Script - LP 150 - Understanding and Initiating Connection

LP Foundational Course Lightning Path 150 – Initiating and Practising Connection The Lightning Path https://www.lightningpath.org Version 1.01 LP Foundational Courses LP 100 – Orientation to the LP LP 101 – Key Concepts LP 135 – An Introduction to Wrong Thought LP 140 – Communicating and Connecting (LP website only) LP 150 – Understanding and Initiating Connection  All materials copyright 2023 The Lightning Path All Rights Reserved  Revision History Version 1.01 Added Fair Trade notice Version 0.90 May 31, 2023 – upload draft to Academia.edu   Preface This course deals with the practicalities of [wiki]Connection Practice[/wiki], which is the regular and disciplined work we do to initiate and handle [wiki]Connection[/wiki]. The course covers the [wiki]3Ps of Connection Practice[/wiki], discusses how to understand and analyze [wiki]Connection Experiences[/wiki] using the five [wiki]Connection Axes[/wiki], and provides a brief overview of the safe use of [wiki]Connection Supplements[/wiki]. This course is part of a larger [wiki]Human Development Framework[/wiki]/curriculum designed to help us heal and reconnect. For details, see https://www.lightningpath.org/curriculum/  Lesson One: The 3Ps Greetings and welcome. My name is [actor name]. In our previous LP course on connecting and communicating with your guides, we learned the basics about connection and guide communication. There we learned, among other things, that communication between you and your guides, or you and your own spiritual ego, is easy. We also learned some basic techniques for initiating communication and for controlling the [wiki]Flow[/wiki]. So what’s next? Well, the next step is to begin your [wiki]Connection Practice[/wiki]. What is Connection practice? Connection practice refers to the daily and disciplined practice of trying to connect your [wiki]Bodily Ego[/wiki] with your [wiki]Spiritual Ego[/wiki]. It’s not rocket science and you may already be engaged in some form of connection practice. If you engage in meditative practice, you are engaged in connection practice. If you go kneel in a Church pew and try and talk to God, you are engaged in connection practice. If you take a quiet walk where you can think and reflect, you are engaged in connection practice. If you practice shamanic drumming a few times a week while consuming peyote, you are engaged in connection practice. Although it is easy to wrap your head around the basics of connection practice, in the details, it is a complicated topic. To help sort it out, we break connection practice down into what we call the [wiki]3Ps of Connection Practice[/wiki], or just the 3Ps for short, [wiki]Connection Preparation[/wiki], [wiki]Connection Procedure[/wiki]s, and [wiki]Connection Processing[/wiki]. The first “P” of connection practice is Connection Preparation. Connection Preparation is what you do to get ready to handle connection. [wiki]Connection Preparation[/wiki] itself consists of two things, Number one, it consists of any work you do to prepare a safe space where you will engage in connection practice. Number two, it consists of any work you do to heal your bodily ego and any work you do to educate yourself and expand your understanding so that you can not only handle a powerful connection, but eventually live in a more persistent state of connection. Both of these things are important. You need to have a safe, quiet, place to practice connection, especially in the early days, and you need to spend some time healing trauma and expanding your understanding to you can properly initiate, handle, and ground connection. The second “P” of connection practice is Connection Procedure. Connection procedures are the things you do to facilitate and initiate connection. On the LP, we break connection procedures down into three things, Connection Techniques[/wiki], [wiki]Connection Appliances[/wiki], and [wiki]Connection Supplements[/wiki]. [wiki]Connection Techniques[/wiki] are the techniques we use, like meditation, affirmation, visualization, and yoga, to initiate and navigate connection. [wiki]Connection Appliances[/wiki] are the objects, like drums or crystals, we use to initiate and enhance the connection process. [wiki]Connection Supplements[/wiki] are the dietary supplements and substances, like LSD, Kava, or Cannabis, that we can use to initiate and strengthen our connection experience. Finally, our third “P” is Connection Processing. Connection processing is the cognitive and emotional processing work you do to help understand and ground the information, insights, and enlightenments that come from your [wiki]Connection Experience[/wiki]. This third “P” is actually pretty complex and we devote a lot of time to helping you with that in our Rocket Science book series and at the LP intermediate level of study, particularly when we discuss [wiki]archetypes[/wiki] and Flow Control. And that’s all there is for this lesson. To summarize, today we learned about connection practice. Connection practice refers to the regular, disciplined, preferably daily practice of Connection. On the LP we can break connection practice down into three separate