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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.

I am starting a thread on a healing technique and mantra, that was given to me by the Queen of Heaven (Inanna). The mantra goes like this: "It is the Queen of Heaven, that heals me, It is the power of Heaven, that heals me. I am healed by the Queen of Heaven, I am healed by the power of Heaven. " You can create your own version in your own language if you like, the power of it lies in intention, visualisation and invocation, not the actual words being spoken. Repeat this as many times as you can manage and imagine a white light descending from Heaven, suffusing your being and healing you. You should visualise the affected parts being transformed by the white light and appearing healthy. It has worked for me in the past. Usually, when I use this technique, if I am in pain or suffering from some health issue, I get immediate relief and the effect will last for quite a while. You need to repeat this on yourself as many times as needed and you can use it on others too. In that case, just replace “me” with “you”. If you are doing this in person, place one or both hands on the affected area to suffuse it with energy and concentrate on the visualisation. It can also be done remotely, by connecting to the person that needs healing via a photo. In that case, you need to connect to the person first and imagine their energy body in front of you and direct the white light to the affected area accordingly. An added visualisation that you can do is to imagine the Queen of Heaven herself descending to earth and doing the healing herself. I see her as an angelic figure, with long blonde hair, white robes and white wings, but you can imagine her in whatever way you prefer. Usually, when I do healing on someone, I will see her working on a person, placing both hands on the affected area to do energy work and physical transformation on the holographic level. If you try this and notice some effect, I would appreciate your feedback.

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.

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.

@WonderSeeker A new job that I'm not crazy about, frustration with personal issues, lack of great socialization and a general fed up attitude towards self improvement in general. Spiral dynamic theory - integrate and transcend, lack of definite career path. And nah, I've just been doing concentration based (20x2 per day) with some guided releases from transformation mastery sprinkled in.

A rogue student's paraphrasing of a primary Ridhwan School method. Developing the capacity for being able to sit with different states or flavors of 'deficient emptiness' as Almaas refers to it. Easier said than done. There are a spectrum of these that can be encountered whenever our emotional pendulum swings into the negative side. We all have a pendulum to a degree. Even beyond emotional purification there are biorhythms which affect our states of consciousness. Normally we try to dissociate from these uncomfortable states through all kinds of activities. To not do that is more difficult than I thought when first encountering this method of what I would almost refer to as Contemplative psychoanalysis. That makes sound more complicated than it really is, though. In going about this, I'm just doing in a sense what Echart Tolle suggests. Also, what Cynthia Bourgeault instructs people to do when doing the Welcoming Practice. Below, I'll paste a YouTube about the welcoming Practice. Whatever is felt in this present moment,,,, bring it on,,. Let's feel and experience it completely. Taste it and start eating on it until your full or the plate is empty. It may take days or you might find transformation in 20 minutes. Dessert in this case will come with it a felt sense of letting go or having seen it through. That is, whatever the reason or state that the felt sense of deficient emptiness is all about. This dessert in this case, you're felt sense of the present moment, will be connected to an aspect of essence which is fulfilling. If you investigate further you may find that it connects with a very alive Red energy or a sense of felt solidness of Will that's grounded in the hara (third chakra) or the back of the neck (fifth chakra energy). Maybe it's empathy for all beings or loving kindness which emanates from the chest or peaceful quietness which is accompanied by a slight pulse from the prefrontal lobe area. Another practice I learned about 3 years ago. It's good when in stressful situations especially. Just sense the physical sensations in the feet. Lots of nerve endings there,,, pressures moreso when standing up or walking. The feet are furthest from your head and at times, nonstop neurotic noise if your like me. Simply get out your head by putting attention on the sensations in the feet. Maybe good for staying present if you have to speak in front of a crowd,,,

