Another Critique on Actualized.org

[electroBeam]

Yep you read the title, its another cringe worthy critique on actualized.org.............. or if you're a brainwashed, adamant actualized.org follower, its another 'great insight!' or if you've been brainwashed by actualized.org's dogmas to the point of no return, its an 'ego backlash', a 'projection' of actualized.org, 'devilry', someone who hasn't gone 'full circle yet' hahahaha, someone who hasn't become a mod yet and therefore doesn't know what he's talking about. 

Because lets face it, what Leo preaches in his videos, how Leo and his followers sometimes act on this forum are 2 very different things. 

An ego backlash was meant to describe someone whose ego has overly distorted their reality after a spiritual experience, but in reality is that always how its used here? Or rather is an ego backlash a term someone uses when they have genuine critiques of certain dogmas of actualized.org, and people don't like that so they cover it up with that term?

Projection was meant to describe someone who distorts the words someone says based on their biases and beliefs, but is that also how this term is always used? Or rather is it used when someone is exposing the biases and devilry of a particular user's, or group of user's beliefs, and that user or group doesn't like it and so throws the 'projection' card?

devilry was meant to describe the illusory nature of the mind, but in reality, at least part of the time, its used to enforce a dogma of actualized.org, which is that non duality is BETTER than duality.

 

Disclaimer

These critiques are generalisations, and therefore are inaccurate by default. For if they were accurate, it would take 200 pages to write.

What's written here is not designed to persuade users one way or another, for if it was designed to persuade users, I would be falling into the trap of 'trying to be right' which is another unhealthy trait this forum sometimes has. So don't expect to get persuaded. And even if I did, the dogmas of actualized.org is so dense that plenty of egos here would find a way to twist the terminology of Leo's preachings to 'prove' I'm wrong. Rather this is an account of someone who is purging the belief system built up from Actualized.org as a whole, from his current perspective, with all of the egoic errors and shortcomings that perspective may hold. It feels right for me to give an authentic account of what I believe actualized.org is, and because its authentic I think this is something of value to share. Not to debate over though.

Also these critiques will have no evidence to support them, for firstly I am not trying to convince anyone of anything, and secondly providing evidence would give people the opportunity to distort that evidence to their, or actualized.org's mega ego's agenda and cause a debate, especially in such a hot topic like this one. I would rather people call me a liar than get into such a debate.

Also, in the unlikely event people do get persuaded by the stuff here, its not meant to be used as ammo to further corrupt Leo's preachings, or as an excuse to fall into unhealthy habits such as being lazy, procrastinating, being vicious. Nor should it be used to slander Leo in any way. It should definitely not be used to prove another side is right, such as Rational Wiki.

I expect this post to get locked, or severely criticised(assuming people read it), for if it didn't, I wouldn't be highlighting valuable critiques, I would somehow still be conforming to the dogmas of actualized.org. This should feel wrong for most people, because anything that goes against their belief system should feel wrong. And therefore I should look like a devil to most people on this forum.

The Critique

These critiques are not categorised, they are in line with the stream of thought coming out of my mind.

Some Spiritual Dogmas of What is Preached in Leo's Videos

The Seriousness of Pursuing Enlightenment is Toxic Enlightenment here is taken too seriously. There is too much enthusiasm, passion and desire for enlightenment. This causes actualized.org followers to put massive amounts of focus, time and energy on thinking about enlightenment concepts, talking about enlightenment concepts, dreaming and desiring enlightenment concepts (even though they think they are desiring enlightenment because they are not aware that there is a difference between the concept of enlightenment and enlightenment itself).

Too much passion and desire and energy around spirituality leads to actualized.org followers subtly believing the concepts without experiencing them(because they are too passionate about spirituality to not drop those beliefs), leading them to misinterpret or have the wrong ideas about what the concepts are actually pointing to..... or even worse, having a spiritual experience and then subtly misinterpreting that experience to reaffirm their incorrect and absurd notions of what they THINK not KNOW what the spiritual concept is pointing to.

