Hey everyone
I’m a 15 year old guy and my voice has been bothering me my whole life in middle school and high school. For starters I have a lisp, which I really fucking hate. Also, whenever I say anything, I’m asked to repeat myself, even when I try to speak clearly. My voice in general just sounds really childish and hard to understand. Please, someone reply, this is depressing me the fuck out, and I can’t take it

@Valach  What may be good for you is being chill with girls. Hanging out with them on a regular basis.
Feel into your body what feels right when being with them. Hear into your body when you feel you overstep boundaries. Be non-serious with them, joke with them, laugh about yourself.
If you want to talk deep about something, talk deep with them and you feel right away if they are up for it.
Enjoy their being. Enjoy sharing your grounded presence with them. Enjoy sharing your authentic self with them, and if they don't like it that's ok because there are so many people out there with whom you can connect on a deep level.
 
Regarding sex, just enjoy their presence. Have a genuine intent of enjoying this moment with them. Be fun and be open to anything crazy that can happen. Sex doesn't have to happen, but you also don't mind if it happens. You are chill about that. You respect others boundaries and are open for them opening up. You love to make them feel safe. You love to make them emotional, to bring them on an emotional rollercoaster with you. You have fun. You enjoy this moment. You don't have a destination or end goal, you just want to have fun and enjoy the time with them. Sex is one stop on the road you are traveling.
I know it is hard to be not needy about sex, if you crave it. Focus on a fun, chill and non-judgemental vibe. You want to hang out with them, just assume they want too. Assume they want you, and they can always show their boundaries if the case would be true that they don't want you. You know you want them - let your vibe let them know that they have a sexual being in front of them. Move on if you feel they aren't fun to be with anymore. You are chill.
Counterintuitively, you are soft and you let go of any character you think you should play. You let go of any judgements of them or you. You just flow.

Hi guys,
I have a deep problem I want to share with you. Throught my high school and early 20's my social life was quite bad, especially regarding the girls. Because of that I am now, at the age of 24 very inexpirience with sex. I only had 3 hookups in my life (2 of them I was quite drunk) and that's it. No relationship and staff like that. I wanted to get better with girls and social life in general so I started doing pickup at the beginning of the last summer but only did it for like 3 monts because of corona. At that time I did get couple of make outs and some dates but not sex yet. The thing is that I am quite scared of pushing the interaction to the sex itself since I am so inexpirienced and even the youngest girls I meet (around 18) are probably better at it than I do. This manifest in feelings of worthlesness and inability around girls. I was feeling like maybe I shoudl just drop my standarts so I can get this thing fixed and go out with some girls I am not so attracted to so I can at least sleep with them or something. 
 
I am actually not sure what my question here is, I would just like to know some story from people here, who were in the same situation as me and managed to fix it and how they did it (obviously having more sex is gonna help but other than that?).
 
Thanks in advance!

That's because there is more to mastery than merely the realization of no-self or nonduality.
You'd have to go deeper with your consciousness work and become conscious of what suffering and pain are. Which is NOT the same thing as enlightenment.
You can be enlightened, but you do not have total mastery and you are not conscious of everything your body/mind is doing. You are not yet conscious of how you create suffering.
Initial stages of enlightenment are very far from mastery of the mind/body. There's still tons of stuff you ain't conscious of. Hence in practice an awoke newbie will still suffer.

@Gryner Sorry to hear of your suffering. What you're describing is definitely highly unusual. Although not unprecedented.
The human mind is a very complex thing. Not all human minds are alike. Some people are much more spiritually attuned and have access to psychic and paranormal realms that very few other people can access. Of course some people are also mentally unstable. Something like what you're describing is pretty rare. You could be legit mentally unstable. Or, you could just be very paranormally attuned and you're discovering this realm for the first time in your life and it comes as a shock and your rational mind does not yet know how to navigate these realms. You could also be repressing some kind of deep past trauma like abuse, molestation, rape, death in the family, etc.
If I were you I'd read up a lot more on other people who've had similar experiences. Don't expect quality answers from most Western doctors / scientists. They will just think you're crazy. You need to research transpersonal psychology, psychic stuff, the work of Stan Grof, New Age books, etc. You will probably find some answers there.
There are paranormally gifted people you could find who can help you understand what is going on with you. Try searching for some in your area through Yelp.com
Don't be to quick to judge this experience a negative. It might turn out to be a blessing in disguise, a gateway to a whole new dimension of reality and the beginning of a powerful life purpose.
Do a google search for "vipassana psychosis" and other similar phrases that might describe your experience. You also want to be very careful and precise in describing what happened to you so you and others don't jump to the wrong conclusions.
For example, some of my deepest psychedelic trips on 5-MeO-DMT were so deep, with insights about the nature of reality so profound, that if I did not have a rock solid theoretical foundation, I could definitely see myself feeling like I went insane. If most ordinary people were exposed to such insights point-blank with no preparation they would start to lose their grip on reality in a negative, dysfunctional way.
You could also read books on psychosis to see what that means and how it works. Make sure you read a diversity of books from different perspectives, not just the standard Western academic perspective.
Your ultimate intention should be to figure out what happened to you and why.
P.S. Traditionally, many shamans in native tribal cultures develop their abilities after a traumatic psychotic break. So fear not. You are not alone.

Keep in mind that the Absolute is distinct from the structures of the mind/brain/self. Which means it's possible to awaken but still have addictions. Because addictions are baked into the structure of the mind/brain/self. Awakening itself does not necessarily change the mind/self. Which is why an awakened person can still smoke cigs, have a porn addiction, etc.
You can think of it this way: awakening disidentifies you from your mind. But the mind still continues to fire according to its lifetime of karma. If you spent a lifetime watching porn, your mind has been programmed with that habit, and awakening will not automatically remove all that. You will have to retrain your mind.
This is why many awakened people are still flawed and still have bad habits and cravings.
The mistaken assumption is that awakening will perfect the mind. This is simply untrue in practice. What perfects the mind is deliberate training, which many people neglect to do, especially after an awakening or two.
Perfecting the mind is harder than awakening.
In practice you could get many awakened people hooked on heroin. Because in truth they ain't that awake.

