Posts by Anthony Rivera17

mistyfox812 The user says...
For Heraclitus, flux isn't everything... there remains a fundamental unity that transcends all that constant change...

The essence of every single day remains constant... All is one...

If change were absolute, there could be no inherent "nature" that remains consistently "one"... But Heraclitus argues that such a nature does exist, and that it stays fundamentally singular and constant...
Taj Logos... That which always remains... (1.)

Logos... It stays exactly the same, forever...

People often misinterpret Heraclitus as being a complete relativist, but that’s just not quite the case...

The conscious share a single, unified reality... (89.)

It would be quite an interesting endeavor to pose a question to Heraclitus regarding the specific sense in which the Logos remains immutable...
Does the Logos remain static in its definition, or does its very essence shift over time... or is the Logos something else entirely...
Is there a singular thread woven through everything within the totality of being, or is Logos merely an abstraction...
The envelope of this entire collection—in its very essence—is always just one... "Logos equals everything," or perhaps...
Is everything simply Logos plus whatever remains...?

casualowl1 said:Nah, you've got it wrong. I'm well aware of both sides. Tell me something I haven't heard or known before, and then maybe I'll change my mind about certain things. We just have different opinions—plain and simple. That's totally fine by me. It doesn't mean one is better or worse than the other. It's just different.

The core issue here is that you’re focusing entirely on the fallout of these wars and siding with the idea that
"the end justifies the means," without ever grasping the actual motivations of the people pulling the strings... I'm
discussing this through the lens of those specific objectives, and from where I stand, the consequences are the exact opposite of what
you claim to see... if you look at these films, they essentially distill all the
major themes found in history books, just presented through a different medium
that suggests most people are living under a massive delusion...

http://www.forum.com/showthread.php?t=297287

casualowl1 said:

I can't believe I haven't seen anyone mention this yet! It feels like such a huge topic that everyone is just glossing over. Seriously, we need to dive into this right now! kaže:
People always act like there isn't enough to go around, but honestly? That’s just a total myth. It’s not a scarcity problem—it’s just a massive redistribution problem.
No tribe, no family, no nation has ever had... Everything! Think about what people actually need just to stay alive. That’s exactly why bartering started in the first place, which eventually evolved into actual trade. Everything would have been smooth sailing if we didn't have those greedy individuals popping up out of nowhere—the ones who start hoarding goods and supplies just to line their own pockets! They aren't trying to survive; they're just looking to get rich by forcing everyone else into...

Look, we’ve got plenty today, but there was a time when things were tight. Imagine a fertile patch of land that could easily feed 100 people, but instead, you've got 150 mouths to feed. Now throw in two different tribes facing that same problem, and suddenly, war isn't just possible—it's inevitable. That kind of struggle is exactly where conflict comes from. It’s not about some grand scheme to get rich; it’s pure survival. One group had the grain, the other had the cattle, but everyone wanted both the bread and the meat. That’s the root of it all. That's where the friction starts.

I can't believe I'm even saying this, but I am totally stoked about how things are shaping up! Honestly, everything feels like it's finally clicking into place. It’s such a vibe right now! 🙌✨ kaže:
Look, there's no denying that technology has absolutely skyrocketed lately. But let's be real—wars didn't drive that progress. That wasn't the catalyst. It’s just been the natural evolution of things, fueled by the steady climb of human knowledge!
Honestly, we could totally flip the script on this one and assume that technological progress would have been even more insane if we hadn't been constantly dealing with wars!

I gotta disagree with you there. Honestly, war was the real engine behind all that. Without it, progress would’ve been way slower—that's just an undeniable fact.
Honestly, making assumptions is just asking for trouble! It’s basically the mother of all screw-ups.

I can't believe we're actually talking about this! It’s such an interesting topic to dive into. What do you guys think? kaže:
Einstein was one hell of a genius. That little anecdote really just drives home the point of where wars actually lead us.
If world leaders actually realized how completely unnecessary war is, we wouldn't be seeing it happen constantly. It doesn't even matter if the conflicts are just local disputes; there’s absolutely no guarantee they won't spiral into a massive global catastrophe. Honestly, once these power-hungry lunatics start chasing their own megalomaniacal agendas, you can't exactly stop them with "rational thinking" about the consequences. It's like that power they hold gives them this delusional sense of being invincible and immortal...