categories, preparation, procedures, and processing. If you want to make forward progress, you have to practice all three of these. We talked a bit about each in this lesson, but there is a lot more to say, and we’ll say those things as we progress through this course. Finally, before closing let me just underline for you the importance of discipline. If you want to make progress, you have to be disciplined. If you don't engage in disciplined connection practice, you might make some progress forward, but you will most often get stuck and end up settling back into "normal." If you want to "lock in" that progress, you must engage in disciplined connection practice. How much connection practice should you engage in? Ideally, you should devote an hour a day to quiet, reflective, disciplined connection practice. If you cannot devote an hour a day, then try and find at least three or four times a week where you can cocoon yourself off for an hour or two. Keep in mind, connection practice isn’t just about technique. You also need to prepare and process. Doing extra reading to prepare yourself or engaging in an hour of self-reflection with your favourite cup of tea is connection practice and just as important as the connection experience itself. And that’s all I got for you. My name is [actor name], thanks for listening, welcome home.  Lesson Two: Connection Preparation Greetings and welcome, my name is [actor name]. In the previous lesson, we learned about connection practice and we learned that to get the most out of your efforts you need to practice the [wiki]3Ps of Connection[/wiki], preparation, procedures, and processing. In this lesson, we are going to go into more detail and talk a bit more about the first “P,” preparation. As noted in the last lesson, preparation has two components, preparing your space and preparing your mind. Preparing your space is easy. Just create an aesthetically pleasing space where you can relax, de-stress, and engage in [wiki]Connection Practice[/wiki] without fear of being interrupted. This can be a room in your home, a space in your backyard, or even a spot in a forest where you can get comfortable, practice and process. The key here is that is pleasing for you to be in and safe from unwanted interruption. We call this space a [wiki]Connection Cocoon[/wiki]. Creating this is particularly important when starting out, and even more important if using powerful [wiki]Connection Supplement[/wiki]s to kick start your process. Getting distracted by dirt and clutter, interrupted by a random event, or even disrupted by a toxic person can through interfere with smooth connection practice. In addition to preparing your space, you also have to prepare your mind to initiate and handle connection. Preparing your mind involves three things; first, build the foundations. Then, heal. Finally, educate yourself. As far as foundations... As far as healing goes, if you want to properly prepare yourself for connection, you have to heal your mind, and in particular your [wiki]Bodily Ego[/wiki].You need to heal your bodily ego because if you don’t, you’ll struggle to maintain pure and persistent connection. Unfortunately, healing your bodily ego can be a challenge for at least three reasons. Number one, it can be a challenge because the mainstream understanding of the human psyche and the pathologies that arise from Toxic Socialization are theoretically primitive and politically misguided. Number two, it can be a challenge because there is very little good advice out there. Most, if not all, of the advice you get will be about accommodating yourself to a toxic system. Finally, number three, healing can be a challenge because of what we call the [wiki]Healing Burden[/wiki]. The healing burden refers to the emotional, cognitive, and physical stress and strain caused by living with and trying to heal a damaged bodily ego. The truth is, growing up in toxic families, being educated in a toxic school system, and then being forced to work in toxic workplaces causes a lot neurological damage, and that damage can take considerable time, effort, and resources to reverse. For your information, the LP spends a lot of time on healing. For example, We have the [wiki]LP HEALING Framework[/wiki]. The HEALING Framework is a collection of what we call [wiki]Focus Points[/wiki]. Focus points are simply topics you focus on because they are important. The LP HEALING Framework has SEVEN focus points which include Help, Environment, Addiction, Lies, Needs, and Growth. You will learn all about these focus points when you take up your healing work. IN addition We are also developing what we are calling [wiki]Connection Therapy[/wiki]. Connection TherapyTM is a psychological therapy that focuses on three forms of connection, connection between self and one's Significant Others, connection between self and one's environment, and connection between one's Spiritual Ego Finally, we spend a lot of time at the advanced psychological level theorizing the human psyche and the bodily ego in an effort to understand the [wiki]Ego Pathology[/wiki] that arises as a result of [wiki]Toxic Socialization[/wiki]. After healing work comes education. Education is