How few are aware of their own nothingness, how few wish to be servants and to serve, and how few wish to be instruments of Him who is LOVE itself, of the All, of God (as everyone may choose to call Him).

He who, conscious of his own nothingness, surrenders himself to be consumed by divine Love, dies to himself; and is reborn as an instrument of that same LOVE, as a flame of the Infinite Light that illuminates the world.

Grace fills him and, then, the All, through his eyes (those of the instrument) looks upon creatures, through his ears listens to them, through his arms comforts them, and through his words encourages them...

And it happens that Lover and Beloved, master and servant, have melted into One. They were always One.

There was never really separation between them; the apparent distance and separation between them were only mental garbage that had to be cleaned and burned, merely stories of self-importance that the "madwoman of the house" (as Teresa of Ávila called the mind) tells herself.

Because nothing truly exists independently and inherently, by its own side. In Him, who is LOVE, we are One.

Hello everyone,

This is an interesting question. As a kid, I was obsessed with Power Rangers. I started getting into it near the end of "Dino Thunder" and "SPD" is the only series that I watched fully as it was being aired. After "SPD" was "Mystic Force". I think I watched one episode of it and never watched any more. I don't think I thought it was bad. I was just too attached to the "SPD" characters and just wanted to see more of them.

Now, as an adult, I'm super into spirituality and I'm wondering if I would have especially liked "Mystic Force" as a child. I'm curious, did any spiritual people here watch "Mystic Force"? Do you feel like it lived up to its name?

I've always had things happen to me in strange ways since I was a kid. Visions of futures or intense instincts of what was to come. As I got older, it was like believing in Santa. I didn't see as much and I ignored a lot of it. This was mostly due to the people I was around. They didn't see the world like I did so I ignored the world I knew.

Then I sustained a major head injury. During recovery, I saw A LOT. OR at least I felt a lot. In that year after my injury, I spoke with deities who led me through a mental hell scape and helped me to realize my true self to the point that made me realize I needed a divorce. They even gave me a name to use in the Universe.
It has been a rough road but also so rewarding to expand my brain.

But now the question remains; did I see these things because of the injury or did the injury open my third eye to see what I needed to see?
And to that end, did the Universe intend this or bring me to this point?

Have you experienced this? Or how did the Universe bring you to your true calling?

For the last couple of years i am navigating through The Abyss.

The question of one's Will, k&c with the hga are like the only forms of a "north star" of which its form is not yet clear to me.

I've pierced through the illusory veil of reality itself and am aware that sensation has an intoxicating effect by which perception is coloured in a way that objectivity is invalid.

What then if luck is experienced and a person experiences its bliss.

Can the understanding of one's Will be real in such a state?

​

I grew up Pentecostal, which is just Christian Chaos Magick without circles and by pure force of will and hyperstition through incantation.

Then became new age christian. Same as Pentecostal but with a much less puritanical attitude. These places are unfortunately cult factories once their charismatic political structure is disrupted.

Went atheist and studied physics and various other sciences, ended up with quantum weirdness.

Got introduced to my ancestral mystical systems, the Druids (Dŷrwüd), learning bardism and theatrics.

Eventually that led to chaos Magick and circles which was basically a slightly more satanic and selfish version of Pentecostal magic.

Went into Thelema, Then Samael Aun Veor Flavor Gnosticism, Theosophy, and kept digging.

Have you ever read the Urantia Book? That book is awesome and insane. Seriously read it.

Found Kaballah went... on a journey.

I survived, am rebuilding my sanity, and in order to reintegrate my shadow I must confront it. This is my way of binding those forces of darkness within me, which are within us all. They belong and wouldn't be there otherwise. They are defense mechanisms at their core, corrupted and polluted by our choices in a world designed to create demons in us.

Love thy thy demons and watch them become angels.

*All attached images are original spellwork.

Excerpt from Jacques Lacarrière's "The Gnostics":

"Let us examine the eye. It is round, globular; it resembles the universe as described by the Gnostics. Within this orb are set three successive circles, the eyeball (in its strict sense), the iris, and the pupil. The exterior circle is that of the white, where the small arteries and veins ramify like filamentous nebulae. The intermediary circle is the iris, speckled with contorted pigments which show configurations, blots, and patterns. Finally, there is the central circle of the pupil, the abyss of shadows wherein one may glimpse the depths of the soul and the reflection of that luminous emulsion which is the matrical trace of the divine light. Thus the eye very naturally reproduces the pattern of the universe: the sublunar circle of the pupil, the median circle of the galactic world, the exterior circle of the extra-galactic world. To look at the human eye is to grasp the pattern of the entire universe. To contemplate the eye, and lose oneself in this dark well, as if in the heart of the great ocean depths shat through with phosphorescent flashes, is to seize the ultimate nature of our existence in this world, the magical point at which man and god meet and are united."

