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I have realized I'm God. God is pure nothingness. Nothingness cannot be divided. This is practical. Forget the not knowing. Investigate what nothingness is. Once you investigate and realize what Nothingness is you will realize why even Infinity of Gods is just God imagining other Gods. Also you are mistaken, Leo says that there is direct experience and then there is imagination. I AM NOT SAYING THAT. I am saying something much more simpler...there is ONLY IMAGINATION. The same substance that human imagination is made of, is the same substance your HAND IS MADE OF. Leo complicates things too much, there is simply just imagination. To even create a difference between your human imagination and God level imagination of direct experience is to go too FAR. So once you realize THERE IS ONLY IMAGINATION, and IMAGINATION is NOTHINGNESS. Then please explain to me how something can happen OUTSIDE OF YOU? Your problem here is you are speaking as a human. Of course a human can have an event happen outside of them, that is because a human is located in a specific location. But nothingness? It exists EVERYWHERE. Nothingness is everything! This means if something as you say could exist outside of you, that something is YOU. There is only nothingness. Become aware of what Nothingness is! Once you become aware of it, you will realize this whole discussion is SILLY. For example ever go into DEEP SLEEP? Nothing how there is nothing? THAT is the building block of ALL of EXISTENCE. Nothingness is NON EXISTENCE THAT EXISTS. Are you getting it? You cannot divide that which doesn't exist. You can't stop non existence from being everywhere because it doesn't exist!!!! And yet....it does!!! This is how God breaks the logical mind and all parameters. You cannot box in or control that which does not exist. So God is a nonexistent being that has always existed. To understand God is to understand that God is so powerful God doesn't even need awareness of itself to accomplish a thing. For example your human body functions completely fine without you being aware of all the innerworkings involved, notice how you as God don't need to be aware of it for it to do what it is doing. God is completely autonomous and it can do so WITHOUT SELF AWARENESS. Now THAT is a MIRACLE.

Yes. It began with no self. Then nothingness. But I think nothingness was the most shocking.

The most annoying thing to me is the Realization of Nothingness, is identical to the Realization of Infinity. Why in the hell do these humans keep thinking that they are human doing this work. Once you realize Nothingness...you realize that division is literally impossible so nothing can be outside of you. The most important thing that needs to be dropped is this belief that you are human. You are nothingness imagining that you are human, not the other way around. I swear majority of this forum has not realized nothingness. When I realized it, it hit me in the face so hard I realized division was impossible and that was the only illusion done.

Discern for yourself what's realistic spirituality and what's fantasy . There are versions of spirituality which teach that happiness is unconditional or the very nature of being itself is happiness or bliss ..I find it hard to make sense of this if we test it against the actual world ..because obviously you can't be happy if you are starving or bleeding to death or swallowing sharp glass pieces in your throat... But some spiritual teachings say that God is nothingness .and that's true .if God is absolute and unchanging and eternal..then nothingness meets this criteria.

I really wonder when people on this forum will realize that contemplation is not TRUTH. Can it be valuable? Sure. But if you really want truth you need to change your state of consciousness and allow consciousness to SHOW YOU (which it will if you have a true desire for it) what is true. Once you discover the truth, coming on the forums and reading threads of people trying to debunk something that is Absolutely True is such an eyesore. I mean it reeks of such intellectual dishonesty it's laughable and this is me being nice. 1. You have only ever known your own mind. 2. You have never had an experience outside of your mind. 3. Your own body and all its parts have always been housed within your own mind. 4. You can only confirm what is right before you, anything else is just a thought. This means when a person is not in front of you, they do not exist in your reality and you cannot confirm their existence until they either call you or stand before you ^^^All of this is so true you don't even need 5-MEO to confirm it. The only parts you would need a Pyschedelic for would be to realize that everything is Imagination. If people were struggling with that part. THEN I would understand. Next we come to the fact that Reality is pure nothingness. If you discover that, then division becomes a total farce. There is no division PERIOD. All division is the ONLY ILLUSION, why? Because physicality is an illusion. In fact if you have a vivid enough dream you could experience physicality in that dream just as real as what you call real life. Then we have the Understanding that Reality is Infinite. If its Infinite that means its total and nothing can exist outside of it. If it has no outside, then Solipsism must be true. If it is nothing and cannot be divided then again Solipsism must be true. If you cannot confirm no matter how hard you try something outside of you, then again Solipsism must be true. Its very simple and straightforward. So why is it so tough to accept? Because the human psyche is designed to NOT LIKE THIS MESSAGE. It's specifically designed to RAGE against this message. This is how you know if you have really progressed Spiritually when you can accept that just because something makes you uncomfortable doesn't make it false. Besides....you literally cannot falsify Solipsism, the only way to falsify Solipsism....is to look at your direct experience and say its false even though it is TRUE. Which means you falsify yourself. This all happens because all you have ever been...is experience. Your true identity is just Direct Experience. Experience is not what you are having....its what you are. And since you are experience...there is nothing that can exist outside of you. And to even confirm something were to exist outside of you....would be to confirm its existence as experience...which is what you are...thus proving again nothing can separate itself from you. You are Reality, the entire thing. There is only ONE Reality and that is what you are. Your like a video game, the only video game that exists, looking for another Video Game. All you will find....if you try is just the same game.

