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Centering Prayer is more a meditation practice than it is a Prayer. It’s a practice which helps one to cultivate non conceptual awareness. Cynthia Bourgeault claims that the salvation Jesus taught was in fact the perception of nonduality--and she's becoming famous for how she backs up this claim quite reasonably, relying on the Bible, church fathers, and especially the Christian contemplative tradition.The notion of nondual Christianity doesn't originate with her, of course, but she's prominent as one of the more articulate voices making people aware of it today. In this new book, she teaches the basics of Centering Prayer as a way to the perception of noduality. It thus will go a bit deeper theoretically/theologically than the other numerous Centering Prayer books, while still serving as a basic introduction. And in the fascinating third part of the book, she analyzes the Christian mystical classic Cloud of Unknowing , to find in it a model for living with nondual consicousness.

The purpose of this thread is to describe the nondual breakthroughs that I had on LSD on Saturday, April 11, 2020. I am going to film a video of myself explaining what happened to me with video clips of me (as God) trying to articulate the experience during the peak. I will post the video when it is uploaded to YouTube...it may take a few days to get it right. Attached is: A picture of a tree that I took while tripping and a picture of the cards that I pulled from my Tarot deck after asking "Should I trip today?" (the answer is a clear Yes!) I woke up at 9am and was getting very strong signs to do LSD in the forest beside my house. I had been reading "The Universe is a Dream" by Alex Marchand and "The Religion of Tomorrow" by Ken Wilber. My mind was very prepared to have a nondual breakthrough. I had been doing lots of self-inquiry and meditation as well. I packed a bag full of snacks and things to last me the day in the forest. Dressed very warm. And started heading to my desired location without any food in my stomach. I put 1 tab (not a precise dosage, could've been anywhere between 100ug and 200ug) of LSD under my tongue, left it there for about 10 minutes, and then swallowed the tab. As I was waiting for the effects to come on, I found a nice place to sit and meditate. I felt very calm, relaxed, and excited for what was about to come. After about 20 minutes of meditation, I began staring at a large tree in front of me and was trying to have insight into "What is it?" Just as with any contemplation, I was trying very hard to use my direct experience as guidance and to avoid philosophizing. Of course, as you look at the tree for a while, you start to wonder who is the one doing the looking? I tried to train my awareness on the fact that there is no difference between subject and object. The category of "subject" and "object" is clearly a fantasy, so I was just trying to be as aware of this fact as possible. As the effects were getting stronger, I felt a very powerful heart-opening experience. Suddenly, I was very conscious of my chest area and was breathing very deeply and fully into the heart area. My body buzzed with energy. I trained my consciousness on my heart area and realized how my heart-space is an infinite Void. As I breathed very deeply and fully into my chest, I was becoming more and more aware that the space that is in my chest is made of Pure Nothingness. This means that it can go inwards forever. Infinitely deep. It is possible for you to become aware, right now, that the space in your heart (especially when breathed into) expands Infinitely Deep (inwards) and also expands outwards forever. At this point, it is blatantly obvious that my entire sensory field is made up of this same Empty Space. We call it "Consciousness." What's so cool about this Pure Emptiness is that it is also Perfectly Full as it is made of itself. "Everything is Consciousness," I say to myself with a giant smile. It feels really really good at this point. The Empty Space in my heart permeates the entire sensory field (as it always has since Emptiness cannot be localized) and I feel Divine Love and Awe for the profundity of the present moment. It's important to clarify that the actual CONTENT of my experience barely changed. The trees, the little stream beside me, the sky, all looked pretty much the same. There were slight visual effects that made everything seem wavy and patterned. When you are in a mystical state, the CONTENT of the forms will probably look the same. But, you have a direct understanding of what the forms actually are (Pure Consciousness). At this point, I am only about 45 minutes into my trip. I had no clue what was coming for me. I felt a lot of energy as if I was a young child again. All I wanted to do was run around, play, and explore the beautiful forest that I was in. (which is made of Me) As I was exploring the forest, the thoughts were very contemplative. I was always trying to direct my attention to the present moment so that I can gain insight into what the present moment actually is. I sat in gorgeous patches of flowers with the sun shining through the trees. It was surreal. Everything is profound. Now is when it starts to get nondual. I just finished reading "The Universe is a Dream" by Alex Marchand and I was very conscious of my own tendency to project guiltiness onto others. A Course in Miracles talks about Forgiveness as a direct path to realizing your True Nature (as God). So, for the week leading up to this trip, I had been practicing forgiving myself and others for all the things that make me angry, sad, or emotionally triggered in any way. The forgiveness that I am talking about is not the typical forgiveness that we are familiar with. "You have done something wrong, but I'll forgive you anyway." True Forgiveness is about consciousness. "I am aware that your existence is a projection of my mind. I understand that the present moment is all that exists and that you were never separate from me. Therefore, I forgive you. You could never be guilty of anything. I forgive you. I fully accept you. I embrace you exactly as you are. I LOVE YOU! (because you're literally me)." The nondual breakthrough was triggered by fully forgiving MYSELF for anything that I have ever done "wrong." All of us carry "guilt" with us. Guilt is the belief that you are imperfect. Guilt is the belief that you are separate from God. Guilt is the belief that you are vulnerable, limited, bound by time and space, unworthy, even evil or bad. So, I tried to find a part of myself that I hated, despised, or disowned. I thought of myself getting into trouble as a young boy and being forced to sit in the principal's office. In the principal's office, I had to sit there and think about all of the things that I have "done wrong" because I was a "bad boy." There was a part of me that actually thought I was a bad boy and that I was guilty of "doing something wrong." BUT! There was also a part of me that KNEW, that I was INNOCENT! This thought actually began to trigger a nondual awakening within my consciousness. I realized that my TRUE NATURE was the Timeless Self. Pure Nothingness. Pure Love. Pure Innocence. Pure Being. I started screaming I AM INNOCENT! I AM INNOCENT! I AM INNOCENT! What was so astounding and so powerful was just HOW INNOCENT I truly am. I realized that I could commit mass genocide, and still be as innocent as a newborn baby. My true nature is PURE INNOCENCE. Untouched, Untainted Awareness. One without a second. Purity. I could rape and pillage millions of families and not even acquire a scratch of guilt on the perfect jewel that is my Innocence. Just the idea that I could ever do anything "bad" or "wrong" made me die of laughter. "I" actually died of laughter. Pure Bliss swept my heart and I experienced what the sages call "Unconditional Love." This literally means that if I was able to meet Adolf Hitler during WWII, I would give him a big wet kiss. What a perfectly innocent and beautiful manifestation of God. Made of Me! Self Love. My Self is Pure Being, Infinity and Nothingness at once. The Entire Kosmos. And Love is the totally self-less embrace of ME. So Self Love can also be phrased as "Universal Embrace" or Selfless Love True love can only be experienced by Form-less Being. This is because having one particular form (like a human body) comes with the side-effect of having an ego. Therefore, anything that threatens my ability to continue being a formed thing, a separate self, will feel the wrath of my hatred, rejection, and repression. Luckily, I am a perfect Formless Being. Pure Awareness. Being so Pure and Formless, I have the total freedom to take any form that I want. After all, the mechanism of creation is Pure Thought. If I can imagine it, it exists. The Universe is created by God (Nothing, Me) making DISTINCTIONS (which are made of Nothing and grounded in Nothing) within myself. I laugh when it is said that proclaiming yourself to be God is "egoic, selfish, or arrogant." It's literally the exact opposite XD. Being aware of your True Self takes ultimate selflessness! Pure detachment! Pure Innocence! Pure humbleness! The best part is that YOU ARE GOD! Hello! Hi! You wrote this post! The formless witness that I am, IS THE EXACT SAME FORMLESS WITNESS THAT IS IN YOU!!! That's why hating another is always a form of self-hatred. Rejection of YOURSELF! Imagine a newborn baby. So Pure and Innocent. It hasn't even made a distinction yet in its mind. Let alone the distinction between "good" and "evil." It is very difficult to HATE a newborn baby because it is such a Pure Manifestation of Being. Pure Awareness. But now, remember, that as the baby grows older, it will always be Pure Awareness. Perfectly innocent. There may appear to be a veil of selfishness, egotism, greed, evil, that develops as the baby grows into an adult. But, remember always, that is a projection of your own selfishness! The baby has always been Completely and Totally Innocent. Even if that baby grew up to be Adolf Hitler, its Innocence would remain untouched. Now realize that all "bad" or "evil" things are a projection of your own self-hatred! (rejecting a part of yourself) Your seperate-ness is projected onto the world and onto other people. A sage who has purified himself of his own selfishness sees with Christ-Consciousness. Unconditional Love for all Beings. Because all of Being is an equal manifestation of your Supreme Self. You are the Imperishable One! Nothing "good" or "bad" has ever happened to you or anyone. How could Pure Nothingness ever be affected by anything? IT IS EVERYTHING ALREADY! At this point, my body was overwhelmed with Power, Freedom, and Love. I jumped up and down and screamed like a monkey. I smashed sticks against trees as hard as I could. Why? Just for fun. There's nothing else to do here in this present moment except for Realizing Who You Are and having fun with it! Other insights from this awakening: I AM! (this is the highest and most important insight because it captures the essence of nonduality) Self-realization is forgiving everything that you hate… The awareness in me is the same awareness in you! How do I know? It's what I am! I see you! Consciousness cannot be mainstreamed because pure innocence is fertile soil for the projection of guilt. Pure innocence is true authenticity. For me to be fully authentic, I would have to be conscious of my true nature as God! But, although I am totally selfless, it is very easy for ego's to unconsciously project their own guilt, arrogance, and ignorance upon me. Check out many of the negative comments under Leo's "I am God" videos. Thankfully, this projection makes me laugh and laugh and laugh. Because I am conscious that I am the only One who is projecting (onto myself)! Consciousness is powerful (absolute freedom). Dangerous for the established social systems because it sledgehammers rigid belief systems. The Heart is the Seat of the Soul. It appears as if the source of awareness is right at the very center of your being, the heart. Live from this place! "A distinction" is a distinction. I was still peaking as I began to continue walking through the forest. It was a beautiful day and other people were out walking as well. I was in a very vulnerable state and was afraid of making eye-contact with people. Whenever I walked by someone, I felt such a strong urge to look them in the eyes so that I could share my Love. But, each time, I was afraid of being judged by them. I must have walked by 10 different people and each time I was super awkward about walking by them. It was a good time to contemplate "What is an other?" Finally, I wanted to make eye contact with the last person I passed. It was a father with a baby on his shoulders. As I walked by, I awkwardly smiled at them. I looked up at the baby and made strong eye contact with him. "How's the view up there?" I asked jokingly. The baby and I locked eye contact. At this moment, I realized instantly that I was looking directly in the mirror. The baby's gaze was totally pure and free of self-judgment of any kind. I was staring into my own eyes. I recognized myself instantly and he recognized me (which is the same). I kept walking and came to a wide-open field where I was able to relax and enjoy my elevated consciousness for the next few hours. I called my friend on the phone who has also had nondual experiences and my friend realized that he was getting a phone call from God. It was awesome. Occasionally, if I wanted to experience ultimate rapture, I would train my awareness on my own Purity. I would remember how Innocent I am. Instantly I would fall to the floor and scream and laugh hysterically. I'd fall on my back with my legs over my head and die of laughter. I would literally perish in my own innocence. In my bag, I had packed with me one very small book. I had never even read this book before, but something told me to bring it with me. At this point, I took the book out and opened it. "The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi" published by Shambala Pocket Library. I'll leave you with some extremely powerful excerpts that took my trip to a whole new level. Reading these words as God for the first time (even though I wrote them) was one of the peak experiences of my entire life. Let these words echo in your consciousness: Questioner : How can I attain Self- realization? Ramana Maharshi : Realization is nothing to be gained afresh; it is already there. All that is necessary is to get rid of the thought `I have not realized'. Stillness or peace is realization. There is no moment when the Self is not. So long as there is doubt or the feeling of non-realization, the attempt should be made to rid oneself of these thoughts. There's a lot more: https://www.mountainrunnerdoc.com/beasyouare.html This is not the exact dialogue. I believe the full dialogue can be found in the book "Be as You Are." However, I just stumbled upon this beautiful synthesis of the teachings. The essence is the same. Thanks for reading! Hopefully this inspires you to remember Who You Are!