It can still be difficult for them. Plenty of spiritually gifted people have harrowing journeys to awakening (like the many classic shaman stories). So don't get the idea that being spiritually gifted makes this process a walk in the park. You can be spiritually gifted and still have a lot of shadow material to work through.
But the biggest thing is, most people will never even attempt to awaken or know about awakening otherwise, unless they are lucky enough to stumble upon it.
A big secret to successful awakening is have the right motivation, curiosity, and desire for it. That in itself is a very rare thing which already requires a certain degree of spiritual attunement. If you motivation is strong, the rest is just a matter of time. If you motivation is weak, almost nothing can help you. So getting your motivation straight is crucial. Which is where psychedelics can be especially helpful. People would be a lot more motivated to awaken if they had a direct experience of God or Infinite Consciousness. It's very hard to build motivation off hearsay and fairytales. It's crucial to experience God for yourself so you know that it is more real than a brick wall. It's very hard to be motivated to pursue a thing for years which you doubt is real.

It's about actualizing your potential. A human being isn't born complete. A human being must work on herself to become great and God-like. This has nothing to do with not accepting yourself. Greatness requires effort. Even accepting yourself requires effort.
You only have two options in life: to be mediocre and shitty, or great. If you don't make the effort to be great, you will be shitty by default. Devilry is the default position for humans. Unbecoming a devil takes a lifetime of work.

I want to stop eating carbs, but I'm concerned that It will decrease my performance in the gym and lose muscle .. at the same time I'm sick of consuming carbs I feel like shit I want to increase my focus and I want sustainable energy. I did research and most of them confirmed that without carbs you won't be able to maximize your performance and strength etc. I was very dependent on caffeine for training and I was afraid that without caffeine my workout won't be the same .. but after 1 year without caffeine I train very hard and I'm doing very well without caffeine and I feel better. I want to do the same with carbs but everybody around me demonizing keto for athletic performance 
 
My goal is to have sustainable energy, decrease my cravings and stay a long time full and eat 1 meal per day, I want to spend most of my time working on my life purpose and self-development work, etc . at the same time I want to improve my performance at the gym my goal is to increase my strength \build muscle 
 
if you're doing keto.. I want to know if this is true? will keto affect my performance? and if yes is it worth it? 
 
 

How do you tell you have an addiction? If you stop doing the behavior that you think you are addicted to for one week and cravings arise, that means you are addicted.
Addiction List:
-          Drugs
-          Food
-          Porn
-          Tabaco
-          Alcohol
-          TV and internet
-          Videogames
-          Socialization (chitchatting and parting with your friends)
-          Shopping
-          Work
-          Gossip
-          Thinking (is the #1 thing people are addicted to)
The root cause of any addiction is fear of emptiness. It is the real fear of emptiness that you experience when you are alone with nothing to do (if you sit in a room and do nothing for a while you will notice a fear of emptiness come up). What addictions are is they are distractions and escapes from this existential emptiness fear that all of us have.
So the problem that you have is basically that you cannot sit alone in an empty room, so what you do is you turn to …… into distraction. The degree to which you are self-developed, emotionally mature and capable as a human being is measured by the fact that you can sit alone in an empty room without any external stimulation and the degree to which you need external stimulation to feel happy is the degree to which you have no mastery over your life, it the degree to which you are a slave to external reality; It is the difference between being internally grounded and externally grounded and the whole aim of self-actualization is to anchor yourself into being internally grounded (BEING VS DOING).
You cannot be really satisfied in life if you cannot sit in a room for a couple of hours! And most people cannot do that; this is because their lives are hollow. Your life is actually empty but you have been running away from that truth and reality. You are doing stupid stuff to distract yourself since you cannot be happy by only being and in the present moment.
No matter how much you consume you will never fill your emptiness of being with materialism; you cannot replace the being with the doing. This existential emptiness is not a problem that you should avoid, it is something you should open yourself to and dive into.
The nature of Being is Emptiness and spirituality is indeed this. So this fear is the fear of the Void inside of you; it is the same fear that arises when you start contemplating your own death. This emptiness is the same experience as when you are in deep sleep, is the same emptiness of death and the same as the emptiness you were before you born. YOU ARE RUNNING AWAY FROM THIS EMPTINESS.
If you sit long enough you will realize that none of this means anything and this might make you depressed and lead you to an existential crisis (the dark night of the soul) WHAT YOU NEED TO FACE THIS VOID AT ONE POINT IN YOUR LIFE IF YOU WANT TO CONQUER ADDICTION SUSTAINABLY.
How to overcome addictions and face emptiness? Sit with emptiness and do nothing, without any stimulus. As you do this, don’t go into fantasies, just do nothing. What you need to do is sit and feel the Purifying Fire of Emptiness; all your cravings and addictions will come but you need to endure and sit there. As you sit your mind and body will start going crazy but the longer you sit there the purifying fire will burn all the inner demons (it’s like your inner demons are escaping you). If you don’t do this, it is just a short term solution. Sitting and doing nothing is the ultimate solution.
SITTING AND DOING NOTHING IS THE MOST DIFFICULT THING TO DO.
All addiction is basically emotional immaturity.
Top techniques to overcome addictions and be fully self-actualized:
-          Do Nothing
-          Mindfulness Meditation
-          Strong Determination Sitting
-          Existential investigation: You sit down and investigate who and what you are existentially and face your inner demons head on.
o   What is going to happen when you are dead?
There are two types of addictions:
1-      Hard addictions (everything mentioned above)
2-      Soft addictions
a.       Criticism and Judgement
b.      Love and Validation
c.       Compliments
d.      Success
People think that soft addictions are good but they are in nature neurotic.
The most self-actualized person is the one who is internally grounded and doesn’t need external reality at all. This doesn’t mean he is a banal person or he is not fun, he can do everything but he doesn’t need it and for his the most enjoyable things for him is just to sit and to be. The question is how far are you from that ideal? How can you structure your life so your main goal is to be happy just by being and doing nothing? IF YOU CAN BE HAPPY DOING NOTHING AT ALL IMAGINE HOW COULD IT BE WHEN YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WONDERFUL AND EXCITING.
Internal wealth is how happy can you be doing nothing; and this is something you can develop.
 

Im trying to improve my diet, i have low energy... My family is quite poor, so i cant really buy the foods i really want...