Excerpt from Jacques Lacarrière's "The Gnostics":

"Let us examine the eye. It is round, globular; it resembles the universe as described by the Gnostics. Within this orb are set three successive circles, the eyeball (in its strict sense), the iris, and the pupil. The exterior circle is that of the white, where the small arteries and veins ramify like filamentous nebulae. The intermediary circle is the iris, speckled with contorted pigments which show configurations, blots, and patterns. Finally, there is the central circle of the pupil, the abyss of shadows wherein one may glimpse the depths of the soul and the reflection of that luminous emulsion which is the matrical trace of the divine light. Thus the eye very naturally reproduces the pattern of the universe: the sublunar circle of the pupil, the median circle of the galactic world, the exterior circle of the extra-galactic world. To look at the human eye is to grasp the pattern of the entire universe. To contemplate the eye, and lose oneself in this dark well, as if in the heart of the great ocean depths shat through with phosphorescent flashes, is to seize the ultimate nature of our existence in this world, the magical point at which man and god meet and are united."

May the light of ShMSh bridge those who see and bless them with patronage of the MLK!

PNIAEO

VTTITA

SSINAC

XVSIVI

NMMISV

ESMTAM

How long did it take you to reach mysticism and manifesting things into your life that you put out to consciousness? It seems cut off from me despite a lot of effort. Neville Goddard says the only thing that delays it is doubt but how do I erase doubt? I have no signs to keep me going. How does one speed this up? How does one have blind faith? Background below. I appreciate any help and guidance! With love and gratitude.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ive been chanting on and off since 2019, have done versions of vision boarding since watching “The Secret” in 2006, and meditating daily since April 2026. I did a little meditation before but never long / never consistently. Ive done a lot of work on myself over the years, including talk therapy, stuff like EFT (tapping) and neurofeedback, Tony Robbins audios, fasting, etc.

I amped it up quite a bit since the start of this year. This includes multiple of Dr Joe Dispenza’s courses, breathwork, meditations, testimonial watching, and books, hypnotherapy tracks overnight, Neville Goddard lectures and audios, multiple group healings, trauma therapy like IFS, EMDR, ego state stuff, sensorimotor work, some DBT work, writing reminders everywhere to remind me of what changes I want to implement, listening to frequencies (just bought a zappkit), taking natural mood stabilizers like magnesium, chamomile, essential fatty acids and l-theanine, I practice gratitude and self-care, visualizing a scene of my dream life fairly consistently, trying hard daily to replace any thoughts feelings actions with ones my ideal self would think feel and act, etc. 

Yet, the only change so far is that I’m less reactive and a bit more calm. I have had no physical healing, no manifestations, no full or reliable change. I have moments when I feel a lot of more joy, presence, positivity, and hope but a couple hours later I may be yelling at my kids or my husband from my stress, hypervigilance, and/or old patterns (a lot less frequently and a lot less intensely than before, at least).

Actually, in one of the very first Joe Dispenza meditations that I did earlier this year I started vibrating and it lasted for I don’t know maybe half an hour, but it never happened again after that.

I have dozens of emotional and physical issues to fix and my kids are about to pass the most formative years where I could disadvantage them for life unless this speeds up. I’ve asked the quantum field to give me a sign…nothing, I’ve envisioned abundance with matching intentions and actions, yet I’ve only received more financial disappointments. 

I signed up for a weeklong Dr. Joe Dispenza retreat coming soon but will it permanently transform me or will I have spent multiple thousands of dollars that’s lost when I return and think the same thoughts, feel the same feelings and take similar actions as my old self? I can’t seem to stay in a high frequency state long enough to rewire my brain and become the person I’m striving to become.

This past week I have done a deep-dive into decalcifying and activating the pineal gland and started 4am meditations (time when the pineal gland is active). Nothing. I’m getting bored and disappointed and finding myself wanting to skip my meditations. I don’t know how to stay full of faith and positive all the time. How long is this going to go on for? I’ve spent a lot of time and energy that I could’ve been giving to my young kids and a million other important and urgent things. I’m getting impatient. Thanks again for any guidance / help. ♥️🙏

Yeah I guess I was never going to fit in Mate.

