Matt8800

@sgn For me, happiness was not possible until I mastered my mind. I personally do not believe one can master their mind without meditation. If one doesnt master their mind, they are a slave to their ego.

@Recursoinominado I can get myself in a pretty deep state with marijuana but not nearly as much as with psychedelics

Ive been working with combining psychedelics and meditation for my spiritual evolution pretty intensely for the last several years. Here is a technique that can catapult you to the spirit realm. I have had experiences with the Divine that I could never begin to communicate. Although the experiences vary widely, I have experimented with some techniques that will reliably take you into the spiritual deep end. Here is one of my favorites: 1. Create a comfortable "sacred" space with a TV/large monitor in your view. Put a picture of sacred geometry on the screen. I have experimented with a few but this is my favorite: https://wallpapersafari.com/w/R7oKhc I also like a dimly lit room with some candles. If you like incense, that might be a nice add. 2. Get hyper-present. Become aware that you are experiencing the present moment. Get even more hyper-present. Meditate for 20+ minutes to clear your mind and focus your energy. Search yourself for attachments and aversions that might still be clinging to your energy. Let go of your attachments and accept your aversions on the exhale while breathing. Visualize yourself breathing in cleansing light to fill the vacuum on the inhale. Do this until you feel your energy is purified. 3. If your so inclined, ask that the Divine blesses your holy sacrament (psychedelic). In your minds eye, visualize a light coming down from the top of the universe. The light represents love and beauty. Breath in the light on the inhale and breath out the light into your aura on the exhale. Visualize intensely your aura getting brighter every time you exhale. 4. Some people dont like music but personally, I prefer music. The reason why is that you can go a higher dose with less chance of a challenging trip. I have done it with music and without and I usually go with music. I dont feel that it detracts from the experience in any way and makes it more enjoyable. The trick is to not focus on the music. Its just something that plays in the background. 5. Take your psychedelic and meditate, while listening to music (if you choose). 6. Once you are starting to trip, focus very intensely on the center of the sacred geometry picture. Hold your concentration. The more intensely you can concentrate on the very center point of the picture, the deeper you will go. After a 5-10 minutes, you should start entering into samadhi. Reality will start to look holographic and you will get the distinct impression you are in another realm. If you feel some fear from the shock, KEEP GOING! Keep concentrating for another 5-10 minutes harder than you ever have before. Go as deep as you can. Your ego will completely dissolve and you will experience a very intense bliss and calmness. Some very interesting things happen with the patterns in the picture. You will have a new understanding of sacred geometry. 7. After you are in a high state of samadhi, turn all that focus inward onto the experience of experiencing the present moment as it flows. Try it with your eyes open and with your eyes closed to experiment. Become hyper-aware that you are aware. There are many levels you can go with this and it depends on how intensely you focus on your own awareness in the present moment. 8. Keep alternating between 6 and 7 as many times as you like. There is something synergistic about alternating these. 9. Since I cannot explain the experience in words, the experience will speak for itself If you try this, I would love to hear how it went for you

@Recursoinominado For this exercise, you would want to do just enough so that you get as high as you can without losing too much control over your body. You can also wait for it to peak and then do the exercise on the come-down.

Definately. The only reason I steer away from LSD for these types of sessions is because I like to push myself on the dosage a bit and LSD takes so long to wear off.

Sounds like you have some natural psychic abilities and your perception is opening up on the astral plane. They are always there but you are just seeing them now...I would guess because your meditation is deepening. There are energy cleansing rituals you can do if any voices start feeling negative.

Mushrooms is a good one but my favorite is DMT. Some people have mixed feelings about ketamine due to its potential to be abused but my favorite session is a tiny bit of ketamine (around 15mg) and then launch with the DMT about 10-20 minutes later. The small amount of ketamine "colors" it in very interesting ways.

@WelcometoReality overcoming a fear of death opens up ones life to much more. If one doesnt fear death, then what is there to fear? A life without fear is true freedom.

@ahmet Visualizing and meditation are two different things. Meditation is for developing concentration and insight to deconstruct the ego. Visualizing is used for energy work.

@sausagehead To let go of trauma, there are a few steps one must take in a particular order: 1. Fully acknowledge the nature of the trauma. Some people deny and repress, which just brings out a "shadow". 2. Learn to forgive and accept. A good way to work on this is through psychedelics, meditation and breathwork. 3. After acceptance, you can finally work on letting go. Inhale healing light and let go/accept by exhaling the hurts. If you try to let go before acceptance, it wont work.

