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You haven't researched this topic deeply enough, so you can still handwave it away as "merely placebo" in your mind. With more research, you will no longer be able to do that. Again, I'm not a fool. You think I haven't taken into account placebo in my research? The bigger question is, have you taken into account circularity in your thinking? The problem is that you guys who think you know about nonduality by learning it from Jed McKenna or the like, is that you generally don't do research. Because, hey, your premise is it gets in the way of enlightenment. And then when you hear something "different", you easily handwave it away because, hey, it's not related to enlightenment. (Notice the circularity?) But of course that's only because you haven't done enough research to have of a bigger picture to see that there are many other facts left unexplained. In your mind everything seems explained, but that's only of course because you haven't exposed yourself to the broader set of experiences available. If you did a powerful psychedelic, or seen a person channeling, or spoken with a real healer, or spoken to a shaman, or seen an actual spirit, or encountered a non-human entity, or had an enlightened master read your mind, or had an enlightened master transform your body-energy, or seen an aura, or traveled out of body, or had a near death experience, or did a past-life regression under hypnosis, or re-lived memories of being in your mother's womb, or researched schizophrenia, or researched multiple-personality disorder, or researched many other edge-cases in brain science like split-brain patients and phantom limb phenomena... you'd be MUCH more openminded, and better off for it. But all that stuff is "just a distraction from enlightenment" so I guess you don't care to waste your precious time investigating it. Although I find it odd that you don't mind wasting your precious time arguing about how nothing but enlightenment matters. The problem with modern "skepticism" and "rationalism" is that it isn't real skepticism, but a veil for ignorance. It's become a weapon to shoot down all edge-case phenomena -- the very thing I've been warning you about and trying to inoculate you from by teaching radical openmindedness and concepts from epistemology. But people still think I'm kidding. Don't think that just because you understand enlightenment, or have had an enlightenment experience or two, that all the sudden your web of beliefs doesn't have you by the balls. It still does.

And that is my personal choice as to how to guide people on this path. Every teacher is forced to make a choice. There is no way to teach nonduality without making a stylistic choice. If you stay openminded, you may discover my choice has hidden merits beyond what you presently can envision.

@jse How easily one could use that very excuse against all nonduality teachings. That's the chief reason why the world is 99% unenlightened.

That's almost certainly false in my view. I've met healers (both enlightened and non-enlightened) personally who've spoken of their successes, I've had healers work on me, and if you spend even a bit of time doing research into various mystical traditions and alternative healing modalities, you'll see they don't make sense unless you allow for healing to be real. Just one of the cool perks of mastering nonduality

This is not true. The ego is not thinking. The "ego" is the sense of self created by conditioned likes and dislikes, desires and fears. Its a very very small part of the chain of causation. Surrender is a process of the intellect using non dual vision to gradually reprogramme the likes and dislikes so that the mind naturally rests in the vision of nonduality (spiritual purification) - the fact that there is nothing to resist in terms of everyday fears and desires. Once nonduality is established in the mind, there is still desire, but the desire is for harmony rather than egoic resistance. The ego is still there, but its seen as a notion in awareness and not mistakenly taken as the person. The enlightened mind is surrender and the way the mind achieved this is through using the intellect to neutralize the egos binding likes and dislikes.