Too much passion, desire and energy around spirituality leads to actualized.org followers dismissing elements of life that are not deemed 'spiritual'. What's deemed spiritual is completely relative and arbitrary, but actualized.org followers are unaware of this. Some believe everything Leo talks about (and possibly other spiritual teachers) is spiritual, while everything else, like arguing with your mum, is not. This leads to focusing on life very narrowly, not appreciating, accepting and enjoying the non spiritual elements of life. And even if they are, some are only appreciating those elements of life because they have labelled those parts of life as 'spiritual' so long as they apply Leo's teachings to those non spiritual elements of life. Whenever you label something as spiritual, you are assigning constraints on those particular elements of life unknowingly. You are assigning Leo's teachings, Leo's attitudes and values (which are purely arbitrary beliefs), your standards of what spiritual is, how you must behave in front of it, etc. To those elements of life, effectively limiting your liberation. For most people on this forum, suggesting to them that they should try to live a happy, loving, joyful life, 'unspiritual' life(a life with no spirituality whatsoever), would automatically be rejected because they have developed a spiritual ego around being spiritual.

How are these 2 toxic points sustained by Actualized.orgs's Preachings?

Multiple things, here are a few:

This passion is sustained by Actualized.org's teaching style. Actualized.org's teaching style is highly captivating, getting people sucked and in love with his content. He uses key words like 'profound', 'shocking'. Uses rational words like 'results', 'success' to describe spiritual content, which causes laymen to misinterpret them and get overly passionate about those misinterpretations. 

Elitism in Spirituality

One of Actualized.org's dogmas is projecting elitism into life. Firstly he's created a duality between what's 'spiritual' and what's 'not spiritual'. Then he's created an entire belief system around what constitutes as being 'spiritual' and 'non spiritual'. Then he's projected an elitist 'pedestal', where he places 'spirituality' way above 'non spirituality'. This belief system runs very deep and would take pages to outline, but we all know what it is because we follow him. He uses words 'high conscious' vs 'low conscious' to create a duality between superior activities, beliefs and people vs inferior ones. He specifically indoctrinates his followers to believe that 'spiritual', 'high conscious' activities, beliefs and people are better, superior, more intelligent, survive better, etc. To 'low conscious', 'unspiritual' people. Making actualized.org's followers egos try to avoid the 'unspiritual' stuff because they fear being inferior to a group of people. They have a fear of developing low self esteem from being low conscious - very very fucked up and twisted. He projects this in a multitude of ways: he implies that unspiritual people are 'monkeys', 'apes', are low on the yogic chakra system(implying the yogic chakra system is a measure of superiority), low vs high on spiral dynamics(again spiral dynamics is implying a scale of superiority). He pushes us to go up the spiral, chakra system, so that we can become more superior.

Attack and Suppression of Duality

Duality is considered inferior to non duality. Multiple critiques on rationality, western science, etc. Have been made. While critiques on these topics are valid, Actualized.org has critiqued them from his 'elitist' perspective (mentioned above). This enforces the notion that western science, rationality, is below, inferior to spirituality. This is a dogma, and its wrong. Just because scientists are wrong about Truth, this does not make scientists or science inferior. It just makes them wrong. They are as spiritual, beautiful and superior as any of us are. And besides whether they are wrong or right, science itself, as looked at as a creation of God, is not more wrong than any of Actualized.org 's spiritual dogmas that he makes in his videos, not just the ones where he's aware that its a story, even the one's he's not aware of. They are 2 sides of the same coin: duality and non duality, and neither one is more True than the other. This makes any claims he makes about some aspect of duality being superior or more true than non duality as completely dogmatic. His claim that 'Self-Love' is a higher teaching to 'warp teleportation machines' is wrong. They are both as high as each other, again duality and non duality are 2 sides of the same coin. Having such a mindset causes the problems mentioned above, but also creates an artificial spiritual ego which separates you from reality. It reduces your ability to appreciate duality and makes you opinionated about spiritual concepts, and causes you to debate and fight over non duality vs duality, which is absurd.

