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I was imprinted with a fundamental Catholic background. I later became a scientific atheist, which seemed to scrub out the Christian symbolism. I later transcended atheism and explored god within Nature, Buddhism, New Age and Nonduality. I no longer had particular resonance with Christian symbolism . . . I wonder if having a genuine atheist stage during one's consciousness evolution can clear out the karmic religious imprints.

You wouldn't be able to contextualize it without the direct experience. It would be like a donkey asking how a human experiences the world. The donkey would need to directly experience it. The question "What's it like?" is a very powerful question - if the underlying orientation is genuine, curious and open for exploration. If the mind is attached/identified to a particular paradigm, it will be oriented toward protecting that paradigm and going into debate mode. For example, when I first joined the actualized.org forum, I was much more oriented within science, reason and an objective physical world. One of my early discussions with Leo was questioning what he expressed about intelligence. He spoke of intelligence as some big inter-connected woo-woo "brain" in which my own brain resides. Well of course I wanted evidence for this and wanted to protect my own concept of cognitive-based intellectual intelligence. This orientation didn't allow me to expand. Yet I got curious and started to explore. This required that I set aside my own paradigm. It required a genuine, curious, open mindset. Not a mindset that keeps saying "yea, but" and gets into debate. Rather a mindset open to exploring new ideas and experiences. For example, I would ask "what is intelligence?" without intellectualizing it. I would ask "what is intelligence?" while meditating in nature, while in a sensory deprivation tank, before doing psychedelics. Then new forms of intelligence arose in my reality, which was beyond my contracted paradigm of intelligence. . . I was in awe of these manifestations. Then new avenues entered my life. The book "How to think like Leonardo Da Vinci" appeared and opened new avenues of genuis and intelligence. Then people with other forms of intelligence appeared in my life - collective conscious intelligence, empathic intelligence, energetic intelligence. Then I started experiences some of these forms. . . This allowed for a new resonance when I watched Leo's videos. If you are watching Leo's nonduality and are not resonating with them like "whoa, yes, so that's what it's like", you are likely low on postrational direct experience and high on rational intellect. If you genuinely want to know "what it's like", I would suggest working toward direct mystical experience to reveal what it's like. Yet this can take a lot of effort and practice over time. If you want to get a quick taste of nondual experience, I would suggest trying a psychedelic - at least three trips in no longer than three months.

One additional practice I discovered that I find interesting is to observe how the global ego is behaving in terms of the belief in personal doership. The whole world almost, is still totally trapped in the belief in personal doership. I only find that people such as spiritual teachers, especially nonduality teachers like Roger Castillo, say that personal doership is an illusion even in practice. My interpretation of the Bible is that it says that God is the only doer, and ACIM definitely says that the ego being able to do anything is an illusion. And probably many scientists will agree with that personal doership is an illusion. Yet still society still functions very much with the belief in personal doership. A collective cognitive dissonance of humanity. I predict that this will change more and more as the truth of non-doership becomes more apparent to people.

No! Truth = Absolute Absolute Truth is singular and the same for everyone. And here's the mindfuck: there is nothing but Absolute Truth. There is no such thing as falsehood or untruth. Just different degrees of confusion about the Absolute. The Absolute is so total that is includes within it all "falsehoods" because it is them. If anything I said in this thread confuses you or leaves you skeptical, you need to study nondual literature (see my book list for ideas). You're lacking a basic conceptual understanding of nonduality.

@moon777light Good. That was a nice newbie intro. Your mind is still very chaotic and random, which is why you had all those wacky visions. As you do more, you must learn to focus your mind and contemplate the nature of reality rather than just going on joyride visions. Visions are fun, scary, and interesting, but what really matters is getting down to understanding what consciousness is, and what YOU are. So far you got a tiny taste of what consciousness can do: it is infinite imagination -- which is why you're able to have all those wacky visions. But you don't yet comprehend what consciousness in itself is and why it is here, or all of its many facets. You also probably don't understand how conscious in the trip connects with consciousness in "material reality". You have to build an intellectual bridge between your trips and "real life" until you realize that your "real life" is just another trip. Keep your future doses low. You have much more to learn at these lower doses. Mushrooms can be extremely challenging at the 4g range and above. At 4g+ your old life and reality will start to completely disappear and you will enter the phantasms of your mind. Since your mind is chaotic and impure and lacks nondual understanding, you will encounter all sorts of horrors of your own imagination and you will start to go insane. 2 grams is a good solid dose to do lots of work with without totally freaking yourself out. Try contemplating questions next time like: What is consciousness? What is reality? What is God? What is time? What is "other"? What is self? What am I? What is awakening? What is love? What is evil? What is the brain? What is death? What is nonduality? What is awakening? What is Oneness? What is intelligence? What is Will? Etc. The next time you trip, realize that whatever your mind imagines gets materialized. If you start to think of elephants you will see elephants on the carpet. Wonder why does this happen? It happens because you are God imagining the world and the psychedelic removes the shackles on Infinite Mind. Finally, turn your gaze directly inwards and ask, "What am I?!" Be prepared for epic strange loops, paradox, and mindfuckery.

