Can Leo's videos be harmful?

[Ethan_05]

I purposely stopped watching Leo's videos for a few months because I realized that Leo's content was having a bad influence on me. Not in the sense that what he's talking about is dangerous, but you have to admit Leo is a very persuasive guy, and his content was making me fall custom to developing new belief systems around Nonduality and my worldview was conceptually switching to nonduality even though that's not possible, but my worldview was shifting to a false, conceptual view of nonduality.

People are probably going to reply with how developing ideologies and new belief systems is the wrong way to go about it, and I know. But do you guys think that many people that comment on Leo's videos and most talk in this forum are extremely influenced by leo's views and don't yet have a solid spiritual understanding so they bicker back in forth over their enlightenment ideologies, or what they think about spiral dynamics, etc. etc. etc. I doubt than nearly any spiral dynamics posts were being written before leo made those videos on them.

Not trying to like confront people, just curious to think about when viewing the path and how much work we have to put in on our own instead of creating beliefs and what can happen when we don't have spiritual experience but follow our ego's agenda down the spiritual path. (I personally haven't had any major spiritual experiences, just a few short glimpses.)

[Bluebird]

Quote

bicker back in forth over their enlightenment ideologies

No doubt.

Leo's content is only useful to the degree that you do the work and bring it into your own reality. The videos are for sure a distraction to me at this point, yet I continue to watch them since I'm addicted to learning new information.

Just do the work, don't worry about others.

[TheAvatarState]

@Ethan_05 Of course people turn it into an ideology without doing the work. Leo says that in almost every video! 

Be mindful about it, but don't judge other people or use this as an excuse to not do personal development because the traps are real and potentially dangerous. There's nothing inherently harmful about his content, it is up to the user to use it responsibly. Leo didn't force you to watch it! You click the video, you sit there for hours and soak it in, and it's entirely your personal responsibility after that.

It's like if there's an instructional video on how to fix your computer, that video isn't "dangerous" if you end up breaking your computer by doing something stupid while following it. Leo is very careful to remind you of the traps on this path, it's all baked in to the videos. And even if he didn't do that (he didn't have to), it wouldn't be his responsibility for whatever happened to you.   

[thesmileyone]

What's the worst that can happen? Your body dies and you get a new one...

Last night my body had a hypoglycemic episode, the blood glucose meter read "Lo" which means "get to a hospital NOW" and it just faintly amused me, drank some orange, and as with all things, it arised and passed. There was no fear, because it is just the body. You are eternal.

Allowing the mind to get in the way of progress by worrying that information is misleading is perhaps the ultimate barrier in spiritual progress.

[purerogue]

You can and will fall pray to your own belief systems anyway, with someones content, or without, as your mind will make its own ideas.

I can't really say if there is anything bad in it , I have changed my perspectives so many times, that it has made it  much easier to see traps my mind makes.

You should  not take his content as true until you have got there yourself and for sure do not go in with beliefs of how it should be, that is your work to find out for yourself, it does not mean that there is no useful information that will not infest your mind with beliefs without first hand experience, anyway it is more about how you go about it. 

 

 

 

[Gabriel Antonio]

Interesting topic.

Yes, his content can be harmful especially to unstable individuals. For example, a suicidal person might do something really bad if he hears Leo say that “death is amazing” (or something of that sort).

I understand where Leo is coming from, but people can misinterpret things very easily. Some things he say I think it’s just nonsense, but if I didn’t filter what he says, I could accept those things blindly.

And I agree with you that people are building a whole belief system around nonduality. It’s as if nondualism is becoming a religion...

[Vingger]

Leo Droga

[Rilles]

Yes. Thats why you should drop your thoughts and live in the ??

[Key Elements]

If you have to force yourself or coerce yourself to believe in something, the information will be useless to you. You'll not be able to relate to it. You will just be wasting your time watching it and hearing it over and over again. Just go and do something else. For example, if you can't understand that money can't buy you happiness, go and learn about entrepreneurship and become rich. Once you retire young, you will be wondering, "what am I supposed to do for the rest of my life?" Some ppl, when they've reached this point, and don't know what to do next, say that it's like living in a hospital. So, they turn to habits like drugs/alcohol/etc. This is learning the hard way. Ask yourself, what steps do I take to learn the life lessons in an easier way?

[Ethan_05]

6 hours ago, Gabriel Antonio said:

people can misinterpret things very easily. Some things he say I think it’s just nonsense, but if I didn’t filter what he says, I could accept those things blindly.

Great point. To me it seems that what he is saying might be profound once you've achieved a certain level of consciousness but for the layman it's just nonsense and it's helpful in growth to not turn consciousness into a belief.

[Anton Rogachevski]

A machete can be harmful, but you need it to cross a jungle.

Edited February 1, 2019 by Anton Rogachevski

[TheAvatarState]

2 hours ago, Anton Rogachevski said:

A machete can be harmful, but you need it to cross a jungle.

Well said ?

[Aakash]

all his content goes back to one phrase- the map is not the terratory. In the end all his knowledge is duality just very precise and accurate duality meaning in the end, if you do it correctly. you could have the potential of losing all your memory, whereas if you cling to the content then your clinging to the map and not the territory. 

This is the harmful way in which i understand you speak. But its 100% responsibility for the user to realise, you need it to get to a certain point and then can ditch it because all of it is in your direct experience. all his content offer thereafter, is the fact you can self improve and this is what it was initially intended for. As you would a complete full circle, that you ended up at the start where you started, wanting to improve. 