I guess I’ve done this before, I guess that why Ive never found only rediscovered.

I know I should act normal to keep normal working normally. I know that only benefits the un-normal wicked weirdo’s of the world, so I’ll just be me.

No wonder the time seems to be keeping up to me now. I look at the time and its always symbolic like I get a little miracle every time I look at my phone, clock, and watch this, it doesn’t end with the time.

For some time, been feeling aligned with the divine. Ive been seeing signs, feeling power and energy flow through my chest hands and feet. The call to do what im supposed to do. To be myself and naturally help people by genuinely being genuine.

Maybe I have genuinely done this before but never in this form of quiet strength. I mean to the point where most think I have no strength at all but are scared to look me in the eyes. Only a person gifted with spiritual vision can see me half clearly. That’s probably why I have hard time seeing myself.

This time around, I am apart of the time patrol (just a scrub frl). I dream about my Jolly Roger, but I think a spaceship suits me better now. I think I’ve sailed the seas of below for a while. Time for a change in scenery. Ive always been in charge of ragtag scallywags, abandoned by society, by themselves in most cases.

Time for me to expand my horizons. I have always been a leader, a businessman, a captain, a chef, a soldier, scientist but I think I’ve always limited myself because I hate attention. I think this time around I’m fully embracing the fact that I draw attention even when I’m not trying to. I hate being called a show off but literally fuck it and fuck you ima just be. Red flower, Red Ranger, Red Skin.

Alright time to say (allegedly), I am lion and a wolf trying to be free. Members of the highest degree have been trying to skin me since 2003. 3 degrees in their chests, hearts in the forgotten crooks of a deep freezer. They fawned after me as a child and got scared when the child did not die. They got really scared when he didn’t mentally collapse they shit their pants when he turned to masonry.

I don’t understand chess as a game and im pretty subpar. Its too restrictive to me, not real enough to factor in certain “variables”. Maybe thats why I’m undefeated when it’s not a game. The saying “I am playing chess while they are playing checkers” is funny to me. What happens when you run into someone who isn’t playing at all? What if all wars were won before they started what if all battles decided in the mind and not the field? What if it got to a point where this random post confused most readers, but there are people going to rage and squirm off this random shit. Check

I wanted to share a reflection that came out of a debate about ego, the "non-self," and the limits of the intellect when trying to process the sacred. Facing the mind's constant need to classify, structure, and seek certainty, I was reminded of those great souls who were purely mad for LOVE...

For instance, the mystic Marguerite Porete was burned at the stake by the Inquisition because her book The Mirror of Simple Souls said precisely that: that the soul annihilated in the love of God no longer needs virtues or human efforts. The religious structure of the time (the institutional mind) could not tolerate that freedom. Neither can many so-called mystics.

Likewise, Teresa of Ávila knew that the madwoman of the house (the mind) will always try to manufacture stories to make us believe we are "progressing" on our own merit, when everything is Grace.

Hi all, if you are based in the NYC area, let me know if you would be interested in joining a regular, in-person reading group centered around the mystics - especially those whose writings push against orthodoxy and convention, as well as a few secular/non-Christian thinkers who explore mysticism.

Everything from quintessential Christian mystics (like St. Teresa of Avila, St. Francis, Simone Weil, and Thomas Merton) to mystical biblical passages (like Song of Songs and Moses’s ascension of Mt. Sinai) to patristic writers (like Origen and Ephrem) to more obscure and controversial mystics (like Angela of Foligno, Marguerite Porete, and Hadewijch of Antwerp) to secular/academic/philosophical writers (like Georges Bataille, Rudolf Otto, and the Neo-Platonic school) will be explored.

Readings will be short, approachable, and manageable to accommodate everyone’s busy schedules. I have a couple friends IRL who are already interested, so I’m ready to get this thing off the ground!

This group will be about spiritual and intellectual development - no need to be an expert in any of this, just have a genuine interest and a willingness to make a reasonable effort at doing the readings and attending meetings!

I’m new to studying mysticism, but really interested, can some one tell me as a mystic what practice they do, what experience have they had a worldview perception and where do they learn is it from inner knowledge, book tradition etc

“AS LONG as subject is centred in a phenomenal object, and thinks and speaks therefrom, subject is identified with that object and is bound.

As long as such condition obtains, the identified subject can never be free—for freedom is liberation from that identification.

Abandonment of a phenomenal centre constitutes the only “practice,” and such abandonment is not an act volitionally performed by the identified subject, but a non-action (wu wei) leaving the noumenal centre in control of phenomenal activity, and free from fictitious interference by an imaginary “self.”