Being able to remain conscious during all sleep stages is the ultimate skill. This will open doors to almost anything.
- Introduction
When people want to have a deep meditation, they either try to:
(A) lower their brainwaves, and thus make their consciousness more non-dual. This includes techniques like: Kriya yoga, trance, hypnosis and the majority of all meditation techniques. (B) directly make their consciousness more non-dual. This includes contemplation and self inquiry.  When people try to get into lower brainwaves, they usually start from their everyday waking consciousness. This works, but it will take ages (lifetimes for most people) till you get into really deep brainwaves - even if you do very direct techniques like trance.
We already spend 8 hours each day in very deep brainwaves. Why not take advantage of that? So rather than trying to bring lower brainwaves to waking cosnciousness (tirelessly trying to lower your brainwaves during the day), we can try to bring consciousness to lower brainwaves. 
That is sleep yoga.
 
- Benefits of Sleep Yoga
All of your dreams will be lucid (2 hours each night) During the rest of the night (light and deep sleep) you can either abide in deep non-dual awareness (by far deeper than any normal meditations), or astral project as much as you like. You gain 8 hours each day (~ 3 000 hours each year) No lapse of consciousness upon physical death.  
This is obviously very significant for enlightenment. Apart from that, it will benefit you in so many ways. Merely the 2 hours of lucid dreaming each night will radically transform your psyche. Here I wrote about reasons why to bother about OBEs: 
 
- Difficulty
Monks usually require many years of training till they are able to remain conscious during sleep. It takes long because their techniques are not Fire. They usually consist of standard meditation, waking up a couple of times during the night and visualization techniques.
I've lately done a lot of research and experimenting and tried to combine all the hacks and tricks I found. This should make the process a lot quicker.
Before I get to the technique, let's first lay a foundation. (or jump to "Chapter 2: The Technique")
 
Chapter 1 : Sleep - 1. Basics
During the night you go through several sleep cycles, each around 90 minutes long. Sleep cycles consists of:
- N1( light sleep). Only when falling asleep.
- N2 (light sleep):
Usually around 50-60% of your sleep. N2 is the ideal sleep stage to wake up from - N3 (deep sleep = SWS = slow wave sleep):
Important for regeneration Around 20-25 % of your sleep. You need typically 60-120 minutes of SWS. defined as having more than 20% of delta brain waves.  Majority of SWS during your first few sleep cycles - REM  (rapid eye movement) :
Here you have most of your dreams brainwaves somewhat similar to your waking state sleep paralysis so you don't act out your dreams 20-25% of your night  you need 60-90 min of REM As the night progresses, each sleep cycle contains more and more REM A sleep cycle usually begins with N2. Then N3 then N2 again and then REM.
 
- 2. Segmented Sleep
About polyphasic Sleep: https://www.polyphasic.net/introduction-to-polyphasic-sleep .
Segmented sleep means dividing your sleep into 2 segments: See https://www.polyphasic.net/schedules/biphasic/ and https://www.polyphasic.net/schedules/dual-core/ .
SWS peak is usually at 9-12 pm. And REM peak is at 6-9 am. Sleeping during these times means most efficient SWS and REM. More about that here: https://www.polyphasic.net/sleep-mechanics/biological-rhythms/ and here: https://www.polyphasic.net/blog/three-noons-and-their-importance-to-determining-the-shift-in-circadian-rhythms/
 
- 2.1 Benefits of segmented sleep:
Having a REM core with little or no SWS is perfect for trying to learn sleep yoga, more on that later You have a heightened likelihood for lucid dreaming during the REM core because of the high REM percentage and the long time awake after your SWS core. You basically have a very long WBTB (wake back to bed). The longer a WBTB, the more effective.  Prolactin surge benefits: https://www.mattressnerd.com/polyphasic-sleep/overviews/segmented-sleep/ If you sleep monophasically, you can't cover both SWS and REM peaks. Thus segmented sleep is more efficient. ... therefore you need less total amount of sleep Yogis say that the time at around 3-5 am is most valuable for meditation If you usually sleep 8 hours, you could schedule a 3 h SWS core and a 4.5 h REM core.
The time between the SWS and REM core should be at least 2 hours. Ideally 3-4 hours. Otherwise your body treats it as interrupted sleep rather than segmented sleep and you don't get all the benefits. More time between your cores also means that you cover more of the SWS and REM peak.
Segmented sleep is not something to do occasionally. You need to do it every night, otherwise you will just be tired and not get all the benefits. Your body needs 1-2 weeks to adapt to the schedule.
Segmented sleep is not necessary, but it can help a lot. Alternatively, you could just sleep for 4-6 hours and then either add a normal WBTB or just go straight to the techniques.
 
- 3. SWS Core
- 3.1 Binaural beats
If you listen to delta binaural beats, you increase the duration and depth (decrease the brainwave frequency even further) of your SWS. For example, in this study ( https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00387/full )   they played 3 Hz delta binaural beats when the subjects were in N2. Thus, some N2 turned into N3. The length of N3 increased by 30% (N3 length of first two nights without binaural beats was 93 min. On the next night, with binaurals, N3 was 126 min). The subjects were probably new to binaural beats. If you have already trained your brain with binaural beats, the effect could possibly be even more drastic.
Using a sleep tracking device might be helpful to keep track of your SWS.
I recommend you try the binaural beats from Jody Hatton. Either on youtube:   
or on his website. you decide the price for a download.
Sleeping with headphones might not be the most comfortable. But it can be worth it. Delta binaural beats are only interesting for your SWS core. Instead of over ear headphones, you could also use headband headphones like these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014T3QLBA/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=9td9sm-5xsk-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B014T3QLBA&linkId=82c4b0488d4ece45af2f57a9ea6427c0. they are more comfortable to sleep with. But might have lower quality.
I don't recommend opting for isochronic tones for delta sleep. They do have the benefit of not neading headphones, but they are said to be inefficient to entrain you to delta brainwaves.
- 3.2 Melatonin
Melatonin is important for SWS. How to optimize Melatonin levels:
Only red lights 2-3 hours before bed (or no light). You can buy red light. Or wear blue light blocking glasses (preferably should block green light as well) or use apps on your mobile phone and pc (for example "Flux") which filter blue light. Sleep in total darkness. Either buy something to block all light from your windows or just take a huge sheet of black carton and tape it over your window. Thats what I do. It takes around 1 minute each morning and night to tape/remove. You could also use a sleep mask. But then, a small amount of light is still registered by your skin. But that is probably negligible. enough (sun)light during the day. decalcify your pineal gland fasting can increase melatonin levels as well. - 3.3 Schedule
For our sleep yoga practice, we prefer to have all our SWS during the SWS core. So the REM core can be fully dedicated to Sleep yoga practices.
If you want to get the most out of each night, you also want to have as little light sleep and REM during your SWS core. You want these in your REM core so your REM core is longer and you have more time to practice each night (First we learn to be conscious during light sleep and REM, and only then do we try it during SWS). Depending on your personal SWS needs (which can vary a lot) and depending on how well you can optimize a sleep cycle for maximum SWS, you can choose following SWS core lengths.
6h: easy 4.5h: Healthy and comfortable  3h: for serious practitioners 1.5h: not recommended  I think you don't need to strictly schedule according to the 90 min sleep cycle rythm. You can extend it if you want.
A very unrecommended polyphasic sleep schedule - Everyman 4 : https://www.polyphasic.net/schedules/everyman/  - has only one 90 minute SWS core plus 4 short naps for REM. Someone who follows that schedule tries to get all 90 minutes of SWS requirement into the 90 minute core, which is close to impossible. For our use, if you perfectly optimized it and extended the length from 90 to 100-110 minutes, you might be able to get 70-90 min SWS into a 110 min SWS core. But beware, if you shorten your SWS core too much, you risk SWS creeping in to your REM core.
 