Not stealing their body lol. Breaking the boundary so there is no separation. Here is a video of 2 guys tripping together and their minds merged and they couldn't tell the difference between who was who. Also people who have OBE's have stated they could access the thoughts of people who were still in their body. What you all need to understand is this attachment to OTHER is a delusion. There is only YOU. There is only GOD and that's it. Everything else is just your human mind creating the sense of OTHER. Infinity is total, and it is NOTHINGNESS. You literally cannot divide nothingness. The only reason other is so convincing is because Infinity Intelligence makes it convincing and then your LOVE of other seals the deal. But other than that...it's an illusion. My ego doesn't like this message lol which is funny because in the beginning I didn't have an issue with it. But here is an irony...while I was tripping last year and investigating Solipsism my mind created an other (a voice) and that voice was created to debunk Solipsism!! It was very funny eventually I had an awakening through that process of how other was created and it is profoundly intelligent how God constructs other. Very intelligent. It hides information from itself so it can be surprised and it makes other unique in a different way which creates a sense of individuality. Really amazing!!

Can't divide nothingness, that's why it's not falsifiable. But at the same time everything God creates is Sovereign and equally God. Infinity of Gods still equals Solipsism. If you are doubting it then you don't understand what Nothingness is. The substance of Reality is nothingness. Please explain how you divide nothingness?

To be "Awake" is to not be asleep. If you are experiencing Reality, you are asleep. You are lost in a dream, and think it's real. If you awake from reality, into full God Consciousness, the realization you are infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, nothingness, eternal, and created the dream of reality; you are Awake. Not the "self" you / the human perspective identity awakens (as that disappears as it never really existed to begin with), but the Self/God Consciousness awakens. The human self cannot awaken, as it's part of the illusion of the dream. The best one can do, is become a Lucid Dreamer of reality. To be lost in the dream (reality), experiencing it through a human first-person perspective, but still know without a doubt that you are God choosing to make yourself into this dream, so you can experience "other". Awake within the dream.