The absolute best way to guarantee things don't go totally south is that famous "balance of power" we always hear about!
The US can basically do whatever they want in the Middle East. As long as they don't start poking the bear or messing with China's or Russia's spheres of influence, they've got plenty of room to move.

When you look at a local conflict—like this whole oil war we’re seeing today—it’s pretty obvious that only a handful of people actually strike it rich while everyone else just deals with the fallout. In this day and age, the entire world ends up paying the price just because of fluctuating oil prices, yet Americans are still out here cruising around in prehistoric gas guzzlers that burn through fuel like crazy! 62 miles And they’re basically doing it for free!

To you, that looks like progress, but to me, it just feels like we're inching closer to hell... you seem far too enamored with this idea of
"advancement," so naturally, we aren't going to see eye to eye on anything, least of all when it comes to war...

casualowl1 said:In the long run, war is NEVER beneficial to the people... war is ALWAYS only beneficial to
those pulling the strings behind the scenes, because it is their wealth, and consequently their power, that expands during such times...

Man, you are way off base, my fellow conspiracy theorist! 🙂

Regardless of how you view it in terms of good vs. evil, war brings about massive shifts and growth. Looking at history objectively, any culture forced to fight over limited resources never really thrived. The plain truth is there just wasn't enough to go around. Even for our species, those conflicts ensured the survival of the strongest—which is honestly a win for us as a whole. From an evolutionary standpoint, that was great for those of us inheriting this world today.

Even modern wars, like WWI and WWII, provided massive benefits to society. They acted as accelerators for progress and growth across every single field of human endeavor, from tech to everything else. Just think about the fact that humanity has advanced more in the last 50 years since WWII than in the 500 years before it! Submarines, ships, planes, radar, the moon landing (rockets!), microwaves, computers, medical breakthroughs... the list goes on forever.

Along with all that hardware, our collective consciousness evolved too. We basically leveled up mentally.

There's this cool anecdote that goes something like this: when they asked Albert Einstein what World War III would be fought with, he replied, "I don't know, but World War IV will definitely be fought with sticks." 😁

We’ve reached a stage of development where war is just totally unnecessary, and I truly believe the leaders of all the major global superpowers keep that quote in mind. They realize that one more world war would likely reset our entire species back to the Stone Age.

The Space Age has already kicked off, or is right on the verge of it. The race is moving in that direction now, and I honestly think the Chinese person will lead the way to dominance there.
History suggests I'm on the right track... you just aren't ready to let go of your established biases
and there’s really no point in arguing when you approach things this way; I already know how your mind works
because I used to sit exactly where you are, though I eventually shifted my perspective... so you won't change my mind
about being mistaken... you can hold onto your own views if you want, but to actually see the world through my eyes
you have to absorb new data, which inevitably forces you to reconsider the very foundations of what
you think you "know"... one has to look at both sides of the coin to understand its true value, rather than just staring at one face... it's easy enough to throw around terms like
"conspiracy," but doing so only proves you haven't bothered to see what's on the other side of the ledger
and that you simply don't care to find out, settling instead for a single narrative, which is ultimately a disservice to yourself...

Kyle Morris7 said:In this particular instance, we're looking at the American military-industrial complex, where profits continued to climb steadily as long as the fighting persisted.

It goes without saying that no war provides any actual benefit to the citizens caught in the middle of it...
Ideologies, if one looks closely enough, often serve as little more than a convenient veneer for plunder, or rather, the enrichment of a few select groups...

But wars can be beneficial to nations as well, if you consider the broader picture... I believe I laid out that explanation in my previous posts... And honestly, even you seem to concede that point in your very last sentence...
But wars can be beneficial to nations as well, if you consider the broader picture... I believe I laid out that explanation in my previous posts... And honestly, even you seem to concede that point in your very last sentence...
But wars can be beneficial to nations as well, if you consider the broader picture... I believe I laid out that explanation in my previous posts... And honestly, even you seem to concede that point in your very last sentence...
In the long run, war is NEVER beneficial to the people... war is ALWAYS only beneficial to
those pulling the strings behind the scenes, because it is their wealth, and consequently their power, that expands during such times...