Actually, I listened to a podcast where he interviewed philosopher David Chalmers. Harris is open to the idea that consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe but says he remains agnostic about it.

@Devansh Saharan Deception

@Swagala As a person that used to be fat many years ago, I just wanted to throw out caution against thinking that exercise alone will affect BMI. What finally did it for me is counting calories and staying away from sugar and carbs. Its harder to burn calories than it is to reduce caloric intake for creating a caloric deficit. With that said, doing both is ideal but it starts with caloric restriction. I wish you well with your efforts. Be kind to yourself.

@Recursoinominado Problems arise when people think love is just a feeling. Love is a verb. It is a decision to act. It is something you DO in the present moment. You can induce feelings of love with certain drugs. The feeling is chemical. If you want to love yourself, only talk to yourself with love. Treat yourself in every present moment with love.

@Giulio Bevilacqua I started having this about 2 years ago. I thought it was my imagination but it grew in intensity. It is more intense the more I abide in the present moment. At this point, I can make it so intense that I feel intense energy swirling in my head and seems to emanate from from my lower forehead. I did some research lately and found quite a few people describing the symptoms I was having as signs of a third eye opening.

@Meditationdude Everyone should feed themselves according to their hunger. The video length might not be ideal for you but may be ideal for others. When the subjects are of interest to me, I prefer longer in-depth videos that dig into the details.

@GroovyGuru Start with a small dose just to get your feet wet. I would suggest mushrooms over lsd because lsd lasts a long time.

@electroBeam He is not saying that meditation is not important. This is a yogi saying that a specific yogic technique is "more advanced" than a specific buddhist technique. Im familiar with Sadhguru and here are two phrases he would never say: 1. I dont know the answer to that question (I dont believe someone knows everything simply because they are enlightened) 2. A Buddhist technique is better in some ways for some reasons than a yogic technique. Sadhguru also mentions in many places that meditation is critical - https://www.google.com/search?q=sadhguru+importance+of+meditation&ei=8sS9XJn8K4rr-wT81aPADw&start=0&sa=N&ved=0ahUKEwiZvcKz6uPhAhWK9Z4KHfzqCPg4ChDy0wMIcg&biw=1920&bih=937 I think you have already made up your mind but If you really want to know if meditation is important in kriya yoga, see https://www.google.com/search?q=kriya+yoga+imortance+of+meditation&oq=kriya+yoga+imortance+of+meditation&aqs=chrome..69i57.9623j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Saying you dont need meditation because you do yoga is like saying you dont need to brush your teeth because you wash your hands.

@Farnaby There seems to be an assumption that taking the life of an animal for food is "bad". That is just an opinion. I am not opposed to ending a chicken's life early in a humane way. I am opposed to causing unnecessary suffering for the chicken. Death is not always synonymous with suffering. People have this obsession with death as "bad" because they are identified with their own bodies.

@electroBeam Unless you are able to provide links to quotations from those enlightened masters, we will have to agree to disagree. Your assertion that one cannot control their thoughts is false. I can clear my mind at will from all thoughts and keep it empty with full awareness as long as I want. This is called "no-mind". It is not possible to achieve this without a lot of meditation. When one can achieve this state, that is when energy work becomes very powerful. Someone who does not meditate may say this state is not possible but it is a well known state with meditation masters, yogis and llamas. Do what you will but to ensure my karma is clear, I am advising you to stay away from the occult. It should be done a specific way for specific reasons or it can be dangerous. I wish you well.

