Meh, still so much profits from 500-600 entry.

I sold a couple moar at 2800usd.

I have a pretty dangerous setup right now. I'll be looking to get half of my crptos on an external hard drive.

I'm still waiting for some blackswan wild crash to move into ETH..

---

So, I have a semi-bum knee. It's a result of a few things. First off, I was diagnosed with cerebal palsy at birth (left side of my body did not respond to stimulus). I grew up skating with mostly one leg, and being very dominate on one side of my body. I hyper-extended my left leg(at the knee) while playing capture the flag on a sheet of ice when I was ~10. At around ~15 I broke that same leg and had a full-leg cast for a couple months. It's generally fine, but tends to act up if I put lots of force on it. It bothered me during my west-coast USA biking trip, and it acted up last year during my 3-month squat/deadlift heavy strength training.

It started acting up(general pain) again a couple weeks ago, and I made a pretty poor decision to continue pushing hard, choosing a training schedule that puts a ton of stress on it. I simply should not be doing high-weight leg-heavy workouts 3 times a week. Anyways, nothing bad has happened, but I think its just careless behavior by me. One of the main reason I workout is injury prevention.. seems pretty dumb to squat 225-235 5x3 3 times a week, followed by 5x5 deadlifts.

I've heard tons of similar stories that result in injuries, and I certainly want to avoid that happening to me. So yeah, I'll be switching up squats for exercises that will strengthen the supporting muscles around the knees over the next couple weeks. Also, I'll be mixing up deadlifts with similar supporting exercises, too. I think its pretty important to listen to your body, and the fact that its taken weeks for me to respond to mine seems pretty lol.. but yeah, also the body so adaptable that I'm sure in some spots you can continue pushing for months/years until anything terrible happens..

In other news, after 5 weeks of working out hard, and loosely following a 12-hour time restricted diet.. I am in the best shape of my life. I'm ~5% below previous max lifts on all compound movements. More flexible than ever, at the lowest BF% I've ever had, and my posture has gone from bad to above average. My meatsuit is doing well and poised to serve my future ambitions.

I'm starting to play a bit more tennis, too. A few poker players are pretty into it (one is around my skill level, another is much better). Its 17-20C most days, which is perfect weather for tennis.

Currently, I'm taking a few days off exercise all together. My hands are all ripped up from deadlifts, and my knees were signaling to me to chill out.

Not sure how many readers are gym goers, but I discovered some self-diagnostic tools. First off, take your mobile phone and film yourself from the side. You can post the video on 2+2 fitness forums or other forums and people will be happy to criticize you. I did it when I first started and it helped quite a bit. That said, I ended up developing some form-leak over the last few weeks. I discovered leaks using a different type of leak-buster.

I took a 50% of my ~1rep max, and do a slow 2-4 breath lift movement (squat/deadlift/bench). Slow-motion makes it far easier to notice if you are moving incorrectly/asymmetrically. Also, it will be easier to feel muscle fatigue(atrophy?) shortly after a set.

Another general technique I use is to watch a youtube video or two a week before going to the gym to get some tips.

---

The poker game is the best its been for a while the last couple weeks. It's playing a bit bigger and wilder. I'm losing, of course. Only a few hundred BBs, but it has added to push the $downswing farther, without pushing the BB downswing valley.

I'm quite happy with my play. I have got the chance to watch other regs losing and they tend to mentally tilt and also play significantly worse-- so its good to see I am printing EV in some sense. One of the better regs is legit seeing a therapist, partially attributed to a massive downswing.

I feel like its quite sad that I've run bottom 1-5% on my last run of my career. Its quite unfortunate to give poker a last 3-6months of my time/energy and end up losing. It's not over yet (I still have 1.5 months), but yeah, that sucks.

I'm almost certainly leaving Sydney after the series. There is a price I would sell my time/energy. I would stay here if my hourly was $150+. This would entail the games being better than I've ever seen on a consistent basis after a series-- which is highly unlikely.

I'll be thinking more about where to go next and what to do next. I've still got the loose plan of visiting self-sustaining communities/homes/retreat centers, learning, and then building my own.

Okay, updates on that microdose life..

