Forestluv

If you want to return to a "no-self" conscious state, do practices that lead to a "no-self" conscious state. Any practice that you can observe the self dynamics in the mind and let go of attachments/identifications will be helpful. Imagine if you were a tennis player and wanted to observe yourself playing tennis. You would step outside of yourself and observe yourself playing tennis (on a video recording). Similarly, you can step outside of yourself and observe your thoughts.

@LoveandPurpose A great self-inquiry is "What is genuine?". I've found direct experience insights that arise from the inquiry to be much deeper and powerful than intellectual explanations.

For those of you interested in the DMN, it is a network of brain activity associated with repetitive self-referential thinking. It is thought to be hyper-active in certain mental states, such as depression. Repetitive self-referential thinking may include "Why does this always happen to me", "I will never get better", "If only my father didn't hurt me when I was younger". Such thoughts can essentially form a self-referential loop which is difficult to break free of to see the bigger picture or different perspectives. Psychologists face the challenge of uncoupling this loop during talk therapy. Brain scans indicate activities such as meditation, yoga and psychedelics can temporarily uncouple the DMN, allowing the possibility for post-egoic insights to arise. @Outer Thank you for that detailed info on EEG machines, it helps me get started.

When contextualizing direct experience, I usually don't give a lot of weight to visual hallucinations. The most profound insights for me are nonvisual. Yet imagery can be integrated with insights. For example, insights may arise with direct experience of synchronicity and then the image you posted may arise. I would be much more comfortable integrating those two together. I'd be less comfortable if a stand-alone image arose and making up a story about what means. Yet others do it all the time. For me, it often leads to stuff that doesn't hold up and turns out to be a distraction.

That is an assumption from an Orange perspective. Once you become Green-centered you will understand and embody a more evolved perspective.

That is true for each Tier 1 stage. I agree with you that a Tier 2 president is likely too advanced for the average social consciousness. In the U.S. the average collective consciousness is stage Orange. So, stage Yellow would be two full stages higher and the jump from Tier1 to Tier2 is enormous. That leaves us with the option of a Tier 1 president. It seems to me a healthy Green level president is more capable of leading the collective consciousness up the Spiral. If the average consciousness in the U.S. is Orange, how can a Blue or Orange level president help the country evolve up? That person hasn't even evolved passed Orange, they have no clue about Green and would likely demonize Green. If you were upper Orange and wanted to evolve upward, would you choose an Orange level teacher? Of course not. How on earth can an Orange teacher help you evolve to Green? They haven't developed to Green and likely have resistance and internal repression of Green. Ego backlash is a component of Spiral evolution - at both the individual and collective levels. As an individual, as a person evolves into Green there will be an ego backlash and they may resist and return to unhealthy Orange behaviors. Similarly at the collective level, as the collective moves up the Spiral, there will be backlash from the collective ego. This is a totally normal component of spiral evolution. The perspective you offer does not appear to be Yellow. In general, a primary motivation of Yellow is to help evolve the collective consciousness up the spiral. That does not seem to be a primary motivation for you. Much of what you write seems consistent with maintaining the status quo below Green.

@Pouya Since starting this thread, you could have started your own Kriya Yoga practice and even begun to notice benefits. The first three techniques are straight-forward. You have the resources you need to get started and find out if it resonates with you. You can empower yourself and take action today. What’s holding you back?

@Zizzero Why not vote for the highest conscious candidate?

You going all post-rational on us tonight? Or are the walls talking to you again? ?

@Tony 845 You are so ready. You’re gonna love it ?

I did one with Adyashanti. It’s a unique energy.

@cetus56 That’s crazy. Imagine that trippin’ ?

It has a great ending. I love the reaction of the bird on the left.

If you are closer to yellow than orange, a new form of ambition will arise. Orange motivation is need-based. Desires arise for the psychological self. Yellow and Turquoise is post-self. Ambition is not self need-based. The ambition is to explore and discover. To have direct experience of the magnificence of life. If you have repressed aspects of Orange, you may need to deconstruct and work through that. As well, there are several different developmental lines (cognitive, emotional, spiritual etc). You may be further evolved along some developmental lines. If one is centered at Green or Yellow along a developmental line, you don't regress. And who would want to? Orange is like drinking gutter water and Yellow/Turquoise is like drinking fresh spring water. Even Green is 10X better than Orange.

Ime, that would be a great one to start off with.

@ahmet sukru I haven't used psychedelics as a personal development tool or to find answers. I don't think it would work well for me in that way because my ego would be assuming that the sober reality is real and the psychedelic reality is a place it can go to get stuff to bring back to sober life. For me, psychedelics are about existential states of being. Ego death. Nonduality. The Eternal Now. Hyper intuition and empathy. Entering different realms. Usually it has nothing to do with my sober life. The whole story of "me" dissolves. My profound trips aren't really about "me" (other than me having to surrender). My sober character has changed through the process, for example I can connect to other humans much more easily and deeply. I've known people that have used psychedelics for personal growth and to get clarity on life decisions and goals. Yet psychedelics have had the opposite effect on me. Perhaps the little monster problems arose from your subconscious trying to communicate with you. Or, maybe not. After two weeks, your tolerance will completely reset and you can trip again. It sounds like you will be good to go since your last trip wasn't very intense and there is much to integrate. You may want to bump up the dose a bit.

@Leo Gura You mentioned you use an EEG machine as a meditation tool. Do you have a recommendation in the $3,000 range. It's something I want to look into for my personal use and possibly with students if I get skilled enough.

My newest arisings are experiencing alternate realities as if they are real. Also empathetic ESP with people open to certain frequencies. Fun stuff.

Sometimes when I trip, the trip takes on a theme of the previous week or so. Perhaps there might be some subconscious energy around life problems surfacing? Yet sometimes, trips just seem to be random and wacky.

How was your mind-body oriented in the weeks prior to the trip? What type of work did you put in the weeks prior to the trip: meditation, yoga, contemplation, self inquiry etc. Or had you been preoccupied and worrying about life problems a lot? Also, did you set intentions prior to the trip? And, I would sit up with awareness during a trip.

Smartest by what metric?

Well there ya go. . . How do you know your sober reality is more true than a psychedelic reality? How do you know they are not equally true or that a psychedelic reality is more true?

I've had many similar experiences. In particular the part about reality collapsing into who knows what. That sense of uncertainty invoked both curiosity and anxiety within me. At times I didn't know if it was sane spiritual progress or insane. I generally kept it to myself because most people would think it kinda cra-cra. Expansion of consciousness can be unstable at first and then it settles down and becomes grounded. Then, the next level of expansion. What you described sounds totally normal relative to my own path and what I've related to others along a spiritual path.

It's basically indistinguishable from LSD. Some people say they can tell subtle differences. I've read online of a few experienced trippers doing blind experiments and they couldn't tell the difference. I use 1p LSD because it's more efficient and reliable for me.

@outlandish Those are great points about maximizing potential benefits. Ideally, there would be plenty of trained professionals and the treatment would be accessible to all that suffer. Yet due to social stigmas and regulatory restrictions - that will be a long ways away. If someone has a baseline level of maturity and support, I could see a self-guided at home kit being beneficial. For example, a manual to prepare beforehand, a guided trip (perhaps with a loved-one as a sitter) and a workbook for integration afterwards. As well as a supportive online forum. Hopefully, those enforcing laws wouldn't be so draconian that they would prosecute these activities.