I still haven't got to the bottom of why some days I'm focussed and productive and others I just cannot concentrate on anything. It's like my mind flat out refuses to think in that strict logical step by step way needed for me to do my programming work. Instead I find my mind just drifting in a kind of right brain dreamy reverie - like reality could just consume me and I wouldn't notice or care - and it might actually be a blessed relief just to diffuse into nothingness. So to more magick. If magick works, then for me it is less left brain analytical and more right brain creative/artistic/intuitive. However, to get a handle on it I still need to do the analytical groundwork. It's like the division between science and engineering. I could just engineer my magick and be done with it. So very much a pragmatic trial and error approach - if it works, keep doing it. But trial and error is slow and inneficient - timewise. This is where science comes in, it makes models which refine your approach and point you in the right direction; it's analytical and initially also time consuming, but it pays off by synergising with engineering. One discipline feeds off the other in a virtuous circle. I need both. So to start off with, more science than engineering. Boundaries Magick is really about directed transformation. But not just any old transformation but specifically targeted transformation, mostly done in a non-conventional way. By non-conventional I mean not using the body, but perhaps other methods such as using the mind, or psychadelics, or something else. What could be that something else? There is a strong three way connection between awareness, existence and boundaries. They are really three words for the same thing. Any one of these three things implies the others. Changing boundaries means shifting awareness means morphing existence. Hopefully, you can see where I'm going. By somehow affecting any one of these facets purposefully, then magick can happen. The other thing to take note of is change - ironically the only constant in existence. What change refers to is the constantly changing boundaries of awareness. Perhaps what I didn't really outlign about my metaphysics in my last post, was that I don't consider there to be an observer. This isn't needed as awareness is aware of itself. What is being observed is awareness itself. Awareness "takes on the shape" of reality in all its glory and gore. It's like a painting that sees itself; it's made up of brushtrokes and colours (the boundaries). How then does the "directed" part of "directed transformation" itself arise? Of course like everything else: through awareness. See the circular way in which things happen? "I" am interested in magick and becoming a magician, but, that interest arose from awareness itself. It isn't me that wants to perform magick, but awareness itself. Does awareness know in advance what the outcome of that magical interest will be? Awareness transforms itself, as it always has done: change is constant. So the starting point in learning magick is to let awareness do the heavy lifting. Awareness will direct itself in any case. The seed has been sown. How do I perform magick using boundaries? One way would be by conceptual shifting. A large part of how we see the world is precisely through our map of it. We see cars and people and clouds and poverty and the thousand other things that make up society. To transform our perception of the world is magick in itself. There are any number of ways to change our conceptual understanding. One is simply to gather more information about a concept. If we learn how a car engine works, we will have magically shifted the way we see a car. This is happening constantly by itself, this is what maturity means. Systems thinking is another way to revise conceptual understanding. We learn to join together disparate concepts and see how they influence each other, and how changing something here can affect the whole system. Efficient magick is then knowing exactly where to peturb the thing we want to transform (viewed as a system). Systems will often reach equilibrium, either steady state or cyclical. Knowing where and when to pertub a system, can establish a new steady state or cycle. Does any of the above help? Only in a very meta way. Take away for today: change concepts and understand systems to perform magick.

You can't fight yourself. You can only turn it into something else. And research Kabbalah and ceremonial magic. The best way to do shadow work is integrate the positive elements and let go of or cast out the negative elements. By transfiguration and transformation.

@PurpleTree Coolness is simply expressed aesthetic consciousness on the defined limits of coolness created by consciousness. No body has limits on that but ones consciousness themselves, anyone that believes they do, is projecting. A positive indicator I've found is that one of the subsidiary goals of consciousness in stated coolness is on breaking the threshold of consciousness that deals with said projections. Projections are said to be intermediary vehicles of unaugmented contents that consciousness is meant to sort through, transform and re-dream to complexify into simplicity that acts with elegant complexity [ i.e. a useful invention, in this case, projections can be the birthplace of inventions that transform not just individual consciousness, but as a shared interaction the transformation of ones culture ]. That outcome is the coolness, especially when the original condition of consciousness is chaos, there's always this relationship between chaos and the ability to not just handle chaos but invent from that place which leads to expressions that are cooler than others. Elegant complexity is complexity made simple, but not so simply that you miss the nuance, of which is easy to do. So you can aim for higher complexity and in doing so run the risk of two things, become more cool in the eyes of consciousness or become less cool in your inability to meet the struggle. Though if you keep on getting up to raise your consciousness to the desired complexity, meaning you don't give up, my prediction is that your consciousness is probably going to find that pretty cool. Autobiography gives us relative artefacts that allow us to determine the patterns that consciousness has gone through overtime, when I was a baby for example, all that I needed for coolness was to not have my dummy fall out, then it progressed to my ability to walk, then to discover the physical boundaries of being by exploring how fast I could run, the myriad of ways in which I could get hurt and so on, followed by all the ways in which I shared an emotional relationship with the people around me. Coolness was abound in the discovery and extension of consciousness relative to the level that I was on at the time then, this is the pattern that we can discover in our observations of consciousness overtime. Consciousness and complexity have a nuanced relationship that we often underestimate when we don't understand their relationship in time and therefore what they could be in the future and what role from the perspective of actualisation we could play in furthering said complexity, and in doing so, our expressed coolness. There's always higher and higher levels, and it's up to you to discover what those levels are. It took me years to understand my relationship with other objects in existence, years more to understand objects relationship to me, further, and I'm only now beginning to properly augment the relationship between my consciousness of both of these across both time and space geographically, environmentally, culturally and more plus somehow in the midst of that effectively symbolising a target that my consciousness can hit in its potentialisation of being. So I stated that coolness is elegant complexity, coupled with this then is the experiential component of the flow that one feels while on the razor edge of complexifying consciousness. At least that's how it is for me, so they're the signs that I provide.

