I don't think so. I think you are talking more about someone who is a victim of consumerism, rather than a healthier way of living and self awareness. Of course Consumerism always causes addictive behaviour, cravings, and wanting to trouble people into buying a 'newer and better model', that's how they operate, by promising you happiness OUTSIDE of yourself!

Of course, people who are happy on the inside don't feel the need to ride this roller coaster tom foolery, get sucked into false hopes, have them dashed, and start all over again.

If there's one thing humans are here for, it's to understand that we are already complete, and that no gimmicks or tricks on the outside are worth taking seriously. Simply put, we are walking Gods. Now i can see that anyone who put trust and importance in this 'outside nonsense', rather than themselves, would be doing themselves a huge disservice, and perhaps feel depressed and down, but that's because they were led away from themselves.

I think we too easily forget the miracle of life that we are. We started as simple cells, look at us now!

Don't fall into the trap of consumerisn, we are here to participate in the joy and wonder of life. Anything contrary is nonsense.

Consumerism is not a cause for addiction. Consumerism is an addiction.

My beliefs are that addictions, aggressive behaviours and other assorted psychological inefficiency can be traced back to our conditioning in early infancy.

Wiki quote, because I'm hardly learned

"In the 1970s James Prescott carried out research into primate child-mother bonding and noted a clear link between disruption of the child-mother bonding process and the emergence of violence and fear-based behaviour in the young primates. Unable to conduct the same research on human subjects, he then carried out a number of cross cultural studies of all known first contact observations of Aboriginal Societies. He found he could accurately predict the emergence of violence and hierarchical power in any given society, based on the treatment of mothers and children."

A couple of good friends of mine have a child and they're using the attachment parenting principle and I'm finding it quite fascinating.

yes exactly n really interesting wiki info there soulfood ,christian what u say about finding true happiness within not outside the self resonates highly with me but about consumerism, like i mentioned in previous post: Our condition is built inside of us but rather just fixating on the negative like too many do, i like to look at the positive and possibly if theres a purpose to it, cant help being optimistic to look at also the big picture rather than just the personal journey like through ways of buddism like mentioned on this thread, but the global journey as well.

I partly agree, Soulfood.

However, i would prefer to say that consumerism is more of a 'coping mechanism', for the disconnected of our society, looking to fill that hole that is hard in these soul less times of celebrity icons, and mainstream nonsense.

If there's anything us humans may feel like destroying, it's this silly nonsense culture.

My cave is that one over there, care to join me for some cooked animal?!

So awesome points erryone!!

My take on consumerism is that it is marketed to us as a fix. We are all born with this idea of a quest, a desire to complete ourselves, a hole within us, and consumerism is just so conveniently placed there to entice us into believing that it is the fix we need. I really agree with the Buddhist idea of looking within one self to find peace (though I am still not sure about the idea of enlightenment). Ever since I have been doing this, looking within myself, my exterior world has been falling into place. So it's a disconnect from society, which tells us we need the exterior to validate our inner selves (which I think is probably a product of western/christian ideals). We are whole already, and the illusion of incompleteness is only that, and illusion.

So, to me, consumerism is just there doing what it does, and continues to do so because so many people are lost, and never take the chance to look within themselves. This, to me, is the true merit of psychedelics, as you're looking within yourself whether you want to or not. It takes courage to do so, which is why so many people think we are nuts because they're terrified to even consider taking a real hard look at themselves.

It's very interesting talking about conditioning. It weirds my girlfriend out when I tell her how strange everything is. I look around at the city, the country, the world, all of the things we take for granted, and often feel like an alien. Everything is so weird!! I feel like psychedelics help me see past my conditioning, and this is the source of this weirdness I feel. The only reason anything feels normal is because we have lived with it our whole lives.

Then, of course, there's the consequences of certain stimuli to a developing brain, the surface of which has only been scratched.

bravo.

Ditto.

Psychedelics are an alternative and more importantly, fresh perspective. It's the closest you can get to starting anew and in this mindset you really can free yourself of all your baggage.