These "paths" prepare the mind for enlightenment - they neutralize the likes and dislikes so that the vision of non duality is revealed in the mind naturally. The point is not to try to manufacture contrived kindness or compassion, but to understand that every time you make a judgement about something you are violating "dharma" because you are attacking the Self, your self, God. God is everything, it is nondual. The ego is the thing that likes to "play God" by deciding what is right and what is wrong. As you drop all notions of right and wrong your natural state will become peace, love, kindness, understanding, compassion naturally arises because your mind is not deluded by its likes and dislikes. I dont know whether you have noticed this, but maintaining a dislike (in the hope that you think it will make you more holy) does not make you any more compassionate. Its normal to dislike gross violations of dharma, like harm, yes harm is "wrong" but compassion should be your main focus if you want enlightenment, again not contrived compassion, but an understanding that people are victims of God's programming, nothing here is personal, although there IS freewill and that is the freewill for you to purify your mind and stop focusing on social or political issues (if thats what you are doing) because developing the ego is nothing to do with enlightenment. But all the other gratuitious likes and dislikes need to go in order to realize nondual vision in your subjective experience. Krishna (the personification of God) in the Bhagavad Gita says that "I am the mind that is not opposed to Dharma". This means the enlightened mind needs nothing yet desires to contribute. Its not really a case of saying there is no right and wrong, its just a case of getting rid of the arrogant ego that tries to impose "right and wrong" on Gods creation. Read between the lines when responding to me please, dont take what i say about "God" at face value Ultimately there is no creation or God, there is just awareness, but if you take yourself to be a spiritual seeker then you need to purify the mind by doing these neutralizing practices. Thats the "work" aspect of enlightenment. Also, just mulling over what you said about the selfless thing, its not really about trying to be a helper of people, its more about just doing ones "duty". In India nobody is thanked for doing what they do, because their society is built upon this notion of dharma, of contributing your part without making a song or dance about it. This is a desireless way to live, and is conducive to creating the kind of mind capable of understanding nonduality. In the West, if we dont say thanks we are discredited, because there seems (to me at least) this idea of entitlement. If we ask a favour of someone and they do it, were expected to roll out the red carper and thank them and owe them and such. Because this is a dog eat dog desire-fuelled society, its self serving rather than duty oriented. I would not confuse altruism with selflessness, the selflesness being spoken of in the traditions and enlightenment cultures is just a lack of the conceit, the lack of "entitlement" that we westerners seem to have bred into us from day one. Were taught that were "losers" if we dont get what we want, so it becomes a dog eat dog society. Being "altruistic" is the same vanity taken to the other extreme. I recommend heartily a visit to India, you can feel the sense of dharma there, but nobody is trying to go beyond that in an attempt to "help" others, its just a very casual I do my thing, you do yours but we both don't screw each other over to gain the upper hand. Yes, there are lost of little tax fiddles and all the usual selfish stuff going on too, its not a perfect place, (because were human, and the Self is the negative stuff too) but the point is that it isn't about being a saint either. Its just about not breaking the number one rule: "no harm".

I'm planning to release a video on this topic in the future. Been gathering my notes for over a year now on this topic. There's a lot to say from all the psychology and nonduality research. In the meantime, to avoid making your kids closedminded ideologues, guide them towards openmindedness and investigation of direct experience. Teach them not to accept ready-made answers, but derive understanding from direct observation. Teach them the difference between beliefs and awareness. Teach them the difference between hearsay and direct experience. Teach them that not-knowing is better than knowing. And demonstrate all this yourself.

Thats fine, thats your reality and it the results of your actions will fructify so you continue to see "sad little pathetic egos" and in the process destroy your own self worth. Because did you notice, youre attacking your own ego when you attack mine? Then ironically you look for "spiritual" or philosophical solutions to get rid of your own self inflicted pain. That is delusion. Im not offended because everything is the same. Thats nonduality. Are you learning something?

Another view on enlightenment....and spirituality....that's different. I copied and pasted my comment I posted on Leo's 5meo video interview with Martin Ball. Reiki is first off non-demonational or religious. Rei means spiritually guided and ki means energy, the vital life force or the universal life energy. Reiki is guided by spiritual consciousness. This is a non physical energy that animates all living things. And to some it would be interpreted as the Holy Spirit or God living within us. Reiki is a form of energy healing. Reiki guides itself with its own wisdom, rather than requiring the direction of the practitioner. Purging energy from your stomach as what Martin describes about 5-meo-HDTV reminds me of clearing the energy from your solar plexus chakra, which is where you hold all of your emotions. Ki, also known as prana, chi, ti, biofield energy, etc. is thought to be the underlying energy of everything that exists. Ki is influenced by the mind. If you have positive healthy thoughts, your Ki becomes stronger. If you have unhealthy, negative thoughts, your Ki is weakened or becomes unhealthy. It’s so interesting because I’m sure you’ve noticed that our physical health does have a connection to our emotions. Like when we are depressed or aka have negative energy we are sluggish and it can weaken our immune systems while being positive we have a tendency to have more physical energy and get things done. Life becomes so wonderful when we no longer allow ourselves to be governed by our emotions. The HOLY SPIRIT = ENLIGHTENMENT, nonduality, etc. like Leo mentions in his video.......

