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Mike’s transformation is wonderful. And I can’t believe how coherent he is on 8g of shrooms!

2nd type of kabbalah ecstatic model. Ecstasy is a constant of human religious experience, as the wide dissemination of this type of experience in so many cultures demonstrates. Ecstatic experiences became more and more evident in the written documents of Jewish mysticism in the mid-thirteenth century. It seems that a process of adoption and accommodation of paranormal experiences was characteristic of medieval and early modern Jewish thought, which addressed with a growing seriousness paranormal experiences as legitimate events. The concomitant spread of the Maggidic experiences in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries—particularly in the diary of Joseph ben Ephraim Karo (1488–1575), Isaac Luria's claims of paranormal revelations, and the discussions of cases of possession in the sixteenth century—may bear testimony to the legitimation of their discussion in public rather than to the emergence of new forms of experiences. No movement in Judaism emphasized the importance of the pneumatic experiences, in their most intensive and extreme forms, as did Polish Hasidism. The ecstatic model is concerned with inner processes taking place between the powers of imagination, the human intellect and the cosmic one, called the agent intellect. This sort of Kabbalah gravitates around the ideal of devequt, understood as pointing to moderate or extreme types of union with the Godhead. The other vital parts of this model are devices, or techniques, to ensure the attainment of this ideal. Hitbodedut, both as solitude and as mental concentration, hishtawwut or equanimity, and linguistic techniques of combining Hebrew letters or contemplating divine names are integral constituents. Paranormal experiences, like revelations and prophecies are congenital to this type of mystical model, and more consonant with it than to the theosophical-theurgical Kabbalah. The coherence between these concepts and practices rests in an organic continuum between strong mystical techniques and extreme mystical experiences, which include experiences of self-transformation. The ecstatic model was visible at the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth century in the writings of some kabbalists, like Isaac ben Shemuel of Acre, Nathan ben Sa'adyah, the author of Sha'arei Tzedeq, Ner 'Elohim, and Sefer ha-Tzeruf, and in the sixteenth century in the writings of Yehudah Albotini, Moshe Cordovero (1522–1570), and Hayyim ben Joseph Vital (1542 or 1543–1620). Many of the concepts were disseminated by means of the widespread writings of Cordovero's disciples, though some folios of Abraham Abulafia's Kabbalah were in print as early as 1556. Some of Abulafia's manuscripts were known in the eighteenth century in eastern Europe by both Hasidim and Mitnaggedim. This model, though formulated in a systematic way by a Spanish Kabbalist, was not accepted by the Spanish kabbalists in the Iberian Peninsula. In Safed, however, Cordovero and his students were positively predisposed toward this type of mysticism. He described the major revelation concerning the messianic mission of Tzevi as the result of a path reminiscent of ecstatic Kabbalah. Abulafia's influence may also be discerned in Hasidism. The ecstatic approach assumes that the Kabbalist can use language and the canonical texts in order to induce a mystical experience by means of manipulations of elements of language together with other components of the various mystical techniques. This approach is much less concerned with divine inner structures, focusing as it does on the restructuring of the human psyche in order to prepare it for the encounter with the divine. The ecstatic theory of language is less mimetic, and thus less symbolic and theurgic, than the view espoused by the theosophical Kabbalah. While the theosophical-theurgical approach to language assumes the paramount importance of information that is either absorbed by the human mind or transmitted by the soul to the divine, in many cases the ecstatic view of language encourages the effacement of knowledge as part of the opening toward the divine. According to ecstatic Kabbalah, language helps cleanse someone's consciousness by breaking, using a mystical technique, the words of the sacred scripture into nonsemantic units. While the theosophical Kabbalah emphasizes the given, structured aspects of language as manifested in the canonical writings, in ecstatic Kabbalah the deconstruction of the canonical texts, and of ordinary language as well, is an important mystical tool for restructuring the human psyche. Significant for this model is the antinomian feature of the techniques, which means that according to the various descriptions of his paths the rabbinic rites are not essential for achieving the supreme religious experience. Prophecy is the main purpose of Abulafia's entire kabbalistic project, and he conceived himself to be a prophet. The recurrence, at least in principle, of this topic is visible in a Kabbalist who was also well acquainted with the theosophical-theurgical Kabbalah. Isaac Luria, like his teacher Rabbi Nathan, did not have prophetic claims; his vision of prophecy is quite similar to Abulafia's. The linguistic components of these techniques are of paramount importance. Also conspicuous are the strong individualistic proclivities of this kind of mysticism and the deep influence of philosophy, especially Aristotelianism in the case of Abulafia, and Neoplatonism in the case of his followers. The existence of various elements of the ecstatic model is easily detectable in Neoplatonic philosophy and in Spanish Kabbalah. The magical-talismanic model. While the two models of Kabbalah surveyed above are represented in distinct kabbalistic literatures, the magical-talismanic model is found in a variety of writings belonging to those models, and only rarely constitutes a literature of its own. Jewish magic is an old lore, having a variety of forms already in late antiquity. Some parts of it survived in Hebrew and Aramaic texts, some had an impact on Hellenistic magic. No doubt early kabbalists were acquainted with Jewish magical texts and appropriated some of its elements, while others criticized them. From the beginning of the fourteenth century, a distinction between two types of Kabbalah gradually came to the fore: Speculative Kabbalah (Qabbalah 'Iyyunit) and Practical Kabbalah (Qabbalah Ma'asit). In the fifteenth century this distinction appeared several times and in the sixteenth century it became a standard tool for differentiating various types of Kabbalah. The emergence of this distinction may have something to do with the distinction between speculative and practical philosophy, as formulated by Moses ben Maimon (1135–1204). The greater interest in magical Kabbalah became evident toward the end of the fifteenth century in the writings of both the Spanish and the Italian kabbalists. The extent of the magical influence on Jewish mysticism is an issue that still waits for detailed treatment. There can be no doubt as to the importance of various forms of magic within some of the important forms of Jewish mysticism, starting with the Heikhalot literature. The magical view of the Hebrew language is crucial for most of the forms of magic in Judaism and remained influential in numerous texts, especially in Kabbalah. In the Middle Ages under the influence of philosophical views found among the Arabs, an additional explanation appeared, contending that by cleaving to the spiritual celestial source that rules this world—the universal soul—the mystic, or the philosopher, is able to channel the events in the sublunar world. The operation is a spiritual one and takes place in the supernal world. This understanding of magic uses Neoplatonic elements

