Emerald

@Huz88 I woke up last night at 4:30 to do an hour long sit. I got interrupted 34 minutes into it because my son woke up, so I didn't make it to the end. I didn't notice too much of a difference. Maybe I was a little sleepier and had the lurch that Shinzen Young was talking about a few times. But I usually sit at around 9:30 pm for an hour, so I tend to get sleepy during my sits because I try to go to bed by 11:00. I think I was a bit too close to being fully awake because I happened to accidentally fall asleep at the same time as the kids (9:00). So, I had already had 7.5 hours of sleep by the time I got up. So, I'll try again tonight at an earlier time like 3:00, so it's more in the middle of sleep.

Thank you!

I've been making baby steps and modest gains toward all of my goals, but it's slow going in some areas. I have to focus more on creating a better quality product for my business. I'm a YouTuber and I have about 25 channel improvements that I still need to implement. I think my content is informative and helpful but I need better delivery, habits, production quality, scheduling, channel bumper, etc. to make it more professional looking and engaging. But my numbers are doing pretty good relative to where I was two months ago. I get 5 to 10 new subscribers every day in contrast to the 1 or 2 that I used to get. My diet, I switched to a plant-based diet. Now I want to focus on eating a lot more raw and creating interesting and healthy meals for my family and I. I have a morning routine that includes a Yoga practice and a night routine that incorporates an hour of meditation. So, I have a lot of puzzle pieces... I just have to bring them all together in a more cohesive way.

My mom is a certified hypnotist, and contrary to popular misconception hypnotherapists aren't controlling you. It's always you who either takes the suggestion or doesn't. The hypnotherapist only has as much control as you allow them to have.

I'll give this a try. I watched the video through again. I've done sits where it's been late and I've been sleepy. But I've never interrupted sleep for the sole purpose of meditating. So, it should be interesting.

What I've done is I've set up different categories to excel at in life (nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, parenthood, business, consciousness, social life, etc.) Then I think of specific ways that I want to excel in each of these domains. Then, I work out daily (or weekly and monthly if appropriate) routines for achieving my (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) goals. I suggest starting with implementing one habit at a time before adding more habits. The habits are really where it's at. After a certain amount of time, habits get automatically wired into your brain. So, these good habits which are baby-steps to achieving your goals will add up and eventually exponentially multiply over time.

You may not be aware of this social pattern, but prostitutes are often forced into prostitution because of poverty, life circumstances, drug addiction, or even being directly forced into it through pimps who control them and their livelihood through the threat of violence. So, the life of a prostitute is often a very miserable one. I think many of the men who visit prostitutes aren't aware of the fact that many of the women (and men) are some of the most vulnerable individuals who are being exploited, and that they're contributing to that exploitation. So, I personally wouldn't do this because I think it would make you feel yucky in the long run. Since your self-esteem is already rocky, I wouldn't put myself if that situation. Leo did a video "Fake Growth v. Real Growth." This would be fake growth. I recommend first trying to hook up with a woman at a club who doesn't go to school with you. You don't even have to tell her that you're a virgin if you don't want to. Learn some pick up techniques, and try them out. Get over your shyness. That's the only reason why you haven't done it yet. I can almost guarantee you it's not your looks, your personality, or anything about your worth as an individual. It's just fear of rejection and low self-esteem... assuming that no woman would want you. So, it's a matter of approaching and being willing to be rejected. You'll eventually, and probably in short order, find someone who's interested in hooking up with you. You assume that none of the women that you know are interested in you. But be careful with this assumption. Women are discouraged from approaching and do their best not to let on that they're attracted to the guy they're attracted to. If you show no interest, they're unlikely to show you interest first. So, try casually flirting with one of your female friends first to see what her response is. If her response is positive, flirt a little more. If she matches your flirtiness, flirt a little more. If she steps back, you step back. But this would probably be a better recommendation for establishing a relationship and not just hooking up.

Sounds like the warrior archetype is active in you. These probably reflect something about you at a deep level. For me, leaders and fighters have never quite gotten to me at a deep level with the exception of those whose causes have stirred me. I would look up information on archetypes, which is a Jungian concept. Mal recommended "The Hero with 1000 faces" which relates to this. But there's a ton of other great books written on the warrior archetype as well.

@Zephyr Words.

Tai Lopez = Lame

Thank you for the advice. I have a lot of out of body experiences. So, I recognized the vibrations as the precursor to that. In the past month or so, it seems like a lot more prompts are showing up in my life to question "What is perceiving?" as opposed to directly diminishing ego. In fact, I've decided instead to resume trying to add value to myself through individuation, despite its evident absurdity in contrast to my ego-transcendence experiences years ago. When I had them, I decided afterward that I wanted to stop having an identity and did a lot of unwise things to try to undermine my identity. So, I gave up on many of my dreams to be the "most __________ person" despite it feeling very wrong to me. But perhaps the way out is through. So, I think your advice is spot on. I guess I just get antsy and want some external confirmation of my experiences. Thanks again!

