion for that school shooter is because they assume they themselves aren’t capable of such an act and therefore cannot feel any empathy for that shooter had they been put in a place in life where those life situations would’ve made that same act, at minimum, very tangibly possible for them. What I’m saying though is not a mere intellectual or visualization exercise to try and “put yourself in another’s shoes”. Rather what I’m saying is to recognize that you already are in their shoes but you don’t know. If we can’t see how we TOTALLY have our own egocentric Donald Trump, inner rapist, inner racist, shooter, and also all the Golden Shadows as well (which will still feel disgusting or hideous), you’re going to not only miss full enlightenment, you’re just going to potentiate more harm and likely make a mess (if you do start getting far in this work). We’re in age of great polarization where people are very deluded of just how destructive things are likely to get. The more developed you are, the more destructive you can be. The more destructive you can be, the greater the responsibility you need to take on if what you want is a more conscious, awake, responsible, effective, evolved, inclusive, compassionate, and truly loving world.

Projection of what I’m saying but do what you will. I said nothing about anybody being good or bad. There is no good. There is no bad. There’s what they’re doing. Nonduality has no relationship to anything. The Absolute is not relative nor has any relationship to anything. I am not saying something IS hideous. Shadows are parts of personality we can’t see and disown and we relate to as if it were hideous. Just like a super model doesn’t suck the cock of some 600 pound dude who has cookie crumbs falling off his third chin. Existentially speaking, no he ISNT hideous or disgusting but she relates to him as such.

Though I’m not much of a fan of him he is spot on on a lot of matters while also not knowing some others. To ridicule the stuff he is correct on is rather silly. Take the gems and toss the rest and give credit where credit is due. Or don’t. Your call on that.

If you’re going to talk about nonduality, which is not what this post is about, then there are no children in Africa, there is no purpose, there is no meaning, there is no value, there is no Jesus, and there is no you. Jesus is a concept. There is no historical evidence to suggest such a person. Nonduality has no relationship to anything. As someone whose been around a lot of hippies having been raised in the bay and know more than enough hippies, burners, and new age people, they aren’t exactly genuinely loving people. A lot of it is victim culture and isn’t authentic in all of its talk about love and blah blah blah and is actually rather spiteful. Yes, they have more of a capacity for inclusiveness but you’re literally highlighting my point that all because you can have high capacity to love doesn’t mean you also don’t have both a high disowned capacity for hate, violence, etc. If you think that you’re trying to get far in this work by only trying to cling to love, light, and bliss then yeah... there’s nothing else to tell you than that you’re wrong. Any real authentic master worth their salt will tell you that all of the valuable growth has been going through the hideous aspects of themselves that they didn’t want to know about themselves. @Serotoninluv excellent story. Thanks for sharing. I can definitely attest to what you’re saying in my own life for sure. I personally would frame it differently but I get the spirit of what you’re saying. One of the things I think has served me is really when I commit to being both honest and being able to really take feedback from others and seeking that out.

