I'm a teen, very new to spirituality; Should I even be viewing Leo's content?

[Magnanimous]

Should I????????????????

It's been quite radical sometimes.

[SamC]

The answer depends not on you or your age,  it depends on your desrires. I started following Leo at 17/18 but in the beginning I mainly watched his other personal development stuff.

Actualized.org is a goldmine, not only for spirituality but also for practical self help advice and wisdom. If you feel like it's too much though, I think you should follow that hunch and atleast postpone watching his deep videos about spirituality for now while at the same time watching his more practical videos. I had a period where I litterly said, fuck this scary shit but then my curiosity made me come back to it when I was more ready.

Follow your intuition bro, let that be your own guide but also be aware of how your ego can trick you to never come back to this in the future. Keep spirituality as a possibility for when you want to pursue it, don't close the door entirely if you decide to close it for now.

Edited May 25, 2022 by SamC

[Magnanimous]

7 minutes ago, SamC said:

The answer depends not on you or your age,  it depends on your desrires. I started following Leo at 17/18 but in the beginning I mainly watched his other personal development stuff.

Actualized.org is a goldmine, not only for spirituality but also for practical self help advice and wisdom. If you feel like it's too much though, I think you should follow that hunch and atleast postpone watching his deep videos about spirituality for now while at the same time watching his more practical videos. I had a period where I litterly said, fuck this scary shit but then my curiosity made me come back to it when I was more ready.

Follow your intuition bro, let that be your own guide but also be aware of how your ego can trick you to never come back to this in the future. Keep spirituality as a possibility for when you want to pursue it, don't close the door entirely if you decide to close it for now.

Thanks bro. Really good advice

[Cyrene]

Watch Leo’s Burning Through Karma

[Yarco]

If a younger cousin or someone I cared about knew I was into Actualized.org content for years and asked me this, I would tell them to avoid the past year or two of content because it could mess them up psychologically. Without even talking about solipsism, there are a lot of traps and delusions you can fall into if you jump straight into the deep end without years of preparatory knowledge and practices.

The simplest lesson plan I could make would be to sort all the videos oldest to newest, and watch no more than 4 videos per week and integrate the teachings as you go. Connect with Leo as another confused 20-something human before you try to connect with him as a God.

If you're curious what everybody is talking about here you can watch the spiritual enlightenment playlist, but be very careful.

[Eph75]

@Magnanimous

If anything, Leo's videos is a journey, just like it is for all of us. 

It might be tempting to skip to the end (current position on his journey), due to instant gratification and all that. 

Don't. 

You have your own journey to take which will be fairly represented by watching Leo's videos from day one, and not stressing through them to get to today.

This journey is one that takes many years, if you want to embody the information conveyed, through own experience. 

Knowledge is useless if you don't make the changes in your life. I daresay most people here are in for mental maturation moreso than changing themselves. 

Slow down, start from the beginning, and make sure that you embody the developmental opportunities that show up. 

It's not even certain that you will be taking all of this journey. The most important parts for you are the ones at the beginning. 

Once you get change going you will have your own path unfolding before you. That's more important than following Leo. 

Start there. 

Edited May 25, 2022 by Eph75

[Dryas]

Welp, you probably can't help your curiosity at this point. Just don't obsess over the advanced metaphysical content too much, watch older videos, take other perspectives, don't turn it into an ideology etc. This is stuff Leo already says in his videos but its easy to overlook.

Although I guess this applies to every age group if you're just starting out on personal development.

[Erick]

If you decide to dive deeper into spirituality, please understand that not everyone is ready to awaken and that even though you think you want enlightenment you sometimes actually don't (or at least are not ready for it)

Don't ever throw your life away to persue this, always maintain a balanced life because if you ever lose that balance it's very hard to get it back. 

Leo's content is amazing and life changing, but because it is so potent you might need some breaks from it when you feel like it's too much. So like I said, balance is key.

Good luck with everything.