This is delusion. Its just snobbery. Mastery is a relative concept, born of relativistic ideas. Its got nothing to do with nondulaism. You cannot marry nondualism with dualism. In the egoic mind you can, you can have your stupid ideals and messed up distorted misconceptions about nonduality as much as you want. And hold both as paradox. This is still ego tho, and its nothing to do with nonduality. Nonduality is the vision you understand when duality is finished, uprooted from the mind. Its not a both / and, its one or the other. You cant be deluded and be undeluded at the same time.

@LetTheNewDayBegin Awareness is not trapped in the self. The self is an illusion within awareness. Self doesn't remain because it never existed in the first place. The self can NEVER become enlightened because enlightenment is the awareness of no-self. Free will isn't a miracle. It's an illusion (of control) which causes all your suffering and separates you from Truth. Ask yourself this: Why do you want free will? If you have it, you can never be happy, because it means you must always be on-guard. Nonduality is a path of surrendering control. This whole issue is one of power and control. You -- ego -- wants to think it controls stuff. But in fact it doesn't. And to believe that you do control stuff is the chief delusion that causes your suffering. So when you gonna wise up and give up the game? I mean... you can keep seeking power, but at some point you're gonna realize (hopefully) that the greatest power is total surrender. THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF THE SELF IS TO CONTROL STUFF! (But it always fails in the end.) So you're playing a game you cannot ever win.

I've recently realized that the reason that I've felt as though I already have some understanding of what enlightenment is like because I underwent depersonalization/derealization back in high school when I tried weed and began smoking regularly. According to Shinzen Young, DP/DR is like the evil twin of enlightenment. Based on the other perspectives I've seen on DP/DR, the experience is incredibly dark. It's some weird sort of "half-realized" state where the ego doesn't entirely surrender itself and the person begins to see the flimsiness of reality and the movie-like qualities of life. My own experience of it nearly destroyed my life, although I didn't know what was happening to me at the time. This makes me wonder whether guys like Jed Mckenna or Steven Norquist whose interpretation on enlightenment is much darker than guys like Echart Tolle are "wrong" in their interpretation of nonduality or if their's different forms of truth-realization or if all these people just have a mental illness. It's all quite confusing.