I'm about 3weeks in, and according to supply, I've been having around 1.5x-2x higher than the max recommended dose, and also ration failed(which has led to supply issues and so forth). I recommend buying a scale if you are going about microdosing.

I've played around with eating before/after. Taking it on an empty stomach makes a large difference. To increase effects, empty stomach is the way to go.

Confirmed increased sensitivity to external stimulus at all times. It tends to be particularly higher around .5-6 hours after a dosage. I think this is the basis for most(or maybe all) alterations in the general experience of life.

Emotions are felt more clearly. Its easy to identify emotions and which thoughts are associated with those emotions. It's also easier to perceive the emotions of others. Being able to identify how others feel is much easier.

Its harder to focus on a task in an environment with lots of external stimulus. This can be problematic in pokers. There have been a few spots where I'm thinking on the river and people around me are frustrated that I'm taking time and that will distract my attention. This didn't happen before, but is one of the drawbacks of being more sensitive/perceptive.

On the other hand, reads have been more reliable. I've been pushing more confidence in read-based decisions with success.

Variance is felt more strongly; good and bad. I think this is probably the major bust-factor for poker players.

On a more personal note, my dreams have changed in nature. They started off with some very abstract stuff, the types of visuals I've never seen. There have been some "big dreams" that have been very powerful and alien. Goblin-like entities moving on bikes shape-shifting to accommodate rapidly changing environments which could also be changed based on my thoughts(I was watching myself watching the dream through a glass window-- even more bizarre).

Also, yeah, there seems to be an altered sense of consciousness in dreams. I haven't got fully lucid for much time at all. Actually, lucidity and dream recall have both decreased. Most my recent dreams tend to include friends and fun times. Way more dreams with sex, women seem to appear out of nowhere, one gets my attention, and the rest vanish.

Also, I've been seeing spiders. Lots of spiders. There was one particular vivid encounter that sent me flying out of bed. Since that experience the visuals have been way less intense, for example I saw shadows of spiders a couple nights ago.

Meditation has a whole different flavor. It's way easier to get into "bliss state". Visualizing is easy and awesome. I've been having these experiences where if I get really relaxed and quiet my mind it will start firing off all this information at an extremely rapid rate, and it tends to accompany light visuals. Its hard to remember what was thought and when I try to remember or think about it while its happening, I lose the state. After these types of experiences I'm generally confused and try to piece together the last few minutes of "thought" without much success(most times).

I've been eating less meat/dairy. I've ended up eating meat a couple hours after I microdose on multiple occasions. Its a bad experience. It has resulted in some strange mind-****s and ultimately ended up with me being unable to finish food. Caffeine tends to mess with the affects too-- makes focus easier, lowers sensitivity.

I think microdosing during any sort of creative pursuit would be awesome. If I were to do yoga teacher training, that would be a good time..

Upon reading what I wrote, I think I should give some perspective on stuff. First off, I don't really think its the "microdosing" that is imposing these types of experiences on me, but more-so that it gives me a sense of access to different states of beings.

Another thing that needs way more perspective is the dream stuff I wrote about... The whole seeing spiders thing isn't a "result" of microdosing(aka if you microdose, that doesnt necessarily mean you see a bunch of scary ****). The way I see it is that I provide an environment for my mind to more easily access whats going on in my unconscious. For instance, I believe its probable that the spider is a symbol that expresses an archetype of my unconscious. Perhaps I wouldn't have been able to "bring it" to conscious awareness without the aid of microdosing.

Actually, I think this is a big part of experience with mind-altering substances. Infact, the language behind "drugs" is so warped. Every substance you put inside you is "mind-altering" on some level. It's more like they are mind-accessing substances.

Microdosing stems and caps. Yeah, thats great, acid is way to light to measure out. I figured it out! I lived with someone in hawaii who micro'd acid for 6 months while working in a resturant with me. It has worked well.

Everything is relative in our lives. You could have a worse off life than worring about +-EV on river decisions in high stakes Plo. You could be a building slave in Egypt 5k years ago starving to death and only live a short painfull life.