Are you still thinking, looking, living, as from an imaginary phenomenal centre?

As long as you do that you can never recognize your freedom.”

—From “Open Secret” by Wei Wu Wei

“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love."

—Meister Eckhart

“Whatever happens, happens to you by you, through you; you are the creator, enjoyer and destroyer of all you perceive.”

—Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Love is revelation, but revelation must not become possession.

The moment love becomes possession, control, merger, or idolization of the person, Eros dies.

How do we merge agapic and ancient erotic love?

My love centered vision is not opposed to Eros.

It is what happens when Eros becomes personal, ethical, and faithful without becoming possessive.

The revelation is that in union, the parts do not need to be destroyed.

It can’t be a love where one is enslaved by the other.

The beloved reveals the divine, but the beloved is not to be possessed as the divine.

The cosmic revelation does not bypass the person.

It comes through the person.

Through marriage.

Through tears.

Through fear of loss.

Through being humbled by love.

Through another human being becoming part of the chisel.

Eros shines through human love, without human love trying to capture it.

Communion, not fusion.

Two become one, not by ceasing to be two, but by participating in one shared mystery.

Love does not erase distance.

It sanctifies distance.

There is always a distance between two people, even with great love, a mystery.

We remain two, and yet something greater than either of us appears between us.

We can never possess real love, we can only reveal it through our communion.

Eros reveals.

Agape remains.

The cosmos is not explained by love as an idea.

It is revealed through love as an event.

And we participate in that event whenever we love without possessing, surrender without disappearing, and behold the other without trying to reduce them to ourselves.

I feel this is what life means and why we have appeared.

Where there is no event, there is no need for time and space.

Time and space make events cognizable.

The one who thinks he is standing at the center, loving, choosing, possessing, fearing, seeking, and saving himself is not real in the way he imagines.

Love is not something the ego manufactures.

Love is what shines when the false center stops interfering.

I have come to a great realization in my life.

My ego was the imaginary center, but is no longer pretending to be the doer.

Chuang Tzu wrote:

“Bye and bye comes the Great Awakening, and we find that this life is really a great dream…

Then we are embraced in obliterating unity. There is perfect adaptation to whatever may happen–and so we complete our allotted span.”

With only don’t know, love is immediate. Before I explain love, before I possess love, before I define love, before I build a theology of love, love is functioning.

That is doing not doing.

I do not know what love is.
I cannot possess it.
I cannot explain it fully.
I cannot make it mine.
And yet here it is, moving through me.

The beloved is not “mine,” and yet love is real.

Love is the fire.

The beloved is the image.

The self-center is the smoke.

When the smoke clears, the fire was always burning.

Remove everything that is not love.

Then remove the one who claims to possess love.

What remains is not emptiness.

What remains is the eternal revelation itself.

It is where there is no looking or thinking.

There is no one to even look or think.

Not finding is finding.

Whatever you think you are seeing is what is ultimately looking.

The observer is a factor in any experiment undertaken.

The self that speaks does not know, and the no-self that knows does not speak!

No you exists, only I.

No self has ever been enlightened, they can only become transparent.

Now answer the crying heart in front of you.

Metaphysics and the multiverse. The universes proof of a master artist. God in this realm and others. Seers, Mediums and How to channel God and Spirit through universal vibrations, pulses, and frequencies., Heightened Conscious and how to heighten it even more with sound, herbs, fungi’s and do so more safely if such a way. Tripping or evolving with whippet chargers. The ties between pain and being alive. Why do I only feel alive when I’m in pain? Hegel’s philosophy on duality. Akashic records… with sound, herbs, fungi, and more safely if such a way. The ties between pain and being alive. Hegel’s philosophy on duality. Akashic records… Qabalah, occult knowledge. How life teaches us our own philosophy as well as what previous other philosophers have tried to teach us all throughout history’s past. Resurrection through tearing internal walls down by surrendering all. Life after death, fighting fear and evil with mental, physical, and spiritual strength through trial and error. How we should walk in obedience without understanding if we are to have the faith we need. As well as everything in between. Please. Any and all race, culture, gender and culture, gender and insight welcome. Light the lamp.. Mysticism awaits us all
Look in comments for threads and more topics.