This goes against every interpretation of the model I've heard of and robs it of any real value imo. What makes SD useful is that it guides you and informs you of what you should be aiming for. It would also be a blatant mistake to think someone at Red has elements of Turquoise or is capable of understanding the motivations of Green. The stages aren't 'personalities' or 'parts we all have some amount of' like you seem to believe. Don't mistake them for a rainbow or something just because they're named after colors, those are just made up names. Each stage is complete in itself and capable of containing every personality type. A society could, in theory, be made up of 100% Red (though much more likely Purple & Red). A thousand years ago, Turquoise, essentially, didn't exist. Neither did Yellow. Blue was the peak for a very long time. The stages are levels of awareness. Their common traits are just that. It's like when a kid learn the word "why" and starts constantly asking their parents "why" for a period of type. Is it because "everyone has a bit of 'the why phase' in them" and the kid actually always had it and always will? Or is it because they've gained awareness of the existence of the concept of "why" and is now just going through a phase? Gaining awareness = something's changed = behavioral changes = [insert description of SD stage here] You seem to be unaware of the fundamental awareness component and believe the SD stages are nothing more than their common behavioral manifestations. Perhaps this is why they say SD is a Yellow+ model (all models really). "Placing a center of gravity for oneself in this model" is the very core idea of the model and is the only thing that "holds up to scrutiny". Have you not seen Leo's videos on this? This isn't really something being debated. You have a centre somewhere, and it can be blurry where, but it's definitely somewhere. Green is the "anti-hierarchy" stage, so of course, you're gonna be predisposed to such Green ideas, as you've demonstrated.. Can you see now how everyone's a specific stage? Within 3–10 seconds of reading what someone's written I can identify what stage they are. If everyone had every stage, this would be impossible. Everyone always falls into one. It is because of this fact that I can predict people's behavior to ..a scarily accurate degree. By this I mean I creep myself out by predicting what I didn't think I should be able to "surely, people can't be that simple; that algorithmic.." and then it plays out like I guessed. So far, every single person who's challenged me in any way on this forum has been extremely consistent for the stage I determined them to be—not a single exception. Greens act Green; Oranges act Orange; Blues act Blue.. I guess that's about it.. lol. Not enough data on T2. Like I said, each stage is complete in itself. You're not seriously suggesting that everyone you know has some Red, Yellow and Turquoise in them are you? Ever heard of "transcend and include"? Even if you think the stages are just "personalities", each stage transcends the prior one and includes it. But since the stages are not personalities and are, instead, levels of awareness, your stance makes even less sense. s-sure.. you totally didn't realize it could be interpreted as aggressive.. err.. Maybe you hadn't notice, but I'm an INTP : ) ..Not INTJ. I don't judge. (＾▽＾) If it looks like I'm judging, it's in the way you'd judge people who like pineapple on pizza. I """judge""" people *intellectually* or in *personality* or *how their taste relates to my own* I might call out the lower stages on their BS, but it's not that I judge them, it's just that I'm one of the few that has the capability to notice their problems. And, sure, since SD is a hierarchy, disclosing my stage could, potentially, elevate me in some way. But that's not much different to someone saying "I'm an American!". Being part of the world's only superpower could elevate someone in some social situations. But that's fine. Not my problem (in fact, can't be my problem) if someone gets upset at me stating the facts. Umm, maybe read what I said to the other guy.. (◠﹏◠;) Of course! : ) You must've been in Green for a while now ..this is almost the kind of thing I would say.. ヽ( •_)ᕗ There's a bit more to it that that (..though it's beyond stage Green.. [lol, there's no way to say that without sounding arrogant..] I know Green and there are things not worth bothering with.) Hmm, sounds like I should say "what I said to the other guy". Yeah, that's an important thing to learn. Usually comes around the end of Green and can last up until early Turquoise ime. This is where Green can slowly start becoming Yellow. The downsides of collectivism start becoming apparent, subconsciously. The Green stops talking about rainbows and happy hippy ideas of consciousness; stops judging hierarchies; and stops judging those who don't judge hierarchies. I'd say it's an awareness barrier when talking about SD. It's not that people could just get a reference book and understand you after a day/week/year/decade/century of study. Blues who are in their 40s now have almost no chance of ever becoming Orange. It's not just a lack of knowledge. You can't upgrade a computer by adding more stuff to its HDD. That stuff may be useful in some practical way, but the computer won't be any better. Though, acid can defrag the HDD, and that can be pretty healthy for someone who's never defragged and isn't too ancient. Ah. The classic "Orange→Green" transformation. *pats you on the back twice* .. No. Haven't you been listening? Hmm, you mean like.. creating stage-specific sections for the forum in which users could give questions to the people at each color section? And where people of the same color could talk amongst themselves knowing the conversation will not stray away from that stage? Like what I was saying earlier in this thread? lol. Well, I agree with your agreeing with me.. I, too, am in favor of segregating people of color. At least we can agree on that : )

