Philip

Quite literally I think. Humans can understand a timeline, which is like being a character in a movie (1D) but can also compare multiple branching timelines within a ruleset, like a player in a videogame (2D). What's coming is the ability to tweak the ruleset, like a programmer (3D)

Sure it looks amateur-ish, the use of colors is questionable, the spiral dynamics is a bit skewed and I can't find any reference or any explanation for it whatsoever, but after taking a (perhaps autistically) close look at it, I wouldn't be so quick to call the model itself sloppy. It looks like it's mapping SD/Graves onto a bigger spectrum of consciousness like Ken Wilber does, and from what I can see, it lines up quite well. For example, if you look at the numbers instead of the positions, you see that the 3.5D magical stage sits right between 3D animals and 4D humans and it's the beginning of a subjective mind. Wilber's magical animistic sits right between emotions (animals) and symbols (humans) and it's the beginning of 1st person. And I think the whole thing goes: 1) Matter - Stone 2) Body - Plant 3) Emotion - Animal 3.0) Probably where beige would be if this were an octagram 3.5) Magic - Tribe 4) Memory - Human 4.0) Egocentric - Gang 4.5) Mythic - Community 5) Idea - Person 5.0) Rational - Humanity 5.5) Pluralistic - Earth 6) Model - System 6.0) Meta - Cosmos 6.5) Holistic - Kosmos 7) Universe - Truth It looks like it's been copied directly from Wilber's work. But one thing bugs me, though. It's the math of it all. The way the black lines cross one another, they link the stages by skipping one and then going to the next, like the collective/individual pendulum swing, but the dimensions are linked by skipping two instead, giving us normal 2-step pendulum swings within bigger weird 3-step ones, from line to surface to volume, back to timeline and so on. It kind of means that in order to add a dimension, you have to go from individual to collective, back to individual. Surprisingly, it works exactly like Hausdorff Dimensions, in which a single straight line is 1D, folded or multiple lines sit somewhere between 1D and 2D, depending on how convoluted they are, and then they meet again to form a single straight surface at exactly 2D. And also, these 7 words that are associated to the 7 dimensions: Ground: I can imagine rock consciousness as being a unidimensional witness of the gravitational force pulling down Energy: I can imagine tree consciousness as also extending in the lateral direction of the sun and humid soil Dominance: Animals who can be conscious of their position in the hierarchy and can hunt a prey in front of them, using depth perception. Certainty: Humans who can see a single concrete story going forward (like a rock falling, 4 resonating with 1) Possibility: People who can see a tree of possibilities (here's the tree again, 5 resonating with 2) Dimensionality: People who can see their position in the holarchy (and I guess hunt lower stages like animals do, 6 resonating with 3) Infinity: People who can see everything, as the small pendulum make you one with God (and as 7 resonates with 4D stories like the Bible) I put this effort into debunking the model so you won't have to. But now I can strongly suggest you shift the focus back to him, to how his family would miss him, how annoying it would be if you ranted as much as he does, etc. Because I spent about an hour thinking about that picture and I do have to say, I get the appeal. I've never seen one quite like it. Please send more details if you can.

@Matt8800 Nothing detrimental to my life so far. A few people who were subconsciously feeding off my insecurities will now have to find their food somewhere else, but other than that, everything seems to be improving in my life. But I definitely must read about the Dark Night. Thank you!

