thelerner

Holistic practitioner? Renaissance man.

With no travel, you may want to look into hypnosis for help with food binging. Look up hypnosis 'binging weightloss' on youtube, you'll find many hits. Try some out, particularly ones that go at the problem in multiple ways. While its not a cure all, sometimes you can find the right 'script' and voice that hits your conscious and subconscious just right and you will get good results.

For me, at the moment, best is whats most convenient. I'm working with the 'Grease the Groove' concept of frequent small bouts of exercise. Mainly easy pushups and squats. Whenever I'm in the kitchen I'll do a set or 2 of pushups against the counter top and stop before exhaustion, usually 35 to 40. So, usually 120 or more a day. In a week or two I'll mix in floor push ups. In my office I have 2 kettlebells and before I sit down I'll do an easy set of squats holding the KB, usually 10 to 15, depending on how I feel and if its the 36# or 54#. Doing sets throughout the day. With no gym, these are fast and easy. They give my muscles a pump and so far I seem to be able to increase my volume. I'm also a big believer in long walks, as it is good for the soul and anti-inflammatory for the body.

Hemi-sync is good. There's a world of biaural beats on youtube. Give a listen with ear phones, see if any connect. I don't think it should take more then 5 minutes to see if the entrancement works, though longer is better. I used to find browser add-ons that turned youtubes into mp3s. With new versions of browser they'd die or seem to get virus's. These days I use a program called Airy to create mp3s from youtubes. If you want to go a more hypnotic route, I'd recommend the youtube channel Unlock Your Life, has some excellent hypnotic routines, that might help. Other then that, work on the basics, eating, sleeping, exercise.. sleeping can be the hardest to control. There are devices that measure sleep, like fitbit. I wear an Oura sleep ring and when I don't get enough deep sleep, I notice more brain fog. So getting to bed early, not eating or drinking much at night, a shower before bed, make a difference.

never mind apologies for being flippant

If I may ask, what branch of Jewish mysticism are you studying? Of late, I've been doing more study of Mussar, which I wouldn't consider mysticism. When I did some Kabbalic practice, I kept it less study oriented and more experiential, like Abulafiahs Kabbalah which in my practice, was more sacred sound/chant oriented.

I've tried to avoid that by only having sex with specific mentally imbalanced ones.

Bump. The blog isn't very active these days but reading through old posts, present a wonderful reflection on Taoism in the modern world.

Don't know if its the best, but I'll throw out one I started with- https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Health-Sex-Longevity-Practical-ebook/dp/B004DI7TRC The Tao of Health, Sex & Longevity by Daniel Reid. I thought it had a good mix of philosophy and practice and very readable. The amazon link lets you read a couple pages. Though there are a couple things I disagreed with now.

I like that. Originally I was going for a hobbit hole kind of village, but to be more realistic and down to earth, I'd start on the outskirts of town with a building. 3 or 4 stories. A housing Co-op, owned and run by tenants. Room for 8 or 10 families. I love the idea of an Edible Forest Garden. Have enough room for a substantial well thought out edible garden as well as for expansion. Be green, but not obsessively. Solar and good insulation. Maybe shared cars too. You wouldn't have to work there, but a certain amount of hours and jobs would have to be required, as well as some pot lucks and shared meals scheduled. <I suppose if its post-apocalypse being further from town would have advantages. Matter of fact location would be extremely important. Better to have it built and going before a crash. A nice size pond or small lake for water and fishing. A stream or river, nearby forest. A climate without too much extremes. >

The presentation was scary and very well done. Not shocking though, since that's the way its done there. So..sad and such bravery. An NPR show last week talked about 3 Russian front line doctors who mysteriously fell to there deaths out of hospital windows. -https://www.npr.org/2020/05/07/852319465/three-russian-frontline-health-workers-mysteriously-fell-out-of-hospital-windows Seems like such stupid pointless evil. The end game of such attempted cover ups is clearly going to be more deaths.

That reminds me of Tibetan 'Chod' meditation. Where you offer up your body to a demon to help it and rid yourself of some karma. I've got a guided meditation and it always feel to me like an extreme version of a metta meditation. So loving you even sacrifice for a demon. Here's one I've used. I think it starts about 8:30 minutes into it

My theory, and its a bit of a skeptical one, is if ghost hunting Youtubes are like the ghost hunting shows on TV then I wouldn't give them too much credence. In that they play games like putting microphone sensitivity to the highest so any vague sound is loud and spooky. Maybe some are valid but they need ratings and imo are playing to audience expectations. Same with Big Foot 'hunts' on TV. Your finding 70% of Americans to be into witchcraft is interesting. I don't doubt that 70% of the people you run into may be into it, but thats not a representation of the US. Like if you were into bird watching you'd mention it and find lots of Americans are enthusiastic about it, but that wouldn't mean it was a majority, rather it'd be selective bias at play.