This belief is worth contemplating. You seem to believe she has this power over you, when she pushes your buttons, to control your emotions. Can you see there's some work to do here, a transformation from allowing other people to pull your strings like this, to reaching freedom, letting go of their negative energies, retaining that strong peaceful centre?

Hi all, I am Shanmugam, a long time member here; I was posting a lot a couple of years before and took a break from all forums for a long time. I am now divorced and not employed anywhere. I went through an initial awakening in 2002; After 12 years of seeking, I went through a drastic transformation that completely changed the way I experience life. It ended my psychological suffering and removed duality from my conscious experience. I then ended up building a blog, Youtube channel and writing a couple of books, I survive with book royalties and donations alone, and I have more time to spend in making content to help seekers. I am trying to make my Youtube channel as a platform for seekers to connect, share their experience and get help for free. I want to recommend this forum in a new Youtube video in my channel as I have found this forum to be more user friendly and active among the spiritual forums in general. Please share how this forum has helped you. The content of the video will be based on your honest replies; this will also help other users here to know how they can make the most of this forum for their seeking and personal growth. Here is the link to my channel if you want to subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwOJcU0o7xIy1L663hoxzZw

At one point I had to quit feeling guilty for shitty thoughts that really weren’t mine anyway. Maurice Nicole said an interesting thing.-“You have a right to not be negative.” Freedom is found there. My Automaton’s cranial receiver was picking that junk up from the ether combined with the minds’ thought by association word mechanism. It was stupid of me to continue feeling guilty for those negative thoughts when all I had to do was proclaim - That’s not me. My mind produced that toxic soup but I could disclaim it. That’s not me. I don’t want to be like that so therefore I refuse that thought. It can go. That automatic guilt that usually hung around was gone. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, The Trap which simultaneously restricts but potentially liberates this ego is its focus on Seeking. The Way of self-realization of this ego is the Way of Self-Awareness, which is “immensely mystical” and which entails becoming aware of one’s “internal inner clarity”. The Holy Idea which acts as a catalyzer for the transformation of this ego is Holy Love/ Divine Love. This can lead to the Virtue (energy) of Action. According to Ichazo, Divine Love is “The awareness that though the laws which govern reality are objective, they are not cold, because these cosmic laws inevitably lead to the creation of organic life, and Life itself, like all natural phenomena, fulfills a cosmic purpose. As soon as the mind’s word mechanism is destroyed, love, the natural condition of the mind, appears. Love begins the moment man contemplates the Creation and says, ‘Thank you, God.’ All men feel this somewhat, no animal can feel this at all. Man alone can know that all comes from God.” taken from; https://www.the16types.info/vbulletin/showthread.php/48274-Oscar-Ichazo-s-enneagram-descriptions