The only thing i realised is that sadhguru said something about self-help industry being destructive and can be in non dual terms because a person has to become content with who they are. Vice versa, leo content would describe this as fear of taking the greater jihad. 

both are correct, in the end because their point is the self-does not exist and point to the end of suffering. 

Edited February 1, 2019 by Aakash

[Nahm]

4 hours ago, Anton Rogachevski said:

A machete can be harmful, but you need it to cross a jungle.

That’s beautiful!

 

[Truth Addict]

@Ethan_05

+1

Leo always emphasises on balancing theory vs. practice, direct experience vs. concept, etc...

What most people don't understand is how important and critical this point is.

Whatever is claimed to be true remains an idea until you verify it, or debunk it by yourself. If people are confusing open-mindedness with blindly believing everything, it's obviously their fault.

But also in everyone's defence: where's the problem? Why shutting people up whilst only you can fool yourself?

And the answer to your question is: yes, of course. Keep drugs away from children.

[Ethan_05]

1 hour ago, Aakash said:

all his content goes back to one phrase- the map is not the territory. In the end all his knowledge is duality just very precise and accurate duality meaning in the end, if you do it correctly. you could have the potential of losing all your memory, whereas if you cling to the content then your clinging to the map and not the territory. 

This is the harmful way in which i understand you speak. But its 100% responsibility for the user to realise, you need it to get to a certain point and then can ditch it because all of it is in your direct experience. all his content offer thereafter, is the fact you can self improve and this is what it was initially intended for. As you would a complete full circle, that you ended up at the start where you started, wanting to improve. 

The only thing i realised is that sadhguru said something about self-help industry being destructive and can be in non dual terms because a person has to become content with who they are. Vice versa, leo content would describe this as fear of taking the greater jihad. 

both are correct, in the end because their point is the self-does not exist and point to the end of suffering. 

I agree. His content can help you get to a certain point, but there comes a time when you may realize that it is no longer adding the value that it once did and turns into your own personal belief system. And that's the crazy thing, the ego is so tricky because even though I've heard leo say about 100 times that the map is not the territory and that you shouldn't be creating beliefs about nonduality, for some reason this didn't resonate deep down in my mind and in retrospect I realized how much of a belief system I had and still have built up around nonduality.

I think that the overall message is that consciousness work is very deeeeeeep, and if you want to go deep and have mystical experiences than there are so many ego traps, paradoxes and tricky mind manipulations that you have to become conscious of with brutal self honesty.

Your thoughts?

[Ethan_05]

57 minutes ago, Truth Addict said:

@Ethan_05

+1

Leo always emphasises on balancing theory vs. practice, direct experience vs. concept, etc...

What most people don't understand is how important and critical this point is.

Whatever is claimed to be true remains an idea until you verify it, or debunk it by yourself. If people are confusing open-mindedness with blindly believing everything, it's obviously their fault.

But also in everyone's defence: where's the problem? Why shutting people up whilst only you can fool yourself?

I think my problem and most likely something that others have encountered as well is that if you don't have a large variety of sources on this topic then it just becomes that much easier to fall into the trap of mistaking the map for the territory. At the time that I was building up my belief system about nonduality, subconsciously that is like I wasn't purposely trying to create beliefs about mysticism, but at that time I had maybe 3 other sources other than leo (Rupert Spira, Peter Ralston, and Alan Watts) and I've realized that this is a very small sample group and to avoid the trap of belief systems it helps to have at least 15 sources where you dive deep into all the different traditions and what all the enlightened masters of history have to say.

Maybe diving into Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and other thoughts about mysticism from different religions rather than focusing on one religion or one person online like leo. 

It's all in the balance my friend.

Agree, disagree, thoughts?

[ivory]

1 hour ago, Truth Addict said:

@Ethan_05

Leo always emphasises on balancing theory vs. practice, direct experience vs. concept, etc...

What most people don't understand is how important and critical this point is.

Exactly

[Truth Addict]

@Ethan_05 if you feel like you are being indoctrinated with ideas unconsciously, then that would only mean that you haven't been practising enough (quality or quantity).

You can't (and definitely shouldn't) learn spirituality only through theory.

What needs to happen is that you have to become more skeptical and mindful, so that you don't fall into the trap of ideology. An open-mind is not a blindly-believing-mind, a healthy open-mind holds assumptions and verify or deny them through the following process:

1) Research and information collecting.

2) Wholisic understanding of the theory and the requirements for practice, also risks and side effects.

3) Inspection, meditation, contemplation, inquiry, etc... All of these will increase your awareness.

4) Experiencing and looking for actual results.

5) Learning what works best for you, what and when and where and why and how to utilise your learning to get better results.

_____

It's basically science being done by yourself on yourself. And you can't skip steps.

I hope I didn't go off-track.

Edited February 1, 2019 by Truth Addict

[VioletFlame]

If you're using his videos as intellectual artillery against someone or something else for superiority play, or if they are becoming addictive then yes.

Relying and depending too much on any information you learn can become toxic. The real benefits arrive through actual experience, that is only when the Truth will unveil. Not with what someone else says or teaches. Watching his videos are highly effective but can only go so far if one isn't practicing what they're learning on their own. If you're sitting watching the videos and not applying what you learn into your life, then it will only be counter-productive and the knowledge so kindly shared will remain as one collosal monologue of information in your mind that is not thoroughly processed. You must continue your own path of truth.?

Edited February 1, 2019 by VioletFlame