important because, as you will come to understand at the LP intermediate level of study, when it comes to an understanding who you are, why you are here, and why the world you live in is the way it is, your education has been shit. Frankly, there is a lot you need to learn if you are going to understand your self, your purpose, this existence, and how to get the most out of it. But don’t worry. The LP helps with that education by providing you with the [wiki]LP HEALING Framework[/wiki], the [wiki]LP Connection Framework[/wiki], LP [wiki]Rocket Science Books[/wiki], and in fact the entire Lightning Path Curriculum to help. And that, basically, is the LP approach to preparation—build the foundations, heal, and educate yourself. It’s not rocket science and it is easy to get started. In fact, by the time you are finished this course you will have developed a solid foundation for moving forward with your connection practice. The only thing I’d add at this point is that you should not think of this as a linear process. You don’t first build the foundation then do the healing before you finally prepare and connect. Don’t follow a linear path. That would be bad. You’ll make fastest progress if build the foundations, do a little healing, practice a little connection, take a break to process, go back over the foundations, practice some connection, and so on and so forth. Follow your intuition. Read what you are drawn to. Heal when you are prepared to. Use a technique to connect when you feel like it. There’s no single path through the curriculum. Follow a circular path. To summarize, the LP is all about connection practice. We break connection down into the 3Ps, preparation, procedure, and processing. We talked about preparation in this lesson. As we now know, to prepare, build the foundations, heal, and educate yourself. We’ll talk about the next “P” of connection practice, procedures, in the next lesson up. My name is [actor name]. Thanks for listening. Welcome home.  Lesson Three: Connection Procedures Greetings and welcome. My name is [actor name]. As we have learned so far, if we want to connect the spiritual ego and the bodily ego, we have to engage in [wiki]Connection Practice[/wiki]. As we have seen, connection practices are the things we do to prepare for connection, the procedures we use to achieve connection, and the things we do to process and ground our connection experiences—preparation, procedures, and processing—the 3Ps. In the last lesson, we looked at the things we do to prepare for connection. Now, we look at the [wiki]Connection Procedure[/wiki]s we use to connect. I want to point out before getting too far into this that humans have had the capacity for connection for thousands of years. Not only that, but they have been practising it for just as long. In those years of practice, humans have developed a wide range of procedures to facilitate connection. These procedures, which span multiple cultures and epochs, can get quite confusing to sort out. To help with that, on the LP we break down connection procedures into three components, Connection Techniques[/wiki], [wiki]Connection Appliances[/wiki], and [wiki]Connection Supplements[/wiki]. First up we have connection techniques. A connection technique is any single technique that helps one obtain, strengthen and purify connection. Many different connection techniques have been developed over the centuries. Some examples include meditation, visualization, the recitation of mantras (a.k.a. affirmations), rhythmic drumming, breath work, fasting, yoga, spinning in a circle, and so on. Most techniques are easy to do. You can explore various connection techniques on your own by visiting the SpiritWiki page on [wiki]Connection Techniques[/wiki]. Note we do not include ritual, like the type you find in fraternal lodges, as a connection technique. Ritual, which you often find in elite led esoteric organizations, is not designed to facilitate connection; rather, it is designed to shape its outcomes into a form supportive of a particular agenda. Don’t worry if this is unclear at this point; you will understand when we discuss The System at the LP intermediate level of study. Second, we have connection appliances. A connection appliance is any item that can help one initiate, strengthen, and purify a connection. Over the centuries, humans have tried a lot of different things to help initiate, strengthen, and purify connection, including drums, audio tapes with special sounds, sweat lodges, crystals, Tibetan singing bowls, [wiki]Archetype Decks[/wiki], and so on and so forth. One again, you can explore various connection appliances on your own by visiting the associated SpiritWiki page. Finally, we have connection supplements. Connection supplements are substances like Cannabis, Psilocybin, Peyote, DMT, LSD, Ketamine, MDMA, etc., that use chemical force to open and maintain connection for a period of time. As with connection techniques and appliances, connection supplements have been used folks to facilitate connection for thousands of years. Every continent, every environmental zone, every geographical location has an associated connection supplement. Now I know that some people