If your finding spirituality isint having a positive effect on your life then don't continue it. But just be careful. There is real spirituality and false spirituality. Really, true spirituality is not something that can be learned. It's not information that goes in your head. It's a transformation of your entire being. To your original question, regarding the benefits of spirituality...real spirituality that is ... Yes. You become perfect. Everything becomes perfect. All of your suffering ceases to exist. You realise you are absolutely immortal (actually). And basically all of life answered and fulfilled.

Well,,,no. Maybe I should. Although these beliefs were and may still be ,,,semiconscious. I guess is the word. I’m open to receiving messages about death I feel.For some reason I just don’t ask direct questions too often. My realization was that I didn’t know. Only conceptually, which makes it more of an opinion than knowledge. I’ve gotten more practice with saying the Inner No when it’s appropriate versus where I was in the past. Linguistic thought. I like that term. It was given to the helper of Transformation implicitly with my realization of these subtle beliefs. Reading your take on this, I’ve now more consciously and deliberately asked that it be handed over. It’s amazing just how differently we both go about use of the I CHING. This is good for me. You’re suggestions are helping me to push into new territory in how I go about things in consultation with the Sage. For now I’m going to ponder this some more,,,

Hey guys, If you are looking for scientific validation of spiritual experiences or spiritual enlightenment, then you should know that it is already being studied in science since 1968. The subfield of psychology that focuses on spiritual transformation is Transpersonal psychology (William James, Abraham Maslow, Carl Jung etc are the pioneers). My purpose in this body is to make some contribution in spreading the awareness about the possibility of studying spirituality as a scientific discipline; by the Grace of the Supreme Power, it may be possible for me to do contribution in the actual research. Having found spiritual enlightenment myself, I am sharing my experience with other seekers; in addition to that, I am spending my time in studying Psychology, as it will later enable me to contribute for the research. In this video, I have given an introduction to Transpersonal psychology and discussed how science and spirituality can be bridged. For more videos, click on the subscribe button. For articles on spirituality, temples and more, visit (http://nellaishanmugam.wordpress.com If you find my content useful, kindly support me by making a donation: https://nellaishanmugam.wordpress.com/donate/ (I am not employed anywhere at the moment and live on donations only; so any amount that you can donate is extremely useful, thanks.)

Hi @Leo Gura I just stumbled upon some old videos of yours back from 2014 and I was shocked on how much you transformed in the last 6 years. It really inspires me, and not many people inspire me, how you evolved personally on such a deep level that you are literally 10 times more authentic and mature today then back in 2014ish. Great work. I love to see people transform to the better like this. I’m curious on what’s about to come in the next couple of years! thank you for your work and I wish you from the bottom of my heart that you finally find eternal peace. You seam to deserve it. You works obviously will and already does pay of, that’s for sure! Greetings, sam

A Promised Land, by Barack Obama Barack Obama has always been a huge inspiration for me. I would love to read his book, sadly, I will probably not have enough time next year as I will focus on more practical things. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Promised-Land-Barack-Obama/dp/1524763160 ---------- In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office. Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden. A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective—the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,” and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible. This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.

It seems that at the personal stage we are prevented from inner peace, because that would make us passive, inactive and lazy, like being drugged on opium. As a permanent state that's bad, but as a transition from the personal to the transpersonal stage it might be something useful. My idea is that allowing inner peace is useful for melting the crystallized ego and allowing a transformation into the transpersonal stage. And being passive and lazy can then be allowed consciously as a part of that process. Out of the passivity a new kind of action will arise, that of the transpersonal stage.