Everything is relative to me that is my outlook after going through some hard times with drug (opiate) addiction. I try to humble myself everytime I start getting an ego. It is hard and I need to force myself to do it. It is worth it though. As far as your life, I have been your roommate actually (bubonicplay) and I know you are very smart, educated, and have had great success! I am proud of you, I have not climbed the ranks like you have. If you feel like slowing down with poker hours/ time studying/ degen lifestyle I would reccommend supplementing your income with a profitable endeavor. It could be sales, consulting, I think you would be a dangerous Bitcoin/ market trader. Find something you love~

"“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.” - Einstein

! I didn't realize you changed your 2+2 sn. Good to hear from you. I remember the good times in Vegas. I didn't know you struggled with opiates.. those are the worst. My mom had a severe opiate addiction that almost lead to death.

Thanks for the kind words. As far as what to do next, I'm going to be doing something non-conventional. I know I could succeed at sales or consulting, but it doesn't quite fit for me. The thing I value most about the poker life is autonomy, so I'm going to pursue something which can offer me that. I'm in a spot not many people have been. I have a unique skill set, capital, and an entrepreneurial mind. I think it would be a waste not to leverage at least some of those assets.

---

The truth is, I don't really have a cemented plan for the next few years. The general plan is as follows;
-Travel around the world visiting self-sustainable communities/projects, and "brain gym" projects like "flow dojo" / "googleplex"
-Build my own self-sustainable home / "brain gym".

It's hard to plan forward too much about the building/creating; I simply don't know enough about it. What I do know is that the experience of creating my own home sounds awesome. I'll learn a ton, It will challenge me, and it will advance my "financial" interests. I'm not sure I will love it.. I'm not convinced this is the most important aspect of my "professional" career.

I plan to leave Sydney Aug5-7, spend a week exploring around a bit north of here, hopefully getting the chance to visit a couple communities. I've booked a flight to New Zealand for August 16th. I believe they have more self-sustainable projects going on, and better hiking. After NZ I'm unsure where I'll go.. Eventually I'll be heading through Central/South America.

I am not sure if you have watched Kalu yala (sp*) on Viceland but that is kind of what I a am imagining when I see self sustaining. Of course that show is completeley sold out and so many are in that for profit and self gain. It has hardly a pure organic form of what I think it should be like.

Well Ethereum crashed on the servers today (Coinbase, Gdax, maybe more), BTC $ fell in respect. I have been analyzing and day trading, I must say these past x amount of hours of flew by very fast. Albeit I must admit I enjoy it better when I am positive > negative on my trades on Poloniex. The market is starting to meet resistance and stabilize after meeting resistance. I am ok with missing the bottom of my buys by ~< %5.

Curious about your thoughts on karma as it relates to poker. Not talking the boring age old debate of ethics or morality of gambling (yawn), or the surface level definition of karma either which is widely misused / misunderstood.

But on the deeper level, the idea that all spiritual actions and experiences will eventually balance. I'm a big believer in this from a rational philosophical perspective and also from a light study of physics. I often think about this in poker as I rake in another huge pot from a degen tilting it away, or hit the next major financial milestone. I think about what unbalance I am introducing to both villain and myself, and how in the grand scheme it will all balance out. And I often wonder if I should just give it all back and go volunteer for the local food pantry with all my time that I once dedicated to this silly game.

Thoughts?

soft.

: )

Haha as soft as a marshmallow!

Haven't seen the documentary, but I do enjoy vice, so I'll check it out.

I have no idea how shortterm trading works for cryptos. My investment strat is to focus limiteded energy on macro-trends, but mostly just buy and hold 5-10years+.

In regards to time dilation, yeah it's quite interesting. I began quite interested in that a long time ago. To me the idea that something as ubiquitous and familiar as time can be so complex and hard to understand is quite fascinating.

I haven't contemplated karma as much as some topics. I'd like to read your believes from a rational philosophical perspective. I'm also curious if your believes from the light study is at all related to the double-slit experiment(I can't see how karma fits in), or non-locality(this is widely misunderstood).

I do believe karma exists(very probable). I just don't know how the mechanism works. I'm not sure if its an exact balancing act, if it balances in a life-time, in 1000 life-times, etc.. There are a few commonly accepted explanations out of zillions of possibilities for how it could work.

Money made from morally questionable behavior is probably bad karma. Although, I imagine winning a pot via poker is in the "meh not-so-bad" category as far as negative actions go..