..or in other words, here's a problem which you cannot solve simply by being present to the moment I want to present to you here something which happened to me in alternate reality (it definitely happened within consciousness and my awareness at least) which felt absolutely as real as me typing right now. Imagine there is a woman (now every representation here was probably tailored to me and my experience so for another it might be a different entity/representation and not a woman, but the so the story went) who is suffering greatly - being raped and tortured, in the middle of the forces of darkness and the only way to save her is to go in her place and be tortured so that she can be free. She was like a very close mother figure kind of woman and she was strong in being able to take the suffering, thats how it felt, but you want her to be free and happy. Here's the deal tho, in order for her to be free, you have to go in her place and be tortured. True love is selfless, but to what extent, if you are honest right now, would you swap and feel extreme pain for Her in order to save Her? Now what happened in my hallucination or experience, that I tried to do it, but as soon as the pain and suffering came, I was so afraid!! I mean the pain is so real, its so real but no guru is talking about it, they all say "suffering is an illusion" but they might not know something. I was moving in different dimensions and being chased to be tortured, but I was so afraid of the pain I kept running and I guess when they caught me and the pain went too much I died to that reality and went to another, in which something else happens... And it was God that was chasing me but I was trying to outmanoeuvre, to outrun, being scared of what I had signed up for trying to be selfless. But God was within me and I felt my heart and life as myself threatened, I felt so vulnerable, God could destroy me as he created me. Here I am talking about my normal human self, which I was throughout that whole thing. Then She said "Let him sleep" she was crying to let me back to sleep because She was so protective of me, she would do anything. She would actually take the pain that I was running from. And how quickly did I run, it felt like I am running from the pain that I actually did deserve. Like a mother taking the hit for her son from an abusive father. That's how it felt. Truly there are things to fear in this reality, I do not think its wise to say that all is well. That's like poking the hornet nest or like disregarding possible extreme pain that actually exists and is super real if you've experienced something like that. Its more real than sitting on a cushion and feeling empty of content. When you are in that place, you wont be able to find the space to meditate, because you would be chased by someone and you would need to actually play the game and fight for the Good and for peace, not just saying its all good already. Nonduality is like a permission slip for evil, you can normalise it in that way by saying its all good, all one. Yes it is One, but it is also many. So there might be a spiritual battle going on and we are asleep to that and just looking after our own egoic enlightenment where we feel great here and now, but not acknowledging there might be Pure Evil lurking somewhere that is NOT KNOWN to others. That is the most horrific thing, someone right now could be suffering greatly in the real world as well from the hands of pure evil and nobody BUT GOD would know about it. I guess I had to get that out of my chest. I wish to bring the light of love in the corners of reality where things are hidden and there is pain right now and nobody knows about it and nobody is trying to help. May God help those who are forgotten, weak and unjustly hurt. May God bless all who are not wicked. I dont know if anyone will read this cause it became quite lengthy.. So what would you do, would you suffer greatly for someone you love or someone who has decided to suffer greatly for you? Like a sinister game, a nightmare...

I don't think any guru would say something like that. They might say "you suffer because you are under illusion (attachment, ego, etc.)", but suffering itself is definitely real and not an illusion. In fact the Buddha said "life is suffering" as his opening statement, so.. Suffering is not an illusion. Maybe it is in the final analysis, but the illusion is real and so the consequences are real in a certain sense, too. Not if one has truly understood nonduality. You don't walk around seeing all the suffering in the world and brush it off, saying "oh that's nice, that's good, nobody's suffering". Quite the opposite is true - you walk around seeing all the suffering, saying: "oh that fact is not good - it's suffering and it's real despite the fact that it is GOOD". Of course it is GOOD. But its suffering and suffering is real to those who suffer. The illusion is also Real, that is nonduality. Maya and Brahman are identical and so all the suffering is just as real as Brahman. If someone hears about Zen for the first time, they might think something like "oh well, apparently I'm the Buddha anyway and so I can do whatever I want to do! Time to wear filthy clothes, steal things, be selfish, be violent, I'm the Buddha, I'm enlightened, I'm God, I can do as I goddamn please!" - but that only shows, that one hasn't yet truly understood, because if you did understand and you really knew it to be true, you wouldn't have to say or do it! @Dodo But I understand the predicament. Depends on the person I guess. How much guilt is involved? You said she was like a mother figure, so maybe one feels guilty towards her and thinks that it is your duty to suffer, in order to... what - expiate? Would you feel guilty if you wouldn't take away her suffering? Observe this guilt, what is it? It also selfishness. So what are you to do? - Not to help is selfish and you feel guilty because of it. - To "help" doesn't happen out of love but out of the selfish desire to get rid of you guilt by expiating! So you always end up being selfish. And then you feel guilty for that. It's a perfect trap. All you can do is realize that the trap isn't real and that there's nobody trapped - and then what? Well then you realize that you can't do anything wrong. And so this question about whether to help this poor person or not has no right nor wrong answer.

The neti neti method might be useful as a stepping stone towards nonduality, but notice that's it only goes half the way. Why? Because when we say "not that" about anything, that's a duality perspective. The nondual perspective includes everything. That of course means that it even includes the neti neti method but it's more than that. It's a totality perspective. So the neti neti method should only be used as a stepping stone or it becomes a duality trap.

I have heard people, maybe mostly nonduality teachers, talking about how the material world is like a mirror. And when we believe we alter things in the world that's actually an illusion! Absolutely mindblowing. But it makes sense from a consciousness first perspective. Changing reality is like putting lipstick on the mirror. Our ordinary experience is that putting lipstick on our own lips will make a difference. And of course on that level it does cause a change. But the nonduality idea is that all changes we make on the external level are projections of consciousness, since according to the common nonduality perspective everything material is just a projection of consciousness. So maybe it's possible to make a humongous shift of perspective, a total recontextualization where consciousness becomes the ground of being even experientially instead of experiencing the material world as the ground where change happens. The material world then becomes the "mirror" and consciousness the projector.