Just because most don't care about it, it doesn't become mundane, right? The transformation in consciousness that makes this mundane into inexplicable, jaw-dropping, incomprehensible beauty is what constitutes realizing the supremacy of God. Let us take your hand, for example: Everyone has it, and it seems quite mundane - but if you begin to realize the beauty of it all, it will never be the same. The day we realize the extraordinary in what we perceive as ordinary, and knowing that all ordinary is extraordinary, there would be no confusion left. This is what I think - it has to do with the nature of usage, that gives rise to this sense of othering. Take a blanket for example - it is very easy to put into the bracket of othering. You 'use' it, and it has no existence outside of you, it seems like. 'You' get to decide when and where you use 'it'. We usually extrapolate the same with the nature of reality, as well. Hence, we are all gullible to that sense of elevation and hierarchy in everyday life. Everyone struggles with this, I believe. To totally shun this would take some hardcore meditation, and other practices that I am presently not aware of.

Yes, as one goes deeper and deeper into the Realization, it is very clearly seen why the dream metaphor is so useful in understanding what many call reality. When any self is seen as the illusion that they are, things do take on a very dreamy feel. The first taste can be quite destabilizing, to be sure, but you get the knack for it. The Jungian studies of dreams can help one look into this very similar phenomenon. He also did some very interesting work with Tibetan Tantricism and spiritual transformation which might be useful to some. As always, I say to just go for it if it strikes your interest. Let some light in, but stay devoted to Truth Realization. Only Truth will set one free. Any idea of self is realized to be a bird in an empty cage.

Who says the latest Lamborghini won't make you happy? It's just a believe you hold, without which you would have to admit you don't know what will make you happy. Why would a Lamborghini be out of the question? Especially if you have some sort of pull in that direction. To dismiss something within you on the ground of some belief you picked up is bad strategy; you will never judge or manipulate your way into true transformation. Instead look into it, and be open to why you feel drawn towards all that stuff, but to do that you must first be as and where you are. Spoiler: it is you you'll find. Also, if you don't mind sharing, may ask what you do for a living? Just curious. Best of luck.

Sometime on our human evolution, we developed an amazing capability to conceptualize. Meaning, the ability to have a mental representation of something we perceived. Over time, we learned to distinct different faculties of conceptualization within our experience: memory (a representation of past experience); belief (a thought about certain behavior in existence that is not grounded in personal experience); imagination and creativity (the ability to fabricate non actual reality); language (the ability to represent personal experience with symbols); meaning attribution (the ability to place value or charge for every aspect of experience); internal chatter (the ability to speak with your "self") and so on. We also see that there is a certain overlap between the various distinctions in the domain of Mind experiences. Mind activity is an extremely useful tool for survival. Try to discern all the mind activity you have going right now, in this moment, regarding your current existence, past experiences, who and what you are, what is life and reality, where do you live, how do you relate to certain people in your life and so on. It will be almost impossible to discern all the mental activity your mind is project onto you perceptions, for the benefit of your survival. It is really remarkable, and it is the sole reason for our ability as human species to dominate other animals. Mind is a very complex web of all the memories, concepts and belief a human being "assembles" throughout life for the purpose of survival. In its essence, it is a matrix of concepts imposed on your perceptive faculties, allowing your to ignore, emphasize, distinct, interpret, assign different values, etc., all in relation to the self. Mind serves to maintain the form of the self. As you probably noticed by now, mind also has the capability to self-reference. You are using your mind in order to distinct mind activities from other activities. This means that the distinction mind, created by mind, is a concept as well, and not what mind really is. But using mind for discerning different activities of mind is very useful for transformation and awakening. But again, one must remember that representing mind using mind is self referential and the same as viewing the map as the territory. Hence, every distinction within your field of awareness is the working of mind. That is, even your self. Mind is the organizing principle of distinctions in awareness, and it is the creator of your self. Self is only a distinction your mind creates within your perceptive faculties. Now you must become directly conscious that your experience of being separated from others in purely conceptual, and dominated by the mind. This is why psychedelics are so powerful in insights and awakening. Psychedelics disrupt the normal activity of the mind, allowing you to experience a different mind-matrix for some time. This provides you with more reference points to what mind really is. Mind is a very complex structure of mental activity, and it is probably impossible to map the areas in the brain that give rise to all this mental activity. Moreover, because mind is what used in order to understand and represent experience, it cannot and will never grasp or understand itself fully. The 'intelligence' that enabled the formation of mind in the first place will always triumph the limited intelligence of the mind. This is also why psychedelics are so powerful in realizing what mind is. Shutting of elements of the mind enables to grasp the mind from an experience which isn't dominated by the mind. That is, a different perspective on the mind, or vantage point. Do you get it? And different psychedelics have different effects on the mind, so you can play with the psychedelic experience to unearth different landscapes of mind. It is like position on a mountain in order to view your house from a certain point, and then going to another, different, viewpoint (like a tower) to view it from different place.

