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Frode Sigvald Hansen's avatar

Fantastic. Hardcore. No parrot speaking here

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Thomas A. Vik's avatar

Thanks, Frode! 🙏

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Dan H's avatar

Reading this awesome piece is like eating solid food.

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Thomas A. Vik's avatar

Thanks, Dan! 🙏

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Holistic Lifestyle Medicine's avatar

Brilliant! Yes! It’s such a ‘chasing your tail’ kind of a loop, the ‘experiencer’ constantly searching, seeking, questioning, but we don’t look at the ‘searcher’, the ‘seeker’, the ‘questioner’.

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Thomas A. Vik's avatar

Thanks! Indeed it is 🙏

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Greg James's avatar

I developed a well defined spiritual ego from drinking lots of ayahuasca and taking mushrooms

Now Iboga on the other hand removed many beliefs. Conditioning from when I was in the crib and early stages of life. It shows truth if we are willing to face the lies.

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Thomas A. Vik's avatar

Indeed, Greg – for some of us psychedelics are potentially useful as a catalyst 🍄🌵🪁🎭😜

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Faisal Aliyar's avatar

In consciousness evolution, what you just uncovered is a hidden axis:

Animal consciousness is immediate being. It is one-layered: action and awareness are fused. An animal is self-unaware but world-aware — through instinct, sensation, presence.

Human consciousness introduces a second layer: We are aware of being aware. We have an internal mirror — a loop where self sees self. This creates distance, reflection, questioning, and choice.

Because of this "double consciousness," humans often fall out of pure being. We think about flying, rather than simply fly.

BUT — evolution doesn't end with separation. The next movement is not back to animal immediacy — it is the conscious return to immediacy. Not innocence through ignorance, but innocence through wisdom.

In short:

Animal: I am the flight, unknowingly.

Human (ordinary): I know of the flight, but am separate.

Human (awakened): I know and am the flight — knowingly.

This is often described as:

"The circle completes itself — not by staying wild, nor by staying lost, but by becoming wild again, with eyes open."

Thus, evolution of consciousness is a spiral: from being, to thinking, to aware being.

In your language: You could call it something like:

"From Native Being to Exiled Awareness to Awakened Being."

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Cadu Lemos's avatar

“What they’re really doing is converting direct experience back into the safe territory of concepts – rebuilding the very walls that momentarily fell. True seeing isn’t something you integrate; it’s something that disintegrates you”

Brilliantly put.

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Thomas A. Vik's avatar

Thank you, Cadu! 🙏

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dave carlson @davesideas's avatar

there’s nothing wrong with going on vacation as long as you don’t resist coming back home

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