Hence why post modern Green spirituality and western Buddhism is an absolute mess. Are you talking about Larry Nassar? https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/01/31/us/usa-gymnastics-larry-nassar-settlements/index.html You illustrate the issue very well in your example though in the reaction to the crime of the doctor. Part of the problem though is that, for example, well educated and reasonably intelligent people, say in the US, tend to grow up in places that only hold a post modern or modern stage of development. So when a child grows up, they don’t really have the chance not ability develop say their egocentric and ethnocentric stages for example (and many other aspects). From the very get go once say a little boy is put into a school that is traditional in how the system works but is post-modern in its altitude of values and how they relate to their children, it’s not a container that’s okay for boys around 5 years old who may be very aggressive and high energy to integrate those tendencies and are instead force to try and sit still and pretend to be nice (something that wouldn’t really be to authentically grow into once they’re much older). So instead they have to repress and suppress such tendencies and then you have very angry kids who aren’t able to really socialize and are diagnosed with ADHD and have a chronic anger problem but have to put on this mask of being nice. You also touched on that compassion piece well. Most people aren’t REALLY compassionate at all. Most of those people who preach compassion are truly spiteful people and the degree to which they act compassionate is more often than not just that, it’s an act. They ape and preach compassion. As I like to say, kindness at the expense of honesty is lying. I wouldn’t even call though the “acts of compassion” to be compassion to even be that because in practice it tends to just perpetuate lies and that is of no real genuine service to the growth of others. Real genuine service to others is grounded exactly that, what’s real. However, what I said was not imagine putting ourselves in the others shoes. What I said was realize that there are aspects of ourselves that we don’t see that is ALREADY present. I am not speaking about nonduality here. What I am not saying is not “we literally are the rapist.” That is not the point I am making. I am talking about the shadow or the unconscious, loosely speaking if we’re to use those terms. The point I am making is that is that is that you as a self right now have an inner racist, an inner rapist. Jordan Peterson actually articulates it very well. Can you find that aspect of your self that has the capacity to kill and harm others to an extraordinary degree? The “trick”, if you will, is that in its not in some hidden far distant place or aspect of experience. Imagination exercises are nothing compared to really getting in real time that we might actually be just as much of a racist as the people that support Trump.

The only one deluding you is you. I suggest you take and recognize your responsibility for both your own delusion and degree consciousness. It is neither useful nor true to try and experience your relationship in the use of psychedelics as something else doing something to you. From the standpoint of mind this post is about, psychedelics merely amplify that which is already so for you. If you fall into greater delusion it’s because you’re not honest about what is honestly so for you. The “antidote“, if you will, is honesty and responsibility for your own self, ego, mind, emotions, and consciousness. You and only you is the problem and the solution.

There are 3 perspectives we can look at this from: There are states like Nirrodha samadhi that would take training. This where you see videos like Ken Wilber stops his brain waves, Vietnam monks protest the war in the 60s and 70s where they sit like a rock while being set on fire and burn to the ground not moving an inch. There’s also where you recognize that pain is really just a thought. The very reaction is a thought. As said in The Book of Not Knowing, which you yourself can discover to be true in your own experience, “pain may be ‘so’ but it’s not ‘true’.”. What pain is is a thought that you’re doing. Pain itself is something you create. Realizing this doesn’t mean you walk around pain free or something like that. Your relationship to it would just transformed. You can also learn to experience pain as just a different kind of state of bliss.

Don’t get it

Ralston had been contemplating since he was a kid in other areas. Ralston is, as he put it, obsessive and has a relentless work ethic. Things didn’t grow on trees for him. He put in the work. He wanted to know. He also, as I’ve heard, suffered a lot. A lot of great enlightened masters I’ve sought out met and I am very fortunate to say have become teachers of mine have had hellish childhoods, ADHD, OCD, drug addiction, suicide attempts, etc. It’s very simple... do you want to know the truth? Are you committed to honesty? Are you committed to follow your heart’s yearning to know, regardless of what that might entail? Are you committed to admit you don’t know shit and that all this regurgitation of insights of giants who’ve come before you is just arrogant bullshit lies and that really you don’t know? Are you committed to taking on the source responsibility of knowing the truth beyond just the ideal of doing so? If yes then you can. Trying to discuss this stuff in technical detail on these matters will never end. It can serve good utility to have a conceptual framework but eventually it really just becomes a distraction and a waste of time and all of it really is wrong at the end of the day. We can make elaborate explanations using things like karma, trauma, “giftedness”, yogic models, Buddhist maps, spiritual texts, stages of ego development, etc. but that discussion hasn’t ended for thousands of years (which is under the assumption of a past and history) and it’s certainly not going to end now. If you want to wake up, go do it. Do whatever you have to do to do that. Stop trying to play compare and contrast of people that in the end don’t exist anyways.