Quincy:

I suppose there isn't much left to say about it... Anthony Rivera17 says: After spending quite a bit of time wading through various interviews and debates surrounding Engdahl, I can’t help but notice how much his perspective aligns with that of Noam Chomsky... It seems to me they share a very similar worldview. I’ve worked my way through two of Chomsky’s books, and while I find myself largely in agreement with his core arguments, he does occasionally lean into certain biases and perhaps lacks a full grasp of the complexities on the ground...The whole situation regarding Mexico seems to be fundamentally misjudged...).

So, now you’re claiming to have a better handle on the "situation" than he does... as if... Engdahl,
Chomsky... He possesses a depth of knowledge and a wealth of information that would likely elude the average person...
It’s a matter of how one chooses to seek out truth... specifically regarding those who stop searching because they find enough to satisfy them through whatever basic instruction they receive at school or via the internet...
The mainstream media... they seem incapable of processing anything beyond the surface level, simply because they lack the fundamental capacity to access—or perhaps even comprehend—information of this depth...
They arrive because they simply have no idea where else to look... both authors, among many others, for us... They’re handing it out...
I perceive a worldview that is fundamentally different from the one most people take for granted... And that is precisely why...
It’s obvious that most people simply aren't capable of processing a reality like this... the same masses who still can't quite grasp the truth...
He accepts the harsh realities surrounding the World Trade Center and the broader implications of the war on terror, much like the complexities of any conflict fought on American soil...

swiftdriver11 said:True, but you can't just ignore the fact that wars, in some twisted way, give nature a breather.
My grandfather used to tell me stories about how, during the first ten years following World War II, he could pull about 150 pounds of fish out of the water with just a small hand net, whereas before World War II, he'd barely get 90 pounds. It was simply because nature finally got a moment to catch its breath and recover.

That logic only holds up for regions that weren't actually turned into battlefields... I live in
a town in the Midwest that saw heavy combat, and even seventeen years after the fighting stopped, the land hasn't really bounced back, let alone the population...
😢

rustymaker5 said:Well, obviously survival instinct kicks in when things get desperate. But that doesn't mean war is some kind of natural state for humanity... if anything, the sheer existence of PTSD proves my point; I highly doubt people would experience such soul-crushing trauma if being at war was actually our baseline setting...

...

At the end of the day, war is just war. Whether you label it imperialist, a liberation struggle, or whatever else, the reality remains... it never actually benefits the general population, except for a tiny minority who either get rich off war profiteering or climb the ranks of the new power structure.
What kind of actual benefit has any war ever brought to the common person? Take an imperialist war, for example—did the average citizen get richer, or was it just the winning side's establishment lining their pockets? Even in liberation wars, you're usually just swapping one ruling class for another, which rarely helps the people on the ground. Just look at the "liberation" wars across >...
Besides, what did the American Civil War really bring us? Aside from massive grief, loss of life, and destroyed property, it left behind a mountain of physical and mental disabilities, disillusioned veterans struggling with suicide, people who will never see their homes again (if you'll excuse the 🙄cliché), and a handful of vultures who built their careers on the suffering of the nation... all so a few individuals could satisfy their sick obsession with playing a major role in history by stepping over the bodies of their own countrymen...
Man, if I had the power, I'd take those leaders who decide to drag a country into combat and sit them down at a chessboard instead... let them clash through pure intellect and strategy, let the better mind win, and spare the people from having to suffer for it...

👏

rustymaker5 said:Well, obviously survival instinct kicks in when things get desperate. But that doesn't mean war is some kind of natural state for humanity... if anything, the sheer existence of PTSD proves my point; I highly doubt people would experience such soul-crushing trauma if being at war was actually our baseline setting...

...