- 4. Core Gap
Once your body adapted to the new schedule, you won't be as tired during it After spending some minutes on my mobile phone, I'm fully awake. Make sure your devices block blue light. And I use a red light. And I also listen to gamma binaural beats. I like these: https://www.brainwave3d.com/spiritualitaet/erleuchtung/38/the-gateway-to-enlightenment-das-tor-zur-erleuchtung?c=30 and  https://www.brainwave3d.com/meditation/tiefenmeditation-fuer-profis/96/god-consciousness-gott-erleben?c=30 and  https://www.brainwave3d.com/psi-faehigkeiten/dmt/98/mystical-dmt-trip-erlebe-eine-intensive-dmt-erfahrung?c=34 (Use google translate for the website.) The "core gap" is a good time for meditative practces, just make sure you don't fall asleep. If you are likely to fall asleep during meditation, then do it right at the beginning or end of the core gap. So you still have at least 2 hours of continued wakefulness. I recommend spending a few minutes of hard-core concentration at the end of your core gap, as a preparation for your REM core practice.  
- 5. REM Core
-5.1 Basics
Your REM core should ideally consist of only light sleep and REM. Consider:
Getting enough SWS during your SWS core Having your REM core during or close after the REM peak Applying tricks for lighter sleep You will set MANY alarms which wake you up all the time, giving you plenty of opportunitues and optimal conditions to practice.
 
- 5.2 Gamma brain waves
I believe they are the key for being conscious during sleep. Monks have increased gamma acrivity during non-REM sleep: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073417#pone-0073417-g001 .  The significance of 40 Hz for lucid dreaming:  https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.zmescience.com/medicine/mind-and-brain/lucid-dreaming-electrical-trigger-042342/amp/ . I guess, the main difference of brainwaves during sleep, between a sleep yogi and a normal person, is gamma activity. The more gamma (and beta) you have, the more alert/aware you are. So if we want to be aware during sleep, we need more gamma during sleep.
How to have more gamma during sleep:
gamma brainwave entrainment audios during sleep.   Applying the tools for having"Lighter Sleep" (more on that later) day-time meditation practices (more on that later)  
- 5.3 Schedule
If you are concerned about your sleep, then do the practices only for 1-3h, and then turn off all alarms, go back to sleep and sleep as long as your body wants. Depending on how easily you tend to fall asleep on any given day, you spontaneuosly decide for the right amount of "lighter sleep" tools.  
- 6. Lighter Sleep
- 6.1 Benefits
You are closer to the awake/asleep threshold. That means a) it is easier to retain consciousness while falling asleep and b) it is easier to stay in that state. The deeper your sleep gets, the greater the risk of losing consciousness decreased risk of SWS creeping in increased likelihood for DILDs, WILDs and DEILDs better dream recall  - 6.2 How to have lighter sleep:
- 6.2.1 Body Position:
Level1: Turn in bed 180 degrees. So your head is now where your feet used to be. Level 2: lie on the floor.  Level 3: Be in an inclined position. for example of 60 degrees. https://www.theminimalists.com/drew/  Level 4: Sleep sitting upright with head support.  Level 5: Upright with no head support. That is particularly good, because everytime you fall asleep, your head drops and wakes you up. Thus it is easier to get closer to the awake/asleep threshold. - 6.2.2 Noise
Tv or music.  listen to a hypnosis audios about falling asleep.  
- 6.2.3 Gamma brainwave entrainment:
I listen to these binaural beats during my REM Core:   https://www.iawaketechnologies.com/product/gammaburst/ . You can cutt off the beginning and end so that it's only in the relevant frequency of 25-45 Hz. I listen them during my whole REM core. Another option are these 40 Hz isochronic tones: https://www.iawaketechnologies.com/product/gamma-40/ . But I only listened to them once, I found the binaural beats more effective. But they have the advantage of not needing headphones. - 6.2.3 Discomfort.
Level 1: wearing headphones Level 2: Add any discomfort you can think of Level 3: Hold your arm up vertically. Ellbow supported on the matress. https://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-lucidity/107214-wild-awareness-training.html - 6.2.4 Alarm clocks
Level 1: Every 15-30 min. It turns itself off. So you have a lower likelihood of waking up if you are in a somewhat deeper sleep.  Level 2: Every 8-12 min. Alarm needs to be manually turned off. (you press snooze. So it will ring in a few minutes again) Level 3: Every 3-8 min. Alarm needs to be manually turned off Some alarm clock apps are able to play the alarm through your headphones only.
- 6.2.5 Light: 
Level 1: Leave on some red light Level 2: Remove your curtains from the windows just before your REM core Level 3: Turn on artificial light. Light will have a negative impact on your melatonin levels. In terms of melatonin, we are most concerned about it's effects on SWS sleep. So light after your SWS sleep is relatively fine. It is recommended that one spends 8-10 hours in darkness (or at least red light rather than blue light) each day. So if you turn off normal lighting 3 h before your SWS core, then have a 3 h SWS core, followed by a 3 h core gap, you have 9h.
- 6.2.6 Others:
Intention  uncomfortable temperature   
 