It happened on the fourth day of this quiet Vipassana retreat in a small French-Canadian town called Montebello. For 10 days, we were not supposed to talk, to look at each other, to write, to read or to eat anything else than the usual two meals per day that were served to us. I was meditating on a small pile of 5 cushions, with my legs crossed, my back up straight, my hand united and my eyes closed. The Vipassana practice seems like a well-structured, straightforward technique of body scan practicing our mindfulness and our equanimity in order to simply observe physical sensations throughout the body and eventually generate less and less aversion toward pain and less craving toward pleasure. Nothing fancy. Just try to feel the actual tactile stimuli, without preference for any part of the body. The first four days were just getting more and more painful, tiresome and discouraging. I vaguely knew what I was going into, and I was pretty determined, but these pains (in my shoulders, back, thighs, calves and feet) were around 6 or 7 out of 10. 10 being the level of pain someone might experience when their leg gets slowly cut off with a saw. It was especially painful after 45 minutes of sitting without readjusting my posture (except straightening my back or releasing muscular tensions from time to time). I also had these childhood traumas coming up (which rarely came up before, even during my therapy sessions, but I guess the chair is too comfortable for that ?). At least the reliving of those traumas was shortly followed by a somewhat soothing release, but also by new psychoanalytic insights about how I was acting during my childhood and why. At the end of those hours, the voice in my head was complaining and victimizing, trying to distract itself, trying to cope with all flavors of impatience, rage, sadness, fear, doubt, craving, pride, competitiveness, jealousy and suffering that you could imagine. Most of my muscles were very tense, to the point of my neck and head starting to shake uncontrollably, while my head was presumably turning lobster-red and was displaying the helplessly enraged face of a 2-year-old having a temper tantrum. At least a painful period was followed by a muscular release along with the emotional one, even though the pain was still as vivid and intense. After four days, our capacity for focus and concentration was solid enough for us to not only feel the sensations of our breath, but now also the sensations all around the body. So we had a 90 minutes long meditation where we were not supposed to reposition ourselves or leave the room, while we were taught this whole-body Vipassana method for the first time. The "event" if I may, happened at the end of this very session. The emotional and muscular tension was starting to build up even faster and stronger than it ever did before. It was like a rubber band, stretching and stretching until I gave up and released it, producing an insight that resonated as loud as the rubber's whipping sound. But this one final time, I think the rubber band just broke beyond repair... The voice was not only complaining, resisting or craving, it started literally screaming like that of someone getting tortured to death. It was shaking so much that I got covered in sweat, despite de cool air and slight breeze around me. Screaming, shaking, screaming, shaking, for dozens of seconds, out of my freaking mind until I could not bear it anymore. And then, it stopped. In a fraction of a second, my body went from extremely tense to extremely relaxed. My internal speech went from extremely loud to extremely silent. And I will always remember the two sentences that were internally said after that : "Oh my god, you're exaggerating. You're taking yourself way too seriously..." The voice had a confident and straightforward tone, but also a loving and playful one at the same time. It felt like the voice of an ideal father and certainly, my inner child got the message that day. I was in a state of shock for about an hour or two. I took a cold shower, then looked at myself in the mirror and thought "Oh, that's what a Regard Ténébreux looks like" which is a French expression basically meaning a dark and hard look. One that has lived through a lot. And after that, the smiles, giggles, and fits of laughter started. ? And my meditations were never the same after that. Instead of making torture faces, I was going from serious but relaxed, to smiling, to wide-grinning, all the way to uncontrollable laughter. One of my biggest challenges during the following days was to laugh silently and make sure I don't disturb anyone around. Just to be clear, the pain was still there, 6 or 7 out of 10. It was even more defined and my focus was steadier. But instead of resisting, I was laughing. And I don't feel like I've decided to start doing that. I feel like I've decided to meditate seriously for 4 days, and then this peaceful, playful and detached attitude came naturally, by itself. I also started to experience unprecedented authenticity in my compassion towards people who suffer. For example, I stopped being annoyed by my roommate, wishing he would give up the retreat and secretly feeding off his misery. Instead, I naturally started seeing his pain and wishing that he would understand how to be in a better place. (I'm honestly on the verge of tears just writing that down right now hehe) Within two hours, my compassion, playfulness, motivation, hope, confidence, calmness and equanimity were pretty much increased by a factor of 100 or 1000. It was definitely more than 10 times, but maybe not a million either. That gives you an idea of the significance of the changes. People started being very intimidated by my calm, assertive and focused presence. But I don't think it was conscious, most of the time. I just saw it in their nervous tics and involuntary movements, of which I had almost none anymore. During the first three days, I was looking a lot at one of the two assistants of the Vipassana teacher. He was a bit older than me and seemed very noble, hardworking, but also relaxed, happy and present. I felt inspired by him. But during the following days, he was the one staring at me. I caught him several times and he got seemingly destabilized while looking elsewhere. At the end of the 10 days, we were allowed to speak again. In the washrooms, I waited for this assistant to pass in front of me so that I could tell him that they were out of brown paper. He didn't seem to care about that for even a second, but he just looked at me and asked: "You're pretty much in Nirvana all the time, aren't you?" I answered: "I'm not ready to put words on it yet, but pretty much, I guess. Do you want me to tell you the story? It happened on the fourth day". And so we went on, talking about our experiences. As of today, I feel like he was the only one to really understand my state. He gave me the advice of first maintaining my equanimity (which is my lack of reaction to pleasant or unpleasant sensation or feelings), and secondly, my tactile awareness. I'm still rolling and maintaining both, even after speaking to my parents, walking 2 hours and being stuck in Montebello for 10 hours with my heavy bags, going back to work, having my first panic attack in front of my boss, having every stranger intimidated by my presence, spending a wonderful evening with this girl I like, etc. Since then, I have been laughing, again and again, at was used to be my misery, but which has now become the funniest, inexhaustible joke. Now I seek clarifications about what happened and also advice for the future of my journey. I hope you liked the story, but it's your turn now! ?