Another speculative idea that came to my mind now is that confusion can be used as fuel for transmuting the crystallized ego into a fluid ego. At the personal stage we totally hate confusion, and for a good reason. At least with fear and aggression there is a possibility of taking actions. With confusion there is only complete inaction. My reasoning for why confusion can be used as fuel for a personal transformation is the premise that our consciousness at the personal stage is very limited and isolated. That tiny and separate consciousness has to be abandoned. So turning to confusion and welcoming it allows for a letting go of the personal stage so that our consciousness can begin to move towards the much larger transpersonal consciousness.

Yes. Ive manifested very powerful visions Ive had on psychedelics. In fact, I wasn’t even interested in the LoA and manifestation side of spirituality prior to psychedelics. They show the ineffable, undeniable power of the mind though and just how powerful we really are. However what I've found is psychedelics are best for stoking vision, inspiration, motivation, healing, and showing our inner potentiality rather than doing the actual reprogramming and transformation of mind. The reprogramming of the subconscious happens through sober repetition, and for me, meditation (Affirmations have never worked well). Manifestation requires, demands even, discipline and work, the grind of showing up for yourself and your life purpose over and over and over. Yet as you continually express this energy through your behavior, because of the deeply entangled nature of reality, your outer reality starts to reflect your inner reality. This is something psychedelics cannot do, nor would it be appropriate to expect this of them. They’re too short, too intense to create the enduring momentum needed for LoA. Yet they CAN help reorient or reinforce the direction you need to go. And in this way they are very useful for manifestation. Hopefully this all makes sense and is helpful.

Life-changing moments are important to each of us for many different reasons. But I've noticed how the majority of people make little-next-to no effort to seize on opportunities to advance themselves in both their personal lives and their immediate society, due to a lack of imagination. I've always thought of transformation as a higher form of 'change', but the practitioner's attitude must be aligned correctly for the individual who desires to realise their own personal potential in a way that inspires the growth and development of soul, mind and body. But development relies heavily on the kind of relationship a person keeps with their imagination, because this infinite mental space is endless, therefore giving the individual limitless opportunities to transform their life with creativity as a by-product of engaging with the imagination on a regular (daily) basis. Are you seeking temporary change concerning something that you've struggled to achieve for years, or are you digging around for something more on the permanent side? If your answer is the latter, it would appear that you've good experience with patience, drive/enthusiasm, purely because you've chosen to use each of your experiences as permanent life lessons... But have you thought about what you'll do with those lessons? Do you use your experiences as stepping-stones to your higher self where you'll unlock a new chapter in your personal life, or do you just stand and stare at your opportunities for advancement and adventure? I enjoy a challenge, as I know many people do. But challenging scenarios can often deter folk from engaging with their imagination due to the nature it presents; the unforeseen... How do you cope with the unknown - ever asked yourself? Try today, and expand your consciousness to a new state of awareness. Thanks for reading - I respond to all replies!

The Ultimate David Hawkins Library by David R. Hawkins The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment by Adyashanti Integral Transformation: What Works by Ken Wilber Spectrum of Consciousness by Ken Wilber The Secret of Secrets: The Secret of the Golden Flower By Osho (Basically, the book was written by Chinese master Lu Tzu but Osho expounded upon it) Being Aware of Being Aware by Rupert Spira The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution by Pyotr Oupspensky Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walshe Few other esoteric texts that I don't remember.