Yes, you can do that. Battling the ego can sometimes be a useful formuation, but often not. Often the better approach might be to love the ego to death, so to speak. You have to appreciate that every formulation will be dualistic. Every teaching will be dualistic, even nondual teachings. True nonduality cannot be spoken. Christianity is very dualistic in misleading ways. For example, the notion of being "a sinner" creates a battle between ego and God. "A sinner" is just a devil, ego, or self. But the sinner is an illusion. There is no sinner and no sin. Most Christians do not understand this. Christians gets trapped in the duality of good vs evil, which itself becomes the source of the illusion of evil. The mind creates evil by imagining it. When you say, "Look, that Hitler was evil!" << you just created evil without realizing it because you are not conscious of what you're doing. And to make matters worse, you then deny it and attack me for pointing it out to you

@Leo Gura So, like a proper devil that I am, I will ask the question: since everything is already Love, why must the ego die (if it does not even exist)? Selflessness is selfishness, etc. Why not construct a version (story) of nonduality that factors the ego in instead of battling it? What if Christianity is like that?

He is great to listen to, but just keep in mind that he doesn't understand spirituality, nonduality, awakening, love, etc. He makes some excellent points about politics and ideology that are worth integrating. He's not really a communist in the way most people use that term. He likes to be provocative. By "communist" all he really means is a larger role for the state, and moving towards world government. You can agree or disagree with him on that, but his points about how ideology works are quite profound and important to understand. He makes important structural points there.

Look, even psychoanalysis can be useful. It all depends on how you use it and what level you want to reach. I am speaking from the point of reaching absolute understanding of Self and reality. It won't take you there. Shadow work is useful but it ain't awakening. Have to be clear about your goals to select the right methods. Sometimes you need shadow work. Sometimes you need nonduality.

Jesus vs nonduality? What do you think?

I don't know why, I guess I'm scared to try to realize a nondual truth (say from a strong hit of 5-MeO DMT). Something tells me I'm not going to like it... I guess because I don't feel naturally drawn to it I feel kind of like it'll be bad. I mean, I DO love certain parts of mushroom experiences but it has more to do with just feeling good on them and laughing than anything very serious... mind you there have been insights obtained from the mushroom and even some seeming magickal/psychic phenominon, but that seems kind of separate from nonduality to me.

⬆️ created in a lucid dream ⬆️ “Nonduality”. Lol. You’re hilarious! ⬆️ created in a lucid dream ⬆️

Lol why do I feel like I'm being set up here? ? Ok fine... Mu... I would have to engage thought to say 'I dreamed this' and 'my husband dreamed that'. Of course, he could just tell me his dreams and I can compare... But again I'm not trying to talk about nonduality here, unless that's just unavoidable... And, sorry I haven't made a dream board. I don't know what I've become conscious of creating besides my own suffering by believing thoughts, and sometimes pleasant things as well which can be manifested through imagination. I've been trying to become more conscious of creating during a lucid dream but it is taking alot of experimentation or just isn't possible beyond small instant manifestations.

I posted this comment on Aaron Doughty's new video: From a nonduality perspective no control = total control. That's why ACIM says that only God's will is real and separate control is an illusion. Of course, from a nonduality view God as a separate "lord" is also an ego illusion. Nobody has free will, not even God. Aaron says basically the same thing in the end but I wanted to sum it up and connect it with ACIM.

I don't like the term "neutral" because it suggests the midpoint between "positive" and "negative", which is a continuum of comparisons. This is two steps removed. We can get a step closer. For me, a better description would be "ISness". Is winning a lottery ISness? Sure it IS. Is losing a million dollars ISness? You betcha. Is bird poop ISness? Yep. How about thoughts on nonduality? More ISness. A bridge, a car accident, calculus, a fart, a toothache, sex, a turkey sandwich, joy, thoughts about unicorns. . . and on and on. All ISness. I like this term better, because it is one step closer to the absolute than "neutral". Notice "add ons". We can say things like "Winning the lottery is neutral". That sunrise is beautiful. That is a dog. . . This is all an extra step from what IS. There is simply IS. When we create thoughts like "That sunrise is beautiful", we separate the One ISness. With separation, we a creating a thing called a "sunrise" that is distinct from all other things not a sunrise. We are also creating a thing call "beautiful" that is distinct from things not beautiful. These are relative is's. A thing is relative to another thing. Yet Absolute IS has no contrast. It has no opposite. It just IS. All dualism needs at least two things. One thing and another not that thing for contrast. If I say "phone", it means not any thing that is "not phone". Yet for communication, it would be inefficient to say"not coffee cup, not sun, not TV, not hand lotion, not the letter Q, not pink, not Texas, not a toe nail. . . ". We would have to say "Not X" for an infinite number of things. This would take eternity. It is much more efficient to simply partition off a thing from the whole and simply say "phone".