At the end of the day, war is just war. Whether you label it imperialist, a liberation struggle, or whatever else, the reality remains... it never actually benefits the general population, except for a tiny minority who either get rich off war profiteering or climb the ranks of the new power structure.
What kind of actual benefit has any war ever brought to the common person? Take an imperialist war, for example—did the average citizen get richer, or was it just the winning side's establishment lining their pockets? Even in liberation wars, you're usually just swapping one ruling class for another, which rarely helps the people on the ground. Just look at the "liberation" wars across >...
Besides, what did the American Civil War really bring us? Aside from massive grief, loss of life, and destroyed property, it left behind a mountain of physical and mental disabilities, disillusioned veterans struggling with suicide, people who will never see their homes again (if you'll excuse the 🙄cliché), and a handful of vultures who built their careers on the suffering of the nation... all so a few individuals could satisfy their sick obsession with playing a major role in history by stepping over the bodies of their own countrymen...
Man, if I had the power, I'd take those leaders who decide to drag a country into combat and sit them down at a chessboard instead... let them clash through pure intellect and strategy, let the better mind win, and spare the people from having to suffer for it...

given the "intellect" of the people currently being presented as our leaders, that chess match
would probably drag on for quite some time...

Kyle Morris7 said:I find myself compelled to disagree, as I believe this perspective is a profound falsehood; after all, a war only erupts because one side initiates an act of aggression against another, and that specific party must bear the full weight of responsibility for every consequence that follows. Whether those leaders were feuding beforehand is ultimately irrelevant to the facts of the matter, because theoretically speaking, it is impossible for an attack to be launched by both sides at the exact same moment, meaning someone had to strike first, and that individual is the one truly at fault...

True, whether there was existing friction is irrelevant... if the people who actually decide to start
wars find themselves wanting one, they will always find a pretext to ignite it...
The true culpability lies with those architects, not with any of the individual factions fighting on the ground... all sides involved
are nothing more than manipulated masses, completely oblivious to the actual motives behind
the conflict they are bleeding for... it is a level of perfidy that can only be orchestrated by
those who possess both the specialized knowledge and the capital to fund such endeavors...

I suppose I should address what Anthony Rivera17 was implying earlier, though his perspective seems rather narrow when you consider the broader implications of how these systems actually function... It is all quite predictable once you look past the surface level noise that most people mistake for substance. There is an exhaustion that comes with watching these patterns repeat themselves, day after day, without anyone truly grasping the scale of the machinery at play... [User Name] says:
At first, you’re the one being crushed by someone else's shadow. You fight like hell just to carve out your own space, only to realize that once you've finally dismantled the competition, you've become the very force terrorizing everyone else... It seems wars are an inevitability, since the friction of differing perspectives and conflicting worldviews will never truly vanish... Humans haven't truly occupied the role of hunter or predator for quite some time now—unless we’re talking about our treatment of animals—so most modern conflicts seem to be nothing more than the byproduct of two corrupt politicians on opposing sides playing games with lives that aren't their own...

You are still quite far from uncovering the true catalyst behind these wars... at least until history is stripped of its illusions and laid bare against the cold, hard facts...
If you take an unnamed perspective—one that hasn't been spoon-fed to us by the mainstream media...
Once you pull back the curtain on the media, the entire picture shifts... and that’s when you finally start seeing who is actually pulling the strings behind these supposed "movements"...
On this planet... the politics, the power players, the nations, the laws... it’s all just part of the same exhausting daily grind...
The very fabric of the mass we find ourselves submerged in is woven from deliberate illusions, designed specifically to...
Keeping the masses under the illusion that they actually understand the mechanics of reality—knowing what truly matters and what is merely deemed "important"—is all about where you draw the line...
I find myself wondering if there is any actual point to fighting the uphill battles life throws at you... most people just swallow the lies they're fed without a second thought, which I suppose is just the way things have always been...
Up to this point...

I’ve been watching the way people react to these massive shifts in social control lately, and it strikes me how little anyone actually understands about the mechanics of power... We talk about freedom as if it were an inherent right, yet we willingly hand over our privacy to corporations that track our every move, much like those data giants in Silicon Valley, all while pretending we aren't being watched by some digital version of Big Brother... It’s a slow erosion, really, where the boundaries between public life and private thought become increasingly blurred under the guise of convenience and security... People seem content to trade their autonomy for a bit of seamless connectivity, failing to realize that once the infrastructure of total surveillance is fully integrated into the fabric of American life, there won't be any turning back... It’s a quiet, methodical process, one that doesn't require a sudden coup, just a series of small, unnoticed concessions until the New World Order isn't something you read about in a conspiracy theory, but something you live within every single day...