[Egodeathrow]

It was exactly what I needed and I found Leo’s videos in 8th grade right when I first stated to become existential, Although I was watching all of the practical meditation videos so really that no bullshit guide to meditation and all of Leo’s meditation practice videos in like 2017 and earlier mostly lead me running in circles, Now Leo has a much more nuanced and god awakened idea of meditation, Not like sit down rigorous meditation, I mean you can do it but it’s not necessary, Anyways it really just depends on how deep you are willing to go, I was able to handle quite a bit even as my identity would begin to crumble I was able to have cessation experiences as early as 14 years old but I have always been openminded to the paranormal and I have been astral projecting and having higher consciousness experiences and awakenings even since I was a really young child so I have felt these state changes before and have been pretty successful at manipulating my altered states, I am 18 now btw

[Raze]

I recommend looking into Shinzen Young’s content and building a solid meditation practice. It increases exponentially over time, starting it now and keeping up with it will transform your life.

And julienhimself and Owen cooks content to build a healthy stage orange work ethic.

Edited May 25, 2022 by Raze

[caspex]

In addition to what people have already said, I want to add that it is important to first develop a good feeling of your ego by being egotistical before you dissolve it. This is because certain lessons are only learnt that way and the alternative is just a bunch of going back and forth. If you get into spirituality as a teen there is a good chance your personality/ego isn't fully formed in your head, and if already start dissolving it, yeah it'll be way easier than if you were an adult, but that also means you feeling like there is no foundation to your being. Don't get me wrong, if you are interested you should definitely reach ego deaths for the sake of curiosity a bunch of times. But remember it also important to build that foundation. Developing a self is part of the process for a reason. 

This is just advice for ego-deaths and reaching no-self as a baseline, since that's where I am at right now. Anything higher may involve the same process.

 

[vladorion]

Watch Leo for entertainment, kinda like how you read trip reports on erowid.

Edited May 25, 2022 by vladorion

[Breakingthewall]

I would see them, but with an important point: in matters of metaphysics, God, etc. don't believe what he says. not because it is not true, but because in spirituality any belief is the opposite of what we are looking for. this is difficult as he makes very precise descriptions.  take it as a mental exercise to make your limits more flexible. in spirituality you don't have to believe anything. you have to experiment

Edited May 25, 2022 by Breakingthewall

[kray]

15 hours ago, Magnanimous said:

Should I????????????????

It's been quite radical sometimes.

don't...first focus on career, hobbies and ultimately life purpose. Stop finding spirituality, it will come to you when you need it the most. As a teenager, you have little to even no attachments, so you need to attachments to appreciate the "detachment" of worldy affairs. I would say wait until a time when you need that insight, and its very dependent on the individual for when that time comes. Generally, wait until around your mid 20s, and get some actual worldy experience. You shouldn't be worried about detaching from society and being a recluse, but rather actively getting involved with society. This is just my honest opinion. 

[Thought Art]

I would avoid the deep spiritual stuff. Screwed me up in my early 20s. Now, I’m trying to recover. 
 

The practical stuff helped. But, some of the deeper stuff totally confused me. I made poor choices based on it.

[Aaron p]

@Magnanimous just be aware of the fact that psychedelics are extremely powerful if you intend to use them. I know leos reccomended in the past not using them till you get to a certain age. Like any extremely powerful tool, gotta treat them with care and understand what it is they actually do and how they behave. They remove behavioural patterns basically and increase existential  fluidity. But building a life requires an equal amount of building up of effective behavioural patterns.  So just understand what they do and contrast  that against what your trying to achieve.

[Kensho]

Take it step by step. Start from his earliest videos and besides the content, watch his evolution. Get to know his worldview, and see how it resonates with you.   Follow the content that is as above your level as you can intuitively understand it and feels challenging.  

It's essential to develop high-grade critical thinking while being very open-minded.

Don't get stuck in theory. For example, when he says in the "positive affirmations" video, "do your affirmations for two months", do them!   

Meditate daily and wait for psychedelics till your 20s.

 

[Thought Art]

Focus on being practical, long term thinking, and building a work ethic and foundation of education and experience. Leo has videos for young people and the life purpose course.

 

The spiritual stuff… isn’t until you are older. 
 

[Visionary]

Remember to stay grounded. Give lots of attention to physicality and your physical existence. That's the best way. Or else you will be completely disconnected from physical life.