The next level vision is becoming a Sage. You should be always asking how can you get the most out of life! Ask yourself “what is the best life possible for a human being?” This answer is available to everyone of us but no one taught us. The greatest human beings on earth were not entrepreneurs, celebrities, athletes, political leaders, CEOs, engineers, nor academics, nor self-help teachers; THEY WERE SAGES AND MYSTICS. Great for us is who is getting the most juice out of life, not the status and money and stupid stuff. What does it mean to be a sage? They are people like Buddha, Christ, Heraclitus, Socrates, Marcos Aurelius, Confucius, Rumi, Yogananda, Ghandi, Ramana Maharshi, The Dalai Lama, Osho, Sadhguru, Ken Wilber, Peter Ralston and so on. It is not a matter of success or achievement; it is a quality of self-mastery (not a meditation master but a TRUE MASTER OF BEING HUMAN, A MASTER OF UNDERSTADING REALITY AND LIFE). These people can really enjoy life as it is. Key qualities of a sage: - Commitment to Truth - Commitment to Consciousness, Goodness and Love and embodiment of them effortlessly - Turn inwards to transform themselves - This is well beyond enlightenment Vision of The Modern Sage We are taking Eastern Nonduality and we are paring that with the Ancient Greek Philosopher and a bit of artist/scientist. It is the modern Renaissance Man. He had mastered consciousness, but he has also a deep conceptual understanding of life and reality too. It is a union of the left and right brain and you don’t want to do it in a way that you are living in a cave but you use your understanding of the world to solve real world problems. YOU ARE IN THE WORLD. You are highly creative and productive. What a Sage is not He is not a smart and cold intellectual or academic who lives in theory. A sage is not an ideological crusader. How to become a Sage? The vision is more important than the how. You will figure it out in the process. If you have a strong and juicy vision, the how will solve by itself. START WORKING ON DEEPENING THIS VISION! Set your top value as Truth and Understanding (Truth for Truth’s sake). A radical turning inwards is necessary; you will need to free yourself from materialism. Also, there has to be a purification of your body, mind, emotion and habits. As you turn inwards, you will develop a strong energy body. It means that you can take emotions that are coming and you alchemize it, you convert them into love and Truth. Also what is required is massive theoretical learning. Osho read 150,000 books! Sometimes people think that they should only meditate because reading books is bullshit but this is really misguided. There is much more understanding to be had beyond enlightenment. You will need to look for the juicy knowledge. Exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness is crucial for the sage (you can do this with psychedelics, special breathing or meditation techniques and so forth). Being creative is important for a sage; listening to that muse and living that out, benefiting the world (the Life Purpose Course). You will also need to develop unconditional love and compassion for the suffering of others. Also, to become a sage you will probably want to help others raise their awareness and that will definitely merge with your Life Purpose, one way or another. Be careful because there are tons of ways that awareness can be raised. WE NEED PEOPLE TO INFUSE THESE CAREERS, FIELDS AND BUSINESSES WITH CONSCIOUSNESS AND AWARENESS. This vision is not for everybody. Objections What about Life Purpose? Don’t take becoming a sage or enlightenment as stopping you from having a life purpose. That would be failing to embrace paradox. Enlightened people are the most alive human beings on earth and purpose drive people ever! The Life Purpose teaches you how to be creative and create a career; find that! You don’t want to be enlightened and working on 7/11. You want to be enlightened and creating stuff, self-expressing! Becoming a sage is a personal purpose, don’t confuse it with career purpose. All of this is an illusion? Why work on that? Don’t get this wrong. To master yourself you need to take this enterprise really fucking seriously. You have to be after understanding, not success. Since this is a difficult goal, you will need a longer term horizon (10 years +). What is the other alternative rather than becoming sage? You have no better alternative than becoming a sage!

@Beyond Words Nonduality means everything is infinitely interrelated. It's not like consciousness is one thing, reality is another thing, meditation is a third thing, and enlightenment is a fourth thing. IT'S ALL ONE INFINITE THING! The distinctions you make between things constitute reality. And all these distinctions are arbitrary. It's like you're partitioning an infinite-sized hard drive. How many partitions does an infinite-sized hard drive have? And of course scientific method is a part of S. Otherwise it couldn't exist S includes everything possible.

Thoughts: Something has changed. I got the feeling few days ago, now it is not so strong but I can still relate to it. I do not know what. Something is wrong with me, with the self. Not in bad manner. Strange. I flinch when I get deeper in SDS or self-inquiry, something or nothing is there. It seems to me that when I actually become mindfull for longer time I am actually alive. Imagine what life was like when we were very small kids, when we knew only few words. Everything was knew. We did not even knew how to move with our bodies well. Every sight, every sounds, every small was new. Now, everything is sorted. I can put everything I see in a box, name it, thats why time runs so quickly. Mindfulness... Would you ever send somebody to eternal torture? Even somebody who did something bad in your eyes? I would not, I would not send even Hitler to eternal torture, even if he was 100x worse. Why? I think that lot of people underestimate the longness of eternity. Take afterlife that Christians promise for example. Lets say that you consider physical one where you can do stuff. What are you going to do? Well you have eternity so you can just do nothing for the first billion of years, nothing wasted. Then you can meet with all people that are in heaven, that is around 100 billion people right now, you can learn all languages, you can try everything you ever wanted, you can find new things, explore and so on. What do you do then? Well you have just finished, it took you few quintillions of years because you do it really mindfully and try to enjoy every piece of afterlife. You are nowhere close to eternity, the afterlife did not even started in a sense. What do you do then? You can do everything but you will ALWAYS end up with some end (yes you could start to learn Pi digits). What then? This is why I think death has a meaning and afterlife is completely pointless, you will be happy? And what? Afterlife without the option to end it, I think I would hate that. Which gets me to the point I wanted to make, how can anybody wish to send someone to hell = eternal torture? It did actually happened to me.. the thing is that human can not get close to imagining eternity and why I would never wish to send even Hitler in hell, that is worse than well, everything else. (Considering the usual moral code I use during my day). (What nonduality says is way different then physical type of afterlife)