Another aspect of this karma concept that puzzles me is where/how does intent come into play? Like, for instance, your standard American clinic-working doctor will distribute millions of pills of ssris/zanax/other poisons to people over a career. If they believe they are helping patients, but actually are making matters worse, is this bad karma?

Anyways, to sum up, yes I think karma exists. (well, as always, one of those 95-99% type beliefs). I think the mechanisms involved are hard to know, and probably unknown.

**** the soup kitchen. Donate a couple thousand to AMF and you've given someone that would have died from malaria a healthy adult human life. I'm a huge believer in donating time/money to charity in the most efficient ways possible. Maximum +karma.

In completely unrelated topics...

I'm officially out of the $ pokers downswing! (Still in BB downswing, but games have been playing bigger lately). Congrats me for weathering the storm. I managed to play 207 hours in the last month. That's monster volume at a time when the games are good. Another pat on the back.

I sold some action for the Sydney series. I may play the $20k high-roller and sell ~$15-17k. It will be based on how many pros fly into Sydney. If I do play, it would be at no markup, and if I upswing hard and/or FT an event beforehand.

---

I took a little bonus dose of natural supplement the other day. I sat in a dark room, closed my eyes, and got the following messages;
-The main reason I feel so good(much love) all the time is because I was loved by my mother
-Look after my mothers health.
-~All the women around me want me.
-I need to learn to take credit better, I am ~the best poker player in the room.

This also got me thinking about some other things. I tend to shy away from any sort of compliments/positive feedback. I do so mostly out of fear. It's because I despise inflated egos. I know the damage a delusion person can do, and I know that as a human male with a boatload of testosterone I can fall victim to an inflated ego. I fear that if I indulge in positive feedback that I will start down a path to become the very thing I despise.

I think I need to re-think this and come to better terms with myself/my ego. For instance, if I'm always shying away from positive feedback and external approval, what if I underestimate my abilities and miss some opportunities? This can take many forms, and I do think it happens to me today without realizing it.. Both "master teacher" plants I've worked with have sent me these types of messages as "an opener", and I've also got this feedback from a shaman in the amazon(who barely knows english, but somehow knew this?). Even the gringos at the resort purposely stroked my ego as a group following a ceremony. Anyways, I'm probably whaling it off here-- needs more contemplation on my behalf.

Oh man. You can't cancel karma out by simply writing a check with numbers and imaginary value to it. Just like you can't **** someone over and then rationalize it by saying "it's for a good cause" or the "for my kids"- or by doing something good for someone else later. I don't think it works anywhere close to what mainstream believes-- it's almost as ******ed as the idiots that think they can be a really ****ty human being and god will forgive all no questions asked

I don't even think karma applies to money since while it's very important in society today- it's actually meaningless/ of no value from a karma perspective. What is important is life, happiness and fulfillment. Like if karma was a living being I don't think it would even know what money is since it's so far removed from the big 3.

The biggest thing thing is your intention and knowledge. If you willingling and knowing wreck/cause havoc/ **** life circles up for pieces of paper- karma will insure you're not going to be satisfied or happy or have a good life.

Dedicating your life's time to do good things with good intentions for all life not just lol humans is a sure path for living a happy, content, fulfilling life which all the money and power and fake bs cannot fulfill. In before I get called a monk.

^^^No i totally agree and its weird someone accused you of being my gimmick account bc you wrote a response better than i could have for myself.

Specifically speaking about money for a second, most people dont realize what it is. It is nothing more than a unit of measure. As Alan Watts said, its the same thing as inches in carpentry. And you dont build houses with inches. You build them with material and labor.

The busy single mother of 3 who volunteers at the local food pantry once a month gives significantly more back to the human endeavor than someone who writes a 5 figure check to charity.

As for my own philosphy, let me be frank. I know that we are one single entity, infinite energy, pure consciousness, god, whatever you want to call it. And therefore as we hurt others, we hurt self. This is the true idea of karma in Hinduism. Not the silly idea that we steal $200 and 2 months later get a $200 speeding ticket. But instead, the very act of theft of the original $200 creates the imbalance. To self.

So you see I'm not too concerned with morality in the sense of right and wrong nor am I concerned with an imaginary man in the clouds. But I am concerned with causing harm to others, which is actually just harm to self under this idea.