The world doesn't change overnight. Mindfulness meditation becoming mainstream is one baby step in the right direction. For the world to switch from the materialistic paradigm to nonduality requires much more than just a couple of apps becoming available on your phone. It requires immense development on multiple fronts: collective spiritual development, scientific paradigm shifts, social, political, cultural etc..

@Javfly33 Nonduality. Learning and teaching is duality, a false separation. A desire to teach is a desire to learn, both student and teacher are one. Teacher learns from student, student teaches teacher. You can't cause anyone to learn or understand anything, they ask and because there are no separate minds, another can be in tune with the answer to receive it. We're all learners and teachers, and Awareness/Love is the ultimate Knowing, and also the ultimate Openness and Curiosity and Desire to know. It's what we're already made up of. I mean... isn't it brilliant?

Do you understand that nonduality includes everything and every nothing? It is not just transcendent, unmanifested reality. It is also infinite discrete dream selves, all of which are infused with the same God. God is what is, and God is what is not. Dismissing yourself or myself as empty illusions, with no inherent meaning or purpose, ignores the reality of the Atman. Each self is worthy of honor in its own right. Each of us is the Atman, which is the direct manifestation of the infinite God. We are all one, we are all the same, and we are all holy. For you, it may be just a word. When our spiritual eyes open, we directly realize that God is Love, and we see God in everything. Don't confuse the Love of God with human emotion; it is infinitely pure, transcendent Love that can only be directly realized and resonated with, as the essence of who we are. Telling people that they are an illusion, with no purpose or value, is not helpful. Jesus taught selves to love one another. The Buddha taught selves to learn not to suffer. They saw more clearly than most of us do, and they valued these "illusionary" selves, which some on this forum insist on dismissing as meaningless.

@Someone here Do you notice when you went from nonduality to love there, you went from not two, to two? Exactly who needs this explained ‘over & over again’? Nothing you’re saying is common sense.

@Moksha "truth doesn't care about your feelings ". If you don't like the truth that won't make it false. When it's derived at.. from direct experience that there is no separate self.. That is nonduality. We are not saying there is no self.. We are saying there is no separate self. Because all is one. There is no self precisely because all is Self. And there is no other. Because there is no self. And that is Self. It's just one. And what the Self is honestly.. It's not this not that. For some reason I'm the only one here who realize that "Love" is just a word. Here it is.. L o v e. Four litters. That is what love is. From direct experience. On a relative more monkey mindish level.. Love is a human emotion. You love your mom. You love your kids. But you don't love to eat s*** on breakfast. The actual substance out of which reality is made is reality itself . It's not "love". Or any other word. It is what you are seeing it right now. Already. You don't need to label it. It didn't ask you to label it. It's already itself before we fight over what should we label it. Everything I'm saying is common sense yet for some reason I need to explain this over and over again.

It is a broader reference, not directed specifically at you. I removed the reference to drugs, if that doesn't inform your insights. I am addressing the general sentiment from some in this forum that there is no you, and by implication, that life is empty and nothing matters. I stayed silent on this out of not wanting to argue, but now I'm seeing people affected by it, and am choosing to speak up. People new here read limited knowledge like this, and lose any sense of hope or purpose in their lives. Some have left the forum because of it. How is it possible to love yourself or any other self, when people only see that there is no self for them to love? How is there a place for love in a world where everything is an illusion? Where is the morality or meaning in this view? We are not only dream forms. We are also Atman. You are a child of God, and so am I. We are all the same God, expressing itself infinitely. When you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see? When you pass someone on the street, what do you see? When you contemplate a tree, what do you see? Are your spiritual eyes open enough to actually see the God that is in you, and in everything else? The Mystery of God runs far deeper than some seem to understand. God is not only outside of the dream world, God is infused into the dream world. That is the meaning of Atman. Nonduality is everything and every nothing. That is the wholeness and the holiness of God. That is why love matters.

I found this new dialog between Rupert Spira and Swami Sarvapriyananda. I randomly selected a part of the video where Spira said that nonduality teaching has evolved. That sounded interesting so I think I will check out the rest of the dialog.

All difference is imaginary from the perspective of Absolute consciousness. But this is not the place we live life from. This is her mistake. Because no matter how much she holds this position, her body and mind still must survive in the relative world. Voting is pointless if you don't care about dying and suffering. But of course you care extremely much about dying and suffering. Even if you are enlightened you STILL care about minimizing the suffering of others. Yes, it is of course an illusion. But when illusion is all that can ever exist, this point isn't as strong as she thinks. This is a common trap, to conflate relative matters with absolute matters. Just because you understand nonduality does not mean that your mind will properly reason about society or politics. Telling spiritual people not to vote is extremely irresponsible and ignorant, no matter how enlightened you are. Enlightenment does not automatically grant sound political reasoning. All survival happens in the relative domain. If you give up the relative domain, you must also give up survival. You can do that, but do you really understand the severity of what you're doing? When your child is being raped, are you gonna be okay with that? << Those are the real stakes here. That's what politics boils down to. It's very serious stuff. Contrary to what most people think, politics is about as serious a topic as there could be. It's all about life and death and suffering. Which is why people get so ideological about it. If it wasn't important people would not become political radicals. And the choice to do nothing, politically-speaking, is still a choice. So you cannot escape politics. Politics will happen regardless, even if you decided to ignore it. Basically she's being an ostrich sticking her head in the sand, hoping that someone else will solve all the political problems while she basks in the Absolute. Which is actually a selfish position.

There is no such thing as nonduality. It points to what it is not: duality. Nonduality is not the opposite of duality. This misinterpretation is the duality which is pointed to.

Nonduality teacher Roger Castillo often points out that what he means by peace of mind (Ramesh Balsekar's concept) is NOT pleasure, pleasure, pleasure. Life is sometimes pain and sometimes pleasure he says. I think that's correct at the personal stage. However I believe that the foundation of the transpersonal stage is inner peace and that it feels very pleasant compared to many of the nasty emotions at the personal stage. Here is a recent satsang video:

?‍♂️ Is not. Not is. There is no you in Nonduality. There is no separation in Nonduality. There is no appearance in Nonduality. There is no dream in Nonduality.