So many people are talking about... The New World Order...What is the true objective of those pulling the strings behind global politics... just wondering...
I don't understand why some people still refuse to see that the New World Order has been in place for ages... the stage is already set, the audience is seated, and...
He’s staring at that opening sequence, completely oblivious to the fact that the people in this movie aren't exactly the A-list Hollywood heavyweights they're waiting for...
It’s always them, along with everyone else on this planet... The New World Order isn't some 3D computer simulation or a virtual reality construct, it's...
It is the reality we face, and we are only a few steps away from when those who refuse to see will finally be forced to confront the truth on a massive scale...
Doors, perhaps through that very same television set they watch with such rapt attention while following the Big Brother show...

Kyle Morris7 said:If they’re being driven by bad actors, then we’re talking about hundreds of millions of them... the entire population of the global superpowers...

I’d argue it isn't just those specific "problematic" groups... everyone subject to this kind of
orchestrated manipulation falls under that same umbrella... it really just comes down to how those at the top
coordinate their efforts based on their own interests... the masses exist merely to serve
those agendas, nothing more... the public simply drifts through an unconscious state of servitude to their masters...

Kyle Morris7 said:I find myself circling back to that same old dilemma we haven’t quite unraveled, and frankly, it feels like something we might never truly resolve... Is human aggression something woven into our very DNA, or is it merely something we pick up along the way through socialization? If it is indeed an innate part of our biology, then war becomes an inevitable consequence of our existence, a shadow we can never truly outrun. In such a scenario, preventing future conflicts seems almost impossible...
However, if this aggression is learned behavior, then there is still a glimmer of hope that we might actually take action to change things.
But regardless of which side of that philosophical divide we land on, those of us who stand firmly against war ought to operate on a micro level, doing what little we can to reduce the number of people predisposed toward violence. The trouble is, we peace-seekers seem to be in the minority most of the time. On the other hand, it seems the majority of people don't actually desire war when it finally arrives at their doorstep. How can that be? Is it some inexplicable paradox... or perhaps just pure irrationality?
Could it be a deep-seated desire for dominance? That is my suspicion, at least...
Just as one individual seeks to exert power over another, entire groups seek to dominate other groups, and they won't hesitate to wage war to achieve that supremacy. I really cannot bring myself to agree with the common notion that wars are always caused by a few rogue leaders while the masses remain unwilling participants. If the public truly didn't want war, they wouldn't consistently elect such aggressive figures to positions of power. And yet, more often than not, that is precisely what happens. It seems the masses choose a leader who then acts upon their collective desires and interests. Most sociologists and psychologists argue the exact opposite—that a single leader somehow hypnotizes or manipulates the crowd—but I suspect that theory is little more than a way for people to bury their heads in the sand...

Mass is... Always... It was like a flock of sheep led by shepherds, though one can only wonder about the true nature of those pulling the strings...
It suits them perfectly... they’ll slaughter a few million sheep whenever a famine hits, just to ensure they get exactly what they need...
The sheep possess everything—their meat represents the military, their wool constitutes the capital and material wealth... but that is only until they realize they aren't actually meant to be part of the flock...
Listen, if they’ve slipped or even just show a tendency to spiral out of control...

swiftdriver11 said:Look, let me put it this way. I believe all those economic and political justifications are merely the immediate excuses used to trigger these conflicts. I suspect the true cause—if you can even call it that—is some kind of biological chip nature has embedded into our subconscious.
I’ll give you a clear example of how this works in the wild. For instance, if humans wipe out a sparrow population, the byproduct is an explosion in the worm population (which they eat). The following year, you'll see a much larger surge in the sparrow population than usual, simply because nature demands that balance be restored.
Could something similar be happening with humans?🤷

In other words, the issue is that nature didn't install that same balancing chip in us or any
other species on this planet... every species exists within a certain level of balance, even the apex predators
live in a way that secures a future for themselves and their offspring... every apex predator
except for the top of the food chain, which is us—just a bunch of fools acting like a virus that’s slowly killing this planet...