Yes, that sound about right. I'm not constantly in nirvana or anything. And my ego seems to be slowly building itself back up, but in a much more useful and truthful way. Oh god! I'm not prepared at all. Do I really have to go through that? It sounds bad hehehe. Well, what can I do? Return to unconscious misery? HELL NO!?

It was my first retreat. Before that, my only meditation experience was about 200 hours of mindfulness meditation, done in the last 5 years. I had never really experienced advanced meditative states before. But since last week, it seems that I'm finally able to bring most of the awareness of my body from the Gross realm to the Subtle realm. The Gross state of consciousness feels like having low-resolution, substantial spots of sensations like big potatoes all over the body, which are separated by blind spots and foggy feelings. The Subtle state feels more like a high-definition constellation of pleasant and soft tingling. It makes my arm feel like a galaxy's arm instead of a potato bag. The weirdest thing is that when I reached that state and stayed there for a few days, I started figuring out where my pineal gland was. I didn't remember if it was in the front, back or middle of the brain, but I didn't have to remember. It seemed to be the only part of my whole body that was still resisting becoming subtle. A jellybean right behind my third eye persisted since then and stayed very gross, very hard, very substantial. As I'm thinking and studying, I think that I've had my first direct glimpse (Kensho) of the existential nature of suffering on day 4. And then, around day 6, my body has reached the Subtle reality almost entirely, except for my pineal gland. Clarification and advice would be very helpful.

@Space I had to bring 3 things with me in order to succeed at my retreat, and they're pretty much written into the name of the technique: Strong Determination Sitting. The First thing you need is strong determination. Mine comes from genuine curiosity about the nature of sensations. I just don't know what is true, I'm confused and I really wanted to know. I want to help people around me, but even with the best intentions and the best mind, I could still be misled into thinking that I'm helping people when in fact I'm not. The truth or falseness of something is the most fundamental and important characteristics it has. Anything you value can instantly become valueless if it is ever revealed to be false. Any problem can also become valueless if it is revealed to be false. Wonder and find out what is true right now in your direct experience. Actually look. Also, you need two other things that are included in sitting: your left buttcheek and your right buttcheek. Good luck!

I wasn't focusing on that, really. I do feel the need to meditate a lot these days and there isn't much room for mental chatter while I'm observing my sensations, so I guess I'm honoring your advice indirectly. But thanks. Precisely.