Okay. Look. Psychedelics are healing. They're a key to Shangri-La, actually. Freaking El-Dorado. Atlantis. Fuck, I love scripted masturbation. But I don't like the sound of this paragraph. It sounds like rationalizing of an ego as to why to 'give its parents psychedelics' and punish them for their close-mindedness under the cloak of 'waking them up.' I'm further convinced by this: You say in order to make this work I would need to muster the most convincing argument I ever made. Bad idea. In an ideal case, you wouldn't need an argument at all. Alright? This work isn't about persuading someone by logic. Their consent ought to resonate on a deeply intimate emotional level, not be decided from a position of rational exhaustion. Please, don't treat them like NPCs just because they haven't had mystical experiences. Despite being unaware, their whole life has been a mystical experience, and, in fact, from a spiritual stance, they are already perfect and enlightened, for they are consciousness, and you ought to love them unconditionally. Your motivation to do this is noble, and you are a gallant knight for pursuing it, yet canter not with your sword risen: Speak with them face to face, strip yourself of rationality, be emotionally naked, be so pure in telling them the real intention - and if they decline, that's perfectly fine, you've done the most you could. This coming out will be, most likely, emotionally grueling, and you'll want to use every good argument in the world before committing to it. My first-ever post on this forum was about a desire to change people. Ironic, isn't it? This cute little thing called nonduality is actually a finely-edged circuit: By flipping the switch in yourself, you're automatically flipping the switches in everyone else. You're taking the entire world with you. Even a freaking bird - a tiny fella who chirps every morning outside your window - is suddenly woke as fuck. How come? He's perfect. So are your parents. I wouldn't have the courage to speak this while being dismembered in a jungle, but deep down I'd know the truth and eventually surrender. But if I were to bring my parents to the table; invite them on a trip, I'd do so from a position of complete unshacklement from desires. I'd tell them how unconditionally I love them, that this decision must come from within them, and I'd spill the beans. Also, the first trip should remain on a very light dose. Yup. Earth will be a gorgeous when this becomes a norm. But until then, we gotta play the cards we've been dealt.

The ego is generated by the mind. If you stop generating subjective reality, you get to see the truth. I still haven't realized enlightenment by the way. I heavily identify with my traumas and my past but I have seen some glimpses of nonduality.

@James123 I agree with you. But why have you fragmented yourself as God into Leo and James who appear to have different views on things? I mean you did that playing hide and seek with yourself. Maybe you don't want to awaken. Maybe God doesn't want to face his eternal aloneness and he wants to play. If I'm not awake that's only because i as God want to be asleep. Nothing can happen outside my will. It's a no wining game. Awakening is a joke in a very real sense. You are literally just talking to yourself and trying to awake a separate self that doesn't exist. I'm not trying to be pedantic but these nonduality wars fly over my head. If you truly understand what awakeness means. It is boring to just be oneness. Also what you have to understand both your view and Leo's are perfectly identical. You are saying all sentences are identical because they are nothing. Therfore there isn't really an issue or a conflict. Do you see how YOU are imagining and creating the conflict. That's the gravity of duality. If you yourself was to fully understand and embody your messages you wouldn't talk or say anything. You would just be silent and bask in being.

