Cat Pillar

Hemi-sync uses binaural beats to synchronize brainwaves in both hemispheres of the brain. You don't need to buy Hemi-sync though if all you're looking for is brain synchronization. There are tons of free binaural beat programs out there, just do a google search and you'll come up with plenty to choose from. You'll need headphones for those. There's also isochronic and monaural beats. If I remember correctly, isochronic and monaural beats are better at entraining to specific frequencies (alpha, beta, theta, etc.), while binaural beats are more effective at synchronizing the hemispheres.

An interesting take on the phantom sensation, thank you for the input. I started reading the Skandha article, but will have to come back to it as it's pretty long. -------------------------------------------- Trunk, Thanks for the suggestion! I'll have to check out those youtube videos in the thread when I'm on a computer with speakers, or at least some headphones. Sounds very interesting. -------------------------------------------- Otis, Thanks! Do you do both types in a single session or alternate?

Jetsun, Agreed. --------------------------------------------------- Bluefront, I've always considered my psychological state as something "wrong" that requires fixing. I stand corrected. I never said the universe was wrong - I think there's something wrong with "me". I don't believe that by finding something wrong with myself this means that I find something wrong with the universe. Nor do I think that I have to consider myself above the universe to see something wrong with myself. I don't blame the world or reality for my problems, I blame myself. That's why I'm trying to "fix" myself. And I find out for myself by not looking for it? Didn't you tell me to stop seeking? Wouldn't the realization of Oneness be considered a spiritual experience, which you tell me I shouldn't look for? If it happens automatically, shouldn't I be enjoying life right now? What does it actually mean to "go out and let life enjoy itself?" I don't understand the method by which one would apply that suggestion. By the way, I appreciate your blunt and challenging responses. I hope you keep 'em coming.

Not much for abstract metaphor, are you? I don't recall mentioning an expectation that a spiritual experience would pay my bills or floss my teeth. "Fix all my shit" is probably a valid criticism, but I'm not really expecting to "fix" anything except getting rid of all the shit I'm holding inside. Hence "emotional release." Your response is probably colored by the recent activity in the entheogens thread. I'm not interested in "tripping" just to have a good time. That would be meaningless to me. I do think something is wrong, though. What I really want? Not a fucking clue. I want to enjoy life. I want to die. I want to be a musician. I want to be a martial artist. I want to be an artist that's really good at drawing things. I want to be a physicist. I want to be a meteorologist. I want to be a chef. I want to be a powerful sorcerer. I want to be a wise sage. I want money. No wait, I want power. No wait, I want wisdom. No wait, I want love. Want, want, want...constantly shifting, constantly changing. I can't point to a single thing and say "I want that," because tomorrow I'll want something else entirely.

Thanks. I've always wondered if my long battle with depression qualified me as part of the "mentally ill" category. So many spiritual practices come with warnings about how they shouldn't be done by the mentally ill...astral projection, chi kung, many other forms of energy work, the use of binaural beats...I've always wondered if that warning was pointing at me. If so...oops.

Huh, neat! Thanks for all the information, Hardyg. I'll have to look more into all of that, very fascinating.

I smoke a lot of cannabis, although I'm trying to cut down. I notice it tends to numb limiting belief structures, which occasionally allows me to view myself from different vantage points. I guess I never really considered it much of an entheogen. Harmonious Emptiness - I like your metaphor, and it points at one of my reservations towards using entheogens. Steve f - sorry to hear about your friends. I am looking to both shake up my reality and discover truth...although lately, I'm not sure I believe truth exists. sameesh - I'm not looking for a vacation or an entertainment experience, which is what I usually associate with the term "tripping." My intent is to gain practical benefit.

Negentropic devices? Life-energy reactor chambers that work poorly in the presence of assholes and have a side effect of transmuting matter? I...I can't tell if you're being serious or not. Sauce?

I remember you posting that, it's a good story. I just wish it didn't feel like I actually had seven or eight hungry wolves fighting over the bone of focus.

Thanks for the tips! I admit, I really love and would prefer learning Wing Chun to start, but...I just don't feel I can get the training I'm after in the school I go to. I have a lot of respect for the sifu, but I'm looking for a more intensive atmosphere, and the MMA school has pretty much everything I could ask for. If only they taught gong fu!