By that same token, under this philosophy someone has to be the bad guy. Thats the game we are playing. Yin and Yang.

I believe money is more than simply a unit of account or something of no value with no karma influence. I'm a bit surprised by such strong opinions on the behalf of both of you..

Money is a unit of account, a store of value, and a medium of exchange. It's a huge influence on people's will/behaviour. If money isn't taken into account in the "karma algo" then there is a huge fundamental imbalance. I'm not saying writing a cheque after doing horrible things is a cancel out, but money has to play some sort of role.

The whole concept of duality is still a bit confusing to me(I get it as a mental concept, but don't really understand it).

To be clear, we've been caught up in a bit of semantics. Today money and currency are used interchangeably, but they are two very different things. Currency has no intrinsic value, only that which its government deems upon it, and therefore it will always fail. So I should have used currency in place of money to be more specific in my post above.

As for the giving of wealth, our good friend Jesus had some interesting wisdom to share which is captured in Mark 12:41-44

The Widow’s Offering
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”


For duality, i suggest listening to Alan Watts. All waves have crests...and troughs. And since our universe is based entirely on different vibrations (waves) of energy, this is all one giant on and off system. space/solid, light/dark, good/bad, all just the eternal vibration of yin and yang. Energy playing with itself in infinite. imo

this thread is going amazing - thank you, OP to help all coming out of the woods and shedding light on important topics from intelligent and varied angles

to all that are on a path towards positive energy, please share any recipe/steps/influences such as in their diets and other ways to clean their body->minds at early stages of their journey, that got them significantly closer to results they deem worthy..
basically, looking for a 'how-to get there' steps for the beginner, that they would recommend

nice duality explanation avar, really like that.

was also surprised about your metaphor of a person helping at a food shelter once a month >>>> 5 figure checks to charity in terms of helping humans. A persons mere presence doesn't contribute to others clothing, food, shelter, medicine.

many people seem to look at money as being guilty - or something in which to blame. It's just a tool which has made a gigantic positive impact in the world. and also been abused by others to hoard power and resources.

tmc... meditation or yoga - choose one.

im a bit bewildered tbh. like with all this talk about drug experimenting, spirituality and i guess being open minded it seems some people still havent been able to let go of money/material object driven thinking and a lack of abstract thought. i'm not insulting, for some reason i just thought that those concepts would have been well cemented.

IMO karma is on a case by case basis and is in no way judging your actions against anothers and grading which is more valuable/worthy. it is entirely a personal, one on one thing, you and karma type deal.

for example- the billionaire philanthropist who while probably ****ed/cheated/stole/backstabbed/crushed his "karma" on the way to get to the top might have saved hundreds of thousands, or maybe even millions of lives--- doesn't have as much karma as the poor guy who spent much more time and effort and resources despite probably not saving a single persons life or effecting near as many people as the billionaire. why? because he gave more relative to what he had nor does he have some nasty ass negative karma footprint either.

I agree with Jesus... giving $X% relative to what you have is more important than giving an $X aggregate number. Also, I agree with upswinging in the sense that writing cheques can't be used as a "karma balance" in all scenarios.. for instance, If someone orchestrates a holocaust for the lols there is no $X cheque to "balance" his karma.

All that said, I believe money still plays a role. I'll illustrate with an example. Let's say Avaritia is working an office job. In the afternoon, her boss asks if she can work 3 hours of overtime, for overtime pay. After work, Avaritia was planning on going to volunteer at the local foodbank. She also wants to keep a good relationship with her boss. Ruh roh, she is unsure what to do.

Avaritia decides that she will "work to give". If she works an extra 3 hours, she will earn $120. She decides she will use that $120 she earns to positively impact her community. In the afternoon, she posts an ad on a "quickjob" app; "3 hours of work at the foodbank for $40". 3 People respond to joblisting. She gives them the details, and they go work at the foodbank in her stead, and she pays them each $40. Avaritia stays at work with the boss, working.

Now, in this example, by "working to give", there was a larger positive impact on the planet/humanity by Avaritia's actions than volunteering her personal time/presence. That said, her "good actions" were not "directly" performed. A tool(money) was employed. Does that make her actions neutral/negative in a karmic sense? My opinion is no...