@Leo Gura So... S = {Consciousness, Reality, Non-Duality, Meditation, Self-Inquiry} Where S is Enlightenment Scientific method ∉ S Set theory, category theory and its relationship with nonduality and the Absolute Infinite set sound awesome. Thank you Leo!

@Beyond Words Set theory & category theory. Did you know that Georg Cantor (father of set theory) discovered the Absolute Infinite set? He called it God. And he was right That's as close to God as you're likely to get conceptually. Shinzen Young told me category theory (basically a more generalized and expanded set theory) pairs very nicely with nonduality. You seem like a passionate fellow, so my advice to you regarding life purpose is to aim to craft a very customized purpose that sits at the intersection of at least 2 if not 3 or 4 sciences/fields. Then you'll be in an awesome position. Crave out your niche. Your niche probably hasn't been invented yet. YOU invent it! But it will take time. So don't be too insistent on knowing your exact niche right now. For you it's gonna be a multi-year-long process of doing research, study, and experimentation, as you hone in more and more on your niche. Rather than asking us, or trying to figure this out theoretically, instead, you'll want to follow the breadcrumb trail of your greatest passion. What are the top 3 things you love to study the most? What top 3 fields excite you the most? Figure that out, and then study the shit out of all them. And then your intuition will tell you where to go from there, and you will invent a niche for yourself. This is sorta like passion mixology

@Lisaya Nonduality means there's nothing in control.

School/college has all the wrong focus. No attention paid to what really matters: practical psychology, nonduality, self-mastery, holistic understanding, love, consciousness.

Modern folks tend to re-invent the wheel a lot in ignorance when it comes to psychology or spirituality. It's ironic because psychology and spirituality have been fully understood by humans since over 5000 years ago. It's very simple and it's virtually unanimous. The core problem is simple: ego The core solution is also simple: realize that ego is an illusion God is what remains when ego is realized to be an illusion. There cannot be true freedom until this is realized. God is not a set of patterns or universal laws. God is not logic. God is indiscriminate and unbounded, whereas patterns and laws and logic are limitations, facets of Absolute Infinity. This technique they share may be helpful on a practical level, but remember, there are much deeper and more profound things to discover. If we're gonna boil down reality to one thing, it should be CONSCIOUSNESS, not logic. What this video is doing is sorta making a weak version of spirituality palatable to rational-minded people who normally dismiss spirituality and religion because of its packaging. But actually these people do not understand the deep core of all religious and mystical traditions and how practical and therapeutic it is. Modern culture needs things packaged in "logic" in order for people to swallow it. Which is actually a big part of the problem because logic is a tool of the ego. The problem with trying to rationalize nonduality/reality is that it will always ultimately fail, because rationalization is conceptual in nature, and reality is beyond concepts. What would really help people watching this video is to let go of their need for logic, concepts, thinking, rationality, science, and evolution. Now that would be a really counter-intuitive move, and lead to an amazing transformation!

Yes, nihilism is a good counter-point. Several problems may arise however: 1) Confusing nihilism with reality or the nondual point of view. Giving people the wrong impression and leading them to think that nonduality is a philosophical position. 2) Have you actually thought through the radical implications of nihilism? Really think it through. Try to actually embody it. 3) Many people are turned off by it, so it's not good from the perspective of marketing.