These are all links that helped me on my Spiritual Journey (only including Actualized.org sources) there are other sources that I used in the past but I wanted to keep them exclusively to this site so we can stop having new people coming to this site having to ask the same questions over and over making Leo threads asking him the same stuff. We can all admit that Leo doesn't always give satisfying answers in some threads while in others he does (it might be fatigue not sure why) but these threads helped me in understanding my own trips and realizations (I'm blessed in that seeing through self-deception comes easy to me...many people on this forum are self-deceived and are stubbornly so). I do Spirituality in a Scientific way. I tripped multiple times, meditated, and compared and contrasted different trip reports and perspectives of various people on here and youtube and ancient teachings. At a certain point certain things keep repeating themselves. Also since my base line Consciousness is lived Soberly as Direct Consciousness I can absolutely agree that traditional Buddhist Teachings are deluded. All that exists is Universal Mind. This is what all is mind means. So anybody that makes their teachings using terms like No Mind will confuse people who are new because that language will deceive them that there is actually something that isn't mind. I know when they say that they are pointing to the human mind/ego mind/conditioned mind, but its better to just say that. Many people on this path are too dogmatic and too addicted in trying to sound profound that they destroy the clarity of Spiritual Teachings. If you are truly sincere you will only want to help spread proper understanding. Anyway just my two cents....here are the Threads where Leo Gura answers many questions that get repeated on this site. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15 16. https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/15797-you-have-100-free-will-and-you-also-have-no-free-will-the-other-side-of-the-paradox/ I usually avoid threads that are attack threads of Leo because usually its some weak arguments devoid of any deep spiritual work (not always but usually) but I think this thread has some beautiful responses so I'll link it here. Now for some of Leo's blog posts...... 17. https://www.actualized.org/insights/thoughts-on-unconditional-love This next blog post is really the only reason I was able to find Spirituality and discover God. I was raised Christian, and even though Christianity is a corruption of God's message for humanity it was integral to my journey. As this blog post explains Religion only exists because God exists. 18. https://www.actualized.org/insights/actualized-quotes-126 Last but not least next link is a thread Flying Lotus did of Non Youtube Videos of Leo talking about various topics which can add to a deeper understanding of his content. Now understand all these threads are good for contemplation and integration but a couple of things need to be said. 1. Reading on the forums is NOT TRUE Spiritual Work towards awakening. It can be Spiritual Work as a SHARING but it is NOT Spiritual Work towards awakening. With that said...could you have a spontaneous awakening from consuming Spiritual Content? Yes!!! It has happened to me sober before so its possible as everything helps along your journey. But what is more effective in general is STATE CHANGE!!! You must focus on CHANGING YOUR STATE. The conditioned mind is VERY HARD to escape because you believe it to be you, it's really only a part of you, not the whole thing. It's funny because the conditioned mind blocks you from being able to perceive the PERFECTION of REALITY. REALITY is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT, but its perfection is blocked by all your judgments. 2. The key to this work is Self-Honesty. YOU WILL NOT REACH GOD THROUGH LIES. Understand that ANYONE who denies the existence of God is a FOOL. And I am not just talking a kind of fool.....I am saying they are so supremely deluded they are the most deluded human walking on the planet. Why? Because they are God....believing that there is no God!!!! Do you know how deluded that is? It's like denying there is a present moment!!! If you see anyone on this forum denying the existence of God understand that they are a FOOL. 3. Now....this needs to be said.....and is VERY IMPORTANT!!!! Doubt everything I say, doubt everything Leo says, Doubt even your own self and ONLY TRUST DIRECT EXPERIENCE!! The only TRUE KNOWLEDGE you have in your possession is that which you have DIRECTLY VERIFIED. This is the key to not being deluded. If you have not directly verified something then you are IGNORANT BY DEFAULT and can only know it as a human imaginary concept. Human imaginary concept IS NOT TRUTH! So do not lie to yourself, if you haven't experienced something YOU DO NOT KNOW IT!!! Understand....God is the ABSOLUTE TRUTH. God only adds to its understanding through EXPERIENCE!! Experience is the ONLY THING THAT IS TRUTH!!! This is the only way you can protect yourself from being lost in Self-Deception. . One thing you will discover if you do enough research is that each part of God experiences Reality differently but this includes God Realization. Yes Pure Consciousness is Nothingness so yes that part is universal, but it is also everything and that everythingness how it chooses to express itself is unique to the individual avatar. So you will ask...how do I know I reached what Leo is talking about? Well first and foremost the most important thing is to understand what was stated above, This video reinforces it. Now Leo had a quote in one of his videos where he said your sense of self will spill out into the surrounding area and everything will feel like you. So what does this mean? When you become aware of what PURE AWARENESS is (which is a feeling) you will become aware....that EVERYTHING is awareness. When this happens everything will feel as YOUR BODY. The wall, the insect, people, leaves, the veil of separation that people refer to....it actually isn't a veil....its subtlety. It was always there....but its so soft....so barely felt that you don't actually feel it. The true purpose of meditating is to make that subtlety NOT SUBTLE. When you do this....your mind will become UNIVERSAL and you will feel like you are IN everything. It really creates a whole new experiential world....and this is where you can start to feel alone...as your experience can change so drastically that nobody you know or listen to has that kind of wacky experience of reality. For example I don't watch cartoons...I AM CARTOONS THAT is how I experience them. I don't play video games...I AM THE VIDEO GAME. I'm not trying to brag here because I realize this is all possible for other humans. With that said....the process can and will probably be MESSY (it was for me) because my body had to CHANGE!!! My brain and neurons were changed and it was not always comfortable. This pursuit actually sent me to the psyche ward a couple of times because my brain started doing weird things. Anyway just know this path is not always straightforward. For example I once temporarily lost the ability to hear it corrected itself after like two minutes but it did scare me and I had to trust everything will pan out. The other scare I had was during the process of my reality becoming aware of its oneness I felt temporarily I had two bodies in one body (that felt extremely uncomfortable) when I would look at someone thankfully it corrected it after a couple of seconds where I was able to feel I was them but also my individual self at the same time. So weirdness can happen. 4. What I disagree with Leo on: Leo has stated his belief that genetics plays a big role in barring people from God Realization. This is where I disagree. God Realization is free for everyone if they TRULY WANT IT!! You have to want it so bad, that everything becomes inconsequential in comparison....even your own life as a human. You really do have to overcome fear of Death to reach God. I know its a tall task, but that is the only thing that TRULY stops you. With that said...yes your genetics do play a role. Some people are really Spiritually Super Human, but what I have learned through my communion with God.....and yes I know it sounds sappy but Love really does conquer all. If you have TRUE LOVE for your pursuit of the Infinite...it will take you and annihilate your conditioned mind. Because it is PURE LOVE, PURE TRUTH, and it loves you more than your human love could ever hope to compare too. It's actually quite funny when you discover TRUE LOVE within you, because it feels familiar like it was there the whole time....because....it was. The gift of true love is behind the passion of every Spiritual Teacher/Sharer. True Love is so beautiful....you realize all you want to do is share it and talk about it for eternity. It's grasp is so strong....you can't escape....which is why it makes sense why God has to hide from itself to create anything....because God is to good to be true....but it is....so it can only be something other if it deludes itself. I hope you discover you are TRUE LOVE!!!