Also, to be clear, I'm not saying that this means one should always work to give. Also, this doesn't mean that work to give is correct for any instance that "$X/hr work>$X/hr volunteer wage. There are other benefits to personally helping at a food bank that are hard to quantify. I'm just using the above as a ~realistic example. With more power comes more responsibility..

Okay, I can give some beginner guidance on "Clearing the body->mind" for beginners. All this "spiritual" stuff (meditation, yoga, dieting master plants, lucid dreaming, etc.) is very subjective. It's mostly an internal experience. The state of ones body/mind is paramount for optimal experience. It's going to be difficult to develop a meditation practice if one is a in perpetual state of anxiety.

I like to think of my body as vehicle. Let's say, a car. I'm using my car to "drive" through life. The external environment will change as I move through life, and I'll experience this feedback on my car. It will rust, it will decay etc.. The driver of my car is my mind. My mind decides where my vehicle goes. It services my vehicle. It has a strong influence on the direction and experience of my car.

Now, through everyday life, most people are driving asleep at the wheel. They drive through life looking through the eyes of the driver, watching a few meters ahead on the road without much thought of their car(until it stops working), where they are going, or if anything exists outside of the car/driver. They respond to the external environment around them as it changes, and if the car isn't working they take it into a shop and trust someone else to repair it.

Spiritual practice is like taking a road trip. A special type of road trip. I want you to imagine that instead of being the driver in the car, you are a drone with a camera, following the car. You follow the car on a road trip.

In spiritual practice, It's about getting outside of your mind/body and connecting with the "drone", the "observer", if you will, of your experience. The "witness" of your life. In doing this, you can gain great insight into the nature of your car/driver. This can be very valuable/useful information.

The most important factors for newbies are sleep, exercise, and diet. These elements are the gasoline, oil, and insurance policy for your trip. I don't want to go too far past these, because I know from personal experience, that this is hard enough to follow. If you can manage those three things, you are pretty much set. There are ton's of tune-ups and hacks you can employ, but the fundamentals are far more important.

-Sleep in a dark, cool, quiet place. Blackout windows with garbage bags, use earplugs. 7-9 hours, depending...
-Exercise every day. 40minutes of walking is enough, most days. Exert yourself at least once per week. This can be HIIT from youtube(15minutes), or some sort of sport.
-Avoid processed sugar like the plague. Eat whole foods. Buy "dirty dozen" foods organic. Drink loads of water. Limit alcohol intake.

If you can manage that, you are in a suitable place to begin a spiritual practice. If you can manage that for a couple years, you will be recording an awesome road trip. Focus on making small steps towards your lifestyle goals. Don't try to change all your habits at once-- it won't work. I recommend "The power of habit" and "willpower instinct" to the DIY'ers interested in habit formation and willpower.

[QUOTE=tmckendry;52463427]
Okay, I can give some beginner guidance on "Clearing the body->mind" for beginners. All this "spiritual" stuff (meditation, yoga, dieting master plants, lucid dreaming, etc.) is very subjective.
The road trip may be a very subjective experience, but the way to reach the best place to connect to the drone in the best weather conditions may be very 'objective-technical', so be as specific as you can in what steps helped get you there most productively.. I think the 'don'ts' are just as important as the 'do's'
-> thanks for already sharing and guiding...


The most important factors for newbies are sleep, exercise, and diet.
-Sleep in a dark, cool, quiet place. Blackout windows with garbage bags, use earplugs. 7-9 hours, depending...
-Exercise every day. 40minutes of walking is enough, most days. Exert yourself at least once per week. This can be HIIT from youtube(15minutes), or some sort of sport.
-Avoid processed sugar like the plague. Eat whole foods. Buy "dirty dozen" foods organic. Drink loads of water. Limit alcohol intake.

I have already managed to have a close to perfect lifestyle away from 9 to 5 for some years, away from western civilization stress triggers and now in a quiet place for most of the year.. with people of positive energy around me and great organic food...
working on my body weight / intermittent fasting, intensive sports 3 times a week and no illness whatsoever for some years but my main sin is still being unable to ditch the 1 wine bottle at night.. I guess it makes me an alcoholic...
-> do you reckon solving this fundamental weakness is a must before actively proceeding to connect to the drone in a more technical way (hacked or natural)


There are ton's of tune-ups and hacks you can employ, but the fundamentals are far more important.
please share the tune-ups and hacks that you can.. are there specific road trips that are most rewarding to you or is there a crescendo of trips you would say needs to be followed and would you say that doing this journey with the right girl is better and more likely to succeed from the sharing of experiences or is it better done in a solitary way?