Chapter 2: The Technique Our approach consists of:
SWS Core Core Gap REM Core + Alarm Clocks  and there you practice "Conscious Falling Asleep"  
- 1. Getting yourself closer to sleep
Some tips:
Reverse Blinking. Thats very effective to get tired very quickly. Close your eyes for 2-7 seconds, then open them briefly. Continue till you are very tired. https://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-lucidity/24607-inducing-trance-wild-part-1-a.html Hypnotic suggestions/affirmations "sleepy" Concentrate on the "sleepiness" sensation and deepen it Pretend having fallen asleep  
- 2. Awake/Asleep Threshold Tools
Everything I listed under "Lighter Sleep" can be helpful to remain conscious during the awake/asleep threshold. Particularly powerful is:
Holding up your arm vertically, ellbow resting on the mattress. Sleeping sitting without head support. When you fall asleep, your arm or head will sink/fall down and wake you up.
 
- 3. Deepen your Trance
When trying to fall asleep, you are basically in trance. When you deepen your trance, you get your body closer to sleep. But apart from that it also alters your consciousness in a different way (than just using normal tips like those listed under "getting yourself closer to sleep") which can be helpful for conscious falling asleep.
- Tips for deepening your trance:
Falling sensation. Either visualize how you are somewhere else - in a visualized body - and experience a falling sensation there (literally falling, going down steps, elevator, etc...) or 'stay' with your consciousness in your physical body and visualize the falling sensation there (I personally prefer that). Try to visualize the sensation you have in your gut when being on a roller coster.  
Use Hypnosis. Here I wrote in detail about hypnosis (keep in mind, when I wrote older posts, I had less understanding):   
Use your Hypnotic Triggers. You can anchor every state of consciousness. so for example anchor being sleepy with the word "sleepy", or anchor going into a deep trance with visualizing going downstairs. Hypnotic Triggers are like key words for your subconscious that tell it what state of consciousness to produce.  
Visualize it into being. Visualize how you are in a very deep trance. Visualize having no more body sensations and being in the void. It's hard to expplain how exactly to do it, but it works.  
Visualize how you are expanding. Expand your consciousness to include your room, then house, etc. It is said that this produces more theta brainwaves   
 
Fractionation: A hypnotic induction technique. The idea is to get out of trance and then immediately go back down. If done skillfully, you will end up deeper than where you started.  One way to do it is to count from 1 to 3 (feeling how you are getting more out of trance with every number), open your eyes, count down from 3 to 1 (feeling how you are getting deeper), and closing your eyes again.  
Dissociation from the body. Some possibilities: Pretend that you are lying in bed upside down. Your head where  your feet used to be. Till you are actually convinced. The axis going from your feet to your head. Visualize turning around that axis. Like you are rolling in bed.  Visualize how you are in a visualized body in your room. Turn around and look at your physical body  
Try to induce the sensations of your body: becoming heavy.  quickly shrinking, expanding, shrinking, expanding, .... feeling strange  becoming weightless having no sensations melting with the room fading out of existence  
Completely surrender. And use some of your non-dual hypnotic triggers  
Visualize how you are in a visualized body somewhere. For example in your kitchen. Try to immerse yourself in these visualizations as much as possible. This produces deep theta brainwaves. And the more often you change your environment (particularly using doors, floors, etc) the more theta brainwaves are produced. So they say at least.  
some say looking up with your eyes to the 3rd eye helps  
Amnesia: Try to forget your body. Forget the physical universe  
Pretend like you are moving your astral arm. And you could try any OBE exit technique  
All of these could also induce an OBE. If they do, great, but their actual purpose is to help in conscious falling asleep.
 
- 4. Anchors
In order to remain conscious while your body falls asleep, it's recommended to have an anchor to focus on. (In past posts I used the word "anchor" as being a trigger for a state of consciousness. To avoid confusion, I use in this post "hypnotic trigger" for that instead). 
- Anchors:
any mantra works but for our purpose I would use sth like "mind awake, body asleep" so you also benefit from its affirmative effect. Awareness itself. just try to remain conscious Any trance deepeners The True Self Hypnagogic images or sounds counting your breath chakras any sensations  visualizations  
- 5. FILD
Finger induced Lucid Dreaming. It is usually used as a form of DEILD (or WILD) in order to induce a lucid dream. The technique is very effective at keeping you awake while your body falls asleep. Lucid dreamers use it to lucid dream, but we can just as well use it for general conscious falling asleep. I actually believe that this might be the key for conscious falling asleep (in combination with the other points I wrote).
You alternate slightly moving your middle and index finger of one hand. As if playing piano. The movement must be extremely tiny. Just keep doing it and decrease the range of motion. Eventually your fingers shouldn't be moving any more at all (or only less than a millimeter). But the information to move is still delivered to your fingers. The tendons and muscles might be moving or tensing slightly. You find more detailed tutorials on the internet, like:  https://www.dreamviews.com/induction-techniques/36683-finger-induced-lucid-dream-fild.html And on reddit are countless FILD threads as well, including impressive success stories.
You could say FILD, is just another anchor. But I believe it is more powerful than other anchors. Actually moving a body part seems to keep the mind more awake (perhaps by activating an additional/different brain region). And the movement is so tiny that it doesn't prevent your body from falling asleep.
For the purpose of lucid dreaming, FILD is usually only done for 20-120 seconds (then you should just fall asleep and try later again). But we will just keep wiggling until we made the transition.
 
- 6. Reviewing the keys
The following points are the most significant. Most monks are not aware of them, that's why we can achieve sleep yoga quicker.
REM core without SWS MANY alarm clocks Gamma brainwave training Reverse Blinking  awake/asleep threshold tools (hand up, sitting + no head support) Trance deepeners FILD   
Our goal is that the body falls asleep, while retaining consciousness. For that to happen the body must be tired (which is achieved by the many alarm clocks, when they wake you up, your body is still in sleep mode and wants to return as quickly as possible. And by reverse blinking, trance deepeners and by sleep deprivation, in case you end up being sleep deprived) while your mind must be alert (which is achieved through the "lighter sleep" tools and anchors). To achieve that, some astral projectors, would go for one night without sleep (body tired) and then trink coffee (mind alert) before going to sleep the next day.
 