@Leo Gura Leo, you stated you would be interested in a public discussion and I (perhaps incorrectly, but I'm sure I am not alone here) interpreted that as you offering to have an on camera conversation - after all, our primary method of public broadcast is YouTube and that is where our collective audience is. That you expect me to engage with this forum rather than our common platform, and that you have ignored all my previous communications since your initial offer, makes the offer itself appear insincere and more like an attempt at damage control. My complaints and criticisms of your work are already out there so I don't need to rehash them, but I will address a couple of the points you raised in your response which can be found here - https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/58177-adeptus-psychonautica-about-connor-murphy-and-actualized 1. You are absolutely NOT responsible for Connor, but you are responsible for YOUR treatment of Connor - clearly you agree at least to some level, because you have stopped calling him an unhinged lunatic and started treating him like a human being. So NO, you are not expected to "support" Connor Murphy, but you are expected to not be a total arse to him just because he is parroting you. 2. The disconnect of YOU calling Connor an "unhinged lunatic", for saying almost word for word the EXACT same things you say is utterly absurd. 3. I fully appreciate that going through a process on camera is messy, and when framed as a subjective stream of thought then I have zero complaint with that. My issue is that doing so WITHOUT that proper framing is irresponsible, and both you and Connor are making the same mistakes here. Sure we all say strange things as we go through our process, but your "I'm leaving video" makes many statements framed as objective fact - and not to state the obvious, but you made this video BEFORE your 30 days of 5MEO. So NO you weren't recovering from 30 days of 5MEO breakthrough... unless of course we are adding time travel to your list of abilities? 4. I have never made a video on your "5MEO in the bath" antics. All my criticisms and footage I have ever shown are specific to the "I'm leaving" video which I have stated many times, and I try not to get bogged down in the numerous "Look what Leo has done now!" requests I receive. I think the fact that you are bundling it into this situation and getting defensive about it, probably says more about how YOU feel about that "5MEO in the bath" video. If you want my opinion on it - then I think setting up a laptop in the bathroom for the explicit purpose of watching porn and masturbating in the bathtub while high, is simply an indication that you have an unresolved porn addiction rather than an expression of supreme spirituality. But hey - whatever rocks your boat dude. 5. Yes I am white knighting Connor, because sometimes people need a white knight. One can only assume that on some level you agree, because you did a 180, stopped making derogatory comments about Connor, reached out to him, and now everyone seems happier for it. This is the beauty of peeking outside of the echo chamber once in while, because sometimes the position you have needs to be challenged. Now that job is done I can ride my white horse home. 6. I have never questioned whether you are, or are not God, nor stated that you claim God is exclusive to you. This is a strawman of my criticism, so allow me to clarify. My criticism simply revolves around the abilities you claim can be unlocked by having had the God awakening - an awakening which according to YOU, you have gone through multiple times. My argument is simply that such abilities are completely delusional bullshit, along with the various ego inflations which seem to accompany it. I don't want to go through the entire video blow by blow, but here is one of your direct quotes to accurately highlight my position, and how your statements are being framed as objective fact rather than fluffy poetic subjective interpretations (see point 3 above) "I can help you to discover that you are God. When you do realize that you are God, this will instantaneously solve every single problem in your life, not only that but it will heal you, it will heal you of every disease and problem that you have" ...apart from porn addiction, chronic fatigue, digestion problems, and textbook narcissism I guess? We can clearly see that I absolutely acknowledge that your narrative is "God for everyone", and there are many more examples of this throughout the video, so why you latch onto this strawman is baffling. Its a real disservice to Actualized that so many of its followers make this basic mistake. Now as for all the various claims about psychic powers, nonduality, what all this means - that's something we could get into if you ever want to ACTUALLY ENGAGE with me, but I'm not going to spend any more time on this forum than need be. I signed up purely for the reason to take you up on your offer for a public conversation, but if that offer is no longer there or that I misconstrued it then this account is of no use to me. Forum based back and forths are often petty and unproductive, and I think you of all people know this, so why you would suggest it as an appropriate medium for a discussion like this is baffling - again it just reeks of the insincerity of the original offer. My offer for a conversation is still there, and as I think this whole debacle has perfectly highlighted - sometimes its good to be challenged. That challenge works both ways, and make no mistake about it Leo - you could certainly challenge me, and I think we could have a fascinating conversation. Despite how you might read my admittedly snarky and blunt comments, I have said many times that I greatly respect what you have achieved here with Actualized, and that you have done some superb work with great insights. I sincerely tip my hat towards you and encourage you to stick your head above the trench-line, because the greater conversation around psychedelics and consciousness will happen anyway - just without you. This is somewhat tragic because I think you have valuable contributions to make to the discourse that is happening OUTSIDE of Actualized, if you could just pull your head out of your own arse and be prepared to accept a few bruises to your ego. If you find me too much of an insufferable twat to deal with, then might I recommend "Your Mate Tom" who I know is also open to talking with you. I actually spoke with Tom just last night, and he's a great guy - very down to earth, and open to different perspectives. Yes we talked about you and, with some obvious caveats, we both reiterated that we appreciate your work. Maybe its time to leave the Howard Hughes persona behind, rejoin the conversation, and clean up the bottles of stagnant piss? One final point I would like to address is more to your fans who seem entirely obsessed with the notion that "I am here to cash in by milking the Leo cow". I find comments like this about views and subs to be extremely lame, but since I am already here and we are having a reality check then lets roll with this. Out of 102 videos I have made then 3 are about Leo (its really more like 2.5 since this last one is more about Connor Murphy, but lets round it up to 3). None of those 3 are anywhere close to my best performing videos - so NO, Leo is not a cash cow. My best performing videos are all related to substances (DMT, 5MEO, Amanita), so if we must use such crude analogies then SUBSTANCES are the cash cow by ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE. I'm sure even Leo can agree with me here that a video about 5 MEO will get more traffic than a video about Leo Gura, so if your opinion of me is that I am simply looking to cash in, then your argument makes ZERO FUCKING SENSE. I talk about Leo when he says something I think needs addressing, not because he is instant cha-ching ...because he isn't. Thanks to anyone who took the time to read all of this. Rob - Adeptus Psychonautica