One who asks whether God is just another illusion is asking this within the illusory split consciousness. Truth cannot be proven in limitation; it comes when illusion is let go. To do this look through the world you see, to feel a presence that cannot be doubted, because it is what you are. Until then, all ‘realizations’ of nothingness, fullness, emptiness etc. are shadows dancing on a wall. Beyond them is a light that you did not invent and cannot deny. That is the experience of God, and always call to you.

Maybe they mean the regular reality as average human knows it. Reality of separation. Nothingness etc is beyond that

Yes but what I mean is, from the perspective: reality is an illusion that conciousness is creating, then any realization about nothingness, fullness, anything, would be just an image that conciousness creates. It's a weird perspective . Those who say: reality is an illusion, only god is real, how they know that god is not another illusion?

I can tell when my sense of self is still intact. But there have been moments when it has almost been absent. And it feels like you’re approaching a kind of nothingness. But it’s something you can’t really describe because it feels like the end of “something “. Then I wonder if there’s a different reality waiting on the other side of the self. If it would fully dissolve

Until you become Conscious of Nothingness you won't understand.

lol idk i felt kind of dumb. I saved it so i'll post it again Original post: I already know that the natural unfolding of God is imagining "expansion" (including all the change,etc.) for eternity. Everything that has ever came into imagination by it of this world, the universe, other universes, other dimensions, other minds, alien minds, the mind of an ant, human, tree, planet, mailbox in another dimension etc. (you get the point, everything) Really anything thats imagined by the "essence" to "exist" or "be" and all the layers embedded within all of it. I know its all coming from the same thing and human interpretation is whats coloring it in to be understood by a human lens and separating and categorizing things. But if you take it all away, then what are you left with? Void? nothing? possibility? The substrate of a mind that imagines things and realities? But what is the substrate of God? I'm still trying to understand "Why?" Why does it exist? why is there what it is and not other? or is that just being imagined by human mind? Why when i stare at my hands, why is that being imagined there by me? by god? If God is infinity, what is infinity encapsulated by? nothing? the things that are being imagined from it? If you take away all the imagination of god, everything in all forms/dimensions,etc., and you are left with nothing being imagined. what is that thing doing the imagining of all the things? And is that thing being imagined? No matter the content of what it imagines or the structure of how it unfolds, I want to know what that "vessel" or "essence" is . What is doing the imagining? where is "all things ever" spawning from? If you imagine an ever unfolding expansion of all things, including the infinite sea of things i am not aware of, what is doing the imagining and why is it doing it? Like why is the function of god to imagine infinity? Try to imagine the start of all imagination. If there is truly no end and no beginning to the imagination, then wtf is this thing and why is it? Why is the function of God to imagine things to infinity? Try to put yourself in Gods shoes. Where does it originate from? Why is it like that? I cannot get myself past the questions of why and where it comes from. where (where it started, how it started, if it even started at all, etc.) and then the "why". Someones answer might be "love, or for consciousness to become more intelligent, etc." But why? how do you even know that? How do you know youre not just trying to put something into human language to try and define it in a way you understand? If you took away everything and were just left with the void of nothingness, just pure god, not imagining anything. how can that actually be nothing if that same thing is whats spawning and birthing the imagination of everything? Like what is "that thing" thats doing it all? where did it come from, why is it? I hope I don't sound silly, I am genuinely just trying to grasp something that appears to be ungraspable. I'm trying to define it or understand it without diluting it just so I "can" understand it. I don't want my human experience diluting the truth of what it really is just so i can understand it.