will tell you that you can practice connection without connection supplements, and that’s true. You can. The main issue here, however, is time. Connection supplements speed up the connection and healing process considerably. Indeed, more and more scientific evidence is showing that connection supplements can help rewire a brain seriously damaged by [wiki]Toxic Socialization[/wiki]. The question you have to ask yourself is, do you, personally, have time. If you have lots of time, you can take your time. That’s fine. However if, for whatever reason, you are in a hurry—if you are tired of the misery of disconnection, if you are in a hurry to heal and connect, if, god forbid, your life is collapsing all around you, mindful use of connection supplements can help speed you along your way. That is really all there is to say about connection procedures. The question you have to ask yourself at this point is, which combination of technique, appliance, and supplement should you use to facilitate connection. The answer to that question is simple. Use whatever you are comfortable with and whatever works for you. Check out some techniques, play around with some supplements, explore! Trust yourself. You will figure it out. To help we’ll provide some basic guidance on how to safely use connection supplements at the end of this course. Of course, we understand that everybody is busy. You might not have the option to casually explore various techniques, appliances, and supplements. If you want to just skip all that exploration you can. Instead, simply follow our recommendation. For connection technique, we recommend you start with the visualization and affirmation first provided in Lesson Seven of the LP foundational course “Communicating with your spiritual guides. For convenience, this combination is reproduced in the final lesson of this course. For connection supplements, we recommend you start with something light, like cannabis. You can also start with microdoses of powerful supplements like LSD or psilocybin if you like, but we don’t recommend you go in for higher doses right away. Don’t “step into the vast ocean,” so to speak, until you have done a fair amount of your own reading and research and until you’ve completed the LP Foundational level of training, and this final course. Finally, for connection appliances, we recommend the [wiki]Triumph of Spirit Archetype Deck[/wiki]. The Triumph of Spirit archetype deck is a deck of archetypes designed to help you achieve pure and persistent connection. You don’t have to worry about this deck too much right now. It comes into play a bit later at the LP Intermediate level, after you have had a few preliminary connection experiences. If you want to learn more about it, you can visit its SpiritWiki entry. To summarize, in this lesson we learned about connection procedures. Connection procedures are the things you do and the things you use to facilitate a connection experience. This includes techniques like affirmation and visualization, appliances like drums or archetype decks, and supplements, like cannabis or LSD. Use all three of these together in a cautious, controlled, and disciplined way to initiate and experience connection. You can choose the combination that’s right for you, but if you don’t want to waste time exploring, follow our recommendations. And that’s all I got for you today. My name is [actor name]. Welcome home.  Lesson Four: Connection Processing Greetings and welcome. My name is [actor name]. As we have learned so far, if you want to connect the spiritual ego with the bodily ego you have to engage in [wiki]Connection Practice[/wiki]. As you now know, connection practice includes the [wiki]3Ps of Connection Practice[/wiki], preparations, procedures, and processing. So far we have discussed preparations and procedures. Now, it is time to look at processing. As we have already seen, [wiki]Connection Processing[/wiki] consists of any cognitive and emotional processing you do to help understand and ground the information, insights, and enlightenments that come from your [wiki]Connection Experience[/wiki]. Processing is very important and if you have ever had a powerful connection experience you will know why. You can receive a lot of information, obtain a lot of insight, and experience a lot of different emotions during a powerful connection experience. When you are just starting out, all that can be quite overwhelming. So what do you do? Well, when the connection experience is over, you take some time for self-care and you take some time to process. You think about what you experienced. You think about what learned. You think about how you felt. You think about any insights you might have had. You think about any things you may want to change. If you are struggling to understand, you ask questions. Basically, you take time and you process. Unfortunately, saying “take time to process” and actually doing that can be a challenge. The truth is, it is very easy to lose your ground, especially when you are just starting out. When you are starting out, or even if you have been practising connection for a while, it is very easy to get overwhelmed. For example, you might find