I've noticed a bunch of people on this forum who were posting really profound and high-consciouness comments containing deep insights about the nature of reality. But sometimes, it seemed to me that their advice was too advanced for the person they were interacting with. The way I give advice is I try to go just a small step beyond where the person is already at. I try to give an advice that is not too high-consciousness and advanced, so that the person is wise enough to get it. But also, I try to make it high enough, so that the person has to change some of their mindsets in order to get there. Their mind has to stretch, but not so much that it breaks, if you see what I mean. So what's your opinion? Should we unleash the full power of our wisdom without worrying too much about the other person's level of consciousness? Or should we try to adjust our speaking in order to be closer to the person's current level of advancement? I'll summon @abrakamowse here. We discussed it and I want to hear his opinion

Happiness is not something you do. It's a million things you stop doing.

@Lawrence Yes it has to be involved in a sense, because the scientists creating this super AI will most certainly be conscious. And also the people who become robots will most certainly be conscious both before and after their transformation. Even the AI we create on a computer might become conscious at some point. But what I mean is that developing those technologies doesn't require to understand consciousness at all. There is no need to model it. No need to master it. No need to talk about it. Neurons are basically all you need to understand. Once you understand neurons, you can play with them. And once you play with them, the universe is at your fingertips.

@David1 Yes. Yes.

@username If you do a copy/paste with your consciousness, then no problem. You have a clone that thinks like you or whatever and you still get to live. If you do a cut/paste, then the "cut" part means you kill yourself. You don't sound like you're advocating mass suicide, but unfortunately, a lot of people sound like they do. @Leo Gura No, actually it's been done for the first time recently. It says brain-to-brain, but actually it's brain-to-computer-to-brain. So it seems like your prediction has an error of hundreds of years. No it doesn't require you to know anything about consciousness. You just have to plug wires at the right place and Boom! You know the internet like the back or your hand. You plug some more and Boom! You have a hundred different senses, instead of the usual five. A few more wires and Boom! Enlightenment can be pursued without all the distractions and traps that usually get in your way when doing self-inquiry. It's obviously simplified, but you get the point. That's where we totally agree. I want to become a robot by incrementally modifying my brain in a way that I always wake up after the operation and it just felt like a normal nap. This way I don't even have to get into the whole consciousness debate. The key here is incremental change. You're already doing it every night. Why not improve the process?

@DrMatthewsausage When I think about it, the most convincing stuff isn't even their opinions. It's their achievements. Look up Demis Hassabis from DeepMind. Their company was founded 5 years ago and they've already made a neural network that learned to be the best Atari gamer in the world. It learned it from scratch. If that doesn't strike you with awe, fear or deep concern, I don't know what will. @Extreme Z7 You're just switching debate like Leo did. Conversation 101, dude. I like what you're saying, but it doesn't belong here. There's a whole forum section for enlightenment stuff. @username Yes, consciousness may matter to us if we want to transfer it. I, for one, don't. I want to become transhuman, but by incremental operations, from which I wake up like after a good night of sleep. If you're not afraid to go to sleep every night, to die and then to wake up as a slightly different person, like you've been doing since you're born, then you're not afraid of my plan to become transhuman. @Will Bigger Again, look up Demis Hassabis and get your mind blown. Again, consciousness doesn't have to be involved at all. You can become a robot by having multiple minor surgeries and nanobot injections. It's like going to sleep and waking up a little bit different each time.

@Extreme Z7 True. I agree. Consciousness has nothing to do in this conversation. I don't even know why @Leo Gura brought it here. He just switched debate. I repeat: It is a matter of probable human extinction. Life or death. I like consciousness and enlightenment and all, but now I'm talking practical pragmatic strategy. I'd really like for people to think about solutions so we don't get wiped out of earth during the 21st century. And just avoiding the debate by coming up with a random estimation of "It won't happen before hundreds of years" is at best, being uninformed and at worst, being a threat to mankind. Please people, do your research. I know the debates I'm throwing here haven't reached mainstream media yet, which is why I may sound like a crazy alarmist. But the people who actually know a lot about General Artificial Intelligence, they also know how much of a real issue this is. We have to build this responsibly or else you can probably say goodbye to most of what you care about.