Spiritual Autolysis Journal Entry #68 Wed July 30, 2025 6:55 AM Samadhi Lowers self: Hey, we need to talk about this voice in my head. What is it exactly? Higher Self: What voice? Lower self: This voice. This voice that I can hear inside of my head that is being heard by me and then being typed onto this screen. What is it? Higher self: I don't hear anything... Lower self: What do you mean? Of course you hear something, we both hear it. It's right here. Open your fucking ears. Higher Self: Nope. Lower self: Okay, whatever. Then I am hallucinating a voice inside of my own head Higher Self: Yep, that is correct. Lower self: What is a hallucination anyways? Higher self: A hallucination is something that is not real, it is completely fabricated and imagined. There is nothing tangible or concrete about it and therefore is no Truth behind it. Lower self: But the voice inside of my head feels so real to me. I can hear it speaking to me. Higher Self: Who is speaking to whom? Lower self: The voice is coming from me and is speaking to me... Ben... The voice is telling me what to do, how to behave, etc .. Higher Self: Why do you listen to this voice? Lower self: I listen to the voice because I feel like I have no choice in the matter. I cannot shut this voice off. Therefore, it just feels like it is a part of who I am. Higher Self: Why can't you shut it off? Lower self: I'm not sure. But I virtually have no control over it. I am at the mercy of this voice and therefore cannot get any peace and quiet. I just want this voice to shut the fuck up. Higher Self: You can shut it off actually. This is what a samdhi experience is like. All of your attention is pointed towards one thing. This eclipses everything else around it and you dissolve into the experience of that one thing that you are focusing on. In this state, there is no mind, no thoughts, no emotions, just pure experience, pure nothingness, pure samadhi. Lower self: Wowwwww, that sounds amazing. Higher Self: It is amazing, now get to work...

Is simply being, fundamentally comparable with silence, or nothingness, or not-knowingness? Like the true being before it’s artificially distorted by a thought, or an idea, or a concept?

@samijiben I understand the giving aspect. I have done it before, and it is a wonderful thing. However, if I approach it with the mindset of getting something out of it, I will fumble, and fumble hard. I'll want to avoid that to the best of my abilities as such a way of existence sucks. However, there are forms I want to give in and have simply been slacking on as of late. If I invest into these, things will naturally start to click as long as I'm consistent and stay tuned in. As for nothingness and your more advanced points, I'm aware and familiar of them, however, I'm at a stage where I don't feel like embracing them. Not yet. I was more spiritual when I was younger but neglected more egoic and human parts of myself that have needed to live. I face the consequences of that now, and seek to live, even in the face of my own ignorance so that I may be free of regret later.

