Carl-Richard

That's the norm. But if you ask an academic like the guy in the video, it's generally a much wider category.

It's literally true though 😂

True, but it also increases IQ by decreasing task-irrelevant thoughts (thoughts that interrupt your attention on a task), which is arguably much more specifically related to IQ than stress levels.

Everything impacts your mind and by extension your IQ. But if there is one big one, it's chronic stress.

You can do that without giving up describing things.

Sadhana is like a trampoline. Letting go of attachments is like a ladder. Awakening is like glimpsing the roof. Enlightenment is like sitting on the roof. You can't sit on the roof without a ladder, but a trampoline can help you see what is up there. You can also use it to jump a few steps up on the ladder. It can also strengthen your legs to help you climb the ladder. Sometimes it helps to use the trampoline more. Sometimes it helps to use the ladder more. There is not only one way, and what works best at what time depends on the person. Trying out one over the other for some time might be smart, but unless you are on the very last step, you will eventually go back to the other thing in some way.

"Dishonest" should be reserved for people like Andrew Tate.

What is "practical spirituality"?

You're probably still New Age though People conflate New Age with a very particular aesthetic (hippies, "peace and love", crystal healing, Burning Man). That's not really it. The aesthetic sometimes co-occurs with New Age, but New Age is much more than that.

Exactly. Even if you're all aboard the formless train, when you profess that to other people and practice it in your own life, that looks like something (it has a form), because you're indeed a formed human being. And whether you prefer to practice it alone in your closet with a YouTube video running in the background or in a monastery with deeply trained and knowledgeable masters, that's form too. You can indeed reach the formless despite the presence of multiple egoic forms in the same room, or despite deriving practices and principles strictly from one kind of doctrine like a good religious boy. In fact, sometimes that is even the better alternative (in my opinion). And in fact, it's really unavoidable: the only question is if you indeed prefer your own eclectic mix or the original package (or the mix that you got passed down from some other eclectic talking head on YouTube, like the good religious boy you are).

Like in the video that OP referenced, New Age is religious eclecticism, steeped in individualism (which in virtually all cases means postmodernism, but that's a bit besides the point). Whether or not in your bag of eclectic beliefs you have things like "Buddha exemplifies a principle of authentic experience", is rather orthogonal to whether or not it's New Age. "But it's not beliefs". Ok, let's grant that: you're still professing something. What you're professing, and despite of how epistemically stripped down you sometimes profess it to be — over our repeated interactions, it seems like New Age describes that. In general, when people start to speak about what their religion is, it's possible to describe that, and when I see people on this forum do that, I generally see New Age.

What does?

Do we have Buddha on the forum? 🤔🧐

Not one person on this forum is not a New-Ager 😂

With brain training and optimized fitness, nutrition and general health which bumps their IQ up to 110, certainly

Why were you making a bonfire at that particular time?

Unless you have a list of like 20 specific criteria for compatibility and you're scanning all the geographic locations on Tinder in your country, and unless you live in a really small city (less than 50 000 people), I don't think that matters. You can only meet so many people in your life, and most people (probably still) like to meet locally.

I think some people have called DGG a cult as well.

Exciting news!

A.k.a. "Matrix programming"

You can increase your IQ with brain training and high-intensity physical exercise. However, the biggest increase you'll see from doing something you're passionate about.

I think I've never gotten an Opeth song stuck in my head this much before. And the first time I heard it, I was so surprised: Mikael brought back his death growls on a new album. This is so exciting. The sound also sounds like they integrated the new Opeth with the old Opeth. It's like Spiral Dynamics of Prog Metal lol. And look at all the emotional Taylor Swift fans- I mean metalheads in the comment section crying tears of joy :

Lack of acceptance is simply when you don't want something. A good example is the difference between consensual sex and rape. Why does one elicit such fear and pain and the other the opposite? Why are the actions so similar but the experiences so different? People describe the 5-MeO-DMT experience as a superb sense of lack of separation. Why is it then possible to freak out on 5-MeO-DMT? Let's talk about the brain for a moment. The experience of lack of separation is associated with a reduction of activity in the Default Mode Network (DMN). I'm 99% convinced that if you were to scan OP's brain while he is having these experiences, his DMN activity will be severely reduced. Now, he will probably also have strong activity in the amygdala, because he is experiencing intense fear. And this is perfectly possible, because the DMN works largely independently of the amygdala. And this makes sense, because just because your monkeymind is shut off doesn't mean you're unable to identify threats. If that was the case, enlightened people who are deeply established in a state free of moneymind would drop like flies. The experience of lack of separation is not a black and white thing. Reality, and particularly the human mind, is nuanced. To get deeply established in a state of lack of separation without experiencing any issues requires a deep integration of various parts of your psyche (and your brain). The parts that determine what you accept, what you fear, what you dislike, must cooperate with the parts that determine the experience of lack of separation. And for that to happen, you need to grow up, or burn through the karma that is keeping you from it.

Let's clear something up: When you clearly see that there is no separation and you accept it, that's called Enlightenment. When you clearly see that there is no separation but you don't accept it, that's called a spiritual emergency. It's also perfectly valid to say he is enlightened but he just doesn't accept it. There is no need to deny the crystal clear description of his experiences. What advice you want to give is up to you.