@Leo Gura That's not a relevant argument. We don't have to figure out how consciousness works in order to build human level AI. It just has to simulate human behavior and human cognition. And we're getting there frighteningly fast. Once we do get there, we're basically left with two possibilities: World War III or Singularitarian Utopia. And where do you take that number? Hundreds of years? Your estimation is laughable to anyone who works at the cutting edge of machine learning. People who kind of know what they're talking about (unlike you and I) estimate maybe 10 to 50 years. Now you have eyeballs directed towards your channel, Leo. Do the responsible thing for humanity: Admit that it's by far the #1 issue for humanity right now. Help raising awareness about that issue. Use your wisdom to think about solutions. Contribute to those solutions in any way you can. Or convince me that I'm wrong. And use real arguments this time, please.

@Emerald Wilkins What are you confused about? And how does that make you feel? (I suggest a lengthy answer)

@Evilwave Heddy Same here. Don't worry, it's just the usual response you get from close minded people about almost any new genre. Personally, what I prefer about dubstep is the kind of dance that naturally comes out of it. Because of the violence and complexity of the music, you end up moving your arms and legs with a strength and an energy that is hard to find in any other genre. It helps me release all my repressed aggressivity. And it's also incredible to beatbox, when you get good at it Do you agree with me that the biggest lack in dubstep is more depth in the lyrics?

When I was young, my parents were busy with their problems and weren't particularly developed or conscious people. They didn't find much time to get involved with my passions or what I had to say. So I interpreted that as: "I'm not an interesting person, so I'll just fade in the background and not disturb anyone" Also, like most children, I wasn't taken very seriously when I was angry or sad. I interpreted that as: "I should never be angry or annoying, I should always be the nice little dude in the corner who always smiles and agrees with everyone" And I kind of succeeded at that. Like any other human being, I was angry sometimes. I got annoyed. I got sad. I got lonely. I got confused. I got worried. I got stressed. The problem is, I didn't express it for almost 20 years. For christ's sake, I didn't cry a single time from 9 years old to 19 years old. I haven't yelled at anyone since I was a child. When a kid punched me, I kept on smiling and trying to be nice with him. When I got insulted, I just laughed and said: "good one". I kept everything inside, trying to avoid conflict at all cost. And now it's time to pay the price. I've been doing around a hundred hours of meditation by now. I recently had deep emotional conversations with my siblings about the problems in my childhood and all the emotions that are still haunting me, hidden in the shadow of multiple layers of repression and rationalizations. I've been slacking off my weed consumption, which helps me clear my mind even more. So now the curtains are open. Now I can feel this enormous storm of pain, anger and sadness coming towards me. I'm not sure how long it will last. I'm not sure if I'm ready to face it all yet. All I know is that it's coming. Twice last week, I was on the verge of panic attacks. I never had any panic attack before. All week, I cried almost everyday, I screamed and I shaked. All feelings that I had almost forgotten by now. I don't need pity. I don't need consolation. I don't need support. I need advice. I need truth. And all I can give you in return is my trust. So don't mess with it.

@Mal @charlie2dogs The 3 hours of strong determination sitting meditation I've done a few days earlier showed me this fact like never before: I didn't have an enlightenment or anything, but I'm slowly learning how I could someday become detached from my own suffering. Which is a lot for me. And Charlie's comment happened to eloquently put that in precise words, with the best timing ever. That comment was meaningful. Thanks a lot.

@Emerald Wilkins Nice! What do you think about the similarities between you and Teal Swan? And also Elliott Hulse. You could promote your channel using their Youtube comment section.

@Emerald Wilkins I hate when people don't answer my topic's question and just question the very purpose of it, but I'll do it anyway Maybe if you go to other forums, you'll just end up diluting your fanbase. I really see the Actualized.org community as something pure and rare. It seems like Leo has built an entirely new realm that didn't exist before and doesn't exist anywhere else. My suggestion is stick to this community, help it grow, and it will help your new community grow in return. Once you get enough followers and you become a more powerful and independent force for change, you might even create your own forum. And other people will start youtube channels and forums strongly inspired by Leo's work as well. I say those are the forums you should post in. The problem is: they don't really exist yet. Leo has not yet penetrated the zeitgeist enough for its seeds to spread and grow that much. I suggest you wait a few years before searching for other forums. But Youtube channels are easier to create, so you might find lots of Leo-inspired channel out there already. Those could be a great resource for your marketing. And finally, your videos are just good. It's simple as that. Marketing will be quite easy in your case. So I don't wish you good luck, because you don't really need it.