It's been recommended to me starting out with much less, the 3 to 5 gram, or rather closer to 3. Though since I'll theoretically I'll have fresh for a week, perhaps try 2 or 3, which while 30 to 50 grams, the whole are supposedly 1/10 the potency of dried. Rather, I'm willing to take it slow, probably make a tea. Rallis-I would advise never buy anything like that online! Sources are always suspect. Good advice. Nowadays it'd be on the Dark Web. I'm going back so far, that it was legal then. The place had good reviews and delivered what they said.

No, though strangely an older member and I purchased some dried Amanita muscaria, when it was still available on the net. And like some other things I've tried at Burning Man they didn't have much affect. Other then wives throwing out our 'stash'. Which could be the end result of my present endeavour.

may as well intermix it. I think you and Nungali are exactly right. It should be viewed and respected in a religious sense, strange as that sounds. Religious as in the prepare yourself, quiet mind & body, focus within and on as aspect of the positive & holy. If you can't get to place of peace and serenity then don't go there. I expect there's a couple of vitamins and mineral, kinds of things to take before the shroom to ease the trip. Good or bad, don't go there often. Physically you're developing tolerance, spiritually you're abusing a spiritual method for kicks. Course I'm writing like I have experience, which I don't, other then what I've read. The hope is warmth in my stomach and the ecstatic, mystic sense of Oneness.. Or throwing up, paranoia and sense I've made a mistake. For me, at this point in my life, its worth rolling the dice. There may be bad karma with purchasing drugs. Bad things are happening in other countries because of US hunger for them. Maybe growing my own side steps that.

I'm thinking of growing some mushrooms(B+). Matter of fact I have some supplies coming to me. If this thread is inclusive enough, anyone have advice?

My neighbors grows a couple varieties of milk weed. He'll also capture certain caterpillars, cage'em, keep'em fed, wait til they chrysalis, and turn to butterflies then releases them. Says they have a better chance that way. I don't know. I do like butterflies though. They are perhaps our true Phoenii, correction phoenixes, ..'If talking about the mythological bird, there is no plural. Only one existed at a time.' Fini

I have it. Well written, packed with information. Wang Liping is the genuine article, his retreats are very expensive, so in comparison his books are a bargain. More importantly, members here who've studied with him are impressive. For a dabbler myself, who likes things simple, the book for the most part is overkill. I'll open it now and then for insight or to try one of the dozens of exercises for a bit then go back to something simpler, but thats me. For anyone interested in the Daoist esoteric energy arts, its an excellent book by one of the worlds foremost practitioners. Its a layered practice with the secret being long years/decades of dedication.

For 20 38 years I thought it was- Bring me to Manny's . I thought Manny was the bad guy in the song. That he was incharge of the chain gang. Loved the video. Come to think of it, Manny wasn't in it.

Thats not an altogether bad idea. Let me bring it up to Trunk This thread got pretty ugly pretty fast, way too much mockery. Then a few bright points that could be just as well made elsewhere. <for the record I'm sorry to see Void not active here, eccentric, knowledgeable, manic, troublesome, always interesting, rarely malicious>

Too bad saunas are closed. To me they're a cheat for better sitting. Not that you want to spend too much time in one, but the heat relaxes all the muscles. It's like an instant flexibility upgrade. One that only lasts while you're in the sauna. When the world opens, and you wanta work on full lotus, hit the sauna. On the other hand its good not to be too reliant on a position. Meditation at its best should be accessible, without formal sitting, ie don't leave it on the zafu.

Sometimes on long walks, I wonder what my next thought will be then like magic thinking stops. And I just walk.

Since we're talking about sitting. This reminds me of a sitting style Glenn Morris used. It was half lotus with the under leg tucked in so much that it pressed against the perineum, thus putting some pressure on it, 'locking' it. I tried it a few times, wasn't very comfortable. At my (low) level, I assume the mental leaking is far more important then the physical stuff. At times its good to push, other times its good to go for comfort.

The old one died when Google changed its format. Here's a new one. Started today. If you'd like put a pin near your abode. *note the pin doesn't have to be close (anywhere near your town) and ofcourse pinning is purely optional . I'd recommend using your DB handle but its all optional. I'm seeing how this works. Consider it a beta. https://www.google.com/maps/d/drive?state={"ids"%3A["1OAtgZd91G_F0P0GX_y-yrSEhSQvrHDjl"]%2C"action"%3A"open"%2C"userId"%3A"105547066867148873474"}&usp=sharing Note new shared link above