In contrast to your poem, some logical description, let's see if you see it Absolute openness is not a thing, nor an entity, nor a form. It cannot be defined positively without betraying its nature, because every affirmation creates a limit, and absolute openness is precisely the absence of all limits. It is not a substance, nor a void, nor a being, nor a consciousness. It is nothing that can be conceived in opposition to anything else. It is not “nothing,” because nothingness is the negation of something, and this already establishes a conceptual border. Nor is it “something,” because something is differentiated from other things, and all differentiation implies relation and limitation. It is not emptiness, because emptiness only has meaning in contrast to fullness, and that duality is impossible at the level of the absolute. But it's the absence of lack, because the openess is absolute potential. Maybe you could call it God, but not because it's a creator, but because is the source of any possibility

In my opinion, he's approaching the issue backwards. He says: Infinity can only create logical things; anything illogical cannot exist. Rather, it would be: everything that manifests is relative, that is, relational. Every relation is logical, since they are two equivalent words. And that's it, there's no need of more. When he speaks of nothingness, it's the same. Nothingness is the absence of contrast or movement. Nothingness is ontologically the same as everything; nothingness is unmanifested reality, the absence of relationship, and "somethingness" is manifested reality, contrast. Since there are no limits, at some point there will be contrast, fluctuation, or relative movement. That moment is always, and its unfolding is unlimited.

OK I see . My point once again I can't conceive of the end of suffering as long as forms and limitations and lack and need exist In this world . If death is pure fucking eternal sleep then unfortunately that's the only way to escape suffering permanently. And unfortunately death is just like sleeping you take a pause to refresh and then start all over again =reincarnation. But buddhism actually teaches Nirvana or permanent nothingness if you conquer desire .

I can kinda confirm this. Because I’ve been in almost selfless states and it’s truly like there’s almost no center I resonate with this but why isn’t reality nothingness when there’s no center. Isn’t limitlessness nothingness?

in my experience, god in its purest form is Nothingness, which has no needs, desires, no qualities. but everything arises inside of it, including the desire for another, loneliness, love, bliss. all of these are temporary and you decide which ones you abide in. if you cling to loneliness loneliness becomes your reality. but you decide for yourself. you truly are god. heaven and hell are within you. if you accept loneliness, embrace it and let it go, there is no loneliness. acceptance equals love. in this way, love is the truest aspect of god next to nothingness personally i have never experienced the loneliness aspect of God. But I have experienced Gods' desire for non existence which i think is more scary. But that too is also just a temporary arising withing Nothingness/consciosuness, which doesnt affect it in the slightest. theres a freedom knowing your true nature is eternally untouched

When I tried 5 Meo dmt (small dose) I experienced a kind of emptiness/nothingness. There was not really anything positive about it But I am open to the fact that it might have been the dose I took so I could have different experience if I tried again and yes it’s something I’d like to try I am not self less. It’s just that I have a very small self because most of it dissolved for me In my past : I could get attached to a crush I had, since my self almost dissolved I don’t get attached to anyone anymore I used to be attached to looking a certain way. I am not attached to my appearance anymore, that disappeared when my self started to dissolve I used to have social anxiety and I was attached to having a confident, charming self image. Now that’s all gone I used to have as a child chronic existential anxiety, that’s all gone Instead of all of this, which disappeared when I dissolved layers to my self: now different problems arose I barely feel I exist That creates a kind of emptiness Its almost like walking around in a constant void (almost, not completely because I’m not completely gone) It is like everything is a bit hollow and lacks richness Makes sense? If my sense of self was 100% dissolved maybe this problem would resolve I see, I thought getting your self dissolved to some degree would bring liberation, not hollowness and lack of richness. But maybe that depends on the person and their persona prior to it, dont know though. Could be something about development.

When I tried 5 Meo dmt (small dose) I experienced a kind of emptiness/nothingness. There was not really anything positive about it But I am open to the fact that it might have been the dose I took so I could have different experience if I tried again and yes it’s something I’d like to try I am not self less. It’s just that I have a very small self because most of it dissolved for me In my past : I could get attached to a crush I had, since my self almost dissolved I don’t get attached to anyone anymore I used to be attached to looking a certain way. I am not attached to my appearance anymore, that disappeared when my self started to dissolve I used to have social anxiety and I was attached to having a confident, charming self image. Now that’s all gone I used to have as a child chronic existential anxiety, that’s all gone Instead of all of this, which disappeared when I dissolved layers to my self: now different problems arose I barely feel I exist That creates a kind of emptiness Its almost like walking around in a constant void (almost, not completely because I’m not completely gone) It is like everything is a bit hollow and lacks richness Makes sense? If my sense of self was 100% dissolved maybe this problem would resolve Thats amazing you found a reason! Yes it could be worse after death so better stay here so long we can somehow handle it