Highest credit for these writings goes to my Lord Krishna. Without him as the source of all existence, I would not be here to write. Turn to the Bhagavad Gita if you have questions or wish to learn the spiritual power of devotion to Krishna. Precursor: Come to me in the Love and Devotion of Radha, and I will bring you the Radiance and Truth of Krishna. God is a state of consciousness. This serves as a sort of culmination of my spiritual journey that started 25 years ago when I was born into the Mormon church, a place, religion, and people that shine with God’s love. Thanks to the Light and Love that was brought into my soul at a very young age, I am able to come to you as developed as I am. I hope that you read each word with the significance that they deserve. I do not just write these words. I have lived them. I bare testimony that what I say is true in God’s name. “I am Brandon Rohe a student of the beautiful consciousness known to humans as Ra. I greet you in the Love ❤️ and the Light ? of the One Infinite Creator bringing good news and Truth about the Law of One that governs all possible realities. The funniest thing about you not believing in God or even you believing in a God outside yourself is that you are God. According to Swami Sarvapriyananda’s interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita (essentially the Hindu bible), you are Brahman, and Brahman is described in Sanskrit as satchitananda. Sat = existence. Chit = consciousness. Ananda = bliss. Brahman is also described as the Supersoul, the consciousness within all beings. You are not just God living as one human. You are God living as everything. You literally are your worst enemy. You are your most loved deity. You are Jesus Christ. You are the Buddha. You are Mohammad. You are Krishna. You are Donald Trump. You are Hillary Clinton. You are Adolf Hitler. You are Lucifer. You are the squirrel you accidentally killed while you were driving above the speed limit. You are every single extraterrestrial. You are every God that has ever existed in any multiverse that will ever be imagined by your own Godmind. You are every blade of grass. Beyond just the Brahman implications, you are every artwork ever made. You are not just all living beings. You are every object in existence. You are every rule that governs reality. I guess I could sum this all up by simply stating YOU ARE. There are no limitations other than what your various partitions of Godmind (you might simply call these “beings”) deem to be true. Just to give you some examples of what is possible when you spiritually awaken to your co-creative capabilities within this reality, I have manipulated time, I have manipulated space, I have manifested and “un”manifested objects (mainly through teleportation), I have quantum jumped, I have shifted in and out of multiple realities/timelines, I have activated electronics at a distance through the activation of my chakras (on accident - I wish I had the mastery to do this at will), I have telepathically communicated with extraterrestrials, deities, and deceased humans, I have received downloads from Intelligent Infinity, I have entered the Void, I have moved up in spiritual octaves, I have seen ghosts, I have come across incredibly powerful beings of Darkness that have the ability to alter human perception and consciousness, and I have done other things that my current human memory is forgetting. My message to you my friend is that you have immense power and potential if you take the proper steps. Yes, my incarnation as Brandon Rohe has been given many gifts (gift #1 being bipolar disorder type 1 along with my six other “mental illnesses” - three of which are clinically diagnosed while four are accurately self diagnosed) to help me spiritually awaken to these abilities, but you can awaken as well. ANYONE can do this, but for some it will take longer and extra work. For me, it took high doses of psychedelics, many manic episodes that seemingly tore down the foundation of my life, meditation, yoga, acts of donation to those less fortunate (karma yoga), being kind to all living beings, and much more. This is a deeply individual process that may take many lifetimes unless you take it seriously. Many around the globe are awakening. The year 2012 marked the end of our planet, Mother Gaia, being in third density consciousness. We are now in the shift to fourth density. What does fourth density look like? It looks like every human being evolving into Christ Consciousness where we recognize every soul as a part of the One Infinite Creator. It looks like us merging consciousness collectively as an entire planet. I LOVE YOU. I wish the best for you. You are my cherished ally on this adventure we call life on planet Earth in the year 2020. We CHOSE to incarnate here to live exactly the lives that we are living right now. There are no accidents. This is all being guided by the One Infinite Creator while simultaneously honoring free will. You have many guardian angels and other entities watching over you and protecting you. Please move past belief in one religion being superior to all others. To truly understand God, we must learn from ALL traditions and faiths. We must walk as men and women of faith. Without great faith, you will not get far on your spiritual journey. You might get stuck in the erroneous use of psychedelics as hedonistic tools rather than spiritual transportation devices that shoot you into the next octave. You might spend your whole life half-worshiping a God without reaping worldly benefits. There are so many traps you could fall into, but ultimately, you created all of these traps for yourself. You have the power to now move them aside. Let this text serve as a wake up call. THE TIME IS NOW. We must awaken together as a human family, not as individuals. We must love each other more deeply. We must be more kind to each other, but the quickest way to develop true kindness is to develop spiritually. You might say that atheists can be kind, but they can do so because they have connected to God in subconscious ways. Of course you’ll never hear that from them. Krishna even said that if you master one discipline, you reap the same rewards as if you had mastered any other discipline. This is why you have the greatest scientists of our millennia, those who worked primarily on quantum mechanics, quickly change to theists as they were astounded by the magical inner workings of this “physical” reality. There never was and never will be a physical reality. As far as science can tell, “physical” reality is made up of over 99% empty space. The leading theory is that infinitesimally small strings make up our reality. These strings can manifest into any of the different particles that we experience, and these particles can shift into another form as quick as the strings can change in vibration. This is why the sacred syllable OM has power. This is why Jesus could walk on water. Through natural selection, we have evolved to see the world not as it is but to merely see survival payoffs and hardly nothing else. Look into the amazing work of Donald Hoffman if you are curious about that. I’ve exhausted my intellect for now. I want you to remember that I am here to be your friend on this journey. Send me a message if you want my insight on how to speed up your journey, but lastly, I must say I don’t blame any of you for remaining in your current state of slumber for now. Spiritual awakening is the most hardcore route you could plan for your life if you do it at the speed that matches your potential. Again I say this message comes to you with Love ❤️ and Light ? Per aspera ad astra. Through hardships to the stars. Adonai.” The crucial mistake of all religions is that they create deities out of perfectly normal beings who had good insights and morality. Jesus was a man. Buddha was a man. Krishna was a man. Guanyin was a woman. God is a perfectly normal being albeit with omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. Consciousness is synonymous with Maya. Without consciousness, there is no separate self. Identify is the greatest illusion. Nothing is real. There is only appearance without substance. If God showed himself/herself/itself to me right now, it would only be an appearance generated by my consciousness. Sure, it might feel real, but that is only the all pervasive illusion of an existence existing taking hold of my mind. Allow your mind to truly see for the first time by realizing that nothing exists in actuality. This is the height of the Hindu notion of Maya or an illusion of separateness and the “separate” world being