@electroBeam The most prominent figure in Kriya yoga, Lahiri Mahasaya said "Solve all your problems through meditation. Exchange unprofitable religious speculations for actual God-contact. Clear your mind of dogmatic theological debris; let in the fresh, healing waters of direct perception. Attune yourself to the active inner Guidance; the Divine Voice has the answer to every dilemma of life. Through man's ingenuity for getting himself into trouble appears to be endless, the Infinite Succor is no less resourceful." While it may be your opinion that meditation is not needed, that is not the opinion of enlightened masters. The first and most important purification practice is deconstructing the ego mechanism through meditation according to enlightened masters. If you can provide a quote from any enlightened master that says meditation isnt important, I would be completely shocked. The occult can be dangerous if not done properly. As a safety precaution, if one doesnt want to pursue occult knowledge the way that it is recommended, they should not risk it. People have rushed forward to obtain powers in improper ways and have gone insane, become diseased, financial ruin, etc. If you want to do things your own way, by all means do it but I would suggest not touching the occult. Here is an article about some of the dangers of the occult without proper purification practices and willingness to follow instructions. https://www.theosophical.org/publications/42-publications/quest-magazine/1251-the-dangers-of-occultism "The first step on the way to Initiation is purification of the heart and mind, because the light of Divine Wisdom cannot manifest itself in a place clouded with impure thoughts and filled with selfish desires. No one has ever made the second step without making the first one, and all efforts to drag the high into the service of the low lead only to degradation, misfortune and evil. Therefore the real practice of occultism consists in the control of one's lower thoughts and emotions, which can be done only by the aid of one's own higher nature; because only the higher has power over the lower; "self" cannot overcome "itself," and for this purpose it is necessary to acquire that discernment between the eternal and true, and that which is temporal and illusive, of which we spoke in the beginning of this article."

@electroBeam I use the occult to learn how to balance my energies and develop spiritual abilities that I can use for my own spiritual evolution. Everything is energy. We either learn to control energy or it will control us. White and grey magic has nothing to do with manipulating physical objects. I use meditation to master my mind. My opinion is that there is no other tool that comes close to this for this purpose. If we dont master our mind, we will be a slave to our ego. Anyone that tries to use magick to simply show off is still under the control of their ego. This is the wrong purpose and will weaken their abilities anyway. You will never see a Taoist master in China use his powers simply to show off - it is the exact same thing. I combine psychedelics with meditation and magick to reach levels of consciousness that are unattainable by other means. This supercharges meditation and magick to unbelievable levels. There is nothing that can substitute for psychedelics. If you dont want to meditate, I wouldnt waste your time with magick as it will lack the potency to be able to do much. Like meditation, true mastery of magick involves foundational daily practices that I think you would eventually find "boring". To develop powerful magick, it takes a lot of work.

@thesmileyone I thought of a great example of a person that is balanced between the left side and the right side - Gandhi. Love was his motivation. Strength/power/grit was his ability. He changed the world only because he was balanced with both. If we are going to change the world, we need both also. With the occult, you can, and are encouraged to, charge your energy with whatever energy you need to be balanced.

According to Kabbalists, left hand traits dont necessarily hurt others unless it is not balance with the traits on the right. Strength can be used to hurt others or it can be used to spread light. Strength isnt evil in itself but can result in evil if not balanced. The traits on the left are also desirable to integrate. The way I look at strength is that, the more you have, the larger your ability to spread love and lift others up. Furthermore, we can teach others to be strong and use their strength in a positive way to spread light and love. There are a lot of people on this forum with lots of love and compassion but very little internal strength and grit. They cant do much to lift other people up to be something greater than they currently are if they can barely hold themselves up. The people that focus on the left hand traits to the exclusion of proper integration of right hand traits, do so for egoic reasons. That is where the trouble starts. Stength + Power + ego = big trouble Strengh + power + love = great beauty Love without strength/power is impotent

I dont agree with all of that. I have had a lot of money in my life and I know plenty of people with what most would consider extreme wealth. The assumption that people only get extreme wealth with "bad" energy is not correct according to my personal direct experience. Because someone can utilize negative energy to obtain wealth does not mean it is prerequisite. Its all much more nuanced than that. The paths you are referring to are based on the Kabbalistic tree of life. The left side is severity/justice/strength and the right side is love/mercy/compassion but ALL are manifestations of the divine. Either extreme leads to unbalanced and unhealthy spirituality. The goal of most Kabbalists and occultists that are concerned with spiritual transcendence is to find the balanced middle path, which results in beauty. This fits in with non-dual philosophy that everything is a part of God. There is talk of "left path" and "right path" in some circles but that does not fall in line with what kabbalah teaches about the tree of life. With that said, there are people that strive to perfect the divine traits on the left of the tree, which results in what people call "evil" but there are also people that strive just to perfect the divine traits on the right and that results in what some would call "weakness". Balanced divinity manifests in both love and strength. When balanced, the result is beauty. Regarding sigils, the occult is an evolving spiritual tradition that incorporates concepts from a plethora of mystical traditions. The occult is not a fixed "thing" so whatever is incorporated into occult practices becomes occult. For this reason, most occultists would consider sigil magic a part of the occult. Subconscious imagery is a big part of occult practices.