- 7.  Simplified Technique Overview
Upon waking you do either of these (or a combination):
Just try to remain conscious while your body falls asleep awake/asleep threshold tools Trance deepeners focus on anchors FILD  
- 8. Tips 
You can also experiment with using strong intention. Jus don't allow your mind to fall asleep.  You need balance between concentrating too tightly and too loosely If you notice you are about to lose consciousness, open your eyes. Regain consciousness and then close them while using your hypnotic triggers. This sudden fractionation could be enough to send your body one step closer to sleep whlile retaining consciousness  You can switch between sitting and lying during your REM core Reverse FILD: Suddenly stop the finger movements and pretend you fell asleep. https://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initiated-lucid-dreams-wild/101305-reverse-fild-technique-100%-success-out-4-attempts-so-far.html When you can't fall asleep during your REM core, keep being conscious and see it as awareness practice, thus no time is wasted It's very easy to end up half-heartedly doing the technique upon waking up and then very quickly fall back asleep. When you wake up, strengthen your intention and determination first.  
 
Chapter 3: Daily Practices - 1. Conscious falling asleep (during your REM core)
- 2. Perfect concentration
When you are very alert and have perfect concentration you produce more gamma brainwaves. Spend every day 5-10 min of perfect forced concentration. Don't allow thoughts. Don't allow anything other than what you are focusing on. 
I usually focus on being extremely alert. Alert of whether there are thoughts. If a thought appears immediately cut it off. Don't even allow subtle thoughts. 
You can also listen to gamma brainwave entrainment at the same time.
- 3. Relaxed awareness 
Spend every day 5-15 min doing relaxed awareness. The objective is to stay aware. And allow everything to happen.  Allow all thoughts and passively observe them. That's alpha brainwaves (and some theta).  But don't lose your awareness. Aim for zero lapse of awareness. That's the gamma (and beta) brainwaves.
This is the sate of mind you need during conscious falling asleep. Relaxed and passive, yet uninterrupted awareness.
 
- 4. ADA periods
Doing all day awareness (ada) surely helps for conscious falling asleep but I don't think ada is worth the effort. Effort/Benefit ratio is poor. 
Instead, I recommend you do ada only for a short period - like 2 to 10 minutes - around 1-3 times a day. Perhaps while driving, cooking, exercising. Just do your normal activity while trying to stay conscious.
 
- 5. Binaural beats during the day
All the above practices develop your gamma brainwave skills. Additionally you can listen to gamma (and other frequencies) brainwave entrainment while doing daily activities like reading, cooking, etc. I wrote about that here: 
 
- 6. LOA Visualizations 
Visualize everyday for 1-3 min how you are successful at sleep yoga. Know that this is true. If your memories say otherwise, regard them as false memories.
You can apply all LOA stuff for sleep yoga. Here i mentioned some more LOA stuff: 
 
 
- 7. Trance 
Trance practice is not required but can be helpful.
- 7.1 Procedure
Strengthen your intention and LOA visualize how your session will unfold Get to your awake/tired sweet spot: (Reverse Blinking, hypnotic trigger, suggestions) Body relaxation: body scan, progressive muscle relaxation, tensing/relaxing muscles, visualize a light relaxing your muscles. You could also stretch, move and massage some muscles beforehand) Mental Relaxation Hypnotic suggestions Trance Deepeners and using your Hypnotic Triggers Listening to Guided Hypnosis or freestyle.
0-60 min each day, as you believe necessary.
 
- 7.2 Tips
body and mind relaxation is crucial. it is the foundation for altered sates. Don't wave them aside, thinking they are not worth doing. I made that mistake and wasted a lot of time therefore. Once I realized the importance of body relaxation, I spent a few days - 2-4 hours each day - only trying to relax the body.  The objective is to get alpha and theta brainwaves. So practice when you are tired, because then it is far easier to enter these brainwaves. Find your sweet spot, of tired enough but still able to resist falling asleep. Exhaustion. It has a similiar effect like being tired. Hypnotic suggestions are more easily absorbed and it is easier to surrender into trance. Here I wrote more about exhaustion, including it's value in terms of enlightenment:  Use hypnosis (see my hypnosis thread) Use brainwave entrainment   
 
Chapter 4: Stages of Progress  
- Stage 1
Getting close to the awake/asleep threshold for brief moments, but then being immediately snapped back
- Stage 2
Able to stay conscious while the body falls asleep. But after a few moments, you either lose consciousness or are snapped back.
- Stage 3 
Able to reliable stay conscious while the body falls asleep (during your REM core of course) and smoothly transition into a lucid dream.
- Stage 4
Able to enter the void. No, or almost no sensations of your body left
- Stage 5
Able to remain in this void during your whole REM core (both light sleep and REM)
- Stage 6
You stopped your segmented sleep schedule. You can retain consciousness while sinking into deep sleep, but are not able to hold it there for long
- Stage 7
Able to stay conscious during the whole night
- Stage 8
Able to enter epsilon brainwaves during deep sleep without losing consciousness 
- Stage 9
Able to enter the exact same depth, in your meditation during the day, when you are not tired.
- Stage 10
Able to do that in less than 5 minutes.
- Stage 11
Able to do that while sitting
- Stage 12
Able to do that while walking. You are able to split your consciousness. One part is astral projecting on Mars, while a small portion of your consciousness remains in your physical body, cleaning the kitchen.
 
 
Chapter 5: Resources and Notes - 1. Resources
There is not much information out there about Dream Yoga.
- In this post I mentioned it a bit: 
 
- Books:
Dream Yoga by Andrew Holecek The Tibetan yogas of dream and sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Dreaming Yourself Awake by B. Alan Wallace. - Forum posts: https://www.dreamviews.com/beyond-dreaming/142072-exploring-delta-sleep.html
- A Website: http://www.swamij.com/yoga-nidra.htm
 
- 2. Depth of Sleep Yoga
Some reports of being conscious during sleep, don't appear as fantastic as one would expect. I guess it's the same as with psychedelics. The average person might take 700 ug of LSD without getting nondual, while a spiritual seeker might get completely blown away by 300 ug. How deep your mystical experiences are (for psychedelics and sleep yoga alike) depends on many factors but the biggest are:
your baseline consciousness  self-inquiry / contemplation skills surrender skills intention (for pyschedelics, there are some more, like personal tolerance etc).
 