From the Orange stage, paranormal phenomena cannot exist. Orange is ego-driven, and paranormal phenomena are very subtle. So the ego cannot discern them, because it dismisses them as irrational, impossible, and "pseudo-scientific", and also paranormal phenomena are very difficult to employ towards materialistic needs or desires like money or sex, in the way that stage Orange envisions (although some rotten mystics still manage to do it). So you're not likely to use psychic powers to win the lottery. The reason Sadhguru -- or any other masterful teacher of nonduality -- do not openly discuss or encourage paranormal development -- is because they know that it can be a path of delusion and distraction. It's like shiny object the ego likes to chase and try to abuse. Also, people who have paranormal abilities do not go around talking about it with random strangers because they would just be dismissed as New Age kooks. But if you think back into your own life, you can actually probably remember meeting a person who told you something paranormal, but you dismissed it as naivete on their part. Well, you might have to re-examine that judgment. Maybe it was right under your nose the whole time, but you ignored it. I've personally met multiple highly conscious/spiritually developed people who have paranormal abilities. But they consider it totally normal. And they're very grounded and rational people. Peter Ralston, for example, used psychic abilities to help him in this martial arts to win the full-contact championship in Asia in the 70's. People got killed in those tournaments sometimes, Bloodsport-style. He told me he could "know" the intent of his attacker prior to the attacker himself knowing it! How can you lose if you know every move a second in advance? Well... he never lost, from what I hear You do not wanna mess with him! Some of his opponents would refuse to even enter the ring after watching him warming up! Lol He doesn't mention it much because he knows its a distraction for your ego. Now you want psychic powers to abuse. But it doesn't really work that way. Almost every highly advanced enlightened person I've met has reported some kind of paranormal abilities or phenomena to me. Not that I explicit try to drag it out of them. Usually it's pretty subtle stuff. And it just gets mentioned as casual aside. As in, "Oh, yeah... by the way, I can heal people." What?!!! In the Eastern traditions, Sorcerer Yogis are quite a common path. Some people devote their entire lives to it. In the West, we have various schools and long-running traditions of occultism. It all makes a hell of a lot of sense if you just study and research broadly enough, practice meditation, and have an enlightenment experience or two. Reality is not a classical Newtonian physical system. It's a mystical, infinite, conscious singularity that defies all logic. But don't believe me. Go discover for yourself what's true.

Yeah... This guy sure is doing a great job of NOT understanding nonduality. 1) Evil is a thought. It doesn't exist in the external world. Nothing is ever evil except in so far as it threatens a particular human ego. This is not a opinion, this is reality. And it's obvious to anyone with sufficient consciousness. Evil can only exist relative to an ego. 2) Solipsism is not nonduality. The guy in the video is committing the classic naive mistake of conflating nonduality with an ideology. It's not an ideology and never can be. To read a book about nonduality does not create any true knowing. 3) He claims that for solipsism (nonduality) there is no objective truth. This is false. There is ONLY Absolute Truth, which is Absolute Infinity. It's not merely subjective. It's utterly universal. So universal the human mind cannot even fathom it. 4) It is a fact that nothing can truly be known. We don't actually know what anything is. Everything is unknown. The mind only spins stories about it. 5) Evil stems from judgments and the kind of mindset this guy espouses. He doesn't understand unconditional love, nor does it seem he's ever experienced it because that requires high degrees of awareness which he doesn't seem to have. 6) This guy is ideological. 7) The woman was just being polite (and compassionate) with him not to flare up his obvious ego. 8) To a naive ego, nonduality appear egotistical, but actually the opposite is true. When I claim I am God, that's actually a very humble position. But the ego likes to attack that as arrogant. It's sad to see modern skeptics executing skepticism so poorly. He would be better off applying his own skepticism to himself. True skepticism means: suspension of all belief or judgment about truth, because it cannot be reliably ascertained through the mind. A real skeptic would be skeptical of judgments of evil. After all, how would he know a thing was truly evil? By what method? Moral judgments are the least agreed upon. 30 mg of 5-meo up his nose would solve his whole problem Nonduality can only be found directly through experience, not theorizing.

