Leo Gura films himself becoming enlightened

[HoldorFold]

 

[Vajra Fist]

Not sure if I fully believe this. On his site he talks about using psychedelics for personal development, and in this video he kinda looks high. Anyway, if he has indeed reached awakening, then I am very happy for him.

Edited February 5, 2018 by Vajra Fist

[Miffymog]

I also watched this video and it pricked my curiosity enough for me to then do a little bit of research on the internet into him. My initial response was slightly cynical, in that if he'd had this insight during a silent retreat, the retreat leader would have either metaphorically or physically banged him on the head and told him to just get back to his cushion and carry on practising.

 

However, off the back of this experience, he’s seems to have successfully set up a website and career producing podcasts on spiritual matters and the reviews of them are actually pretty high. There are a lot of people who find them very helpful – so all credit to him.

[silent thunder]

One of my staunch materialist friends actually approached me at work and asked me to watch one or two of his lectures to get my take.  He really appreciated the way Leo discusses some esoteric concepts and wanted my take as he knows I'm not a materialist and wanted to see what someone from my side of the fence thought of him... if he was just spouting bs or was on track.

 

I find Leo to be pretty grounded and insightful.  Although this video is a bit unsettling, that level of intimacy is intense.  Can't say if he is aided by a chemical process in addition to the breathing and sitting, but when realizations come, they come... and all chemicals, breath and light come from the same source.  When the veil is pulled back, it doesn't matter whose hand is grabbing it to me any longer.

 

I find him open and authentic.  Though I couldn't watch the entire process on the first view... just too intimate.  I will come back and watch more as I'm quite curious how the wave eddies into a balanced flow.

[Fa Xin]

Interesting that his priority was to record it and describe it. 

 

Now I understand why my girlfriend thinks I’m batty. 

 

Congrats to “the awareness formerly known as Leo”

 

[HoldorFold]

Yeah quite an intense video, I watched about up to half way through. Pretty legit enlightenment experience but it does turn out he was on psychedelics at the time. 

He later unpacks and explains his experience and the implications in this vid:

[rainbowvein]

Legit?

 

While on drugs?

[Fa Xin]

5 hours ago, HoldorFold said:

Yeah quite an intense video, I watched about up to half way through. Pretty legit enlightenment experience but it does turn out he was on psychedelics at the time. 

He later unpacks and explains his experience and the implications in this vid:
 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

I feel cheated. I want my money back!

[9th]

3 hours ago, Fa Xin said:

I feel cheated. I want my money back!

 

So cheated?

 

How cheated do you feel?

[Miffymog]

Oooo - he says, "Yes, I take psychedelics". Now, for the moment, he comes across as being quite a switched on person. The thing is, these drugs can be addictive and will do long term harm to your mind. There are those out there whom may choose to take them based on this chap's experiences and open up a whole can of very bad worms for themselves.

 

Its better to suggest techniques that are healthy for both your mind and body, then if you don't find enlightenment at the end of it, at least you have a healther body and mind.

Edited February 7, 2018 by Miffymog

[de_paradise]

I watched the first 27 seconds and conclude that he is having a kind of temporary awakening experience, not stable. His grinning at his hand is all the clues one needs.

[Vajra Fist]

Yeah I remember my mate at university took mushrooms and spent an hour talking with God while staring at the clouds. I've got a great video of it somewhere. The trouble is, he was tripping his bollocks off and none of it was real. Another time he took them he hallucinated that Arnold Schwarzeneggar was giving him workout advice, so he was pedalling furiously on a exercise bike in his bathrobe for a good couple of hours. (This guy was my best man at my wedding)

 

Mushrooms may invoke temporary higher states but there's a huge amount of delusion thrown in too. I think it's somewhat naive to equate states of intoxication, no matter how escatic, with lasting and profound liberation from samsara. 

 

Edit: As I suspected, he is also selling a course for $249.

 

Edited February 12, 2018 by Vajra Fist

[silent thunder]

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, just due to a couple of experiences with your mate.

 

Two lasting realizations that dissovled years of suffering occured for me while using psilocybin, to great lasting effect... now twenty years on.  Deeply grateful for that particular plant medicine....

 

Though I do consider it medicinal in use, not dietary.  Though I feel the same about meditation and Qi Gong these days interestingly enough.

 

in the end, even our practices must be transcended, as they too are objects of the mind.

[HoldorFold]

 

On 07/02/2018 at 0:08 AM, rainbowvein said:

Legit?

 

While on drugs?

 

 I'd say it's pretty legit, like how you can have a legitimate enlightenment experience during an NDE. The experience you have is enlightenment, but due to the trigger, i.e a substance or death, it's more temporary and harder to fully integrate when the substance leaves your system or you're brought back to life in a hospital. 

 

[Miffymog]

Side stepping the issue of whether you should take psychedelics or not, I did a quick search on Google and came up with this article, which is quite interesting.

 

I used to think that using psychedelics ‘expanded’ your mind. But this chap had some injected and then laid in a CT scan. He began to find it really strange and just had this overwhelming desire to talk to people, but the scan gave an insight into what actually goes on during a trip.

 

Rather than activating and stimulating the mind, the drug actually restricts blood to various parts of the brain. And the areas with restricted blood flow are the parts of the brain which deal with where we think we are, and who we think we are – hence the concept of self diminishes.

 

To continue the precis, the article goes on to say that in some people, this area is over stimulated, and so the use of a drug that reduces activity can be of some benefit.

 

So, rather than ‘opening’ your mind, you’re actually in a small way, ‘closing’ a small part of it off – the area where the sense of self resides.

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12122409

Edited April 14, 2018 by Miffymog

[!nverse]

I have recreationally taken LSD (about 7 trips) & psilocybin mushrooms (about 12 trips) over the course of my lifetime (I'm 51).

 

It's not for everyone, you need the right environment plus the right state of mind, otherwise you can do some serious psychological damage. Also it's not the sort of drug that you can use habitually, it's just too intense for that. You blow the garage doors off, then walk away.

 

My first trip? Age of eighteen, sixty mushrooms drank as a foul tea. I didn't even know what it was. We'd gone picking & I was given a tea to drink. I'd never smoked a cigarette, had pot or got drunk before. So it was quite an intense rite of passage for me.

 

Still here. Still fairly stable  

 

If you ever consider doing this, make absolutely sure you have covered every angle of research. The dangers are there, but so are the rewards. Shamans know a thing or two...

 

Edit: In response to Miffymog re: closing your mind, I think there's an element of truth in that. I tended to get quite introspective & focused on going within rather than without.

Edited April 13, 2018 by !nverse