I'll focus in on meditation because I think its what interests most readers.

For some background, I've engaged in a few months of daily practice for weeks at a time over around 3-4 years. Last year I spent a couple hours a day meditating for a few weeks. Over the last few weeks I've spent a couple times a week meditating for >30 minutes.

From a macro-perspective.. I think its it is optimal to have different types of practices. A daily practice which is short and hard to fail. A medium intensive practice 1-2 days once per month. Finally, have a 1-2 week highly intensive practice once or twice a year. This is a model I unintentionally used over the last year, and also happens to be recommended by the "flow dojo" creators, and it tends to get support among the teachers I follow.

The key with the daily practice is starting small, and creating a habit. Somewhere between 5-10 minutes at first is fine. Give yourself a minute to get comfortable/ready.
To cement a habit, make a ritual out of it. Always practice at the same time of the day, and try to design the preparation to be a familiar, efficient routine. Most people seem to prefer to meditate when they wake up-- I've found it to be easiest before bed. It really depends on your life.

Missing a day every now and then is okay, but missing two days in a row is a sin. This advice comes from a Tim Ferris podcast, and I've found it to be very true in my practice. Missing two days in a row tends to completely mess with the routine. Habits are much harder to develop if you are traveling often and trying a bunch of new stuff.

The beginning can be very difficult, if you make it that way. Try not to focus on mistakes and failures. Be soft with yourself and expect that you will make loads of mistakes. In yoga I was lol-bad at the start. I was completely out of touch with my body(I'm still pretty noobish tbh, sometimes I look in the mirror and I'm like, wait, wtf am I doing?). I still look foolish, but I don't care. I move slower than everyone, and its best for me. I use to try and follow the class and do the movements with everyone in unison. This is a good strategy if you are a healthy 25yr old 5"7 female, because then you have average lung capacity. I learned(actually, a teacher in whistler demonstrated this to me), I have to move slower than everyone because my breath is longer. In meditation, I remember battling with my mind and getting annoyed/frustrated at myself because I couldn't seem to shut off my thoughts, or as some say; "cage the monkey mind". I think all the pressure I put on myself at first was a bunch of undue stress and probably overall less beneficial than if I was just playing/observing. At first its important to be soft with yourself and realize that its a process.

As far as hacks/tune-ups go for meditating, for the daily practice I find exerting my body in some manner on a regular(6-7 days/wk) makes the daily practice much better. Something about an exerted body makes for a calmer mind. HIIT, sauna+cold showers, day of skiing/surfing, good sex or masturbation help out tons. Stimulants(coffee) tends to mess with my state, I imagine alcohol is worse.

Another hack is listening to different frequencies to induce different brain wave states. You can download tracks all over the web.

If you want to get really crai, you can purchase an EEG machine and hook it up to your brain when you meditate. You can then use the feedback to do a post-session review. I haven't done this but my teachers claim its beneficial.

For the medium intensive practice 1-2 times per month, try using an isolation tank if possible. I think getting some swimmer headphones and listening to frequencies in the tank would be interesting. I haven't tried it, yet. Stay away from caffeine/alcohol 6 hours before/after the medium intensive practices.

For the highly intensive practice its best to find a teacher and go for some sort of retreat. They will have you sorted out with proper diet/routines. If you do it more of a frugal/DIY way, I recommend staying outside of cities and attempting to live like a monk. Get a book and few podcasts from the masters and immerse yourself in them while you are gone. Most retreats are like this anyways, and for good reason. No alcohol/drugs. Meat and certain foods to be avoided are the ones that spur testosterone. Low GI foods(blood sugar spikes are not good). Avoid sex/masturbation.

I'm somewhere between newb/intermediate at meditating(<50 hours learning, <200hours practicing). Even as a ~newb, sometimes I get into this "calm bliss" state. I'm not sure how to describe it in words(words tend to fail in general with all spiritual practices). But yeah, it's awesome. Most of the time its the main focus of my practice. If I can lift into that state for a minute for every 30 minutes I meditate, that's running good.