Hi Charlie. I posted several days about an experience that I had. I feel as though for a few moments during the experience, I was truly connecting with that deeper part of myself or "being". It had some other interesting novelties about it too that I'm pretty sure were just other sleep related states of consciousness, but there was a moment or two during the experience where I felt that I was in a state of stillness and timelessness where I was just being and perceiving. I will post the link to it below. I would like your opinion as to whether or not this was what I was tapping into, or if it was just some other state of consciousness that's novel but not necessarily relating to what you describe in the quote above.

I wondered about this too. They soak the coffee beans in hot water use either methylene chloride or ethyl acetate to remove the caffeine. But there is either "indirect decaffeination" where the beans never touch the solvents and thus don't contain any of the chemicals in the final brew. There's a kind of extraction and filtering process that's too complicated to explain here. Or "direct decaffeination" where they might. But otherwise, according to the Mayo clinic and several other resources, both decaf and regular coffee contain anti-oxidants and have been shown to have other health benefits. We tend to think of coffee as unhealthy, but it isn't as bad as people have come to think. In the past, the demographic that was drinking coffee was often doing so in tandem with smoking cigarettes and poor diet. Currently, a lot of millennials that drink coffee don't smoke, and so recent research has indicated that many of the health problems that were thought to have come from coffee came largely from the other behaviors of coffee drinkers. So, coffee isn't so bad as long as the caffeine is done in moderation.

To this, I'll give an analogy. Imagine that you are a child who has an imaginary friend. Then you're told that your imaginary friend is fake, and you understand but somehow you still go on believing in that imaginary friend because that's all you really know. You've had the same imaginary friend your entire life and he eats all his meals with you, plays with you, goes to sleep with you, and even hangs out in the corner of the room while you're at school. He has needs that need to be met because you've created him to have those needs. So, you have a strong emotional attachment to your imaginary friend because you've never lived without him. So, you ask me (in uncertainty and concern for your imaginary friend) what happens with the "imaginary friend" when it's seen as nothing more than an illusion? (It kinda seems like saying to a kid its just the wind - when inside you're just hoping like hell that it is nothing more than just the wind making a lot a noise as it goes along) Does the "imaginary friend" stop being? Does it yield, actually break, does it lay low waiting for another opportunity to do what it does? Like the imaginary friend, the lower self has never been real. It's only ever been you creating it, and when you stop creating it the imaginary friend will be as it has always been: nothing. All that will be left is you (the higher self) without the illusion and burden of taking care of your imaginary friend that you call "I".

That's a good question. I have recollection of the experience, but some details are a bit fuzzy at this point. When the first moments of the experiences came on, it felt like was just a complete unburdening of my identity and joy and relief at the release. Like imagine that you had been having a nightmare that all of your family and loved ones had just died the most painful death because of something that you accidentally did, then you woke up and realized it was all a dream and all the guilt, fear, and pain went away. This was the equivalent of that level of unburdening. Like I just didn't care about my self concept when previously I had taken it so seriously. So, it felt like relief and I suddenly had no fear. I still knew how to keep up my appearance if I found it useful, but I didn't need to sacrifice any awareness, emotion, or action to protect my identity. It was like a dissolving and decentering of identity but not a disappearance. But I can't quite remember how the initial insight occured in the exact way. I wasn't questioning my identity or anything like that, nor was I engaged in any form of inquiry. I don't remember any particular thoughts coming up. I just remember the relief. Vipassana is basically mindfulness meditation. So, I do mindfulness meditation without voluntarily moving for the duration of the sit.

There is only ever the higher self (speaking metaphorically). The lower self is the illusion. Enlightenment is living without the illusion of the lower self.

I sort of stumbled into it through recreational experimentation with Ayahuasca, seven years ago. The experiences weren't permanent and don't help me now. So, I don't recommend doing the same. If anything they've done as much harm as good. I didn't relate them to 'enlightenment' until I found Leo's videos a year and a half ago, so I was trying to figure out how to get back to that state and taking shots in the dark at how to do it. But currently I use strong determination sitting style Vipassana meditation plus intermittently through the day I ask myself "What is perceiving this?"

If you don't feel compelled to take them, then don't take them. There's no reason to if you don't want to.

I can't speak from experience about the losing a close family member aspect of your question. I didn't have many people close to me then. But, during my experiences where I had seen (briefly) through the illusion of ego, I had zero fear of death. It was complete and total acceptance and approval of the fact that I would one day die and be forgotten. These were the only times where death wasn't terrifying to me.