- 3. My progress so far
I had tried WILD a few times a year ago with zero success.
I have done quite a lot of meditation during the past 2 years. But I don't think this is required or provides a huge advantage compared to someone who hasn't done any meditation so far. A few months of the above-mentioned Sleep yoga practice, is more valuable in terms of sleep yoga progress than 3 years of meditation.
I started my sleep yoga practice around 3 weeks ago. My attention has been mainly on figuring out the right technique/schedule rather than trying to actually achieve sleep yoga (but I did try, of course). Now I'm finally somewhat satisfied with the technique, so the real practice starts tomorrow.
So far I'm roughly at progress stage 1. 
I'm gonna keep updating.

Hi everyone,
I've been meditating for a few years now, after a spiritual awakening experience that totally changed my view of existence (yet it seems like it was just the begining of reminding something I knew before even my first true memories). Right know it really feels like I should exchange directly with people that are further on their spiritual path than I am to avoid spiritual ego traps.
About two years ago, while recovering from a brief psychotic disorder followed by a mental breakdown I had a progressive breakthrough and found a definitive inner sense of stability and security. It seems very obvious to me that consciousness is eternal (which I have always intuited) and that nothing can really hurt me because there's actually nothing to hurt. I am mostly in a state where bad things can happen to me, my ego will still react but I don't really suffer because I manage to effortlessly keep an inner peace deep down. 
But that's exactly the point of my post. The more I go, the more I encounter situations where I notice my ego clings to certain ideas or habits. This is especially true in my relationship with my partner. It doesn't bother me in the sense that I still sense that inner peace stays anyway. But it seems the more I notice things, the more will pop up. In fact it actually gives me a pretty clear image of my ego, that I perceive like a kind of veil surrounding my consciousness. 
The thing is, this veil seems like it's always been here and I really have trouble perceiving through it or imagining things differently. I can mediate rather deeply, contemplating it and I definitely feel progress when I do, but the process seems to be endless. Along with the stable inner peace I feel I also sense a strong push to go deeper, I would even call it an urge.
I have many thoughts and interrogations about this and I thought it was time to try and share them and see if someone can relate and maybe share insights :
- I try to avoid ego traps but this urge begins to feel like my ego wanting to get rid of itself which looks like the biggest ego trap.
- I really feel like consciousness or reality is formless and I view it like a kind of infinite fractal that I could possibly navigate. I have a strong feeling I have before (that's how I imagine bardos between lives) and that's actually a lot of what my spiritual awakening was about when I had it. I'm convinced that's what this urge inside me is about too but again, I'm worried that my ego wanting to relive an experience like that is the problem. Maybe the mere fact of seeking enlightenment and nonduality is.
- All this leads to an other thought : when meditating I often go through a phase where nihilistic like thoughts pop. If I keep meditating on them they fade away and it becomes very clear that the point of all this infinitude is just to enjoy the ride. However that fucking ego is still here, trying to explain things, remembering some kind of history, conceptualizing(like you can see), and last but not least, wondering what it really should do with life for it to flow naturally and not feel separated.
Actually I often feel like I could only attain complete enlightenment when I die but this again looks like ego.
I'm eager to read your thoughts about this !

I want to get into business more deeply, I want to know how to make good content and how to market that so people would see it and actually enjoy it rather than clicking away as soon as I start to talk.
Do you know any courses for business and maybe some forums or facebook groups that explain the in's and out's of business?

I just finished reading this book. The book is 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning for a reason. I recommend anyone who is committed to the "Truth with capital "T", is open minded and is courageous enough to challenge his/her belief to read it. Ernest Becker used some strong words filled with intelligence to analyze and invoke the reader for a critical thought on a taboo topic. This book is not about fetishization of psychology as a belief system. In fact, it is against it.

Fear of death is deeper than ideology. It is the primary motive of life along side heroic transcendence, victory over evil and the delusion of immortality. The author puts death into perspective with exquisite explanation and in congruence with Søren Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud, Otto Rank and other's wisdom.

Definitely a "Leo's standard" book.
 

@SS10 Not impressed with Robert Greene either (saw that as a thread somewhere).
Jordan Peterson's only useful comment is the relational feedback loop that a human being needs to optimise between their prefrontal cortex and their autobiographical memory in order to derive self-wisdom via reflection.
And I said it better than him. And I didn't need to write a book, nor two. 
These people are scamming you because they know you're stuck at the cultural casino (its a real thing - millions of people play the slot machines on YouTube and bookstores especially in the personal development section looking for that fix that's never going to come).
Give me money now please, I just made your life exponentially better with that one insight.
They take advantage of the fact that people's relational relationship with their prefrontal cortex and in particular their hippocampus (parietal lobe implicated along with corpus but let's not overcomplicate) is very low, we'll call it the PC-H-R relationship (where R is to relational). People cannot think for themselves, and scammers like the Tai Lopez's build the "thought can" vending machines to make a lot of money from people's ignorance. This is the very reason for most people's ignorance by the way. 
I think Jordan has a good heart, but a good heart doesn't always have completely pure intentions while at the same time I also think he's a bit ignorant of the ramifications of this very simple insight combined with peoples capacity to improve themselves here. See Jordan is a determinist in many ways, he hasn't denounced free will, but he has low openness when it comes to peoples capacity to improve their cognition through a simple technique like this. This one simple ignorance, is what gives him the justification to write books of "tomato and barbecue sauce please, oh yes and with onion. Garlic? Yeah adda little of that as well, and sauerkraut!".
They want your money just like a beggar wants your money, more importantly they want the status more than the money so give the money to the beggar instead and if you really want to build long lasting insight, fix your damn brain and you'll thank me for it later.

Good content to contemplate on
 

Hello everyone, I have been away for a while doing some serious self-actualization work. Progress is being made which is great!
 
I've discovered that for me personally, energy is the most valuable resource I have. Other things like, presence, financial resources relationships etc. are not as valuable to me as my own personal energy. In fact, the quality of these things may be a by product of how much energy I am able to manifest and utilize. So here is my question to you;
WHAT ARE THE BEST PRACTICES, FOODS OR OTHER METHODS YOU HAVE PERSONALLY FOUND TO INCREASE YOUR ENERGY SIGNIFICANTLY?
 
NOTE: Please do not suggest drugs. My experience is that they have significant short term benefits but detrimental long term costs, even the less powerful ones such as caffeine.

