Forestluv

I just decided to 5-meo this weekend. I’m feeling close to experiencing what Leo is writing about.

@GafaRassaDaba You wrote a powerful report. My second Aya ceremony had a different theme than yours, yet it was also the most terrifying experience of my life. It’s been over a year since that ceremony and your report gave me chills.

Those are great questions for self inquiry. I think direct experience might be more profound than trying to figure it out.

For me, being present isn’t about attaining a certain feeling or experience. Rather than trying to control my current experience, I’ve found it better to simply be aware of whatever is happening. So, being aware that my mind-body is experiencing anxiety is being in the now. It’s about allowing everything to be just as it is in the present moment.

Like the OP, I went through a stage of calling people out on “there is no I”. I’m glad “I” grew out of it.

When I started experiencing epidsodes of nonduality I had difficulty communicating with people. I withdrew and spent a lot of time in nature. It's been an ongoing process of adjustment to interact with others.

I scoop or eyeball various other psychedelics, but not 5-meo-dmt. I use a laboratory grade 1mg scale.

I totally agree. One thing I found very helpful is cultural immersion. I lived with a tribe in the mountains of Peru last summer which shattered many of my belief systems. I learned Spanish so I could communicate in their native language. In the area of sexuality, I got involved with polyam meet-up groups and really listened to their experiences and perspectives. So many of my unconscious biases were revealed. For unconscious racial biases, I was in two committed relationships outside my race twice for over a year (a colombian woman and a black woman). I had an intellectual understanding of racism and I serve on a diversity committee. Yet, directly experiencing racism within an inter-racial relationship blew away all my intellectual knowledge. My understanding goes so much deeper now. For me, learning is more than reading and watching videos about other cultures. IME, to understand a culture, one needs to experience and immerse themself into it. For me, that has been key to deeply understanding and experiencing the green stage of consciousness. An intellectual understanding is a surface level.

I’ve been so conditioned for monogamy it would have taken a lot of work to recondition myself for polyamory. It doesn’t cone naturally for me. There are other aspects of life I want to focus on. Polyamory is much broader than polygamy. Noone I met in the polyamory community was into polygamy. A few things I learned is polyam is about sooo much more than sex. Just like monogamy is more than sex. Also, I met many people that were very introspective. I observed healthy and unhealthy relationships, just like in monogamy. I was surprised by how open and honest people in the polyam community were with their connections. Good communication seemed like a high priority. Getting tested for STDs and being transparent was also a high priority. The woman I dated openly wouldn't sleep with anyone until tests. They seemed more serious about this than monogamists I know and dated. They weren’t just looking to sleep around and, in general, were in committed relationships. Many were only having sex with their primary partner by internal choice. Some were in open marraiges. Open relationships are becoming more common and with good communication they seemed quite healthy to me. I've noticed it's becoming an acceptable type of relationship with the millennial generation. My students seem much more open to the idea than previous generations.

Open relationships / polyamory is a different area than polygamy. I’ve recently expanded my consciousness in this area. I was raised in a fundamental catholic house. I was conditioned with strong beliefs in favor of monogamy, marraige and children. Last year, in an effort to be radically open-minded and challenge my beliefs, I got involved with the polyamory community in my area. I dated one woman in an open relationship for 8 months. It turned out we only had sex with each other. I went to various activities and got to meet a diverse set of people within the community. I went through a process of self inquiry and contemplation during this time that got extremely uncomfortable at times - including arguments and emotional breakdowns. I finally broke through and was able to see through their perspective and felt empathetic. It’s a different sexual orientation and I experienced it in my mind-body. I totally get a polyamorous sexual orientation from direct experience. It was nothing like anything I could have imagined. I can honestly say my capacity to love has expanded greatly. Yet I also discovered my social conditioning for monogamy runs deep into me. It would have taken a lot of reconditioning for me to stay within the community. I just didn’t want to invest that kind of time and energy into that area of my life, so I left the community two months ago. I’m still integrating the lessons. It was really profound for me. Imo, to describe polyamory as sleeping around is on the same level as describing monogamy as cheating and affairs.

Once I decided to try a psychedelic, I put in about a week of research

This seems like orange to me. The intention is personal development to attain personal goals.

An interesting Green vs. Orange/Blue debate on a hot social issue.

This is an *awesome* video of someone explaining how she expanded her consciousness.

I'm curious if you have updated the course. It seems like you have had a lot of growth the past couple of years.

@Etherial Cat What a beautiful example of green! Another one from her:

High conscious views on the forum has helped me become more conscious over the last year. I hope it has that impact on others as well.

A good example in our lifetime is same-sex relationships.

From my POV, you are trapped in a contracted perspective. This often leads to a sense of separation and a “me vs them” mentality. Which is expressed as conflict, both internally and externally. I’ve gone through this with my own ideology of politics and science. I can’t express the magnitude of liberation that exists after walking through the process of introspection and revelation. It’s like the difference between drinking a delicious fruit smoothie vs. drinking gutter water.

@Emerald One skill I’m trying to develop as a teacher is “meeting people where they are at”. It takes skill to help someone become more aware without triggering a perceived threat and defense mechanisms.

Your ego is trying to re-engage the conflict so it doesn’t have to look at itself.

@Emerald I appreciate your holistic perspective.

Perhaps it would be better to ask if you want to expand your self-awareness. Yes you are thinking. Can you observe those thoughts without attachment and identification? There is something here MUCH deeper than the thoughts themselves.