I think this is one of the reasons why psychedelics can make the world at least seem to be more beautiful and why I love mushrooms especially, as I get a child-like sense that everything is still wonderful.

Through my use of psychedelics I've achieved a greater awareness of the impact of my body language. Through that I've also become more analytical of that of others. Some people have a default aggressive mode and throughout my life I always figured they had a problem with me and I'd adapt my body language and tone of voice to match them. Now I just try to maintain my regular playful tone. The funny thing is I find people to react the same and adapt to my mannerisms, especially when I pay special attention to annunciation.

It's also important to realise the reasons that people are acting the way they are. An old friend of mine once told me she always got the impression I thought I was cooler than most people and because of that I didn't really speak too much. In actual fact I was just shy.

I think people make these misunderstandings quite often in all walks of life. Perception is such a deceiving thing.

One way of looking at it, is that maybe our destructive behavior is just a fact of nature that is happening for a reason and shouldn't necessarily be resisted. If I had to guess what that reason is, I would say it's because we need to know just how bad things can get before we will ever know how good things can get.

To elaborate, think about how reality pretty much consists of opposites - love/hate, cold/hot, day/night. We have to have both sides of the spectrum because without one, the other would have no context. You would have no sensation of hot if cold didn't exist. Here in the realm of separateness, we can only know things by contrast.

So maybe our society's downward spiral still has a long way to go before we reach the pinnacle of destruction, but when it does, we can start anew. And maybe then we can experience oneness without the use of psychedelics, because we will finally have something to compare it to.

such great and interesting ideas here ppl , i like your view Uno, the yin and yang perspective, yeh maybe we need the bad to appreciate the good. I know if it weren't for many of my struggles in life , i wouldn't have the sense of appreciation for many things in life that only now do I not take for granted, and perhaps life is just some kind of preparation for death which might be berth, perhaps its a cycle.. the big mystery. Sounds hippy as hell but if theres anything i learned most value in this life is perhaps the value of love, love for oneself, people, god, earth... i really think its the most powerful force in the universe and theres nothing it cant break or heal, and because we can see the human condition from an outside perspective we shouldn't judge others because judging just feeds ones ego and increases separateness when in reality they are just victims of society and their lack of understanding. 2 extreme sides of the yin and yang are hate and love, one increases sense of separateness the other connectivity and oneness. So if anything worth doing in this life i think is to spread as much love as possible in any way possible, much love to u all

Life is naturally a challenge, although thanks to modern day ways of living in society, you wouldn't think so. For these reasons people actively seek out stressful activities, to rebalance this primal norm.

I don't think we are trying to destroy ourselves, just make right of our ways of living, which are extremely disconnedted from the ways we should be naturally challenging ourselves thesedays. Look at eyesight problems, frrr floating anxiety, ocd. All symptoms of being stuck indoors out of natural light, doing meaningless chores, and having to meet deadlines as if lives depended on it!

annunaki hybridized us..messed with our genetics and turned us away from ourselves.

is this tongue in cheek? i can't tell

Taking psychedelic, or simply opening your heart to the people around you? Life, is psychedelic.

I agree with many of the responses here, and am a little shamed to be adding to them unnecessarily. But to re-emphasize that destruction, chaos, pain. These are illusory (maya). Man's potency is immortal, a thing of it's own. With each la petite morte, comes infinite good.

This!

I think it's mans natural duty to find better ways of doing things so that life may be more joyfully lived. If man is seen to be destroying anything when you get to the core of the issue, you usually see that he's doing so because he thinks his way is for the best. It's a complex issue when it comes to wars and things, but there's a lot of wrongs going on in this world because of certain rigid belief systems. I think we have to stop and have a good look at other countries before going in guns blazing to 'save them'.

Perhaps if everyone looked after their own back yard, we'd all be happily different, but still happy to be so? As long as you've secured your life, that is all that matters, for it is the duty of everyone living to do so.

over and out/