blueheron62 said:I’d say wars are just part of being human—it’s that aggressive streak that tends to flare up when you cram too many people into one tight space. It’s interesting how areas with high birth rates often overlap with those volatile regions where conflict keeps popping up; that’s definitely a factor. Then there’s the other point already mentioned: the whole cycle of history repeating itself.
I wouldn't go as far as saying war is necessary, but it feels "natural" once things reach a breaking point through overextension or deep-seated frustration—and let's be honest, those two usually go hand in hand.

If you actually want to understand the connections, how they function, and what drives wars:

bluemason3 said:Of course we are. We might not be better or worse, but just as every individual is unique, so is a nation—and historical eras have their own specific flavors too. Even certain professions tend to shape people; if you look at a group of traders, a squad of cops, or a bunch of kindergarten teachers, you'll find certain traits appearing much more frequently in one group than in the others.

Spirituality works the same way, adapting to its local time and place. Even when one culture adopts the spirituality of another, they eventually reshape it until it’s no longer the same as the original.

It seems like you might have cut off mid-sentence... if you were looking for me to rewrite a specific post, please provide the full text so I can get to work on it... I suppose one could attempt to fabricate a persona, though why anyone would bother with such an exhausting exercise in pretense remains beyond my comprehension... if there's any point in pretending to be someone else when the reality is already quite enough to handle... The state of the mind... it remains an elusive, shifting landscape that we struggle to navigate, despite all our modern attempts at psychological clarity... It’s a heavy thing, really, trying to outrun the shadows of one's own making... though I suppose we all find ourselves caught in that particular cycle of self-sabotage at some point... it feels less like a sudden breakthrough and more like a slow, exhausting erosion of the obstacles we built for ourselves... eventually, you just realize the weight isn't actually coming from the outside, but from the internal architecture of everything you thought you needed to survive... and once you start dismantling that, there isn't much left but a quiet, somewhat hollow sort of freedom... body,
You find yourself navigating the relentless pressure of systemic enforcement... The state of our environment continues to drift toward an inevitable decline, much like a slow-motion collapse that everyone watches with a sense of detached resignation... It seems we are perpetually circling the drain, waiting for a crisis that has already arrived, yet we continue to act as though there is still time to negotiate with reality... And yet, somehow, you’re managing to pull through...
Time... it flows by with such relentless indifference, doesn't it...."

I can't access external links or watch YouTube videos directly, so if you can provide a transcript or a summary of the content, I will get to work on rewriting it according to your instructions...

casualmaker13 said:Basically, consciousness works in layers based on how aware we are and what we’re capable of handling at any given moment. Most people aren't even conscious of themselves, their own breathing, their thoughts, their emotions, or even the environment around them and how they interact with it. They spend most of their lives just drifting through, maybe only truly aware of about 5-10% of what's actually happening.
Through meditation, or pretty much any spiritual practice designed to expand awareness, we start becoming more tuned in to ourselves and everything going on both inside and outside our heads.
As that awareness climbs from 10% toward 100%, new doors start opening. For instance, you might finally face a fear head-on and realize it doesn't have power over you anymore, or you catch yourself making the same old mistakes and just... stop doing them. It’s like that.
Your potential grows, too. You might find you can do things you couldn't before, your memory sharpens, your focus gets better, you handle stress way more easily, and your perception of the world just gets clearer.
Then there are those sudden insights you get during certain meditative states. Things just click—you start understanding who you really are, how the world actually works, and your intuition starts kicking in.
The more progress you make, the more aware you become, uncovering these deep insights and possibilities that were always there, just buried under the surface where you couldn't see or use them.
Once you hit that fifth level of consciousness, it means you're fully aware of yourself, your surroundings, and the interplay between the two, 24 hours a day. At that point, it’s pretty hard to mess up or make a bad call. It brings this massive sense of self-control, knowledge, skill, freedom, and genuine choice.
And honestly, reaching that state just opens up even more room for further growth.