@Emerald Wilkins I had an emotional event happen during my job this week. Even as I was working at customer service, I had to talk to like fifty clients and I was clearly on the verge of tears the whole time. I had a shaky voice and shaky lips but I was staying professional and kind. Also, I have a moment of ten seconds per client in which I don't need to talk or do anything. So I used those and also each and every other moment to "meditate", using my emotional pain as the object of contemplation. It seems like sadness acts out mostly around my jaw, throat and torso areas. It was pretty intense, so it was really easy to notice. Also, clients kept on giving me lots of positive validation. But before, when I was less emotionally aware, the smallest piece of sadness was able to "throw me off my game" and make people avoid eye contact with me, be impatient with me, not trust that I'm making a good job, etc. So I definitely can see A LOT of positive in this raising of awareness that I'm going through. The emotional release feels just so real and vivid. I feel like living again. But I don't quite see why you used the word Also, second question, do you have a video on your channel that you recommend for my situation?

@Emerald Wilkins My problem is pretty confusing and paradoxical. I have a bunch of parts of me that I don't like. Emotions that I'm ashamed of feeling. Flaws that make me feel weak and underdeveloped. Problems that "I should already be over with". Red flags that "I should have noticed earlier". All parts of reality that I rarely take the time to face. I mostly prefer distracting myself from them. Or restructuring my model of reality to make them look like they fit in or like everything is perfect. And the main sugar-coating I'm using, the main distraction, is self-help. Self-help is both my worst problem and my best solution. How ironic is that? Every progress I make is a new enemy I have to face. Every technique I try requires another technique to control it. Every intention become detention. Every tool is a trap. My own mind is a huge ball of bullshit trying to kill itself. And I hate that I'm loving it. Even though I'm lost like I've never been before, only because I finally found a path that seems to lead somewhere. But anyways, thanks for reading the bullshit I write, but don't even believe in. Cheers.

So far, the emotional storm seems to be quite supportable. I started crying at least a little bit every two days or so. I'm starting to see expressions on my face that I never saw before. I mostly experience sadness, loneliness, stress, fear, uncomfort, shame, guilt and a little bit of anger. I suspect more anger to emerge along the way, as it's definitely the emotion that's the least compatible with my self-image since I'm young. I also have a lot of new and unknown positive emotions that come up, like deep gratitude, awe, passion, relief, freedom and satisfaction. While I'm at work and I'm able to surf the emotion in an almost meditative state, I notice that most clients are impressed by my presence, my kindness and general vibe like never before. Not to brag, but the level of positive validation I received from clients was already pretty unusual. Now it just gets off the charts sometimes. Now, I have murderous ideas sometimes about one supervisor at work who hurts my feelings strongly and repetitively. I also decided to make a complain against him for psychological harassment, which I could have never done before, because I was always telling myself that I'm strong enough to endure even the most manipulative asshole. I haven't smoked weed since the last message. And I don't even feel like I'm disciplining myself. It seems to come quite naturally. Two days ago, I totally broke my meditation record. Before, I had never done more that 90 minutes of strong determination sitting. Basically, I do those sessions perfectly, except for a few facial expressions I'm not able to contain or like a short spasm in my fingers. But two days ago, I did a whole 3 hours 5 minutes without moving my legs or torso one time. I just had a shaky breathing and muscular tensions during the last hour, because of the emotional distress. I decided to consult with a psychologist to make sure I don't do anything stupid with my life. Also to help me express my feelings and guide me. Finally, thanks to all of you who read or responded. I really like this forum and the whole actualized.org community. Feel free to give me advice or to share similar experiences you had. I'll respond with more soon.