Metaphysics and the multiverse. The universes proof of a master artist. God in this realm and others. Seers, Mediums and How to channel God and Spirit through universal vibrations, pulses, and frequencies., Heightened Conscious and how to heighten it even more with sound, herbs, fungi’s and do so more safely if such a way. Tripping or evolving with whippet chargers. The ties between pain and being alive. Why do I only feel alive when I’m in pain? Hegel’s philosophy on duality. Akashic records… with sound, herbs, fungi, and more safely if such a way. The ties between pain and being alive. Hegel’s philosophy on duality. Akashic records… Qabalah, occult knowledge. How life teaches us our own philosophy as well as what previous other philosophers have tried to teach us all throughout history’s past. Resurrection through tearing internal walls down by surrendering all. Life after death, fighting fear and evil with mental, physical, and spiritual strength through trial and error. How we should walk in obedience without understanding if we are to have the faith we need. As well as everything in between. Please. Any and all race, culture, gender and culture, gender and insight welcome. Light the lamp.. Mysticism awaits us all
Look in comments for threads and more topics.

From what i have experienced id say awakening comes in 2 forms. One form is a realization of profound truths that unravel reality into noticable patterms which allow you to look deeper into the hows and whys of everything like a phylisophical science (an example of one of these truths is that love is a fundementally eternal force that connects all and is also the soil in which hope seeds) The second form id say comes from an experience that shows you that something much more entangled with conciousness exist. (Like a out of body experience). With this being said i think awalening is hard to bring upon yourself i think almost always the universe has its way of bringing it to you. Im curious to hear what you sould define as awakening though is it the same or different?

There is so much misinformation about Ìtẹ́fà like the sacred process of discovering and aligning with one’s destiny through Ifá. The internet often reduces it to superstition, fear, rituals without meaning or sensational stories designed to attract attention. What many people never hear is that Ìtẹ́fà is deeply personal. It is not entertainment. It is not a shortcut to power. It is not something that can be understood through viral videos or dramatic folklore.

For me, it became one of the most transformative experiences of my life cos it wasn’t simply a ceremony that lasted four days.

The journey had already begun long before I realized it.

About a month before my Ìtẹ́fà, my partner looked at me one afternoon and said something that stayed with me. She said, “There is so much chaotic energy manifesting around us.”

At the time, neither of us fully understood what was happening.

When she mentioned it to one of our spiritual teachers, my Oluwo’s son we both lived with at the temple, his response surprised us. He said, “Yes! It is possible the journey has started a month before the rites were done.”

Those words didn’t make complete sense then, and now they mean everything.

As the days passed, I noticed something that challenged everything I thought I knew about spiritual strength. Despite years of spiritual work, sacrifices, prayers, discipline, protection and healing, I found myself confronted by battles I believed I had already overcome.

Old wounds resurfaced.

Old fears returned.

Temptations I thought no longer had power over me suddenly stood directly in front of me.

The test wasn’t whether I possessed spiritual power. The test was whether I had truly become the person I believed I was.

No one announced that I was being examined and there was no warning or a voice saying, “This is your test.”

Life simply presented me with choice after choice and every decision became a crossroads.

Would I become the version of myself my past created?

Would I surrender to fear?

Would I return to habits that once defined me?

Or would I choose the person my Ori had already chosen before I came into this world?

That was the real battle!

Long before I underwent Ìtẹ́fà, I had been taught that every choice carries consequences. My teachers had given me knowledge but during this period they could not make my decisions for me.

Knowledge had to become wisdom.

Teaching had to become character.

Faith had to become action.

I had to walk without someone constantly pointing out the next step.

Looking back, I now understand something that many people misunderstand about Ifá.

Cos sometimes the greatest initiation is not what happens inside the shrine, it is what happens inside you.

I was tested through my gifts.

I was tested through my weaknesses.

I was tested through my deepest fears.

I was tested through the desires of the world and the quiet calling of my spirit.

Again and again I had to ask myself:

Who am I becoming?

Am I building my life with the gifts I have been entrusted with or am I using them to satisfy my ego?

Am I living according to society’s expectations or according to the destiny my Ori accepted before I entered this realm?

Those questions became more important than comfort.

There were moments I cried.

Moments I doubted everything.

Moments when I felt exhausted.

Moments when I wanted certainty instead of faith.

Yet something deeper kept pulling me forward and my Ori continued to lead even when my physical eyes could not see the destination.

That is perhaps one of the greatest lessons I have learned:

“FAITH IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF CONFUSION.”

Faith is choosing to keep walking while confusion surrounds you.

Many of us grew up watching stories of heroes entering sacred forests, facing trials in search of hidden treasures. We’ve seen the same journey in Doctor Strange, Agatha All Along and many other films.