And then you die and it all just vanishes... what a massive waste of time... all of it...
What you’ve laid out doesn't mean you get to "take" anything with you, because everything you mentioned is tied to being here...
Everything you wrote applies strictly to this phase of existence... it sounds so idyllic when you put it that way...
If you actually "reach" that level and don't feel like leaving this planet for another four hundred years... becoming the "master" of the material universe, good grief, imagine the power...
Your "Ego" is merely a product of the consciousness possessed by a soul that is currently trapped right where you are, in the
material universe... everything you described pertains exclusively to the Ego, which
will vanish upon death, once your soul breaks free from this prison and
returns to where there is no "Ego," only a Soul... if you think I'm just talking nonsense...
you'll never leave this place, and in the next incarnation,
you'll
start over from scratch, with nothing from this phase, a brand new Ego... so, think about that...

casualmaker13 said:Thanks for breaking it all down. I’ve heard mentions of some of the figures you listed. Someone actually told me that Baby has been around for 400 years and still hasn't kicked the bucket. Do you think there's any truth to that? It seems to me that Eastern traditions have always held a significant lead over Westerners when it comes to grasping true spirituality. Do you personally practice meditation, and if so, how much time does an average person really need to reach one of those altered states of consciousness—you know, that fourth state...

If that Baby guy is still hanging around after 400 years, he’s clearly missed the memo that staying here isn't the goal
the concept of "price"...

time required for enlightenment? Well, do the math yourself...

everything is absolute, which is 1, which is now, which is timeless

just stay mindful of this TRUTH in every single now of your life, and let me know how long
it takes for time and space to lose all meaning...

Nicole Kelly3 said:Man, reading this actually bummed me out. I'm really sorry you see things that way. I hope it's just a phase and you're just going through a rough patch right now...
Life isn't some punishment, and our planet isn't a jail cell. The human spirit is incredible, capable of creating pure beauty... Everyone is just in a different stage of life's "school," which looks like chaos sometimes, but there's wonder in all of it if you actually stop to look. You can actually hear the "music of the universe"... it's such a beautiful melody, you can just lose yourself in it...
Being born is a privilege and an honor. Every single person deserves respect just for being part of the living world. Living is a choice made by the soul. Just look at art, architecture... languages, math... it all speaks to that beauty. Humans are the most perfect form of life; we carry something divine within us. It's only voluntary slavery and being afraid of ourselves that created the outlook you have, but even that is just part of the game...

Well, you aren't even aware that you're in a prison... which is a grim state to be in, believe me when I say I've been
exactly where you are, staring at the world through that exact same narrow perspective, but now, after my
"awakening," there is no returning to that particular "illusion"... my consciousness has
"grasped" true values, whereas the things you are preoccupied with simply vanish the moment death
comes knocking at your door... true values are eternal... saying "to live is a choice of
the soul" implies that the soul has the option not to live... but the reality is that the soul lives
regardless of everything... the soul has no need for this physical vessel, not in the slightest, for this
body is nothing more than a cage for the soul... and as for humans being the most perfect form of life, you must be joking...
claiming "we carry god within us" is an ego-driven stance that misses the fundamental truth that
god is everywhere... you exist within god... there is nothing that does not reside within the divine...
that is the actual relationship—we are a part of god, our entire being is a fragment of the whole...
and regarding this "voluntary servitude" and these various fears, you still have much to learn...
you have to understand who the slave is and why, who the master is and why, and where the majority of these fears actually originate...

Karen Sanchez19 said:Look, please don't bring a whole circus of nonsense into this thread, though I suspect you might anyway.😠

One of the "achievements" of Maharishi's leadership is ensuring every Westerner finds themselves a personal guru. The price? Handing over 10% of your monthly income as a fee for "initiation"—which really just means being assigned a specific mantra and receiving a lesson on how to meditate properly.

Scientifically speaking, the benefits of TM can be explained by entering an alpha state of consciousness—essentially "resting while awake." One prerequisite, as someone already mentioned here, is reducing thought activity; ideally to the point where you aren't thinking about anything at all.

Even Fromm pointed out that this is the ultimate antidote to stress.
Yet, if you read the TM literature, you’ll find nothing but self-congratulatory fluff. They won't give you the actual mantras or the concrete methods without a guru standing there to collect his cut...