I'm an intermediate psychonaut with dozens of experiences over the past years behind my belt... benefited from both the blissful as well as the difficult ones. My last couple of trips - mostly with longer lasting psychedelics like psilocybin shrooms or LSD, I really became fond of closing myself in a sleeping bag after the ingestion of the psychedelic. I do most of my trips lying down with closed eyes or in semi-darkness, so being in the sleeping bag for the first hour or two is not a problem... I only get out for a snack, drink or to go to the toilet. It has been much more likely for me to have some kind of experience related to my past, when I use the sleeping bag. I had several forgotten traumatic memories from childhood pop-up to my conscious mind. Couple of times I even had an experience of being in the womb. When the trip is going strong and I go deep into a trance, while in the sleeping bag, I then often find myself instinctively going in the fetus position (I only realize this after I leave the trance). Could a sleeping bag - thanks to its shape and properties, be used to increase the likelihood of revisiting childhood experiences during the trip? Has anyone else tested this? I'd say feel free to give this a try! I know, that Holotropic Breathwork (shamanic breathwork) has been done while floating in water, under professional supervision. This also increases the likelihood of experiencing one's birth for example. PS: the moment I come out of the sleeping bag is also phenomenal! It is like the caterpillar (sober me) going into its cocoon, undergoing a process of transformation (the peak of a trip) and then out comes a beautiful butterfly (God-mode "me")... a true rebirth

As I said I see the concept of death being the end of the whole game as an ‘man made concept’. And we fear it because we are taught so and because it is useful for the materialistic system, we are living in, nothing more and nothing else. The bigger the Ego the better for the consume culture (the need to identify as much as possible with your ego through physical objects / services etc. makes you the perfekt hamster ) Most of us fear death so much and as consequence of that we live a fear driven paralyzed petty life. There is sure some transformation happening after the physical body dies, but all that negative charge connected with it, is mostly cultural baggage. Here a beautiful quote by Vladimir Nabokov “Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.”

that's some non duality happening right there. (that wasnt me who posted that). I didn't realise Connor was into tantra sex now. He always gave me sinister/showoff/arrogant vibes so I never really watched his content. But if he's into this tantra sex stuff now, maybe my judgements are seriously deluding me. Maybe I should start watching his content. Recently I've been really applying a rethink of how relationships work within myself (just through my own derivations from contemplation), where relationships are more of a scaffolding for reaching the infinite, rather than something to get attached to. There's lots of toxicity in how relationships work in society (and even among personal dev junkies like on here) that is just a distraction and waste of time. Getting attached to someone else is just an absurd thing to do when breaking up is largely inevitable and necessary for growth for most people. The archetypes for males and females are largely toxic and outdated (even though normalised). And what both men and women want is to override these archetypes, attachments and to see the divine that sparkles through relationships, so why not go in that direction? If instead of viewing relationships as a way to get sex, or a way to get happiness through a human form (the other person), what if you viewed relationships as a way of exploring the consciousness that you are. A way of knowing Thyself with greater intensity. Every interaction with a women is an opportunity to explore how your body and mind interacts with the opposite sex, how our chakra and energetic systems mingle, and what they actually do and want. What if its an opportunity to explore and release traumas, an opportunity to explore bliss and joy and happiness not from the vantage point of it all coming from the opposite sex, but from it coming from within. When seeing a women on the street, you're not seeing someone to have sex with, you're seeing a library of information about your traumas, chakra system, energy system, different states of consciousness you've never explored before. And approaching her means the opportunity to open that library and see what YOU are made of, actually. And every woman is not just an opporunity for you to explore what You're made of, but to help her explore what she's actually made of. You can literally transform a human being through a relationship. Instead of making relationships about maintaining titillation through a binding contract for what the other person must serve you, and how how long (short or long term relationship) see the relationship as a course or journey of transformation of your own being. In other words, it doesn't matter if you break up, because it never was about staying together, it was always about transforming yourself and the other. And choosing to stay together is only about whether that helps both of your journeys. I've been experimenting with this mindset in pickup, and it seems to be working, given the right techniques and processes used when doing pickup.