Elitism In The Forum

The elitist beliefs have had an impact on the way the forum works. Moderator's views are appreciated and taken seriously much more than non moderator's views, because moderators are 'high conscious' while everyone else is 'low conscious'. Followers have an urge to be Right (I don't need examples for this, surely). Because if they are not Right, they will be deemed by others as being 'low conscious', inferior, not as intelligent, not on the same page and are below everyone, below in spiral dynamics, etc. Which means egos are afraid of getting low self esteem if they are disapproved by the others (especially moderators) on here. This re-enforces and ensures actualized.org's dogmas are kept and not changed (unless Leo makes a new video then all of the dogmas switch to that, completely independent of critical thinking of the followers). If users do begin to disagree with the dogmas of the group too seriously(like winterknight) they will be controlled by being given warning points, being banned, etc. To ensure that posts are encouraged to fall in the line of dogmas of actualized.org, posts that showcase the dogmas are put as 'Featured', which re-enforces the dogmas by other actualized.org followers and encourages them make posts like that. If you want to see how these are dogmas, just look at how the beliefs of the forum changes based on what video Leo makes.

Dogmas and Collective Spiritual Ego is Reinforced by Repetitively Using Terminology, Sometimes in a Corrupt way.

Words that Leo preach in his preachings are repetitively used in actualized.org to reinforce the dogmas of the group. Its important to note that most, if any, of actualized.org followers have not experienced what the words are pointing to, and so repeating these words in the forum creates a dogmatic belief system. A lot of the words Leo uses are unique to this belief system, and are not found outside of it. 

Some words that are used:

1. ego backlash

2. projection

3. devilry

4. Going full circle: actualized.org followers use this term to describe things which have nothing to do with going full circle, or have nothing to do with Leo's original intention he wrote in his infinite insights blog. Reinforcing a dogma and distorting reality. 

5. Love: lots of times used out of context to describe beliefs and dogmas

6. vibrations

7. Creative Intelligence

etc etc etc. 

 

The Path After This Purge

This path, the actualized.org path, is finally doing me more harm then good. The more I study and practice what's here, the more suffering, delusion I go through. This belief system fundamentally doesn't serve me anymore. I'm now on the lookout for a teacher or teachings which takes the beliefs of spirituality much less seriously, laughs and enjoys life, lives a normal life rather than a 'spiritual' life, and including spirituality as part of that 'normal' life rather than the other way around, has a very minimalist lifestyle, lacks opinion (especially heavy ones), lacks talking about spirituality that much, appreciates and enjoys duality.

the way of meditation comes to mind.

 

Final Notes

Am I saying that actualized.org hasn't helped me at all and is a cult? Of course not. Infact, because of how theoretical it is, its helped me a lot. Back when I started, I was an atheist, and as an atheist I needed a teaching like this. I looked at 'the way of meditation' as being boring, because the spiritual concepts were too boring, its taken me 3-5 years to get to the point where I'm sick of such a teaching like this. 

Actualized.org nails a lot of teachings on the head, and that's why its able to be so dogmatic. Because people get complacent and start to trust actualized.org because its teachers are TOO accurate and TOO good. So in a way its a high quality teaching.

 

But its not right for me anymore, so now after 3-5 years, I'm finally leaving, to go find a 'boring' teacher that just wants to enjoy life, and doesn't take spirituality too seriously. 

 

 

[Preety_India]

There is nothing like a teacher or even a cult. Because nobody teaches you or tries to teach you anything since you are an adult. 

So you can't place blame. Every place on this planet is always going to have stuff you won't agree with. It's a matter of semantics. Everyone cannot be pleased at the same time. You are expecting perfection which is a fault. The word cult only applies if you are forced to do something against your will. Groupthink is a real phenomenon and its expected for people who think similar to have a common bondage or institution and people who don't chime on the same frequency to feel left out. This is how groupthink tanks work. That's not a definition of a cult. 

Let's not undermine how much of a great resource Actualized org really is instead of focusing on things you don't like about it. Because just because you don't like does not mean others are in the same boat. Maybe they like what you don't like. Nobody can talk in absolutes. The one way to beat around this is to simply take in things that you resonate with and leave out things you do not resonate with .

You cannot expect a system to run by your preference. It never works like that. Because if everyone had their preferences lined up, it will be impossible to find common ground. 

I'd suggest that if something doesn't chime with you, leave it out, you have no obligation or guilt to follow it. You aren't missing out on anything . Look outside and beyond but learn to integrate what you find outside with what you learn here and make your own salad. There will always be something to complain even about it teachers. 