This thread is being locked. Here's why: No. There will be no spiritual warfare here. It's juvenile and unproductive. I have no interest in engaging in it, nor do I have any interest in moderating such debates. I have no problem with anyone who wants to constructively discuss nonduality, but not for purposes of debate or self-promotion. You can do that somewhere else. Please keep in mind that the ultimate form of nonduality doesn't nitpick and fight with duality or other methods of nonduality, but comfortably includes all and understands the diversity and challenges of any teaching that tries to get across something so challenging, nuanced, and ethereal. I encourage anyone who is a student of nonduality and really cares about truth, to not make this about anyone or anything but yourself. Turn inward and explore your own behaviors, your own consciousness, your own projections, your own ego. A huge trap in this work is making it about personalities, sects, philosophy, rivalry, taking sides, questioning other's motives, name-dropping, etc. Resist that urge and seek to understand the full picture of what's going on. I don't exclude myself from this advice. Stay open and do not make this journey ideological. There are MANY valid and diverse forms of nondual practice and theory. No one form is suitable for all people.

@Travis @Feeble Dave Hey guys. Correct, no real prior experience with any psychedelics. The only significant experience I have had before was drugs was weed (2-3 years regular smoking)... obviously this did in no way prepare me for this. Like I mention in my initial post, I am in this purely to supplement my meditation practice; I had never considered psychedelics a genuine aid to this practice (always associated psychedelics with hallucinations etc). Leo'a video changed this for me; as I started looking into it this was the first time I learned about the "void" etc. in literature... this was a bit of an "aha" moment for me... I actually had experienced this state in meditation in January 2016 (discussed in original post). For me personally, my strict meditation practice as well as contemplative nonduality reading was my only preparation. At this point in my practice, I know what it is to let go... all those reservations you have in your head about the drug are just that. I think if you were ready, you'd have a gut feel - if that makes sense. Having experienced the boundaries of my body fade in meditation, and my awareness expand, gave me a lot of confidence when reading the trip reports... i can't say I've experimented with higher doses yet (and probably won't be for a few weeks), nor can I say I've optimised my snorting technique (Leo's post above), but still what I experienced on 12mg was similar (as predicted) to that which I had experienced in meditation. One worry I did have though was that I'd slip into an unconscious where maybe I'd start shouting or screaming or something ridiculous like you read in the bad trip reports. To mitigate this worry, I did this in an empty detached house, in the middle of the night (I feel calmest around the ). In lieu of an experienced trip sitter, I did this alone. My advice; be patient - don't rush into doing it. Find somewhere where you can feel cosy, comfortable, warm, safe and secure. Put your mind to rest as best you can. Get an accurate set of mg scales. Start with a very small dose 1-2mg. Then 5mg. Then 10mg. Don't jump straight into the heavy weights just in case!! Once it's snorted be ready to say "fuck it, I've done it, let's go with whatever happens". Let whatever you experience happen. Have a sick bucket ready just in case... . Prepare, but at the same time don't stress yourself out about it. If you start off at the shallow end and go into this with some maturity, I'm sure you will be OK. A good and consistent meditation practice and donduality contemplative work is your best long-term prep in my opinion. In regard to the heart question, this simply wasn't a worry of mine, although maybe it should have been... I am very active (ran 10 half marathons this year), and follow a vegan diet... rapid heart beat in exercise is something I'm very used to... my diet also gives me confidence in my heart health. In my experience with the substance, the fast heart beat was noticeable, but nothing on what you might experience say running a steep gradient uphill... although if you're not used to it, i can see why this might freak some people out a lot - particularly if you're in a unusual "trip" state so to speak. I imagine that might feel most unnerving! Hope this helps, like I said before, I'm not an experienced psychonaut by any means... but I would consider myself psychologically stable & mature.