I find meditating while dieting plants to be extremely beneficial, but I think this really depends on the person. Most people that have done the same road trip as me haven't had the same sorts of intense experiences.

Bernie, in regards to your wine drinking habit.. the truth is, I don't really know what sort of impact it has.. I've found myself to be way more clear mentally since ditching alcohol, but I've also been making tons of +consciousness decisions in relatively short time frames.. so I'm not sure how much of a role alcohol played. I think alcohol cant be good overall, but it can be taken into consideration with small adjustments to your practice. If you practice in the morning/afternoon and give your liver as much support as possible should be okay. Lots of water and the fasting seems key.

I've had mixed results combining woman and spiritual practices. I haven't heard of many successes from others. Also, it should be noted that the "masters" in most of these practices tend to be more solitary types. I think it must be possible in theory, but it tends to be difficult in practice. I suppose it depends on the people involved.. I've typically been the one more interested in whatever practice. Yoga with past girlfriends tends to be way less improvement-/practice-oriented and more me teaching them-- but it doesn't have to be that way. I think a yoga retreat with a girl who is older and more advanced than me + some psychedelics would be the best time ever, and could probably improve my practice. ****, I should probably be arranging that at this moment.

I have spent a couple days in a hut in the middle of the jungle with an awesome woman, sharing our experiences and life. We were both on a pretty intensive diet with aya / other plants. Doing that once every few days instead of meditating alone was better for gains. I'd say she was "wiser" than me in many respects, so it was a good environment for me to learn...

I suppose, after these rambles, I think what matters is what each party brings to the road trip. If each parties car/driver have a similar competence and have similar levels of interest in the road trip, should be good. I think optimal for learning is if each party offered different strengths/weaknesses.

I've found the biggest problem with doing a joint-road trip is finding a partner. It's slim pickings around the poker table or among my poker-playing friends. 2-5 hours of okcupid will lead to one date, a date will be 1-5hours, and perhaps 30% of dates will be a suitable person. Then, availability at the same time is another hurdle to be addressed. Anyways, its a huge energy suck for a traveling poker pro. If I spent all that time/energy actually practicing/studying yoga(or whatever), I'd have completed several road trips before I'd be able to arrange a joint-trip.

~10% of the US population has a meditation practice, and >80% of the guests on the Tim Ferriss podcast have a practice.

For getting started with meditation, there are a zillion sources/guides out there these days. I'm not qualified to teach at this point in time, but a simple google/youtube search will provide several apt sources. I found the book "Waking up" by Sam Harris to be a very interesting exploration into consciousness/meditation.

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In unrelated news, yesterday I was awoken by Mexicans banging on my wall at 7am. Sadly, I only got 5 hours of sleep. I spent a couple hours at the gym, and went into the casino early. I was tired, and lacked focus. The game was below average, most people being short. Out of my ~100 sessions in Sydney, this would be one of the worst 3 as far as my mental condition. It was also one of the top 20 worst games. I played a 6 hour session(short for me), and somehow won 900bb. I think its pretty hilarious that my biggest BB winning session in Sydney is when I'm in my poorest form, play a short session in one of the worst games. Poker variance can be comical. Out of BB downswing, and $ downswing. Perhaps I waited until the last month of my career to rungood?


Right, so as of now my plan after the series is to take a bus north to the gold coast. I'm planning to spend a week at a surf camp. After that, I'm flying to NZ and making my way south to spend a few days skiing.

thank you for guiding more specifically with material that helped you...
as you said, there is so much out there ... you are surely qualified to point to the better tools/shortcuts like you did for the book

I think at some point you could start your website to better the world with a.o. some categories like meditation and your guidance to some key concepts at least, with further links or info about them if that is your limit you feel appropriate at the moment

but preferably not just meditation : also fusioning your other intersts into a tmc like guiding of your experience to build your own self-sustaining housing environment, find a silver thread to all these issues and compounding the knowledge around them with a blog; please mirror everything on the blockchain as good material tends to 'disappear' more often than not!

brand it TMC ? Teaching - Meditating - Compounding


No need to be shy in shining your light