What I never imagined was realizing that life itself is that journey.

The forest is within us.

The trials are real.

The treasure is self discovery.

The greatest magic is not found in fantasy, it is found in discovering who you truly are and that realization changed everything for me.

One of the greatest misconceptions about Ifá is that spiritual experiences are identical for everyone.

They are not!

The internet often encourages people to compare journeys, memorize taboos, imitate experiences or assume that someone else’s path should become theirs.

But Ifá teaches individuality.

Each person has an Ori.

Each person has an Odù.

Each person has a unique destiny.

Comparison only blinds us to our own path.

As the wisdom of Ifá reminds us, character (Ìwà Pẹ̀lẹ́) is the greatest sacrifice.

Spiritual knowledge without good character is incomplete and our destiny is fulfilled not merely by what we know but by how we live.

Today, I carry a profound gratitude for the Odù that gave birth to me cos knowing my spiritual identity has not made me feel superior to anyone.

It has made me feel responsible.

Responsible for living in alignment with my destiny.

Responsible for protecting the gifts entrusted to me.

Responsible for becoming the person my Ori accepted long before my physical birth.

I give thanks to Ọ̀rúnmìlà, the divine witness of destiny, whose wisdom continues to guide humanity through every generation.

I give thanks to my Oluwo, my guide, my teacher and my spiritual father for walking this path with sincerity, patience, wisdom and genuine love.

Destiny may be written but those whom Olódùmarè sends to help us along the way also choose to answer that calling.

For that, I remain deeply grateful.

Above all, I thank Olódùmarè 🙇🏽‍♀️ for choosing me, for preserving me, for carrying me through every unseen battle and for reminding me that what once made me feel different from the world may very well be the very thing I was created to become.

This journey has humbled me more than it has empowered me.

It has taught me that true spirituality is not about appearing mystical.

It is about becoming authentic.

It is about aligning with destiny.

It is about surrendering to Ori.

It is about building gentle and noble character (Ìwà Pẹ̀lẹ́) cos no spiritual gift can replace it.

If someone asks me today what Ìtẹ́fà truly is, I would not begin by describing rituals.

I would say it is the courageous journey of remembering who you were before the world told you who to become.

Signed,

Ìyánífá Ifábùkọ́lá

https://youtu.be/qECUZUTPRVE?si=jaVLSWLi9En82_Pg thought id post my gnostic channel open to criticism

I am the cyclops.

I have one eye, i cannot see depth.

nether can the Eternal I.

For, Like a fish only knows water, the Eternal I is all insides. Depth is all that’s known (knowledge).

by Dean

"Mind" is simply the activity of Awareness. Awareness and Mind are not two. The activity of Awareness (Mind) is that which divides reality into a multiplicity of objects.

Mind "conceptualizes". This is why Mind cannot know truth directly because reality(awareness) itself does not fit into a conceptual frame. Concepts do not truly exist outside of the illusion of their appearance.

What is a Concept? For example "Left" or "right" is a concept. "Left" doesn't truly exist. When you turn and face what is considered to be your Left, now what was considered Left is considered forward, and what was considered backwards before the turn is now considered your "Left". You could say "yes but my Left arm is always my Left arm" true but from my perspective youre left arm is the right arm vice versa.

Hence there is no True "Left, Right, Up, Down". In space there is no North, South, East and West. Those are concepts created on earth derived from the labeling of magnetic poles. Magnetic poles to not exist because of the label N,S,E,W,... Labels exist because of the Magnetic poles.

It is the same with Time. Time does not truly exist. It is a concept of Mind like left and right, up and down. The Now, right Now is all that exists. All actions happen "now". Thats why when Mind is dropped we experince "Now". And even when we are a Mind in the concept of time, when is it occuring? NOW. Things do not appear to change, shift and evolve because "Time" exists. Because things appear to change, shift and evolve, Now, the concept of Time appears to exist. Thats why it can be 12pm Monday in america allwhile its 1pm Tuesday in Asia. All concepts of time taking place Now. Time is always derived from Thought, Thought says "i did that yesterday. Tommorow I will go to the store" allwhile everything that is ever occuring happens Now.

Hot and Cold are not two, they are concepts. On a thermometer we can recognize that from 90 degrees down to say 20 degrees it is but lesser or more degrees of the same one phenomenon, Heat. By law of thermodynamics there is no such thing as Cold but lesser or more degrees of Heat. Thats why when you touch something super Cold it Burns, feels Hot. "Cold" is just a lesser degree, less movement of the phenomenon of Heat. Temperature is one phenomenon, Mind divides it in Two.