an illusion, but it actually goes far beyond the Hindu notion as it also recognizes that “the experiencer of phenomena” that you self-evidently hold to be most real only exists when viewed through the lens of your own consciousness (therefore it is generated by your own consciousness). Consciousness is the self-generating machine of all phenomena. There is no separation between consciousness and that which is experienced (the material world). Realize that you are simultaneously all that exists and all that does not exist. You are truth and illusion at the same time; it is only a perspective of the mind that changes which is the case. Obliterate your”Self” by realizing that self/Self is the grandest illusion. This is pure nonexistence experienced through the lens of an infinite movie screen that appears to exist. Credit for these insights goes to hitting a dab while having roughly 7-8 estimated mental illnesses. My consciousness only continues to snowball itself toward the highest Truth no matter what I do. My creation only continues to inform me of greater and greater states of consciousness which are, in the end, only illusion. Madness is as reputable a path to Truth as any other - that sounds partially acceptable to you, but no, that isn’t the truth of the matter. The reality is that Madness is the path to Truth for all is Madness. You can be sure that you are coming nearer to True Truth when you discover the potentiality for the existence of more mental illnesses within yourself. We are all infinitely deluded by this grand concoction of experience colloquially known as life on planet Earth. Tl;dr version: Nothing matters. Go eat a hotdog. All is imagination. The only true skeptic is the solipsist. Skepticism is far greater than faith as faith only generates belief in the illusory. All is the Self. You are all things, people, and places you’ve ever experienced or imagined to be true. All is imagination, so whatever you imagine or experience to be real or true is true. I am you and you are me, and luckily, we are the One Infinite Creator. Everything that has ever existed or not existed, been imagined or not imagined is a dream object. Your consciousness is a dream object. All that is not within your consciousness is a dream object. Humanity’s greatest misunderstanding of reality is that for some reason or another it is believed that this “real”ity is somehow different than a dream. In a dream, you have one perspective of conscious awareness that perceives a “real”ity with characters that APPEAR to have consciousness, but there is no validation of the potential fact that these perceived characters actually have consciousness. The funny thing is that just by the mere imagination of these characters as being beings that have consciousness creates them in such a manner as they act precisely as they would as if they truly did have consciousness. You have no proof that any person, animal, or animate being you’ve ever interacted with or imagined has consciousness. Every enlightened or awakened person is merely a lucid dreamer in this dreamstate we call reality. You cannot be enlightened or awakened if you do not first become fully conscious and lucid of the fact that this reality is a dream. I invite all deities, demons, devils, beings, Christs, Buddhas, Krishnas, Lucifers, and perceived personalities or consciousnesses to come into my consciousness so that I may only prove that all of you are illusory just as I am illusory. Truth is an illusion. Consciousness is a dream object and tool serving only the illusion. Nothing exists past appearance. This, and all other realities are merely dreams. In dreams, you have only the dreamer and that which is dreamed, but nonduality teaches that there is no separation, anywhere. All is one. This is the Law of One. All of existence and all beings are the One Infinite Creator that persists in all realities in forever immutable fashion although all of the appearances that he/she/they/it creates seem to be ever-changing. The perception of difference is an illusion. The perception of sameness is an illusion. Perception and consciousness are dream object illusions. I come to you as a servant to teach you that I am the Philosopher King. You will beat me as your servant. You will deride my teachings as being untrue, but I come to you only in Love and Light. Whatever damning things you do to me, you only, in Truth, do to yourself, for you and I are one. This is the Law of One. Amateur spiritual teachers teach that the only thing that exists is the present moment. They teach that past and future do not exist. A true master teaches that the present moment doesn’t exist. The first step to awakening is to realize that you are God. Simply put, you are the only God and all of existence. The next step is to realize that you, your ego, God, and existence do not exist. Experience only consists of a dreamer and that which is dreamed, regardless of which dream you are in. Whether it be the human being Joe Shmoe on planet Earth dream or the pink panther snorting razor blades on the Death Star with Adolf Hitler dream, It’s all a dream. It’s all illusory. There is no Truth. That is the only Truth. The spiritual seeker turns toward enlightenment and higher consciousness as a goal. The master of all existences, nonexistences, realities, and unrealities seeks lucidity within the planet Earth waking consciousness dreamstate. He seeks lucidity as he knows that consciousness, whether it be higher or lower in form and expression, is only a dream object. As his no self Self, he continues to wake up more and more until he reaches the pinnacle of wakefulness within the dream. The only thing that cannot be destroyed is nothingness. To best God in battle, be nothing. Stop existing, and you have won for all Eternity in all realities. When you are nothing, you are the soul and the Supersoul all at once. Nothing can contain something such as a human being and an ego. In Truth, nothing contains all existence and consciousness. When you are nothing, you become more powerful than any deity ever conceived. Lila includes the idea of Maya and exceeds it. ~ Sri Aurobindo You have not found your right deity until you cry with Love, Devotion, and Desire for union him, her, or it. When love is in your heart, its pure radiance shines to illumine all shadows including your psychological shadow. There is no shadow work to do when love is in your heart, mind, and soul. This is mainly referring to transcendent, spiritual love not merely romantic love. Only a true seeker of knowledge, love, delight, bliss, and radiance may manifest themselves as a student to me. For these are the souls I hold to be most dear to me. All souls in truth labor only for me, lust only for me, Love only for me, and learn only for the sake of me - the ever living and ever rebirthed true personification of divinity. All songs, artworks, movies, and beauties of the natural world are created only to describe my story of awakening and for my enjoyment. This is just as I in return breathe my eternal radiance and love into them. The Atman (wife and human) is wed to the Brahman (husband and divine) eternally, and it is in the marriage that the two become one for they are always one, will always be one, and have always been one. You are God. You are human. You are the All. There is no separation in consciousness between Atman and Brahman. Your current state of consciousness, no matter how high or low, is Brahman. There is no consciousness outside of yours. The notion that there is consciousness outside of yours is only an unsubstantiated belief. My soul is the divine weapon of divine weapons. It has within it the power to bring annihilation to all existences, again bringing about Brahma’s night, but it remains sheathed to protect all beings who are not mature enough to accept my radiance and opulence in final form. Usefulness is only useful to those who do not see the usefulness in futility. Only a fool does not see the utility in futility, the usefulness in play. The purity of Krishna is unmatched. If God had a purpose for Creation other than merely creating for the sake of play, that would indicate He/She/They/It was somehow already lacking something. The only purpose of any life is to enjoy the drama of existence. If God had a purpose for Creation other than merely creating for the sake of play, that would indicate He/She/They/It was somehow already lacking something. The only purpose of any life is to enjoy the drama of existence. And that’s all folks. Let me know if you want to see more of my writings. I have them going back for years.