yourself trigger or eoverwhelmed by the intensity of the flow, by how fast the ideas and emotions will come, and by how much you have to process. Or, you might find yourself triggered. You might receive some psychological insights on the abuses you experienced in childhood or the violations that occurred while you were an adolescent or young adult. This might might cause a flood of thoughts and emotions which you might struggle to understand and control. Finally, you might suddenly realize that you are not a good person, that you are hurting your partner, damaging your kids, harming your students, exploiting your employees, participating in a genocide, or whatever. During a connection event, greater awareness can bring greater information about you, and that’s not always a great experience. The sudden awareness that you’ve done some bad things can cause a terrible explosion of guilt and shame that can shut you down like MSSnap fingers here.snap. Now, if you are feeling overwhelmed by information and emotions, if you do find yourself triggered, if you are suddenly overwhelmed by guilt and shame, either during your connection experience or afterwards as you try to process, Number one, relax. Take several deep breathes... calm down. Number two, forgive yourself and others. If you are struggling with guilt and shame—and who isn’t?--forgive yourself and others. Our world is in terrible shape and we have all done bad things to survive. Nobody is innocent. It does not matter what you have done in the past. The only thing that matters now is that you heal and reconnect. That’s all you gotta do. Just heal and reconnect. Tell yourself the truth, “I’m smart. I’m capable. I’m a good person. I’m ready and worthy to move forward.” Repeat until you believe it. We’ll worry about all the other things that we have to worry, and all the things that we have to fix, a bit later on. Finally, number three, write things down, or speak it out, or roll it into an art project. Doing these things can help you manage the information flows that occur during connection while giving you the time and space you need to consider and reflect. If you can get through the psychological and emotional obstacles to processing, then great. The next step is to actually process, and that can be hard even for the most level-headed. The truth is, there is lots of information to integrate, there are lots of emotions to process, there are lots of behaviours to correct, and there are lots of things you’ll need to change if you want to achieve full connection. It will be an upward slog for a bit, but there are some things you can do to make the processing easier. Number one, do a lot of research. Read books and articles, watch good videos, listen to podcasts, gain knowledge, and inform yourself. The more informed you are, the easier will your processing be. Of course, informing yourself can be a challenge, but we can help with that. The Lightning Path offers a series of “Rocket Science” books designed to provide basic information that you can us to sort through, understand, and ground the insights and enlightenments you receive. You can find these Rocket Science books on the LP website. Number two, and this is very important, be discerning. While there is a lot of great information out there, much of it is buried beneath an ocean of muck. All that muck can confuse you, spin you, make you angry, and even get you stuck. To avoid all that. you need to learn to [wiki]discern[/wiki]. Discernment is basically learning to tell valid truth from meaningless horseshit. This can be a tough one because our primary schools do not do a good job of teaching discernment, but the LP can help. We have a Rocket Science book, the Rocket Scientists’ Guide to Discernment, which can provide you some general advice on how to sort out the confusion and disinformation. Once again, you can find these Rocket Science books on the LP website. Number three, avail yourself of Artificial Intelligence. AI is already very advanced and it will certainly be even more so in the years ahead. Using an AI to get answers to some of your questions, or to help with solutions to some of your problems, is a great way to process and move forward. Number four, if you need help, get help. Don’t be proud. As you will see when you get to the LP HEALING Framework at the LP Intermediate level of study, getting help when you need it can make the difference between spinning in circles and moving forward at steady pace. Finally, number five, practice flow control. [wiki]Flow Control[/wiki] is a Connection Technique. It refers to the ability to control the The Flow of thoughts, images, and sound that gush through the mind during a powerful connection event. You will learn more about flow control at the LP intermediate level of study. And that’s all I got for you today. To summarize, once you start having connection experiences, you’re going to have to take time to process. For various reasons, processing can be a challenge. To get through it, take some deep breaths, calm down, forgive yourself for past sins. To make it easier, do some research, be discerning, ask an AI, and get help. Most important, keep studying the LP. The LP is your best place to find the truths of Self. It will be harder at the beginning, but the more you learn, grow, and discern, the better you understand, the easier it will get. And that’s all I got today. My name is [insert name]. Thanks for listening. Welcome home.  