It is the same with Darkness and Light, they are not separate or two. Darkness is not an oppisite of Light, it is an absence of Light. There is great difference between oppisites and absences. If darkness was an oppisite of light i could take a handful of darkness and toss it on a candle to put out the light. But I cannot, it is not an opposite of light, it is an absence of.

It is the same with Love and Fear. They are not two. Like Darkness is an absence of Light, Fear is but an absence of Love. Love feels warm like the presence of Light. Fear feels cold like the absence of Light.

Reality is Nondual, not two because Awareness is Reality and Awareness does not fit into a Conceptual frame.

Much love. Be Most Excellent to eachother. ✌️🧘‍♂️👁

I've spent a long time reading and sitting with mystical texts, Simone Weil most of all, well before I turned any of it into academic work, and that engagement has become central to my current PhD research on the philosophy of psychedelics. I recently gave a talk (later published as an essay) at a psychedelics conference trying to bring some of that reading to bear properly rather than just quoting Weil once and moving on. It's the first time I've shared this kind of work publicly, and I'd genuinely like pushback from people who've spent real time inside a contemplative or mystical tradition, since that's exactly the kind of scrutiny this argument needs.

There's a recurring bind whenever mystical experience meets a scientific frame, and psychedelics research has fallen straight into it. One reflex reduces the experience, "that's just your default mode network going quiet," as if naming a mechanism cancels the meaning. The opposite reflex treats the experience as proof that reality is secretly panpsychist or that materialism has been refuted. Both moves, I'd argue, share a hidden premise: they treat the mystical as a yes/no claim about whether you touched something real out there, and then fight over the verdict. I think that premise is what needs to go, not either side of the fight.

The alternative I reach for is participatory rather than propositional: meaning is neither simply found in the world nor projected onto it, but co-constructed in the meeting of self and world, so the sacred isn't a supernatural object you either did or didn't contact, and it isn't a private feeling either. It's closer to your base orientation, the thing in light of which everything else takes on weight, disclosed through participation rather than verified like a fact. Weil is doing real work here, not just as a source of a good quote: "absolutely unmixed attention is prayer" is, on my reading, a claim about exactly this, that the highest form of attention just is a mode of participatory contact with the real, achieved by unselfing rather than by asserting a proposition about what's out there. The letting-go she describes, releasing the ego's grasping so the real can appear undistorted, is the same structure I use to explain why psychedelic dissolution needs to be followed by a directed reorganization rather than treated as the whole event: the loosening opens the space, but what fills it is a question of sustained attention, not a fact settled by the loosening itself.

The tension I keep sitting with, and would like this community to press on hardest: does refusing the "real or not real" question honor mystical experience by getting its actual grammar right, or does it quietly deflate it, telling the mystic their encounter was never about contact with anything beyond themselves? I lean toward the first, that participation is a richer category than true/false, closer to what Weil and the apophatic tradition are actually pointing at than either the reductionists or the metaphysical revisionists manage. But I know this can read as a dodge, a way of avoiding the ontological question rather than answering it, especially for traditions where the mystic insists on a real, and not merely disclosed, encounter with the divine, an actual meeting rather than an altered mode of relating. Does the participatory framing keep faith with that kind of claim, or does it quietly substitute something thinner for it?

I’m not sure if this is the right place for this post, apologies if not.

I used to have these experiences as a kid, experiences that I never thought to tell anyone about because I assumed everyone had them. The last one I remember was in high school. I started thinking about them recently after losing my oldest son (30). His death has shattered me and caused me to wonder about everything. In any case, I asked my wife (my son’s step mom), his brothers (26 yo fraternal twins), and a grief counselor I’m seeing. All said no, they’ve never had it. Also, I'll add that I've always been a kind of reluctant empiricist - someone who'd like to believe in a/the divine but whose brain continually says, "welllll, let's look at the data".

Anyway, I’ll describe the last of these kid experiences that I remember:

I was sitting on the school bus ready to head home. The bus hadn't left the high school parking lot yet. Everything was normal, average, which means that I was feeling just OK.

All of a sudden I felt a wave rush over me, almost like a shiver, and I knew that absolutely everything would be OK, that I was perfectly safe forever, that any problem I had was solvable, that the world and my future was golden, that I was held in absolute love, and that I would live forever.