Understand that what you learn here is just a paradigm out of many paradigms and not the absolute. 

No need to be fixated on this paradigm and get disoriented.

 

[SgtPepper]

Everyone here is just looking for truth and we all do our best.

With that said, you still made valid points. It's very easy to get caught in our bias. If anything I see this post as a good reminder to be self-reflective in how we communicate to others and what we want to say. 

[cetus]

Leo has always said don't take my word for it find what is true for you. The forum as a whole can only ever be a finger pointing.  It's on you from there.

[zeroISinfinity]

@electroBeam Well spiritual path is your own. Own it take responsability for it. It is about YOU. Practises make all the real actual difference. Of course know you are loved. ?♥️

(Hmm ?mod on forum well added that to dreamboard, but some Dreams are impossible  2 well deserved points) 

 

[VeganAwake]

Here's a quick way of summing up everything you just said: 

"It is what it is" and it's all happening within THIS...

Here's an even quicker way:

Am

❤

[TrynaBeTurquoise]

Your critique on enlightenment being taken too seriously is like saying anything which people want to take seriously themselves is being taken too seriously. There is no should/shouldn't or right/wrong being preached about reaching enlightenment. Its the opposite of that. Its a matter of personal desire, nothing being forced down anyones throat. 

You make a lot of claims on the effects of the teachings on the listeners, which is pure conjecture, jumping to conclusions. Have you witnesses any of this first hand? How many people do you know in real life that follow actualized.org are experiencing these negative life consequences? Again, there is no "how you must act". A clear theme of consciousness work is "you can do whatever the hell you want". This is even overstated, that there is nothing "wrong" being a devil or ignorant. The only reason you take the work up is out of personal desire, not because you are being told this is the objectively right thing to do. How many times has it been said that the map is not the territory, Leos teaching is pointing to something bigger, not his teachings themselves.

Duality is not considered inferior to non duality. They are equal from the absolute perspective. Its about raising consciousness to a higher vantage point. Zooming out to get the bigger picture. 

Speaking for myself, my life has improved dramatically, I have never been as fulfilled since I've started doing this work. If you don't get that out of it, no one is forcing you to stay, your energy writing critique articles could serve you better elsewhere. 

[Consilience]

So so interesting this is your interpretation of actualized.org. Tbh I don't resonate with this post at all. My life has overall dramatically improved since taking on this consciousness work, specifically with using the principles discussed by actualized.org. But two of the most crucial points I always keep I mind is the map is map the territory and don’t use one source. What Leo talks about in his videos aint it, and I dont only learn from Leo. 

This post seems like what would happen if someone didn’t balance theory vs the practices. It’s one thing to binge watch Leo’s content, it’s another to spend the bulk of your time meditating, contemplating, doing yoga, doing psychedelics and integrating your insights into your specific life as an individual. This balancing act of theory and practice is HUGE. 

Sorry that this resource seems to have created so much negativity for you to write something like this. It’s not for everyone fosho. Farewell ❤️

[Pramit]

reminds me of a quote 

"The great majority of readers and hearers are the same all over the world. I have no doubt that the people of your country. .. are like those I have met in China and India, and these latter were just like Tibetans. If you speak to them of profound Truths they yawn, and, if they dare, they leave you, but if you tell them absurd fables they are all eyes and ears. They wish the doctrines preached to them, whether religious, philosophic, or social, to be agreeable, to be consistent with their conceptions, to satisfy their inclinations, in fact that they find themselves in them, and that they feel themselves approved by them." 

[Leo Gura]

<insert Picard facepalm here>

[LfcCharlie4]

I like aspects of Actualized.org, but agree his devout followers basically agree with every word he says. 

Leo is an awesome PD teacher, his SD and Politics series were great to say the least. 

Is he a great spiritual teacher? I’m not too sure on that one yet, it’s early in his journey but right now I could suggest much “more helpful” teachers in terms of spiritual growth than Leo. 

I feel for Leo though, he’s had to teach from day 1 of his journey near enough, and let’s be real he was teaching without actually being awakened, which comes with a huge set of problems. 