Lesson Five: Connection Experience Greetings and welcome, my name is [actor name]. So far in this course we have learned all about [wiki]Connection Practice[/wiki] and, in particular, the [wiki]3Ps of Connection Practice[/wiki], preparation, procedures, and processing. As we have seen, if you want to engage in connection practice you have to prepare, use appropriate procedures, and take time to process and ground. If you take the steps outlined in this course you will be able to induce a connection experience and this experience will probably be positive. This is all very good and sound advice, but the question that comes up now is, what happens when you actually connect? Well, as we learned back in the key concepts course, when you connect you have an “experience,” a [wiki]Connection Experience[/wiki]. You will know you have had a connection experience because you will, temporarily, rise above your “normal” experience and see, think, and feel differently. This “shift,” as it is sometimes called, can be subtle and barely noticeable or in-your-face and not so easy to miss. It can also take many forms, especially in the beginning. It can range from a simple feeling of joy and connection to nature to blistering waves of orgasmic bliss. It can be positive and enlightening or it can be confusing and frightening. It is really quite complex. Unfortunately, it can be hard to wrap your head around the complexity, variation, and intensity of your experiences, but it is not impossible. It will help if you use the LP’s analytic approach to connection which breaks connection experience down into five [wiki]Connection Axes[/wiki], these being [wiki]Connection Duration[/wiki], [wiki]Connection Intensity[/wiki], [wiki]Connection Quality[/wiki], [wiki]Connection Content[/wiki], and finally [wiki]Connection Outcome[/wiki]. You can use these axes to properly frame and understand your experience. You can also use these axes to record your event in a journal or diary if you wish. We actually recommend recording your experience in a journal as soon as you can after the experience. The experience can fade over time and writing it down helps “lock it in” so you can better process and ground. To frame your analysis using these connection axes, start with the duration of your connection experience. Connection duration can range from a few moments to several hours. Shorter connection experiences are common during meditative practice and with milder connection supplements. Longer events happen typically when injecting powerful connection supplements LSD or Ayahuasa. Once you have logged the duration of your experience, then consider the intensity of the experience. Connection intensity refers, obviously, to the intensity of the connection experience. If we were to measure on a scale of one (1) to seven (7), then one (1) would be a mild nature experience where you feel happy, content, and mildly connected while seven (7) would be an intense cosmic event of unity and oneness with all. Once you have logged duration and intensity, then consider connection quality. Connection quality refers to the general emotional and cognitive quality of the experience. This can be either positive, like when you have feelings of bliss, oneness, and contentment, or negative, as when you experience anxiety, fear, and even paranoia. Your experience can even be a combination of both positive and negative. On the LP we call positive experiences [wiki]Zenith Experiences[/wiki] and negative experiences [wiki]Nadir Experiences[/wiki]. Once you have logged duration, intensity, and quality, then it is time to record the content of your connection. Connection content refers to the MSSpeak deliberately herephysiological, emotional, or information content of the experience itself. Physiological contents are the bodily sensations you experience while connected. Emotional contents are the emotions you experience. Information content are the thoughts, ideas, insights, inspirations, visions... or even fear and anxieties--- that flow during the connection experience. You should know, physiological content can range from little tingly feelings to full-blown cosmic organism. Emotional content can range, on the positive side, from feelings of well-being and contentment to seering cosmic bliss, and on the negative side to anxiety, fear, even full-blown paranoia. Finally, informational content can range from simple personal realizations and insights, like you hate your job or you are treating your children poorly, to satisfying solutions to scientific problems, to wondrous artistic inspiration, to profound cosmic enlightenments that totally rock your world. To better understand your experience, write down the content of your connection experience. Finally, we have Connection Outcomes. Connection outcomes are the persistent and even permanent intellectual, emotional, behavioural, and spiritual changes and enhancements that occur as