That feeling didn't last long, only a few moments, but it's something that I experienced a number of times as a kid and never since then. And after it happened, I'd sit there for a moment thinking, “dang, that was amazing”, but before long I'd be back to the way I was, in my regular humdrum life. Also, when I say “knew” I don't mean in a provable way, but as something I knew to be true to the depths of my soul, at that moment anyway, if that makes any sense.

When I was younger (I'm now 62), I traveled a lot. I've been on mountaintops, I've sailed the Pacific, I've scuba dived over beautiful reefs, I've been in love, I've seen amazing sunsets, I’ve witnessed the birth of my children; in other words I’ve felt incredibly deep awe before, many times, but these experiences were categorically different.

your mind is not in your head; ego death, the afterlife, and trust in god

The prophet, peace be upon him, once said “Die before you die.” He referred to dealing with the ego as a war, “the great jihad.” Life truly begins at death, with the afterlife among the martyrs and saints. Most world religions feature Images of an afterlife within which the virtuous are rewarded for their spiritual efforts and get to level up or at least get another life. The spiritual inversion here is to say that life as it is lived by ordinary people is like death, and that the spiritual life is the real one.

Those who have ears to hear may understand that ego death is not actual death at all, it is rebirth into a higher consciousness of life, a change so dramatic as to make one’s previous existence similar to death or sleep. The “afterlife” is life after ego.

The buddha fruit depends on ego death, but even if one is convinced this is desirable, how would one go about it?

Like the bald boy said, “Only try to realize the truth.” (“What truth?”) “There is no spoon.” The ego doesn’t die, there simply is no ego to begin with. The illusion fades away like mist in the sun.

The ego is drilled into us as toddlers. We are told what sex we are, race, nationality, creed, tribe, social class etc and encouraged to create an identity around those expectations. The ego thus created is subsequently conditioned by every encounter.

What are we really, if not the ego? More to the point, if we are not the ego, as we are told and many spontaneously realize, how do we break the illusion and see the truth simply and obviously?

Averroes interpretation of aristotle led him to conclude that individuals are actually participants in a group mind. Every person in a language group participates in the formation of the language and uses it as context for thought and ideation. Without language - and other animals have their own languages and group minds - we wouldn’t “know” any “thing,” couldn’t describe its nature and use. As rumi said, “Through language I know a friend.”

Chuang tzu said, “A snare is used to catch a bird. Once the bird is caught, the snare is forgotten. A fish-trap is use to catch a fish. Once the fish is caught, the trap is forgotten. Words are used to catch meaning. Once the meaning is caught, the words are forgotten.” We forget words when we cease communicating, stop captioning existence. We forget others, and thereby forget the self. True communion is wordless even when words are spoken.

Now we get to the trick. Your mind is not in your head. Your mind is not in your head.

Your mind is not in your head. Your mind is like the mycelium that underlies and unites the whole forest. Your head is like a mushroom. (Oh yes! I am a fun guy!)

So, if our mind is “out there” and encompasses all we perceive and all we can imagine, then working on our mind, changing our mind, is changing apparent reality. But there is no “who” changing it, no individual self acting autonomously. We collectively change what we collectively think and do. Each blood cell in a body’s circulation has its own life span and chores to perform, and doesn’t think beyond them, but collectively it’s a blood stream maintaining the organism. A leaf which grows in the spring and falls off in the fall and becomes mulch is as much a part of the tree as the wood which outlasts generations of animals. It has an individual function and a collective purpose.

Here is where trust in god becomes key, what zen calls. “trust in mind.” We might call individual existence the “human being” and the entirety of existence as represented by our mind (and all that is in it) “god.” We know we personally make lots of mistakes and have plenty of illusions but the world as it appears to us follows physical laws and can be trusted to be consistent. The kingdom of heaven can be trusted, the stars stay in their courses, time and tide wait for no man.

The human mind is life affirming by nature. The human mind was born to this environment and evolved in it over millions of years. Left to itself it reflects reality quite well in the form of existence.

Reality is infinitely far beyond the human mind. Our existence, our mind is composed of what benefits us, and what to avoid. This is providence, and creation.

The ego assumes it knows what it wants, plots to get it, and fails. Without ego we don’t know what we want let alone how to get it, but without effort all things happen for the best.

The ego is not destroyed, beaten, annihilated or whatever. It’s like the end of childhood, knowing independence. Instinct, intuition, innocence. Ramakrishna likens ego to a little dog wanting your attention. Ignore it long enough, don't feed it or pet it, and it will go away.

Trust in mind is the elimination of doubts. One doesn’t identify with god any more than one identifies with self. With no distinction there is no identification. One just lets the whole thing work without monkeying with it.