I am addicted to TV shows. Whenever I have some free time that I can use to develop my life, read cool books and do meaningful work I default to either watching TV shows or napping. One of the main reasons is that I suffer from insomnia and chronic fatigue, and so I maintain a pretty low-energy status and I think because of it my brain defaults to energy conserving activities. In fact when I sleep better I read more and have better impulse control. Yet I think that's only 50% of the problem. I think there are the other 50% which are just pure addiction. The reason is that TV shows are a type of mental masturbation that tricks the brain into believing that your life is interesting because the story in the show is interesting. You get instant gratification - just press play and your brain gets positive feedback. I have a bunch of cool projects I want to work on and dozens of books that I've been meaning to read, but I just can't motivate myself to start doing it. Even when I read I take too many breaks to either watch TV shows or something stupid.
There's one more big problem too - because I am an introvert and also because of my health issues I practically don't have any social life and I don't have any friends at all and I almost never go out. TV shows fool my brain into believing that I am not completely alone. So when I read books or work on projects that feeling of loneliness starts to creep in and to distract me from my work so I start watching TV shows to suppress it again.

What can I do? I just want to read my books and do meaningful work  so I can make progress with my goals. Thank you.

i've watched the awareness alone is curative video and I do not understand... If i want to stop overeating, do i ...
 
a. observe myself being hungry / wanting to eat bad food
b. surrender to eating food and being just aware of it and hoping that would work for me eventually in order to not overeat ?
c. trying to change my behaviour by disciplining myself and forcing myself to not eat.

Every time I attach a new link from YouTube it shows as the video below, even if it's a different link? Does anyone know why this happens? I'll enclose the links and commentary to the others videos for now.
 
His book Letting Go is one of the most powerful and helpful books I've ever read. Not got so much into his other written stuff yet. I've been on Youtube checking out loads of his stuff, mostly concentrating on the shorter clips.
These are my top ones and I've included my highlights of them below (pretty much word for word what he says). You will also see time windows for each clip as these are my favourite parts of the clip.
I'm all in on letting go, surrender, and emotional mastery/sobriety hence my attraction to David Hawkins. I also love his persona on YouTube, it's suits me. He is funny at times, but not trying too hard to crack jokes or be overly charismatic which is a bit of a turn off for me. 
00.00 – 1.30
·       The way out of depression is to face the underlying fear. ·       Depression, in a way, can’t be handled, except to look at what was not faced to pull you out of it ·       The fear usually takes the form of “I have lost the source of my happiness forever”, “Without this, my life is meaningless”  
David R. Hawkins - Let go of wanting to change other people 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnQc_GOa57Q&list=PL2L8Hx5xTD0loswmr9duzbQ9rugqXC_Mc&index=4
·       Make wrong, get even ·       If I can’t change them, I will try and control them ·       Divine justice saves you the bother of getting even ·       All things have their own Karmic pay off, so you don’t need to do anything ·       You don’t need to bring down your enemies, as they will bring themselves down of their own doing. Then you are not stuck with the Karma of getting even  
David R. Hawkins - Right And Wrong Are Irrelevant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-az_rTIDF_o&list=PL2L8Hx5xTD0loswmr9duzbQ9rugqXC_Mc&index=5
3.17 – 4.10  
·       The willingness to surrender to not knowingness. ·       Humility is of profound importance in spiritual work. It means I of myself, as an ego, am completely unable to comprehend reality. I have no way of knowing the truth of anything, much less can I discern its karma, and therefore all judgment is up to God. Judgment is mine Seth the Lord. Why? Because you are not capable of it.  
David R. Hawkins - Instructions on Meditation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNKcjI2k6wM&list=PL2L8Hx5xTD0loswmr9duzbQ9rugqXC_Mc&index=6
00.00 – 1.28
·       The technique is really that of surrender. It’s part of the love of God. Jesus Christ said that for the salvation of mankind would you be willing to give up your ego and the vanity of thinking that you know anything.  Each thought and feeling that comes up, you surrender it to God  
David R. Hawkins - You Have To Quit Thinking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ2gFMl81fM&list=PL2L8Hx5xTD0loswmr9duzbQ9rugqXC_Mc&index=8
2.35 – 5.51
•    Impatience is uncurbed wilfulness 
•    Peace and silence is within you, live there. Whatever else goes on is irrelevant
•    Look interested, but you don’t have any investment in it
 
 
David R. Hawkins: "If you feel like you're stuck.."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DAtMAmrwMk&list=PL2L8Hx5xTD0loswmr9duzbQ9rugqXC_Mc&index=4&t=101s
0.00 – 1.48
·       How to move from one level of consciousness into another? There is only one rule, and that is to let go of the payoff you get from whatever positionality you are stuck in. ·       Forgo the pleasure, gratification, and satisfaction. ·       Secret payoff’s from the ego. We repress the fact that we are getting off on it ·       Lower levels of consciousness are linked together. Pride is linked with anger. Narcissistic core of the ego is gradually weakened and collapses. Each brick you take out, weakens the wall. ·       If you feel like you’re stuck, there is only one thing you need to do, one thing you need to surrender ·       The payoff is an energy. The payoff is blocking you from a higher state of consciousness.

Hey.
Recently I've noticed how depressed I've been throughout life, and want to learn more about it.
So... if anyone has any good resources in relation to depression, post here!
People and experts
Techniques
Diets
Breathwork
Biological concepts 
Different perspectives on it
Videos.
etc.
 
Cheers

I swing between my heart/music and my mind/intellectual topics and I cant combine them. Which causes me to distract myself for months with one or the other. 
What about you?

I'm thinking of ordering ingredients and making my own ayahuasca. I was researching when I ran upon a website telling me not to attempt this unless I were already well-acquainted with Mother Ayahuasca because there will be no expert Shaman around to create a cleaner energy space without dark spirits. The site said I would run into these dark spirits if I did not heed the warning, and therefor I should go on a shaman-led retreat to do ayahuasca. That is not an option for me now, though. I was planning on taking minuscule doses to start and slowly ramping my way up, since I am inexperienced, hoping this would protect me from bad trips or psychological or physical injury. I was planning to do it on my own in the woods, since I live with my family.  Looking for opinions or advice?

Recommendations? Its hard to step out of the culture zeitgeist of materialism and find ground breaking thinkers.