Drama, gossip, intrigue. Who doesn't like a good story? Especially if it involves people going through hardships and transforming themselves in the process. What things go into the stew to make a gripping story? Novelty This is the bedrock of a story. The only reason to tell a story at all is to discover something new. This is what drives gossip at the water cooler. We as humans are insatiable information hoarders, especially when it comes to facts about people - we just can't get enough. It applies to both sexes equally; just the way it's shared may differ. Conversely, if you are simply recounting a story where the listener already knows the facts or the facts are not that novel, then it's a crap story. So a good story will continually drip feed you new tidbits of information; even better if you have to piece together the information yourself. This is the stuff of detective crime dramas. The other form of novelty is not so much about gossip as about setting. If the setting is wildly different from your everyday life, then nearly everything will be novel. Mostly every book and TV show is about different settings: places, periods, planets, people. Transformation Going from point A to point B is often not the point in good story. "It's the journey" as is often said, or more accurately plot. What drives a plot forward is the trials and tribulations of the characters in it. These hardships then change the character through the course of the journey, It gives the characters in the story meaning and depth. So it's sort of beside the point if a character starts off sad and becomes happy, or vice versa. It's what happens to them to make them the way they end up being, that is interesting. I think the reason why transformation is so interesting, is that we can relate it to our own selves. It's clear that we transform over time, but it happens mysteriously and slowly. In a story that transformation gets condensed down to hours or a few hundred pages. And maybe we can even guess part way through the story what the transformation will be in the end, and have the satisfaction of being either right or bamboozled by plot twists. Hardship In nearly all great stories, something bad happens. The bad upsets the happy balance of the characters' lives at the start of the story. If the character is bad themselves at the start, then we want to see them transforming into good people, but through the medium of hardship - they have to work for it. If the character is good, then all we wish is that they deserve a good life and that they settle back to normality by the end, after all that adversity. The ups and downs of a good plot, then creates cycles of tension and release, which we find mesmerising. There is also the sense in which if the characters don't encounter the bad, then their transformation wasn't earned. If the alcoholic reforms by page 3, then what's the point of the story? Unless, that is their spouse dies in a horrible car crash on page 4. Do they go back to drink? Or not? Hmm? So to the point of my story, I mean, post. We are all living in our own narratives. Our whole identities are bundled up with the story of our lives. These are the settings, the hardships and the transformations we are a part of. And we take it very seriously indeed. We are and become the characters we weave into our own stories of ourselves. This activity really is very odd. When we talk to our friends it's clear that they are living in their own individual dramas of which they are the main protagonists. They are so embodied that if told to behave or be different they will actively resist it. You are no different. A huge amount of "self development" is coming to grips with the fact that you're fabricating a story about yourself - you are even fabricating the notion of a "you". Even the phrase "self development" implies the transformative aspect of a good story. It's stories all the way down. There are two ways to go. One is to completely throw out any sort of narrative and become untethered and completely free. This then becomes a drive towards recognising that all is relative and a drive towards meaninglessness - where the narrative would normally supply meaning. This is understandably a scary process. Surely meaninglessness is just a kind of death and dreariness? Meaninglessness is bad right? Another is to stay in the narrative, but to actively and consciously manipulate it to "improve" your life. And the way to do that is to constantly apply the three aspects of a gripping story to your narrative: novelty, hardship and transformation. So this is the drive towards more meaning in life. Take a holiday to somewhere exotic, grind your way through the mortgate, make a family, and transform into a virtuous wise person by the end. The story of Western society. Personally, I would like a dramatic life full of meaning, but it seems I'm slipping inexorably towards having no narrative at all. Please god let me have both? Stay tuned for the next episode of life and times of LastThursday!!

I would say never forget that ultimately you are the authority of your understanding of what is true. All perspectives are limited and partial. However, be open, willing and trust the intuition that guided you to such a powerful commitment and willingness to pursue Truth and study with Ralston. Apparently the Buddha once said the Dharma (Truth) was a vast forest, and what he taught was but a single leaf. Id consider Cheng Hsin to be yet another leaf, but a pretty big leaf! I do believe this is the last opportunity anyone has to work with Ralston in an apprenticeship format, you are quite fortunate to be able to study with a master like him before he fully retires. May your experience yield deep consciousness and transformation.

I think I have done enough personal development and believe that the next step is collective development. Personal development will only improve that level and cannot by itself lead to the transpersonal stage. And this includes a radical transformation of society and of our whole world. One interesting possibility is that the frustrating situation with the coronavirus crisis is the beginning of the end of the personal stage collectively and globally.