a consequence of connection experience. For example, If during a connection experience you realize you have been treating your kids poorly, and if this realization changes how you treat your children, then this improvement is a permanent connection outcome. If during a connection experience you realize the solution to a problem or have an emotional catharsis, you have had a permanent connection outcome. If during a connection experience you find a solution that leads to a new invention, if you create some new music, or a new art piece, or whatever, then this is a connection outcome. If during a connection experience you realize your true nature, or come to understand creation, or temporarily merge as one with everything, and if one or more of all that completely changes your view on self, the universe, and creation, then this is a connection outcome. As you can see, connection outcomes are many and various. If you have had a connection experience, especially a very powerful one, chances are there were some permanent, or at least semi-permanent, connection outcomes. Take some time to reflect and write those down. And that’s all I got for this lesson. To summarize, connection experiences are complex, varied, and can be difficult to wrap your head around. It will help if you get yourself a connection journal and record your experiences along the five connection axes introduced here. Recording your experiences will help you remember them and will make it easier for you to ground and understand. Finally, I would just like to note that while the vast majority of connection outcomes are positive, negative outcomes, what we call [wiki]Connection Pathology[/wiki] to happen. Connection pathologies are a complicated topic. We’ll say a few things about them next lesson, and then pick them up in detail at the advanced level of study. That’s all for today. My name is [actor name]. Thanks for listening. Welcome home. Lesson Six: Safe Use of Connection Supplements Greetings and welcome. My name is [actor name]. At this point in your study, you have almost everything you need to understand and initiate healing and connection. There are really only two things more to say. One concerns the safe use of [wiki]Connection Supplements[/wiki] like cannabis or LSD, and the other concerns the possibility of [wiki]Connection Pathology[/wiki], which is the possibility that you might experience some unwelcome outcomes from a connection experience. As far as connection supplements like Cannabis, Psilocybin, Peyote, DMT, LSD, Ketamine, MDMA, etc., go, you should know, connection supplements are powerful and you have to treat them with caution and respect. If you decide to use connection supplements to accelerate your process, then you should ask yourself three basic questions. What connection supplement is right for me? How long do I have? How fast do I want to go? What do I like? The first question you should ask is “what connection supplement is right for me?” and in what form? Ask yourself questions like what feels good? What helps you think? What leaves you relatively grounded? What is easy for you to manage? You will have to experiment a little bit at the start, but that’s OK. Understand, there is no one size fits all solution and no amount of science is going to answer this question for you. You need to figure it out for yourself by experimenting. You can try full doses of various substances until you find some you like, or you can try microdoses until your anxiety dissipates and your comfort level increases. It is up to you. The point here is, don’t be afraid to experiment. If you don’t experiment, you won’t make good and consistent progress forward. How long do I have? The second question you have to ask is “how long do I have?” Connection supplements vary wildly in duration. Some, like DMT, last only about 30 minutes and then you can return to normal function. Others, like Cannabis, last a little longer, a couple of hours when you smoke, or three to six when consumed as an edible or oil. Some, like LSD or Mescaline, can be 12 and 24-hour affairs. If you just have a little bit of time, do something short, like DMT or cannabis. If you have longer and want a bigger experience, try the more powerful substances like Psilocybin or LSD. How fast do I want to go? Finally, the third question you should ask yourself is “How fast do I want to go.” If you are in a hurry, if your life is falling apart, if sickness is spreading around you, you may feel the urge to move quickly. If you got cancer, if your spouse is dying, if your children are disconnecting, you might want to take a harder hit to try and fix things quickly before too much more damage occurs. In that case, choose powerful substances in higher doses, like psilocybin or LSD. If you are not so much in a hurry, if you have some time to waste, a more gradual path using lower doses of moderately powered substances like cannabis might be preferred. Once you answer for yourself the above three questions, you’ll be in a good place to engage in disciplined connection practice with supplements. However, a few final comments are in order. Number one, you should always have a support person in place before