Hello people I'm torn. You see, as the great Notorious once said, I am ready to die. I am very interested in dying. Mainly because I am sick of ego dictating my life with fear. I bought Martin Ball's book Entheogenic Liberation: Unraveling the Enigma of Nonduality with 5-MeO-Dmt energetic therapy. Wherein he states, one is strongly advised not to trip alone, and that using this substance can lead to negative side effects for some people. Like if they just use it once or twice, or have some real deep shit inside them which can be exasperated initially. But keep in mind he is talking about freebase. There's enough for 7 breakthroughs and 40mg spare for building up to the big day. HCL salt. And I would be tripping alone. Basically, my main concern is that this just blows my shit way out of whack and I actually end up worse off. On the flip side, it could be one hell of a transformative, healing experience. Which does seem to be the common theme. Some of you will know that my current intention with tripping (and life in general) is healing and releasing emotional blockages and trauma which is keeping me stuck. According to Dr. Ball, 5-MeO is the best for this. But then there's Lucy, whom I am on familiar ground with and have done at least 10+ journeys with since age 16. Nearly all pleasant. I guess I'm looking for a push in the right direction. Should I go for the jackpot with 5-MeO, considering I feel like I am ready to surrender myself and die or go with LSD, attempt some initial healing on a bit of a steadier ship and then move onto 5-MeO? My intuition feels conflicted and is sitting on the fence with this one. I really want the MeO, but caution is telling me to go with LSD. Any help appreciated x

Yeah, what I'm saying is impossible to imagine from your current state of consciousness. You'd need a radical change of state. Yes, time and even cause & effect collapse in nonduality such that the impossible becomes possible. Yes, you can clearly recognize that you are the entire universe happening all at once. This is nondual awakening. No, it's not any analogy or explanation. You are the whole universe happening as we speak. Just as one example, I once became conscious that I wrote every book mankind has ever created. Not only did I write all the books in the universe, I am all of them too. The pages of every book is made out of my consciousness. And this goes for everything in the universe. I am everything that could ever possibly be. All of this is direct absolute truth. Not explanation or thinking or theory. It is not even perception. It is more true than perception and more true than mathematics.

I'm no expert on it, but the whole theme of interpreting human actions as a desire for sex, sexual organs, hidden perverted sexual desires, and all the mother/father stuff is just way too overblown. A being's actions are not primarily about sex, they are about self-survival. Sex is a tiny part of that. Psychoanalysis doesn't understand this and of course it doesn't understand spirituality, self-transcendence, nonduality, epistemology, or metaphysics. Freud projected his own sexual perversions onto the world and saw in the world a reflection of his own neurotic shadow self. But just because Freud was that way doesn't mean we all are that way. In fact most of us are not. I don't find Freud's theories useful for personal development or self-transcendence. There are much better frameworks. Most self-help frameworks are better. Go grab any random book in the self-help isle of the bookstore and you will get better and more useful advice for improving your life than by reading Freud. Any book on my book list will be far better.

If our higher self is the Holy Spirit, is that compatible with Christianity? Yes, because the Holy Spirit is the topmost higher self for all of our existence, and only Christ - the way and the truth and the life - is that highest self. We as individuals can never reach that level, so that's compatible with Christianity. Our higher self in third density is our future self in fourth density. It's still the Holy Spirit that is the one driving power of our existence and our fourth density self is a result of that oneness power. So it's also compatible with nonduality.