No. You misunderstood. It's okay to change this. But the way to change it is to first accept it fully as a valid part of your reality. Emotions carry wisdom with them, even the undesirable ones. So, in order to get fully past your fetish, you must paradoxically first accept it without judgement. 100% acceptance. Otherwise, you're just going to go around and around in your head trying to fix a problem that can only be fixed through deepened awareness.

Now, I can only speak from my perspective. She may be different than me. But when I like a guy enough to date him, I have to really like him. But it's not particular traits that I like about a man that makes me attracted to him. Nor is it having the highest number of good traits or anything like that. It's a lot more unquantifiable than that. A man could be Rico Suave and I could have zero interest in him. Another man could be average and light up the world for me. A man could be super intelligent, wealthy, and charming and I have no attraction to him. Another man could be average in these areas and I'm attracted to him. Certainly, particulars like these are major factors in determining whether or not to pursue an attraction. But the attraction itself is completely non-linear, non-logical, and comes basically completely out of nowhere. It's a cupid's arrow. The emotion is either there, or is not there. Given that she's already dating you, the emotion is probably there. A good litmus test is how her friends act toward you. I've noticed in myself and my female friends, women love talking to their friends about the guy that they like. It's like a favorite topic of discussion, because the emotions are very strong. Again, this may not apply to her... but most women I've met operate in this way. So, don't worry about the particulars too much, unless self-improvement is your thing. But I would suggest communicating your feelings about this to her. She will certainly pick up on the negativity and may even feel that you're not interested in her if you keep it to yourself. Be a straight shooter but also keep up an air of being unaffected by strong emotion. You can even use your honesty to create more romance and intimacy through allowing yourself to be vulnerable in her presence. Like, sit down with her, put your arms around her, tell her how amazing and beautiful she is. Subtly take the lead and create a mood that allows both of you to get very relaxed and cuddly. Then say something to the nature of "Can I be honest with you?" Make fun of yourself for being a softie, so that you seem like you're less of a softie... oddly enough, this works for remaining unafflicted by emotion because it shows that you're emotionally strong enough to engage in self-deprecating humor. Not taking yourself too seriously. Then unflinchingly and cool-headedly look her in the eyes and tell her that because she's so amazing, you don't know what she sees in you. But that you're very glad that she's yours. Short, sweet, and to the point. If the seed of attraction toward you is there in the way that I described in the first paragraph, she'll melt all over the place and this type of honesty will allow the relationship to deepen naturally. This will take away a lot of your insecurity because it will bring you and her closer together. So, you won't see her as "that amazing girl who I can't believe is giving me the time of day." You'll just see her as she is; another human being like yourself.

So, it seems to me that you believe that your emotions and attractions are 'wrong.' It's important to first accept that your emotions are valid. They are there for a valid reason. So, you can't try to get rid of an attraction through willpower and resisting the attraction. But by accepting your fetish fully, you can then start to become aware of what it gives to you. You can be objective. Maybe you feel the need to be punished by women in order to repent (religiously) so that you can feel okay with the interaction happening. So, instead of punishment from God... punishment from your partner. Or maybe, if you feel like you're being forced into the scenario, the sin isn't quite as bad because you're the reluctant one. So, the guilt isn't as strong. Or perhaps, the cuckhold fetish is there because you feel unworthy of being the subject of your own fantasy. So, you prefer to fantasize about a more "ideal" man having sex with a woman. So, try to accept yourself and all of your feelings fully. There is no emotion under the sun that comes up for no reason. There is a reason behind it, and it has nothing to do with your worth as a person. So, don't diminish being who you are, to fit the mold of being an alpha male. Alpha male is a 2-d characteristic, you are multifaceted. Your attractions don't define your worth.

I apologize for the profanity. I don't usually curse, but I thought that it would have a better effect for what I was trying to convey. I meant no offense by what I said. I basically said that you guys were both using various tactics to 'win' the interaction, and that it's a trap that I fall into a lot. But I apologize if it offended you. I was trying to make light by highlighting my own shortcomings.

That's totally me in a nutshell. I think that when I was little I was indoctrinated to think some pretty neurotic things. 1. I'm intelligent 2. Intelligence has more value than any other trait. 3. Intelligence equals good character. 4. People who are more intelligent are better and more deserving of love than unintelligent people. There are probably many other taken for granted beliefs in this mess too. But it has caused me to obsess over my intellect and be constantly unsatisfied with how much know-how that I have. But during my experiences that I mentioned earlier on the thread, these were the only times that I had no craving to pump up my intelligence in any way. It was truly liberating. I was finally satisfied.