Oh! Could it be that water is the substance on earth that first will be transformed? A highly speculative idea, but I came to think about how water already has amazing properties and the Bible talks about being reborn out of Spirit and water. In that case, water is the first substance to transcend the Lego brick simple state of ordinary matter. And the reason for that is as Mark Passio said, that material reality is where the rubber meets the road. So one cannot cheat and jump ahead into pixie dust. There has to be an actual and practical transformation that transcends and includes the ordinary state of physical matter.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to escape suffering, or pursue happiness. The desire alone doesn't guarantee enlightenment, but it can spur you along the path. Maybe Leo is warning people not to confuse the desire for the path itself. The biggest obstacle to enlightenment is the ego, and the best way to dissolve the ego is by learning the lessons of suffering. People can realize mind-blowing truths about their identity, and their relationship with reality. But the realization by itself isn't enough. We still have to surrender the ego in order to be a vessel for Consciousness. Enlightenment is transformation. It is realized through learning, through loving, through meditating, through humbling yourself, and through devoting yourself to the truth at all costs. Ultimately, it is a sacrificial act. The self is sacrificed on the altar of the Self. The experience, when it happens, is holy.

@SonataAllegro Ask yourself why do you want to buy this book? The word 'Yoga' is derived from the Sanskrit root 'Yuj', meaning 'to join' or 'to yoke' or 'to unite', meaning that yoga is a practice to unite with the Source, Your Higher Self, The One, God or whatever you'd like to call it. There are many paths of yoga, for example. 1. RAJA YOGA Raja yoga focuses on meditation and contemplation in order to fully realize the self. Known as the royal (Raja) or king path of yoga, it is based on the eight-limbed path toward self-realization outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, and tends to attract the more spiritually devoted practitioners. 2. BHAKTI YOGA Bhakti yoga is the path of devotion, emphasizing devotional love for and surrender to God, the Source or the One Creator. By seeing the Divine in everyone and everywhere, Bhakti yoga cultivates acceptance, tolerance, forgiveness and unconditional love for all beings. Bhakti yoga also involves a lot of chanting and kirtan (call and response) that evokes feelings of love, connection, and bliss. 3. JNANA YOGA Jnana yoga is the path of wisdom and knowledge (Jnana), involving a disciplined study of scriptures and constant inquiry into the nature of the self. Any form of study into the nature of the self or the truth of our existence will aid in reaching deeper states of you. Often called the yoga of the mind, Jnana yoga is well suited for the more intellectually inclined. 4. KARMA YOGA Karma yoga is the path of selfless action, the yoga of doing. Selfless service is the heart of karma yoga. Remaining completely detached from the outcome of their actions, Karma yogis are in continual service to the betterment of all beings with no intention of physical gain. Karma is fundamentally about learning lessons. One learns through positive action that as you help others, so are you helped. It’s a rewarding teaching mechanism in that sense. And one learns through negative action that as one hurts others, so are you hurt, in order to understand the consequences of your actions. Negative karma can be resolved by discharging the soul imprint through forgiveness and understanding. Karmic experiences can be prevented by understanding their core lessons before they are attracted. 5. MANTRA YOGA Mantra yoga is the yoga of sound. Considered sacred utterances, mantras are syllables, words, or phrases representing a particular attribute of the Divine. There are certain seed mantras that resonate with each of the unique energy centers or chakras. One of the most common mantras is ‘OHM’, which resonates with the foundational vibration of our existence. Mantra yoga is the practice of becoming centered through the repetition of mantras. 