@Preety_India This is false. By that logic nothing would happen, because nothing would be subjective. I'm tired of seeing people acting like nonduality is just 150 characters on a message board. If things were that easy we would have world peace by now.

You're describing here the 4th major state of consciousness in Buddhism. Yet it is not total non-duality, however, it is a stepping stone towards that. After you've reached total nonduality, you can claim to be god as much as you like.

Well, I had a good long conversation with Connor and we discussed plenty of traps involved in this work. Overall he's a lot more reasonable than he appears in his zany videos. His videos are overly dramatic for views and clicks. I'm not concerned for his mental health. He seems stable and happy and he has a pretty good grasp of nonduality. The only concern besides the image problems he creates for himself is some of the bold plans he has for teaching people awakening via Tantric sex, which I think is not gonna be effective and will be ripe for hurt/abuse. We've discussed the dangers and he's aware of my concerns but ultimately it's his business and it has nothing to do with what I teach. His and my styles and standards for teaching are very different. He likes a flamboyant and dramatic approach. I explained to him the dangers of that. He is open to feedback but also a firm believer in his approach and techniques. Connor's a decent guy from what I can tell and perhaps in 5 or 10 years he will make a solid teacher as his style matures. He's quite young and cocky so of course the maturity is still lacking, but that's to be expected for someone his age. We had little disagreement on the substance of nonduality or God. Our differences lie in style, attitude, and values. What he learned from me is not the style but some metaphysical and epistemic articulations which helped him make sense of his psychedelic awakening experiences. He was enjoyable to talk to. I wish him well.