Okay, I m gonna respond to everyone simoultaneously: @electroBeam Yeah I meditated a lot, and during the day I am sometimes able to focus on the nothingness or on the infinity (more rarely) during the day. I am not currently in the dark night of the soul, because I'm just having glimpses at infinity/nothingness. I am not close to a full blown awakening with nonduality. Feeling the infinity during meditation increases the tranquillity of being, however during the night I was feeling nauseous and then infinity came up. Is it possible that it just amplifies all subjective feelings? So that infinity + some feeling/emotion equals infinite emotion? This is what we are supposed to do with love, right? Please correct me if I'm wrong. So basically I have to surrender to it totally, my attachements also come up after perceiving the infinity, I start to realise stuff. The bad part is, when I'm not feeling too good, and some nightmare comes up with infinity. I start to tell myself: I want to suffer if bad stuff happens I don't want to be happy if bad stuff happens, and this is causing me not to be able to surrender to it a 100percent either, I have to contemplate about that even more. @Leo Gura Yes, this stuff comes up usually during the day after meditation, I think meditation brings this up, and the awareness of it makes me contemplate it. Weird shit comes up. I realised all the anxiety I developed during the last years is based on the fear of the total nothingness. I think I should use the consciousness I gained to contemplate about the stuff that comes up, and slowly continue to increase the infinity during meditation. I also realised, that it's the same infinity that came up during fever dreams as a child, that's probably the source of the negative associations my ego has about the formless. I associate it with intense distress/pain/fear, because those were the first time they came up? @Inliytened1 I noticed that the nothingness and the infinity are formless. Now I make the distinction of it, because it just feels different, I believe the infinity facet is way stronger than the nothingness, I experienced those 2 things separately within consciousness/awareness. ( I just noticed you responded to Radical and not to me). I basically just had a glimpse at infinity, a few years ago I had a full blown nondual nothingness experience. (I don't know how to call it). Now some people say "dying" feels good, for me it didn't. The process of the nothingness taking over is disturbing and the few seconds it takes to take over seems sooo long. What aspect of it am I missing? The letting go? Could I just be crazy, and deluding myself into mystical stuff, because psychosis is similar to nondual experience? @remember Yes, I stopped smoking weed, The only reason I had an awakening experience in the first place, was because of the fear, that powered the focus on the subtle nothingness I experienced. I didn't have the Concentration necessary to focus on it back then. The fear made it possible. I rarely have emotions, I experienced something last time I went for a walk in the woods, I would love to be able to combine that with infinity. Rest of the day, I feel nothing, especially when a formless thing comes up. No joy, no sadness, no fear etc. Don't know if that's a good thing, but what can I do. Lol, I'm not sure thinking too much about this stuff is helping. The essence of the Problem is: It doesn't feel good, how can I make it feel good? Because it should feel good. I guess Love? If you guys know how to increase love I'm interested in specific meditations. I'm already using the techniques about Leo's What is Love Video, however I made the commitment to try everything

Consciousness is outside of infinity. It seems like they are same thing but they are not. better ask urself- what is that desire for nonduality? what is that idea that reality must be nondual? what if it is not nondual?

@Mafortu dreams are a type of simulation. Who could refute that? So at least when I'm dreaming, I'm in a simulated reality. The main misconception is that simulated reality means inside a non organic computer, when 'human consciousness' simulates more perfectly and in high definition than any current or near future technology. So I agree with you, simulation theory and nonduality do not seem to contradict but what do I know? ?‍♂️

Thumb.. Have no idea where it comes from, I stumbled onto it and it called out to me so there it is, but it is intriguing perception-wise To the rest, no it's not BS, not at all. I'm a pragmatic guy and all that makes sense because it does make practical difference. Nonduality actually changes how my being in this reality. Although I don't follow anything blindly, my own beliefs are a mix of western practical psychology - which goes much hand-in-hand with a lot from eastern religions - and a eastern religion mish-mash and also a lot of own interpretations. But tying down to something singular, such as just Buddhism is to me dogmatic in itself and limits the way in which we can flow through life, morphing/changing. So I believe in... me, whatever me is in this very moment and I'm open to becoming whatever new me is the next, or maybe rather less me and more being. All that is likely to coincide with such teachings, and they already have, but it hasn't been a staked out goal but rather just happened - and - happening.

@purerogue Yes, of course. Nonduality is a concept in itself, a construction of the human mind. Someone has to transcend the human mind and break the limitations of what we are limited to as humans in order to really know, and that's not within the freedom of the human form. Even with the greatest insights, awakenings, enlightenment or via psychedelics it can not be ruled out that nonduality could be a concept that exists for the sole reason to keep us preoccupied with this nonsense, yet anouther layer of disillusion, a greater trick and anyone claiming otherwise might just be mentally ill. It would not matter how profound the experiences would be. If you don't want to acknowledge nonduality, you're not wrong (with a nondual twist). It doesn't mean that it's right either. So trying to argue something from two different worlds of existence, assuming nonduality is only a concept, it absolutely pointless, but then again, everything is pointless and should not be taken too serious. That concept only disappears when you believe it strongly enough and any other possibility dissappears, and then you are either right - or caught in dogma. But regardless, you are Right. In the sense you can't argue nonduality, as it applies regardless, there not being separation and what really is can never be known.

@Leonora hmmm... think nonduality means there isnt anything outside of "the one".. so a bubble in a bubble bath full of bubbles has way more going on then the unified field.. Your thoughts? I think what I was attempting to convey was multiple perspectives and how those perspectives have multiple perspectives and therefore we don't have to think "sadness" as you say is something to be sad about... i dunno.. spit balling here.. Thanks for sharing thoughts... do appreciate it..