engaging in the use of connection supplements, especially the more powerful ones. Find a trusted friend or confidant, one that won’t judge, belittle, guilt, or shame you but that will give you support and guidance if you need it. If you don’t have supports, or if you think you need more, visit our Supports pages and check out our current offerings. Number two, you should only use connection supplements in a safe space, like your carefully constructed [wiki]Connection Cocoon[/wiki]. This is especially important in the beginning. When you are starting out, even the smallest hint of negativity can send ruin your practice. Finally, number three, note that connection supplements expand and amplify the informational, emotional, and physiological contents, both conscious and unconscious, of your brain. If you got MSTaps heada lot of shit in there, it can potentially amplify all that shit. Therefore, only do connection supplements when you are in a positive frame of mind. Don’t do them when you are in a bad mood, angry, or depressed because doing so can sometimes make things worse. Speaking of making things worse, if you have a history of serious mental illness, like OCD, PTSD, Borderline Personality, or whatever, then misuse or unguided use of connection supplements can help heal, but they can also make things worse. In these serious cases, improper usage can lead to what we call [wiki]Connection Pathology[/wiki], which is a emotional and psychological breakdown of the bodily ego. These breakdowns include things like [wiki]Ego Inflation[/wiki] or [wiki]Egoic Explosion[/wiki]. In very rare cases, mental illness and improper usage can even lead to [wiki]Egoic Collapse[/wiki] and serious [wiki]Connection Psychosis[/wiki]. If you have a history of serious mental illness, you should use connection supplements only in consultation with a doctor, psychiatrist, or other competent and trained personal. There is a lot to say about connection pathology and we’ll say it all at more advanced levels of study. For now, let’s just summarize. If you want to use connection supplements to accelerate your healing and connection practice, do so cautiously and with respect. Choose a supplement that works for you, and fits withing your life circumstances and schedule. Make sure you have supports standing by. Make sure you have a safe space to cocoon into. Make sure you have the necessary time and the mental energy to devote to the connection experience. If you have a history of mental illness, connection supplements can help you heal, but they can also, in rare circumstances, make things worse. Be sure to consult with a doctor, psychiatrist, or specially trained individual. . And that’s all I got for this lesson and this course. My name is [actor name]. Thanks for listening. Welcome home.  Lesson Seven: A Simple but Powerful Visualization and Affirmation Duplicate of lp140.7 There are many useful visualizations that you can use to open a direct connection to your guide network or even your spiritual ego. The best methods are always the most simple and direct. Here is one that we recommend. To begin, first select an affirmation you will use to reinforce your visualization. If you are just starting out and have no specific need or question, we recommend leaving the choice in the hands of your guide. Repeat something like “I wish to heal, I wish to awaken, I wish to connect” or, for more safety, “I wish to receive the guidance, information, and assistance on healing and connection that I need right now. I wish this information to be safe and effective and to help uplift not only myself, but all of physical creation.” Once you have decided on an affirmation, find a comfortable space where you will not be interrupted. Sit back comfortably in a chair, or lie back on a couch or other surface. When you are ready, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Breathe in, breathe out; breathe in, breathe out. While you do this, visualize your bodily consciousness (your Bodily Ego) like a light emerging from the top of your head. As you visualize this, see this light lifting up from your body and ascending towards a doorway out through your house and high up in the sky. See the light from your body draw closer and closer to the door. When you get to the door open it and pass through. On the other side you find a group of light beings like yourself smiling and waiting with open arms. Approach the group, embrace them, and open communication with an affirmation of your choice.  Fair Exchange Alert Did you learn something from this resource? Did it alter your perceptions, change your course in a good way? Consider a small energetic exchange to show your appreciation for the work we’ve put in. You can donate on our Ko-fi page. We suggest you donate the rough equivalent of one hour of your daily wage. If you make $7.50 an hour, donate close to that. You can add or subtract the donation amount with the + and – keys on the Ko-fi page. Show your support for the Lightning Path Additional Links https://twitter.com/Lightning_Path https://www.lightningpath.org/ https://spiritwiki.lightningpath.org/ Our Discord Server Questions or comments to contact@lightningpath.org 34