If Actualized.org is your only source or has been your only source of spirituality, I feel really sorry for you, that’s all I’ll say. 

Again, amazing for PD and conceptual things, that’s Leo’s strong point.

This isn’t meant to be me slagging off Leo, I enjoy a lot of his videos and what he’s created is awesome, but from speaking with several people on here, a couple in the Spiritual community etc, and my own direct experience, and even just looking at the “results” you see on here it’s very clear that there’s much, much more effective Spiritual teachings out there. 

But as I said it’s still really early doors for Actualized.org in terms of spiritual teachings, so it would be unfair to judge overall I feel  

[Gili Trawangan]

I don't understand why someone would want to "go find another teacher". As if having a teacher is even a requirement. Just take what helps you from any given so called teacher and leave out the rest. It's all you anyway.

[Leo Gura]

There's predicable pattern that happens with students. First they fall in love with the teachings. Then after a while they fall out of love because they need to differentiate themselves to grow and become their own Self.

It's very much like a teen leaving the nest and rebelling against his parents in order to forge his own identity.

"Fuck you Dad! You don't get to tell me what to do any more!"

Okay, son. Go do what you gotta do.

I told you from the beginning not to rely on me as your only source. But you didn't listen.

It's hard for people to get that I am completely irrelevant in this work. None of this is about me. I do not matter. The one making this about me, is you. Because you deny our own authority you need some daddy figure to project it onto.

[Raptorsin7]

@Leo Gura How much longer are you going to play the role of leo gura the online personal development guru? Then what happens to this place when you decide to move on?

[Raptorsin7]

@electroBeam Why did you feel the need to post this. If you felt you are ready to move beyond the forum why not just move on in silence?

[Leo Gura]

8 minutes ago, Raptorsin7 said:

@Leo Gura How much longer are you going to play the role of leo gura the online personal development guru? Then what happens to this place when you decide to move on?

Don't worry about it. Worry about yourself and let me worry about me.

[Byun Sean]

@electroBeam This entire post just screams ignorance and a lack of doing the work yourself.

All of the critiques you listed will be resolved when you actually understand the work rather than taking actualized.org as your only source of learning.

Most of the things you critique about you have no idea what they even are. 

Any problem you have with a teacher or guru is actually your own problem. They are just spouting their teaching and walking their walk. How you use that is completely up to you.

[Leo Gura]

36 minutes ago, Byun Sean said:

Any problem you have with a teacher or guru is actually your own problem.

That's not quite true. Some teachers and gurus are genuinely abusive, ill-informed, or corrupt.

You do have to pick your teachers carefully. The wrong teacher could seriously screw you up. But just having the right teacher is also not sufficient because there are so many ways you could screw up and mis-apply the teachings.

It's wise to cross-reference teachers and teachings to make sure you cover all possible blindspots and biases.

[Raptorsin7]

@Leo Gura When people accuse gurus of mistreatment, abuse, etc. Are the gurus engaging in the behavior because they think it will help the person improve spiritually, or are they consciously and maliciously abusing people even though they know it's wrong.

There is some sick shit gurus could do to you which could ultimately be good for you because it causes so much suffering.

[Leo Gura]

12 minutes ago, Raptorsin7 said:

@Leo Gura When people accuse gurus of mistreatment, abuse, etc. Are the gurus engaging in the behavior because they think it will help the person improve spiritually, or are they consciously and maliciously abusing people even though they know it's wrong.

It all depends. There are many possibilities:

1) The guru is just an abusive asshole and a fake.

2) The guru is somewhat awakened but still full of egoic impurities, not having finished his development and mastery.

3) The guru genuinely believes he's helping his students. Maybe he is helping, maybe not. This can vary.

4) The guru is genuinely helping his students but his students take it personally, have an ego-backlash, and project a lot of their own shit on the guru. In this case the guru is totally fine, but the student is just not capable of handling the teachings. The student is in over his head and lashes out at the guru.

5) The accusations are exaggerated or entirely false. The student may misunderstand what the guru was doing.

6) There may simply be a misalignment between the guru's style and the student's style. Which could easily be solved by finding a different guru without disparaging the old guru.

All the above can happen. Rarely are things black and white. Rarely is a guru a total fake.