Can you share any of your star photos?

This is a good point. I am a married man. As a woman, my wife cannot give me guy time - hence I love to hang out with my friends (who are all guys) - and I cannot give her girl time - hence she loves to hang out with her friends (who are all girls). The only women I am happy to be friendly with are colleagues (in a professional manner), family and ladies that my wife and I are friends with.

A lot of people baulk at this sort of arrangement/tolerance - but I bet it's quite common.

I'm sure it's common, but I've always hung around in mixed groups, doing whatever, so I'm puzzled and curious what guy time or girl time even is.

You've really never had an attractive member of the opposite sex show up and the girls/guys get all competitive? I'm wondering how that's possible, it happened multiple times a week - a day even - to me in high school and college. I guess always being in mixed groups meant it was always subtly in play.

5 dudes chilling is a different dynamic than 3 guys 2 girls. People who keep insisting it's about some weird need for men to be offensive don't seem to have ever observed basic gender dynamics.(not saying you are, other responders)

Maybe this happened when I was 19.

I haven't observed this sort of thing happening in decades.

Note I mentioned high school and college as the time of these interactions.

That being said it just comes more subtle as people get older or alternatively remove themselves from the dating pool.

You'll note that most people saying this stuff are being extremely non-specific about what it means. My impression is that a lot of what they want to do would be offensive to lots of guys as well. Essentially they want a space to act in a way that women would feel quite threatened by. Not that mixed groups don't already have that as an issue.

You couldnt be more wrong in your guessing. The answer lies in games all women play with both men and women constantly, never being truly honest with words, expecting men to pick up meaning between lines, predict their emotions and so on and on. We have enough shit in our lives already, no need to add more.

Its frustrating and tiring experience for all men, thus the need to vent out somewhere else where these dynamics dont play out semi constantly.

I am pretty sure women see it similarly in reverse although details in dynamics are very different.

As a man I don't recognize that game playing as something all women do. It's just not something I've experienced in my relationships platonic or otherwise with women. Maybe it's a Europe vs. America thing (edit: from your other comments, you seem to be in Europe so not that) or something personal to you and your experience but it sounds very 'incel-adjacent'.

Yep, there's always a strong element of "what opinions, motherfucker" goose comic in these discussions. And we always end up at "tell me you're an incel without telling me you're an incel"

Do you remember any of those revelations?

Nope. Don't especially mind, not remembering them.

I have since learned about schizophrenia/schizoaffective (from having a family member suffer from it), and it sounds almost exactly what they went through.

The thing that I remember, was that I was absolutely certain of these “revelations.” There was no doubt, whatsoever, despite the almost complete absence of any supporting evidence.

I wonder if that's a similar mental state you have while lucid dreaming or just after waking up. You feel like you have all of the answers and struggle to write them down before your brain wipes them out.

Reading it over once fully lucid? It's gibberish.

If we're talking about certain derivatives of ergot fungus ...

It's something I experienced as well, this sense of profound realisation of something important, life-changing maybe. And then the thought evaporates and (as you discovered) never really made sense anyway.

I think it's this that led people in the 60s to say things like how it was going to be a revolution, to change the world! And then they started communes and quickly realised that people are still people...

LSD is a dirtbike of the mind. Some people can do amazing cross country trails, some people can fall off and break their skulls instantly.

There's that Paul McCartney anecdote how he thought he'd found the meaning of life during one of his first drug experiences and the next morning he found a piece of paper on which he'd written "There are seven levels".

These is easily one of the most heartwarming videos on YouTube.

I don't know how people are so smart here. You people are really so incredibly clever and driven. I've found myself in a data analyst job where we do lots of python and linux stuff. That's cool and all but I am such an exhausted and deeply demotivated person. I don't know what to do next with my career. I am largely banking on building strong passive income streams. I don't think I'm in the right job or career - but I don't know what I'd do otherwise. I am not sure I can afford to do an apprenticeship. Maybe I should speak to a psychologist.

That is probably a great idea!