I've taken a few months worth of Wing Chun, only stopping because of transportation issues. I've had a lot of fun with it, but it's a really small school, and that can sometimes make training hard. It's in the Yip Man --> Duncan Leung lineage, which has lots of great stories behind it. Also, the fighting philosophies seem like they're pretty solid and awesome...but not being an experienced martial artist, it's hard for me to really evaluate that on a practical level. Wing Chun is both an external and internal art. Some of the stances and movements actually have a very close similarity to the qi gong movements I saw in BK Frantzis' "Opening the Energy Gates of the Body." As far as self-defense goes, Aikido and Wing Chun seem to have very different philosophies. The way I'm being taught Wing Chun is "take out your opponent before he takes you out." There's no caring about what happens to the "bad guy" - gouge their eyes out, crush their throat, kick them in the balls (or just rip them off o.O), whatever you need to do to protect yourself. As long as you walk away, it's all good. So if you're attracted to the philosophy of "nonviolence," Wing Chun may not be your thing because as far as I've seen it's a very violent art. As far as the whole Wing Chun vs. MMA/BJJ/Whatever thing, what my Sifu has said is that Wing Chun is effective for self defense because it trains with no rules, and on the street there's no rules in a fight. This supposedly gives a general advantage to the Wing Chun fighter because they've trained to fight dirty instinctively. I can't remember if he said it explicitly, but he at least implied that's why high-level Wing Chun fighters don't do MMA, because they're too likely to slip up and fight dirty. Also, he's not really a Wing Chun elitist - he also says that the biggest factor is the individual and how much and how well they've trained their art. The things I like most about Wing Chun are the efficiency/simplicity of movement (all natural ranges of motion) and the concept of simultaneous attack and defense. All that being said, lately I've been thinking about joining an MMA school in my city that looks pretty good. They teach Judo, BJJ, Muay Thai, Boxing, and Wrestling. I have multiple reasons for this; one, I want to compete, because it's the safest way I can think of for actually testing the effectiveness of what I'm learning. The only way to test your fighting skills is to fight. Secondly, a large school affords me training opportunities that a small school doesn't. With a small school, it's going to class three times a week for an hour, and if you're lucky you can find someone else who's interested in training outside of class. With a big school like the one I'm looking at, they're open pretty much all day and you can get extra training in outside of the scheduled class times. Not to mention I got a really good vibe from the instructor who called me to follow up on my query. Ideally, I want a Chinese martial art to be part of my game because I've always loved the Chinese martial arts. The only question is which one (I still lean strongly towards Wing Chun because it's fun, but I'm really looking more for the internal aspect from the Chinese martial arts, so I may go with Tai Chi or Baguazhang), and whether that will be my starting point or something I develop further down the path.

Heh...I currently play in a black metal band. I'm a HUGE metalhead. I love everything from progressive power metal to thrash to the darkest black and death metal. Although lately I've been listening to more of the progressive/power metal side of things. A lot of anger, hate, and rage in the genre. But also a lot of beauty, creativity, and downright ingenuity. Guess you just gotta know where to find it.

Wow...this thread just goes to show how wrong I'm doing everything diet related. I LOVE cheese, eat quite a bit of refined flours and grains, love ice cold drinks (especially iced tea) and usually drink a lot of ice cold liquid with my meals. Hmmm...I'll bet that would be an easy place to start, though. Start drinking hot tea instead of iced...

Thanks for clarifying.

Hey Non, Apologies, but I'm having trouble deciphering who in particular you're responding to with that last post? There's no quote to go by, and I can't track the context very well.

I'm in a somewhat similar situation to Non. Major intimacy issues with women due to lack of experience, and a FUBAR'ed sexuality. Not to mention I'm fat and smelly I had actually thought of going to a Chinese massage parlor to work on intimacy/touching...but felt kind of uncomfortable with the idea given my sexual hangups. I figure I'd only end up embarrassing myself. Besides, I know precisely what I need to do to improve my confidence, and as soon as I get around to actually doing it (lose weight, improve hygiene) I may have a completely different outlook/experience with women. Blew my mind (no pun intended) to see prostitution and massage parlors suggested in this thread, though. Maybe I wasn't so far off with that idea as I thought...hehehe

I think this would be a good way to go, LittlePie. I'm saving up right now for Clyman's NeiKung system. I'm going for the DVDs and the Bible...maybe even a weekend of private lessons. I've talked with Clyman on the phone, the guy's a dynamo. Pretty intense and brutally honest. Also...you can try out his condensing breathing for free, he's got videos up on his site and youtube that teach the technique.

One of these days I'm gonna turn you into a newt for your insolence, Marblehead! :lol:

The following is just my opinion, nothing more. Take it with a big grain of salt. The internal power you speak of encompasses much more than developing your chi. You must develop wisdom as well, otherwise the nature of things as they are may elude you, leaving you open to misdiagnosing something as "evil" that in reality has a benign purpose. The development of Wisdom, Love/Compassion, and Power should ideally be balanced. Cultivate all three, and you stand a much better chance of effecting truly positive change in the world. Do not limit yourself to seeking a single school/path, or believing that there is only one Key to unlock the Door. Eventually you need to dedicate yourself to a practice to see results with it, but avoid developing prejudgments about what that path is or should be. Allow your experience and your intuition to shape your path. Be wary of the changes you wish to see in the world; what appears as panacea may actually be poison.