I'm not an idiot; I'm not dropping a few thousand dollars just to be handed a mantra. Is it actually possible to pick one myself and get the same results? I fail to see why a mantra from some guru would carry more weight than one I select personally.

Fleminje, what you wrote regarding astral projection isn't quite right.
It's inaccurate. You don't need a near-death experience to have a profound, real encounter. An NDE is essentially the same thing as etheric projection (projecting into the physical world). During etheric projection, there is no way to tell you aren't in reality, except perhaps for the ability to fly or pass through walls. Some people even report getting out of bed and going through their daily routine, completely unaware they were in a projected state. It’s the same for those who die prematurely before they realize what's happening.

Astral projection, however, can be identified by an environment that feels "off" compared to reality. Matter becomes fluid, shaped by thought. The simplest litmus test? Look at your hands and watch them start melting. The sense of consciousness and reality is just as intense as in an NDE or etheric projection; sometimes, for experienced projectors, it's even stronger.

Certain techniques rely on visualization—creating a duplicate environment into which you shift your awareness. Initially, there's zero sense of reality, but with practice, that sense of realism becomes as solid as classic AP (where you lose awareness of the body), similar to the moment you realize you're dreaming.

As for my own experiences, I vividly remember an instance of AP when I became lucid within a dream. I wanted the dream to stop, and suddenly, I found myself in a nearly physical environment—my own room, though it was astral. The level of consciousness was phenomenal. I was fully present, and the impact of that AP left me reeling for three days straight. I felt as though I were radiating heat. I'll provide more details later, provided you all share your experiences first. I've broken the ice; now it's your turn.

Most people are incredibly suggestible... you give them an inch, tell them something is X, and they completely lose it and fully...
"...buy into it." Give them tap water and tell them it's holy water blessed by the Pope, and
they'll feel significantly better after drinking it... faith is a remarkably powerful "tool" that yields
tangible results... and no, you don't need gurus at all, nor do you need organized religion... there is nothing besides
yourself—the driver of that faith and the conviction in the outcome... gurus, religions, and everything else
imposed as the "engine" of belief isn't inherently evil, but the problem is that they
prescribe results that conveniently fit their own "narrative"...

But listen, faith only produces results within the material universe... through faith, you won't
"reach" the TRUTH or achieve anything beyond this universe and ME... you might be able to move
mountains or walk on water, but what is the actual point in any of that?

Hannah Barnes said:In much the same way, we operate under a set of "internal" rules regarding what actually exists, how things appear, and how we perceive them; this is the very foundation of our subjective reality.
These frameworks were forged through experience, cultural heritage, social consensus, deep-seated taboos, and the biological and physical constraints of our species, our environment, and the planet we call home...
We live by standardized norms.
Our entire understanding of existence is dictated by that specific standardization.
The "world" we inhabit is merely the byproduct of all this...

Does the world truly depend on our observation or our experience of it?

Would outer space even exist if our species were to go extinct?

Well put, though you neglected to mention that most of these rules are forced upon us
from birth until the day we die... these imposed regulations turn us into slaves of those who
dictate the terms... yet some people still sit around wondering if The Matrix exists 😉

"You're here because you know something.
What you know, you can't explain.
But you feel it. You felt it your entire life:
There's something wrong with the world.
You don't know what, but it's there.
Like a splinter in your mind driving you mad.
It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
Do you know what I'm talking about?
The Matrix?
Do you want to know what it is?
The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us.
Even now, in this very room.
You can see it when you look out your window
or when you turn on your television.
You can feel it when you go to work,
when you go to church, when you pay your taxes.
It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes
to blind you from the truth.
What truth?
That you are a slave, neo.
Like everyone else, you were born into bondage
born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch.
A prison for your mind.
Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is.
You have to see it for yourself."

In my view, one of the most effective ways to actually notice the matrix is
by understanding the past... that old saying "history
is the mother of wisdom" holds weight... only once a person becomes aware of the matrix
do they become conscious of the way the matrix influences them
individually... two films mentioned in this thread were of
great help to me, so I am sharing them with you: