Forestluv

@Roman Edouard There is nothing scary about microdosing. The dose is small and under threshold. Most people can't even notice an effect. Yet, at the end of the day might think "wow, I got a lot done today. My creative side came out". I met a guy who worked on technology development in Silicon Valley. He told me microdosing is rampant and it's hard to compete with the big players without microdosing.

@SageModeAustin Is research part of your dissertation? Perhaps you could design a research project that incorporates some of Leo's concepts.

Ampresus: I would encourage you to do both. Be open to other people's opinions. Be open to views that say Astronomy should be a low priority and be open to views that say Astronomy should be a high priority. Which opinions resonate with you? Other people's views can help reveal the truth within you. And also look within. Do both.

@Ampresus Welcome to the board Ampresus! Your English is very good. Sometimes there might be some confusion about the English (how something is said). This type of confusion is more common with ESL, yet occurs between native speakers too. Also, there can be confusion about the concept itself - this is very common with native speakers. Contemplating and discussing the concept can clear things up toward deeper understanding. Yet, asking the question may "open up a can of worms" (a saying for when asking a question creates lots of new questions). Regarding the value of astronomy: You may want to consider other people's opinions, yet I would encourage you looking within as well. Do you feel a calling toward Astronomy? Do *you* think/feel that Astronomy can contribute to humanity? How so? Would learning and teaching about Astronomy give you a sense of meaning and purpose. Leaders are often grounded in their sense of meaning and purpose. Perhaps you come up with five three good reasons Astronomy can contribute to humanity. Over time, you may deeper your understanding how Astronomy contributes to humanity and discover new ways. Imagine you meet someone who tells you "Astronomy is a waste of time. The government shouldn't be wasting so much money funding Astronomy". Being grounded, you could consider this view, but you won't immediately change your view to accept the new view". Who knows, perhaps you will learn many ways Astronomy can help humanity. Perhaps one day you will give a TedTalk about the value of Astronomy for humanity.

"Is every person's life worth the same?" There are multiple answers that can be true - depending on the perspective. I could give you an answer from a relative perspective, a rational perspective or an either / or perspective. To me, a relative perspective seems most appropriate for this question. "Worth" is a relative term. Each person has their own idea of what "worth" means. There is no absolutely true answer to your question. Now, here is where so much struggling, suffering and conflict comes into play. Imagine a person has a clear idea of what "worth" means, yet is unaware that this meaning is relative to her. She views it as an absolute truth - that her belief is universally true. She may seek to be with other people that hold a similar view as hers (which only pulls her further away from seeing it is only a relative truth). She may also get into conflict with people that have a different view. She may try to convince them her view is correct. She may argue. The human mind has a tendency to think in absolute terms. A relative mode of thinking can be very unpalatable to the self. Many minds suffer terribly in conflict because it will not let go and view things from a relativistic perspective. The self may become attached to, and identify, with beliefs. Understanding relative thinking can be an uncomfortable process, yet there is enormous freedom on the other side. You will likely get a variety of answers to your question. Members may debate about who has the "right" answer. See if you can notice how each answer is true in a relative sense.

Microdosing LSD works wonders for creativity. So much so that it is considered a "performing enhancing drug" in Silicon Valley. A microdose is about 1/20 to 1/10 of a normal dose. I find 10ug to be my sweet spot. It is under threshold (no visuals, no feeling weird or altered reality). Yet, I have a clear boost in creativity, integrating concepts and empathy with others. This does come at a cost: my ability to analyze details (e.g. analyzing scientific data) is compromised. On a microdose, my mind would want to view the data relative to the big picture (rather than critically evaluating the data itself).

It's generally a good idea to use a diversity of teachers. I avoid getting too immersed with any one teacher. Each teacher can only teach certain facets of your truth.

@emind You have created a story about how life is and it has become your reality. There are many other perspectives. Your story is oriented toward the individual. I imagine you have a strong sense of self that is separate from what you perceive as others. Another perspective is you share a higher consciousness with others. Ideas about what "they" think and what "you" think start to dissolve. Have you ever seen something so beautiful that you were awe-struck? You lost the sense of yourself and became the experience of appreciating beauty. Have you ever had a moment of such deep love that you lost sense of yourself and there was only the experience of love? That's the type of "woo-woo" stuff that is available to you. IME, mystical experiences blow away any form of intellectual, scientific or material gain. It aint even close.

This thread has run its course.

Cool. That is another way of looking at it

@Leo Gura I'm new to this area and I'd like to fully bake this realization if possible. . . In that "nothing" there was no appearance of form or perception. There was a first form that arose from the nothingness. Simultaneously, perception arose. There was nothing to perceive before the appearance. Is the *arising* of form and perception the domain of Mu? Or was there an underlying essence of form and perception in the null void? It seemed like a distinction-less, form-less, perception-less null void in which form and perception arose and gradually developed more distinctions to finally become what can be perceived to be a highly formed reality. Does Mu cover this whole continuum?

What about psychedelics? Could 100 ego-death trips with a variety of substances over a year open a closed mind? For me, there is no way my mental resistance would hold up.

Sometimes I see elaborate theories and just shake my head. We know virtually nothing about reality, yet people walk around and give talks as if they are making sense of the world based on 0.00000000001% understanding. In 500 years, perhaps humanity will have a 0.000001% level of understanding and laugh about how stupid we are. Things that none of us can imagine will be discovered. Stuff that would look like magic. Seriously radical stuff that would freak us out now. Stuff that we have no concepts for and are unable to conceptualize now. Once I started having mystical experiences, it was a complete game-changer. The world looks completely different. It's like humans are in the Dark Ages trying to figure out how a mechanical pencil works. Now, there is nothing wrong with trying to figure out how a mechanical pencil works - ya gotta start somewhere. Yet, let's not kid ourselves into thinking we've made substantial progress figuring out the nature of reality. Leo commented in a video that 99% of the growth is at Turquoise and I totally agree. Once you get some Turquoise glimpses it's like peeking into another world. Imagine a world in which intellect is a stage grey, archaic ability. Intellect is something poorly-evolved humanoid brains used thousands of years ago.

@lmfao I love science, logic and reason. It's fun stuff and a great tool. Sometimes it's best to use a saw, other times a hammer. Don't limit ones-self to one tool. Leonardo Da Vinci is my favorite mind. A biologist, artist, philosopher, poet, engineer and on and on. . .

@Zeldor Nice work. I've found direct experience and conceptual understanding go hand-in-hand.

Yea. It was the one of the most bizarre realities I've ever experienced. I layed on the ground and I couldn't see, feel, hear, smell anything. No thoughts. There were no distinctions. Nothing. I remember seeing something arise from nothing. An amorphous, poorly defined something. There was awareness that was aware of it. Yet, what was there before there was a thing? It wasn't like awareness was sitting around being aware waiting for something to appear. I've never conceived of anything prior to awareness. I still don't know how to integrate it into such a limited mind-body. It doesn't make sense to me, yet there is a knowing of something I can't describe.

Genetics, molecular bio, developmental bio and neuroscience. I rarely write about science on this forum as I want to develop higher skills into yellow and turquoise zones. I used to have the mentality of a hard core scientist. Now that I'm part mystical, I think I'm viewed as a nutty professor around here. Last week I was chatting with a few freshman students about paranormal phenomena. One student seemed to have a hard time sizing me up and asked if I was a "real" scientist. He immediately apologized and tried to clarify what he meant. I laughed and told him it was the highest compliment I've received all week

One of my teachers does a live stream on youtube and takes questions/comments on skype. It's super cool.

Back when I was passing through Orange-ville, I watched the Atheist Experience with delight. I loved how the hosts used logic and reason to expose the irrationality of blue callers. To be honest, I don't think I could debate well against Matt. If it was a UFC cage fight, he would continually want to take me down and grind it out on the mat. I would use a lot of relative and absolute thinking and he would keep re-framing things in terms of logic and reason. He is very skilled at that and has some high level reasoning abilities. As well, I value direct experience which he would largely dismiss as irrational feelings. These days, I use the term God similarly as consciousness, being, presence. I don't think in terms of an anthropomorphic god. So, some people would consider me an atheist. Yet, I would be very far away from an atheist regarding the nature of intelligence, creation, reality and self.

@SOUL Yep. It's so hard to describe with dualistic terms. I get what you are saying - I just use different words to try to explain the same thing. For me, my nondual experiences have been from the "everything" perspective. All things lose their distinctions and everything is one. Yet there was still awareness present. Recently, I've had an experience from the "nothing" perspective. All things lost their distinctions and disappeared. There was nothing. Not even awareness (there was nothing to be aware of). Then, the first "thing" arose from the nothingness and awareness arose with it. I couldn't conceive of something prior to awareness. It was mindblowing.

@Roman Edouard I'm a professors and I see what you are talking about everyday. Students distracted on the cell phones - detached from their environment, detached from each other. A calculus professor spending an hour explaining a highly complex math problem they find elegant and exciting - yet has absolutely no practical relevance to the student's lives. A developmental biologist making his students memorize dozens of structures during chick development - which all the students will forget an hour after the exam and never use the rest of their lives. However, there are also school environments conducive to learning meaningful things. In my classes, students don't use cell phones. We cover topics like the role of microflora in brain development and function, unconscious biases, anxiety, depression, the various effects of recreational and prescription drugs on the mind, how viral STDs are transmitted and cause their effects. . . stuff that matters in their lives.

I did shrooms decades ago when I was a young lad. I know growing shrooms is easy, yet I suck at growing anything and I would probably screw it up. I did a lot of reading on 4-Aco-dmt and IMO it's close enough to shrooms that I put them in the same category (I know others will disagree. . . ). It's much easier for me to get high quality 4-Aco-dmt than grow shrooms.

I'm cool with giving stuff meaning in a relative context. Yet, if he wants to go to "nothing", that means no distinctions. He says truth is within the nothing. The nothing is bittersweet. There is contentment within the nothing. No, there is nothing in the nothing. Those are things that can arise within the nothing. Imagine no distinctions. What is there without distinctions?

@zoey101 I love me some abstract thinking Another idea along those lines. . . Each person is like their own type of plant. To flourish each plant has it's own needs. Some plants need lots of shade. Other plants need lots of sun. Some plants need lots of water, others little water. Some plants thrive in clay soil, while other plants whither in clay soil.

@Devil I am all of them and none of them!!! Dude, you are trapped in a concept. It doesn't matter what the concept is. You could be arguing about how life is explained by the Tao te ching, or Spiral Dynamics, game theory, neuroscience , Winnie the Poo, Jesus, psychedelics, alien races, Yoga or Detroit Becomes Human. There are countless of stories and games about life. They are lots of fun. Yet, at the end of the day - it's just a theory. Don't get trapped in any one game. It's super easy to get trapped in one way of thinking.