I was never a big fan of Crowley. I always preferred Franz Bardon. Never really dedicated myself to the system, but I have found his theory and instructions to be very helpful. His emphasis on a balanced approach to development are something I've stayed mindful of, and I seem to be unwittingly following Step One through the practices I've adopted, especially that of self-inquiry. Re: the video...who's narrating that? I've always wanted to read the Illuminatus trilogy...I've heard great things about RAW, but haven't really delved much into his works. Do you like hotdogs, goldisheavy?

My infrequent internal journeys have revealed to me more about just how nasty my internal state is. There are two primary "realizations" I have been coming to regarding my "method" of being. I spend most of my time engaged in unconscious habitual action/thought. By unconscious I mean that I participated in many actions and thoughts completely unaware of their nature as habits. If one could accurately make this distinction, I would go further to say that most of my habits are an addiction of sorts, each with their own associated withdrawal symptoms (all of which have a common link). The first time I viewed my habits as addictions, it was very painful because of how accurate the description seems. It brought a whole new light on the current conditions of my life, although the realization is not constant and I still find myself falling into unconscious action/thought the vast majority of the time. It is one thing to intellectually "understand" this, as I believed I did based on all of the reading I've done...but it is truly a sobering thing to see how far beyond "realization" is to "understanding". At the base of my habit addictions is what I knew was always there, just not to what extent. And this is "fear." Ultimately, I think it is the fear of "loss." A result of the idea of being separate, and the idea of ownership and property. "This is mine!" But it being mine, means that it could also become "not mine." "Mine," or ownership, is preferable, because I was taught "having" is better than "not having." Thus "not having" becomes something to fear. Is there a common link between the fear behind all of my addictions and habits? Yes, I believe there is. And that is a result of the concept of an individual identity. This thing called "I," as I was taught, is what you do, how you act. This thing "identity" is like a possession, it is "mine." Supposedly, it cannot be taken from you, but every "have" must have a corresponding "have not." Those actions which fall outside the established habit/addictions become "not myself," and threaten the possession of "identity." But just what does "identity" mean to me? What value does it provide myself to "be" a particular something? Comfort, I suppose...a crutch on which to justify doing or not doing. "It's just how I am." "It's just who I am." All of these things I cling to - these habitual possessions - because I am afraid of "not having." It becomes somewhat clearer to me now the meaning behind "letting go." It occurs to me that perhaps my next area of focus in my internal quest for peace should be releasing myself of the burden of "having." I do not mean giving away all of my possessions, but rather releasing myself from the yoke of "ownership." I foresee the materialist in me countering with concerns about this leading to carelessness with possessions that may be important to survival...but I would respond to this that the concept of "ownership" is not necessary to protecting property. Rather, a more "custodial" view of things could be a healthier means of expressing this relationship to the material. "I am in custody of this thing. I do not own it, but it has been placed in my care, and thus I should be a responsible custodian." Any thoughts or comments are always appreciated...but this post was mainly made as a form of venting. Sometimes I just have to give these internal queries expression, and language is the tool of expression I'm most familiar with.

Yup, although this recent illness I think was a combination one-two punch...partially a result of blockages clearing, but also a result of stress overload. I recently got a promotion which resulted in me working overnights, and my body is not adapting well. I can physically feel how much stress I'm under, which has been lending an air of urgency to my explorations lately. I can't tell if that "running out of time" feeling is a warning from my physical systems or just more unresolved anxiety.

Hahahahaha, that's awesome!

I've actually tried contemplating the "rightness" of the feeling. It's all muddled up, but I think much of it has to do with the comfort of a familiar belief. It feels "right" because the setting is familiar, and I know the territory. -------------------------- Vortex, Hmm...that IS pretty awesome! I KNOW I have some intestinal issues due to my diet. I really need to start working on my physical health, there's just no way around it. Too important an avenue to ignore, and would probably do more to clean up my mind than all this contemplating alone. --------------------------- Rainbow_Vein, I'm not familiar with Dr. Ellis. I'll have to check into your link when I have a little more time. Thanks for the suggestion. --------------------------- Otis, Thanks again for the kind words. I like to think all this musing is important work, but the real test will be seeing what changes (if any) manifest as a result of the realizations. I've noticed subtle shifts recently...the biggest shift came last weekend when I got sick. Many many things got brought right up to the surface. It seems that my fears are slowly weakening their grip on me.