6. HATHA YOGA Hatha yoga, which most people think yoga to be these days, is the practice of yoga postures, or asanas, using the conscious combination of the breath and body movements to rise to higher states of clarity, groundedness and peace of mind. It sees the body as the primary vehicle for self-actualization and transformation. You also have your unique path. Know that your journey in life is absolutely unique to you and will most likely involve many of the aspects mentioned above. For example, you can simply imagine combining certain daily postures, with a mediation and/or contemplation practice, studying certain philosophies you resonate with, while also being compassionately proactive about helping or serving others. Hope this helps

Love this topic, and I totally agree with the power of sad songs. But I feel that there is one really important aspect of this that is not mentioned here, which is that music is deeply personal. Music that somehow links us to our past, the depths of our subconscious mind and the forgotten memories of our inner child is extremely powerful because they already hold certain energetic patterns and traumas in our body desperately waiting to be felt, re-experienced and released. Apart from finding new music, trying to find and rediscovering those songs that made you cry as a child, is a great source and potential for healing and transformation. If you're interested about the relationship between spirituality, personal transformation and Music you can read about it in this article, called 'Soul Resonance and Music'.

@Pernani I would lump Kriya yoga as a practice focusing on energy, one-pointedness concentration, and rapture (peak states). You can get into some wild territory if you have a true intention and do it with passion so-to-speak (detached passion ofc). Those states of high energy seep into daily life and it seemed to be working for you, but if you want the transformation that I think you are looking for then you could complement kriya with an investigative, self-inquiry, or the sort technique. Vipassana/mindfulness/self-inquiry. The simplest way is to just rest in that high energy state for as long as you can after the practice (for me it's like doing self-inquiry 24/7, or awareness-on-awareness). Essentially, both TMI, and Hardcore Buddha Book propose exactly this sequence of focus - at first get your concentration right (one-pointedness, which Kriya can do super effectively) - and then investigate. Then again I don't know, for me I did 5meo and my practice got supercharged after I got in touch with my 'Inner guru' (intuition) so-to-speak. Peak states have seeped into daily life and a sudden ability to effortlessly rest on awareness itself. Awareness-on-awareness. Lots of purging and up-downing - getting used to flipping from a passionate feel-good-about-life state to darknighting to equanimous super-accepting-of-reality-and-myself do-nothing states (less common peak states). The highest peak was ego-death at the cinema, lol it was beatuiful and comical to see myself in the cinema (self-inquiry and mindfulness turn into one). I truly don't know what will work for you, but if I'd give any advice it is to brute-force it - everything at once - psychedelics, classic meditation, kriya, 24/7 baseline focus. If kriya then I def recommend SantataGamanas books (Kriya Exposed and Secret Power of Kriya) and for psychedelics ramp your tolerance for self-acceptance and openmindedness up smartly (start with mushrooms or acid, and weh nyou feel ready, or have reached a plateau, then 5meo). And remember that you are an individual and general guidelines might not work for you exactly - experiment with what works for you. You seem to be resonating a lot with classic meditation, which is cool. I don't thing with kriya and meditation its and this-or-that thing but more about how to do both, more of a complementary relationship, lots of potential for integrating them together. So manny books recommended to you lol. I hope you find the time to go through them